Mirror - Vol. 17, No. 01 - September 24, 1992

              The
FairfieldMIRRORV
Volume 17, No. 1 Thursday, September 24,1992 Welcome Back
New Direction Sought
For Townhouse Community
Jennifer Luongo
Assistant News Editor
Residence life in the
townhouses is continuing to
undergo changes which are causing
tension between the students and
the administration.
The Townhouse Alcohol
Policy, written mainly by the
Fairfield University Student
Association two years ago, is being
strictly carried out this year.
Pat Rombalski, Associate
Director of Residence Life, and
now the supervisor of the
townhouse area, said, "The policies
themselves haven't really been
changed, but I want to make sure
they are enforced this year."
Enforcing these policies
will entail doing spot checks of all
registered townhouse parties to
make sure residents are following
all the rules carefully. All registered
parties are guaranteed at least one
spot check during the course of the
I *© :1S jf
Tim Griffin and Jen Sitnick follow TH policy, photo: K. Guterl
night. Ifthe residents fail to register
a party, they risk losing their
townhouse for a first offense.
Through implementing
these policies, Rombalski hopes to
allow students to "take more
responsibility for the community
through time." He also stressed,
"My agenda is to build and promote
the townhouse area as a community
To help form this
community, Rob Malley, the first
Resident Advisor in the
townhouses, will be working on
social programming, as well as
acting as a liaison between the
townhouse residents and the
administration. In addition, he will
be on duty three nights a week,
helping to enforce the policies. So
response from the students living
in the townhouses. "Some people
were really excited that I'm here,"
he said, "but some were upset."
However, he added, "The students
have been doing an excellent job
of following the policies. People
are being very cautious."
In addition to Rob Malley,
Father Paul Carrier, S.J., is now
living in the townhouses. Father
Carrier hopes to create a service
community, where students who
are interested in service work can
gather. He also wants to create a
place where those students can
come for meals, reflection, and
mass.
Pat Rombalski is also
working on some long term plans
to improve townhouse living. The
possibility of opening a coffee
house or a sit-down deli in the
townhouses is being discussed.
Rombalski said, "I want to create a
common area where townhouse
and work with the students." far, Malley has gotten a mixed residents can hang their hat."
FUSA Addresses Beach Problems
Debra De Shong
News Editor
Theoretically, the next
time a Fairfield beach resident calls
the police to complain about the
party noises blaring next door, a
fellow student will be at your house
before the police to alert you of the
coming visit from the boys in blue.
Created by FUSA in an
effort to improve relations with the
community, the Early Warning
System works to reduce the number
of tickets given out by the police
and hopefully the number of visits
they will have to pay Fairfield
students residing at the beach.
Every Thursday, Friday
and Saturday from 9 pm to 2 am, 2
Fairfield students, who are paid
$10 per hour and the cost of
mileage, stay perched next to a
phone awaiting a call to set them
into action.
Here' s how it is supposed
to work: a resident calls the police
with a complaint, the police call
Fairfield Security who in turn notify
the students "on duty."
The students then drive
to the house in question to warn the
owners that they have been reported
and advise them to keep the noise
level down or break up the party.
This rather round-about
system, backed by $22,000
allocated by FUSA, "still has some
kinks to be worked out," according
to Steve Shannon, the FUSA
president.
"Ideally, we would have
an office where the students can
wait for the calls and every beach
house would participate in
patrolling," says Shannon.
Some kinks in the system
as of this past weekend include the
ringer of the student phone turned
off for several hours, the police
failing to alert the students and
Security not being made aware of
the location of the students.
But according to
Shannon, the perfomance was
"decent" and will be refined in the
future.
One step was to issue
beepers to the students so they can
be alerted of another complaint
while responding to a previous call.
"This is not just for the
beach residents, it's an attempt to
improve relations with the
community and the police
department," says Shannon. The
police receive 3 to 4 complaints
about Fairfield students at the beach
every night.
The response from beach
students has been positive. Senior
Kate Reilly, a beach resident, says
"This new policy is beneficial to
everyone because it will keep the
neighbor harassment to a
minimum, as well as ease the strain
on beach residents who choose to
have parties."
It is yet to be seen how the
Early Warning System relieves
already strained relations between
the town, the police and the
university, but it shows the students
are willing to compromise.
Dormitories Overflow with the Class of 1996
Debra De Shong
News Editor
Juniors who could not get
offcampus in the lottery last spring,
have the last laugh. The University
was desperately trying to fill rooms
that were empty for the past year
by keeping as many upperclassman
as possible on campus. However,
they failed to account for the large
freshman class that descended upon
Fairfield this month.
Normally, the University
reserves 700 beds for the incoming
class of about 750 students. The
class of 1996 is a whopping 864
students, 801 of whom reside on
campus. Rich Rossi, director of
Residence Life, says, "It's a good
thing because it shows that the
University is growing."
In an attempt to make
room, a lottery took place over the
summer and the chance to move
off campus was offered to several
juniors. Only about 40 students
took up the offer.
The remaining spaces for
freshman were created by
renovating vacant . Jesuit
apartments into dorm rooms,
making large doubles into triples,
and converting study lounges into
rooms housing up to 4 students.
According to Rossi, this
is a last resort because it takes
study space away from students
and can create complications for
students living with three
roommates. However, he claims
the situation has "worked out well,
from the student point of view."
Lounges were converted
in Claver, Loyola, Gonzaga, and
Campion.
Steve McSorley, '96,
shares a former lounge with three
roommates. He says, "I like it
because it's big." His roommate
Mike Finneran says,"It's terrific,
but it really doesn't matter that it's
a lounge."
Rossi says that, as of yet,
only one parent has expressed
concern about their child living in
a lounge. Both McSorley and
Finneran said their parents
expressed concern when they were
told their sons would be living in
the lounge, but have calmed down
since.
The students who have
complained about the situation are
upperclassmen who are unhappy
with losing their study lounges.
Sophomore Tony Polise says,"the
freshmen don't mind living in the
lounge because they've never had
a study lounge so they don't know
what it's like to have one on their
floor."
In reference to next year,
Rossi says the decision has not yet
been made if more upperclassmen
will be allowed to live off campus
to alleviate the problem for the
next three years. This decision
should be reached sometime in
mid-fall.
Rossi says this is not
being considered as the only
solution because the University is
under constant pressure from the
community about the growing
problems at the beach. "We are
just trying to please everyone," he
says.
Townhouse
Policy Chips
Away at
Independence
Jennifer Luongo
Assistant News Editor
The controversial issue
between townhouse residents and
the administration continues to be
whether or not townhouse living is
independent living.
Many students feel that
the University is infringing on their
independence and causing
problems by trying to enforce the
strict regulations which are stated
in the school's Townhouse Alcohol
Policy.
Pat Rombalski, Associate
Director of Residence Life, stated,
"I want students to run their own
community." However, he
disagrees that townhouse living is
independent. "The University is
still responsible if something
happens," he added.
However, many
townhouse residents are upset by
the strict rules they are expected to
follow and the consequences ifthey
do not.
Students are also
concerned that these restrictions at
the townhouses will cause more
problems at the beach and in the
dorms.
Craig Vigilante, '93,
F.U.S.A. Senate Vice President and
townhouse resident, said, "Instead
of placing stringent restrictions on
the townhouses, the administration
should have thought about the
problems that could be caused
elsewhere. People are more
inclined to drink in the dorms and
drive to the beach. Obviously, this
could have dangerous effects on
many students."
Lisa Massimo '93,
another townhouse resident,
echoed this concern. "The policies
are driving freshman off campus,"
she said.
Other students feel that
these policies are undermining their
ability to deal with problems that
may arise in their house.
Amy Spencer, '93, said,
"My parents have faith that I'll
make wise decisions here, but the
school doesn't feel that way at all."
According to Spencer, "By the time
we're ready to move up to the
townhouses, we're ready to deal
with its problems."
There will no doubt be
more controversy surrounding the
Townhouse Alcohol Policy in the
months ahead.
As the year progresses,
the administration will become
better aware of the results of this
policy and whether or not it is
working for the good of the
students.
Clinton and
Bush go nose
to nose on the
issues
page 3
Freshmen
encounter new
life at Fairfield
page 7
Beach, TH
residents face
problems with
landlords
page 11
American
Indians to
perform at
Quick Center
page 15
Teams open
season with
strong
showings
page 20