Fairfield professors, students, and organizations sponsored an exchange of diverse ideas, information, and opinions about the war with Iraq during a teach-in that took place Tuesday in the lower lever of the Barone Campus Center.
Organizers of the event called the war in Iraq “the greatest moral issue of our time,” and the number and variety of panelists and speakers that contributed reflected this opinion.
“At Fairfield the teachers have really taken the time to think about the big picture,” said Kathryn Slanski, an adjunct professor for the religious studies department who held class early so that her students could attend the first session of the teach-in. “There’s a lot here that’s appropriate for an educational environment, and not simply political.”
The event started at 10 a.m. and ended at 2:30 p.m. and was divided into three sessions of three different panels. Each panel was made up of a combination of professors in the departments of communication, history, philosophy, and religious studies, as well as students, alumni and visitors.
Deirdre Tabak, ’03, said, “I thought it was great that they all covered different aspects of the war from each other. The news gives the same information on all sets and since it’s 24 hours it kind of spreads thin and it’s very repetitive.”
Each speaker on the panels gave a short speech on a number of areas concerning the war and then left the last half-hour open for questions and discussion.
The first session featured Dr. Ralph Coury of the history department, Dr. Robbin Crabtree of the communications department, and Emmett Kearney, ’03, one of the founders of Fairfield University Students for Peace.
Crabtree said in her speech that even though this war is receiving more coverage than other wars in the past, “more coverage does not mean better coverage.” She advised students to “use multiple sources of information” when sifting through the material presented to the American public.
Rob Piontek, ’05, said, “These are new angles on stuff I’ve heard previously, but I think it’s great that people are finally getting exposed to what they wouldn’t normally get in the media.”
Katie Molteni, ’05, went with her Contemporary Morality class to the teach-in and said, “I think there’s a lot that’s being filtered out in the media, but this was a little one-sided. It was made to be anti-war and something that you can’t get in the media. From a Jesuit Catholic perspective they gave us really good reasons for going to war, but I think there’s still a lot that hasn’t been covered.”
The second round of the teach-in featured Dr. Paul Lakeland of the religious studies department and Joy Gordon of the philosophy department. Lakeland spoke about the Just War Theory while Gordon addressed the 12-year-old sanctions on Iraq.
Gordon outlined in minute detail how America has vetoed Iraqi requests from yogurt machines to child vaccinations in the UN because America has asserted that these things could be used for weapons of mass destruction.
Steve Borla, a graduate of Fairfield University and now a Catholic Worker in Bridgeport, was on the second panel and told present students, “You are in line to inherit the benefits of the world.”
Another graduate of Fairfield, Kate Foran, said in times like these, “expressing dissent is not a privilege, it’s an obligation.”
Liz Burns, ’06, said, “If you feel that strongly about issues then Kate was a really good example of backing up their beliefs with actions.”
The final session of the teach-in featured Dr. Dave McFadden, a history professor, and journalist Bruce Shapiro who both spoke about what we’ll see in the future.
McFadden said, “We must build the strongest world community for the future, that’s where we need to focus our energy.” Shapiro directed attention to the president and pointed out, “We’ve had a rise of an imperial presidency and congress has given up its power. When this war is over that power will still be with us.”
All sessions of the teach-in had relatively good turnouts. The seats provided were usually full as well as the floor surrounding the back of the campus center. Students, faculty, and citizens of Fairfield also lined the standing areas of the campus center, sat on the stairs and leaned over the railing to watch what was going on.
When asked if she thought the teach-in was a success, Joy Gordon, who helped coordinate the event, said, “Yeah, it showed a lot of interest from faculty and students, there were good questions and comments.”
“There is no serious coverage for the serious reasons of the protests and they are not presented in ways that are reliable or compelling,” Gordon added.
The teach-in was sponsored by a large group of departments and clubs. Dr. Sally O’Driscoll, the head of the women’s studies department, said, “You can’t tell somebody what to think, but you can tell them that it’s necessary for them to have a position that’s a carefully thought through position.”
Assistant Co-Director of the Ignatian Residential College Joe DeFeo said, “There’s something about us being a Jesuit Catholic University that we needed to put the information out there. It’s a value that makes us different.”
Leave a Reply