Mirror - Vol. 31, No. 02 - September 15, 2005

              WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 15,2005
Vol. 31, Iss. 2-24 pages
FREE - Take One 1IRROR www.FAIRFIELDMIRROR.coM
The independent student newspaper
of Fan-field University
49 Katrina-affected students find refuge at FU
BY KELLY SHEEHAN
Loyola of New Orleans fresh-man
Chad Boyle, a Wilton native,
was busy adjusting to college life
when Hurricane Katrina hit, forc-ing
him to flee Louisiana.
"It's been really stressful,"
said Boyle. "My mind is in three
places- Fairfield, home and New
Orleans."
"All my stuff is back at
Loyola," he added. "I only took
my pillow, blanket and cell phone
charger. I thought I was going
back."
Boyle isn't alone. There are
49 students from Loyola of New
Orleans and Tulane University
who have enrolled as visiting
students at Fairfield this semester.
Of these students, 33 are from
Loyola and 14 are from Tulane.
Only eight have enrolled as part-time
students.
"It's been a tough transition
for a few students and each one has
a different story," said Neil Lan-dino,
director of advising services
of University College. "Some stu-dents
got out of Louisiana earlier,
some a bit later, some drove home,
some hitched a ride with people
they barely knew."
Boyle had been at Loyola for
a summer program for six weeks
before he was evacuated. He and
his parents, who were staying at a
hotel in New Orleans at the time of
Katrina, didn't think much of the
hurricane warning at first. Earlier
in the summer, Hurricane Dennis
hadn't affected Boyle's college.
But this time, taking shelter in
a Baptist Church in Baton Rouge
and then making their way to a ho-tel
in Houston, where they would
manage to catch a flight home,
was necessary for Boyle and his
parents.
Now Boyle is commuting to
James Scholl/The Mirror
A much-deserved break: Al "Jackson" Small (left) and Brian Conley, two students from Loyola New Or-leans,
take a breather in their new room- a lounge in Jogues.
Orman drops from U.S. senate race
BY BEN DOODY
It was the political equivalent
of David versus Goliath. But in
the 2006 Connecticut Democratic
Senate primary, David put down
his sling and went home before
the battle began.
Fairfield politics professor
John Orman, who last spring
launched a bid to un-seat U.S. Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, announced
that he is dropping out of the race,
citing an overwhelming financial
disadvantage.
There were a lot of liberal
bloggers out there who loved to
type and write but did not like to
send checks, Orman said.
At the outset of the campaign,
Orman had counted on anti-Li-eberman
momentum from the left
to help him make headlines, if
not truly contend for the seat. He
said that one progressive website
pledged $56,000 to the first Demo-crat
to oppose Lieberman. But
when he called and inquired about
the money, he was told that the site
would only donate to someone
who was on the ballot.
In order to be on the ballot,
Orman needed to get either 2 per-cent
of the vote at the state Demo-cratic
Convention next summer, or
15,000 signatures, something he
said he could not get until May.
Orman said he has about $1,000.
"I couldn't get on the ballot
with no money," he said.
The odds of Orman actually
winning were slim to none. Lieber-man,
who came excruciatingly
close in 2000 to being elected vice
president, is a three-term incum-bent
with a campaign war-chest
that will soon grow to about $5
million.
Orman, meanwhile, has never
held a public office and hasn't run
for one in more than 20 years, with
an unsuccessful Congressional bid
in 1984.
But in the months following
President Bush's re-election, lib-eral
Democrats became increas-ingly
angry with Lieberman for
acting in a way they considered to
be disloyal to the party.
While Lieberman's voting
record was that of a main-stream
Democrat, liberals were enraged
by his support for several Bush ad-ministration
policies, including the
war in Iraq and two controversial
Bush nominees: Attorney General
SEE "ORMAN" ON P. 2
Fairfield from home and taking
three classes. It's been a very dif-ferent
start to his freshman year
than he had imagined.
Fairfield isn't financially ben-efiting
from Loyola and Tulane
students' enrollment. In fact, all
revenue collected from tuition
is being sent back to Loyola and
Tulane. The only profit Fairfield
will make is from the 16 students
who are living on campus. Those
students are responsible for room
and board expenses.
"There is a financial arrange-ment
that is consistent across the
Association of Jesuit Colleges and
Universities (AJCU)," said Mark
Reed, dean of students. "The goal
is to support Loyola and Tulane
and minimize additional financial
costs to students."
According to an e-mail sent to
faculty fromAcademic Vice Presi-dent
Orin Grossman on Tuesday,
Fairfield's financial aid office has
already "swung into action" and
will remain active this semester to
make sure the new students receive
appropriate federal aid.
Most of the uprooted students
living on campus have been placed
SEE "VISITING" ON P. 7
Freshmen admittance
highest in 10 years
BY ELIZABETH COOPER
With the acceptance of ap-proximately
74 percent of appli-cants
for the 948-member class of
2009, Fairfield's admission rate for
the new freshman class is higher
than it has been in over 10 years.
In addition, it marks the first
time in eight years that Fairfield
has granted admission to more
than 65 percent of its applicants.
"We did enroll more than
we anticipated we would," said
Karen Pellegrino, director of ad-missions.
Last fall and winter, 6,895 stu-dents
applied for spots in the class
of '09. Of these, 5,129 were ac-cepted
This was the lowest num-ber
of applicants since students
applied for membership in the
class of '04, another year which
proved to have an exceptionally
large class, with 1,008 students,
and an acceptance rate of about
63 percent.
The percentage of students
accepted has jumped 10 percent
in the past year, and a startling
25 percent in just two years with
an increase from 49.41 to 74.39 i
percent.
For students at the univer-sity,
these numbers mean several
things, not the least of which is
limited housing options and forced
triples.
Katie Olson '09 isn't in a
triple, but she has seen tripled
rooms.
"It's very tight," she said.
"It seems like it would be hard
living conditions and not a lot of
privacy."
"Our infrastructure can't sup-port
a freshman class of [948],"
said Kurt Schlichting, professor
of sociology at Fairfield.
Schlichting is familiar with
the work of groups such as the
Higher Education Data Sharing
consortium. Fairfield is one of
SEE "ENROLLMENT" ON P. 6
McCarthy/ The Mirror