Mirror - Vol. 39, No. 05 - October 02, 2013

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THE MIRROR Student newspaper WeekofOctober2,2013 Vol. 39, Iss. 5
www.fairfieldmirror.com ]M
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The Fairfield Mirror
DPS: Fairfield crime rates in 'good shape*
By Loan Le
Editor-in-Chief
Fairfield University campus
safety is in "very good shape" in
terms of its crime statistics, according
to the Department of Public Safety.
Fairfield recently released its
crime statistics, in accordance with
the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Cam-pus
Security Policy and Campus
Crime Statistics Act, which mandates
that college security submit annual
reports before Oct. 1.
In regards to the numbers for
Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 of 2012,
"we see a lot of consistency over the
board," John Ritchie, assistant direc-tor
of DPS, said.
He added, "There's been no
drastic changes for this year or in the
last three years."
Larceny and theft incidents
showed a gradual decrease since
2009, diminishing from 80 to 49 in
2012, the lowest number in the past
three years.
Disciplinary referrals for liquor
law violations were 1,072, which is 81
less than referrals for 2011.
That is not to say that statistics
did show slight increases in other ar-eas.
In this year's report, referrals for
drug abuse violations totalled 69, as
opposed to last year's 38. Arrests for
drug abuse violations came to 32,
eight more than the 2011 statistics.
Such drugs include cocaine, heroin,
marijuana and barbiturates.
There were also more drug
abuse-related arrests in 2012 than in
2011, with 32 and 24 arrests, respec-
Unfortunately, because
everyone has an open
attitude towards safety
[on campus], we're going
to still see some of these
statistics.
- John Ritchie,
Assistant Director of DPS
tively.
But Ritchie said of these statis-tics,
"That doesn't faze us too much."
Drug abuse violations come in
waves, he said, citing that in 2010,
statistics showed 92 disciplinary re-ferrals,
but then in 2011, 38 viola-tions.
Freshman Teon Smith said he
was initially "shocked" at the num-ber
of arrests and referrals for drug
abuse. He believes that whatever was
done in 2011 to prevent that year's
low statistics should be instigated
again. Lowering the number "could
be done."
In addition to an increase of
drug abuse on campus, forcible sexu-al
offenses incidents totalled to four -
three occurring in student residences
and one in an off-campus facility. In
the 2011 calendar year, public safety
reported zero incidents in this cat-egory.
Such offenses include rape,
sodomy and fondling.
Sexual offenses are the most un-derreported
crimes, said Ritchie, and
in this case people choose to utilize
the confidential reporting offered by
DPS.
Burglary crimes, different from
larceny (when the item is stolen di-rectly
from them), has increased
from 12 to 17 incidents. In addition,
hate crimes based off race also saw
two incidents in the last year.
"It's not like I'm expecting that
the campus [crime statistics] would
be pitch perfect," Christopher Guti-errez
'17. He added that it's "natural,"
READ CRIME ON PAGE 4
More than 2200 students were in attendance for the 10th annual Presidential Ball held at Bellarmine Hall. Tebben Gill Lopez/The Mirror
Prez. Ball deemed a perfect 10
By Robert Joyce
Crime Beat Reporter
Last weekend, students from
all classes marched up the hill to
the Bellarmine Lawn for Fairfield's
10th annual Presidential Ball. The
event started at 8 p.m. with doors
closing at 10 p.m., and ended at
midnight.
As part of the tradition, stu-dents
and guests made their way
through Bellarmine Hall to the pa-tio
where they were able to get their
picture taken with Fairfield Presi-dent
Fr. Jeffrey von Arx, S.J., before
descending the stone staircase and
voyaging on into the event known
as "Prez. Ball."
FUSA President Alex Long '14
said that the historically successful
event "went smoothly compared to
the last couple of years."
Assistant Director of Public
Safety John Ritchie attributes the
success of the event to the staff and
personnel who worked to make
sure those who attended had a safe
and enjoyable experience.
At Prez. Ball there were seven
medical transports from the event.
There were an additional seven
medical transports from campus
throughout that evening and into
the early morning. At the event, 21
people were triaged - determining
priority of patient's treatments - by
medical staff.
According to Ritchie, extra
staff allowed DPS to be better pre-pared
for triaging students. This
reduced the need to send students
to the hospital. At the event, staff
was able to make contact with
about 100 people who appeared to
need medical attention; most were
deemed to not need medical atten-tion.
Ritchie said, "Safety is always a
concern at any event." Large-scale
events are worrying; the consump-tion
of alcohol and drugs by those
attending causes concern, said
Ritchie.
G-Force Security, a private se-curity
company from Fairfield was
hired to provide additional staff-ing
to keep an eye on the perim-eter
of the event site. According to
Ritchie, They predominantly work
event venues and have a lot of ex-perience
with these types of events,
specifically crowd management. At
Prez. Ball, G-Force Security con-sisted
of eleven personnel and one
supervisor.
Ritchie said that the event was
a mostly positive experience for
students, considering the amount
of people that attended the event,
adding that "this sheds light on
how we should prepare for the up-coming
Fall Concert."
According to von Arx, Prez.
Ball started out as his inauguration
ball, and was originally in Alumni
Hall for the first time. "The kids
were so enthusiastic about it that
we decided to continue and so here
we are, year ten," said von Arx.
According to von Arx, his fa-vorite
part of the evening is "just
saying 'hi' to kids ... It's great to see
everybody dressed up. It's wonder-ful,
and it's great to see everybody
enjoying tiiemselves."
When asked how hard it is to
hold a smile for so long, von Arx
laughed, saying "I get used to that
one way or another. I massage my
face muscles to get them back into
shape. It's a wonderful, wonderful
occasion and I'm so happy to be
here and so happy that we're able to
READ PREZ. BALL ON PAGE 4
Community
sets sights on
climate change
By Enxhi Myslymi
Associate News Editor
Residents of Fairfield County
launched the first Citizens Climate
Lobby meeting on Sept. 24 at the
Burroughs Community Center.
"We are really trying to make
an impact from below on our con-gressional
people to have an effec-tive
policy on climate concerns,"
said Barbara Bresler, a Bridgeport
resident that lived in Fairfield.
"I got people together and
we've been reading literally around
my kitchen table about the issues,"
Bresler added. "Almost everybody
I have talked to is concerned."
Bresler was one of a dozen
Fairfield County members that
participated in CCL's talk last
Tuesday to raise awareness about
climate change.
Mary Jane Sorrentino, a mem-ber
of the Rhode Island Chapter of
the CCL, said, "We need to put a
simple, transparent predictable
price on carbon ... [and] focus on
getting climate change legislation
passed."
For Maryann Matthews of
Trumbull, "Citizens need to get
angry about what is happening in
the world. They should be angry
enough to get on the phone and
talk to Congress. Just start making
noise."
CCL is a nonpartisan, non-profit
organization that lobbies to
pass legislation on climate change.
It supports putting a tax on car-bon-
based fuels with the belief
READ CARBON ON PAGE 3
NEWS:
Page 4
OPINION:
Page 5
THE VINE
ExhiL.
undoc
Page 8
SPORTS:
Page 16
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