FREE | Take one Week of Mar. 24, 2010 | Vol. 35, Iss. 21
The
Mirror
The Independent Student Newspaper of Fairfield University
fairfieldmirror.com
The Reflection of Fairfield
Historic Health Care Legislation Passed By Christopher Haliskoe Business Managing Director Many students went to bed Sunday night worried about their Final Four brackets or their 9:30 quiz the next morning. But over 300 miles away, their legislators were working late to change the society they will be graduating into. This week’s health care reform bill, signed into law by President Barack Obama on Tuesday after an arduous and slim win in the House of Representatives, guarantees that more than 30 million currently uninsured Americans will receive health care. The bill aims to reduce cost over time, thus lowering the national debt and improving health care for those who already have insurance, according to lawmakers. Children who are under their parents coverage are now covered until they are 26 years old, when the bill takes effect. In an interview with The Mirror, U.S. Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT), who represents Fairfield and surrounding towns, highlighted that college students will particularly benefit from the plan. “I would say people in their early twenties, in an unsure job market, could get some peace of mind,” said Himes. “Many of the Contributed Photo
Will | page 4
What the Health Care Bill Means For You:
President Obama signed the health care legislation Tuesday morning, marking a significant moment for all Americans. The bill is the largest expansion of government health care since Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960.
—$61 billion will be cut in fi-
—Children under their parents
—The overall $940 billion plan is
nancial aid for college students.
coverage may stay on until
projected to extend insurance to
they turn 26 years old.
roughly 32 million Americans.
Academic Calendar to Get a Makeover By Dan Leitao Staff Writer
Peter Caty/The Mirror
For consecutive days in the past week, students have protested in solidarity for 15 minutes a day over the University’s decision to cut down forestland. Zach Gross ‘12 wears a sign saying, “I am one tree of 60. I will not stand for more destruction.”
meeting on Thursday and FUSA and Malone are scheduled to meet next week. The issues under discussion will affect the academic calendar for at least the next two years. In the past the academic calendar has caused many inconveniences from students having more than two exams on one day to grades not having enough time to be processed. The Academic Council appointed Malone, along with two more faculty members, to look into the best ways to address the many concerns. The faculty’s main concern was that students need three days before the exam period, and, because exam period was shortened, some students are scheduled for three exams one day, along with the consideration of meeting the needs of professional schools.
In the next two weeks, discussions will take place centering around the reassessment of and possible changes to the University academic calendar. The issue was brought to students’ attention at the FUSA Senate meeting this past Sunday night. According to Mary Frances Malone, the University associate academic vice president as well as the FUSA faculty advisor for commencement, discussion is focusing on three major issues of concern. The issues are three reading days for students, enough time between fall and spring semesters for professors research and student immersion trips, along with a way to help students who have three exams at once. The Academic Council will be
Do Students Think They’re Safe? By Meagan Flynn Staff Writer Walkie-talkies are beeping and conference rooms are buzzing as John Ritchie, assistant director of the Department of Public Safety, intently scans through statistics on his computer screen. The results are in for the
department’s recent online safety survey, and Ritchie knows that every detail of the report could hold clues to how he and his fellow officers can better serve the Fairfield community. “It gives us a benchmark of how we’re serving the community. We have our perspective of things, but sometimes our perspective isn’t the important one,” Ritchie says of the
Index Opinion• Page 7 Features • Page 9 Arts & Entertainment • Page 13 Coffee Break • Page 17 Sports • Page 24
DPS Survey that students, faculty and staff were recently encouraged to participate in. The DPS Survey is the first one of its kind in the past 10 years, its aim being to evaluate the performance of the department and to better understand Public Safety’s role on campus. The demographics of the survey are reflective enough of the campus community to
provide an accurate depiction of community opinion, according to Ritchie. The survey was generally broken into two sections: one survey for students, and another for faculty and staff. Appropriately, the majority of respondents (61 percent) were full-time undergraduate
Inside This Week Hungry for a
Women Poets
Cleaning?
Countdown to
See page 3.
See page 3.
Timeline
Students | page 5
Log onto fairfieldmirror. com for more! Next week’s issue will come out on March 30 instead of March 31.