Mirror - Vol. 30, No. 25 - April 14, 2005

              WEEK OF APRIL 14,2005
Vol. 30, Iss. 25 - 24 pages
FREE - Take One MIRROR WWW.FA1RFIELDMIRR0R.COM
The independent student newspaper
of Fairfield University
Administration cancels same-sex forum
BY GREG HILL
A controversial forum about
same-sex marriages planned for
Thursday, April 14 was cancelled
Tuesday after the administration
learned invitations had been sent
to state legislators.
The decision by the administra-tion
to cancel the event, "Marriage
Equality for Same-Sex Couples,"
came from a concern that the forum
supposedly evolved from an edu-cational
discussion into a situation
in which external organizations
were taking advantage of the event
to advocate for specific legislative
agenda.
"I feel that this was an abuse
of administrative power, and has
completely ignored the needs and
the viewpoints of the students and
faculty," said Kathryn Turcsany
'05, vice-president of the Fairfield
University Alliance.
The administration cancelled
the forum after learning that one of
the co-sponsers, external to the uni-versity,
invited members of the Con-necticut
General Assembly to attend
the event with supposed intent to
influence the pending legislation.
"This is unfortunate because
of the timing," said Schimpf. "The
state senate just passed some form
of legislation on same sex unions
and in the midst of these invites it
will now be going to the house."
SEE "MARRIAGE" ON P. 4 WOLFSON
State attorney: University violates drug law
Satti calls for investigation of Public
Safety's drug enforcement policies
BY STEVEN M. ANDREWS
An offhand remark by a state attorney during the
sentencing phase of a former Fairfield University student
has resulted in the administration changing its drug policy,
with the possibility of much stricter penalties for students
caught in violation.
During the sentencing phase for Erick Rodriguez '05
(see story on page 8), Senior Assistant State's Attorney C.
Robert Satti Jr. blasted the school's Public Safety officers
for illegally confiscating drugs and not notifying the proper
authorities.
"What is especially troubling is that in the course
of the investigation as related to the police officers, that
security officers at Fairfield U. would find drugs or drug
paraphernalia in Mr. Rodriguez's room and really do noth-ing
but take the contraband and who knows what they did
with it," Satti said.
"It appears to be a violation of the law, it appears to be
outrageous, and when the police actually showed up to his
room, he was working at the computer and they had drugs
and paraphernalia in his room there," he added. "That is
one of the more troubling aspects of this particular case and
that the state would be looking at more fully."
However, school officials admit they were shocked to
here Satti's remarks and categorically deny drugs were ever
confiscated from Rodriguez.
"We had no connection with this case at all; we were
completely out of the loop," said William Schimpf, vice
president for student services. "At no times were we in-volved
in touching or seeing the drugs."
Todd Pelazza, director of Public Safety, said that in
addition to having no connection with the state's investiga-tion,
the school never took drugs from Rodriguez during
his time at Fairfield.
SEE "INVESTIGATION" ON P. 8
Bill McBain/The Mirror
Up in smoke: Confiscated drug paraphanalia, seen above, was destroyed after
the senior assistant state's attorney condemned Fairfield's drug policies.
Swastikas etched in Dolan elevator; cleanup in progress
BY GREGORY HILL
Looking at the sidewall in the Dolan Hall
elevator you wouldn't necessarily see them
right away. But once you see them, it is hard
not to keep staring at the swastikas.
"I'm in disbelief that no one was doing
anything about it," Courtney Cashman '05
said. "They need to either paint over it or do
whatever they have to do to remove it."
But according to the Director of Housing
Operations Gary Stephenson, the university's
housing custodial service cleaned the swasti-kas
on March 14 as soon as the graffiti was
reported but could not remove the etchings
that were carved into the panels.
Stephenson said the housing operations
department has been investigating the issue
and determining the best way to remove the
carvings of the swastikas.
To replace the panels would cost the
Dolan floor more than $2,000, which is why
the department is looking to find filler that
would bond properly inside the etching, as
well as look aesthetically pleasing to the
eye. .
Stephenson said to replace it is unreason-able
for economical purposes if students are
SEE "OFFENSIVE" ON P. 6
Undergrads
try to juggle
work, class
BY MEREDITH CLINTON
Everyone knows college stu-dents
are supposed to be broke, but
to still be broke when working more
than 20 hours at multiple jobs?
America's college students
control more money than the
national debt of some small coun-tries,
as reported on bankrate.com
from a study done in 2001, which
adds up to more than 19 billion
dollars that we spend collectively
in a given year.
Two out of three students
require loans to attend college,
and while in the early 1970s the
average in loans was $2,000, to-day
it is over $12,000 in federal
student loans, according to Nellie
Mae, a provider of higher educa-tion
loans.
These expenses have students
scrambling to keep up.
"We have a handful of [work-study]
students that work over
20 hours," said Diana Devellis,
associate director of financial aid.
"We don't track every time card
that comes in, but at least 10 per-cent
[work over 20 hours], mostly
upperclassmen."
She said that students are defi-nitely
having trouble, and students
not having enough money to pay
for school has been a big problem
all over the country.
"It's pretty much a crisis,"
said Devellis. "There is a trend.
I worked 40 hours a week to help
pay for school, and do I think
students are doing it now? Defi-nitely."
Alicia Castelot '07, works
over 30 hours per week at two dif-ferent
jobs to help pay for books,
car costs and all her bills.
SEE "STUDENT" ON P. 4
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