Mirror - Vol. 16, No. 05 - October 03, 1991

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 16, No. 5 Thursday, October 3,1991 The Image Of Fairfield
Town Ordinance Restricts Alcohol
Possession in Public Areas
Christina Hennessy
Editor-in-Chief
Citizens beware. Next
Monday, anewTownofFairfiekl
ordinance goes into effect, which
forbids the consumption of alco-hol
or the possession of the sub-stance
with the intent to consume
in and on public high-ways,
sidewalks and park-ing
areas. The ordinance
passed by the Represen-tative
Town Meeting, 29
to 14, on Sept. 23.
In addition, the
same standards of con-sumption
and possession
of alcohol will apply to
individuals who are "in
or on parked vehicles
within or upon a public
highway, sidewalk, or
parking area," according
to the written ordinance.
Violators will be
ticketed and fined from
$25 to $100.
The new policy
was proposed last May
by First Selectman Jac-quelyn
Durrell who cited
a necessity to curb drun-ken
driving.
"The RTM felt that the
ordinance would be an assistance
to the police for many areas of the
town," said Jack McCarthy, assis-tant
to the First Selectman. "The
ordinance allows police to prose-cute
people carrying open contain-ers
in the newly designated areas."
An ordinance had already
been in existence for the prohibi-tion
of alcohol and the intent to
consume alcoholic beverages in
nance.
The passage had support
from the beach residents that at-tended
the meeting and spoke of
the condition of the beach and the
problems ofloud noises, disorderly
conduct and drunken behavior they
claim to witness every weekend.
Such attention to one area
Scenes such as this would be subject to the new ordinance prohibiting
those areas where alcohol can be consumed.
live at the beach.
"I believe the law was aimed
at the students and I'm curious as
to how far the police will get in the
enforcement of the ordinance,
especially since students always
though itwas illegal to walkaround
with an open container," said Tim
McConnell, president of the Fair-field
University Beach
Association.
According to an
article in The Fairfield
Citizen-News, Karl
Kery, R-2, said, "the
police probably wouldn't
approach a normal group
(ofadults), this is directed
at Fairfield University
students and others at the
beach. We have an ade-quate
number of ordi-nances
on the books
against drinking. An-other
ordinance won't
help."
The ordinance
may be amended or re-pealed
ifresidents pull in
5 percent of Fairfield's
registered voters signa-tures
onto a referendum
petition. If such an ac-and
on parks and beaches, accord-ing
to McCarthy, howeverthe town
never had a specific ordinance for
the areas listed in the new ordi-of
town, however, caused a split
among theRTMmembers, as some
believed the ordinance was directed
towards university students who
tion occurs, the amendment or
repeal would be voted upon in a
(continued on p. 4)
Campus Recycling Off to Slow Start
Laura Coffey
Staff Writer
Starting in September, the
University began a campus-wide
waste recycling plan in connection
with the State ofConnecticut regu-lations.
. Paper from the Print Shop
and Computer Center and scrap
metal, storage batteries, and waste
oil from the Maintenance Area have
been recycled since last February.
This semester, separate
containers were provided in each
dorm room to collect cans, bottles,
and plastic. Occupants are to take
them to a central collection con-tainer
on each floor, which are
removed to a building container by
custodial personnel. The residents
of the dorms are also to place
newspapers in a centralized floor
container.
Townhouse residents
were furnished with marked con-tainers
for co-mingled cans, bottles,
and plastics and one for newspa-pers,
which they are to bring to
central area bins for segregated
collection.
Individual containers
were also provided for the collec-tion
of bond paper and computer
paper in office areas, and separate
marked bins were placed in lounge
and lunch areas for the collection
of cans, glass, and plastic contain-ers.
Since the recycling plan
started on campus, there has been a
15 percent reduction in the general
trash weight and a thirty percent
reduction in bulk.
Problems have arisen this
month with non-recyclable items,
however. Frederick Cotter, direc-tor
ofthe Physical Plant, explained
that the University had been in
compliance with recycling up until
this month.
"Recently, there have
been problems with students con-taminating
recycling bins with
items that do not belong there," he
said.
He stated that the Univer-sity
gets billed more when the in-dependent
hauler that takes away
the recyclables has to resort them.
"The people are going to
have to realize the cost impact to
the University," Cotter added.
He also explained that
there have been indications of off-campus
contamination in which
people are coming on campus and
dumping their trash into the Uni-versity's
recycling bins.
"We would like to elimi-nate
this vulnerability, but it is
very difficult to patrol the
dumpsters," Cotter said. "We are
going to have to see what we can-do
to tighten up controls on cam-pus."
"We will have to rely
more on the student government
and student housing," said Cotter.
He encourages students to take an
active role in the recycling pro-gram
on campus. "People have to
make the system work on an indi-vidual
basis," he said.
Richard Sellar, the recy-cling
coordinator for the town of
Fairfield, indicated that there have
been problems getting students
who live at the beach to recycle
properly.
"There has been an awful
lot of contamination by students
living at the beach," he said.
"They are not washing
out the containers before putting
them in the recycling bins, and this
is a big problem because it attracts
animals."
Sellar suggested that Fair-field
University examine the recy-cling
program at Dartmouth Col-lege.
He said, "They have been
very successful and have a model
program."
One of the many recycling bins on campus that help to cut down total waste, photo: Jody McMullen
Suspected
Rape
Occurs
at Prep
Game
Emily Okenquist
News Editor
On the evening ofFriday,
September 20, a 15 year-old girl
from Stratford was supposedly
raped on campus by a 16 year-old
acquaintance.
The girl, a student from
Lauralton Hall High School in
Milford, reported the incident to
the Fairfield town police on Mon-day,
September 23.
According to Detective
Sgt. J. Hull of the Fairfield police,
the victim was allegedly attacked
on the University property during
a Fairfield Prep football game
against Chaminade Prep of Long
Island.
"They were walking back
to the game from a friend's house
when she was supposedly attacked
somewhere on the university
grounds," said Hull, in an inter-view
with the Fairfield Citizen
News.
Police said that she waited
until last Monday night to report
the attack. She was examined at
Bridgeport Hospital on Monday,
said Hull.
The Youth Bureau of the
Fairfield Police Department, who
is handling the incident, said Tues-day
that no arrest has yet been
made, and the case is still under
investigation.
Hull said confirmation of
the rape and any arrest will depend
on the analysis from the labora-tory
and medical records taken at
Bridgeport Hospital.
On college campuses
around the country, there has been
an increasing awareness of meth-ods
to prevent date rape, which is
not an uncommon occurance.
"Pressure to have sex is
normal," said Dr. Dee Graham a
psychologist who conducted a
study of date rape. "These are ter-rifying
situations."
According to Webster's
College Dictionary, date rape is
sexual intercourse forced by a man
upon the woman with whom he
has a date.
This is an example of
anextreme result of abuse. Gra-ham
found one study that reported
25 to 35 percent of young woman
perceived violence toward them as
a sign of love.
Another case of alledged
date rape occurred on the campus
of St. John's University in March
of 1990 when a 22 year-old woman
claimed she was assaulted by four
lacrosse players at an off-campus
house.
Increased campus secu-rity
and programs aimed at alert-ing
students of ways to protect
themselves have begun at univer-sities
around the country to help
prevent the occurances ofdate rape.