Mirror - Vol. 38, No. 12 - December 05, 2012

              THE BEMIRROR
Week of December 5,2012 • Vol. 38, Iss. 12 • The Reflection ofFairfield • Independent Student Newspaper of Fairfield University
Norovirus
strikes
Fairfield
MIRROR STAFF REPORT
On the night of Tuesday Nov.
27, Chelsea Mingrone '14 felt
stomach pains shortly before 9
p.m. She also felt sick, so she went
home.
She suffered from nausea,
vomiting, diarrhea, and dehydra-tion.
Other students encountered
the same problems, some earlier,
some later, but what happened
in the end was the same: They all
had the norovirus.
By Wednesday afternoon,
Fairfield Department of Health
officials arrived on campus to
investigate increasing reports of
students experiencing similar
symptoms.
The health department con-firmed
on Thursday that the sick-ness
was viral gastroenteritis,
more commonly referred to as
the norovirus, according to health
center Director Julia Duffy. Duffy
said that within the last week ap-proximately
100 students were af-fected
by the norovirus.
"We've seen about 50 stu-dents
[in the health center] and
we've heard on the phone [from]
about 50 students," she said. Of
these students, approximately 6
were transported to the hospital
due to dehydration.
Norovirus, according to
website of the Center for Disease
Control, "causes your stomach or
intestines or both to get inflamed
... This leads you to have stomach
pain, nausea, and diarrhea and to
throw up."
According to Aryanne Pereira
'13, "I could tell it was a stom-ach
virus because I felt the same
symptoms from last year's stom-ach
virus that was around Decem-ber
or so."
Assistant Vice President Jim
Fitzpatrick said that initial discus-sions
on Wednesday afternoon
between administrators and pub-lic
safety indicated that food from
campus dining facilities was a po-tential
source of the sickness.
"I believe four of the seven
[initially affected students], there
seemed to be a common thread of
chicken," said Fitzpatrick.
"The fire department, in con-sultation
with Tom Pellegrino ...
and myself made the recommen-dation
that the chicken be pulled
from the dining hall. Dr. Pel-legrino
accepted their rec-ommendation
and asked
that I contact Sodexo
and pull the chicken," he
continued.
Vice President of
StudentAffairsTomPel-legrino
said of his deci-sion
on Wednesday: "I
had no confirmation
in terms of any
thing in terms
ofwhat is it,
viral ver-sus
bacte-rial.
"I just made a gut instinct
call," he continued. "I didn't want
anyone eating chicken at that
particular point in time until we
could find out more ... It's kind
of when you're going through
your kitchen and you think that
something might be expired and
somebody isn't feeling well. You
throw it out."
According to Fitzpatrick, the
town health department arrived
soon after because of a call they
had received from the fire depart-ment
concerning students being
transported to the hospital.
"From the information the
town had, and since all of
the students affected
were from all different
sectors ... they began
to suspect that it was
not a case of food be-ing
the main source
of the stomach prob-lems,
but it could be
a virus," he said. This
was confirmed by
the health depart-ment
on Thursday
afternoon accord-ing
to Fitzpatrick,
Pellegrino and
Duffy.
NOROVIRUS I PAGE 3
Nick DiFazio/The Mirror
Management students sold Candy Grams in the BCC on Tuesday.
Raising money and
Christmas cheer
BY MOLLY LEIDIG
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
As students line up at Ein-stein's
to get their afternoon cof-fee
fix, two management students,
who once barely knew each other,
sit together at a table selling Can-dy
Grams to raise money for the
victims of Hurricane Sandy.
In a Facebook group created
for the event, Robert Lopinto '14
said, "We willcome together as
a nation and not let this devasta-tion
get us down. It is time that
we all join as one and show every-one
that the people of the United
States of America are hands down
the greatest individuals alive!"
The management class,
CANDY | PAGE 2
President and refugees coexist
^J @MirrorFairfield
BY THOMAS SHEA
ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
When Kevin Bachman '13
began his senior year in Septem-ber,
it would have been hard to
imagine that by the end of the fall
semester, he would be receiving
text messages from the president
of the University on a regular ba-sis.
"He texts us all the time,"
said Bachman, "Like, 'Hey guys,
hold down the fort while I'm
away.' He's such a nice guy."
For many Fairfield Univer-sity
seniors, Hurricane Sandy
struck at a time when they were
supposed to be enjoying the thrill
of off-campus living for the first
time in their four years. Instead,
many have ended up in the very
same dorms that housed them
as freshmen and sophomores,
retreating back to the lifestyle of
common bathrooms and meals
in Barone.
But for four particular se-niors,
the storm presented a very
different opportunity.
Bachman, along with his
roommates Tyler Haviland '13,
Andrew Cunningham '13 and
Paul Rosen '13, have been dis-fairfieldmirror.
com
placed by the storm, but have
taken up residency at one loca-tion
rarely seen by students: the
home of Rev. Jeffery P. von Arx.
"My room here is
three times the size
of my one at the
beach house.
-Kevin
Bachman'13
"This is the best scenario,"
said Bachman. "We're the only
people with a kitchen. We didn't
get broken up into freshmen
dorms. We're off campus. My
room here is three times the size
of my one at the beach house."
The four seniors are among
the approximately 300 Fairfield
students who needed a place to
stay after the storm uprooted
them from their beach houses.
This group's house in particu-lar,
called "The Lobster Trap,"
sustained heavy damages to its
downstairs rooms. Most of the
appliances had to be replaced,
and major work had to be done
on the interior of the house.
"They keep stripping it more.
I went down there yesterday, and
we had stairs the other day, but
now we don't," said Bachman.
But for now, the students
do not mind their new living ar-rangements,
and their relation-ship
with Fr. Von Arx has been
going well.
"He's a real down-to-earth
guy," said Bachman. "People au-tomatically
assume because he's
the President and he's so intel-ligent
that he'll be stand-offish.
But honestly, he's very good with
us, very welcoming."
"We're a lot Closer to him
than everyone else," said Rosen.
And according to von Arx
himself, he likes having the boys
there. "It's been fine. They're
nice guys," said von Arx.
In fact, von Arx has begun
to see himself in a paternal role
with the students. "It's funny ...
somebody my age, you begin to
think of them a little bit as your
children," said von Arx. "One of
them didn't come back [Sunday],
and I guess you begin to worry a
VON ARX | PAGE 3
Connect with us online! The Fairfield MirrorA