Mirror - Vol. 04, No. 24 - April 9, 1981

              Haley, O'Donoghue Named '81 Valedictorians
by Ken Vaughn
Two students have tied for top
academic honors in the graduat-ing
Class of 1981, allowing them
both to be named valedictorians
for this year's commencement, ac-cording
to university Academic
Vice-President Christopher
Med school bound biology majors Meg O'Donoghue and James Haley to ad-dress
the University as this year's Valedictorians. [Photo by Duane Bailey]
Mooney, S.J. He said that a pair of
biology majors, James Haley and
Meg O'Donoghue, are the co-recipients
of the honor.
Haley, a resident of Florham
Park, New Jersey, has said he will
attend the University of Rochester
Medical School in the fall. He is
currently President of the Biology
Society and is a member of the
university Pre-Med Honor Society,
Alpha Epsilon Delta. In addition,
Haley is a member of the student
legislature and a singer in the
campus folk group. In the past, he
served as a tour guide for the Ad-missions
Department and as
treasurer for Alpha Phi Omega, a
past service organization. Haley is
the son of William and Marie
Haley.
O'Donoghue, a resident of Strat-ford,
Connecticut, said she will be
attending Johns Hopkins Universi-ty
Medical School in the fall. She
is presently Vice-President of the
Biology Society and is also a mem-ber
of Alpha Epsilon Delta. In addi-tion,
O'Donoghue is a member of
the Irish Society and serves on the
Dean's Student Advisory Board.
She is the daughter of Margaret
O'Donoghue of 127B Smoke Val-ley
Road.
Mooney said that both students
have agreed to share the duties of
giving the valedictory address.
Therefore, both of them will give a
short, four-minute speech. He add-ed
that Jim and Meg have been
getting help on the speeches from
English Professor Arthur Riel.
Assistant Dean of Arts and
Sciences Vincent Murphy said
that the two were chosen for the
honor on the basis of their grade
point average, the accepted cri-teria.
The choice was based on
seven semesters of grades, with
the decision coming after the fall
semester grades. Murphy said this
would give the valedictorians time
to prepare for commencement.
Only once before in the history of
the university was there a tie for
top honors, remarked Murphy.
In addition, some 105 students
will graduate with at least a 3.5
grade point average, qualifying
them for honors status at gradua-tion.
Approximately 20 students
will graduate Summa Cum Laude,
meaning they attained a 3.85
average or better for four years.
Another 20 will graduate Magna
Cum Laude with a 3.65 grade point
average or better, while some 60
students will attain Cum Laude
honors with at least a 3.5 average.
Haley said he has enjoyed his
four years at Fairfield, adding,
"The thing that really impresses
me about the university is the ap-proachability
of the faculty. There
is a great priority on teaching
here, and the atmosphere is con-ducive
to learning. While getting a
liberal arts education, you make a
lot of friends along the way."
O'Donoghue agreed by empha-sizing
the smallness of the school.
"Most of the classes here are
small and you can get to know a
lot of people. I have also had many
pleasant experiences with the
faculty. I think the personal touch
of the university is its strongest
point."
Commencement for the Class
of 1981 will be May 24.
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Mirror Elects New Editor
Carl Gustafson, a junior, has been chosen Editor-in-Chief of the MIRROR
for the 1981-1982 academic year. [Photo by Duane Bailey]
by Jean Leber
In preparation for the upcoming
81-82 school year, Carl S. Gustaf-son
has been elected editor-in-chief
for the MIRROR, replacing
senior Frank Malinconico.
Holding the position of Arts and
Entertainment editor this year,
Gustafson started writing for the
paper his freshman year. Through-out
his term as editor he has in-creased
his staff size from three to
twelve and encouraged submis-sion
of more poetry and creative
photographs to his section.
His literary accomplishments
include several features stories
appearing in local magazines
along with the creation of several
new columns under the Arts and
Entertainment section of the
paper. This includes reviews for
events in surrounding cities in
answer to the demand of more
readers. Gustafson has also writ-ten
theater reviews during the
summer months and submitted
several poems to Groundstar.
Goals for the upcoming year
with regard to his new position in-clude
the creation of a more
diverse paper in order to satisfy
more readers.
He hopes to achieve this
through the selection of a moti-vated
editorial board open to new
ideas. A narrow and rigid paper, he
claims, very obviously, does not
successfully accommodate the
students' needs.
Another goal for the upcoming
year is the continuance of the pro-fessional
attitude begun in the
last year.
Having written for the paper for
several years, Gustafson realizes
the value of experience in the
newspaper business. For this
reason he hopes to bring in more
underclassmen in order to allow
for a more professional paper in
future years. The participation of
more underclassmen will also help
to incorporate ideas from a greater
cross-section of students.
The position of Public Relations
Correspondent will also be added
to the MIRROR staff. This position
will oversee fund raisers, maintain
staff size, and work with public
relations correspondence to and
from the MIRROR.
Lastly, Gustafson hopes to
work closer with University faculty
members. He says, "I am not look-ing
for dependence on the faculty
but rather for the interaction of
ideas; there is much to learn from
them."
Carl Gustafson is presently
working with the present editor-in-chief
in order to allow for an easy
takeover. He is expected to an-nounce
the appointments to the
new editorial board within the next
few days.
Fairfield Students Oppose Federal Loan Cuts
by Marguerite Downing
In an attempt to stifle the
Reagan administration's proposed
budget cuts and student loan
pool, a group of students from
Fairfield University joined COPUS
(The National Coalition of In-dependent
College and University
Students) to lobby at the United
States capital during the week of
March 23.
The National Coalition of In-dependent
College and University
Students represents students at
private post-secondary educa-tional
institutions across the
country. It is presently directing a
nation-wide university lobby
movement against the Reagan Ad-ministration's
proposed cuts af-fecting
student loans. Four
students, George Murphy, Rich
Marano, Tara Lucey, and Jerry Sar-gent
joined COPUS at the capital
as representatives of Fairfield
University and all Connecticut
students.
The main concern of the coali-tion
is the impact that cutbacks in
five types of student assistance
programs (BEOG, NDSL, GSL,
SLMA, and Soc. Sec.) will have on
millions of American students.
The American Council on Educa-tion
estimates that Reagan's pro-posals
will force 500,000 to
700,000 students to drop out of
school and that another 500,000 to
700,000 students will be forced to
go to lower-priced institutions.
The status of Pell Grants, (Basic
Educational Opportunity Grants),
is seriously threatened by the Ad-ministration's
cuts, according to
representatives of COPUS. Pre-sently,
the appropriation for Pell
Grants is approximately 1.4 billion
dollars short of funding the pro-gram
at last year's level.
The administration has propos-ed
supplemental funds of $661
million, with a $1,750 maximum
award per student, assuming that
their proposed cuts will be pass-ed.
According the COPUS, even if
these proposals are passed, the
supplemental is still short of fun-ding
a 1,750 dollar maximum
award. The shortfall causes a
"double hit" for students,
especially those at independent
colleges and universities.
The first "hit" will effect low in-come
families because the admin-istration
has proposed that family
size offsets for inflation not be
considered.
The second problem, according
to COPUS, has occured because
of the first. By ordering this pro-posed
change in the form of a
regulation, the administration has
unnecessarily halted the process-ing
of Pell Grants as of March 18.
As a result, according to Jerry
Sargent, "students choosing be-tween
schools won't know what to
earn, save, or what school to opt
for."
The coalition is also deeply con-cerned
and distressed over the ad-ministration's
failure to provide a
supplemental for the National
Direct Student Loan in order to
fund the program at last year's
level. According to COPUS, this
38% reduction in the NDSL pro-gram
threatens to take away
awards from approximately
135,000 students with docu-mented
need. If these students
cannot find help from the Guaran-teed
Student Loan Program, they
or their parents will be forced to
pay more money to banks which
will in turn force the government
to pay more to banks. According
to COPUS, "This proposed cut is
inconsistent with the President's
balanced budget concept and ap-pears
to be politically motivated."
The changes proposed for the
Guaranteed Student Loan Pro-gram
will have a big impact on
Fairfield, according to Sargent. In
this area, the Reagan administra-tion
recommends that GSL's be
provided only for remaining need
after other sources of Federal stu-dent
aid and family contributions
have been counted, and that the
in-school interest subsidy be
eliminated (the Federal govern-ment
currently pays to lenders the
interest on a loan while the stu-dent
is in school), and that the cur-rent
9% interest for the new
parental loan program to market
rate (approximately 19%).
According to sources, this pro-posed
cut will have a devastating
effect on students at independent
colleges such as Fairfield. Be-cause
students are not eligible for
the loan until after full parental
contribution, it makes it "impossi-ble"
for the student to borrow the
parental contribution. Represen-tatives
of COPUS point out that
this puts a load of approximately
12% of annual income on families,
which some do not have "on
hand." The Reagan Administra-tion,
according to COPUS, esti-mates
one third of anticipating
students will lose their eligibility
(almost 900,000 students).
In addition to the large cuts in
the Pell Grants and the GSL pro-gram,
the Student Loan Marketing
Association (SLMA—part of the
GSL process) will lose access to
federal financing in the fiscal year
1982. the National Student Direct
Loan (NSDL) will be funded at 110
million less for the fiscal year 1981
than for fiscal year 1982, and the
Student Social Security benefits
will be phased out over four years
with no new recipients allowed,
current students lose 25% a year.
This last proposal change in S.S.
benefits will, according to Sar-gent,
put an extra burden on the
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