Mirror - Vol. 32, No. 26 - April 19, 2007

              WEEK OF APRIL 19,2007
Vol. 32, Iss. 26 - 28 pages
FREE - Take One MIRROR
Storm Causes Flooding, Students Asked to Evacuate Beach Houses
BY ALEXANDRA STEWART go to Public Safety if you need nous- advised her housemates to leave the
ing." house.
A Nor'easter dropped 6 !£ inches Police also warned students to "The water came all the way down
of rain over the town of Fairfield caus- move their cars to Veteran's Park to our path into our parking lot," she said,
ing major flooding of Fairfield Beach avoid flood damage. "Once we left there was no way to
Road as well as some flood damages to AaminaAwan '07, who lives in the come back because all the roads were
houses on Lantern Point. beach house Franklin's Tower, said that closed."
Deputy Chief Arthur Reid of the Fail-field police came to her house and Bridget Tackas '07 is a year-round
Fairfield Police Department confirmed suggested she evacuate. Fairfield resident and student at the
that none of the beach houses at the "A police officer came to our door University. She said she has seen worse
Fairfield beach were officially evacu- and said that they 'highly recommend- flooding at Fairfield beach,
ated. ed' that we leave," said Awan. "The entire beach area, practically
"We just advised people to move However, she and her roommates up to Post Road, was flooded in feet of
their cars to Veteran's Park and various chose to brave the weather. water once in 1992," said Tackas.
areas on Post Road," he said. "I know it could have been more Tackas, however, chose to evacu-
Reid did say, however, that an serious the other night but it wasn't, ate her beach house, The Silly Goose,
evacuation shelter was set up at Fairfield so I'm glad I didn't freak out and I'm on Sunday.
Ludlowe High School, but only ap- happy nothing was too damaged," she "It's amazing how fast the tide
proximately 20 to 25 people used the said. can come in," she said. "And they told
evacuation area. Senior Caroline Kelly said her us to expect the worst, so I left just to
Adam Peterson '07, president of house, the Shangri-La, was lucky not be safe."
the Student Beach Resident Associa- to have endured water damage. Students said they were conflicted
tion, sent out messages via Facebook "We didn't get water damage, but as to whether or not they should have
and StagWeb warning students of a the water came all the way up to our evacuated their houses,
possible flood Sunday night. back door since we don't have a sea Many who live at Lantern Point did
The message told student to go to wall," she said,
campus and "hang out with friends or Kelly said the police eventually SEE "STORM" ON P. 6
WWW.FAIRFIELDMIRROR.COM
The independent student newspaper
of Fairfield University
SUDHAKAR
New Department
Head Named by
Fr. von Arx
BY JOE CARRETTA
Fairfield University Presi-dent
Fr. Jeffery von Arx has
announced that Rama Sudhakar
will assume the position of Vice
President of the newly-cre-ated
Division of Marketing and
Communications.
She is currently the director
of Communications at Trinity
College in Hartford, Conn.
"I am excited and de-lighted
to come to Fairfield, although my departure
from Trinity will be bittersweet because I will miss
my friends but I also know it is a good time to join
Fairfield," said Sudhakar.
Sudhakar has worked in education for over 20
years and has compiled experience in higher edu-cation,
financial, industrial, media and non-profit
marketing.
Von Arx expressed a great deal of content con-cerning
her hiring.
"I could not be more delighted that Rama has
agreed to lead our newly-established division," said
von Arx.
Sudhakar has worked in both marketing and
communication departments at Trinity College since
2001. She explained her previous job description as
being "the director of the communications program,
as well as overseeing other departments within the
school."
In addition to these responsibilities, Sudhakar
oversaw an overhaul of Trinity's Web site.
"We made the Trinity college Web site easier to
navigate," she said. "We employed a consultant to as-sist
us, and wanted to make the school's online pub-lication
more appealing to prospective students."
In 2004, Sudhakar was appointed interim direc-tor
of the communication department at Trinity, and
was later promoted to head director in 2006. During
tenure as director, her duties entailed managing all
facets of publications, media relations, Web site
design and upgrade, and sports communication.
Sudhakar will head the brand new Division of
Marketing and Communications at Fairfield. She
said she hopes the program will "enhance the institu-
SEE "NEW" ON P. 6
Shooting Spree at Virginia Tech Leaves 33 Students Dead
BY JOE CARRETTA
There have been 33 confirmed student
deaths at Virginia Tech University after Cho
Seung-Hui, a senior English major, went on
a killing rampage before taking his own life
at approximately 9:30 a.m. Monday.
Kara LaFleur, a 2006 Fairfield gradu-ate,
is currently a graduate student at Vir-ginia
Tech and was on campus during the
shootings.
Fairfield Associate chaplain Carolyn
M. Rusiackas created a Facebook group
which included an e-mail LaFleur sent to
her friends at the University.
"I'm OK, just very, very shaken," she
said in the e-mail. "I was on campus this
morning and was in lock down, lying on
the floor of my office to stay away from
the windows. I was safely evacuated after
noon."
According to the Associated Press,
the shootings began at approximately 7:15
a.m. Monday after a domestic dispute left
two people dead at West Ambler
Johnston dormitory, which houses
895 students. Two hours later, in a
classroom building approximately
a half mile away from the origi-nal
shooting site, Seung-Hui
killed 30 more students and
proceeded to end his own life.
Seung-Hui moved to the
United States from South Korea
in 1992 with his family and is
currently registered as a resident
alien. After the incident, Virginia
Tech Vice President Harry Hincker
described Seung-Hui as a "loner."
According to a police statement re-leased
Tuesday, a bomb threat was found
near the lifeless body of Seung-Hui. The
same document said that two previous bomb
threats in the past three weeks are believed
to be connected to him.
Virginia Tech students spoke out
against the University's inability to
notify the campus about the events
taking place. After the first killings
occurred, campus police mistakenly
thought the situation was an
isolated incident and incorrectly
assumed the gunman had fled
campus.
Students were notified to be on
the look out for any suspicious ac-tivity
but were not recommended
to enter lock down mode.
Virginia Tech President
Charles Steger defended the Uni-versity's
actions after two students were
reported killed in the dorm, and said that
administration had "no reason to suspect that
any other incident would occur."
"We can only make decisions based on
the information you had on the time," said
Steger. "You don't have hours to reflect
on it."
As Fairfield students tuned in to news
reports Monday, the impact on the campus
community was felt by students and admin-istration
alike.
University President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx
released a statement on StagWeb offering
condolences to Virginia Tech University.
"On behalf of Fairfield University, I
extend our deepest sympathy to the families
and friends of those who died in today's
tragic shootings at Virginia Polytechnic and
State University (Virginia Tech)," he said.
This event, which is dominating telev-sion
broadcasts and news Web sites, has
been acknowledged by President Bush, who
attended a convocation at Virgina Tech.
Bush ordered flags at half mast through
Sunday night and referred to the event as
"the worst day of violence in college his-tory."