On March 19, students had the opportunity to do what most will never have the opportunity to do while here at Fairfield: have a conversation with Aloysius P. Kelley, S.J., president of our school.
However, few students took advantage of asking Kelley and Dean of Students Mark Reed what they had on their mind. A slim crowd of about 40 students were in attendance on the first floor of the Campus Center.
The first question of the night asked Kelley about his typical day while here at Fairfield. “It varies from day to day,” Kelley said. “I deal with a lot of mail and email, deal with things in the office but I actually spend a lot of time off campus.”
It did not take too long, however, until someone brought up the inevitable topic of the disbandment of the football and hockey teams. “I knew someone was going to ask me about that,” Kelley said jokingly.
The question asked specifically about Fairfield’s capital campaign and if any of that money could be used to fund the lost programs. “The capital campaign expenditures go to endowment, financial aid and for things on campus,” Kelley said. “It does not go to funding things like the football team.”
According to Kelley, the budget committee gets together each year to come up with a list of resources and what the needs of those resources are. The budget is then given to Kelley. Often, Kelley states, the list of needs is greater than the list of resources.
“If we are spending here,” Kelley said, “we cannot spend there.”
“We knew there was a problem when we realized that we were spending more than $1 million more than the biggest spender in the MAAC,” Kelley added. “It’s out of whack, out of proportion.”
When Kelley asked for a new question, the topic of the teams was not dismissed. The next question asked Kelley if there are priorities in sports. Kelley told the student that there were priorities, and football and hockey are not. The football and hockey discussion took over 30 minutes of the Open Forum.
The next question dealt with more timely issues, yet some felt that too much time was taken. One student persistently asked Father Kelley what Fairfield University’s official statement on the war in Iraq was, as Father Kelley distinctly stated that universities do not give official statements. Kelley said that if Fairfield were to give a statement, it would have to be given by the only group sanctioned to do such a thing, the Board of Trustees.
Throughout the Open Forum, Kelley said that the university community should constantly engage in dialogue. “This is the process that should be engaged in order to get greater clarity on this issue [the war in Iraq] and other issues as well,” Kelley said.
Leave a Reply