Mirror - Vol. 33, No. 23 - March 27, 2008

              WEEK OF MARCH 27,2008
Vol. 35, Iss. 23 - 16 pages
FREE - Take one MlftROR WWW.FAIRFIELDMIRROR.COM
The independent student newspaper
of Fairfield University
Putting the 'me' in homeless:
Students camp out to demonstrate effects of poverty
Katie McCarthy/The Mirror
Home sweet home:
As part of its initia-tives
to raise aware-ness
on campus about
global humanitarian
issues, Students for
Social Justice as well
as other student activ-ists
at Fairfield are par-ticipating
in a week-long
experiment in the
Quad. All participants
will experience home-lessness
on a smaller
scale to remind the
University community
that poverty afflicts
millions globally.
No high positions
for RAs at Fairfield
BY KATIE BARRY
Resident Assistants are
a visible and large part of the
Fairfield community, present
from the very first day fresh-men
move into their dorms.
However, due to a new Resi-dence
Life policy, some RAs
may be less active next year.
Starting at the beginning
of the 2008-2009 school year,
RAs will no longer be allowed
to hold major positions in
several Fairfield organizations
- specifically president and
vice president of either FUSA
or IRHA, editor in chief of The
Mirror, and the presidential
position in any "large organi-zation"
on campus. Students
who are RAs will also not
permitted to participate in
Orientation Board.
The new policy is based
on the idea that if RAs are in-volved
in too many activities,
they may neglect their primary
concerns: their residents.
According to Karen Don-aghue,
associate director of
Residence Life who oversees
all RA initiatives, if RAs hold
these positions, there will of-ten
exist "a conflict of interest
and time."
RAs are still permitted to
be involved in these organiza-tions,
however they must not
hold certain stipulated high
positions on campus.
"We would never say
they could not be members
of these organizations," said
Donaghue, "but we've found
if they hold these high lead-ership
positions, they don't
always do as good of a job
being an RA."
As a result, Residence
Life decided to "ask every RA
to choose the RA position or
a presidency role in a larger
organization," according to
Donaghue.
In addition to the time-constraint
reasoning, the
new rule is aligned with the
school's Strategic Plan, which
calls for an increased amount
of leaders on campus.
"We want to increase the
amount of leaders on Fairfield
campus," said Donaghue, not-ing
that RAs often hold other
leadership positions through-out
the University.
RAs have consistently
held high positions in other
Fairfield organizations, serv-ing
as presidents of clubs and
organizations, as well as being
high-ranking members of The
Mirror editorial staff.
Although the new policy
still permits RAs to be mem-bers
of organizations and at-tain
high leadership positions
other than those stipulated,
some RAs said they still dis-agree
with the rule.
Michelle Gingras '08,
who has been an RA for three
years, said such a broad ap-proach
to all RAs is unfair to
those who can handle more
than one responsibility.
"I think the rule should
be individualized for the RA,"
Gingras said. She added that
SEE "RAS" ON P. 4
University wants to he assured that students are insured
BY RACHEL BREAN
Strep throat. The flu. Mono.
College students aren't always the
healthiest individuals — and usually not
the richest either. With the rising im-portance,
and cost, of health insurance,
Fairfield has implemented a new "hard
waiver" health insurance policy to ensure
that all students are covered.
Under the new policy, the Univer-sity
will automatically enroll all full-time
undergraduates in its sponsored health
insurance policy for the 2008-2009 aca-demic
year.
All students will be billed $856 for
the University-sponsored insurance. If
students have access to health insurance
through other means, they then may waive
the coverage and receive a full credit on
their tuition bill.
"My family has our own health insur-ance
but I think that it is important that the
University mandates, and provides, some
sort of insurance for
students who don't
necessarily have the
best coverage," said
Samantha Tuffarelli
'09.
The policy that
requires all Fairfield
students to carry
health insurance has
been in effect for
well over 15 years.
However, though stu-dents
were required
to have health insur-ance,
there was no
Photo Illustration by Katie McCarthy
Rest insured: The University's new
hard waiver policy is designed to
make sure that all students are cov-ered
by proper insurance.
process to ensure compliance.
"This is a process change, not a policy
change, which will ensure all of our stu-dents
have health care coverage," said
Gary Nelson, director
of Health Services.
From April 1
through June 30, re-turning
students will
have the opportunity to
waive the plan via Stag-
Web. This waiver will
result in a full credit,
which will be reflected
on the July bill. Ac-cess
to the waiver will
be available on Tues-day,
April 1. Incoming
freshmen may begin
the waiver process on
or after July 1.
The process will be outlined in a letter
to parents and students sent out the first
week of April.
The new policy will be managed by
Gallagher Koster Insurance Agency, which
manages many other Connecticut univer-sity
hard waiver policies, including Sacred
Heart, Trinity and Wesleyan, as well as
Massachusetts accounts at Boston College
and College of the Holy Cross.
According to insurance companies,
young adulthood is deemed a high-risk pe-riod
in terms of emergency room visits and
experimentation with drugs and alcohol.
"I cannot imagine going through col-lege
without health insurance. There's no
way that a student, or even parents in most
SEE "NELSON " ON P. 5
ENTERTAINMENT:
Women's lacrosse
still rolling
p. 16
Inside
this week's edition
CAMPUS LIFE:
Cuffing for a cause
p. 6