Mirror - Vol. 27, No. 11 - November 29, 2001

              MIRROR BOY
Meet the student who col-lects
our issues more than
we do
Page 5
Fairfield
\ovember29, 2001
Hocus Focus
"Harry Potter" and "Spy
Game" fall short
Page 10
MIRROR University
Volume 27, Number 11
HOUSE FIRE AT THE BEACH
Photo: Amy Womack
A Lantern Point rental house caught fire Thanksgiving morning
at 2 a.m., displacing two students and affecting eight others.
Investigators have ruled out arson as a possible cause.
HOUSING
CRUNCH
BY JEN MALCOM
Townhouses? Apartments? Dorms?The Beach?
The Jesuit Residence? Where will the Class of 2004
be living next year?
Wmthehousinglotterypushedback,manysopho-mores
arewonderingandworrying aboutwhere they
will live next year. Aproblem resulting from an ab-normally
large Class of 2004, consisting of 1,008 en-rolled
students rather than the desired 825, according
to the Office ofAdmissions.
Since the passing ofthe housing deadline, no ad-vancements
have been made. Everything hinges on
the off-campus lottery, saidJames Fitzpatrick, assis-tant
vice president of Student Services.
Typically, juniors enjoy the privilege of moving
out ofthe dorms and into theTownhouses andApart-ments.
Butwith the large numberofstudents this year,
it will be quite difficult to accommodate everyone.
Manywill be forced into the dorms for the third year
in a row. Some will be allowed to live at the beach.
But there is no plan for students to live in the Jesuit
Residence, according to university officials.
Lastweekrurnorsspreadthroughoutcarnpusabout
the opportunity to partake in a program oftaking cer-tain
religious classes andliving in theJesuitResidence.
There is no validity to that at least for now, said offi-cials.
SEE "STUDENTS" ON P. 3
Adjuncts abound Fairfield more reliant on part-time
faculty than competitors
BY SUSAN KEANE
Sophomore Liz Grote finally decided upon En-glish
as hermajorandneeded to choose an advisor.
Having a close relationship with her freshman
English professor, Grote requested that she act as her
advisor, but as a part-timer and adjunct, her English
professor couldnot
Grate's situation highlights one of the problems
of Fairfield's reliance on part-time professors. Are-centfacultyresearch
reportconfirmedthatproblemby
finding that Fairfield has one ofthe worst ratios offull-time
professors to studentswhencomparedto 85 other
similar institutions.
The reportcomparedFairfield's full time student-faculty
ratios to that of schools that Fairfield seeks to
emulate, those thatareviewedas competitionandthose
considered inferior to Fairfield
Universities that Fairfield aspires to such as
Amherst and Bates have ratios near 12 students to ev-ery
full-time professor. Holy Cross, a school that Fair-field
competes with had a ratio of 11.80-to-one. Fair-field
fell near the bottom of the list, having a ratio of
17.72-to-one.
One of Fairfield's top academic officials, Aca-demicVice
President Orin Grossman, said the univer-sity
recognizes the dependence it has on adjuncts, but
finding a solution is difficult
"We have hired a significantnumberof adjuncts
over the last few years," said Grossman. "But this is
becausewe have manycourses thatwe offerwith a lot
of sections, andwhenwe offermore ofthose sections,
we can keep class sizes downwith adjuncts."
"It is true that in some areas we do have an over
relianceonadjuncts,more soinsome departmentsthan
others."
Facultymembers complain thatwhile Fairfield is
pushing hardfor a controversial merit pay system, ar-guing
that it is usedby elite colleges and universities,
Fairfieldis farbehindthose elite schoolswhenitcomes
to full time faculty.
"Reducing reliance on adjuncts becomes a re-source
issue/'said Dr. George Lang, lat year's faculty
secretary andfull-time professorofmathematics. "Full-time
people are expensive, and decisions have to be
made in terms ofour budget, but in a university, aca-demics
is a place to putthose resources."
Adjuncts seem to provide a simple temporary so-lution
to a large problem. Adjuncts cost the university
significantly less money than hiring a full-time pro-fessorand
also do not receive benefits.
"Adjuncts do a great job of teaching in the class-room,
butbecausemanyare teaching at other univer-sities
too, they are not as available to students," said
Chair of the Academic Council and full-time Profes-sor
of Politics, Dr. Allan Katz/Tn some departments
where large numbers ofclasses are taughtbyadjuncts,
youwouldhope thatfirstyearstudentswouldnotcome
into contactwith a large numberofpart-time faculty
for advising purposes."
"Manypart-time professors are teaching at other
universities and are not as available to the students,
which can hurt the advising/mentoring process," he
went on to say.
SEE "RELIANCE" ON P. 3
The
MIRROR SNAPSHOT Part Time Proliferation
Part-time faculty at Fairfield has become an issue, with Fairfield relying on adjuncts more than many
competing colleges. Here's a look at the percentage of part-time faculty through the years.
40.20% 42.12%
34.91%
32.59% 34.00%
J985_ !990_ A ^ JF<J 2000 1