Mirror - Vol. 19, No. 15 - February 23, 1995

              The
FairfieldMIRR®R Volume 19, No. 15 Thursday, February 23, 1995 The Image of Fairfield
26 students arrested in fake ID case
Caitlin Whelan
News Editor
Christine Hamel
Assistant News Editor
At 6:00 a.m. on
February 16, Fairfield police
arrested twenty-six freshmen and
sophomores on the charge of
forgery in the second degree and
conspiring to commit forgery,
both Class D felonies. The arrests
were the culmination of an
interstate investigation of false
New Jersey driver's licenses
created off campus.
Investigators reported
that the raid was the largest ever
staged in the state on a suspected
false-identification case,
according to the February 17 issue
of the Connecticut Post.
Security officers
accompanied the police to
Kostka, Dolan, Campion, Jogues,
and Gonzaga residence halls.
Glenn Griffin, associate director
of Security at Fairfield, said,
"Police were serving legal search
warrants on campus. We were
not directly involved with their
investigation previous to their
arrival on campus."
Fairfield Police Captain
Robert Comers reported,
"Detectives and uniformed
officers served twenty-seven
search and seizure warrants, and
recovered illegal New Jersey
photo ID licenses." The students
were arrested in their rooms,
handcuffed, and taken to local
police headquarters to post $500
bonds for court appearances.
"The penalty for these
charges can be over $1,000 in
fines and up to five years in jail,"
Captain Comers said.
The raid resulted from a
multi-week investigation into a
fake ID-making operation,
according to the ConnecticutPost.
On January 26, according to the
Connecticut Post, the manager of
the Hi-Ho Motor Inn in Fairfield
reported to police that a
housekeeper had found evidence
of false IDs being made in one of
the rooms, which had been rented
to a 20-year-old New Jersey man.
When police searched the room
they found black laminate cards,
used Polaroid film cartridges and
lists ofnames with corresponding
Dolan Hall, one of five residence halls where
students were arrested in connection with
creating false driver's licenses. Photo: File
Fairfield University residence hall
room numbers.
Police also found a
handwritten note to an
unidentified individual from the
man who had rented the room,
outlining a plan to "do the entire
school this weekend," and
predicting that they could make
close to $5,000. The licenses sold
for $50 each, or two for $75.
The individual
responsible for running the fake
ID ring was arrested on February
16 in Regis Hall, according to
Security. Fairfield police
charged him with twenty counts
to commit criminal forgery in
the second degree. At the time
the news broke, the operation
was allegedly being run by a
former University student. Since
then, Griffin has reported that
the individual was never
connected with the University
as a student. His court date was
set for Thursday, February 23..
Police may have been
aware of the false ID operation
when a fake New Jersey driver's
license was confiscated from a
University student at Eli' s Place
in Fairfield on January 21. A
copy of a similar fake ID was
found in the motel room.
All of the students
have been released. Those who
could not post bail were released
on the condition that they do ten
hours of community service a
week while awaiting disposition
of their cases. The students are
expected to be formally
arraigned on the charges
(Continued on page 4)
Class of 1999 and beyond to take
required course in diversity
Christine Hamel
Assistant News Editor
A new requirement in
multiculturalism for the Class of
1999 has been established. The
requirement is to take a course
on Diversity and Pluralism in
American Society. Classes that
deal with race, gender, ethnicity,
class, and sexual orientation
would be considered for fulfilling
the requirement. The course is
not an addition to core
curriculum.
Of the 120 credits that
are required to graduate, the new
course would take up three credits
which can be fulfilled through
core, electives, and classes for
one's major or minor. It will
cover a variety of disciplines.
The new requirement
came about from the faculty's
response to AHANA students
who wanted a course that would
impact their lives through the
curriculum.
"I think it is very
important for a university in a
society which is as diverse in
multiculturalism as American
society is to have its curriculum
reflect that diversity and
multiculturalism," Dr. AlanKatz,
professor of politics, who played
a major role in the proposal, stated.
From responding to the
AHANA students, the course was
then recommended to the Faculty
Senate and then to the
Undergraduate Curriculum
Committee.
The Undergraduate
Curriculum Committee then set
up a subcommittee made up of
Professors McFadden, Rodriguez,
and Coury, who discussed several
ways to introduce the course.
Some of the ideas were to
introduce it as a single course or
as an addition to core.
Following research and
discussions, the group decided
"It's vital for
Fairfield Univer-sity
to expose our
students to
diversity in many
ways, especially
through
curriculum."
on the new course. McFadden
felt that "the easiest and most
useful to start it as a cross counting
course."
The subcommittee made
the proposal to the Undergraduate
Curriculum Committee who
approved and recommended it to
the Academic Council,who made
minor modifications. Then, the
course vote went to the faculty.
After much positive debating, the
course was overwhelmingly
approved by the general faculty at
their last meeting.
"I think it is a very
exciting opportunity for students
and faculty at this University,"
Dr. Dave McFadden, associate
professor of history, said.
Katz added," I think it's
vital for Fairfield University to
expose our students to diversity
in many ways, especially through
curriculum."
At this year's summer
seminar, through University
funding, as many faculty as
possible will be trained to develop
new courses and to change courses
to fulfill the new requirement.
They will propose the
process for determining which
courses count and they will go
through for approval. No
courses at the present time have
been selected to fulfill the
requirement.
"The summer seminar
will stimulate a variety of new
courses and approaches of
teaching. It is only a beginning
to transform curriculum into a
more diverse and pluralism
curriculum," McFadden stated.
The courses that will
be selected for this program
will be changing as more and
more ideas are formed that fulfill
the new requirement. There has
been talk of future plans of
extending this to other
multiculturalism courses
beyond America and a possible
addition in the number of
courses.
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