Mirror - Vol. 32, No. 01 - June 01, 2006

              SPECIAL FRESHMAN ORIENTATION ISSUE
JUNE, 2006
Vol. 32, Iss. 1-12 pages
Orientation Issue
MEET THE PREZ
Hail to the chief: When Williams isn't in his Barone Campus Center office, he's rallying the troops at the Arena at Harbor Yard.
Williams keeping FUSA staff busy with summer planning
BY JESS MITCHELL
When Hutch Williams '08 won the FUSA
presidency for the 2006-2007 academic year
in the general election that took place in late
February, he had plenty if time to kill before
starting his formal duties.
True to his nature, Williams wasted no
time resting on laurels and started getting the
ball rolling.
"First thing as president, I want to start
to lay the groundwork for the upcoming year
so that in the fall when students come back to
our great university, they have a great FUSA
waiting for them," Williams told The Mirror
in March.
Williams said the FUSA team is right on
schedule.
"Events are being planned, dates are being
set aside," he said. "The FUSA office is busy
and has been busy all summer. We'll also be
here all summer making sure we're not on
schedule, but ahead of schedule by the time
students arrive in the fall," said Williams.
FUSA's new president described the goal
of the organization as "aiming to improve
the overall atmosphere on campus, because
if students have pride in their school, it will
positively affect their performance in class."
Williams plans to work with results from
a student Senate survey administered to the
student body at the end of last year as a road
map for improvement.
"Many of the comments reflected a feeling
that things are mediocre," said Williams. "We
want to work with the respective administrators
and faculty to resolve the issues."
School spirit and sports are extremely
important to Williams.
"We'll be doing a lot of fun promotional
events for different teams - but you'll have to
wait for those," he said.
One recurring trend over the past several
years that was a major point of contention
on the campaign trail was the cancellation
of many cherished traditions at Fairfield this
year. However, Williams is enthusiastic about
establishing new traditions.
"In regards to traditions for the phenom-enal
class of 2010, it's up to them. They will
have to work as a class to create and foster new
traditions," he said. "New ideas seem like a
one-time deal. However, if done right, they can
become a tradition five years down the line."
The same goes for the entire student
body.
"For the fine '09, great '08 and the super
'07... it's up to them, as well. We will all be
seniors one day, and we must all work together
to come up with new ideas [to] foster new tradi-tions,"
Williams said.
Typically, FUSA presidents are seniors.
Williams, however, will be a junior next
year.
"[Hutch] will feel the results of a lot of
his decisions, since he'll be here for another
year and remain in contact with a lot more
underclassmen," said former FUSA President
Jess DiBuono '06, Williams' immediate pre-decessor.
Williams' enthusiasm and love for Fairfield
has not gone unnoticed.
"I think he's one of the most energetic
people I've ever met. It seems like he drinks 56
cups of coffee a day, but in a good way," said
Gabi Davila '09. "He knows a lot of people
on campus and knows how to motivate the
student body."
ORIENTATION 2006
Look inside for a rich variety
of views on adjustment,
fitting in, and getting involved. 9 HE SAID / SHE SAID
Meet two seniors who have
(or don't have) it all figured out.
Page 10
WWW.FAIRFIELDMIRROR.COM
The independent student newspaper
of Fairfield University
Switch to
early action
made impact
on Class of'10
admissions pool
BY MEGHAN TOUMEY
Fifty percent of this year's in-coming
class scored between 1740
and 1940 on their SAT's.
Wait, excuse me?
With the change in the Scholastic
Aptitude Test (SAT) and Fairfield's
status change from an early decision
school to early action, modifica-tions
in the admission pool were
expected.
This year was Fairfield's first as
an early action school. Almost half of
this year's applicants applied by the
late November deadline.
The early action pool provided
Fairfield with more than half of the
currently enrolled students in the
Class of 2010.
Eight thousand and sixty-two
applications were received this year,
according to Director of Admis-sion
Karen Pellegrino. This number
brought the application rate up by 15
percent.
"It is impossible to say whether
our increase was fueled by our deci-sion
to switch from early decision to
early action," Pellegrino said. "But at
this point we regard it as a very ben-eficial
move for the university."
With 4,866 students admit-ted,
the university's admission rate
dropped by nearly 15 percent, accord-ing
to Pellegrino.
According to Pellegrino, the
change in the SAT did not have a
huge impact on this year's admission
process.
"We continue to put the greatest
emphasis on the critical reading and
math portions of the SAT," Pellegrino
said.
The new essay portion was not a
factor in the decision-making process
this year.
"At this time, I think it is too
early to accurately analyze the impact
the new SAT will have on our appli-cant
pool," Pellegrino said.
The middle 50 percent that
scored 1740 to 1940 is similar to scor-ing
between 1140 and 1300 on the old
scale, according to Pellegrino.
The class of 2010 consists of 26
states, including students from Puerto
Rico, and more than 160 AHANA
(African-American, Hispanic, Asian
and Native American) students, Pel-legrino
said.
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