Mirror - Vol. 16, No. 09 - November 07, 1991

              The
FairfieldMRRORV Volume 16, No. 9 Thursday, November 7, 1991 The Image of Fairfield
Fewer Students to Move
Off-Campus in 1992-93
Laura Coffey
Staff Writer
The University has decided
to reduce the number of students
that will be able to live off-campus
from 400 to 350 in order to keep
the dorms and townhouses full, ac-cording
to Richard Rossi, director
of Residence Life.
"As ofOctober 1, there were
slightly more than fifty vacancies
on campus," said Rossi. "This is a
definite financial concern for the
University."
Rossi stated that presently
there are four vacancies in the
townhouses, seven vacancies for
upperclass women in the dorms,
and 32 vacancies for upperclass
men in the dorms.
Another factor in the deci-sion
to lower the number of off-campus
students was that a "larger
than usual number of students
changed their resident status from
living on campus to commuting
from home," said Rossi.
He feels that most of the
students probably made the change
because of financial difficulties.
He explained that the Uni-versity
had two options in this situ-ation.
It could either raise the cost
of room and board or the fill the
residence halls and townhouses.
This year's sophomore class
will be most affected by this deci-sion.
"Approximately one-third
of the class of '94 will be able to
live in the townhouses or at the
beach next year," he said.
This year 126 students in
the class of '93 live in the
townhouses and 348 live in the
residence halls.
The housing committee,
which is made up of students, staff,
and resident Jesuits, will be meet-ing
soon to discuss "special inter-est
housing." There have been
suggestions to create quiet floors
and computer areas in dorms.
The committee will also
evaluate the current lottery sys-tem,
in which they may suggest
that the office of Residence Life
make some changes. Rossi will
consider any suggestions and then
make a final decision.
The lottery for next year's
housing will be in December.
"The committee may sug-gest
changes considering the
smaller number of students that
will be allowed off-campus," said
Rossi. "In the past they have made
changes to try to reserve senior-ity."
Tim McConnell, the Presi-dent
of the Fairfield University
Beach Association (FUBA) said,
"I am very surprised that there is
going to be a change in the number
of students living off campus."
"I think that many sopho-mores
are going to be worried about
whether or not they will be able to
live at the beach next year," he
added.
"I know the town wants
students away from the beach, and
I feel that there may be some con-nection
between that and the fact
that they have reduced the number
of students allowed to live off-campus,"
he added
When A Kiss Goodnight
Turns to Rape
Christina Hennessy
Editor-in-Chief
The music is blaring and
you can hardly make out the words
of your friend next to you. You've
already put away a few beers.
You' ve begun to dance and you' ve
become a little buzzed.
What will happen by the
end of the night, however, will
leave you with a feeling quite dif-ferent
from the fun and boisterous-ness
of the college party. Statisti-cally,
it is possible as a female at
the party you will be the one out of
four women to experience an ac-quaintance
rape, commonly re-ferred
to as a date rape.
The prelude to the crime
is often quite innocent. You meet
a boy you know. Perhaps, he is in
one of your classes. You find him
attractive and enjoy talking with
him. You let down your guard and
trust him. You've been drinking,
so your senses aren't as height-ened
as normal, and you agree with
him that you need somebody to
walk you back to your room.
You arrive at your room
and your roommate isn't there, so
you both go in. One thing leads to
another until you realize things are
getting a bit rushed. You protest,
but he doesn't pick up the hint and
continues even after you have said
no. He may become aggressive
and begin to threaten you or call
you names. You suddenly realize
that you haven't been as forceful
as you might have been if you were
sober. In fact you might not even
have placed yourself in this situ-ation.
However, soon you realize
you have just had sex with a boy
you hardly know.
As a date rape victim, you
now enter that gray area in which
questions are asked: How could I
be such a poor judge of character?
Was any of this my fault? Was I
hesitant in my no? Was I being a
tease? Why couldn't I see his
motives? Did I become a willing
partner when I let him walk me
home orcome into my room? Since
we were both drinking, did he not
hear my 'no' and think I wanted
sex? What will people think ofme
if I tell them about the incident?"
Otherquestions will need
to be answered: Should I charge
him with rape? Will people be-lieve
my word over his? After all,
they all saw me leave the party
with him. What will friends say ?
Will I get him into trouble, maybe
even send him to jail?
It is in this moment of
confusion that you are deciding
whether or not to charge him with
the crime of rape, a decision you
realize will not only affect your
life, but the lives of the friends
around you. Such a situation,
experts say, leads to the amazingly
low amount of date rape reported.
The FBI estimates that
there are about 240 rapes per day in
the United States, making that
nearly 88,000 rapes per year. This
is a conservative estimate, as the
FBI believes an additional 250,000
to 730,000 women who are raped
never report the crime.
Experts say the average
victim is anywhere between 12-24
years old. While adult victims over
25 years old have a somewhat
greater likelihood of being raped
by a total stranger, children, ado-lescents,
and college-aged females
are most likely to be victimized by
a person who is known to them.
Experts have also found that among
college rape victims, more than
half of them are attacked by dates.
The Rape Crisis Center at
the YWCA of Greater Bridgeport
often receives more reports of rape
than the police, who believe only
one in ten rapes are reported to
them. Often rape victims will just
call to a rape crisis center and never
press charges.
Such statistics have put
college campuses at the forefront
of the effort in attempting to set up
support systems and educate the
college community as to the wider
national issue of date rape. Fair-field
University currently has a
Date Rape and Sexual Assault Task
Force, but the members are hoping
to receive more student input and
participation to help in setting up a
support system at Fairfield.
"The occurrence of date
rape is far more present here than
reports indicate. We are barely
touching the surface," said Patty
Christiano, assistant director of
Residence Life and the University
contact person in cases of date
rape. She is also one of the found-ers
of the committee.
"We need to establish a
safe and secure place so that those
who report a rape can have a place
to go, meet with someone to walk
them through the channels and help
them make decisions," Christiano
added. "I believe many more will
come forward if there is a strong
support system on campus that will
(continued to p. 3)
Beach Residents
Submerged by
Gushing Waves
Emily Okenquist
News Editor '•
University students living at the beach got a different kind of Hal-loween
scare last Wednesday and Thursday as coastal flooding from an
unusual wind storm along Long Island Sound had the beach area
submerged in water.
Along Fairfield Beach Road, many residents were on alert from
Wednesday afternoon through Thursday and were left stranded at their
beach houses. Some of the homes received extensive damage and flood-ing.
"Water was everywhere. It was weird," said Monica Walker, '92,
of "The Zoo," though her house did not receive much damage as it is lo-cated
near the first hump on Fairfield Beach Road where the flooding
was not too severe.
"It was an inconvenience. We had to wait for the water to go
down," Walker added.
Other students living farther down the road near the third hump
experienced major flooding, with waves rushing over walls at 10 feet
high.
"The wrought iron fence was torn out of our cement deck," said
Claudia Jimenez, '93, a resident of "The Rock House." "It was fun in the
beginning until the fence left."
Rooms were flooded, people boated down Fairfield Beach Road,
and lawn furniture and aluminum siding from some of the homes were
washed away by the winds and gushes of water.
Near the turnaround and the third hump, some houses were
completely surrounded by water.
"We were an island," said John O'Connell, '93 of "The Clam." "It
was incredible to watch, with water on all four sides. We were stranded
for four to five hours."
Another house had water so high that the residents could not open
their front door.
After the storm died down, sand filled the streets, ruining cars and
preventing people from driving.
"There were sandbars in the road," said one resident. "It was really
scary. We had to make sure we were home by high tide."
"We had four feet of sand," O'Connell said. "It was like shoveling
snow to get out."
Water flooded other areas of the town of Fairfield, as wel I as other
coastal towns in the area, like Westport, Norwalk and Milford.
Harbor Road in Southport was flooded, and a dock at Fairfield
Marina was submerged, as was the property next to Penfield II on
Fairfield Beach Road.
Bridgeport children trick-or-treat at the townhouses with
members of Coalition for a Better World and FUTA on
Halloween afternoon. See story on p. 2 photo: K. Guterl