Mirror - Vol. 20, No. 18 - April 04, 1996

              The
FairfieldMIRR®R Volume 20, Number 18 Thursday, April 4, 1996 The Image of Fairfield
Pro-Women, Pro-Life, Peaceful Solutions
theme FULL Conference
Christine Hamel
News Editor
Pro-Women, Pro-
Life, Peaceful Solutions was
the theme of the Ivy League
Coalition for Life (ILCL)
Conference held this past
weekend at Fairfield
University. The Fairfield
University Life League (FULL)
was host to the 15 colleges and
universities such as Princeton,
Dartmouth, and St. Anslem's
that attended the conference.
The conference began
at 8p.m. on Friday in the
McEleney Room ofthe Campus
Center. The first speaker was
Shannon McGinley of the
American Life League.
McGinley spoke on
abortifacients. Abortifacients
are chemicals that a woman
takes to abort the fetus within
the first few weeks.
"Life is to be protected
from the moment the sperm
joins the ovum until natural
death," McGinley said.
Following
McGinley's speech, Tracy
Kelly of the National Students
for Life spoke on the partial-birth
abortion issue. She
demonstrated on a model what
exactly happens to the fetus.
Saturday morning at
9:00a.m. the welcoming
address was given by Fr.
Lawarence O'Neil, faculty
advisor of FULL, Christopher
Maroney, president of FULL
and vice president ofILCL, and
Christina Galli of Wellesley,
Photo by Nicole Rivard
Shannon McGinley of American Life League teaches students how to be more active on their college campuses.
president of ILCL. Following
the welcoming address was a
speech from abortion survivor
Sarah Smith.
In 1970, Betty Smith
found out she was pregnant again
after already having five
children. Smith decided that she
was going to have an abortion.
About 4 to 6 weeks following
the abortion, Smith felt a kick.
She realized that the abortion
was not successful. Smith did
not know that she was pregnant
with twins.
At eight months of
pregnancy, Smith gave birth to a
daughter, Sarah. The baby was
born with several physical
handicaps. Smith has had 52
major operations since birth and
is not finished. At the age of 12,
Sarah became a victim of rape.
She was not pregnant from the
rape. After the rape, Sarah
became anorexic. At the age
of 13, she found out about her
mother's abortion and that her
twin brother died as a result.
After learning about
her mother's abortion, Smith
became a motivational speaker
on the topic. Smith flew in
from San Diego, California,
to speak at the conference on
Saturday. In addition to
speaking engagements, she is
a premed student.
Following Smith's
speech, Father Frank Pavone,
the national:/ irector of Priests
for Life, spoke on the theme
Pro-Women. Pavone feels that
pro-women and pro-life go
together. He spoke of his
experiences particularly when
he has protested outside a
clinic. Pavone told the story of
one woman who changed her
mind on having an abortion
when she saw a priest outside
protesting.
Liz Dever who is
executive director ofthe Susan
B. Anthony List spoke after
lunch. She discussed "Women
in Politics" and some of the
pro-life women that the Susan
B. Anthony List support for
the upcoming House of
Representatives election.
Following Dever,
Ramesh Ponnuru, national
reporter for the National
Review, spoke on "Peaceful
Solutions." He spoke on the
politics of abortion including
the upcoming Presidential
election. Ponnuru said that in
high school and college it is
easier to be pro-choice since it
seems that everyone else is.
After Ponnuru, there
were several workshops for
students to attend. Students
could learn about Campus
Activism, Pro-Life 101, and
Debate. By attending the
workshops, they learned more
about their beliefs and how to
illustrate their strength in their
beliefs.
At the end of the
conference, there was a
meeting of the ILCL where an
election of officers occured.
At that time the officers begin
their term. Representing
Fairfield in the ILCL executive
board are Christopher Maroney
as president, Melissa Dolan as
secretary.
"This was the largest
turnout of schools coming from
all over the Northeast including
the Washington D.C. area
through New Hampshire. I
hope this serves as motivation
for Fairfield University to
become active in the pro-life
movement," Maroney said.
"I think the
conference was tremendously
successful because in an
exciting and well-organized
two day period, it brought some
dynamic and well-known
speakers together with a
substantial number of college
students to address the issue of
pro-life work, which is so
important in today's society,
and which the Holy Father has
called 'the most important work
on Earth,'" Joseph Marcello '98,
FULL member, said.
Reardon sworn in as 51st FUSA President
Christine Hamel
News Editor
"I, Mike Reardon, do
solemnly swear to uphold and
defend the Constitution of the
Fairfield University Student
Association and to serve the
student body in the office of
FUSA President to the best of
my ability."
After saying
those words, Michael Brendan
Reardon was sworn in as the
51st FUSA President by Matt
Cook, chief justice of Student
Court. Reardon was surrounded
by a crowd of family, friends,
and past, present, and future
cabinet members in the Great
Hall of Bellarmine.
In his first address as
President, Reardon wanted to
recognize Fr. John Higgins, the
people in Financial Aid
especially Diane Scalzi, his
friends, parents, and brothers,
his Residence Life Staff,
and the Jesuit Community.
Before the official
swearing in, Fr. John Higgins
delivered the invocation.
Reardon made his
opening remarks after former
FUSA President Mark Reed
passed the gavel to him.
Reardon thanked Reed
as a friend and as past FUSA
President. He presented Reed
with two gifts. First, Reardon
wanted to give Reed his traffic
ticket that he left behind in the
office and as a gift Security
voided the ticket. Then, Reardon
gave Reed the piece of paper
they had made a bet on dealing
with the Loyola Medal that Reed
received , to remind Reed that
Reardon had faith in him.
"Mike is selfless person
who really cares about people.
Just as I did, he is probably
going to do things that people
may not agree with, but it is easy
for me to hand the gavel to
Mike, he's a phenomenal
person," Reed said during the
ceremony.
"Everybody says that
Mike Reardon is really a great
guy, and he'll make a terrific
president. I'm sure that is true
from what I know of him. I'm
looking forward to the year
ahead," the Rev. Aloysius P.
Kelley, University President
said.
Reardon along with
his five vice presidents were
sworn in at the inauguration.
Reardon is the 51st FUSA
President while FUSA
celebrates its golden
anniversary. A former FUSA
president was unable to
complete his term.
"I wish Mike, and his
cabinet best of luck in the next
year. It's a terrific group of
people and they will serve the
community any way they can,"
Reed said.
fr "\
Joyce Carol
Oates lecture
V
fr
^J \~
James
Farnham
profile
^\ fr
JJ
Abortion
debate
^
continued
fr ^\
What is
Generation Y?
%,
fr
J
Doc
McCarthy
^
resigns