THE MIRROR Independent student newspaper
Week of March 4, 2020
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Vol. 45 Iss. 18
Florence Study Abroad Closes Due to Coronavirus
Harvey Weinstein’s Trial
By Caroline Chapman Contributing Writer By Christina Engelke Contributing Writer On Monday, Feb. 25, visions of an enriching four month study abroad experience came to a sudden halt for Fairfield students in Florence, Italy. With rapidly increasing numbers of coronavirus cases throughout Italy, the Office of the Provost informed the university community that they had “made the decision to close the Florence University of the Arts study abroad program.” The email added that the 142 students enrolled at FUA would be required to depart Italy by Saturday, Feb. 29 and were to return to Fairfield’s campus on March 15. The university’s announcement followed the confirmation of multiple cases of the Novel Coronavirus by Italian health officials. According to official documentations by the Italian Department of Civil Protection, the first two cases of COVID-19 were confirmed on Jan. 31. Thereafter, the number of documented cases has escalated to 1,694 by March 1. While the number of cases remains most concentrated in Lombardy, a region 146 miles north of Florence, the number of the infected is widespread, with 11 confirmed cases in Tuscany, the region in which Florence is located. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has placed a level three warning on travel to Italy. Their website reads that the “CDC recommends that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Italy. There is limited access to adequate medical care in affected areas.” The director of the Student Health Center, Julia Duffy, provided further explanation that it was appropriate to take guidance as such from the CDC to avoid the worst possible scenario. “Bringing our students home from Italy at this point in time decreases their risk of disease exposure and mandatory quarantine for an uncertain period of time,” Duffy said. “The health and safety of our students is our first priority.” However, allegedly not all students have been compliant with the university’s request for a mandatory quarantine. An email was sent out to Fairfield’s student body on March 3 due to concerns raised that some students who had recently returned from Florence had been seen recently on-campus. These former FUA students had been informed not to visit campus or the Fairfield beach area until their intended return on March 15, 2020 by vice president for
Opinion Weinstein is found guilty of sex crimes. Page 5
Men’s Lacrosse
Pictured: view of the Duomo, Cathedral of Santa Maria del’ Fiore Creative Commons/Flickr
student life, Karen Donoghue. In an effort to avoid the spread of the “highly communicable” Novel Coronavirus, the university has reminded students that the refusal to abide by these requests could result in referral “to the Office of the Dean of Students and the student conduct process.” There has also been speculation regarding whether or not there is potential for the program’s eventual return to FUA. According to Jennifer Anderson, vice president for marketing and communications at Fairfield, there is no possibility that these students will be able to return to Florence. “The University considered multiple factors in the decision to close the Florence program including the health and safety of students, the risk of country quarantines, potential loss of academic credits and timing within the semester,” said Anderson. In the ensuing days of the Provost’s announcement, frustration and concern were felt throughout the university community. Among the most affected by the university’s decision are undoubtedly the students returning from abroad, who will now enter a period of transition back to campus. The University has provided them with the option to enroll in either hybrid or online courses to complete the semester.
Sports Men’s Lacrosse Team 3-1 to start 2020 campaign. Page 16
“Book Self”
Continue Reading Florence On Page 2
“Kicking the Bucket List” with Richard Wiese By Stella Henry Assistant News Editor
This past Tuesday, Feb. 25, Fairfield University hosted an Open Visions Forum moderated by art history professor Philip Eliasoph, Ph. D., and biology professor Ashley Byun, Ph. D., featuring Richard Wiese, a world explorer and host of the award winning television show, “Born to Explore.” Aptly entitled “Kick the Bucket List: An Explorer’s Notebook,” the forum began with Eliasoph detailing Wiese’s life and career in an almost eulogy-style fashion. “I’m going to have you speak at my funeral,” Wiese quipped as he began to discuss his early life and the experiences that would ultimately fuel his insatiable curiosity for traveling and learning about different cultures. Born on Long Island, Wiese’s father was a pilot and the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean. At just 11-years-old, Wiese climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and has since done so over a dozen times. In 2002, he became the youngest-ever president of the Explorers Club, which is a society whose members were the first to travel to the North and South Pole, Mount Everest, the deepest point in the ocean and the moon. Often likened to Indiana Jones, Wiese’s travels have taken him to all seven continents, from Tanzania to Indonesia, from tagging jaguars to cross country skiing to the North Pole, but he was humble in regards to it all. One of the central messages of the talk was that, as Wiese put it, “the most important part of a journey is not the destination, but the people you meet along the way.” Indeed, throughout his life Wiese has gotten the opportunity to meet many influential people, including Sir Edmund Hillary, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Jane Goodall, among others. One of the most common questions that people ask him, and one that many in the audience were surely eager to know was, “How many countries has he been to?” Instead of answering the question directly, he told the story of someone who walked up to him and proclaimed that he had visited 195 countries in the span of a year, (out of 196 total). “And all I could think,” Wiese told the audience, “was, ‘how pathetic.’ When you visit that many countries in such a short time period, you can’t possibly find time to fully appreciate or learn about each country, which ignores the whole point of traveling in the first place.” In other words, he said that seeing the world is about quality, not quantity. Wiese could not emphasize enough the importance of learning as much as you can about other cultures. “Sharing cultural experiences is very important, because when you do that, you learn that people often have the same goals,” Wiese explained. He cautioned again against traveling just for the sake of getting stamps on a passport, which he said is “part of that ‘bucket list’ mentality.” “Life isn’t a ‘bucket list’ but rather ‘a series of short stories,’” Wiese said. He spends most of his time in Connecticut with his family, currently residing in Weston. However, far from implying his life is boring now, Wiese insisted that sometimes the greatest adventures can be had in one’s own backyard: “You can create an adventure just about anywhere.”
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Photo Courtesy of Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts