Fairfield University Magazine - Fall 2020

Art Inspired

The Original Lady Laxers

Guiding Eyes

The Fairfield University Art Museum marks its 10th anniversary with an exhibition of work by Andrew Forge.

As the University celebrates 50 years of women at Fairfield, founding members of the women’s lacrosse program share their story.

Ben Cawley ’96, director of training at Guiding Eyes for the Blind, provides trained dogs to the blind and visually impaired.

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Goodbye, Mr. Fitz After 55 years on campus, James D. Fitzpatrick ’70, MA’72, P’08 will retire this February.

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Welcome Home Stags Photo by Nicolette Massaro

Fairfield resumed modified campus operations in August with academic instruction, housing, dining, and a wide array of activities and student services for fall 2020. Learn more about the University’s extensive return to campus at fairfield.edu/reopen.

On the cover: James D. Fitzpatrick ’70, MA’72, P’08, Assistant Vice President for Auxiliary Services, standing at his favorite spot on campus.

Photo by Cassidy Kristiansen

Fairfield University Magazine Fairfield University Fall 2020 | Volume 43 | Number 2 a.m.d.g.

Editor, Alistair Highet Assistant Editor, Tess (Brown) Long ’07, MFA’11 University News Editor, Susan Cipollaro Copy Editor, Jeannine (Carolan) Graf ’87 Vice President for Marketing and Communications, Jennifer Anderson ’97, MBA’02 Designer, Nancy (Gelston) Dobos ’91 Photography by: Joe Adams page 4 Janet Demakos page 6 Mary Holt page 12 Cassidy Kristiansen pages 2, 16, 24-27, 35 Fairfield University Media Center pages 5, 7, 14 Guiding Eyes for the Blind page 27 Stockton Photo page 29 Jennifer Prat page 33 Jason Miczek page 13 Contributed photos pages 3, 6-9, 28-31, 34, 36-40 Fairfield University Magazine is published four times (November, March, June, September) during the year by Fairfield University. Editorial offices are located in: Bellarmine Hall, Fairfield University Fairfield, CT 06824-5195 (203) 254-4000, ext. 2526 e-mail: ahighet@fairfield.edu Printed at The Lane Press Burlington, Vermont ii fall 2020 | Fairfie ld Un i ve rs it y M aga z in e

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Contents

“ Having my degree from Fairfield University has allowed me to excel in this field.”

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24

by Alan Bisbort

by Tess (Brown) Long ’07, MFA’11

The Fairfield University Art Museum marks its 10th anniversary with an exhibition of work by Connecticut-based British painter Andrew Forge.

Ben Cawley ’96 is director of training at Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a nonprofit that provides trained dogs to the blind and visually impaired.

Home to a growing permanent collection and venue for temporary shows, the Fairfield University Art Museum first opened its doors in October of 2010.

Ten years, two galleries, and scores of historymaking exhibitions later, Andrew Forge’s luminous “dot paintings” now mark the occasion.

When Ben Cawley graduated from Fairfield in 1996, his parents gave him an Australian shepherd puppy as a graduation present. That gift, coupled with the robust education he received from the Jesuits, inspired his decades-long service career as a trainer of guide dogs and their human partners.

Pictured above: Detail of Andrew Forge, Cloak, 1985, oil on canvas.

Collection of Patrick J.Waide Jr. ‘59.

Pictured above: Ben Cawley ’96 with a guide-dog-in-training.

Art Inspired

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— Ben Cawley ’96, Director of Training at Guiding Eyes for the Blind

Guiding Eyes

Fairfieldmagazine UN IVE RSIT Y

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let ter from the presiden t universit y news academics

A New Chapter

by Nicole Funaro ’17

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The Original Lady Laxers

by Jeannine (Carolan) Graf ’87

The former Dolan School building has undergone an 18,000-square-foot refresh to house the College of Arts and Sciences’ media studies programs and the University’s media production team.

cover story

Goodbye, Mr. Fitz

by Tess (Brown) Long ’07, MFA’11

After 55 years on campus, beloved Assistant Vice President for Auxiliary Services James D. Fitzpatrick ’70, MA’72, P’08 will retire this February.

32 34

gr an ts & gif ts alumni notes

Profiles:

As the University celebrates 50 years of women at Fairfield, founding members of the women’s lacrosse program share their story.

35 Hugh Morgan ’69, P’95 The New President of the Alumni Association

Players on the original women’s lax team gathered recently to reminisce about the humble pre-varsity beginnings of today’s successful NCAA Division 1 program. The ascent from self-described “Bad News Bears” to MAAC dominance is just one example of how women have elevated Fairfield’s level of play through the decades.

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37 Katie Burke ’96 What Kids Say

donor profile Bob Venero, P’21,’24

Pictured above: Goalie Maura (Shine) Rudolph ’90 (left) alongside Coach Mike Monick and fledgling club lacrosse teammates.

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Letter from the President

“ The story of higher education over the next five, ten, fifty years will be one of dual transformation: evolving the best of what we do, while always asking how we might innovate to do more.”

Send your letters to the editor of Fairfield University Magazine to Alistair Highet at ahighet@fairfield.edu.

Your news could be featured in an upcoming issue of Fairfield University Magazine! Submit your updates through Class Notes within the Online Community and don’t forget to include a photo! Go to fairfield.edu/alumnicommunity.

Dear Friends, As I write this in early September, classes have resumed, students have returned, and Fairfield University has opened — once again — for the fall semester. And yet, this is a reopening like no other in our history, and one that will always be remembered as further testament to our University’s resilience and community spirit.

While this academic year offers few guarantees, I can guarantee no institution is better positioned than Fairfield. Working alongside the state’s private universities through the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, we have collaborated with Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont and his ReOpen CT team to ensure that all our reopening strategies are built from the same thorough repopulation plan.

For complete details of our extensive plan, I will direct you to fairfield.edu/reopen.

As I said in a recent Connecticut Post op-ed, we are putting hope, reason, and constructive action ahead of fear.

Now, as we seek to build the 21st century University, we recognize the opportunity to define modern excellence. While this process of definition will be a collective effort, I would suggest it has three foundational elements: 1) Evolving and innovating across our academic programs; and embracing our role as a civic and community institution by: 2) Affirming our place as a destination for arts, culture, and athletics; and 3) Animating our position as a beacon within the Jesuit, Catholic educational ecosystem.

As I shared last year, the first element is comprised of several strategic streams: a) Preparing for the advent of big data across all fields of inquiry; b) Fostering community and industry partnerships through engaged academic departments and centers; c) Broadening our geographic footprint through particularized courses of study; and d) Embracing new instructional modalities to

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serve ever-broader populations of students.

To this end, we have not been standing still.

Thanks to the hard work of so many we have launched numerous initiatives this past year in each of these areas: the Fredrickson Family Innovation Lab which allows access to big data in the social sciences, the rechristened Center for Social Impact, an MBA with finance concentration in Shanghai, and multiple online and hybrid master’s programs to name a few.

In regard to our role as a community institution, the Provost’s Task Force on Arts & Culture has delivered its recommendations to affirm our place as a destination for the arts and dialogue in the humanities. Additionally, the now two-yearold Presidential Working Group on Diversity & Inclusive Excellence is tackling the broader question of our position as a beacon, and we are exploring the feasibility of Fairfield offering a program in the spirit of the two-year Arrupe College program at Loyola University Chicago, which would ensure greater access for first-generation students, Pell-eligible students, and students of color.

One might be tempted to ask how, in the face of current challenges, we could be engaging in such an audacious and long-term conversation. I would suggest we would be irresponsible not to do so. For the story of higher education over the next five, ten, fifty years will be one of dual transformation: evolving the best of what we do, while always asking how we might innovate to do more.

In closing, I must emphasize how eager our students have been to return to Fairfield — their optimism and their enthusiasm. Despite what might seem to be daunting challenges, our community is embracing this semester with open arms.

That should not surprise us at Fairfield, a University founded on faith — faith in the human spirit and faith in the transformative power of education. We who have inherited that faith are fortunate indeed.

With very best wishes,

Mark R. Nemec, PhD President

Universit y NEWS IN-PERSON CAMPUS TOURS RESUME AT FAIRFIELD

Fairfield Honors 2o2o Grads with Virtual Celebrations

Fairfield officially resumed in-person tours and socially distanced information sessions this summer, with additional safety precautions in place for prospective students and their families.

In order to ensure utmost safety and comfort, all guests to campus are now asked to register for a tour prior to arriving on campus.

Visitors are required to wear face masks or coverings throughout their time on campus. Campus tours begin with an information session led by one of Fairfield’s admission counselors, followed by a 60-minute walking tour with a student

tour ambassador.

Remote opportunities to learn about Fairfield also remain available, including virtual tours, information sessions, and student interviews with admission staff. Virtual visits can be scheduled with the Charles F. Dolan School of Business, the Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies, the School of Engineering, or the College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information on the Admission Department’s in-person tours and virtual opportunities at Fairfield University, please visit F fairfield.edu/admission. l

Students from the Class of 2020 shared their celebration photos with #Stags20

Sunday, May 17 ushered in a host of virtual celebrations for the Class of 2020, beginning with two video tributes: one to honor the bachelor’s degree candidates of our undergraduate senior class, and one for our master’s degree, professional, and doctoral program graduates.

Social media was decked out in Fairfield red the entire weekend, with graduates, friends, families, and alumni taking part in special Fairfield-themed Class of 2020 Facebook profile image frames, tech wallpapers, Instagram story activities, and more.

More than 1,500 graduates — comprised of 1,025 undergraduates and 484 graduate, professional, and doctoral students — received their degrees or diplomas.

For updates on plans to celebrate the Class of 2020 in person, visit fairfield.edu/commencement. lF

Campus is open for in-person tours, by appointment.

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Universit y NEWS Life Imitates Art: Fairfield Students Recreate Classic Artwork as Tableaux Vivants As Fairfield University courses pivoted online for the spring 2020 semester, professors in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Art History and English programs took an innovative approach to virtual learning. Inspired by a popular trend sweeping social media, art history professors Philip Eliasoph, PhD, Michelle DiMarzo, PhD, and Marice Rose, PhD, as well as English professor and E. Gerald Corrigan Chair in the Humanities and Social Sciences Emily Orlando, PhD, challenged their students to recreate famous literary and artistic works as tableaux vivants or “living pictures,” using household items and their own creativity.

In Dr. Orlando’s literature course, “Edith Wharton and Her Circle,” students were issued a take-home exam instructing them

to create a tableau vivant of a scene from a literary work or work of art they had studied during the semester. They were also required to submit a brief explanatory essay discussing the tableau’s connection to at least one literary or visual text.

The gold medal was awarded to finance major Yocasta Olivo ’20 from Dr. DiMarzo’s “Exploring Art History: Technology and Art” course. The silver medal was awarded to finance major Vin Doren ’21, whose parents were used as stand-ins for the figures in Grant Wood’s famous “American Gothic” painting, and the bronze medal went to first-year nursing student Savannah Haims ’13 for her cosmetic recreation of Hokusai’s “Under the Wave Off F Kanagawa” using eye makeup. l

Teresa Sauer ’20 emulated publicity photos of Edith Wharton for Dr. Orlando’s literature course “Edith Wharton and Her Circle.”.

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FOUR FAIRFIELD WOMEN RUGGERS AWARDED TRI-STATE RUGBY ALL-CONFERENCE Four Fairfield women’s rugby teammates were recently selected for the Tri-State Rugby Conference DII All-Conference First and Second teams. Kate Welzel ’20, Kaitlyn Foley ’20, Brenna Murphy ’20, and Caitlin Wood ’22 were chosen for their consistent demonstration of excellence and leadership both on and off the field. Welzel and Wood represent the First Team, and Foley and Murphy represent the Second Team. The Tri-State Conference promotes college rugby throughout Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. These prestigious recognitions were determined by individual performances, nominations, and university coaches’ votes.

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION EARNS BRONZE CASE CIRCLE OF EXCELLENCE AWARD The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) recently awarded Fairfield University’s Student Alumni Association (SAA) the Bronze CASE Circle of Excellence Award in Student Advancement/StudentLed Engagement Initiatives, for its annual Teddy Bears With Love drive. CASE’s Circle of Excellence awards recognize their members’ achievements “in advancing their institutions through their remarkable and varied work, across all advancement disciplines,” said Sue Cunningham, CASE CEO and president.

In December of 1999, Fairfield University’s Office of Alumni Relations launched the annual

Teddy Bears With Love drive.

Alumni donated new and unused teddy bears and stuffed animals to the University, for delivery to local children’s hospitals during the holidays. In its inaugural year, 500 bears were collected and donated in Connecticut.

Today, Fairfield’s Student Alumni Association, in conjunction with Alumni Relations and regional alumni chapters, spearheads this continued effort. Since the launch of the drive, more than 25,000 teddy bears and stuffed animals have been collected and donated to children’s hospitals throughout the country, including Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Toys for F Tots in Washington, D.C. l

Fairfield Egan’s New Dual MSN/MBA Program Starts Fall 2020 Fairfield University’s Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies is launching a new dual Master of Science in Nursing/Master of Business Administration (MSN/ MBA) degree program.

Developed by the Egan School with the Charles F. Dolan School of Business, the program will provide students with the knowledge and experience required for executive leadership positions in health care organizations. This dual degree, the first at Fairfield University, provides registered nurses with the ability to earn two master’s degrees at once, giving them the ability to compete amid the growing employment demand in the health care field.

The MSN/MBA curriculum includes 62 credits of curriculum plan that will require students to take courses across a

The MSN/MBA is the first dual degree to be offered by Fairfield University.

variety of disciplines including accounting, finance, marketing management, pathophysiology, systems leadership, information technology, health care economics, practicum, and more. Curriculum plans are flexible and can be arranged in

collaboration with the MSN/ MBA program director.

Fairfield is accepting applications on a rolling basis this fall. For more information about the program, visit fairfield.

F edu/msn-mba. l

New MS in Cybersecurity Program at Fairfield The School of Engineering has launched a new Master of Science in Cybersecurity (MSCYB) program. Offering dynamic, hands-on learning experiences for both remote and in-person instruction through Fairfield’s new state-of-the-art Cybersecurity Lab, classes began this fall.

Professionals with advanced degrees are in high demand for managerial and leadership positions in the rapidly advancing cybersecurity sector. According

to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job opportunities for information security analysts are projected to grow 32 percent from 2018 to 2028. Demand is highest in industries that manage large volumes of sensitive data — such as health care, finance, and retail.

The Fairfield University MSCYB degree is designed to prepare well-rounded students for leadership roles across industry, nonprofit, and government sectors — by honing technical

skills as well as communication and leadership skills — through real-world projects and capstone courses.

The 30-credit MSCYB degree program offers flexible pacing for full-time students to complete the degree in as little as one year, and for working professionals who choose to pursue coursework part-time to finish in as quickly as two years. For complete information and to apply, please F visit fairfield.edu/cybersecurity. l

STAGS EARN SIX NCAA PUBLIC RECOGNITION AWARDS The NCAA honored six Fairfield University athletics teams in May, through the annual Public Recognition Awards. The awards are given to teams that rank among the top 10 percent of their sport in the most recent Academic Progress Rate (APR) results.

The announcement highlights teams that demonstrate a commitment to academic progress and retention of student-athletes by achieving the top APRs within their respective sports.

In the current report, Fairfield’s baseball, men’s golf, men’s soccer, women’s basketball, women’s lacrosse, and women’s tennis teams all placed among the top 10 percent in their respective sports. This year’s announcement marks the sixth straight year in which six or more Fairfield University teams have been honored with the NCAA’s team recognition award.

Through its innovative APR, which provides an annual scorecard of academic achievement, the NCAA tracks the classroom performance of student-athletes on every Division I sports team. By measuring eligibility and retention each semester or quarter, the APR provides a clear picture of the academic culture in each sport. Most recent APRs are multi-year rates based on scores from four academic years.

Fairfield is among the nation’s 326 schools to be recognized by the NCAA with Public Recognition Awards for F APRs in the top 10 percent. l

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Universit y NEWS FAIRFIELD LAUNCHES INNOVATIVE MASTER’S PROGRAMS AND NEW ONLINE AND HYBRID COURSE DELIVERY The Charles F. Dolan School of Business has launched three new graduate programs and has transitioned two of its existing programs to online and hybrid formats.

The three new programs are: the MS in Management (MSM), the MS in Marketing Analytics and Strategy (MAS), and the dual Master of Science in Nursing and Master of Business Administration degree (MSN/MBA) programs.

The MSM is designed for both recent graduates with a non-business background and current working professionals who desire fundamental business skills. The MAS was created to answer the demands of companies seeking data-driven professionals who can use sophisticated methods to analyze consumer preferences and behavior.

For nurses interested in executive leadership positions in health care organizations, Fairfield’s dual Master of Science in Nursing and Master of Business Administration program (MSN/MBA) is a first-of-its-kind partnership between Fairfield Dolan and the Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies.

In addition to these new graduate programs, prospective students will benefit from the flexibility to now pursue two signature Dolan master’s degrees in online and hybrid formats. The MS in Business Analytics (MSBA) will now be offered in a fully online format, and the Fairfield Dolan MBA will be offered in a both hybrid format as well as the traditional face-to-face track.

For more information, please F visit fairfield.edu/dolan. l

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JESSICA CASTILLO ’21 RECEIVES PUBLIC POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS FELLOWSHIP International studies and politics student Jessica Castillo ’21 has been awarded the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute Fellowship, a competitive program for undergraduate juniors committed to careers in public service.

Castillo, an international student from the Dominican Republic, is passionate about diplomacy and international relations.

With minors in Latin American and Caribbean studies, peace and justice studies, and French, Castillo serves as president of Fairfield’s Model United Nations Club.

Grant Support for Entrepreneurship at School of Engineering One of the places Professor Douglas Lyon, PhD, PE turns to when helping graduate students enrolled in his “Engineering Entrepreneurship” class fund the creation of prototypes for their business ideas is CTNext, which fosters innovation and entrepreneurship within the Nutmeg State and describes itself as “a quasi-public subsidiary of Connecticut Innovations.”

Since CTNext began its Higher Education Innovation and Entrepreneurship Grant Program in 2018, Dr. Lyon has been awarded $20,000 in grants to help School of Engineering students create prototypes and launch their entrepreneurial projects.

In June, CTNext awarded its latest $5,000 grant to a group of Dr. Lyon’s students for their

cybersecurity penetration device, the “RF PenTester.” Dr. Lyon described the product as a USB key that plugs into a computer overnight and alerts the user to system vulnerabilities. He stressed the value of the “RF PenTester” for what is known in the cybersecurity industry as “white hat” or ethical hacking, as opposed to “black hat” hacking, in which criminals break into computer systems to steal information or cause damage.

With a focus on the commercialization of innovation, “Engineering Entrepreneurship” offers mentorship, a collaborative environment, and a hands-on experiential forum for students to navigate both the successes and failures of starting an early stage F company. l

Fairfield’s Alpha Sigma Nu Announces Teachers of the Year Alpha Sigma Nu Teacher of the Year recognition is a tradition at Fairfield for which students nominate an undergraduate and a graduate faculty member for their dedication to the teaching profession and their support for students. Nominations are based on scholarship, loyalty, and service: the three pillars of the Jesuit honor society, Alpha Sigma Nu. Catherine Giapponi, PhD, associate professor of management, was named this year’s undergraduate Alpha Sigma Nu Teacher of the Year. The graduate honoree was Erica Hartwell, PhD, LMFT, associate professor of marriage and family therapy, and director of the Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Mental Health certificate program.

Dr. Giapponi joined the Fairfield faculty in 2001 as a visiting assistant professor of management. She has served on the Fairfield Student Life Committee, the Fairfield Dolan Undergraduate Curriculum

Committee, and the University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. Dr. Giapponi has also enjoyed working directly with students through the Ignatian Residential College Program, the Faculty Athletics Mentoring Program, and First-Year Student Summer Orientation, among others.

Dr. Hartwell joined the Fairfield faculty in 2013. She serves the community through a variety of roles including instructor and supervisor of therapists, president of the board of directors of the Triangle Community Center in Norwalk, Conn., and chair of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) Queer and Trans Advocacy Network. She is passionate about the health and well-being of sexual and gender minorities (SGM), and last year, she helped launch a first-of-itskind online certificate in SGM F mental health at Fairfield. l

Alpha Sigma Nu Teacher of the Year recognition is a tradition at Fairfield for which students nominate an undergraduate and a graduate faculty member for their dedication to the teaching profession and their support for students.

Luis Camejo Vento, The Truck (El Camión), 2006, watercolor on poster board.

FAIRFIELD PROF PARTNERS WITH CUBAN ARTIST ON DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM A new short film premiered in July, documenting the Cuban art exhibition presented by the Fairfield University Art Museum in spring 2020, that featured the works of six Cuban artists.

A collaboration by Michelle Farrell, PhD, and Javier Labrador Deulofeu, Tracing Archives of Consciousness: Six Cuban Artists, can be accessed at fairfield.edu/museum/cuba, and on the museum’s YouTube channel.

Alana Hubbs ’20 and Raquel Reilly ’20 Awarded Fulbright Scholarships For her Fulbright experience, Hubbs will travel to Latvia to teach English. She will also conduct research to study the oral, musical, and cultural traditions maintained in Latvia as a post-Soviet occupied nation. In the future, Hubbs plans to pursue a law degree.

Reilly’s research interest stems from her recent diagnosis of myasthenia gravis (MG), a muscular nerve impulse disease. The Fulbright award will allow her the opportunity to carry out her Alana Hubbs ’20 Raquel Reilly ’20 research in Germany, beginning in January 2021. Until Fulbright experiences. then, Reilly has begun her PhD To date, more than 65 Fairfield pursuit through Yale University’s University alumni have been biochemistry, quantitative biolawarded a Fulbright — a yearlong ogy, biophysics, and structural scholarship that supports postF biology (BQBS) doctoral track. l graduate study, research, work, or teaching in another country.

Recent graduates Alana Hubbs ’20 of Kingston, N.Y. and Raquel Reilly ’20 of Prospect, Conn. are the newest Fairfield alumnae to receive prestigious Fulbright scholarships. While arrangements are not yet finalized due to the impact of Covid-19, they plan to travel to Europe for their

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Universit y NEWS Virtual Exhibits Showcase Fairfield Art Students’ Creativity and Ingenuity Fairfield University’s visual and performing arts students developed new ways to share their creative and curative works, using an array of online platforms and digital resources.

Art history major Matthew Waldemar ’20 had already spent months contacting artists across the U.S. and preparing for the University’s first student-curated contemporary art exhibition, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced him to switch gears. Originally planned to open in Loyola Hall’s Lukacs and Experimental Space Galleries after spring break, his exhibit, Bawdy Project: A Study of Masculinity through the Canon of Art, was reevaluated and reconfigured to take on new life as a unique virtual experience.

Molly Lamendola ’22 and her classmates from the art history capstone course taught by Philip Eliasoph, PhD, also met the challenge of transitioning a carefully

curated art installation into a visually rewarding virtual experience, with their project, Art of the Book: Evolution of Period Style from 15202020. The end result was a digital catalog and virtual exhibition that examines how print, style, and art history have collectively reflected the world around us for more than 500 years.

A joint collaboration also emerged between students enrolled in the Sophomore Residential College’s “Digital Photography” course taught by visual and performing arts instructor Cheryl Yun, PhD, and the “Experiments in Drawing” class taught by studio art professor Jo Yarrington, PhD. Dr. Yarrington’s and Dr. Yun’s students collected headlines from the front pages of The New York Times, and used them to create politically and socially engaged artwork inspired by hisF torical and contemporary artists. l

A sample of student artwork featured in the Sophomore Residential College’s collaborative virtual exhibit, created by Caroline Nowakowski ’21.

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Howard Skrill, “Removal of Columbus from LA,” 2018, ink, gesso, gouache, pencil on paper.

MUSEUM VIRTUAL EXHIBITION — HOWARD SKRILL: MONUMENTAL FOLLIES The Fairfield University Art Museum recently opened its first-ever virtual exhibition, featuring almost 40 works by New York artist Howard Skrill. The exhibition, Howard Skrill: Monumental Follies, explores the impact of public monuments — their creation, their removal, and their absence. In his drawings and paintings, Skrill documents figurative public statuary, surveys their destruction or relocation, and explores the fractured nature of personal and public memory, as well as the contemporary reaction to — and protests of — these historical works.

The exhibition was created using Kunstmatrix, a unique tool that helps to create virtual 3-D exhibitions for the digital presentation of artwork. View the presentation and access an audio tour with clips for select paintings, created and narrated by Skrill, on the museum website at fairfield.edu/museum/skrill.

KEVIN HICKEY MSBA’19 AND JIE TAO, PHD, WIN BEST PAPER AWARD AT THE 53RD HAWAII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SYSTEM SCIENCES (HICSS) Fairfield Dolan Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) alumnus Kevin Hickey MSBA’19 has accomplished what few students at the graduate level achieve. Earlier this year, Hickey collaborated with Jie Tao, PhD, assistant professor of information systems and operations management, to win the 2020 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS) Best Paper Award in the Collaboration Systems and Technology track.

The award was presented by a top researcher in the field,

Jay F. Nunamaker, PhD, of the University of Arizona.

Hickey’s paper, “Dissecting Moneyball: Improving Classification Model Interpretability in Baseball Pitch Prediction,” was selected from more than 100 papers, many of which were contributed by individuals with their PhDs. Hickey and Tao collaborated with Lina Zhou, PhD, professor of information systems and operations management in the Belk College of Business at UNC F Charlotte. l

“We are excited to incorporate the egaming lab into the RecPlex this fall… it will add another layer of engagement and competition to our recreation offerings.”

Eli Olken-Dann, Director of Recreation

Dolan Career Development Center Transitions Support Services Online As the University transitioned to remote learning last semester in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Dolan Career Development Center quickly responded by adapting its services to online formats to support students remotely, while also creating online events.

Students continued to pursue individualized career coaching opportunities with the Center’s career coaches and professionalsin-residence, through phone calls and Zoom.

Mock Interviews took place online with alumni and local professionals, and the virtual events had high attendance.

Also, students continue to use InterviewStream, software that can be accessed at any time, to record practice interviews they can then send to the Career Center for feedback.

The InterviewStream software provides students access to a library of resources, including 7,000 pre-recorded interview F questions. l

Egan Students Present Capstone Research at Virtual Innovative Research Symposium Each year at the annual Innovative Research Symposium, Fairfield University students from nearly every discipline and field of study come together to share their scholarly projects. Traditionally held in the Barone Campus Center, the Symposium shifted to a new online format following the coronavirus outbreak (Covid-19).

At this year’s symposium, 128 Egan School students presented their capstone projects on Quip, a collaborative platform

FAIRFIELD UNVEILS NEW ESPORTS GAMING LAB Fairfield has unveiled a new esports gaming lab in the University’s RecPlex, which will be home to the University’s competitive esports club teams and the Gaming Club, a non-competitive social club for gamers.

Award-winning global IT solutions provider Future Tech Enterprise, Inc. partnered with Fairfield’s facilities and IT teams to deliver technology consultation, equipment evaluation, and final installation for the new lab, which is equipped with Lenovo’s Legion brand of gaming laptops, desktops, keyboards, monitors, headsets, and accessories. “Esports is a great way to drive student engagement and connections, as well as attract prospective students,” said Bob Venero, P’21,’24, president and CEO of Future Tech Enterprise, Inc.

Fairfield’s Gaming Club has been instrumental in bringing egaming, also known as esports, to the University.

Global tournaments featuring organized, competitive video game playing between individuals or teams are so popular that esports is now the second most-watched “sport” in the U.S., after football. As its popularity grows in the higher education sector, 200 colleges and universities now feature egaming facilities, and some offer egaming scholarships.

“We are excited to incorporate the egaming lab into the RecPlex this fall,” said Director of Recreation Eli Olken-Dann.

“Not only will this attract more students to our facility, but it will add another layer of engagement and competition F to our recreation offerings.” l

that allowed the Fairfield community to have an online dialogue with students about their research projects. The students selected individual topics that hold personal interest to them; they conducted research and presented original projects that highlighted a variety of aspects of the health care industry.

The Symposium garnered more than 1,800 website pageviews, 5,000 video views, and reached more than 18,000 people through the University’s F social media channels. l Future Tech Enterprise, Inc. delivered a full range of technology solutions to help Fairfield complete its new esports gaming lab.

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Universit y NEWS FAIRFIELD EARNS HIGH DISTINCTIONS ON PRINCETON REVIEW’S BEST COLLEGES LIST Fairfield University has once again been named to The Princeton Review’s annual college rankings of the best 386 colleges for 2021. Fairfield earned several national and regional distinctions, highlighted by inclusion on the review’s Best Northeastern Colleges, Best Value Colleges, and Green Colleges lists.

The University also earned a high return on investment (ROI) rating, which combines Princeton Review’s academic rating, financial aid rating, and college costs, with Payscale. com data from alumni surveys on starting and mid-career salaries.

Fairfield’s faculty was awarded high praise for professor quality, as well as for professor accessibility outside the classroom.

Rankings were based on student responses to a survey that asked 143,000 students at 386 of the nation’s top colleges to rate their schools on dozens of topics important to college applicants and their parents, including “their school’s academics and administration, their life at college, their fellow students, and themselves.”

Students praised Fairfield for its “strong and accepting community,” its “outstanding business and nursing programs,” and its “engaging F [and] passionate” faculty. l

Aidas Kavaliauskas ’20 Earns MAAC Postgraduate Scholarship Aidas Kavaliauskas ’20 has received one of the two 2020 Bob McCloskey Insurance MAAC Postgraduate Scholar-Athlete Scholarships, as presented by the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. He joined Monmouth University’s Anna Lazur, member of the Hawks’ women’s soccer program, for the honor.

As part of the selection process, the scholarship committee evaluated athletic and academic achievements as well as campus involvement, community service, volunteer activities, and demonstrated leadership.

Kavaliauskas graduated from Fairfield Dolan this past May with a dual major in management and marketing. He was a three-year member of the basketball team and the Stags’ SAAC representative for the past two years. A native of Lithuania, Kavaliauskas was appointed to the MAAC All-Academic Team in both 2019

Aidas Kavaliauskas ’20 was recognized for his achievements on and off the court.

and 2020.

He has served as a volunteer coach for Hoops 4 Hope and the Wakeman Boys & Girls Club, and as a guest speaker/mentor for the Connecticut Writing Project while at Fairfield. Kavaliauskas will continue his studies at the Dolan School of Business, where he will

pursue a Master’s of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA).

Bob McCloskey Insurance funds two scholarships annually to promote and encourage academically and athletically accomplished student-athletes to continue their education by attending graduate F school. l

Professor Irene Mulvey, PhD, Elected AAUP President Fairfield University’s College of Arts and Sciences is proud to announce that the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has elected mathematics professor and department chair, Irene Mulvey, PhD, as president of the 105-year-old, faculty-led organization. Since its founding in 1915, the AAUP has helped shape American higher education by developing standards and

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procedures that maintain quality in education and academic freedom.

Dr. Mulvey ran her campaign on a “Strength Through Representation” platform that promised to build collective leadership to ensure all voices are heard.

She has been a professor at Fairfield since 1985 and served multiple terms as president of the Faculty Welfare Committee/ AAUP, Fairfield’s AAUP chapter, in

addition to serving as president of the Connecticut AAUP conference.

Dr. Mulvey has also served multiple terms as treasurer for both her chapter and the state conference, and was elected by the Council to serve on the AAUP’s Executive Committee three times. She is currently a member of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, for which she F will continue to serve ex officio. l

Students attending Ubuntu Academy for immigrant and refugee youth are granted scholarships and equipped with materials in order to attain meaningful hands-on experience.

IN MEMORIAM

In conjunction with The National Writing Project, CWP-Fairfield hosts literary sessions, leadership experiences and professional development seminars for students and professionals.

FAIRFIELD’S UBUNTU ACADEMY EXPANDS — AND SUCCEEDS —IN SUMMER’S NEW DIGITAL SPACE Ubuntu Academy, a partnership between the Connecticut Writing Project (CWP), Bridgeport Public Schools, and Fairfield University’s Refugee Youth Mentoring Program, showed no sign of slowing down this summer despite the Covid-19 pandemic. As one of several literacy labs serving hundreds of Connecticut youth, Ubuntu Academy is part of a larger program that brings students of mixed backgrounds together.

Bryan Ripley Crandall, PhD, director of the Connecticut Writing Project Fairfield and associate professor in the Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions (GSEAP), worked alongside GSEAP graduates William King MA’16 and Jessica Baldizon MA’15, to transition their award-winning Ubuntu

Academy program onto Zoom and Google platforms.

Daily, the team took to their newly created virtual space to conduct meaningful academic exercises and creatively stimulating activities during their summer writing workshops.

Literally meaning, “I am, because we are,” Ubuntu, a South African philosophy for togetherness and collaboration, celebrates community and an individual’s role with other human beings. Students attending Ubuntu Academy for immigrant and refugee youth are granted scholarships and equipped with materials in order to attain meaningful hands-on experience that features a mix of individual writing pieces, collaborative poetry practice, and group F reading. l

Nicholas M. Rinaldi, PhD, a

Kim S. Bridgford, PhD, of

former Fairfield University English professor died on May 27, 2020, at the age of 86. At Fairfield, Dr. Rinaldi established the Creative Writing Program and served as both dean and chair of the English Department. He mentored many students during his tenure at Fairfield, which spanned more than 30 years.

Dr. Rinaldi’s teaching career began at St. John’s University in New York. He also served as a visiting professor at Columbia University, City College, and the University of Connecticut.

Philadelphia, Penn., a former professor of poetry in Fairfield’s English Department, died on June 28, 2020, after a brief battle with cancer. In addition to teaching at Fairfield University, Dr. Bridgford also taught and served as director of the Poetry Center at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. She founded and directed “Poetry by the Sea,” a global conference for formal poets, held annually in Madison, Conn. She was also founder and editor-in-chief of Mezzo Cammin, an online journal of formal poetry by women, and The Mezzo Cammin Women Poets Timeline Project, the world’s largest database of women poets.

Dr. Bridgford was named Connecticut Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation of the Advancement of Teaching in 1994. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Literary Fellowship in poetry in 1999, and an Artist Fellowship in poetry from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts in 2003.

An author of 10 books on poetry, Dr. Bridgford has been featured by national media including The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Connecticut Post, NPR and the News Hour with Jim F Lehrer. l

Rinaldi

Bridgford

A frequent lecturer at museums, libraries, bookstores, and universities across the country and globe, Dr. Rinaldi was honored in 2007 as the Artist of the Year by the Fairfield Arts Council.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Dr. Rinaldi attended Brooklyn Tech High School and spent several years studying at a Jesuit seminary in upstate New York before beginning graduate school at Fordham University. Dr. Rinaldi was a prolific storyteller and published four novels, three books of poems, and numerous short stories throughout his long career.

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A New Chapter

The former Dolan School building has undergone an 18,000-squarefoot refresh to house the College of Arts and Sciences’ media studies programs and the University’s media production team.

T

by Nicole Funaro ’17

h i s fa l l , t h e f o r m e r

Charles F. Dolan School of Business building will officially open as a newly renovated 18,000-square-foot Media Center, to accommodate Fairfield’s expanding academic offerings in digital media and to become the new home of the Marketing and Communications Division’s media production team.

Designed by Newman Architects of New Haven, Conn. and constructed by Caldwell & Walsh, the renovation and expansion will build upon what was offered at the Media Center’s previous location in Xavier Hall of Fairfield College Preparatory School, according to Vice President for Facilities Management David Frassinelli MS’92.

“It’s substantially more space than before, which will create great opportunities not only for the media production team, but also for the growing and successful academic programs,” Frassinelli said.

The building has been outfitted with two new studio spaces: one with a brand-new LED production lighting system, lighting control booth, and production control booth; and another that will serve as a podcast and webinar room with a state-of-the-art lighting system. The Center’s west wing will house an editing room, a video production and screening room, and six faculty offices.

Notable high-tech features in the space include computers and equipment specifically for animation and graphic design, as well as separate suites for film coloring and editing.

There will also be an equipment storage and sign-out area for students to check out camera and audio gear, offering an array of portable and fixed-position video cameras, portable lighting, sound recorders, and microphones.

According to College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Greenwald, PhD, having a dedicated Media Center for students to practice

what they learn in the classroom further elevates the prestige that the College has earned for its nationally ranked communication and media programs.

“The College as a whole has a strong reputation in these media programs, and our alumni do exceptionally well in starting salary and job opportunities,” Dean Greenwald said.

“Now, by having a top-of-the-line facility and studio equipment built into our curriculum — that gives us a competitive edge.”

The new Media Center will also serve as a collaboration and connection hub for students

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studying communication, digital journalism, and other media. Said Matthew Tullis, MFA, director of digital journalism and assistant professor of English, “This finally gives us a chance to showcase the various forms of media that Fairfield students create — from film, to TV, to journalism (both print and web), to audio production — and it brings all the faculty who teach in those areas together under one roof. I hope that this becomes a place for students who are interested in all sorts of media production to just hang out in.”

Also the co-director of the new Sports Media program at Fairfield, Tullis is already sizing up

Members of the media production team cover a pre-Covid women’s lacrosse game in spring 2020.

Matt Tullis, MFA, Sports Media program co-director, hopes to someday broadcast a Stags athletics studio show from the new production facility.

“The College as a whole has a strong reputation in these media programs, and our alumni do exceptionally well in starting salary and job opportunities.”

Richard Greenwald, PhD

the possibilities of the new Center for his sports media and other digital journalism courses.

“The TV studio and the webinar and podcasting spaces are going to be fantastic,” he said. “I hope that someday in the near future, we’ll be able to develop a studio show that is focused on Fairfield athletics, using our Sports Media students.”

To help prepare students to fully immerse themselves in the new media equipment and studios, Greenwald said the College has hired new broadcast faculty member Karla Barguiarena to its Communication department. An alumna

of Texas A&M and Boston University, she has previously served as a freelance reporter for ABC NewsOne in New York and a number of other media outlets.

Greenwald said he envisions the University’s Career Center working with media industry alumni and students at the new Media Center, to help launch students into exciting internships.

“We have a great alumni network, great faculty, and now we have very good resources,” he said. “Adding all of these things together with our ambition, I am confident that we will F see great things going forward.” l

A NEW HOME FOR MARKETING’S MEDIA PRODUCTION TEAM The new Media Center will also offer a dedicated space for the University’s media production team, which is part of Fairfield’s Marketing and Communications Division.

The media production team produces an array of photography and video projects — including commercials, web videos, TV shows, and sports broadcasts — for schools and departments across campus.

Additionally, they offer A/V event support, livestreaming and webinar services, and A/V technology design and instruction.

Previously located in the basement level of Fairfield Prep’s Xavier Hall, the new Media Center in the former Dolan building adds an extra 3,000 square feet of space.

Having a single facility for the media production team and the College of Arts and Sciences’ media studies programs is already proving to be a valuable resource for Fairfield’s media and digital production professionals, instructors, and students. Assistant Vice President of Digital Operations Casey Timmeny ’99, MBA’08 serves as director of the media production team, overseeing a dozen full-time employees and as many as ten part-time student workers who assist with operations and projects each year.

Timmeny was a critical participant in designing and identifying the necessary equipment for the space.

“Casey helped us figure out what they already had and what we needed,” said Dean Greenwald of the partnership that developed while designing the space together. He noted that access to professional equipment and working studios will give students a better understanding of how the mechanics of media production “will translate into their careers.”

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Goodbye, Mr. Fitz

After 55 years on campus, beloved Assistant Vice President for Auxiliary Services James D. Fitzpatrick ’70, MA’72, P’08 will retire this February.

W

by Tess (Brown) Long ’07, MFA’11

hen James D. Fitzpatrick ’70, MA’72, P’08 — better known as “Jim Fitz,” “Fitzy,” or simply “Fitz”— first stepped foot on campus, it was a snowy February day in 1966. He arrived from Fall River, Massachusetts, wearing one of the two sport coats he owned, for an admission interview with Rev. Henry Murphy, S.J. Soon after, Fitzpatrick joined the 20th graduating class at Fairfield University. At the time, the campus — a mere a string of ten or so buildings that sprawled across the acreage — was populated largely by all-male undergraduate students and the black-robed Jesuits who lived among them. The original Campus Center had just been built; Alumni Hall was only five years old.

“I thought I had died and gone to the Boston Garden,” Fitzpatrick said, remembering the first time he stood inside Alumni Hall. “I guess I was overwhelmed. I was blessed to be the first one in the Fitzpatrick family to attend college.”

With his signature mustache and his easy sense of humor, Fitzpatrick has run, in one way or another, what is now called the Barone Campus Center for more than 50 years. He has remained a constant through five University Presidents and myriad changes, a supportive backbone to the institution, and a man who embodies a commitment to service in action.

Fitzpatrick, who met his wife of 41 years, Phyllis, on campus, received the 2015 Rev. W. Laurence O’Neil, S.J., Employee Choice Award, Fairfield’s 2012 Leader in Campus Sustainability Award, the 2011 Ignatian Medal from the Jesuit Student Personnel Administrators, and the 1994 Left: Over five and a half decades, Jim Fitzpatrick has been a cherished friend and role model to countless Fairfield students, alumni, and colleagues.

“The value of his life’s dedication to this institution is truly immeasurable, and he will forever be a part of the Fairfield story.”

Mark R. Nemec, PhD, Fairfield University President

Alumni Association Alumni Service Award.

He was inducted into the Fairfield University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012 and has been the court-side announcer for the men’s basketball games since the fall of 1971. Recently, more than $100,000 was raised by Fairfield University Student Association (FUSA) students, alumni, and staff to name press row in Fitzpatrick’s honor, in what will be the new Arena and Convocation Center on campus.

Said University President Mark R. Nemec, PhD, “The value of his life’s dedication to this institution is truly immeasurable, and he will forever be a part of the Fairfield story.”

“Fitzy is Fairfield University to many of us,” said Edward “Ned” Burt ’78, now a probate judge for the State of Connecticut, who was a student worker under Fitzpatrick’s Campus Center leadership. “Just the mention of his name brings a smile to my face and gives my entire being a warm feeling. He was so good to us.”

Fitzpatrick said some of the most rewarding aspects of his career have been those that allowed him to work directly with students on sports teams and in organizations such as FUSA, Student Senate, the Glee Club, the Resident Assistants program, and The Manor yearbook – which honored him with dedications in 1974 and 1995.

“He was a wonderful mentor to me when I served as FUSA president,” said Mark C. Reed ’96, EdD, president of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. When I became a colleague, he did whatever he could to help me. He has been a father figure, uncle, and big brother at various points in my life. It’s a grace to know him.”

Service to the community has played an important role in Fitzpatrick’s career. He spearheaded and developed the weekly volunteer project to serve meals at the Prospect House shelter in Bridgeport, which has continued for more than 30 years. He also reenergized an annual spring break immersion service trip to Eastern Kentucky.

Fitzpatrick said he’s particularly proud of having assisted Mary Francis Malone, PhD, former associate vice president for Academic Affairs, in developing the Ignatian Residential College program more than 20 years ago.

Scores of alumni and students will remember “Fitz” fondly for his office chock-filled with Red Sox paraphernalia, for his daily outgoing “Go Stags” voice messages, and for his unflagging dedication to the University. But in a few months, when the man himself leaves it all behind, he humbly said he hopes to be remembered for the role he played in serving the needs “of our magnificent students.”

“In addition, I hope the service and meaning of a life guided by St. Ignatius and St. Robert Bellarmine that has defined my life, and so many lives of our graduates, will continue to produce men and women for others for generations to come,” Fitzpatrick said.

John Sohigian ’82, MA’85, vice president of consumer products for an international sports organization, worked for Fitzpatrick as a graduate assistant in the Campus Center.

He said, “In sports they talk about coaching trees and how the great coaches have branches everywhere. Fitz’s tree has become a forest F and it will live on forever.” l

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The Fairfield University Art Museum marks its 10th anniversary with an exhibition of work by Connecticut-based British painter Andrew Forge.

Art Inspired “Y

by Alan Bisbort

At left: Andrew Forge, Untitled, 1996, watercolor on paper.

Collection of John Meditz.

ou have to start somewhere.” Such was the idea that inspired generous benefactor and University Trustee John Meditz ’70 to bring an art museum to Fairfield University. “Any educational institution of note has to have an eye to the visual arts,” he said.

A longtime passion for medieval art and architecture, along with his own self-described knack for “eclectic collecting” predisposed Meditz to pitch the idea of an art museum to his fellow Trustees more than 10 years ago.

“If you ever make the mistake of showing an interest in something, you end up paying for it,” said Meditz with a laugh.

Indeed, Meditz put his money where his mouth was, quite literally, when he donated an initial $2.5 million to launch what is now the Fairfield University Art Museum, comprised of the Bellarmine Hall Galleries and the Walsh Gallery, located inside the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.

The museum is now marking its 10th anniversary with an exhibition of paintings by Andrew Forge (1923-2002), the distinguished British artist, influential critic, Yale professor and dean.

Eighteen of Forge’s large and luminous “dot paintings” and ten smaller watercolors are included in Andrew Forge: The Limits of Sight, which will be on view in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries through Dec. 19.

Fa i r f i e l d Un i v e r s i t y Mag a z i n e | fal l 2020 19

“Each painting starts with a single dot, and it grows as dots accrue over the field of the canvas.

During the early stages, the formative principle is simply the vibration of the dots, whether in ordered constellations or randomly dispersed…”

— Andrew Forge

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F

orge’s art has a solid connection to the museum through Pat Waide ’59, a former University Trustee. “Pat is a major collector of Andrew Forge’s work and got to know the artist,” said Carey Mack Weber, the museum’s Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director. “He is lending seven works to the exhibition, four of which are important paintings, and three smaller works.”

The guest curator for Andrew Forge: The Limits of Sight is Karen Wilkin, who first met Andrew Forge in 1989, when he was a visiting professor at the New York Studio School and she was on the faculty. Wilkin came highly recommended by the Betty Cunningham Gallery, which represents the Forge’s work, and Ruth Miller, Forge’s widow and herself a distinguished artist.

Forge was trained and began his career as a “perceptual realist,” studying at the Camberwell School of Art in London under William Coldstream and Victor Pasmore. By the time he was in his mid-20s, he was already a senior lecturer at the Slade School of Fine Art. He later served on the faculties of Goldsmiths College in London and University of Reading.

“He was steeped in the tradition and language of representational art, creating realist canvases,” said Wilkin. “But he became very disappointed.” As Forge himself described in a 1986 interview, he had “lost faith” in what he was doing, even though his expressive, lushly

At left September, 1995-96, Oil on canvas 60 x 48 inches, Estate of the Artist, Courtesy of Betty Cunningham Gallery, New York; Above left to right, Untitled, 1996, Watercolor on paper 5 x 8 inches and Untitled, 1996, Watercolor on paper 5 x 8 inches, both from the collection of Patrick J. Waide Jr. ’59.

painted work was receiving positive notices.

Feeling constrained by the limits of realism, Forge was open to anything that would break him out of its mold. In 1963, he paid a monthlong visit to the United States, at a time of sweeping change and upheaval in modern art. He traveled extensively, meeting with directors, art historians, and other artists — including Grace Hartigan, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns, as well as choreographer Merce Cunningham and avant-garde composer John Cage.

“That was his tipping point,” said Wilkin. “It wasn’t about what the artwork he saw looked like; it was about the possibilities that seeing the art of Rauschenberg, in particular, opened for Forge. He realized that he did not have to follow a format. After that trip, when he got back to England, he created his first ‘dot painting’.”

On that life-changing note, Wilkin opens Andrew Forge: The Limits of Sight with “Winter, Kent” (1973), the last dot painting Forge created in England before moving to the United States for good.

Forge’s approach to his newfound breakthrough painting style was not unlike what drove Meditz to start the museum at Fairfield:

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you have to start somewhere. “Each painting starts with a single dot,” he said, “and it grows as dots accrue over the field of the canvas. During the early stages, the formative principle is simply the vibration of the dots, whether in ordered constellations or randomly dispersed….”

Wilkin explores that aspect of Forge’s paintings in her exhibition essay: “Their spatial mobility and their sense of pulsing light combine to make the dot paintings both irresistible and elusive. They appear to test the limits of sight. We yield to the allure of their atmospheric orchestrations of color at the same time that we are not quite certain that we are really perceiving them.”

The same air of mystery and depth that characterized Forge’s canvases was evident when he stepped to the podium to lecture.

While she was at the New York Studio School, Wilkin heard Forge lecture several times at evening talks that held audiences captive.

“He was very tall and very thin, and soft spoken but obviously articulate,” she recalls.

“He reminded me of a giant crane. He always had a pipe in his mouth, giving that aromatic and tweed flavor to his presence. His students loved him.”

Forge was as renowned for his writing on art as he was for his painting. He wrote and co-wrote books and exhibition catalogs about painters with whom he felt some kindred spirit: Monet, Manet, Francis Bacon, Soutine, Graham Nickson, Degas, and de Kooning.

O

ne of the exciting things about the Andrew Forge: The Limits of Sight exhibition is that it covers Forge’s best and most mature work.

Featuring such pieces as “Meadow,” “Heavy Hemlocks,” and “Fallen Tree,” Wilkin said of the subjects that inspired Forge’s paintings, “The titles give you some clues.”

“You think you catch a glimpse, then step back and you glimpse something else,” she continued. “The paintings are large, but not enormous. He took a very long time on each one.”

When she initially toured the Bellarmine Hall Galleries, Wilkins felt challenged as to how she’d create an exhibition of Forge’s mysterious work there. “It is an eccentric space, with a home-like atmosphere,” she said. “After spending some time in the galleries, though, I realized that the intimate space was just what the works needed.”

Wilkin is adamant that visitors to the

exhibition take their time with Forge’s work.

“With Forge you have to see the works ‘in the flesh’ or they look static,” she said. “They can’t be captured by the camera. And you have to sit with them for a while.”

But, unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the general public will not be able to

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see the exhibition in-person, though students and faculty are allowed — and encouraged — to attend. Wilkin holds out hope that restrictions might lift by mid-December, and that the public might get a first-hand look at Forge’s work too. “I am keeping so many fingers crossed!” she said.

JOHN MEDITZ ’70 AND THE INSPIRATION FOR THE FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM

In the meantime, a virtual and interactive version of the exhibition will be available online.

Andrew Forge: The Limits of Sight runs from September 25 through December 19, 2020. A virtual celebration of the museum’s 10th anniversary is scheduled for Sept. 24. Please visit F fairfield.edu/museum for details. l

Above: Tree of Life (Clair), 1987/89, Oil on canvas, 46 x 58 inches, Yale Center for British Art.

In 1966, when John Meditz arrived at Fairfield as an undergraduate from Weehawken, N.J., he beheld a fledgling institution barely two decades old.

“Fairfield did not have an age patina like Georgetown,” he recalled, more than five decades later. “And there was no grand tour of campus like there is now. We just drove up once and looked at the place.”

Despite its relative bare-bones origins, Meditz still believes, to this day, that a student receives a better all-around education at Fairfield than at larger, and perhaps more venerable, institutions.

The smaller classes, the personal connection with the professors, and of course, the Jesuit perspective appealed to him after graduating from Xavier High School in New York (where he is also a longtime trustee). The one thing Fairfield was missing, in his view, was a repository of art.

“What’s a museum in theory?” he mused. “It’s a cataloging of culture.

We live in Western civilization, which doesn’t mean you ignore other civilizations, but it does seem to be the role of the University to ground students in something — some civilization— so that when they leave here, they can explore other civilizations with some kind of context.”

The initial idea Meditz had in mind was to acquire some art collections for the University and create an exhibition space. The lower story of Bellarmine Hall was a good place to start. Though Meditz would love to expand that space, he said it gets into “the chicken or the egg situation.”

“Do you expand and build — and then try to fill the space, or do you collect the art and then build to accommodate what you have?”

The adage holds as true for universities as it does for students and artists: you have to start somewhere. And start it did, 10 years ago, with the founding of the Fairfield University Art Museum — thanks to the generosity of benefactors like John Meditz.

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Ben Cawley ’96 walks with Becky, a two-year-old Labrador retriever, in the Guiding Eyes training program.

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GUIDING

EYES BEN CAWLEY ’96 IS DIRECTOR OF TRAINING AT GUIDING EYES FOR THE BLIND, A NONPROFIT THAT PROVIDES TRAINED DOGS TO THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED.

by Tess (Brown) Long ’07, MFA’11

W

ith a slow wave of his hand in the air — as casually as one might shield sun from the face — Ben Cawley ’96 commanded his dog, Becky, to sit.

And with grace and precision, the sleek yellow Labrador retriever yielded. Cawley rewarded her with a gentle “yesss” and a treat, and then the pair was off again.

Becky is an impeccably trained guide dog at Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a nonprofit organization that provides bred and trained dogs across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico to people with vision loss. At two years old, she is almost ready to graduate into the real world and be matched with a guide dog user.

Cawley is the director of training at Guiding Eyes and has been in the industry for more than 20 years. In his current role, he runs the entire guide dog process from the

moment the dogs enter training at about 18 months old until they retire. He also oversees the instruction of the school’s visually impaired or blind students as they learn to work and live with their dogs.

“We have incredible, incredible dogs. They are perfectly bred Labradors and German shepherds and they are just amazing animals,” Cawley said as he led Becky on a walk with steady confidence. “We have the opportunity to take one of these amazing animals, train it, and place it with a blind person who has been working very hard – oftentimes years – in order to be qualified to get a guide dog.”

Becky and all of the dogs at Guiding Eyes are specially bred for temperament and health. They are raised by volunteers for socialization, and then professionally trained at one of the Guiding Eyes campuses in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

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Taught through positive reinforcement, the guide dogs learn to be confident in all environments and situations, to problem-solve, and to make decisions on their own. They must demonstrate a low distraction level, have impeccable house and social manners, and be able to remain settled for several hours at a time when needed.

It takes years and an estimated $50,000 to breed, raise, train, and match a guide dog to a visually impaired person, and then intensive instruction to make the pair a functioning “guide dog team.” But, to Cawley, the whole progression is worth it.

“We commit to keeping them safe and serving them into the future,” Cawley said of the care offered to the guide dogs and their handlers. “They graduate and go home and they might have their dogs for eight to ten years after they graduate; we help them with anything they might need along the way.”

F

ounded in 1954, Guiding Eyes matches more than 150 guide dog teams each year at no cost to the people who need them.

Guiding Eyes also has a “running guides” program which trains guide dogs to safely lead their handlers while on exercise runs.

The program is the only one of its kind in the world. In 2019, Cawley and his team helped Guiding Eyes’ CEO Thomas Panek make history as the first-ever blind person to run the New York City Half Marathon with a relay 26 fall 2 0 2 0 | Fairfiel d Un i ve rs it y M aga z in e

above :

Cawley, Becky, and pals enjoy a little down time.

left: Becky poses in her UniFly Harness; Cawley playfully shakes a paw of one of his charges. right:

Cawley, Guiding Eyes’ CEO Thomas Panek, and guide dog team at the 2019 New York City Half Marathon.

team of guide dogs.

While developing the running program, Cawley and his team realized that the traditional leather guide dog harness just wasn’t as efficient as they needed it to be for the wear and tear of exercise.

So, Cawley and Guiding Eyes bridged a partnership with the performance dog gear company RuffWear to create a specially designed guide dog running harness. Called the UniFly Harness, it’s being manufactured and used around the globe.

C

awley is originally from Willimantic, Conn. When he began the college selection process, his parents recommended he investigate Jesuit education and he was drawn to Fairfield by its strong academic reputation.

“Fairfield was the only school where I felt at home after touring the campus,” Cawley said.

“It was beautiful, I loved the size, and I just knew it would be a good fit.”

Cawley was a premed student, and graduated with a degree in biology. He has fond recollections of his student days, living with friends in Campion and Claver Halls as well as down at the beach. He enjoyed his first exposure to scientific research working with his advisor, Phyllis Braun, PhD, professor of biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, on her study concerning yeast cells.

As a sophomore, he took a summer job at a salmon cannery in Alaska alongside other college students from all over the country. He returned to the job on Kodiak Island every summer during his career at Fairfield, traveling there each time on a rickety, four-seater plane that skidded along a dirt runway into the farflung fishing village.

After graduation, he accepted a position with DeKalb Genetics as a research assistant developing things like drought-resistant corn and other agricultural products. He had always wanted a dog, so his parents gifted him an Australian shepherd puppy as a graduation present.

When Cawley’s role at DeKalb went stale, he dedicated himself to training his new dog, and with his background in biology began investigating the arena of animal behavior and guide dog training as a profession.

Cawley was offered and accepted a position at a guide dog school in northern California where he was a guide dog mobility instructor from 1998 until 2012. He learned that the occupation is much more than simply training dogs — it requires knowledge in a number of fields including psychology; education; and animal health, behavior, and husbandry.

“Having my degree from Fairfield University has allowed me to excel in this field,” Cawley said. “Just to have that really robust education that I got from the Jesuits. Not only did it drive me towards service work but it allowed me to really experience the world and see how many different ways there are to live.”

In 2012, Cawley and his wife Nancy had young children and were hoping to move back east to be closer to relatives when the opportunity presented itself at Guiding Eyes.

These days, the couple lives with their two sons in Shrub Oak, N.Y. After more than two decades, Cawley still finds his work gratifying.

“My favorite part of working here, hands down, is the day when we are able to give [the handlers] the gift of these dogs and they meet each other for the first time — just to experience that joy. It’s like Christmas F morning. It’s pretty special.” l

“MY FAVORITE PART OF WORKING HERE, HANDS DOWN, IS THE DAY WHEN WE ARE ABLE TO GIVE [THE HANDLERS] THE GIFT OF THESE DOGS AND THEY MEET EACH OTHER FOR THE FIRST TIME — JUST TO EXPERIENCE THAT JOY. IT’S LIKE CHRISTMAS MORNING. IT’S PRETTY SPECIAL.” — Ben Cawley ’96

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AS THE UNIVERSITY CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF WOMEN AT FAIRFIELD, FOUNDING MEMBERS OF THE WOMEN’S LACROSSE PROGRAM SHARE THEIR STORY.

28 fall 2020 | Fairfie l d Un i ve rs it y M aga z in e

THE ORIGINAL

LADY LAXERS T I

by Jeannine (Carolan) Graf ’87

he co-founders of the women’s lacrosse program at Fairfield, Diane Martin ’87 and Kathy O’Rourke ’88, had almost everything they needed to launch a club team – demonstrated student interest, administration approval, a stipend for a coach, and a practice field. “They just needed the players,” said founding team member Jennifer Kohl ’89, “and for that, the classes of ’89 and ’90 came through.”

As luck would have it, Kohl, a West Nyack, N.Y. native, had started at Fairfield in 1985 alongside two of her high school lacrosse teammates, Kristen Van der Linde ’89 and Ellen (Meagle) Loveless ’89. Together, the trio began recruiting friends to join the nascent team’s spring ’86 season. “There were no tryouts; if you had a pulse and wanted to play, you were in,” joked Van der Linde.

Which isn’t to say they didn’t take the sport and their training seriously. Because wooden sticks lacked the technology of today’s equipment, there was less passing and more running top left:

season.

Players celebrate a successful

in the game back then. “We ran five or six miles before each practice, so non-runners tended to weed themselves out,” said Van der Linde.

“And, except for the goalie, we played without safety equipment — not even goggles. It was a tough sport if you didn’t like contact… but if you could hack it, we were a welcoming group!”

In the club’s second year, Maura (Shine) Rudolph ’90, a three-sport high school athlete from Avon, Conn., was invited to a practice even though she had never before played lacrosse.

Unfamiliar with the oddly named women’s lacrosse positions like ‘second home’ and ‘third home’ and ‘cover point,’ Rudolph said, “I knew what a goalie needed to do: just stop the ball.”

So she agreed to be the back-up goaltender.

Her back-up role didn’t last long; the Stags’ starting senior goalie quit the next day, leaving the newbie alone to cover the net — with a field stick — in a tough match-up against a league team from Long Island, N.Y. Rudolph proved her mettle in that first game. Her grateful teammates presented her with a goalie stick at the following practice, officially launching her successful four-year run as Fairfield’s goaltender. One of Rudolph’s

favorite memories is of the team’s 15-14 victory over Trinity, played in extreme weather conditions: “There was hail bouncing off my helmet!”

n the early years of Stags women’s lacrosse, there was no budget for equipment or uniforms, so team members bought their own sticks and “shared” uniforms with the varsity field hockey team. “We wore kilts,” confirmed Van der Linde. “At the end of their fall season, the field hockey players would throw their uniforms in a box – not even washed – and we’d go down and take whatever fit.”

Each spring, the lax players were responsible for booking games and arranging their own bus transportation. They made cold calls to colleges within a three-hour drive and scheduled memorable match-ups against the likes of Babson, Yale, Columbia, West Point, and Siena.

middle: Goalie Maura (Shine) Rudolph ’90 (center) and teammates pose with the first coach to ever return for a second season, Mike Monick. bottom:

(l-r) Kristen Van der Linde ’89 and Jennifer Kohl ’89.

Fa Faiirrffiieelldd Un Uniivveerrssiittyy Mag Magaazziinnee || fal falll 2020 2020 29 29

“WE RAN FIVE OR SIX MILES BEFORE EACH PRACTICE, SO NON-RUNNERS TENDED TO WEED THEMSELVES OUT. AND, EXCEPT FOR THE GOALIE, WE PLAYED WITHOUT SAFETY EQUIPMENT — NOT EVEN GOGGLES. IT WAS A TOUGH SPORT IF YOU DIDN’T LIKE CONTACT… BUT IF YOU COULD HACK IT, WE WERE A WELCOMING GROUP!” — Kristen Van der Linde ’89

left: Head Coach Laura Field will welcome back her team’s entire starting line-up in 2021.

FAIRFIELD WOMEN’S LACROSSE TODAY No NCAA sport has grown faster in recent decades than women’s lacrosse. In 1997, the year the Fairfield women’s team rose from club to NCAA Division 1 play, the Stags were one of 56 teams competing at the D1 level; today, that number has more than doubled.

The 2020 season began in February with 118 NCAA D1 women’s teams.

Fairfield women’s Head Coach Laura Field had high hopes for the spring as she entered her fifth year at the helm of the program and her 12th year with the Stags.

In all of Coach Field’s prior 11 seasons on the Fairfield sidelines, the Stags had consistently reached at least the semifinal round of the MAAC Conference postseason, and the team had collected four MAAC Championship trophies — most recently back-to-back in 2018 and 2019. In 2019, the women also hosted the first-ever postseason NCAA home game

on Conway Field at Rafferty Stadium.

So it was understandably “one of the most helpless and surreal days” in her coaching career when the 2020 season was abruptly curtailed due to Covid-19 and the team held its last practice at Rafferty on March 12.

Expressing awe for their resilience and work ethic, she told her players in an open letter, “… your journey as a team will forever be a ‘what-if’ that can never be answered.”

With “cautious optimism” for play to resume next spring, Coach Field’s entire starting line-up will return in 2021.

“Knowing that we return with arguably the most talented senior class I have coached at Fairfield,” she said, “we feel that we are in a good place to adapt to any challenges the return to play throws at us, and to defend our MAAC Championship.”

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“On the bus ride home from Siena,” said Patty O’Connor ’89, “we detoured off the highway and stopped at the Shines’ house in Avon for dinner. Maura’s parents fed us all – 30 girls in muddy uniforms and cleats.”

Alternately dubbed the “chicks with sticks” and the “lady laxers” by student reporters in The Mirror, the women’s club lacrosse team became a familiar sight on campus, lugging their equipment to Barlow Field, heading straight from practice to the cafeteria for team meals, dressed in their “borrowed” kilts on game days, and in red and white Fairfield lacrosse hoodies at post-game celebrations on the beach.

Said Van der Linde, “By senior year, we had really coalesced. And the more we kept coming back stronger each year, the more supportive the University grew.” The varsity men’s lacrosse team attended a women’s home game and even challenged the club team to a friendly match-up on campus.

As recorded in The Mirror by cheeky reporter Christine Carolan ’89, “The ladies battled the men’s squad Sunday afternoon under modified rules and narrowly lost 8-7… the girls attribute the loss to the guys’ unfair long stick advantage… be your own judge on that complaint.”

left: Teammates huddle for warmth on the sidelines of an early game.

P

laying lacrosse at Fairfield “certainly ignited a passion,” said Rudolph. A few years after graduation, she moved to Chicago and joined a women’s lacrosse league as a way to meet people in her new city. “Two of my teammates and I became the first three nationally certified referees in the Midwest,” she shared. “We spent winters teaching girls how to play the game.”

Rudolph has since moved back East to Massachusetts, where her two daughters play lacrosse and she has coached for the past nine years. Many of her Stags teammates also have sons and daughters who play.

As busy as they are — juggling family responsibilities and careers in advertising, finance, law, and law enforcement, just to name a few — members of the original Fairfield women’s lacrosse team still find time to stay connected with one another and their alma mater. For three decades now, they’ve supported the Stags program, followed its rise to NCAA Division 1 status, and cheered the team’s many successes — which include four MAAC Championship trophies and NCAA postseason berths.

In 2018, a group of lacrosse team alumnae returned to campus for a women’s game at Rafferty Stadium. Wearing matching “Fairfield Women’s Lacrosse Inaugural Team” sweatshirts, they were recognized at half-time and

below from top: Before becoming Stags, (l-r) Ellen (Meagle) Loveless ’89, Jen Kohl ’89, and Kristen Van der Linde ’89 were high school teammates in West Nyack, N.Y.; and Founding team members (clockwise from top left:) Patty O’Connor ’89, and Maureen Mooney, Brenda (Aube) Ryan, Jenn (O’Malley) Barth, Chris Ezelius, Anne Ronzoni, Maura (Shine) Rudolph, and Susie (Davidson) Stevens from the Class of ’90 were recognized at a Rafferty Stadium game in 2018.

invited to meet current Head Coach Laura Field and her players after the game.

“There’s definitely an opportunity for us to become more of an asset to these young athletes,” said Van der Linde, a trial attorney in Jacksonville, Florida, who noted that studentathletes’ résumés stand out to her “because I know what they’ve been through — they’ve had to work hard, enhance their skill set, compete for a spot… and they’ve had to handle being benched at some point for something.”

Kohl, an EVP and executive director at VMLY&R, a global communications company, agreed, “All the diplomacy, the collaboration, the negotiating skills honed on the practice field and in games are skills that benefit you in the workplace, no matter what career you pursue.”

But perhaps the most cherished takeaway from their years on the lacrosse field together is the lasting bond between the players on Fairfield’s inaugural team. “That sisterhood is so important,” said O’Connor. “I’ve been in some tough jobs, like in the FBI which is so male-dominated. Women have to support each other and be there for each other.”

“We were this little seedling that grew and grew,” summed up Kohl. “It’s the most inspiring thing to see how women’s lacrosse has grown into a competitive D1 program with a beautiful stadium and their own locker room.

F It just feels great to be part of that story.” l

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Grants&Gifts

A Selection of Grants and Gifts Received from Private and Public Foundations, and Corporations

The Bennett Center for Judaic Studies

(Business Education Simulation and Trading) Classroom, enabling students to stay current in the finance area.

The Carl & Dorothy Bennett Foundation

has given $5,000 to Associate Professor Christopher Huntley, PhD and recent graduate Winston DeMartini ’20, for their project “PhysiSens.” The project’s objective is to develop a prototype for their “smart shirt,” which will allow physical therapists to heal patients faster and stronger, based on real data. Dr. Huntley is an associate professor of information systems and operations management at Fairfield Dolan, and director of the Entrepreneurship Center, including the nationally recognized Fairfield StartUp program for student-founded startups.

made an exceptional $500,000 pledge to benefit the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, which was established in 1993 by the Bennett family. The pledge, payable over a five-year period, will support lectures, special programs, and events for the University community. The late Dorothy Bennett served as a Trustee of the University. Robin Kanarek Bennett ’96, president of the Bennett Foundation, is also a past Trustee and current chair of the Bennett Center Advisory Board. Mark Bennett also serves on the Advisory Board.

The Frank Jacoby Foundation, maintained by Debby and David Zieff, has given $10,000 as part of a matching gift challenge in honor of Carl Bennett’s 100th birthday, inspiring many new donors to support the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies at exciting levels.

Charles F. Dolan School of Business The Bank of America Charitable Foundation has renewed its support of the

Charles F. Dolan School of Business with a generous $25,000 grant. The grant will go towards the school’s Professional Development Series, an initiative designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills essential to successful navigation in the working world.

The grant will also support female students who are strong academic candidates for the MS in Finance, MS in Business Analytics, and MBA programs, as well as programming organized by the University’s Career Center.

The Smith Richardson Foundation has awarded $20,000 to Fairfield University in support of Bloomberg Terminals in the B.E.S.T

The CTNext Higher Education Grant

The Arts at Fairfield The George J. and Jessica Harris Foundation continues to show its commit-

ment to the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts through a $10,000 grant in support of the Quick Center’s general operations and diverse performing arts programming, including the new Arts for All initiative.

The New England Foundation for the Arts approved a $6,000 grant to sup-

port a performance by Sphinx Virtuosi at the Quick Center in February 2021, as part of the ensemble’s upcoming New England tour. This dynamic chamber orchestra, comprised of 18 top Black and Latinx classical soloists, will also engage in residency activities that challenge preconceived notions surrounding classical music and encourage diverse audiences of all ages to connect with this timeless music genre.

The Bank of America Charitable Foundation gave a generous $50,000 award

to enable the Quick’s Open VISIONS Forum speaker series to present the second annual season of the Women in Leadership Series presented by Bank of America, featuring

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prominent female speakers and discussion topics that align with the company’s mission to invest in women’s economic empowerment and leadership.

The Robert Lehman Foundation

approved a renewed $6,000 grant in support of the Edwin L. Weisl Jr. Lectureships in Art History for the 2020-21 academic year. With a goal of fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and promoting understanding of the arts in the context of both history and the contemporary world, the funds will be used to bring five distinguished scholars to Fairfield, to offer engaging lectures related to exhibitions on view.

The Robert & Mercedes Eichholz Foundation has renewed its support of

the Fairfield University Art Museum with a $10,000 grant to support the costs of two upcoming exhibitions: The Lost Bird Project and Birds of the Northeast: Gulls to Great Auks, which will take place from October 13, 2020 to May 14, 2021.

College of Arts & Sciences The H.W. Wilson Foundation has renewed its support with a generous $50,000 gift towards the H.W. Wilson Foundation Veterans Scholarship Fund, which will provide fellowship support for eight veteran students in the College of Arts and Sciences, and enhance each veteran’s Yellow Ribbon Scholarship.

The Davis Educational Foundation

gave $48,950 as part of the second installment of their two-year pledge to support Civic Engagement Through the Promise of Democracy, an initiative that aims to strengthen Fairfield’s education core and create open spaces that inspire and empower the entire University community to participate in the promise of democracy.

School of Engineering The CTNext Higher Education Innovation and Entrepreneurship Grant Program has

awarded $5,000 to Douglas Lyon, PhD, PE for his project the “RF PenTester” — a cybersecurity wireless hardware/software penetration testing (PENTEST) system in a microelectronic package. The funding will assist Dr. Lyon in finishing the design and prototype. The system consists of a USB key-sized package that enables it to receive and transmit commands from up to a kilometer away using an RF-interfaced microcontroller that outputs human interface device (HID) protocol.

University Support & Scholarships The Maguire Foundation gave an additional $100,000 as part of their multi-year pledge to the University, to enable students from Pennsylvania who are academically qualified to become leaders in their own fields, and who demonstrate significant financial need, to benefit from the transformative impact of a Fairfield education.

The Ernest and Joan Trefz Foundation

has given a $25,000 grant to Fairfield University’s Community Partnership Scholarship Program. Funds will be used to enhance the financial aid available to students coming from underserved areas, and empower them to dream big and work toward achieving their academic, personal, and professional goals.

The Lawrence I. & Blanche H. Rhodes Memorial Fund has given $6,000 to support

the Simon Harak and Fr. John Murray, S.J., Glee Club Scholarship Fund. This gift will provide scholarships and financial assistance to students participating in the University’s Glee Club, a mixed chorus of more than 100 undergraduate and graduate singers.

The Jacoby-Lunin Humanitarian Lecture, “Demanding Justice for Victims: From Cyber Crimes to Federal Court,” co-sponsored with Open VISIONS Forum. This lecture was held thanks to the generosity of the Frank Jacoby Foundation, maintained by Debby and David Zieff. (l-r) Philip Eliasoph, PhD, Debra Strauss, JD, Carrie Goldberg, JD, Ellen Umansky, PhD.

Graduate School of Education & Allied Professions The State of Connecticut Department of Higher Education has approved a

grant of $6,000 to Josh Elliott, EdD, director of educational technology and an assistant professor of the practice in the Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions (GSEAP), for his project “Implementing Open Pedagogy in an Online Educational Technology Program.” These efforts will benefit current students and faculty within the program by producing supplemental instructional materials that are openly licensed and can be shared freely among students and faculty, and they also have the potential to impact the K-12 school districts not only where these students are employed, but statewide as these openly licensed materials will be made available for all.

The National Writing Project has given a grant of $3,500 to Bryan Ripley Crandall, PhD, director of the Connecticut Writing Project (CWP) at Fairfield and assistant professor in the GSEAP, for his National Park Service Conservation, Protection, Outreach, and Education program at Weir Farm. The purpose of the project is to engage teachers and students together with a literacy workshop to illustrate classroom activities for blending writing instruction, critical pedagogies of place, critical literacy, media, digital literacy, and outdoor education to promote “living well.”

Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing & Health Studies The Helene Fuld Health Trust has given $160,000 as part of a three-year pledge, to support the Accelerated Baccalaureate Program (ABSN) of the Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies.

This gift facilitates the Egan School’s efforts to identify and support scholars in the ABSN program, and to hone the values, social awareness, and critical thinking skills necessary to become nurse leaders who are ready to improve health outcomes globally.

The Schechter Foundation gave $10,000 as part of a $50,000 multi-year pledge to support the purchase of new simulation equipment, ensuring that students gain the patient experience in a state-of-the-art, facultyobserved setting that facilitates feedback and best practices so they are fully prepared to serve others.

The Paul L. Jones Trust approved a $40,000 grant in support of the Paul L. Jones Scholarship program, providing scholarships to nursing students who demonstrate significant financial need and are academically qualified to become leaders in the health field, particularly in service of medically underF resourced or underserved areas. l

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Alumni NOTES 1970

S H A R E YO U R N E W S

’02 | John “Jeb” Brady of The Bulfinch Group, was recognized as Presidential Citation Award qualifier by the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (April 2020).

Brady is now an eight-time winner of the Guardian’s Presidential Citation Award (PCA), and is recognized as a top manager from Guardian Life’s awards program. The PCA is given to those managers who successfully recruit, retain, and develop financial representatives.

’71 | Kevin Morgan MA’74 had the following opinion piece printed in PIE News (Professionals in International Education): “Lessons From a Pandemic: Stories Have Never Been More Powerful.” ’72 | Rev. Christopher J. Samele MA’74 has been pastor of St. Stephen Church in Trumbull, Conn. since July, 2013. ’78 | Alice Siegel has just published her 14th book, An Insider’s View of a Principal’s Life: Eyewitness Narratives from the Neighborhood. The book can be found on Amazon as an e-book, on Kindle, and in hard copy.

1980

’86 | Robert Loesch was ranked

by Chambers USA as one of 13 individual Tucker Ellis LLP lawyers (Cleveland, Ohio) in its Chambers USA 2020 guide. Individual lawyers are ranked in their practice area(s) on the basis of their legal knowledge and experience, ability, effectiveness, and client service.

1990

’90 | Martha Bird received her MSN from Duke University School of Nursing on Dec. 14, 2019, with a specialty in adult gerontology-

2000

Joelie and Joseph Palmeri ’07 snapped a photo in the hospital of Egan School nurses caring for their daughter, Emilia Jean, who was born on Feb. 1, 2020.

Share your news! Simply log on to the Alumni Online Community and post your Class Note. Not a member? Registration is easy — www.fairfield.edu/alumnicommunity. Sign up and log on today.

primary care. While at Duke, she was inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau international honor society, and traveled to the mountains of Honduras with the Duke University Global Outreach team to provide health care in a couple of small, underserved communities. ’94 | Vincent Pace was awarded a doctor of juridical science from UConn Law School in May 2020

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after completing a dissertation comparing German and U.S. renewable energy law and policy.

Pace previously received a juris doctor in 1998 and a master of laws in 2009 from UConn Law School.

He is an assistant general counsel for Eversource Energy and an adjunct lecturer at UConn Law School. Pace resides in Berlin, Conn. with his wife and two children.

’09 | Jennifer (Amdur) Swiderski was named partner at Berkowitz and Hanna LLC, effective July 1, 2020. Swiderski is also a member of the American Association of Justice, the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association, the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Women’s Caucus, and the Connecticut Bar Association.

She has been voted a Rising Star by Connecticut Magazine and New England Super Lawyer Magazine, in the field of medical malpractice law, every year since 2014.

2010

’12 | Christie Fogelstrom was a featured in a CF-Podcast interview with the Boomer Esiason Foundation, discussing her career and travel experiences while living with cystic fibrosis. The video can be viewed online at jerrycahill.com/ podcast/cystic-fibrosis-podcast-246traveling-with-cystic-fibrosis/.

Hugh Morgan ’69, P’95 The New President of the Alumni Association

H

by Meredith Guinness MA’16 ugh Morgan majored in marketing at Fairfield, but it was the University’s emphasis on social justice and being a man for others that left the deepest impression on the 1969 graduate.

That’s what compelled the Massapequa, N.Y. native to join the Army after graduation and then embark on a 40-year career with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“I considered it a public service,” said the father of three, one of whom, Brendan ’95, followed his dad’s lead to the rolling hills of North Benson Road.

Now retired and enjoying life as a noncommuter in nearby Rye, N.Y., Morgan has decided again to turn his attention to

In the coming two years, the newly appointed Alumni Board president hopes to strengthen bonds with younger Stag alumni and build consensus and participation by being open to all viewpoints. others – by becoming the new president of Fairfield’s Alumni Association. Taking the helm on July 1, Morgan said he’s looking for ways to keep alumni together while the Covid-19 pandemic is keeping the whole world apart.

Morgan first visited Fairfield just before graduating from Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, N.Y. at a time when he and friends were also considering Mount St. Mary College, Siena, Catholic University,

and other respected East Coast schools.

“The campus kind of grabbed you,” he said about choosing to attend Fairfield, which was one of the younger schools on his list.

Starting out as a classics major, Morgan fondly remembers classes with longtime faculty members Hugh Morgan ’69, P’95 Richard Regan, PhD (English), Gerald Cavallo, PhD (Marketing), and the Rev. John Bonn, S.J. “Back then, there were more Jesuits,” said Morgan, who went on to earn an MBA at Pace University. “They made an impact on me.”

Morgan ended up spending all four years on campus, living with roommate Tom Quackenbush ’69, who joined him at Army Officer Candidate School before starting his own longtime career as an IBM executive.

Morgan served two years in Oklahoma and Texas before settling down with his wife, Emily, who specialized in computers at AT&T before pivoting to her current passion, teaching math at School of the Holy Child in Rye. The couple have three children: Brendan, who graduated from Fairfield in 1995 and works in sales and marketing at Modern Times Beer, a craft brewer in San Diego, Calif.; Beth, an elementary school teacher in Bedford, N.Y.; and Kathryn, who works for Wilton-based pet food company Blue.

Morgan’s job as a first-level officer in Bank Supervision at the Federal Reserve meant commuting to New York City each day, so the couple decided to raise their family in nearby Westchester County, settling in Rye. While his career had him traveling to Puerto Rico regularly, he also often made time to attend Fairfield reunions or take in a basketball match-up.

“I found it was a great weekend activity, to take my two older ones up to the games,” said Morgan, who now enjoys bringing his young grandchildren to campus for Mass at Egan Chapel followed by a game.

Not long before retiring, Morgan noticed the Fairfield Alumni Association was looking for board members and he signed up for a three-year stint. Soon, he was re-upping for three more years.

“I totally enjoy the board meetings,” he said. “You feel as though you can be an ambassador.”

As president, Morgan leads the board in advancing volunteerism, contributions, and attendance at alumni and University events — something that comes naturally to him. In early July, he presided over his first meeting, albeit via Zoom. He said he’s happy to report alumni chapters near and far are quite active, and he’d love to welcome additional members to the board, to increase both its size and its diversity.

In the coming two years, the newly appointed Alumni Board president hopes to strengthen bonds with younger Stag alumni and build consensus and participation by being open to all viewpoints.

“I want to know what would interest F them,” Morgan said of recent grads. l

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Alumni NOTES Marriages Carlotta Beatty ’04 and and Ramon Solhkhah — Feb. 29, 2020.

Jenna Taylor ’13, MA ’15 and Michael Persico — July 17, 2020.

Jeannine Nocera ’15 and John Perrotti ’15, MS’16 — June 6, 2020.

Births Jeannette (McNicholas) ’02, MSN’04 and Brian McCambley — daughter, Charlotte Ann, April 7, 2020.

Jacalyn (Dziados) ’06 and Tyler Colligan ’06 — son, William Christopher, Jan. 15, 2020.

Brandy and Julio Martinez ’07 — daughter, Melody Amor, April 2, 2020.

Kristen (McCarney) ’07 and Patrick Wallace ’07 — daughter, Paige Marie, June 11, 2020.

Sarah (Martin) ’13, MA’15, and John Corbo — daughter, Jacklyn Anna, May 4, 2020.

Meredith (LaBerge) ’15 and Josh Barton — son, Wyatt Ocean, May 11, 2020.

Nicole (Miles) ’15 and Jimmy Conway ’14, MS’15 — son, Miles James, June 17, 2020.

In Memoriam William (Chilton) Ryan ’51 — May 8, 2020 Joseph D. Forte ’52 — June 24, 2020 Julius E. Ferrillo ’53 — May 2, 2020 Edward D. Jordan ’53 — May 21, 2020 Leonard J. Tutolo ’53 — April 26, 2020 Joseph M. Bochniak ’54 — May 19, 2020

Joelie and Joseph Palmeri ’07 — daughter, Emilia Jean, Feb. 1, 2020.

Donald L. Watterworth ’54 — June 9, 2020

Lauren and Hutchinson Williams ’08 — son, Parker Kenneth, May 26, 2020.

Donald A. Browne ’55 — May 3, 2020

Colleen (McMahon) ’09 and Martin Healy — daughter, Rose Colleen, April 7, 2020.

Liz and Gerald Sauvigne ’09 — daughter, Grace Elizabeth, April 17, 2020.

Jacqueline (Stanley) ’10 and Keith Connors ’10 — daughter, Keira Charlotte, Feb. 19, 2020.

Samar (Coyle) ’11 and Nicholas DeBenedectis ’11 — daughter, Lily Jade, April 30, 2020.

Kristen (Bowen) Curtin ’12 and Patrick Curtin ’12 — son, Patrick Robert, May 15, 2020.

John P. Halloran ’55 — April 20, 2020 Howard J. Travers ’55 — June 24, 2020 Richard W. Papp ’56 — May 27, 2020 Andrew D. Esslinger ’57 — Dec. 10, 2019 Walter T. Shanley ’57 — May 8, 2020 William J. Doyle ’58 — April 18, 2020 Mario R. Provenzano ’58 (BEI) — April 2, 2020 Francis P. Smyth ’59 — Dec. 16, 2019

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Stag

Mates

Since StagMates Christen “Chrissy” Petsoff Nicolia ’09 and Domenico Nicolia ’09 met during their sophomore year outside of Jogues Hall, they have been on quite a ride — literally.

Three years ago they left corporate life, decided to hit the road, and purchased a 37-foot “Skoolie” bus that is now their solar-powered home on wheels.

Chrissy and Domenico recovered many lost “treasures” as they disassembled and renovated their bus. The one that really hit home was a Fairfield University Stag Card from a student who graduated just two years after them — a moment of kismet.

So far, they have: covered more than 7,000 miles, driven across the country in six days through a string of snow storms, joined a gathering of more than 150 other buses, lived weeks of the quarantine off the grid, and secured their first seasonal jobs at a farm in eastern Washington state.

“We’re proud StagMates and owe Fairfield so much,” said Chrissy.

“We’ve been sharing our travels @DiscoMoosethebus on Instagram.

Please message us to say hello or ask any questions. Hope to see you Stags on the road!”

Want to share your own StagMates story? Visit fairfield.edu/lovestories to submit yours today!

Katie Burke ’96 What Kids Say

A

by John Torsiello lthough she didn’t realize it at the time, after she graduated Katie Burke ’96 came to understand that Fairfield University had a “certain reverence” for writing.

“Maybe other schools share it. Maybe it’s because one of my best friends from Fairfield, Nicole Rivard ’96, wrote for the school newspaper, or because I had such a great English professor. Whatever the reason, I feel looking back that the school valued strong writing.”

Burke is the author of Urban Playground: What Kids Say About Living in San Francisco, in which she interviews 50 children, ages five to nine. With each conversation, she explores different themes — family, school, pets, vacation, work, heroes, holidays, favorite

“ Forget the expression, ‘kids are resilient;’ I don’t believe that. Kids learn resilience through enduring hard times.” foods, talents, and sports.

She also writes “Noe Kids,” a monthly column for The Noe Valley Voice, featuring children who live in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood. In the past, she has taught creative writing to children and adults in Kenya, South Africa, and in San Francisco.

Burke is thus eminently qualified to address the effects of the current Covid-19 pandemic on children. Her takeaway from interviewing youngsters during the crisis?

They’re bored.

“In general, kids seem less scared than aimless and sad. When I asked what they most missed about being in the world, ‘my friends’ was the unanimous answer,” she said.

According to Burke, the pandemic and its fallout on education and social interaction is a good opportunity to teach kids about resilience. “Forget the expression,‘kids are resilient;’ I don’t believe that. Kids learn resilience through enduring hard times. It is painful to witness them learning for the first time that adults can disappoint them, that other children may make fun of them, and in the case of the coronavirus, that their world can be physically unsafe. Don’t try to deny them the truth that life sometimes hurts.”

Burke graduated from Fairfield with a BA in psychology and a minor in sociology. In 2004, after moving to California, she started a blog about San Francisco politics. Within a year, she was using the blog to write personal stories about her life experiences.

Then came writing about day-to-day life in the city. In 2017, she began writing family stories for her six nieces and two nephews, and in 2018, she started a column of interview-based profiles of children for The Noe Valley Voice. Urban Playground, her book of San Francisco children’s profiles, was the next logical step.

“As my Fairfield major and minor may suggest, I am psychologically oriented, which means people fascinate me. I like to write real human tales and enjoy interviewing people to arrive at those stories. I write in a way that combines head and heart, striving always to leave readers thinking about the story they just read and feeling good about humanity for having read it.”

Along the way on her journey as a writer, Burke has picked up valuable lessons. “In my early writing days, other writers reviewing my work would write in the margins,

Katie Burke ’96

`trust the reader.’ I write this all the time now when I review other writers’ works. It means that you shouldn’t tell the reader what you want them to think and feel. Instead, you should trust that if you have told the story well enough, the reader will pick up on any feelings you want them to experience, or the lessons you want them to gain.”

Burke’s favorite genre to read is nonfiction, and specifically she enjoys books that read like documentaries — for example, She Said, the book by the New York Times journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein sex crimes/sexual harassment story, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.

“I write only nonfiction, so I draw my inspiration from real life. There’s human drama everywhere, and there are always details about people that make them interesting, especially on the individual level. I find that when I ask enough follow-up questions, I get to the aspects of a person that make them interesting. They won’t have fascinating material for me on every topic, but I believe everyone has compelling facets to them.”

And that holds so very true for the children whose worlds were turned upside F down during 2020. l Visit www.katieburkeauthor.com.

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Alumni NOTES REUNION WEEKEND Classes of 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 Save the Date: June 11-13, 2021!

Visit fairfield.edu/reunion2021 for more information.

50TH REUNION WEEKEND Class of 1971 save the date for the “reunion of a lifetime!”

Richard W. Ripke ’60 — May 13, 2020

Joseph Sindt ’70 — July 7, 2020

Joseph P. D’Apice ’61 — May 6, 2020

Christopher J. Daly ’71 — May 29, 2020

Wallace L. Timmeny Jr. ’61 — June 23, 2020

Joseph P. Ferrara ’71 — June 9, 2020

Michael T. Corti Jr. ’62 — June 26, 2020

Ellen J. McGuire ’75 — March 28, 2020

Michael C. Delaney ’63 — June 16, 2020

Bartholomew W. Catalane ’78 — May 10, 2020

Eugene P. Lavin ’64 (BEI) — April 17, 2020

Thomas J. McGlynn ’78 — April 25, 2020

George A. Gugliotta ’69 (BEI) — April 22, 2020

Santo Buccheri ’81 — June 27, 2020

James E. Giuliano ’70 — April 1, 2020

Mary Lou Molanphy ’88 — June 3, 2020

Thomas H. Martocci ’70 — April 27, 2020

Wesley A. Roussel ’89 — May 11, 2020

John D. Sheeran ’70 — May 2, 2020

Tara A. (Madden) McKeegan ’96 — April 29, 2020

May 21-23, 2021 Visit fairfield.edu/50threunion for more information.

S H A R E YO U R N E W S

INTRODUCING FAIRFIELD’S ALUMNI-OWNED BUSINESS DIRECTORY Do you have your own business that you’d like to promote to your fellow Stags?

Lauren and Hutchinson Williams ’08 welcomed son, Parker Kenneth, on May 26, 2020.

Share your news! Simply log on to the Alumni Online Community and post your Class Note. Not a member? Registration is easy — www.fairfield.edu/alumnicommunity. Sign up and log on today.

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Become a part of this new initiative today by creating your online “business card.” It’s free to join and all business types are welcome.

Visit fairfield.edu/alumnibusiness to log in to your Online Community profile and register today!

S H A R E YO U R N E W S

G R A D U AT E S C H O O L S MA’74 | Kevin Morgan ’71 had the following opinion piece printed in PIE News (Professionals in International Education): “Lessons From a Pandemic: Stories Have Never Been More Powerful.”

MA’74 | Rev. Christopher J. Samele ’72 has been pastor of St. Stephen Church in Trumbull, Conn. since July, 2013.

Marriages Jacalyn (Dziados) ’06 and Tyler Colligan ’06 welcomed son, William Christopher, on Jan. 15, 2020.

Jenna Taylor ’13, MA’15 and Michael Persico — July 17, 2020.

Jeannine Nocera ’15 and John Perrotti ’15, MS’16 — June 6, 2020.

Births

Cornelius (Neil) W. Sullivan Sr. MA’64, CAS’68 (GSEAP) — June 10, 2020 George R. Dayharsh MA’66, CAS’73 (GSEAP) — May 29, 2020 Richard B. Lyskowski CT’66 (GSEAP) — April 10, 2020 Sister Christine E. Allen, SND MA’68 (GSEAP) — April 25, 2020 Richard J. Josephs MA’68, CAS’76 (GSEAP) — May 2, 2020 C. Jean (Windisch) Matthews CAS’70 (GSEAP) — March 25, 2020 Ann T. Connor MA’72 (GSEAP) — May 10, 2020 William T. Redgate II MA’73 (GSC&PC) — June 14, 2020 Gerald L. Nolan CAS’74 (GSEAP) — May 7, 2020

Jeannette (McNicholas) ’02, MSN’04 and Brian McCambley — daughter, Charlotte Ann, April 7, 2020.

Sarah (Martin) ’13, MA’15, and John Corbo — daughter, Jacklyn Anna, May 4, 2020.

In Memoriam Eleanore T. McLean MA’57, CAS’63 (GSEAP) — May 7, 2020 Michael C. Swiatek MA’57 (GSEAP) — April 3, 2020

George W. Summerson Jr. MA’74 (GSC&PC) — May 1, 2020 Richard E. Simmons CAS’75 (GSEAP) — May 15, 2020 Theresa (Patrick) Kowalczyk MA’78 (GSEAP) — April 25, 2020 Margaret R. (Jarosh) O’Neill MA’79 (GSEAP) — April 23, 2020 Kathleen (Coughlan) Mays MA’86 (GSC&PC) — April 28, 2020 Daniel C. Callahan MA’20 (GSEAP) — May 10, 2020

Everett J. Pouliot MA’60 (GSEAP) — Jan. 23, 2020

Jenna Taylor ’13, MA’15 and Michael Persico tied the knot on July 17, 2020.

James E. Horan MA’64, CAS’69 (GSEAP) — February 12, 2020

Share your news! Simply log on to the Alumni Online Community and post your Class Note. Not a member? Registration is easy — www.fairfield.edu/alumnicommunity. Sign up and log on today.

Fa i r f i e l d Un i v e r s i t y Mag a z i n e | fal l 2020 39

Donor

PROFILE Bob Venero, P’21,’24

F

or Bob Venero, P’21,’24, the best part about his sons attending Fairfield University, “is how the school inspires a drive for success with a sense of purpose.” Venero’s older son, Joseph, is a Class of ’21 business major, and younger son Nicholas is an incoming first-year majoring in information systems. “There are so many things about Fairfield that are attractive to parents and students,” he said. “Right away, you have a beautiful campus. There is an enviable student-to-professor ratio, diverse academic opportunities, and a powerful alumni network that includes leaders in nearly every industry.

Also, you have a spirit of philanthropy and giving back that I believe is so essential for young students to embrace as they strive to become the leaders of tomorrow.”

For Venero, success and giving back go hand-in-hand.

They are core components of the culture he has built as CEO and founder of Future Tech Enterprise, Inc. Headquartered in Holbrook, N.Y., Future Tech is a global IT solutions provider that specializes in supporting Fortune 500 companies. In the past six months, the company has earned Partner of the Year Awards from companies like Dell Technologies, Nvidia, APC by Schneider, and others.

In addition, since founding Future Tech in 1996, Venero has driven the company’s support of various educational, health

care, and veterans organizations, including The Andrea Bocelli Foundation, Northwell Health, the Cradle of Aviation Museum, American Cancer Society, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

At Fairfield, Venero has consistently given back and supported the Stags community in various ways. Along with financial donations, he has sponsored the annual Fairfield University Startup Showcase, which brings together alumni, local business partners, industry leaders, and the University community to celebrate entrepreneurship at its

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Venero has advice he hopes young students will follow. “Always remember that you’ll never get a ‘yes’ if you don’t ask the question. Be determined to learn and seek out information. Find the clubs, fellow students, and teachers who will be the most positive influences on you and your future aspirations. Strive for success, support others, and find your purpose.” finest. For several contestants, Venero has also served as a mentor, sharing his best practices on how to be a successful entrepreneur.

Venero donated a $10,000 engineering desktop chair, called the “Emperor Chair,” made

by MWE Labs and featuring Fairfield University branding.

He is also helping the University expand its e-sports capabilities through a donation of new equipment for a soon-to-be opened gaming center. And late last year, Venero sponsored a special event at the Charles F. Dolan School of Business entitled “Celebrating Women Leaders in Technology.” The event was featured in local media and drew notable speakers, including Lori Groth, chief information

officer, Industrial, Stanley Black & Decker; Francesca Lancer, chief financial officer of Hive IO; Cristina Dolan, renowned blockchain expert and the chief executive officer of InsideCHAINS; and Fairfield alumna Vanessa Forbes ’07.

As he and his wife, Tracey, look ahead to future years supporting the Fairfield community, Venero offered advice he hopes young students will follow.

“Always remember that you’ll never get a ‘yes’ if you don’t ask the question. Be determined to learn and seek out information.

Find the clubs, fellow students, and teachers who will be the most positive influences on you and your future aspirations.

Strive for success, support others, and find your purpose.”

Alumni Campus NOTES VIRTUAL EVENTS FA L L 2 0 2 0

Fairfield University Alumni Association alumni@fairfield.edu | 203-254-4280 Visit fairfield.edu/alumnievents for details.

Virtual Conversation: Rev. Francis Hannafey, S.J. “Jesuits in China” SAT., SEP. 26 | 10 A.M.

Celebrating 50 Years of Women at Fairfield Alumnae Author Panel TUES., OCT. 20 | 7 P.M.

Virtual Concert for Kids “Autumn Themes and Halloween Screams” SUN., SEPT. 29 | 3 P.M.

Woman and Vase by Ruby Sky Stiler Joy Reid & Ana Navarro “Left of Right: Direction USA Going Forward” TUES., OCT 6 | 7:30 P.M. Harriet Senie “Memorials Today: New Subjects, New Forms, and the Public Process” THURS., OCT. 8 | 7:30 P.M. Jared Cohen “Presidential Leadership: Risk and Reward for a Winning Legacy” WED., OCT. 14 | 7:30 P.M. Jacky Klein “Peggy Guggenheim: Visionary Woman Collector” SUN., OCT. 25 | 3 P.M.

Peggy Noonan

Quick Center for the Arts 203-254-4010 Follow us! @FairfieldQuick Visit quickcenter.com for complete list of virtual lectures and performances.

LECTURES: Peggy Noonan “Finding the Moral High Ground/Challenges for USA’s Reboot” FRI., OCT. 2 | 7:30 P.M.

Bernice Pan “Fashion, Sustainability, and Evolving Your Business” TUES., OCT. 27 | 5 P.M. Jonathan Petropoulos “Herman Göring’s Man in Paris: The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World” TUES., NOV. 10 | 7:30 P.M. Gina Kolata “Covid-19 Vaccination: How and When Will the US Get It?” THURS., NOV. 12 | 5 P.M.

Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD “From the Flint Water Crisis to Championing Global Policies for Children’s Health” WED., NOV. 18 | 8 P.M.

The Fairfield University Art Museum

THEATRE: Right Before I Go. SAT., OCT. 10 | 7 P.M.

museum@fairfield.edu | 203-254-4046 Visit fairfield.edu/museum for complete list of virtual exhibitions and events.

Theatre Fairfield: Love & Imagination FRI., OCT. 23 | 8 P.M. SAT., OCT. 24 | 8 P.M. SUN., OCT. 25 | 1 P.M. MUSIC: Ann Hampton Callaway FRI., NOV. 13 | 7 P.M. Orin Grossman TUES., DEC. 8 | 5 P.M.

Fairfield University Art Museum Tenth Anniversary Celebration THURS., SEPT. 24 | 6 P.M. Ruby Sky Stiler Group Relief NOW THROUGH DEC. 19 Andrew Forge The Limits of Sight SEPT. 25 THROUGH DEC. 19

Parents Are Leading the Way Each year, parents improve our students’ academic and recreational experiences through generous gifts of any size. During our annual fall Parent Leadership Challenge, we celebrate the support of the parent community and encourage you to join their efforts at fairfield.edu/give.

The Parents Leadership Council is an active group of parent ambassadors who answer the call to host, mentor, advise, and donate to further Fairfield’s mission.

This group of invested parents (through an annual gift of $5,000 or more) provides support for scholarships, capital projects, athletics, the Parents Fund, and more. Please visit fairfield.edu/parents to learn more.

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