Mirror - Vol. 11, No. 03 - April 16, 1987

              INSIDE
Commentary: Poets for Africa 7 INSIDE
Night Ranger falters 9 INSIDE
New Sports Calendar 11
TheMIRRORv
Fairfield
Volume 11, No. 3 Our Second Decade Thursday, April 16,1987 The Image of Fairfield
FUSA general meeting
Ritchie addresses packed Oakroom
By Terri Brown
Staff Writer
On Monday, April 13, FUSA held
an open meeting in the Oak Room. The
purpose of the meeting was to get as
many students as possible to sign up for
FUSA Committees and to get involved.
Chris Ritchie, FUSA President,
opened the meeting with an enthusiastic
greeting to all the students who came,
and stressed that in order to accomplish
the goals for next year, FUSA needs the
help of many students. Ritchie then
introduced his Cabinet members, who
explained the purpose of the different
branches and then highlighted the goals
of several of the committees that come
under each branch. After this brief
orientation, the meeting was then broken
up to allow the students to talk to the
sub-cabinet members in charge of the
individual committees and to sign up for
those committees they were interested in
working on.
Twenty-eight committees have been
formed for the upcoming year, and many
of them are new. "Adopt-a -Frosh" is a
program that aims to assign every
member of the incoming Freshman class
to a member of the Junior and Senior
classes of next year. The freshman and
the upper-classman will be matched by
major, and the purpose is for the upper-classman
to not only help the freshmen
to meet people and to adapt to the
Fairfield environment, but also to help
him to choose classes and to develop his
major.
The "Ticket Brigade" is a committee
that plans to promote FUSA events by
making the purchasing of tickets and the
acquiring of information concerning
upcoming events more accessible to
students. Tickets to events will be
available in dormitories and may even be
sold door to door. Consequently, more
students will be more aware of events
that they may be interested in, and the
easy access to tickets may raise the
attendance at events.
The committee "Petition for Peace"
plans to raise the general awareness on
campus concerning the nuclear arms race
and U.S.-Soviet relations. The goal is to
contact the twenty-eight Jesuit
universities in the United States as well
as all Connecticut universities and form a
petition calling for a halt in the arms race
that will eventually be sent to the
Connecticut Legislature, the President,
and all Presidential candidates. The Arts
& Lectures Committee has already
arranged to have William F. Buckley
speak at the University on September 17,
and this promises to be a major event.
This is the first time FUSA has had
an open meeting in April, and the hope
is that when Freshmen come in the fall
to the usual open meeting, they will be
presented with an already strong, active
government and will be encouraged to
join. Ritchie's goal is to get as many
students involved as possible, and by the
large turnout at Monday's meeting it
seems that he has been successful so far.
An example of this new enthusiasm can
be seen in the fact that one hundred and
six people applied for positions in the
Executive Branch as opposed to forty-four
applications in the previous
administration. All in all, Chris Ritchie
feels "very enthusiastic about the new
year. FUSA has many plans for the
1987-88 year and we hope that everyone
here will be a part of these goals."
Ritchie also encourages anyone who was
not able to attend but wishes to get
involved to stop by or call the FUSA
office at any time.
asm
Tricia Kiernan (left) and Tricia Ortiz eagerly await September. Photo by A. Whitehouse
Open House draws class of '91
By Connie McKenna
Managing Editor
Prospective candidates of the class
of 1991 arrived on campus Sunday to
participate in the annual Open House
which is sponsored by the Admissions
Department. All of the students who
have been accepted to next year's
freshman class are invited to attend the
Open House, although most are
prospective students and have until May
1 to accept or reject Fairfield's offer of
acceptance.
Mary Whalen, Assistant Director of
Admissions, organized the Open House,
which consisted of an opening address by
Rev. Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J. , and
information sessions on each of the
majors in the College of Arts and
Sciences, the School of Business and the
School of Nursing. Tours were offered at
the conclusion of each departmental
presentation, and the Financial and
Admissions Offices remained open
throughout the day to answer questions.
The Book Store also opened.
Although a final tally of the number
of students who attended the Open
House has not yet been obtained,
according to Assistant Director of
Admissions Suzanne Siano, "at least 500
students indicated that they planned to
come." Prospective freshmen visited
Fairfield from as far away as Tennessee,
Nebraska, Florida and Colorado. Stated
Siano, "Some students came to hear
more about a particular major or
curriculum, and others came to get a
closer look at Fairfield for help in
choosing between this and another
institution." Tricia Ortiz and Tricia
Kiernan, '91, both from Long Island, said
that they enjoyed Open House and are
looking forward to their first year here.
US/USSR relations discussed over Spacebridge
By Lisa Boyne
Associate Editor
On Wednesday, April 8th, from
11AM to 1PM, the Graduate School of
Communication hosted a USA/USSR
Spacebridge. The satellite event was
downlinked in Xavier Hall live from San
Francisco and Boston in the United
States, and in Tbslie and Moscow in the
USSR. Fairfield was one of ten schools
in the nation which was able to receive
the broadcast.
The theme of the broadcast was the
role that media plays in current relations,
and involved American journalists and
members of the Soviet press in a live
dialogue about news reporting in each
country.
Questions were posed by students
from various universities, including the
University of Berkely, Harvard
University, and Soviet schools. Also,
announcer Peter Jennings, anchor and
senior editor of ABC World News
Tonight, and Vladimir Pozner,
commentator for the Soviet State
television and radio, asked questions to
the panels. The panels included various
members of American and Russian
journalists.
The first question to the Soviet
Union panel was about how they
responded to Gorbachev's new policy for
openness within the government. The
Soviets claimed it was nothing new.
The policy has been discussed before, but
it is the first time the idea has been
brought out into the open.
The Soviet Union then asked the
Amerian panel how many Americans
really understand Russia and its
philosophies. They believe that
Westerners know very little about Russian
lifestyle and added that there are more
teachers of English in Russia than
students of Russia in America.
The Russians went on to express
stereotypical views of Americans by
introducing various cartoons. An
American cowboy, a CJA official and a
businessman exemplifying capitalism
were just a few of the images shown.
While these images have negative
undertones, they were generally light,
showing an optimistic view of our
culture. The Americans, however,
displayed somber images of people
waiting on a bread line.
Schuyler Chapin. Photo by A. Whitehouse
Chapin stresses
excellence
By Melissa Campanelli
Editor - In- Chief
Schuyler Chapin, former Dean of
the School of Arts at Columbia
University, impresario, and film
producer, spoke in the Oak Room on
Wednesday, April 8th, in the second part
of a lecture series sponsored by the
Humanities Institute. Mr. Chapin spoke
about the relationship between
"Patronage, Creativity and American
Culture."
Mr. Chapin's list of credentials
ranges from General Manager of the
Metropolitan Opera, to Vice President of
Programming for Lincoln Center where
he produced the Mostly Mozart Series
and the New York Film Festival, to a
member of President Reagans's Task
Force on the Arts. Due to his extensive
experience in the arts, Mr. Chapin was
able to bring many interesting insights
to the series' theme.
After Mr. Chapin attended arts
school to become a composer, and
learned he had no talent, he became
interested in the business side of the arts.
He felt, "If you really want to be
involved in the arts, you must be ready
to devote your life to it." Thus, he
continued with his dream.
When Mr. Chapin started his career
in the 1950's, there were only a handful
of symphonies and patrons in the art
world. In the last 30 years, however, the
number has increased considerably.
Today, there are 15,000 symphony
orchestras, 75,000 musicians, 45,000
trustees, and 22,000 concerts performed
yearly, playing to over 23,000,000
people. In short, the symphony orchestra
and arts movement has become a
business.
Mr. Chapin went on to explain that
at the moment, we are undergoing a
musical explosion where classical music
is being brought to thousands of people
who never knew about it before. While
media , such as public broadcasting, has
had a great influence on this, the over
exposure is also causing a hinderance to
the art world. Our standards are beginning
to slip. Patronage implies support for the
very best art forms, and with a large
amount of art visible to the public, it is
inevitable that we will find some art that
is not exceptional. We must remember
that art is not simply a "periphery of
American society, although it is often
treated like this," Mr. Chapin stated.
"The arts are a vital part of our civilized
life."
There is no question that
generations will produce talented people.
We must always demand the highest
possible standards. Chapin stressed
again that we have grown careless,
allowing our cultural life to grow lax.
and it is up to the people of our
generation to improve it.