THE MIRROR Independent student newspaper
Week of October 23, 2019
Vol. 45 Iss. 7
FUSA Hosts First Annual Pride March
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By Julia Crews News Editor
On Tuesday, Oct. 22, students gathered in the Lower Level of the John A. Barone Campus Center to begin a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community for Fairfield University’s first Pride March hosted by the Fairfield University Student Association’s Diversity and Inclusion Board, the Office of Student Diversity and Multicultural Affairs and Fairfield Alliance, LGBTQ+ Group. The event was originally supposed to include a walk throughout campus that would end at the Egan Chapel of St. Ignatius Loyola, but it was moved to the rain location due to the inclement weather. Father Tunney makes The event featured spoken word poetry, speakers and free t-shirts, and was organized by the FUSA’s Diversity and Inclusion Board. The Pride March’s organizer, Aarushi
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an impassioned speech about the Catholic perspective and LGBTQ+ inclusion.
Vijay ‘22, director of diversity and inclusion for FUSA, spoke on its importance. “When I joined this position, I had this thought that I wanted to do something for the LGBTQ com-
Lexi Thimble/The Mirror
Lexi Thimble/The Mirror
Students pick up free t-shirts that each have a design of a FUSA logo with a rainbow.
munity,” said Vijay. “A lot of people from FUSA and outside of FUSA have come together to help us, the SDMA and Alliance.” “And I feel like, being a Jesuit university, it is important for us to specifically show support for LGBTQ+ groups,” said Vijay. Students in attendance could get a free t-shirt, bracelet and rainbow flag upon arrival. As students arrived, music played and food was available as attendees mingled and awaited the speakers. Attendees were also given poster boards and markers with which they could design their own pride posters. Senior Eleanor Sgaramella, the vice president of Fairfield’s Alliance, said, “Walking into the BCC, it almost made me want to cry just hearing the music…When I got here [my first year], I was so worried about being supported so when I actually got here and got to see that [Alliance had] built a community and it’s bled out into other people furthering the community, it literally makes me tear up.” The first of the speakers, Tobenna Ugwu ‘22, assistant director of diversity and inclusion Continue Reading Pride On Page 2
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Panelists Explore Democracy a Year From 2020 By Mimi Loughlin Contributing Writer
On Thursday, Oct. 17, the Open Visions Forum “American Democracy a Year from 2020: Reeling or Resilient” took place at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts as part of the Common Ground Lecture Series. Philip Eliasoph, Ph.D., the creator of the Open Visions Forum, welcomed the audience to the event. Richard Greenwald, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, introduced the speakers Miles Rapoport, E.J. Dionne and Heather McGee. Heather McGee is a distinguished senior fellow at Demos, the public policy firm. McGee is also an NBC news analyst. She is currently writing a book about the economic, social and personal effects of racism. E.J. Dionne is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, an independent, nonpartisan research group based in Washington, D.C. Dionne is a professor at Georgetown and a visiting professor at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. Dionne is also a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post. Miles Rapoport is a fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Kennedy School at Harvard. He was the president of Common Cause, and the head of Demos for 13 years. Rapaport was Connecticut’s Secretary of State from 1995-2005. Each panelist presented their own perspective on the future of democracy in the United States. “Who gets to be an American? Can a multiracial
democracy thrive?” McGee asked the audience. “We are a nation of ancestral strangers,” McGee said. She then listed several of the areas of contention of our time: birth rates are at their lowest, the number of refugees entering the US is at its highest and climate change is a problem of our own making. Even so, in the future, McGee hopes to see a true democracy of the people forming with ties to every part of our globe. “If democracy is not destroyed…I see a revival of democracy,” E.J. Dionne said. Dionne explained that democracy is the most educational form of government because people can listen to and learn from opposing viewpoints through healthy arguments. “We don’t Panelists on the Quick Center stage have real arguments
anymore,” Dionne said. There are many people who do not want to listen to views that are so different from their own. In order for a revival of true democracy to begin, people must listen Continue Reading Panelists On Page 2
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discuss the potential downfall or revival of democracy.