Mirror - Vol. 38, No. 19 - March 20, 2013

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THE B'/MIRROR
Week of March 20,2013 • Vol. 38, Iss. 19 • The Reflection ofFairfield • Independent Student Newspaper of Fairfield University
Pride
Week
still
lacking
Photo Illustration by Nick DiFazio/7he Mirror
New Student Leaders' (NSL) code of ethics, which currently states they cannot be in the presence of underage drinking, is being debated.
New Student Leaders petition for change
BY LEIGH TAUSS
OPINION EDITOR
A petition to alter the code
of ethics governing whether
New Student Leaders can be in
the presence of underage drink-ing
has sparked debate between
students and staff.
New Student Programs as-similate
freshmen and transfer
students to campus culture. The
program rests on the shoulders of
the New Student Leaders (NSL),
who help guide this transition as
mentors. One of their most im-portant
duties is to combat the
culture of underage drinking on
campus and help students make
healthy and legal recreational
choices.
It is common knowledge
that there is a drinking culture
at Fairfield. However, data from
a survey of incoming freshman
conducted by Fairfield showed
that the amount of high-risk
drinkers is significantly above
the national average. For incom-ing
freshmen, 32 percent were
reported to be high-risk drinkers
in contrast to the national aver-age
of 19 percent. Another sur-vey,
conducted midway through
the fall semester, showed an in-crease
in high-risk drinkers to 44
percent of students, compared
to the national average of 25 per-cent.
With the knowledge gained
from these surveys, how can
NSLs work to change Fairfield's
drinking culture?
According to John St. Marie,
graduate assistant and one of
the key staff members involved
in the program, the current NSL
code of ethics states that if an
NSL is in an environment where
underage drinking is occurring,
the NSL should talk to the par-ty's
host.
"If the person that is hold-ing
the party decides not to do
anything about it, then NSL [is
asked] to leave that environ-ment,"
St. Marie said.
In an anonymous survey
conducted by Lorena Gullotta,
former co-chair of the NSL pro-gram
and author of the petition,
out of 44 NSLs surveyed, 90.9
percent stated that they had vio-lated
the code of ethics' alcohol
policy.
97.7 percent stated that they
were in support of the petition to
change the code of ethics to al-low
NSLs to be in the presence
of underage drinking. The policy
not only isolates NSLs from their
friends, but also the culture they
are trying to combat, Gullotta
said.
Director of New Student
Programs Kamala Kiem said that
"just because 99 percent of peo-ple
are violating it doesn't mean
that we change the policy." What
it does mean is New Student Pro-grams
"have more work to do"
communicating with students
why the policy is important.
According to Kiem, "the
power of presence is exceeding-ly
powerful. If a student leader is
in the presence of illegal-activity
and does not intervene, it is pro-moting
that culture."
Gullotta believes the policy
change would be "more of an ac-ceptance
of the fact that there is
a drinking culture more than it is
condoning it."
Having the leaders present
in situations involving under-age
drinking shows "that it's OK
to go out and have fun but you
don't necessarily need to have a
drink," she said.
Among the other arguments
in favor of the petition is that by
NSL ! PAGE 3
BY MAGGIE MACKENZIE
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Fairfield hosted their an-nual
Community Pride Week
on March 4 to March 8 to a low
participation rate among the
student body
Run by Inter-Residential
Housing Association, Commu-nity
Pride Week is, "Designed to
encourage school spirit, build-ing
spirit and getting people to
think of their community as a
whole," according to Dominic
Paolino, president of IRHA.
The focus of this year was
to create a community amongst
the entire campus as opposed
to solely within one's residence
hall, which had been the pri-mary
focus in prior years. IRHA
wanted to encourage Fairfield
pride.
Redesigning the event,
however, did not encourage
enough students to partici-pate
in the festivities. Paolino
thought Community Pride Week
just "wasn't hyped up enough."
Fairfield University Stu-dents
Association president,
Rob Vogel '13 believes the solu-tion
is all in social media. "In-corporating
social media...is a
huge thing," he stated. "Infor-mation
sharing is so important
and across campus we don't do
PRIDE I PAGE 4
Townhouse closets remain closed for safe
BY SALVATORE TRIFILIO
NEWS EDITOR
With spring and warmer
weather rapidly approaching,
students are looking forward to
weekends filled with barbeques,
Slip'N Slides, Clam Jam and a
number of other activities to be
enjoyed in the sunny quads of
the townhouse complex.
However, juniors and se-niors
will have to find space
throughout their townhouses to
store these seasonal belongings.
Students are well aware that
their basement doors are never
to be opened for storage or any
other purposes. But, new to this
year, they are no longer allowed
to use the utility closets - located
on their back porches - for stor-age
either.
Senior Mike Warch said,
"Last year we had access to the
closet via our townhouse key but
this year they changed the locks.
I don't know why they did it but
I think we should be able to use
them."
However, Associate Director
of Resident Life Charlie Sousa
said, "These closets really aren't
for storage, they're for utilities."
Sousa explained the deci-sion
to refuse students' access to
the closet was suggested by Fa-cilities
Management in a meet-ing
over the summer where
Residence Life, Facilities
CLOSETS I PAGE 4
y @MirrorFairfield
Contributed Photo by University Fire Marshal Joseph Bouchard
In the past, students irresponsibly stored furniture in townhouse closets, where fiberoptics are housed.
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