Mirror - Vol. 38, No. 04 - October 03, 2012

              THE MTMIRROR
Week of October 3,2012 • Vol. 38, Iss. 4 • The Reflection ofFairfield • Independent Student Newspaper of Fairfield University
Prez Ballin' the night away
BY COURTNEY TODD
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
This past Friday marked the
eighth annual Presidential Ball,
hosted at the Bellarmine Mansion
and attended by students of all
grades.
This year the theme was nau-tical
and, despite it being the sec-ond
year in a row that it has rained
on the event, students made the
hike up the hill to the president's
mansion for a night of dancing,
food and fun.
"DJ International" played a
mix of current rap and hip-hop
songs, pop songs and even some
older hits from the early 2000's that
left students dancing and enjoying
themselves into the late hours of
the night.
"The music was great and I felt
a real sense of the Fairfield com-munity,"
said Mickey Stein '16.
In addition, various hors
d'oeuvres and refreshments were
served such as mozzarella sticks,
cupcakes and non-alcoholic dai-quiris.
According to FUSA President
Rob Vogel '13, with roughly 2,100
to 2,200 students in attendance,
the turnout was better than ex-
Contributed Photo
Students enjoyed a night of dancing, food, and fun at the Prez Ball at Bellarmine Mansion.
pected.
Each student was offered the
customary option of getting their
photo taken with Fr. Jeffrey Von
Arx SJ. before they entered the
crowded tent.
Those who worked to plan the
event were pleased with the end
result.
'After starting the planning for
the event over the summer it was
nice to see everything come to-gether
and see everyone have such
a good time," said Lindsey Hanley
'15, director of special events for
FUSA.
Those who attended the "Prez
Ball" were primarily freshmen
and sophomores, but juniors and
seniors also attended the ball as
well. Some students voiced their
opinions and enthusiasm about
their experience of the event.
"Prez ball was amazing. Total-ly
underrated! Perfect mix of classy
and getting nasty. The DJ was on
point and it was one of the best
experiences I've had at Fairfield so
far," said Victoria Heinsohn '16.
"I was a little wary of going as
a junior but I'm glad I decided to. I
ended up seeing a lot more people
that I know than I thought I would,"
said Kristin Dangler '14.
Not everything during the
night went according to plan, how-ever.
At 11 p.m. the music had to
be turned down because of noise
complaints in the area and eight
students were transported to the
hospital due to intoxication.
Although these setbacks add-ed
a bit of a negative spin to the
night, those who planned the event
and those who attended seemed to
enjoy themselves nonetheless.
"Overall the night went
smoothly and was a huge success,"
said Hanley. "The entire night defi-nitely
set a positive tone for the
rest of the FUSA events throughout
the year."
Pundits debate amidst suspense ofupcoming election
Contributed by Michael Horyczun / Director of Media Relations
Dana Perino (left) and Donna Brazile (right) answer panel questions.
BY NICOLETTA RICHARDSON
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Many Fairfield students
might not know which presiden-tial
candidate they should vote
vox C.n Nov- 6- or iftnev wiM vote
at all. But the uCl?2te between
Dana Perino and Donna Brazile
Monday night at the Quick Cen-ter
showed students that their
votes count.
Political speakers Donna
Bia/ile and Dana Peilnu had
#
a chance to speak freely about
the upcoming elections. Perino
spoke first, and although she
may be on the Republican side,
she talked about the current polls
from both parties.
Perino discussed the re-cent
Public Policy polling, which
^owed there is a higher percent-age
of identified a,"^ Cerent reg-istered
Independents than there
are for Democrats and Republi-cans.
Perino asked the audience,
"What dues tills mean?"
"Then there's the undecid-ed,"
said Perino. "There's only
about 1 to 3 percent of them and
you know what, they don't all live
in battleground states. You're
talking about probably 400,000
people in the country who self-describe
themselves as detached
from the election who will be the
deciding factors."
Although Perino then dis-cussed
the challenges of talking
i, tothp.AmorJi>*»-~—'- «■ -* "'
„.~ ..u^„oau ycujjie mat Dotn
parties are facing, she directed
the attention back to what Wash-ington
should be doing for the
people.
Brazile praised Perino for
her speech by saying, "Now ya'll
see why Dana has her own show,
and I'm still auditioning."
Senior Cate Martel picked up '
on the relationship between the
speakers. "While the speakers
didn't agree about all issues, it
was obvious that they had worked
with each other in the past," said
Martel. "They really play off each
other so the energy was good."
After opening with a few
more humorous lines, Brazile
started discussing the topic of the
upcoming debate. She agreed
Wr«£ petrino in saying that the
debate for the preside^!!] candi-dates
could be "a game changer."
fairfieldmirror.com
"While we know where both
candidates stand today in terms
of polls, things could change,"
said Brazile. "Mitt Romney could
have that magical moment. He
could, after all, be able to put
President Obama on the defen-sive."
Brazile continued to discuss
that the debates could dramati-cally
change the election. She
talked about past presidential
candidate Al Gore, and how he
was ahead by two points. But at
one event close to the elections,
people did not like the way Gore
presented his body language,
showing that anything can sway
the election.
"It's ultimately going to come
down to the 2 to 4 percent of the
Arherican people who are 'still
undecided' and those so-called
battleground states," said Bra-zile.
"Now I think what they're
looking for on Wednesday night
is that they're looking for civility.
They're tired of the finger point-ing,
they're tired of the scream-ing.
They want to hear real solu-tions."
She continued to say that
the political parties needed to
put aside their differences and
begin bipartisan leadership. Bra-zile
Dcii°ves tnat tne joint efforts
uf pulilitdl pailies wflTuiuvfc UlC
economy "in the right direction."
After the talks were finished,
Philip Eliasoph, founder of the
Open VISIONS Forum, turned the
attention to the student panelists
who were going to ask questions
'\vhile the speak-ers
didn't agree
about all issues, it
"was obvious that
they had worked
with each other
in the past. They
really play off each
other so the energy
was good."
-Cate Martel '14
about Domestic national issues,
international questions and extra
questions.
Student panelist Matt Mor-rissey
'13, chairman of the Col-lege
Republicans, used his free
question to bring up the issue of
a political interest amongst stu-dents.
"I try to grab people based
on their passion," said Brazile.
POLITICAL j PM?i 2
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