Mirror - Vol. 31, No. 09 - November 03, 2005

              WEEK OF NOVEMBER 3/zoos
Vol. 31, Iss. 9-24 pages
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The independent student newspaper
of Fairfield University
MAAC trophy in the bag, women's soccer preps for NCAA tourney
BY RYAN HULL
Immediately after Fairfield's
women's soccer team stunned Ni-agara
and won its first MAAC title
since 1999, players surely would
have loved to spout out the ulti-mate
championship cliche: "I'm
going to Disney World!"
Too bad they were already
there — plus they need to start fo-cusing
on the NCAA tournament,
which begins Nov. 12.
Fairfield's victory at Disney's
Wide World of Sports Complex is
the sixth MAAC championship for
the Stags, and automatically enters
them into the NCAA bracket for
only the fourth time in the team's
14-year history.
But flying to championship
play as a fifth place team and tak-ing
off again with the trophy was
no surprise for the team.
"It was not at all a surprise,"
said Head Coach Jim O'Brien.
"The team was focused and all
business as soon as we arrived to
play. It was good going in know-ing
we had nothing to lose, but we
finally put everything together this
weekend."
In only his first year coaching
at Fairfield, O'Brien may have
proved that he was the right man
to fill the coaching vacancy in the
off-season.
"Coach O'Brien taking over
was something fresh and new for
the returning players," said Alex
Caram '08. "He is a great motiva-tor
and really brought the team
SEE "STAGS" ON P. 20
TWO-STEPPING THE PATH TO NATIONALS
James Scholl/The Mirror
Dance, Dance Revolution: The women's Dance Team will compete at the 2006 College Cheerleading
and Dance Team Championship in Orlando, Fla next semester. See "FU Dance" on page 4
Sharp rise in '05 college-age depression
BY AUDREY ADADE
Are you experiencing anxiety,
fatigue, loss of interest or pleasure
in usual activities, oversleeping, ap-petite
and weight changes, feelings
of hopelessness, difficulty concen-trating,
and irritability?
You could be suffering from
depression.
According to a survey taken
by the American College Health
Association, 15 percent of college
students were formally diagnosed
with depression in 2004, and nearly
half of all college students said that
they have felt so depressed at one
point in time that they had trouble
functioning. The rate of depres-sion
is up from 10 percent four
years ago.
"When young people leave
home and establish their own inde-pendence,
it is not uncommon for
some people to struggle with adjust-ments
to this new autonomy," said
Susan Birge, Director of Fairfield
Counseling Services. "Mood disor-ders,
such as depression and anxiety
disorders often emerge between 18
and 25 years old."
Birge said that adjusting to a
new. environment, a new roommate,
new friends, new classes and a lack
SEE "DEPRESSION" ON P. 8
200 Naughts: Senators meet
to save sinking tradition
BY ELIZABETH COOPER
Clam Jam. Mock Wed-ding.
Keg Races. And now 200
Nights.
These are just a few Fairfield
traditions of the past, and while
they were primarily student-or-ganized
with little University in-volvement,
they were events that
did not win the administration's
approval. .
However, some students
feel that college traditions are
not necessarily associated with
formal organization.
"We [the students] represent
the University," said Ada Sim
'06. "Student traditions are
University traditions.
In an Oct. 20 Mirror article,
Fairfield administrators said that
the University no longer wished
to assume liability for an event
such as 200 Nights that was
centered around drinking.
In response to the disap-pointment
expressed by seniors
after the cancellation of 200
Nights was announced two
weeks ago, the Fairfield Uni-versity
Student Senate put forth
a resolution regarding Fairfield
traditions and addressed the is-sue
at a meeting Sunday night.
"The Fairfield University
Student Senate feels that tradi-tions
are crucial to the under-graduate
experience but are
disappearing rapidly at Fairfield
University," read the Oct. 23
resolution.
"Maybe we can take this
experience, get a committee
together to work with admin-istration...
and see why it was
cancelled," FUSA President Jess
DiBuono '06 said in response to
the resolution.
Matt Dinnan, assistant di-rector
of Student Services and
Activities, was present at the
meeting and explained the his-tory
of 200 Nights to the ap-proximately
50 senators and
students present.
He reiterated that 200 Nights
was never really a University
event, and that the University
only became involved about four
years ago to help out.
Now, though, Dinnan said
that his office no longer wishes
to sponsor the event, and re-minded
students to keep in mind
traditions that are more in line
with the nature of Fairfield Uni-versity,
such as the Presidential
Ball and the annual Dogwood
Dance.
"The premise of the event
[200 Nights] tends to be, like it
or not, alcohol and drinking in
nature... We don't.have the abil-ity
to put any control measures
into that event," he said.
He also said that the can-cellation
was not a last-minute
decision, and that the Senior
Class Council was notified over
the summer and again during
training before Labor Day.
Senior Class Council repre-sentatives
Lou Spadaro, Steve
Tyburski and Matt McCarthy
were invited to the meeting, but
the three failed to show up.
In the Stagweb announce-ment
they posted, they offered
students the chance to share their
input for alternative events. Stu-dents
had until Oct. 24 to reply.
Senator Jenna Siraco '06
asked why alternatives were not
SEE "SENIORS" ON P. 5
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"IN HERE, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL"
Anne Papachristo reviews Theatre Fairfield's
production of "Cabaret"
PAGE 9
HUNG OUT TO DRY
Preventing and curing the symptoms
of hangovers
PAGE 15