Mirror - Vol. 13, No. 14 - February 09, 1989

              The
Fairfield
Volume 13, No. 14MIRRORV Our Second Decade Thursday, February 9, 1989 "I Don't Care What The Facts Are,
DiDonato, Leyden Take FUSA Primary
Legislature Referendum Also Passed
AnnMarie Puckhaber
News Editor
The Fairfield University
Student Association (FUSA) held
its presidential primary on Tues-day,
February 7. Five students ran
in the primary: Marc Belanger,
Warren DiDonato, Patrick Foote,
Sean Leyden, and Mollie O'Brien.
The outcome of the primary puts
DiDonato and Leyden in the race
for the office of FUSA President.
Theresults ofthe primary'
were: Belanger with 193 votes,
DiDonato with 236 votes, Foote
with 113 votes, Leyden with 223
votes, and O'Brien with 198 votes.
Also voted on in the pri-mary
was a referendum to restruc-ture
the legislature. The proposal
was passed 619 to 103.
DiDonato is a politics
major from Seaford, NY, and is
presently the Assistant Director of
Academics and Assistant Director
of Student Services. DiDonato
says that his experience is "com-ing
from all over," meaning that
he has been active, not only with
FUSA, but in other aspects of the
University.
The activities that Di-
Donato has been involved in in-clude:
director ofFairfield games,
co-chair for the career spectrum,
president of the political action
league, student representative to
the undergraduate curriculum
committee, athletics committee,
tour guide, co-chair for sibling
weekend, executive council for
orientation '88, legislature repre-sentative,
and leadership weekend.
DiDonato would like to
seeFUSAresume a "morerelaxed,
friendly atmoshpere." He feels
that"FUSA is getting to be a clique"
and proposes to implement greater
communication with the students.
Among the goals of
DiDonato's campaign platform
are: to redesign the course regis-tration
process; improve the food
service by adding a point system
and offering alternate meal plans
to non-dorm residents; reroute the
shuttle bus; modernize the campus
health center by expanding doc-tor's
hours, dispensing ofprescrip-tion
drugs, and implementing
clinic-like services; enhance aca-demic
life by increasing study
space and adding a pass/fail op-tion;
expand and update library
resources; begin a computer pur-chase
program; purchase a copier
and change machine to be cen-trally
located in Loyola Hall; es-tablish
an admissions overnight
program; and guarantees two con-certs
a year.
Leyden is a finance ma-jor
from Southbury, CT, and is
currently the Director ofAthletics.
Hesays that he is not only a person
from FUSA, but has been involved
in other aspects of the campus as
well.
Leyden's activities in-clude:
club sports appropriations
committee, AIDS awareness com-mittee,
arts and lectures commit-
Sean Leyden Photo:D.W.
tee, tour guide, Fairfield Univer-sity
Townhouse Association, ex-ecutive
council of orientation '88,
co-chair for sibling weekend,
admissions summer open-house,
leadership weekend, student rep-resentative
to the National Asso-ciation
of Campus Activities, aca-demics
committee, concerts, ath-letics
committee, and majordances.
Among Leyden's objec-tives
is to "open FUSA up by being
there for people." He plans to get
rid off many of the old events and
implement new events in order to
"get people back into the Univer-sity."
The goals outlined in
Leyden's campaign are: to rede-sign
the registration process so that
students have more courses to
choose from and receive more of
their first choices; reschedule the
shuttle bus; work with dorm coun-cils
to strengthen their role in the
student government; install change
machines in central locations on
campus; work with FUTA to in-stall
soda machines and coin-oper-ated
telephones in the townhouse
area; institute an optional meal plan
for off-campus residents; establish
new events; establish a townhouse
lounge; conductopenFUSA meet-ings,
referendums and polls; and
establish a better liason with the
student body.
The two candidates will
debate tonight in the Campus
Center at5:30 and the election will
be held on Tuesday, February 14.
Seagrape Owner, Levine, Files Lawsuit
Defendants Include Fairfield Fire and Police Departments, 8 Residents
Lynn Ann Casey
Assistant Editor
On December 21, 1988,
Steven Levine, owner of the
Seagrape Cafe, filed a lawsuit in
Bridgeport Superior Court against
the Fairfield Fire Department and
the Fairfield Police Department,
the fire chief, two fire captains,
and eight Fairfield residents, many
of which are members of the unin-corporated
Fairfield Beach Asso-ciation.
Steven Levine holds that the
Fairfield Fire Department "com-menced
raiding the plaintiffs busi-ness
on a regular basis purportedly
attempting to discover fire safety
code violations." According to the
lawsuit, employees ofthe Fire De-partment
"told the plaintiff, on
numerous occasions, that it was
said (it was the) defendant's inten-tion
to 'close down' the plaintiffs
business."
The lawsuit also states that
"the defendant Police Depart-ment's
action's were without prob-able
cause and were intended to
harass, impede, and destroy the
plaintiff's business." As stated in
count nine of the ten counts in-volved
in the case, the Police
Deparmentis accused ofcommenc-ing
"a campaign in and around the
area of the Seagrape Cafe, of ar-resting,
harassing, intimidating,
citing and surveilling the patrons
of the Seagrape Cafe, the effect of
which was to discourage patrons
from going to the Seagrape.
The lawsuit also names
defendants Vincent Biondi, Lau-rel
Palmieri, Gretchen Hauser,
Herman Fricke, John Carlin, Joann
Barrett, Donald Kelley and Tho-mas
Conley and stated that they
"attempted to close down the plain-tiffs
business and to that end...
maliciously and with intent to in-jure
the plaintiffconspired together
to defraud the plaintiffofhis right-ful
business." It states that these
Seagrape Cafe, 1144 Reef Road Photo: Michelle Clifford
people made "spurious, untruth-ful,
and fraudulent complaints
about the plaintiff to officials and
furtherbegan spreading spurious,
fraudulent, and slanderous rumors
alleging that the plaintiff was in
violation of the law."
Whenthe Nautilus went out
of business in December of 1985,
Steven Levine spent in excess of
$100,000 to renovate the former
bar located at 1144 ReefRoad, and
opened the Seagrape Cafe in May
of 1986. Since that time, there has
been endless feuding between the
plaintiff and the defendents, re-sulting
in the present lawsuit.
Thelocation ofthe Seagrape
Cafe at 1144 Reef Road directly
relates the case to some students of
Fairfield University. The bar is in
walking distance of many of the
houses along Reef Road as well as
Fairfield Beach Road where many
juniors and seniors reside during
school times. Many students go to
the bar on a regular basis in addi-tion
to organizing planned activi-ties
in conjunction with the
Seagrape including the recent
"Senior Night."
Geralyn Kilkenney, Presi-dent
of the Fairfield University
Beach Association, feels that the
lawsuit "will have an effect on
students." If Levine wins the case,
"it will be a boost to students" as
well as show them tha>u "you can
fight city hall." She feels that
students had been discouraged by
past harassment around the
Seagrape and said that, on occa-sion,
the area has looked like "an
armed camp."
One night in particular that
upset students was Senior night.
On this occasion, the Fairfield Fire
Marshall entered the Seagrape and
asked fifty students to leave. An
order was given for the bar to stop l
serving until students complied.
The bar was forced to stop serving
a second time when the Fire
Marshall asked an additional
twenty people to leave.
Attorneys involved in the
case include Alan Neigher of
Byselas and Neigher in Westport
representing the eight Fairfield
residents and Lawrence Lapine of
Bello, Lapine, and Cassone in
Stamford. Both lawyers agree that
there is a direct connection and
bearing on students of Fairfield
University. Lapine feels that the
case will "effect students in a fa-vorable
way" as they will be given
"more freedom to participate in all
lawful activities."
Alan Neigher claims that
the lawsuit is "nothing more than
an attempt to intimidate people
who are most affected by (Steven
Levine's) actions by reporting his
breach of the law to proper au-thorities."
He feels that it is an
attempt to "scare others from exer-cising
their legal rights" but that it
"is going to have the opposite ef-fect."
Continued on Page 3...
The Mirror is Sponsoring the FUSA Debate
Tonight, 5:30 PM, Campus Center Lobby