FREE | Take one Week of May 4, 2011 | Vol. 36, Iss 25
The
Mirror
The Independent Student Newspaper of Fairfield University
fairfieldmirror.com
The Reflection of Fairfield
Where Have All of the Fairfield Men Gone? By David Weis Contributing Writer
You’re sitting in class. You look around, surveying your fellow Stags and their reactions to the professor’s questions. You start to notice, more and more, that the majority of students who answer these questions or participate in class are the ladies of Fairfield, rather than the gentlemen. How pronounced is this discrepancy here on Fairfield’s campus? After doing some research into the male/female breakdown of academics, the answer remains somewhat unclear. Phi Beta Kappa, one of the most prestigious honor societies in the country, has a chapter here on campus. Even after taking the male/ female ratio, Fairfield still seems to have “smarter” girls on campus: only 30% of Phi Beta Kappa members are men. Karen Pellegrino, Director of Undergraduate Admission, maintains that Fairfield does not seek to recruit males any more than it does females: “We are conscious of the male/female breakdown in the class, but there are no special activities in place [to recruit more males], nor would you find a vast discrepancy
between the quality of the men and women admitted.” While it remains unclear to what extent Fairfield mirrors national trends, women are outperforming their male counterparts in the classrooms not just at Fairfield but also across the country. Despite Fairfield’s 62% female population, several points ahead of the national average, it remains uncertain how pronounced these gender roles are on campus. So why then are men falling so far behind?
Numerous studies have been conducted questioning why women are outperforming men throughout the country. Campuses across the country are averaging nearly 60% female populations, and one is hardpressed to find a college that has a higher male-to-female ratio. Now that women are outpacing men in the classroom, the trends have only increased towards a heavily female-dominated educational landscape, one in which affirmative action is unofficially practiced in a bias towards recruiting and accept-
ing males into colleges. Approximately 170,000 more bachelor’s degrees will be bestowed upon women than men this year. If this downward trend continues the last man to receive a bachelor’s degree will do so in 2068, says Dr. Michael Thompson, a school psychologist who has done extensive research in the educational gender gap. “Boys hear that the way to shine is athletically,” said Thompson. “And boys get a lot of mixed messages gender inequalities | page 5
Photo Illustration by Tom McKiver/The Mirror Michelle Onofrio, Lauren Nugent, Julianne Murrary, Nick Pescuma, and Cherian Paul studying at the library.
Clarifying “Total Compensations”: Numbers Still Noticeably Increasing for Administrators By Mikaela Tierney and Loan Le Editor-in-Chief and Vine Director On April 21, Vice President of Finance Julie Dolan released a memo to all Fairfield faculty and staff members to “correct the factual errors” in the article “Top Fairfield Admin. Get Salary Bump” featured in last week’s issue of The Mirror. While there is room for clarification in last week’s article, her memo did not bring the issue to the attention of the students, the predominant readers of The Mirror, but instead was internally distributed to faculty and staff. In the interest of bringing this to the attention of the entire Fairfield community, The Mirror wishes to clarify the content of last week’s article. The numbers in last week’s article reflect the total compensation of the individuals mentioned, not solely their salaries. Staff, faculty and administrators all received increases in their compenclarifying | page 4
Osama bin Laden Killed, Students on Campus React Strongly
Photo Contributed by Crystal Rodriguez Students celebrated Obama’s announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden in the Quad on campus late Sunday night. Groups of students joined together and walked around campus in a chaotic fashion.
By David Weis contributing writer It’s hard to imagine that nearly a decade ago, the pristine blue skies of
Manhattan were shattered by the wail of Boeing jet engines, going from a normal work day for thousands of Americans to one filled with destruction, grief, and tears. For too many, lives were cut short
without so much as a goodbye; fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, brothers, and sisters bid farewell that morning without knowing that it would be the last time they would see their loved ones.
This story, too common among Navy SEALs during a raid on a property those in the tri-state area, is also the story in Abbottabad, Pakistan, about 31 miles of Maria Waring, a freshman here at Fairfrom the capital of Islamabad. field. Maria’s father, Jimmy Waring, then Bin Laden’s body was given a just 49 years old, worked in the South “proper, Muslim” burial, with his body Tower of the World Trade Center at Cantor being “gently placed” in the Arabian Sea, Fitzgerald and was killed in the attacks on according to the press release. Following September 11th. Muslim law, his body was washed and While some Fairfield students took to the Quad, the Townhouses, Bellarmine Campus Reacts | page 3 Hill, and the Apartments to sing patriotic songs and celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden, Maria felt an incredible mix of emotion and did not join the celebration until much later. “It was a weird feeling. It was a lot of mixed feelings… [bin Laden’s death] didn’t register. While everybody was out celebrating, I was shaking. I wasn’t expecting those feelings,” she said. “I just kept remembering everything like it was yesterday.” Osama bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, was assassinated late Sunday Peter Caty/The Mirror evening by an elite While many celebrated the news of Osama’s death, group of two dozen the event reminded others of the 9/11 attacks that so intensely affected the American population.
Index Opinion • Page 9 The Vine • Page 11 Coffee Break • Page 19 Sports • Page 24
OPINION: Commuting Challenges Pg. 9
NEWS: Relay For Life update pg. 5
Summer Preview Edition! Pg. 11