Mirror - Vol. 32, No. 19 - February 22, 2007

              WEEK OF FEBRUARY 22,2007
Vol. 32, Iss. 18-20 pages
FREE - Take One MIRROR WWW.FAIRFIELDMIRROR.COM
The independent student newspaper
of Fairfield University
FRAIOLI'S WITHDRAWAL SHAKES UP ELECTIONS
Hutch Wins a Week Early
BY BEN DOODY
His race for re-election over
before it started, FUSA President
Hutch Williams '08 put down his
campaign literature on Monday
night and did what he's best known
to do: went to a basketball game.
Williams, who sat in an other-wise
empty student section for the
Stags-Siena women's game before
watching the Fairfield men lose to
Marist, was spared the effort of
running a campaign on Sunday.
His former competition was Frank
Fraioli '08, who dropped out of the
race because of a sprained knee
that he felt made it impossible to
run a viable
campaign.
Barring a
virtually im-possible
sce-nario
— that
Williams will
lose to a write-in
candidate
— he will be-come
the first
president in FUSA history to serve
for two years.
Only one prior president —
Kevin Neubauer '05 — was elected
as a junior, and Neubauer lost his
SEE "WILLIAMS" ON P. 7
WILLIAMS
INSIDE:
DOES FUSA REALLY
HAVE A SAY? P. 7
EDITORIAL:
SHOWING UP, P. 8
WILLIAMS OP-ED ON
PLATFORM, P. 9
THOUGHTS ON THE
ELECTION THAT
COULD HAVE BEEN,
P. 10
Turnout a Major Concern
BY CHRISTINA STODDARD
A total of three students sat
in the audience as Hutch Williams
'08 and John Daly '08, the unop-posed
candidates for the positions
of FUSA president and vice presi-dent,
spoke during a forum Tuesday
afternoon in the Barone Campus
Center.
The question on the minds of
FUSA officials after Frank Fraioli
'08 withdrew from the race for
president last Sunday: with two
uncontested candidates at the top of
the ballot, will anyone show up to
vote for Senate and Class Council
elections next Tuesday?
"I'm obviously concerned
with only having one [presiden-tial]
candidate," said Alexandra
Ghiorzi '09, the FUSA election
commissioner. "It's easier to have
a lot of people come out [to vote]
when there is a presidential race;
the same thing happens in national
elections."
There are 39 Senate and Class
Council postions up for grabs
next Tuesday, many of which are
uncontested.
Four of the nine Class Council
positions and 28 of the 30 Senate
seats are uncontested.
SEE "OFFICIALS" ON P. 7
Setting a
Model For
Success
For These Two Black
Alums, Fairfield Played a
Major Roll
This article is thefourth andfinal in a se-ries
commemorating Black History month.
BY ALEXANDRA STEWART
Fairfield alumnus Chris Miles '03 had
never given working at the HAM Channel or
a career in television a second thought.
But four years
later. Miles is a sports-caster
at WVVA, an
NBC affiliate in Blue-field,
W.Va., and he
cites his passion for
the New York Yan-kees
as what first got
him started - that and
Fairfield.
"My junior year, I
was kind of just hanging out on my couch at
the townhouses and my friend was taking a
TV course. We were talking about the Yan-kees
and the Red Sox. I'm a huge Yankees
fan, and we just went at it," Miles said.
"So one day my friend was like, 'You
know I have this sports show for the HAM
Channel and you would be the perfect host.'
I was like. 4Are you serious?' I went down
and I was shocked at all the equipment they
had and all these people that worked so hard
to put on these shows."
Miles said Fairfield played a large role in
helping him get where he is today — a place
where he said he met no prejudice or stereo-typical
feelings for being a black student.
"In fact, it was the exact opposite,"
said Miles. "When I came to Fairfield, there
SEE "ALUMNA" ON P. 6
BEATS FROM BRAZIL
ll/ipi'' ,liU''iii!J!»"' wn]
MILES
Lorraine Lampe/The Mirror
Capoeira: A Brazilian martial arts and dance synthesis group performed Tuesday in front of a large and energetic crowd in the Barone
Campus Center. For more pictures go to www.fairfieldmirror.com
Bush Budget Has More Room for Pell Grants
Increase in Aid For
Students
BY CHRISTOPHER HALISKOE
At $42,000 a year to attend Fairfield,
every penny counts; especially those coming
from Uncle Sam.
For Jeremy Shea' 10, it was government
financial aid that allowed him to attend the
University.
"I know a lot of people [who want to
go] to college but don't because of financial
reasons," said Shea, adding that the role
of financial aid in college education has
become increasingly important.
Shea and the 300 other Fairfield stu-dents
receiving aid from the Pell Grant, a
program provided by the federal govern-ment,
will benefit from new legislation that
increases the amount Pell Grants given to
student recipients.
Last week, the Senate voted 81-15 to
approve President Bush's proposed budget,
which includes a 5 percent increase in fund-ing
allotted to the Pell Grant program.
The budget will allot $4,050 per student
per year, an increase from the current figure
of $3,850.
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret
Spellings said the monetary increase is a
step toward positive change.
"Just like any other investment or en-terprise,
we need meaningful data to better
manage the system. This is real money that
will help more low-income students achieve
the dream of a college education," she said
in a statement.
"With 90 percent of the fastest growing
jobs requiring post-secondary education or
training, a college education is fast becom-ing
a necessity," Spellings said. "Yet as
costs skyrocket, it has become increasingly
difficult for middle class and low-income
families to afford college. The President's
action will help make the dream of a college
education a reality for more Americans."
The increase in funding was made
possible by $2.2 million of savings in out-of-
date or ineffective programs, the state-ment
said.
The Pell Grant is the largest form of
financial aid offered. When it started in
1973, the grant covered one third of the
yearly cost of higher education at four-year
SEE "FUNDING" ON P. 6