Mirror - Vol. 35, No. 02 - September 09, 2009

              WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 9,2009
Vol. 35, Iss. 2- 24 pages
FREE - Take one MlDDAD WWW.FAIRFIELDMIRROR.COM
The independent student newspaper
of Fairfield University
Photos by Peter Caty
In above photo, a crowd looks on as Diane Wilson speaks about her book "An Unreasonable Wom-an:
A True Story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Polluters, and the Fight for Seadrift, Texas" on Friday, Sept. 4. Senior
Brittany Hill sings in the photo to the left as University President Father Jeffrey Von Arx looks on.
Students find StagWeb to Gmail transition difficult at first
BY KERI HARRISON
During last spring semester, the University's Computer
and Networking Services announced that a new e-mail system
was going to be implemented at the start of the 2009-2010
school year. Instead of using Fairfield's StagWeb system,
the University has created accounts with Gmail, Google's
popular e-mail system. With the switch occurring soon be-fore
students and faculty returned to campus, it is still being
determined as to how beneficial this will prove to be.
Along with the new e-mail, the University has also
created NetID, a new username and password system that
allows access into all of the University's accounts, including
the Fairfield Gmail, StagWeb and Eidos. The NetID also had
to be claimed by all students in order to log into Fairfield's
network.
According to Steve Dailey, the assistant director of
Computer and Networking Services, the Gmail switch took
place on August 27.
"We, as a staff, decided to take some extra time to ensure
that the NetID system was ready for release," said Dailey.
"We would have liked to have released this much earlier;
however, a project of this size and extremity warranted the
delay."
Chad Stewart '10, a Computer and Networking Ser-vices
technician, called Gmail a "smoother e-mail system."
Although he acknowledged that C&NS has been backed up
with work for the first week, he said it is understandable
because of the amount of students who needed to update
their computers to sign into the network; he said the C&NS
overload has not been caused by the e-mail switchover.
Dailey agreed. "There were indeed some issues with
students not being able to claim their NetlDs due to various
reasons, but the switch to Gmail had nothing to do with these
claiming issues," he said.
The technicians, who were not involved in the decision-making
back in the spring, were brought onto campus a few
days earlier to help out with the switchover and they got a
"run-down of what was happening with
Gmail," according to Stewart. Though
he admitted that there is still some "fine
tuning" that needs to be done in regards to
Gmail, he said that it will be "way more
beneficial" for the University, noting that
"Google is automatic" as opposed to the
old StagWeb e-mail.
In addition, Dailey noted all of the
applications associated with Fairfield
Gmail, which include huge amounts of
storage, new collaboration tools, as well
Photo illustration by Peter Caty as the same basis as normal Gmail, which
many students use already.
The Student E-mail Committee, which was put together
with the purpose of creating an improved system for the stu-dents
was composed of faculty and Student Senate members,
along with Brian Remigio, assistant director of CNS and the
SEE "STUDENTS" ON P. 7
31 Fairfield employees let go,
students react
BY MELISSA MANN
Fairfield University laid off a total of 31
employees over the summer in an effort to cut
down the budget by $5 million, according to a
Fairfield University press release.
The layoffs, including only members of the
Fairfield staff, happened in conjunction with a sal-ary
freeze for all employees. University President
Father Jeffrey von Arx said in the press release,
"We have adopted a phased approach to budget
reductions, making only the most essential cost
reductions in response to specific budget impacts
as they arise.
"...We intend to proceed in this careful way,
in order to protect the quality of our programs and
maintain our focus on the institutions' strategic
priorities," continued von Arx.
Mark Guglielmoni, the director of Human
Resources, said these layoffs were part of a plan
to give students 20 percent more financial aid
this year by reducing operating expenses by 5
percent.
Guglielmoni said, "We tried to handle it as
nicely as possible. It is never easy, we tried to be
a respectful as we could."
While students are angered by these layoffs,
they understand the reasoning behind them.
"I think it is messed up because I know some
people have been here for a long time," said senior
Allie Ritacco. "But I understand because of the
economic times."
One terminated employee that gained special
attention over the summer was Jeanne DiMuzio,
who worked at Fairfield for 27 years as the director
of the Health and Wellness Center. Because of her
work, she formed relationships with many of the
students and gained much respect from them.
SEE "DIMUZIO" ON P. 7
Peter Caty/The Mirror
The Fairfield men's soccer team opened their season Friday night with
a home game against Monmouth University. The Stags were defeated
by Monmouth 2-1 but they were cheered on by many Fairfield students
celebrating Fairfield Fridays and the opening of the season. See men's
soccer coverage on p. 23 in Sports.