Mirror - Vol. 12, No. 26 - April 21, 1988

              The
Fairfield
Volume 12, No. 26MRRORV Our Second Decade Thursday, April 21, 1988 The Image of Fairfield
Valedictorian
Chosen
Lynn Ann Casey
News Editor
On Friday, April 15, the
Valedictory Committee of Fair-field
University selected Peter
M. Holland to represent the
graduating Class of 1988 at the
Commencement ceremonies on
May 22. Mr. Holland will give
his address during the gradu-ation
exercises.
Holland was chosen out of 19
seniors who had submitted
speeches to the committee.
Members ofthe seniorclass with
a QPA of 3.5 and above were
elegible to enter the Valedictory
competition.
At the April 15 meeting of the
Valedictory Committee, the
Committee heard speeches pre-sented
by those chosen as top
submissions. Holland was se-lected
out of the top four finalists
in the competition.
"The University and the
Valedictory Committee wishes
to congratulate Peter," said
Frank T. Hannafey, S.J., Assis-tant
Academic Vice President
and chairman of the Valedictory
committee. He continued say-ing,
"The committee faced a
challenging decision in making
the selection from among the
four final candidates."
Peter Holland is a history
major from Wethersfield, Con-necticut.
At Fairfield, he has
been active in the University
Playhouse for three years and he
plays the saxophone with the
band Split-Decision.
Holland is "very honored" by
being selected to represent the
Class of 1988 at Commence-ment.
He "hopes his speech can
reflect the values and the charac-ter
of his class."
Pollution
Confronted
Greg Curley
Staff Writer
In a lecture given in the Nurs-ing
Auditorium on Thursday,
April 14, Dr. S. La Plante
warned that the toxic levels in
many of the Northeast waters are
approaching dangerously high
levels. . The lecture, entitled
"The Sub-Lethal Effects of Pol-lution
on Marine Life," featured
a slide presentation demonstrat-ing
the damage of pollution on
the cells of marine animals.
Dr. La Plante opened his
presentation stressing the im-portance
of the field of marine
biology. "The study of marine
biology has evolved over the last
couple of years." He said that
with the increase in water pollu-tion,
"Some kind of evidence is
needed to take to court," so that
environmental protection laws
can be made.
A slides how of marine life
placed in polluted water was
presented. In most cases, effects
were clearly visible. Post-sub-mersion
life and cells showed
abnormal markings and abnor-mal
growth. Other slides dem-onstrated
the effect of pollution
on respiratory systems ofmarine
life. The lecture called for "an
increased awareness of marine
pollution." Dr. Le Plante said
that the best solution is "dilu-tion."
The best way to dilute our
waters is "to stop polluting
them."
Doctorow Advises Tomorrow's Writers
AnnMarie Puckhaber
Assistant News Editor
On April 14, E.L. Doc-torow,
author of Ragtime,
World's Fair, Welcome to Hard
Times, Loon Lake, and The Book
ofDaniel, addressed a crowded
Oak Room as the second speaker
in the "Novelist's America" se-ries.
Fr. Aloysius Kelley.SJ,
President of Fairfield Univer-sity,
delivered a short introduc-tion.
Fr. Kelley described
Doctorow's Ragtime as a "daz-zling
re-creation of America in
its first century" and added that
all of Doctorow's
works have "entertained and
challenged us to view our world
with compassion and under-standing."
Several of Doctorow's books
are set in the 1930's. According
to Doctorow, his interest in the
decade stems from his "attrac-tion
to the depravities of the
1930's in the realm of gangster-dom."
He is presently working
on another book set in the 1930' s
in which his protagonist Billy, a
fifteen year old boy, gets in-volved
with gangsters. How-ever,
Doctorow said that this
book will conclude his dealings
with the era. Doctorow began
the lecture by reading from his
work in progress.
When discussing his works,
Doctorow stressed the impor-tance
of the "voice" of the book.
He said that we live in a "uni-verse
that is circumcised by dic-tion."
Doctorow said that it is
necessary to keep the voice con-sistent
throughout a book and
that it is "dangerous for the
writer himself to know or hear
what his voice is." He believes
that this would mean the writer
has reached his limits and that
this is "probably the worst thing
that could happen to an author."
In his books, Doctorow often
uses foul language and vulgar-ity.
When asked how he feels
about the conflict over what
E.L. Doctorow Photo by Rich Nunziante
should and should not be read by
young people, Doctorow replied
that he is an "advocate of abso-lute
free speech" and that what
is "more dangerous (than certain
books) for children of the coun-try
is censorship and repres-sion."
Doctorow said that chil-dren
should be trusted and by
denying them the right to read
certain books we are teaching
them fear. He said that "more
harm is done to children by the
people they live with than by
books."
Doctorow described writing
as an "act of exploration." He
said that when he starts a book he
does not always know what the
end is going to be and that "you
need to write to find out where
you're going." Doctorow com-pared
writing to driving a car at
night. He said that "you can only
see as far as the headlights but
you make the whole trip."
In order to recognize when a
work is completed, Doctorow
said that an author must read
what he has written objectively
and be able to distinguish what
parts of the book are not work-ing,
where he has slipped out of
voice, or where there is repeti-tion.
At the end of the lecture, the
floor was opened to questions.
One member of the audience
asked Doctorow for his opinion
ofthe movie version ofRagtime.
Doctorow humorously an-swered
that it was an "okay film
based on one of the greatest
novels of our time."
Doctorow has made large
contributions to the literary
world and will continue todo so.
He said, "the more I write fiction
the more mysterious it becomes
to me."
Mirror Wins Columbia's
Golden Circle Award
Mary Beth Collins
Staff Writer
Columbia University pre-sented
awards to two Mirror
editors for articles published
during the fall semester, 1987.
According to officials at the
Columbia Scholastic Press As-sociation
(CSPA), Senior John
Courtmanche and sophomore
Joseph C. DeVito each won
Gold Circle Awards in the
Association's annual contest for
excellence in college journal-ism.
The Gold Circle Awards
are open to student writers in
colleges throughout the country
and are awarded each Spring.
This year, CSPA received ap-proximately
4,000 entries from
colleges nationwide. The entries
included articles published in
college newspapers and year-books.
-
In the "General Column"
newspaper category for per-sonal
opinion or humorous ar-ticles,
John Courtmanche won
first place for his article entitled,
"Jeffrey Schaeffer's Keg of
Cherry Kool-Aid Party." The
article is a fictitious account of a
grammar school student who
returns from visiting his brother
at college and attempts to hold a
keg party using Cherry Kool-
Aid. Courtmanche, who served
as Production Manager of the
Mirror last semester, said, "A
few days ago, I was disap-pointed
to hear I hadn't won any
of the writing contests spon-sored
by Fairfield's English
Department. I guess this award
from Columbia University will
do."
In the "Sports Column"
newspaper category for per-sonal
opinion sports articles,
Joseph C. DeVito won second
place for his article entitled,
"Due to Strike, NFL Owners
Pick Scabs." The article is a fic-titious
account about New York
Giants head coach Bill Parcells'
asking DeVito to be a replace-ment
player during the NFL
strike. DeVito, who won the
award as Features Editor and is
now the Mirror Editor-in-
Chief, said, "It's quite a shock,
and I'm more than pleasantly
surprised—I didn't even know
that my article was entered in the
contest. That article is the first
sports article I've written."
Judges for the Gold Circle
Awards include Columbia Uni-versity
professors and advisors
to university publications.
Courtmanche and DeVito each
received certificates for their
awards.
Open House For 1992
Tom Rhatigan
Staff Writer
Fairfield University held
their annual Open House for all
incoming freshman on April 16
and 17. Over 500 of the students
accepted to Fairfield came to
participate in this two-day event.
Steven Roy, the admissions
counselor at Fairfield, was in
charge of organizing the event
which included departmental
sessions according to major and
tours of the campus given by a
student in the school the incom-ing
freshman applied to.
"I think the Open House pro-vides
an opportunity for the in-coming
freshman to see what
Fairfield has to offer," said Roy.
He also said that the main em-phasis
of the weekend is to aid
the students in deciding on a
major for next year.
The Open House was divided
into three sections. The incom-ing
freshman arrived at the
campus at times assigned to their
schools: Arts and Sciences came
at 10:30 on Saturday, Nursing
Continued on page 2.
Chalmers Elected CSA VP
Robert Johansen
Staff Writer
Chris Chalmers, FUSA's Di-rector
of Government Relations
and a politics major, was re-cently
elected Vice President of
the Connecticut Student Asso-ciation.
His new position will
entail recruiting new schools for
the Connecticut Student Asso-ciation.
Fairfield University is one of
ten active member schools in the
Connecticut Student Associa-tion
(CSA), which represents
thousands of students. The CSA
is the only student association in
Connecticut and the only one in
the United States that involves
public, private, and technical
schools.
The CSA was founded two
years ago in order to promote
student issues, such as financial
aid. According to Chalmers, the
CSA "researches bills from
Hartford and Washington to see
what's good for students." To
gain support from the students,
the CSA both lobbies and estab-lishes
phone brigades.
Recently, a bill was recom-mended
that would exempt sales
tax from the sale of text books.
With the support of the CSA, it
was passed on April 14. Also,
members of the CSA recently
went to Washington, D.C. with
the United States Student Asso-ciation
(USSA). In Washington,
both the CSA and the USSA
became involved in a national
bill on voter registration.
At the monthly meetings, all
campus issues are discussed. If
one college is able to resolve an
issue, then this knowledge may
be used to aid other campuses
facing a similar problem. This
common knowledge becomes a
great resource for all the mem-ber
colleges.
Currently, Chalmers is look-ing
for students, especially poli-tics
majors, to be delegates to the
CSA. As delegates, they will ex-perience
the "hands-on issues
and the give and take of poli-tics."
Delegates would also at-tend
the monthly CSA meetings
and be able to attend assembly
meetings.
Chris Chalmers Photo by Rich Nunziante
AIDS in Our Midst
- Suzanne Smith
Staff Writer
On April 13, six senior psy-chology
majors presented a lec-ture
entitled "AIDS in Our
Midst." These seniors were
Christa Phelan, Cathy Bruck-man,
Cynthia Lambur, Todd
Lewis and, John Cardinali.
They were joined by Father
Walter Smith of the Psychology
Department.
Each of these students took a
different look at the AIDS crisis:
the biological aspect, children
with AIDS, women drug users,
gay men with AIDS, the social
needs of the victims, and the
media's coverage of the issue.
After this presentation, a discus-sion
was held and a film on
AIDS was shown.
AIDS was introduced to the
United States in 1981. It was
first detected among the homo-sexual
population. Scientists
say that the virus started from a
mutation of the green monkeys
in Africa and then spread to
other countries. Although, at
present, there is no drug that is
able to kill and rid the virus from
the body, a drug called AZT has
been tested and is said "to stop
the replication of the virus in the
body."
The most helpless victims are
the pediatric AIDS patients,
those infants who acquired the
virus from maternal transmis-sion.
One of the students said
that "Many times, the mother
does not know she has AIDS
until she finds out that her baby
does." Only four percent of the
money put aside for AIDS re-search
goes to pediatrics.
"Everyone is going to die.
These victims are functioning
members of society- and, there-fore,
we cannot treat them as
social outcasts. We must re-member,
the dying are living
people and need love and friend-ship."
The video shown dealt
with three AIDS victims and
how they have learned to accept
their situations and make the
best of what time they have left.
The relationship between the
media and AIDS was also dis-cussed.
"In 1983, Rolling Stone
Magazine called AIDS the story
of the year." Today's media is
one of the ways to educate those
at risk.
4 Courtmanche's
Life After
College
7 AIDS on
Campus?
12 Lax Teams
Triumph