Mirror - Vol. 30, No. 02 - September 16, 2004

              The
September 16, 2004 - Vol. 30, iss. 2 xersUy's Student Newspape
Awaiting justice Fairfield community mourns death of
valedictorian as investigation lingers
BY JESSICA HOLMBERG
The tragic death of Francis
Marx '04 shook the Fairfield com-munity
when he was struck in the
head by a bus in Newport, R.I. on
May 20.
Newport police have since
arrested three people and recently
turned over the investigation to
the R.I. attorney general's office to
review for possible prosecution in
front of a grand jury.
"The attorney general's office
will carefully review what police
have assembled for us and apply
appropriate R.I. statute to see if
probable cause exists to apply
charges," said Michael Healey,
spokesperson for Attorney General
Patrick Lynch. "We
are careful not to call
it a crime because we
don't know if it's a
crime yet."
Three University
of Rhode Island stu-dents
- Loren Welsh,
21; Carlos DeAndrade,
22; and Jarred Roche-leu,
22 - were involved
in the confrontation
that led to Marx's death and
were initially arrested for disor-derly
conduct. Those charges were
dropped by Newport police so the
case can be tried before
a grand jury.
However, there is
currently not a definite
time when the inves-tigation
will be com-pleted,
according to
Healey.
"I understand how
the Fairfield commu-nity
has been affected,
MarX and people generally
want a deadline, but I cannot give a
firm deadline at this time," he said.
"We screen 1,000 cases every year,
and each case has a unique set
of circumstances and facts. We
carefully look at all the facts and
evidence to see if any statutes ap-ply
to the circumstances."
Marx, 21, of Richboro, Pa., at-tended
a formal dance for Wheaton
College at the Rosecliff Mansion
on the night of May 19 along with
his girlfriend Anna Cochran and
best friend and classmate, Joseph
Fomenko '04.
Several hours later, at approx-imately
1:10 a.m., Marx was struck
by a bus that was transporting Uni-versity
of Rhode Island students
back to campus from a pub crawl,
as determined by authorities.
"We had agreed that night was
one of the best times of our lives,"
said Fomenko '04, who majored
in economics and minored in
finance.
After the dance, Marx and
friends went to the Rhino Bar &
Grille in Newport, where both
SEE "MARX" ON P. 6
f_
T^l
Chris Donato/The Mirror
Continued Construction: After completing the new entryway, a new project is underway to raise a new
building. For the full story, please see "Building" on page 5.
O.A.R. ignores FUSA concert bid
BY JOHN DALY
O.A.R. did not answer FUSA's bid to engage
them for the November 20 fall concert date and
now FUSA has been left frantically searching for
another act.
Last spring, FUSA began polling the student
body to find out which band the student body would
most like to have perform on campus. When the
results were in, the students have chosen Maryland
based rock group, Of A Revolution (O.A.R.).
"O.A.R. is a very popular band on campus,"
said Jillian Grant, vice president of programming for
FUSA, "The band played here in 2001 and the re-sponse
was great. The opportunity to have them
again was very well received."
After the Senate approved a $40,000 bid to
engage O.A.R. for the concert, FUSA contacted
Andrew Herrick of Clear Channel College Enter-tainment,
their programming agent, to place the bid
on August 10.
The university uses Clear Channel to secure their
performers. FUSA contacted Clear Channel, who in
SEE "COMEDIANS" ON P. 4
Fairfield revamps
party policies
BY MEG MAHONEY
The good, the bad and the
party. New and revised policies
in the departments of residence
life and judicial affairs could spell
disaster for some and give others
a break at the townhouses.
The university is cracking
down on underage drinking at the
townhouses. Now, any underclass-men
found consuming alcohol or in
the presence of underage consump-tion
at a townhouse party will be
entered in the judicial system.
In particular, new portable
card readers will used to check the
stagcards of all students at a party
in order to verify who
is of-age and who is
underage.
"Now that we
have portable card
readers, we will be
able to capture student
information from all
who are present at par-ties
that are being docu-mented
for violations,"
said Frank Koerting,
director of residence
life. "Students will be
held accountable for the
same policies as in the
residence halls."
Previously, if a townhouse
was documented for violation of
RELATED
STORIES
Cartoon and
Editorial
Page 18
the univer-sity's
codes
of conduct,
such as serv-ing
alcohol
minors or
other of-fenses,
only
the hosts
were sent -
to judicial.
This year, anyone found in viola-tion
of any university policies at
a townhouse party will also be
written up.
"The goal was to have the
same policies applied consistently
across campus," said Koerting.
"We feel it is important the
student who has violated
community standards,
including consuming
alcohol as a minor, be
held accountable."
The points system,
with which many stu-dents
who have commit-ted
offenses are familiar,
is no longer. The sys-tem,
utilized by the office
of judicial affairs, has
been revised to focus on
the educational process,
also known as the alcohol
and drug classes.
SEE "STUDENTS" ON P. 7