Mirror - Vol. 25, No. 05 - October 28, 1999

              The Mirror
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
Volume 25, Number 5 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, October 28, 1999
Wise hopes to catch forgiveness
By Matthew Thompson
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Three weeks ago, Fairfield football
star Eric Wise became one of only
twenty players in Division I-AA foot-ball
to catch 200 career passes. Later
that night, the senior co-captain found
himself not at a celebration party, but
handcuffed in the back of a police car.
The incident at the Sea Grape Cafe,
in which Wise was charged with as-saulting
an officer, inciting a crowd to
riot, breach of peace, and interfering
with an officer, has caught the interest
of not only Fairfield campus, but of
people nation wide.
Articles about Wise's situation have
been in the Connecticut Post, The Bos-ton
Globe, USA Today, and other news-papers
spanning the country. These ar-ticles
were based primarily on the
Fairfield police report however. In an
exclusive interview with The Mirror,
Wise gives a very different account of
what happened that night.
"People think they already know
what happened. If I read what they
read, I'd think the same thing: that I
got into a fight with a cop. But that
wasn't the case," said Wise.
The controversy went all the way
to Fr. Kelley's office when Wise's
teamamtes asked the university presi-dent
to end Wise's suspension from
school.
Photo: Nick Ouimet
Eric Wise, football co-captain readies for a catch on the football field
According to Wise, the incident be-gan
when his friend was asked to leave
The Sea Grape Cafe. Wise then went to
the door and began to question Sea
Grape employees on their reasoning.
Unhappy, but realizing there was noth-ing
he could do, he let the issue go and
attempted to reenter the bar, but was
promptly denied.
Unable to understand why he wasn't
allowed back in the bar because of his
friend's actions, Wise started to argue
with the bouncers. The situation then
turned ugly. "One bouncer started say-ing
obscenities and started yelling at
me," said Wise.
With the argument escalating, officer
Keith Broderick attempted to break up
the situation. Wise claims that
Broderick grabbed him from behind
without identifying himself first. "A cop
came over and grabbed me from behind.
I pulled myself away because he hadn't
identified himself. So I kept arguing
with the bouncer and then he [the cop]
throws me on the car, and that's when I
knew it was a cop," said Wise. The in-vestigation
is still open and Broderick
declined to comment.
Wise has been charged with assault-ing
an officer, but he says he did noth-ing
of the sort. "It wasn't a fight. I
started asking him why he was arrest-ing
me and I told him I didn't do any-thing.
I wouldn't let him handcuff me,"
See Wise on p. 17
On your honor
Honor Code signed by Fairfieldfreshman
By Jen Sehnert
ASSISTANT A&E EDITOR
The long-awaited overhaul of the
Fairfield University honor code began
this fall when entering freshman were
required to sign a contract that outlined
their obligation to academic honesty
and integrity.
Later this year, all students will see
another component of the plan: revised
blue book exam journals with a printed
honor statement on the cover confirm-ing
that no content within was shared
or stolen.
Politics Professor Dr. Alan Katz,
who served with Dean of Freshman
Debnam Chappell on a committee that
studied the honor code, said that there
are no plans to implement a system in
which students would be forced to spy
on each other or turn in cheating peers
to administrators.
"It wasn't aimed at getting at the stu-
"We are a small university
which is committed to the no-tion
ofcommunity and to the
notions of thruthfulness,
honesty and academic in-quiry."
--Dr. Alan Katz
dents who are not being honest, but it's
really aimed at reemphasizing who we
are" said Katz," We are a small univer-sity
which is committed to the notion
of community and to the notions of
truthfulness, honesty and academic in-quiry.
Katz also added the importance of
having a clear, straightforward state-ment
in order to ensure that students
know what is expected of them in re-gards
to honor code policies and uni-versity
standards.
Directly after hearing Chappell
and FUSA President Luigi Solla
speak at orientation about the impor-tance
the university places on aca-demic
integrity, the class of 2003 read
and signed the newly created honor
statement. Each member of the class
received a pen welcoming them to the
Fairfield community and a copy of
the code that they signed. The signa-tures,
recorded in a book, will be on
reserve in the university library, ac-cording
to Katz.
The Center for Academic Integrity
See Honor on p. 4
Debate
continues
over email
By Drew Luthern
STAFF WRITER
After a tumultuous week of con-troversy
surrounding Fairfield
University's '60s project, university
students and leaders have had a
chance to discuss the ramifications of
a conservative Catholic group's email
message.
The Cardinal Newman Society's
email first appeared on the
university's network late on Monday,
October 18, sparking a university-wide
debate over what exactly is ap-propriate
to teach at a Catholic uni-versity
such as Fairfield.
As the head of Campus Ministry,
University Chaplain and Professor
Paul Carrier, S.J., has the unique po-sition
of being on both sides of the
debate.
"It's not a dichotomy,
which is the genius of
the Jesuit education -
it's open to exploration
and understanding."
--Fr. Paul Carrier
"A Jesuit education is broad, and
inclusive of the human experience,"
said Carrier. "It's not a dichotomy,
which is the genius of the Jesuit edu-cation
- it's open to exploration and
understanding."
Carrier also noted that Jesuits are
not only committed to the church.
Rather, according to Carrier, a Jesuit
first chooses to become a part of the
Society of Jesus, and then goes on to
select a career that allows for experi-encing
something broader than just
the church.
With regards to the actual attack
upon the Sixties Project, Carrier again
reflected his Jesuit beliefs of church
and education.
"I lived through the '60s," said
Carrier. "It was a great time to be
alive, and I'm not ashamed of it."
Some students on campus see the
Newman Society's email as some-thing
not to be ignored, but rather
learned from.
"I've heard a lot about how this
is a Jesuit school and how our idea of
education is to explore all different
types of viewpoints," said Matt
Bizzarro, '00. "This is an opportu-nity
to do just that."
This Week...
Inside Campus Life:
Halloween preview
see pages 6-9
Inside Commentary:
Student disapproval of FUSA
president
see page 10
Inside A & E:
Overdose affects music
industry
see page 15
Inside Sports:
Men's soccer looks
ahead
see page 18