Mirror - Vol. 39, No. 17 - February 12, 2014

              THE MIRROR Student newspaper Week of February 12,2014 Vol. 39, Iss. 17
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The Fairfield Mirror
Contributed by Susan Birge
Joe Graziano, program coordinator for Fairfield University's Collegiate Recovery Program, meets with Susan Birge, director of counseling
and psychological services at the Recovery House to discuss programming.
Road to recovery starts at home
By Kaitlin McEwan
Assistant News Editor
Timmy sat down with Lisa a few
years ago and spoke about his desires for
a recovery program for alcoholics and
drug addicts. He looked at Lisa and said,
"Ifyou build it, they will come." And they
did.
Fairfield's Recovery House opened
on Nov. 19, 2013. Recovery House was
designed to help students break an addic-tion
they are facing, whether it's drugs or
alcohol. Recovery House allows students
to balance both their education and re-covery.
The home is an unmarked house off
campus, within walking distance from
the school. Currentiy, the home holds
three members and one house manager.
Chris, a Fairfield student currently
living in Recovery House, is considered
to be the "pioneer" of the program. He
was the home's first resident and has
come a long way since his recognition of
his problem.
Meet the Staff
The staff is made up of four people.
Everyone shares similar interests and
desires for all those involved in the pro-gram.
Susan Birge serves as the assistant
vice president and director of counseling
and psychological services at Fairfield.
Lisa Arnold works with the clini-cal
piece of Recovery House. Her job
includes running the therapy groups
and the individual counseling. She also
works with students who are undergoing
personal struggles with recovery, or are
identifying things that compromise their
ability to stay sober.
Joe Graziano is the program coordi-nator
and also co-facilitates the clinical
piece with Arnold and works with some
Recovery House students individually.
Timmy is the house manager and
a recovered addict who graduated from
Fairfield. As the house manager, Timmy
tries to emphasize community. He said,
"The men are free to come and go as they
want and have to attend three 12-step
meetings a week. Other than that, sim-ply
respect and care for the living envi-ronment,
just like any other residency at
Fairfield."
First Jesuit School
Fairfield is the first Jesuit school to
start a Recovery House. However, 17 oth-er
schools are involved in the program,
including University of Virginia and Rut-gers.
Birge explained: "We are a little
ahead of the trend. The future of hous-ing
at an institution of higher education
is going to have to incorporate [Recovery
House].
Read HEALING on Page 3
Security cameras
installed in Quad dorms
By Atdhe Trepca
Contributing Writer
Freshman Matthew Del Rosso awaits the instal-lation
of new security cameras in the freshman dorms,
hoping that they will minimize vandalism on campus.
"I think if something did happen on the second
floor of Campion, now they have the luxury of going
back and looking at some footage to get to the bottom of
it," said Del Rosso, a resident of Campion Hall.
In the past year, the Department of Public Safety has
led the initiative to install security systems in the hall-ways
of dormitory buildings. Currently, security cameras
are being installed in Campion and Regis with plans to
retrofit Gonzaga and Campion before DPS moves onto
other buildings.
"Our goal is to get more cameras actually on the
exterior gate entrances for security purposes, as well as
interior in buildings. Not just residence halls but all over
the campus," said Todd Pelazza, director of public safety.
Junior Stephanie Oliver, resident assistant in the Ig-natian
Residential College, is hopeful that the addition
of cameras in hallways would eliminate the need for stu-dents
paying for damage that has occurred on their floor.
"I think it's really just putting the responsibility on
people that need to be responsible for it. Especially just
seeing over the years thousands of dollars' worth of dam-ages
put on people that don't deserve to be pay all the
damages," said Oliver.
Pelazza described the initiative for a stronger se-curity
system as a "systematic approach," which is only
recently being slowed down because of budget issues.
However, Pelazza reassured the student body that closed-circuit
television cameras have been assets to Fairfield for
over 15 years.
According to Pelazza, due to the security system re-cently
put in place, DPS has been able to solve several
crimes occurring within the dormitory halls. Pelazza re-ferred
to an ongoing case in which the new security sys-tem
was significant in that investigation.
"One crime that we were able to solve, that I really
can't talk about yet because it's in litigation now, was very
instrumental in the use of those cameras. A lot of the
vandalism in the elevators, as well as the residence halls,
have been solved because of the use of those cameras,"
said Pelazza.
While many students and administrators find the
new security objectives beneficial to the university, Dana
Garcia '17, a resident in Jogues Hall, has some worries.
"I think that [DPS officers] do their job. I think that
they do it well. I think they are too pushy though," Garcia
Read STUDENT on Page 4
Distressed have many options
By Casey Heely
Contributing Writer
The tragic story of University
of Pennsylvania freshman Madi-son
Holleran's recent suicide made
national news, sparking conver-sations
about how such horrific
events can be prevented.
Even before Holleran's death,
people have discussed strategies
of preventing tragedy. In Decem-ber
2013, CNN wrote in an article
titled "Big Brother is watching,"
that at one school, social media
monitoring actually helped save a
high school student's life because
the student "was talking on social
media about 'ending his life.'"
However, as the article cited,
there is much controversy over
whether schools "should do more
to monitor students' online inter-actions
off-campus to protect them
from dangers such as bullying,
drug use, violence and suicide."
At Fairfield, students and pro-fessors
alike had differing opinions
about this strategy. Dr. Michael
Serazio, an assistant professor in
communication who studies social
media closely, said, "Anything that
can be done to prevent tragedies,
like [Holleran's] death should be
considered."
Logistically, however, hevsaid
that it may not be practical for the
university to be able to screen all of
its students' social media for warn-ing
signs.
"What can happen, I think, is
the university relies on students to
monitor other students' social me-dia
content and try to pick up on
warning signs that way," he said.
Dean of Students Karen
Donoghue '03 said: "If students
bring forward concerns via social
media, we address it and make
referrals. We rely and encourage
friends to refer when someone is
in need."
Students, who interact with
Read COMBATING on Page 4
Tebben Gill Lopez / The Mirror
Students met candidates for all FUSA positions yesterday evening in
the lower level of the Barone Campus Center.
Inside on Page 2: Meet your 2014 FUSA presidential candidates.
NEWS: OPINION: SPORTS:
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