Mirror - Vol. 39, No. 13 - December 04, 2013

              THE MIRROR Student newspaper Week of December 4,2013 Vol. 39, Iss. 13
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The Mr field Mirror
er in re
By Luigi DiMeglio
Managing Editor
The Fairfield registrar has reported an excellent course
sign-up period for students, though a long history of strug-gle
has left some lingering fixes to be desired.
Robert C. Russo 72 posted on the technology services
Tumblr account on Nov. 22: "The smoothest on-line regis-tration
ever!!!! Thanks for all of your attention in giving the
system a major 'tune up?'
In recent years, the online platform for course registra-tion
has been known to fail - leaving students unable to get
into any classes at all until the problem was fixed by technol-ogy
services. This year, Fairfield purchased new servers and
dedicated one solely to registration to make room for the
abrupt surge of web traffic that occurs.
Still, other aspects of registration receive negative re-views.
"Its inconvenient for a lot of students. The reason I
think is because [registration] times conflict with classes,"
said Conor Long T6.
He "got lucky" because he declared a major in film and
got to preregister for media-related courses and one of his
German courses rolled over from this semester. However,
he missed registration for his Residential College course
because the registration period for students in the Service
for Justice Residential College conflicted with film pre-reg-istration.
"I think it's pretty stupid," said Rob Marsalona '16. "I'm
with the disability and support office [so I register early],
but I had the same issue [as Long]."
Marsalona points to registration times conflicting with
each other and class time as the biggest system faults.
READ REGISTRATION ON PAGE 4
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Contributed by Robert Russo '72
DPS updates
campus safety
procedure
By Robert Joyce
Crime Beat Reporter
Columbine High School. Virginia Tech. Sandy
Hook Elementary School.
All of these schools have one thing in common:
tragic shootings.
Even as these terrible and horrifying incidents oc-cur
closer and closer to home, the Fairfield community
operates under the guise that an incident of such nature
could never happen here.
Associate Director of Public Safety Frank Ficko
spoke to Fairfield faculty and Residence Life staff about
basic emergency procedure at Fairfield during crisis
situations and critical incidents. He explained how to
recognize a critical incident, how to act and how Fair-field
is not immune.
"There is no magic bubble around our campus,"
said Ficko.
He continued: "A critical incident, by the book
definition, is an extraordinary event which jeopardizes
lives and property, is unpredicted, overwhelming and
requires the additional resources for a successful resolu-tion."
Ficko recalled previous crisis/emergency situations
on campus.
On Feb. 12, 2002, there was a hostage crisis in
Canisius Hall where a former student with an alleged
explosive device took 26 people hostage.
"What made that such a big deal was that it was the
first major event in the country post 9/11. So, all eyes of
the country, for that matter, were on Fairfield for those
few hours," said Ficko.
Weeks before that, there was an incident where a
student believed they had been exposed to anthrax from
mail in their Barone Campus Center mailbox, according
to Ficko.
Just last year, Fairfield was hit hard by Hurricane
Sandy and Winter Storm Nemo.
The Department of Public Safety has released a new
Faculty/Staff Emergency Guide for critical incidents of
many different natures. Hostage situations, fires/ex-plosions,
hazardous material releases/gas leaks, bomb
threats, violent intruders and weather emergencies
READ SAFETY ON PAGE 4
Fairfield adjunct professor for counseling education Bob Schmidt and his wife Josie highlighted the power of music in healing
processes. The workshop was conceived after the Sandy Hook shooting last year. Loan Le/The Mirror
Catharsis through creativity
By Loan Le
Editor-in-Chief
After 26 people died in a senseless shoot-ing
at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec.
14, community members started placing ted-dy
bears, flowers and small gifts near the site
to honor the victims. Bob and Josie Schmidt,
town residents for 31 years, recalled visiting the
makeshift memorial on a rainy, cold day.
"Everywhere we went in town, we were
reminded of what happened; it was beauti-ful
and touching, but it still reminded us of
the pain and the loss," said Bob Schmidt, an
adjunct professor teaching Fairfield graduate
classes for counseling education.
Deeply affected by the sorrows that
couldn't seem to go away, he and his wife, Josie,
a retired teacher who once substituted at Sandy
Hook, composed a song to express their grief.
Yesterday, they performed "Rain, Rain, Rain"
during a workshop at the Fairfield University
Bookstore and discussed how creative outlets
like literature and songs can heal people after
devastations.
The Schmidts led the first storytelling
workshop last year. Today, Newtown continues
to heal. "We are starting to see the town as the
beautiful place we love," Bob Schmidt said.
As a member of the Sandy Hook Crisis
Response Team, he volunteered at a crisis cen-ter
and said that seeing people come together
"helped me get my balance again."
According to Dr. Bogusia Skudrzyk, who
also spoke on yesterday, the healing process af-ter
tragedies doesn't always have to be personal.
"We must allow ourselves to be around people
who care for us."
"We must allow ourselves to
be around people who care for
rt
US.
- Dr. Bogusia Skudrzyk
To start the healing process, the cause of
the pain and sorrow must be confronted. Some
people might believe that grief must be over-come
immediately. "Ihere is so much pressure
around us that makes us pretend that nothing
[bad] happened," the associate professor of
counselor education said. But grieving has no
timetable.
Skudrzyk also disagrees with the myth
that showing sadness is a sign of weakness; she
encourages people to be open, like children
"who are strong enough to admit their feel-ings."
Josie Schmidt believes that acknowledg-ing
griefand its causes leads to "an appreciation
of the beauty of everyday life."
Catharsis can happen with words on pa-per,
a brush against a blank canvas or notes
strummed on a guitar - creativity opens the
path to healing and people can choose what-ever
route they feel comfortable with.
Eventually, attendees were asked to draw
four trees, each representing a different sea-son,
and then break up into smaller groups to
discuss their drawings. The attendees - some
strangers, some classmates from Skudrzyk's
course on multicultural issues in counseling
and education - started exchanging stories
about parents, siblings and friends who have
passed away.
Jeff Burgdorfer, a Fairfield graduate stu-dent
studying clinical mental health counsel-ing,
associated the seasons with the beginning
of a healing process.
He said autumn represents acceptance of
the "inevitability of death... which gets you into
READ CREATIVITY ON PAGE 4
NEWS:
Page 2
SPORTS:
Page 16