Mirror - Vol. 14, No. 06 - October 19, 1989

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 14, No. 6 Our Second Decade Thursday, October 19, 1989 The Image of Fairfield
Spontaneous Combustion Causes Fire
Bannow Damage Estimated at $40,000
Lynn Ann Casey
Editor in Chief
A fire broke out in the sec-ond
floor of the Bannow Science
building on Saturday, October 14
at 10:12 p.m. as a result of sponta-neous
combustion, but no injuries
were reported, said the Director of
Public Relations.
Lieutenant William Kessler
of the Fairfield Fire Department
said the priliminary estimate of the
damage is $40,000.
Fairfield Security arrived at
Bannow to see flames coming from
the second floor of the building.
Four fire companies, one ladder
company, and two rescue teams
responded after a call from Secu-rity
at 10:14 p.m.
The fire resulted from spon-taneous
combustion ofsome cloths
located in one storeroom, and of-fice
of the second floor, said Mur-ray
Farber ofPublic Relations. This
was discovered as the result of an
investigation by Henry, Stevens,
Fairfield University Fire Marshall,
and a Captain and a Lieutenant of
the Fairfield Police Department on
Saturday night.
Sean Leyden, Class of 1990,
witnessed the fire and saw "flames
coming from the windows and
smoke everywhere."
The fire was brought under
control at 10:55 p.m., according to
Shift Commander, Captain Rich-ard
Felner of the Fairfield Fire De-partment,
who was the officer in
charge.
Windows were broken to
alleviate some of the smoke. Fire-fighters
wore air packs for safety
reasons because many chemicals
are stored in the science building.
Chemicals, however, did not come
into play as they were all locked in
flame-proof metal cabinets.
Some classes taking place
in the labs on the second floor were
cancelled due to water damage,
heavy smoke damage and broken
windows. They have been sched-uled
to resume yesterday, accord-ing
to Farber, when most of the
damage is planned to be repaired.
One Fairfield Security
Guard, who was present at the site
of the fire at approximately 11:30,
refused to cooperate with reporters
and would not disclose any infor-mation
pertaining to the blaze.
The fire companies were
called back to the station at 11:45
p.m., but some members of the
department remained behind to
investigate the cause of the fire, to
overhaul the smoke damage, and
to make sure the building was out
of danger.
: .■. :,...■■■■. ■ ■ .::
Bannow Hall Mirror File Photo
Students Entitled To Trial By Their Peers
Jimmy Gooding
Staff Writer
The role of Student Court
is to act as a "mediation between
the expectations of the University
as an enduring institution, the needs
and rights of the student body as a
whole, and the needs, rights, and
impulses ofthe individual student,"
according to the University hand-book.
So far this year, there has
been only one night that the Court
was scheduled to meet and it did
not have any cases to hear.
The undergraduate bench
is comprised of nine justices:
Kristin Diglio (Chief Justice), '90;
Kevin Carton, '90; Christopher
Hogan, '90; Amy Kerr, '90; Ted
McDermott, '90; Michael Breslin,
'91; Robert Hendrickson, '91; Liz
McGrath, '92; Stephanie Theroux,
'92.
Members of the court
were chosen based on their appli-cations
and a series of interviews.
Once a person is elected to the
Student Court he or she remains
until graduation. In September an
orientation/refresher course is held
to familiarize first year members
and for review for returning mem-bers.
The judicial process be-gins
when a student is written up.
The R.A. files a report to Jeane
DiMuzio, Judicial Officer, who
explains to the offender what the
charges are as well as the options
he/she has at this point. The stu-dent
may appear before the court
or waive this right.
If the right is waived, the
case is referred to the Dean of
Students, Fr. W.Laurence O'Neill
for disciplinary action.
If the student chooses to
take the case to the court a trial date
will be scheduled. Each justice
receives a copy of the case - the
R.A.'s report, the student's story,
and any witness reports - before-hand
for review so questions may
be prepared for the trial.
On the day of the trial,
students may bring along their
witnesses, but no members of the
University general public commu-nity
are allowed to be present. All
witnesses are called to testify and
are questioned by the justices. The
student then has the opportunity to
present any closing remarks be-fore
the justices break into private
deliberations to determine guilt or
innocence.
If found guilty, the jus-tices
decide the proper sanctions.
They mainly decide on the dura-tion
of probation, but certain serv-ice
punishments may also be ap-plicable.
Chief Justice, Kristin
Diglio, said such service punish-ments
as cleaning hallways are "a
benefit to the University commu-nity
as well as a reminder to the
student of the serious offense that
they committed."
The court's recommen-dation
is brought to Fr. O'Neill for
approval the day after the case is
heard.
Sunday, October 15, was
the only day so far this school year
where no cases were heard. About
seven cases have already been
heard this year, and all were alco-hol
related, Diglio said.
These offenses included
possession and consumption, un-registered
parties, too many people
at registered parties, people out-side
the townhouses with cups of
beer, and having kegs or baseballs
in the dorms.
Diglio said if a person is
found guilty, the length of their
probation is based on the severity
of the offense. Some examples of
service punishments include:
working at the Health Center, help-ing
out with Alcohol Awareness
Week preparations, and cleaning
bathrooms.
The Court is the only
opportunity for students to be
judged by their peers. "Oftentimes
we (the justices) can relate to cer-tain
violations brought before us.
We've been in these predicaments
before," Diglio said.
It is also possible that "all
nine justices may view a situation
in a different way," she added.
Thiel Receives
National Endowment
John Keating
Staff Writer
Dr. John Thiel, chairman of
the University's religious studies
department, has received a National
Endowment for the Humanities fel-lowship
to study the nature oftheo-logical
authorship and to write a
book.
Dr. Thiel will spend the year
as a postdoctoral fellow in the reli-gious
studies department at Yale
University. This grants him full
use of Yale's libraries and access
to Yale's theologians.
The NEH grant, which
awarded Dr. Thiel $27,500, as
well as a sabbatical from Fairfield,
will enable him to pursue his proj-ect
for the entire academic year.
Thiel said he has been plan-ning
the contents of this book, his
second, since 1983. It will deal
with the history of theology and
various theories of authorship,
theological and literary, which have
been popular in modern times.
Thiel hopes to "make sense
out of contemporary issues" in the
Roman Catholic Church, especially
tensions between Vatican authori-ties
and individual theologians.
He will describe how, in
the early nineteenth century, theo-logians
began to be perceived as
authors. The "authority" these
authors exhibited in discussing
various paradigms in theology
created tension with church offi-cials,
he said.
Dr. Thiel will be working
on his new book all year at Fair-field
and is confident he will find a
publisher.
After this, he said he plans
to move on to a new area of reli-gious
study.
Zoning
Law Cuts
Beach
House
Occupancy
To Four
Lynn Ann Casey
Editor in Chief
Next year, beach residents
can only sign beach leases with a
maximum offour people per house
as a result of an ordinance passed
by theTown Plan and Zoning Com-mission
of the Town of Fairfield
on August 8, 1989.
This requirement, allowing
no more than four unrelated per-sons
to reside in one house, has
been altered from a previous five
people per house. The requirement
only pertains to the Fairfield Beach
District which includes Fairfield
Beach Road, the South Pine Creek
Road area, and parts of Reef Road.
Section 11.1.1 of a Notice
of Decision dated August 8, 1989
states "no dwelling or dwelling
unit in the Beach District may be
occupied by more than four (4)
unrelated persons."
Joseph Devonshuk, the
Director of the Plan and Zoning
Board, stated that the regulation
"is liberal if you compare it to
other communites with universi-ties."
The number of unrelated
persons per house is usually based
on the number of people in an
average family in the town.
The average family in Fair-field
is approximately 2.8 people
per family, according to Devon-shuk.
He concludes that the num-ber
of four is quite liberal.
The town residents who live
in the beach district throughout the
year used this opportunity "to ask
the town to diminish or even out-right
not permit renting to univer-sity
students," according to De-vonshuk.
But, he clarified that this
is neither constitutional nor pos-sible.
He added that none of these
recommendations were imple-mented
or even considered in the
policy.
"The bottom line is that a
lot of the problems down there (at
the beach) have nothing to do with
zoning, " explained Devonshuk.
Instead, he said, the Police Depart-ment
of Fairfield should be most
concerned with the complaints
about the beach.
Devonshuk stated that this
new statute is "not 100% enforce-able,
nothing is. It just isn't an easy
thing to do."
The town will respond to
any "complaints of more than four
people in a house" from residents
suspecting a violation of the stat-ute.
First, the town will check the
rental certificate on file in Town
Hall. Second, they will approach
the owner of the house about the
complaint.
To alleviate enforcement
problems, the Zoning Board, ac-continued
on page 3