Mirror - Vol. 32, No. 09 - November 02, 2006

              m Inside: Midterm Election Special
WEEK OF NOVEMBER 2,2006
Vol. 32, Iss. 9 - 28 pages
Two Sections
WWW.FAIRFIELDMIRROR.COM
The independent student newspaper
of Fairfield University
One concert for '06-?07: Good idea "O.A.R." not?
BY ANDREW CHAPIN
The wait is over. After weeks of tight-lipped
secrecy, FUSA announced Sunday
afternoon at its weekly Senate meeting that
O.A.R. (Of a Revolution) will perform at
Alumni Hall on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007.
So why did it take so long to make the
announcement? According to Kara Acker-man
'08, a member of the FUSA Concert
Committee, it was merely part of the bid
process.
"When securing a bid, the decision is
ultimately in the hands of the performer's
management," she said. "FUSA waits to an-nounce
the concert until confirmation from
the band's management has solidified the
final details of the contract."
Ackerman said that FUSA always con-siders
the students when choosing acts for
Fairfield concerts.
"When selecting a concert, our main
concern is the students' interests," she said.
"FUSA looks for an act that is pleasing to
the student population, affordable with our
budget and best fits our venue size."
For O.A.R., which started up in 1996,
it will be a homecoming of sorts, as well.
Before receiving mainstream recognition,
the group played at Stagstock in September
2001.
FUSA President Hutch Williams '08 is
looking forward to the event, which may be
the biggest event of the year.
"I'm very, very excited. I think it's
going to be a huge hit with the students,"
he said.
Unlike years past, when there were two
concerts (one for fall, the other for spring),
O.A.R. will be the only concert of the year,
according to Ackerman.
"In an attempt to provide the students
SEE "O.A.R." ON P. 6
I GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP ...
Contributed Photo
Help in the hospice: Jodie Pfau '07 and Tess Brown '07 star in Theater Fairfield's latest production,
"Shadow Box." For the full story, see p. 9.
To sign or not to sign
Students caught between committing
to beach houses or school policy
BY KATE MCGANN
When it comes to the housing
lottery, most students agree that
Fairfield is behind the times. And
with the Off-Campus Boarder
Lottery (OCB) kicking off today,
questions have surfaced about
whether the process will ever get
any easier.
The University guarantees
students housing for all four years.
But for many students, a crucial
part of the college experience at
Fairfield is being able to live at
the beach. To do so, they must be
officially released from their on-campus
resident status by Fairfield
through the OCB.
Though most juniors start
looking for beach houses at the
very beginning of the school year
(if not the end of sophomore year),
campus e-mails say the OCB pro-cess
will not start this year until
Nov. 2, and the list of students ap-proved
to live off-campus will not
be posted until Dec. 4. However
many students believe that if they
have not signed a lease or are not
in verbal agreement with a landlord
before Dec. 4, they will have little
hope of securing a decent, inexpen-sive
beach house.
How does the University
justify conducting the lottery so
late in the semester while forbid-ding
students from signing leases
before being released? According
to Director of Residence Life Gary
Stephenson, it has to do with sev-eral
factors.
One reason the OCB lottery is
SEE "LOTTERY" ON P. 6
2-point-oh no: How much will G.P.A. affect your future?
BY JOE CARRETTA
Some students stopped worrying about their
G.RA. the day they opened their college acceptance
letters. But Chelsea Reichert '10 thinks the dreaded
decimal shouldn't be forgotten.
"Good grades are important. Parents are paying
for their kids to go to school, and they want to see
good grades," she said.
The wrath of angry parents is as good a reason as
any to hit the books, but so is the idea that companies
who employ Fairfield grads also consider the G.P.A.
before hiring students.
Cathleen Borgman, director of the Career Plan-ning
Center, said that a less than adequate G.P.A. is
a "deal breaker" for some employers.
"If kids are below the (G.P.A.) cutoff for a com-pany,
they are shot down, no questions asked," said
Borgman.
About 70 percent of companies that hire students
right out of college confirm, in most cases, that they
make their cutoff for employees at a G.RA. of 3.0,
said a careerebuilder.com article. However, most
employers do not filter their applicants based solely
on grade point averages.
Joe Schoonbeek '09 feels that a student's G.P.A.
is "very important for getting a job, and employers
definitely consider it when hiring graduates."
Sara Bouley '09 agreed.
"G.P.A. matters to an extent. Kids don't need
a 4.0 to get a job, but they can't have a 1.9 either,"
she said.
While G.P.A. appears to be a universal measur-ing
stick, Borgman said other factors are taken into
SEE "G.P.A." ON P. 4
Photo illustration by Lorraine Lampe/The Mirror
G.P.N/A? Hardly!: Employers take an applicant's grades very seri-ously
when considering their resumes.