Mirror - Vol. 04, No. 05 - September 18, 1980

              Fr. Higgins Named President's Assistant
by Kathy Noonan
University President Fr.
Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., recently
announced the appointment of Fr:
John Higgins, S.J., as Assistant to
the President. The office, which
was formerly occupied by Fr.
George Mahan, is basically an ex-tension
of the President's office.
The Assistant functions as the
President's representative at both
on and off campus events when
the President is unable to attend.
Fr. Higgins and Fr; Kelley work
very closely together on a day-to-day
basis. In addition to being Fr.'
Kelley's representative, Fr. Hig-gins
has specific responsibilities
delegated to him by Fr. Kelley.
These responsibilities are varied
and touch upon many aspects of
life at Fairfield. For example, Fr,
Higgins is the presidential liaison
officer to many offices and com-mittees
on campus, including Stu:
dent Services, Special Events, Ad-
N-Y. Exams
Postponed
The Graduate Record Examina-tions
Board has announced that
as a result of the new amend-ments
to the New York state law
regulating standardized testing, it
will be necessary to temporarily
suspend administration of all 20
GRE Advanced Tests in New York
effective immediately. At the same
time, certain testing services for
the handicapped, for students ,
needing makeup administration,
and for Sabbath observers can;
now be restored.
Although the amendments to
the New York law were designed
to give students easier access to
tests already administered, they
made compliance more difficult
by extending the law to include
public disclosure of one form of
each of the 20 GRE Advance Tests
every three years.
The Board, on the other hand, is
now able to restore other services
to students that had been can-celled
following the enactment of
the New York testing law in July
1979, the only such law in, the
country. Services to be restored
include: handicapped testing us-ing
Braille and tape cassettes, an
additional administration of the
GRE test February 9, 1981 for :
those candidates whose Sabbath
fail's on Saturday, and walk-in reg-istrations
for Saturday administra-tions
of the tests.
missions, Financial aid and the
Commencement Committee. He is
also the Secretary of the Board of-
Trustees and Chairman of the
Honorary Degree Committee.
As the Presidential Assistant,
Fr. Higgins has many opportuni-ties
to come in contact with the
student body. He is the campus
coordinator for the United Way
Campaign and, as mentioned be-fore,
the presidential liaison with
Student Services. He is the admis-sions
representative for Jesuit
high schools where he comes in
contact with future students of
Fairfield. Father also monitors
student involvement in the local
community. In addition, he serves
as a freshman advisor and a
housemaster in Northwest.
Fr. Higgin's first involvement
with Fairfield came in 1960 when
he taught at the Prep for two years
as a Jesuit seminarian. He went on
to receive his Masters degree in
Psychology from Tufts University
and his doctorate in Religious
Studies from Catholic University.
He relumed to Fairfield in 1971 for
a year, serving in the Campus
Ministry office as Catholic
chaplain and teaching in the
Religious Studies Department.
During that year he also published
a book entitled Thomas Merton on
Prayer.
Between the years of 1972-1976,
Father served as the Rector of the
Jesuits working in Maine. In 1976
he became the Assistant to the
Provincial of the New England
Jesuits where he remained in until
1979. In 1979 he returned to Fair-field
as the Assistant Director of
Admissions and served in this ca-pacity
for one year until he was ap-pointed
to his present position as
Assistant to the President.
Fr. Higgins is a person who en-joys
being involved with people
and noted that he is available and
willing to meet and talk with any
students, faculty or staff mem-bers.
In conclusion, he said that "I
look forward to my new position
as a challenge to assist Fr. Kelley
in enabling Fairfield to grow and
prosper as an excellent Jesuit
university in the '80's."
I I li t mm Volume 4, No. 5, September 18,1980 ^^
FAIRFIELD mW FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY, FAIRFIELD, CONN. 06430 [MIRROR \^^^^ Incorporated 1977
Ministry Acquires Traveled Counselor
by Matt Lyons
New to the Campus Ministry
team at Fairfield is Kim McElaney,
Assistant Chaplain. Kim brings a
wide range of skills and experi-ence
with her to the Ministry.
As chaplain, Kim is available as
a counselor. She has also as-sumed
the role of professor in the
Religious Studies Department
teaching the course Marriage and
the Family. As a woman and a
member of the laity, Kim repre-sents,
as she put it, "regular peo-ple".
Kim is originally from Boston,
but her present home is West
Hartford, CT. While attending Holy
Cross, she joined the Jesuit Vol-unteer
Corps, an organization re-sembling
the Peace Corps. Ac-cording
to Kim, a person can be
deeply religious and an active
Catholic without taking vows.
In the J.V.C. Kim worXed at the
Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation
in Idaho. There she dealt with alco-holism
in the young and helped to
develop a social center in the com-munity.
From Idaho she moved on
to Spokane, Washington to work
in the parishes as her last service
to the Corps.
Kim returned to Massachusetts
to attend the Weston School of
Theology, but not, however, to be-come
a nun. Instead, she became
active in groups such as the Mobi-lization
for Survival, an organiza-tion
determined to stop the arms
race and nuclear proliferation. Kim
left the Clamshell Alliance
because of its militarism and, in
her view, poor grasp of the facts.
With her involvement in the
above groups, Kim is obviously
not a retiring person. Her first ob-stacles
in gaining a reputation
here are the stereotypes of the
quiet novice, and the guitar-toting
folk singer who makes felt ban-ners
for the children's mass. She
emphasized that her goals de-sires,
and even her concept of a
good time are much like those of
the students here.
Miss McElaney replaces Sister
Maria Therese Martin who was
here last year and left, in July.
Kim's office is Room 11B Loyola
Ground.
Orchestra Players Earn Credit
Campus Ministry rfewcomer Kim McElaney talks with Father Bill Cullen.
McElaney replaces Sister Maria Therese Martin who left after one year at
Fairfield [Photo by Linda Capello]
Fr. Mooney Defends
Core Curriculum
by Philip McGinty
Students participating in the un-iversity
Chamber Orchestra will
now earn one credit per semester,
according to Dr. Orin Grossman,
Chairman of the Music Depart-ment.
Accordingly, involvement in
the Chamber Orchestra for three
semesters will now fulfill one fine
arts requirement. Grossman will
be conducting the orchestra
which is now part of the Fine Arts
Department.
Although crediting students for
their participation in music is new
at Fairfield, Grossman informed
that credit is usually given to
music students at other universi-ties.
The decision to credit stu-dents
in music "puts the univer-sity
on a par with standard prac-tice,"
commented Grossman. The
President of the Chamber Or-chestra,
senior Brian Swan, in-formed,
"The prime motive forgiv-ing
credit for orchestra is to in-spire,
students to develop their
musical talents in an otherwise
academically-oriented university."
In a brief history of the or-chestra,
Swan informed that 1973
marked the official start of the
group. Swan stated that after con-siderable
growth, "The 1975-19/6
season-was the peak season for
the orchestra. At that time there
were three professional staff
members and almost twenty five
. student players who performed as
many as eight concerts in a given
semester."
' The orchestra diminished con-siderably
in size after the
1975-1976 season due to a change
in directorship and to graduating
seniors whose places were not
filled by underclassmen. Outside
musicians were then invited to
join, at which time FUSA reduced
funds for the orchestra.
"During the past two years we
received only $200-$300 per
semester. This was insufficient
considering that the conductor's
salary was $500 per semester.
Last semester we received no
funding at all," informed Swan.
Swan stated that this -year the
orchestra is aiming for two con-certs
per semester. The group
would like to perform one concert
near Christmas which would in-clude
some standard Baroque
works and familiar Christmas
pieces. Swan also expressed hope
in concluding the year with an en-tire
concert of all American music.
The orchestra, now about twen-ty
members strong, rehearses on
Wednesday evenings from 6:45 to
9:00 p.m. in Northwest 25. All stu-dents,
faculty, and staff members
of the university community are
encouraged to join.
Liberal Arts education and
schooling for a profession are
compatible, Rev. Christopher F.
Mooney, S.J., told some 200 mem-bers
of the Fairfield University
faculty in his first address to them
as the university's new academic
vice president.
His comments came as he
strongly supported the
university's core curriculum which
requires all undergraduates to
study such liberal arts courses as
philosophy and social sciences re-gardless
of their future career
choice.
Fr. Mooney, an author-lawyer as
well as a member of the Jesuit
Order, explained that liberal edu-cation
transmits "a spiritual her-itage
from one generation to an-other."
He said this education
"enables the student to play a
more useful and significant role in
the social world" and contribute
to his communityv According to
Fr. Mooney, the American univer-sity
tradition struggles to incor-porate
liberal and technical educa-tion.
"Properly studied," he said,
"any profession has liberal value
insofar as it can illumine its own
» area of the human."
He went on to say that Fairfield
University would reach out for ex-cellence
through the triple tradi-tions
of being an American, Cath-olic
and Jesuit-sponsored univer-sity.
While recognizing the narrow-ness
of the medieval world, Fr.
Continued on page 2
Pfeiffer Addresses Germany's Importance
by Jean Leber
Juergen Pfeiffer, German at-tache
from the German Consulate
in New York, was the honored
guest speaker at a lecture and film
presentation held in the Nursing
Auditorium September 11.
This presentation was aimed at
increasing public awareness" of
West Germany's role in interna-tional
business, science, and the
arts. A strong emphasis was also
placed on the importance of know-ing
a foreign language in today's
world.
Fr. Victor Leeber opened the
presentation by saying, "The man
who does not speak a'foreign lan-guage
does not know his own."
From here, Mr. Pfeiffer began his
speech by giving an overview of
the West German economy since
the devastation of World War II
and the Hitler regime. Mention
was also made on the importance
of international exchange in the
areas of science, schooling, and
foreign service.
This talk was followed by a film
on present day West Germany and
questions from the audience re-garding
West Germany's views on
the Polish strikes, German univer-sities,
and West Germany's press
coverage of the U.S. Presidential
election.
Mr. Pfeiffer's visit, which is un-precedent,
was brought about by
Dr. Bukvic's request for German
films from the consulate. Dr.
Bukvic also has current plans to
form a German club on campus.
This club would meet once a
month in order to discuss German
culture, business, and lifestyle. It
will be accompanied by six classic
German films received from the
Consulate.
Along with these six films, the
German Consulate has also been
sending the University German
books every year in order for Ger-man
students to further their
knowledge of the language.