Mirror - Vol. 36, No. 15 - January 26, 2011

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rMIRROR
TheVine: It's Been Growing
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The Independent Student Newspaper
of Fairfield University
Week of Jan. 26, 2011 | VoL 36, is815
■fairfieldmirror.com'
The Reflection of Fairfield
UConn Issues Moratorium:
Fairfield Students Relate
BY GABRIELLA TUTINO
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Spring Weekend, one of UConn's big-gest
parties and traditions, faces cancella-tion.
According to a report recently released
by the school's UConn Spring Weekend
Task Force, one recommendation to control
Spring Weekend and reduce the risk ofvio-lence
is to cancel all university-sponsored
events.
The Task Force—comprised ofUConn
administrators, representatives of the Town
of Mansfield, and the State Police—was
created last May after a student died at the
event. "The mission of the task force was to
recommend steps the university could take
to 'deescalate' Spring Weekend - to make it
smaller, more manageable, less attractive to
students and non-students alike" according
to the report.
The report states that the main prob-lem
with Spring Weekend is the attendance
of non-students. In 2010,83 percent of the
individuals arrested at the three-day party
were not UConn students, and that between
6,000 and 7,000 registered guests stayed on
UConn's campus.
Spring Weekend originated in 1960,
and as the decades passed, so did the
event grow in size. Police estimate Spring
Weekend crowds to be between 10,000 and
15,000 students; compared to 1998, the
crowd was roughly 4,000 participants. This
increase in popularity and attendance also
included an increase in violence, vandalism
and medical emergencies at unsanctioned
gatherings.
While it is unlikely that Spring Week-end
will be eradicated this year, the Task
Force has proposed ways to keep the party
under control. The Task Force wants to re-duce
the size of crowds present, reduce the
risk of potential crime and deter individuals
from attending Spring Weekend. Their sug-gestions
include: prohibiting guests from
staying all three nights of Spring Weekend,
canceling remaining university-sponsored
events that occur during that time, propose
a "voluntary moratorium" for Spring Week-end
2011 in light of the deaths ofUConn
students Jafar Karzoun and Jasper Howard;
asking all the students to return home for
the weekend. The Task Force is hoping that
this moratorium will "serve as the founda-tion"
of their efforts to de-escalate Spring
Weekend.
Students' reactions to the moratorium,
however, are not positive. "It was sent to all
students. I understand the university wants
to de-escalate for spring weekend. However,
I think it is ridiculous for the university to
expect students to stop drinking and party-ing
even though they asked nicely. Espe-cially
when it is off campus," said UConn
student, "Scott Thies '12.
How does UConn's actions affect the
Fairfield University community? Fairfield
has it's own notorious Clam Jam, a beach
gathering held the first weekend of May,
which attracts both Fairfield & non-Fairfield
students. Clam Jam has always been a point
of tension between the university students
and the townspeople—to the point where
a temporary injunction was placed on
Lantern Point in 2001, and a permanent
injunction in 2006.
But Fairfield students also attend
Spring Weekend, because it is considered
one of the biggest parties around. "Thou-sands
of people go," said Mary Cunningham
'12, whose boyfriend attends UConn. "The
campus itself already has around 10,000
people and then you get 5,000 extra people,
from Massachusetts, Connecticut and
Rhode Island because it's epic. The school
encourages it because they have musical
performances and events all day—but then
there is the four nights of non-stop partying,
hosted by the frats and sororities."
Both parties are the highlight of the
spring semester for each school, spark-ing
a rivalry between the two Connecticut
universities.
"Clam Jam'is essentially FU's way to
'shine.' It's an event that brings together a
lot of people when the weather gets nice. .
Everyone is on the beach living the dream,"
said Antonio Musto '11.
The 2006 injunction prohibiting gath-erings
of 250 people or more on the beach
hasn't stopped the resurgent Clam Jam.
Even with warnings of safety from Dean Pel-legrino,
Fairfield students have still found
a way to gather on the beach and celebrate
the near-end of the semester. As it stands
right now, the voluntary moratorium at
UConn is only a suggestion.
1996: F.U. Tradition of Mock
Wedding is introduced.
2006: Kegs kicked off
of F.U. campus.
2006: F.U. Student receives tempo
rary liquor permit for Spam Jam
2010: N.Y.E. on "The Point" can-celled
by Fairfield Police Department
2001: Temporary injunction at
the beach.
2006: Injunction at
beach made permanent.
2007: F.U. Townhouses
lock basements.
Mirror File Photos
"ForeverYoung"ATribute to Julia Sill
What's Inside
CHECK OUT THE NEW
SECTION:
"THE VINE"
Contributed
Julia Sill
Photo By Lauren Reilly
'13
BY LAUREN REILLY
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
All it took was a simple friend request.
One of the first things many high school stu-dents
do when they get accepted to the college of
their choice is join that college's Facebook group
for incoming freshmen.
One of the staples of these groups is the "sur-vey
discussions" that inevitably end up becoming
the group's most popular and helpful resource. Fa-cebook
allows strangers to post their interests and
personal habits in an online forum that is available
for all of the group's members to see.
These surveys predictably create barrages of
friend requests and allow groups of strangers to
slowly develop into a class community without
even setting foot on campus.
It is through one of these surveys that I met
Julia Sill. From the second that I had accepted her
friend request, I knew I had found my first friend
at Fairfield.
Accepting Julia's request seemed typical
enough. I had posted a "roommate survey" in one
of the group's threads and in the days following I
had received a few friend requests and sent a few
ofmy own.
The very first thing I noticed about Julia was
her profile picture. It portrayed a beautiful girl in a
backwards L.A. Dodgers ball cap with a smile that
was immediately contagious.
I did a little more digging and found her room-mate
survey on the group thread. I eagerly read
through it and found out that she was a night owl,
loved the television show "Summer Heights High,"
worked as a lifeguard, loved "The Catcher in the
Rye," and that she was extremely outgoing and ex-cited
for the college experience.
I didn't need to read more, I immediately Fa-cebook
messaged her. We ended up Facebook mes-saging
all night
CONTINUED ON I PAGE 2
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