Mirror - Vol. 37, No. 17 - February 15, 2012

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THEWMIRROR
fairfieldmirror.com
The Independent Student Newspaper
of Fairfield University
The Reflection of Fairfield
Fairfield Faculty Challenges Administration
BYMIKAELATIERNEY
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Eight Fairfield faculty mem-bers
raised concern for the current
fiscal situation and downward
trend in oversight at Fairfield Uni-versity
in a highly contested Jan. 27
memo cosigned by at least 50 other
faculty members.
The memo was "designed to
start a conversation," not spark
controversy or expand beyond
the campus, explained Dr. Phil
Lane, co-writer of the memo and a
professor with 30 years'experience
at Fairfield. However, despite inten-tions,
controversy has definitely
been ignited across campus, creat-ing
a debate between the faculty
and the administration.
The Mirror was able to obtain
a copy of the memo from a source
uninvolved with the creation of the
document.
"We believe that the current fi-nancial
crisis was both foreseeable
and avoidable,"the memo notes.
Although "the signers of this memo
are deeply committed to Fairfield
University,"they are still "deeply
concerned about recent trends."
The document outlines a few
key indicators that have caused
such concern among its faculty
authors, most notably the student
acceptance process, the education
budget, and the increasing num-bers
and salaries of administrators.
Changing Acceptance Rates Leave
. Room for Concern
The memo explains thatit is
very desirable to have a low admit
rate and a high yield," meaning it is
best to accept fewer students, but
have the majority of those accepted
students decide to study at Fairfield
instead of other schools they were
accepted into. However, the memo
explains,"both of these rates have
consistently been trending in the
wrong direction." In fact, "in 2002,
our yield rate was nearly 25 percent
- one of the best rates Fairfield has
had in the last 20 years. But that has
declined steadily, and last year's yield
rate of 15.31 percent is the worst in 40
years,"the memo noted.
However, this year marks "the
highest number of applications
ever in Fairfield's history,"accord-ing
to President Jeffrey von Arx, SJ.
in a campus-wide email sent out
on Monday.This optimism seems
to be bright spot in an otherwise
challenging past few years of
admissions. Different years provide
different interest levels in certain
universities across the country and
different numbers of applications to
each institution. "In 2000, prospec-tive
college students, on average
applied to about five universities.
Today they apply to 10," a recent
Connecticut Post article sum-marized
Senior Vice President for
Academic Affairs Paul J. Fitzgerald
as saying.
Administrative Positions In-crease
as Other Jobs Are Cut
The
memo
also
Illustration byTebben Lopez/The Mirror
The faculty and administration have been indirectly duking it out over the budget.
included
information
about ad-ministration
positions and
salaries. In the
wake of last se-mester's
layoffs,
many students and faculty mem-bers
expressed frustration that no
employment reductions had been
made for the growing administra-tion
staff. The memo highlighted
this concern, noting that while oth-er
staffers were being laid off as the
result of a six million dollar budget
gap, there was actually a "net
gain of two to three additional vice
president positions/The memo
notes that the administrative side
of the institution has consistently
been the "fastest growing segment
of our community,"explaining that
"administration positions have
increased by nearly 25 [percent] in
the last six years, while faculty posi-tions
have increased by 10
[percent] and all other posi-tions
have decreased."
In addition to this increase
in staff size for the administration,
the memo notes that the "salary for
senior administrators has grown at
a substantially higher rate than that
of the rest of the campus commu-nity."
lllustrated through a chart in
Memo| page 6
SeniorYear Will BeA Blast!
Despite Rumors, Beach Living Granted To All Who Applied
BY MARY KATE MCCORMICK
STAFF WRITER
Lantern Point. Powderpuff.
The Grape. High Tide. Oktober-fest.
The Nauts.
For years, these iconic
landmarks and events have per-suaded
Fairfield seniors to apply
to be "released" as off-campus
residents. Until last week, juniors
feared the end of an era.
Thanks to the work of Vice
President for Student Affairs Dr.
Thomas Pellegrino, and the Of-
Contributed Photo
Beach living is in the future for many juniors.
fice of Residence Life, Fairfield is
not getting rid of beach housing.
Instead, they are accommodating
everyone.
After months of listening to
propaganda for new upperclass-men
housing on campus, junior
students were shocked to find out
that Fairfield had pulled through
and granted off-campus permis-sion
to everyone who applied.
According to a University
wide email sent by Pellegrino,
this was the smallest release in
Fairfield history, but this time, the
choice was made by the students
rather than the University.
"A major selling point at Fair-field
U is the beach and there's no
denying that,"said Joe Del Prete
'13, an argument that most pro-spective
students consider when
applying to Fairfield.
However, the fear of limited
off-campus boarder spots was the
only pitfall. Until this year.
Students like junior Eliza-beth
Cortez feared the worst, say-ing,
"Whether they were rumors
or facts, hearing that Fairfield
might be getting strict and not
going to be letting a lot of juniors
off really bummed people out."
After much doubt that they
would be released, Del Prete,
Cortez and their peers were
overjoyed at the University's deci-sion,
stressing the importance of
upperclassmen independence
and the right to choose housing
by senior year.
Similarly, junior Daniella
Scopino and her roommate Sa-mantha
MacPhail were "pleas-antly
surprised that everyone was
released." Additionally, they were
also shocked that such a small
amount of students applied to
live off-campus.
Pellegrino attributed the low
number of applicants to housing
surveys conducted this past fall
which indicated stronger prefer-ence
to live in new on-campus
housing.
Like other Fairfield stu-dents,
beach living is something
that Scopino has been looking
forward to since she arrived
at Fairfield. "Beach life sets
Fairfield apart from other similar
level schools," she said:
For rising juniors, living at
the beach is not just about living
within walking distance ofThe
Seagrape Bar or having the ability
to lay on the beach in their back-yard
(though who can argue that
these are nice perks).
Although there is a great deal
Beach | page 3
Contributed Photo
UCONN Stamford's current main building, site of the proposed development
Rival on the Horizon
BY JOHN TESSITORE
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
The recent announcement
of the potential expansion for
UConn Stamford may pose some
legitimate competition to the
Dolan School of Business when
it comes to prospective business
school students, especially in the
New York and Stamford area. Is
the administration worried?
"Fairfield is always interested
in changes in educational options
in our area," said Judith Dubai,
the Vice President for Enrollment
Management. Dubai adds, "We
also know that a Fairfield educa-tion
is unique and more individu-ally
focused than what might be
the typical UConn experience."
The proposed UConn
expansion was disclosed by Jud
Suviskas, the director of under-graduate
and graduate programs
for the UConn School of Busi-ness,
at a Stamford meeting of the
Fairfield County Public Relations
Association. This "expansion"
in the making, with no set start
date, will likely effect prospective
graduate school students rather
than potential undergraduates
looking at Fairfield.
UCONN|page3