Mirror - Vol. 34, No. 18 - February 12, 2009

              Fairfield, ridding eight game winning-streak, battle for first place against the Red Foxes on Thursday
night at Alumni Hall. See p. 20 for story.
WEEK OF FEBRUARY 12,2009
Vol. 34, Iss. 18- 20 pages
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MThe IRROR WWW.FAIRFIELDMIRROR.COM
The independent student newspaper
of Fairfield University
Graduate who held classroom hostage released from psych ward
BY ANNIE ROONEY
Last Friday, Feb. 6, Jim Fitzpatrick,
assistant vice president of student services,
joined students from the Ignatius Resi-dency
and discussed "events that stuck out
in their minds."
Fitzpatrick did
not need to think
twice for his story, as
he began discussing
the day in 2002 when
a Fairfield graduate
came to the Univer-sity
and held a class-room
of 26 students
ARBELO and one professor
hostage with a bomb.
Little did he know that during the time of
his reminiscing, the offender, Patrick Arbelo,
a member of the class of 2001, was officially
being released from the psychiatric ward he
had been living in since 2003.
Arbelo, who was a student from Bridge-port,
was found not guilty of 27 counts of
first-degree kidnapping and one count of pos-session
of a dangerous weapon by reason of
insanity after the incident in February 2002.
Now 31 years old, Arbelo was released
from a state mental health hospital under the
circumstances that he will remain on medica-tion
for the rest of his life and will live with
his father at an unidentified location.
Unfortunately, there is will be no legal
way to supervise and ensure that Arbelo con-tinues
to take his medication.
On Feb. 12, 2002, Arbelo arrived in
Canisius Hall around 4 p.m. with a computer
case and wearing a backpack. He entered
English Professor Elizabeth Dreyer's "Voices
of Medieval Women," immediately stating, "I
have a bomb do what I say." '
Students were immediately ordered to
throw their backpacks out the window as
Arbelo uncovered a cardboard box, revealing
exposed wires and wrapped in duct tape. He
alerted policemen as they arrived of this bomb
in his possession.
His motive? To read a testimony on the
New York radio station WCBS providing
strong racist and anti-Semitic statements.
Fitzpatrick recalls this seven-hour pe-riod
as "a moment where the moment almost
takes over."
"It happened so quickly that everyone
went into emergency mode, where you
don't think about a normal thing," Fitz-patrick
said.
Assistant Vice President and Director of
Counseling and PsychologicalServices Susan
Birge remembers being called to the scene.
"At one point, I looked up, saw snipers on
the roofs of Gonzaga and Regis Halls as well
as helicopters flying overhead," Birge said.
Through immediate actions on behalf of
Public Safety, Fairfield Police and Connecti-
SEE "EX-STUDENT" ON P. 6
Settlement reached
in Marx wrongful death suit
BY KRISTEN McMANUS AND TOM CLEARY
Fairfield University's 2004 commencement was remembered differently than
any others because of the death of Francis J. Marx V, the valedictorian-to-be who
was killed shortly before graduation.
On Tuesday, almost five years after the incident, settle-ments
were reached in a lawsuit brought by Marx's parents
against two University of Rhode Island students, Jarred Ro-cheleau
and Loren Welsh. The terms of the settlements were
not disclosed, but Rocheleau's attorney, Lauren Wilkins told
The Evening Sun that the sum was "substantially less" than
the $5 million that Marx's parents sought.
In addition, there was no admission of wrongdoing as
part of either settlement. The Marx family was seeking "net
lost income" according to the Providence Journal. They
said that they believed if he had lived a full life he would have
earned $10 million, a figure reached by economist Richard
Siegal, who testified on Monday. Marx had already found a job at General Electric
at the time of his death and planned to pursue a M.B.A.
Lawyers from both sides commented in local papers that the settlements
were fair.
MARX
SEE "NEW" ON P. 6
Fairfield answers calls for increased financial aid before budget release
BY LILY NORTON AND JACK MCNAMARA
At a FUSA meeting Sunday, University President
Fr. Jeffrey von Arx said the school is making financial
aid a top priority.
Von Arx could not answer questions as to how much
would be going to financial aid because the new budget
will not be released until March, but said that Fairfield
will be "tightening [its] belt" to ensure the return of the
majority of students by increasing financial aid packets.
The visit by von Arx and other Fairfield adminis-trators
to the Senate focused primarily on anticipated
shortfalls in previous budget predictions.
The University accounts for 93 percent of its operat-ing
budget through tuitions, and many students are not
able to pay the same amount they could prior to current
economic crisis.
As he prepared students to brace
themselves for the future, von Arx
also sought to relieve them a bit by
pointing out Fairfield was not in
as dire financial straights as other
schools.
"Fairfield is in as good a posi-tion
as I think it could be for an
institution of its type," he said.
Von Arx explained this was because of the Univer-sity's
"modest" endowment, which recently shrank from
$265 million to $203 million. Fairfield relies on only 7
percent of its endowment for its operating budget, as op-
INSIDE:
EDITORIAL
P. 7
TUITION STRUGGLE
P. 9
posed to schools like Yale that rely
on endowments.
"We took a hit, but not as bad
as others have," he said.
But while Fairfield may not
have as many endowment wor-ries,
the University must work at
maintaining student enrollment,
and making sure next year's incom-ing
class stays at the same level as
past years.
"This year's enrollment is
OK," said von Arx, "What we have to be worried about
SEE "CONSTRUCTION" ON P. 5
VON ARX
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