Mirror - Vol. 18, No. 01 - September 23, 1993

              The
FairfieldMIRRORV Volume 18, No. 1 Thursday, September 23, 1993 The Image of Fairfield
New Parking Policy Angers Students
Karen LoCurto
Assistant News Editor
Many students are
confused and frustrated in regard
to automobile registration.
Students, faculty and employees
are now charged $50 for
registration of their cars. In
addition there are no restrictions
in lots for people from specific
areas, such as commuters,
townhouses, beach residents and
residence hall members. The
exception to this new policy is
designated spaces for faculty
members.
These new policies are
two separate issues, however, are
of importance to all students who
use parking facilities. The first of
these two issue is the $50
registration fee.
According to Security,
the $50 is going toward repair of
lots and roads, snow removal and
maintenance, such as black top,
line painting, cost of stickers and
paperwork.
Previous to the
registration fee, money came out
of general funds. According to
Murray Farber of Public
Relations, the new estimate for
the maintenance budget is
$500,000.
Funds cannot cover
costs to provide repairs and
maintenance. The $50 fee is a
way of generating funds for this
purpose.
In addition, the state of
Connecticut has called for a 20%
reduction in vehicles used. This is
to cut back on traffic.
Major corporations and
institutions are being asked to
encourage a decrease in
automobile use in such ways to
increase carpooling.
Looking toward the Improved Residence Halls
Welcome Class of '97
Caitlin Whelan
Staff Writer
Along with the
welcoming of the Class of 1997
comes many changes in living
conditions in the residence halls.
Efforts to improve dorm life have
already begun, through changes
in the janitorial staff, cablevision
available in all dorm rooms, and
such foreseen changes as access
to the computer mainframe from
every room.
Monica Sylvia, a
member of the Class of '97, has
few complaints so far about the
conditions of the dorms. A sown
side, she says, is the size of the
rooms. "The rooms are pretty
small. It's hard to get all the
comforts ofhome into such a small
space."
For the most part,
however, Sylvia's experience has
been positive. As for communal
living, she says, it's great to have
so much interaction with other
students. At the same time, "if
you want privacy, just close your
door."
One ofthe majorchanges
in living conditions in residence
halls this year was the change in
the procedures of the cleaning
staff. In previous years, duties of
the cleaning staff included not
only communal spaces such as
hallways. stairways. and
bathrooms, but also to key into
student rooms to empty garbage,
, sweep, and vacuum. This year,
however, with the change in staff,
students are responsible for
cleaning their own rooms.
According to Christine
Williams, '95, an RA in Gonzaga
Hall, the new janitorial staff is
run through the university. Instead
of cleaning student's rooms, their
duties are only "to clean all
common areas—the hallways and
bathrooms."
A definite improvement
in the living conditions for
students this year is the availability
of cable in all dorm rooms. In
previous years, the townhouses
and rooms in Dolan hall were the
only areas that were cable-ready.
Over the summer, wiring was
connected to dorms in the Quad
and the Orient to enable all
students to have access to
cablevision channels.
Another advantage the
university is working toward for
students is to have mainframe
computer access available in all
rooms. Students will be able to
access the university and library
mainframe from their dorm room,
either through theirowncomputer
or a computer rented from the
university.
According to Williams,
"individual mainfram access is a
long term goal that we're working
toward."
Minor changes were
made in the alcohol policy this
year as well. All the basic
restrictions remained: in
accordance with state law, anyone
under the age of twenty-one is not
allowed to be in the possession of
alcohol. Restrictions have relaxed
slightly, in that empty alcohol
containers are again permitted in
the rooms of underage students.
So far this year, alcohol
has not been an overwhelming
problem in the dorms. Any
changes in the alcohol policy do
not appear to have changed
behavior from years before. The
Quad is most notorious for
weekend parties, being the area
with the largest number of
students. Williams says she has
not noticed much difference in
parties, "it's still early in the year,
and things haven't one hundred
percent settled in," she says. "Most
upperclassmen leave the dorms
on the weekends, and alcohol
really hasn't been a big problem
so far in the dorms."
With the improvements
made in the amenities to dorm
living, the class of 1997 is the first
class in several years to experience
the beginning of many positive
changes of the living conditions
in the residence halls. Sylvia feels
that "of course it's not home, but
it's nice."
future, Fairfield plans to adhere to
Federal regulations in regard to
environmental concerns. This
would include a reduction in
vehicle traffic. .
The fee was an
administrative decision.
According to Glenn Griffin,
Associate director of security, car
registration is not "paying for
parking, but paying for use of the
facility and maintaining it."
The issue of parking
availability has come up as well.
It seems so many beach residents
and commuters that townhouse
and residence hall students are
driving to class and thus taking
available parking.
According to beach
resident Lori McCarthy, '94, "It's
ridiculous that you have to pay
$50 for a parking sticker and then
park illegally anyway because
there's no spots left."
Glenn Griffin's
response to this issue is that the
parking situation is not much
different under the new policy as
compared to the previous one.
According to Griffin the
issue is "parking spaces v.
convenient parking spaces."
"There is enough
available parking for everyone,
even if this is not close to where
students wish to park." This does
not help students living at the
beach,such as Dolores Martinez,
"I have to leave so early for all
my classes because it's
impossible to find parking near
Canisius or Donnarumma Hall."
But, according to Meri
Jitsukawa, a Townhouse
resident, "Even though I walk to
class I believe Townhouse
residents should be allowed to
drive down to class as they are
required to pay $50 like every
other registered car owner."
The majority of
students are unhappy with paying
$50 registration fee. However
some students said they would
not mind if they saw their money
put to good use.
The administrative
decision has been made and
Security is urging students to
respect policies andregistertheir
cars.
UNITE Builds
Townhouse Community
Jennifer Luongo
News Editor
Beginning its second
year with its present name,
UNITE, University Townhouse
Experience seeks to promote a
sense a community in the
townhouses.
With the help of Gwen
Vendley, Dean of Students, and
Henry Humphrey, Director of
Residence Life and advisor for
UNITE, the group is also bridging
the gap between townhouse
residents and the administration.
After the strict
enforcement of the townhouse
alcohol policy last year, many
townhouse residents felt the
administration was infringing on
their independence. But, although
the policy is still very much in
effect, tensions seem to have
subsided— at least for the time
being.
Actually, Cary O'Brien,
a senior townhouse resident and
the current President of UNITE
feels that "there has always been
independent living at the
townhouses."
O'Brien credits Vendley
and Humphrey as being the
students "link" to the
administration. "They've been
very active in getting us heard,"
O'Brien stated. In addition, both
Vendley and Humphrey were
extremely active in organizing
tomorrow night's barbecue at the
townhouses.
The barbecue, which
will take place from 5 to 8pm, is
open to all townhouse residents.
Alcohol will be served at the
barbecue as somewhat ofa "trial,"
according to O'Brien.
O'Brien is just hopeful
that the barbecue will help
townhouse residents to "get to
know their neighbors.
" In addition t tomorrow
night's event, UNITE wants to
run more programs in the coming
year, including a trip to New York
to see a Broadway play and a T-Shirt
sale.
And although last year's
plan to open a coffee house in one
of the townhouses was rejected,
O'Brien said that the idea is still
part of long-range planning.
The administration had
turned down this plan for the
immediate future because it
needed all available townhouses
for campus residents. But, there
has been talk of building another
house to designate as the coffee
house in the future.
Next Tuesday, UNITE
will be holding elections for heads
ofcommittees for the coming year.
These committees include
publicity, policies, social activiies,
junior interests, long-range
planning and fundraising.
/r
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Perturbing
Parking
Policy
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