Mirror - Vol. 26, No. 11 - December 07, 2000

              TheMirror
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
Volume 26,Number 11 www.fairfieldmirror.com Thursday, December 7,2000
Dean of A night in the cold
Students
ByFrankWashkuch
ASSISTANTNEWSEDITOR
After serving at Fair-field University
for over a decade, AssistantVice Presi-dent
ofStudent Services and Dean of
Students GwenVendleywillresign atthe
end ofthis semester, effective Dec. 31.
Returning to herhome state ofCali-fornia,
Vendley will preside as Chiefof
StudentAffairs atWoodlandCommunity
College nearSacramento, aninstitution
that filters the majority ofits students
into the University ofCalifornia-Davis
and California State University-Sacra-mento.
Retainingmanyofthe responsi-bilities
sheholds as aFairfieldvice presi-dent,
Vendley will oversee the officers
ofthe registrar, student affairs, counsel-ingandjudicial
affairs.
While Fairfield has not yet named a
successor forVendleys position, an act-ing
dean is expected to take office in
January.Anational search for perma-nent
candidates will also begin during
Springsemester.
"We'll miss her, but we'll fill the
spot," said Vice President ofStudent
ServicesWilliam Schimpf"There are a
lot ofinterestingpeople interested in the
position. Well be tryinghard to fill the
position when she leaves."
Vendleywill leave behind more than
ten years ofservice to the students and
administration ofFairfieldUniversity at
the end ofthe year. After occupying the
position ofDirector ofFirstYear Expe-rience
for three years, she moved into
the dean's office in 1993,where she has
remained since. Prior to Fairfield, she
was employed as a professor at Long
IslandUniversity
While she has been most renowned
forherworkwithFairfield'sjudicial pro-cess,
she has also had a hand in other
realms ofstudent goings on, including
workingwithboth student leaders and
conducting student alcohol evaluations.
Inher unique position,Vendleyhas had
theopportunitytobothhelp craft student
effectiveness and advise troubled stu-dents
on their behavior.
"The most rewarding part is work-
. ing with the students themselves,"
Vendleysaid."Withstudent leaders,you
see what can be done with their oppor-tunities.
With troubled students, I try to
help them see where they can go with
their lives."
See"VENDLEY"onp. 5
Photo:BridgetSmith
AssistantNewsEditorKristenDela^teyaswellasiitany
partwpatedin"ANightWU%outaHome''whichuxissponsore^
TTwmghtuxssspentoutsiffctoexperiencewhatt^
See'HOMELESSFORAMGHT"o»p. 5to readaboutherexperience.
Whose grades are they?
Faculty subcommittee to investigatepolicy ofreleasinggrades toparents
ByKevinCaHahan
STAFFWRITER
Lauren Papa received a blizzard of
mail from Fairfield after she was ac-cepted,
includingaform that allows the
university to release her grades to her
parents.
Papa, now a sophomore, said she did
not realize shehad signedawaiveruntil
after beginning school. "I don't think
anyone, includingmyparents, have a
right to seemygrades. I earned them, I
should get them."
Papa is not alone in this belief. Sev-eralfecultymembers
saytheyoppose the
administration's policy of circumventing
federal law and giving parents the op-portunity
to see students' grades.
After receiving a letter from psychol-ogy
professor Susan Rakowitz, the
faculty'sAcademic Council has decided
to form a subcommittee to investigate
whether the administration's current
policy should be changed.
Dr. Rakowitz believes the university
uses coercion to force students into sign-ing
the waiver. Accordingto Rakowitz,
at the same time the school sends the
waiverhome to the students, they also
sendhome aletter to parents informing
them that their sons or daughters have
received the waiver and advisingthem
to have their children sign it.
"Attempting to coerce students to
sign the form by sendingit to their par-ents'home
and notifying their parents
ofits existence is simply unethical,"
Rakowitz wrote inherletter.
Classical studies professorVincent
Rosivach also feels thewaythe univer-sity
goes about getting the form signed
canbe misleading.
"Incoming freshmen receive piles
and piles ofpapers," Rosivach said.
"Most students sign it withoutknowing
what it is." Dr. Rosivach said in anAca-demic
Council meetinglastMaythatthe
release form "is deceptive; it opens the
door to everything."
But Dean of Freshmen Debnam
Chappell believes the release is in the
students'bestinterests.
"Freshman year is a year oftransi-tion,"
Chappell said "Formanystudents
it is difficult. The releasehas two goals:
it allows parents to call the deanifthere
are anyquestions and it allows the mail-ing
ofmidterm estimateshome"during
a student's freshman year. "It does not
allow the dean to call the parents."
'Itshard for the facultyto understand
the administration's side. Whenparents
call abouttheir children, they donot call
the professors. They call the deans,"
Chappell said. "Facultymemberswho
disagree have a point ofview, but they
are unable to see the issue frommyper-spective.
More often they don't know
the student as well as I do."
Fairfield has changed its rules many
times in regards to how the school re-leases
students' grades. In the early
1990s, students' midterm grade esti-mates
(now called deficiencies) were
sent to every student's home address.
These gradeswere addressed to the stu-dents,
but they were mailed at a time
whenthe studentswere at Fairfield not
athome.
This was done in the hopes, accord-ing
to Rakowitz, "that manyofour stu-dents'
parentswould illegally openmail
addressed to someone else, and thereby
be informed oftheir student's academic
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