Mirror - Vol. 37, No. 25 - April 25, 2012

              THE (^MIRROR
Week of April 25,2012 • Vol. 37, Iss 25 • Jfoe Reflection ofFairfield • Independent Student Newspaper of Fairfield Universi
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0£¥BY: Stephen Florentine
Puff. Puff. Passed.
Connecticut State Lawmak-ers
passed a law that reduces the
penalty for possession of a half-ounce
or less of marijuana. It went
into effect on July 1,2011. First time
offenders now receive a $150 ticket
rather than get arrested and put
through the court system.
Despite the reduced penalty,
Fairfield University administrators
and students say that, in general,
they have not changed their stance
towards the drug. Fairfield's policy
towards cannabis-like substances
remains the same as it did before
the reduced penalty - as do student
attitudes.
Associate Director of Public
Safety Frank Ficko said that Public
Safety's main concern is to keep stu-dents
from getting behind the wheel
of a car while impaired by marijua-na.
He said that the effects of mari-juana
are similar to other hallucino-gens
and the goal is to keep students
and the rest of the community safe.
"Anything we can do to make
campus safer," said Ficko in refer-ence
to Fairfield's unchanged poli-cy-
Interviews with Fairfield stu-dents
found that most felt the re-duced
penalty will neither increase
nor decrease the current number
of marijuana users. Statistics show
that drug related incidents on cam-pus
have been on the rise in recent
years, but many students feel that
the reduced penalties will not sig-nificantly
affect these trends.
"The number of users
will stay the same," said
Matthew Wan-tanabe
'12. "It's
not like you are
drawing in a new audience.
Despite the normal fluctuations in
users, it will more or less stay the
same."
"Usage will stay the same be-cause
it did in Massachusetts," said
Doug Penta '12, referring to the
similar marijuana laws in Massa-chusetts.
The Jeanne Clery Disclosure
Policy report requires schools to an-nually
disclose information about
crime on campus in the past year.
The 2010-2011 report for Fairfield
University showed a large jump in
drug-related incidents on campus
from 2009 to 2010, the most recent
years recorded.
TheCleryreportshowedthatthe
number of drug related
disciplinary referrals in 2010 was 92,
as opposed to 54 in 2009. The num-ber
of drug related arrests in 2010
was 45, as opposed to 28 in 2009.
This significant increase in drug
related incidents might continue
thanks to the new reduced penalties
for marijuana possession. Despite
the majority opinion amongst Fair-field
students that the reduced pen-alties
will not change the number
of marijuana users, some students
believe that it will encourage new
users and change the ways that it is
used.
"People will be more likely to
use marijuana because it's only a
slap on the wrist," said student Nate
Goldin'12.
"Kids will take the same risks
but will not be as careful when
transporting and using the drug,"
said student David Reyneke '12.
Despite the students' re-sponse,
Ficko hopes that
marijuana usage
by students will
go down and he is
"always optimistic that
students will wise up."
In January, students
received an email from the
Dean of Students notifying them of
changes to Connecticut law regard-ing
possession of a cannabis-like
substance. Despite the changes to
the state's policy, the school's pol-icy
remained the same.
When students are caught on
campus with marijuana, the Fair-field
Police are notified and stu-dents
are subject to arrest and pros-ecution
depending on the amount.
The involved students are then
referred to the Dean of Student's
office for a Code of
Conduct hearing.
Once referred to the Dean of
Students, students are subject to
much harsher penalties. The 2011-
2012 edition stated that "Simple of-fenses,
which include possession
of drug paraphernalia and pos-session
or use of small quantities
of drugs, will result in a $300 fine,
disciplinary'probation, drug edu-cation
class, referral for evaluation
or counseling, and community ser-vice."
"Major offenses, including the
possession or use of large quanti-ties
of drugs, possession or use of
certain categories of drugs other
than marijuana and as defined
herein (e.g., cocaine, heroin, hal-lucinogens,
etc.), and/or the intent
or potential to sell or distribute,
will result in dismissal or expulsion
from the University," the handbook
states.
Todd Pelazza, director of Pub-lic
Safety, said that he agrees
with students that us-age
will not really
change and
cut State universities.
Ficko said that this is
most likely because, like Fairfield,
the health and safety ofthe students
are the schools' main concerns.
According to The College Voice,
Connecticut College's student-run
newspaper, Associate Dean of Stu-dent
Life Sarah Cardwell said the
reason for Connecticut College's un-changed
policy is because "the leg-islation
targets fines and logistics."
Sanctions at the school are seen as
educational rather than monetary
and therefore remain unchanged.
The University of Connecticut
has taken a different stance, how-ever.
The university has reduced
penalties for students caught with
marijuana. Administrators now
have the option of issuing a warn-ing
or referring the student to an
educational program rather than
suspending them, the Post report-ed.
Nationally, thenumberofdrug-related
arrests on college campuses
increased from 14,631 in 2007 to
16,335 in 2009, according to the
U.S. Department of Education. The
number of disciplinary actions on
college campuses for drug-related
that the response to the state's re-duced
penalties has been about
what he expected. He said the pur-pose
of the law was to avoid clog-ging
up the court system.
According to the Connecticut
Post, other local colleges and uni-versities
have not softened their
policies on marijuana use, accord-ing
to spokesmen for Sacred Heart,
Quinnipiac and Western Connecti-incidents
increased from 29,314 in
2007 to 36,970 in 2009.
"Marijuana use will stay the
same," said student Colleen Mar-kee'
12. "They are going to smoke
weed whether it's a big ticket or a
little ticket."
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY:
Martin O'Sullivan, Nick DiFazio,
and Loan Le
Fairfield Commencement speakers announced
Contributed Photo
Suzanne and Bob Wright founded "Autism Speaks" in 2005.
jff @MirrorFairfield
BY LOAN LE
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
A prominent prosecutor who
found his start at Fairfield University
and the founders of the advocacy or-ganization
Autism Speaks have been
tapped to speak at this year's 62nd
Commencement ceremony.
On May 20, Joseph P. Russoniello
'63 and Bob and Suzanne Wright will
speak to the graduating class of 2012.
fairfieldmirror.com
Russoniello has made a name
for himself in law. He has prosecuted
criminal and civil cases involving espi-onage,
money laundering and public
corruption and is responsible for tight-ening
laws on national security, gun
ownership and child pornography.
Senior Richard Wolf says that
he anticipates hearing the com-mencement
speech from Russon-iello.
"My career goal is to become a
prosecutor... and I'm interested to
see how [Russoniello] transformed
his Jesuit education into a life as an
attorney," he said.
The second commencement
speakers, Bob and Suzanne Wright,
stand as integral members of the
local Fairfield community, reach-ing
to make gains for the research
of autism by fund raising through
Autism Speaks.
Founded by the couple in 2005,
COMMENCEMENT I PAGE 6
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