Mirror - Vol. 03, No. 15 - November 15, 1979

              Faulty System Creates
Rash Of Xavier Alarms
By Dorothy Hawkins
More than six fire alarms were
reported to go off at five minute inter-vals
in Xavier Hall on Monday, Oc-tober
29 due to a fault in the system.
The system contains a circuit panel
which indicates which fire alarm was
activated.
When the panel was checked by
security on Monday the entire board
was lit up, indicating a malfunction.
No damaged horns, pulled fire alarm
boxes or activated smoke detectors
could be located. Mary Walsh, the
Security Supervisor said, "It was like
a mystery."
After the first alarm the system
was checked and reset by security,
however it continued to activate
itself. The Alarm Company and
Phone Company were called to lo-cate
the problem.
The alarm system runs on the
phone lines from all campus build-ings
directly to the Security office.
From there they run into the Fairfield
Fire Department. The malfunction
could originate in Xavier or be
anywhere along these lines.
At about lunch time the Xavier fire
alarm system was shut off and a Se-curity
officer was placed in the
building on fire watch. The last alarm
for that day occurred at 1:11. The
Phone Company worked on the sys-tem
until 5:30 but the problem was
not located.
On Tuesday, October 30, there
was one fire alarm which was caus-ed
by carpenter's dust activating a
smoke detector on the fourth floor.
However, the system began to ac-tivate
itself again on Wednesday, Oc-tober
31. After two alarms the
system was shut off and a security
officer placed on fire watch.
The Alarm Company has been
here twice since October 31st at-tempting
to locate the malfunction.
The designer of the sophistocated
circuit was also consulted. The panel
consists of solid state circuits,
"much like a T.V. set" according to
Ms. Walsh.
A similar problem occurred in the
Nursing building two years ago
before it was occupied. Ms. Walsh
explained, "in that case a faulty part
was located and simply replaced."
Ms. Walsh states that "all we can
do now is wait for another alarm of
the same status to occur. The Alarm
Company has instructed Security to
turn off the system while in alarm
status so that they can examine it."
Ms. Walsh expressed concern
over whether the system would work
in the case of an actual fire. "We're
in the business of life safety. I have
to know the system will be working
when I need it."
The Fire Department responded to
the first alarm, and the building was
evacuated. Security instructed
teachers to ignore the following
alarms and the fire department not to
respond. When asked abut the legal
ramifications of such a decision, Ms.
Walsh answered, "I really don't
know. Any civil problems incurred
would come right back to me. But I
have to use a little common sense."
"This has been a real annoyance
for everyone involved, "claimed Ms.
Walsh. The Alarm Company, the
Phone Company and the Fire Depart-ment
have all been very cooperative
but the mystery about the cause of
the problem remains. The office
workers, and students have been in-terrupted
in their daily routine in-cluding
tests and interviews. Ms.
Walsh says "I thought of those
things too."
Ms. Walsh went on to explain that
when Security suspects, from past
experience, that malicious fire
alarms may be pulled they turn off
the system and place men in the
buildings on fire watch. This has
been done during finals, Harvest
weekend and the last days of classes
in May.
Ms. Walsh explained that, "these
decisions are not taking lightly and
they're not made lightly." This year
the problem of malicious fire alarms
has been much improved and the
Fire Department's relationship with
campus has consequently improved.
The University's present cam-paign
to upgrade the fire alarm
system in compliance with new fed-eral
regulations has also helped this
situation. Panels like the one in
Xavier are also in Northwest, Far-east,
Southeast, Bannow, the Nurs-ing
building and the Rec Center.
Double action pull boxes have
been installed in these buildings. In
order to activate an alarm it is
necessary to break the glass and
reach through the broken glass to
pull the lever. Ms. Walsh stated that
"most real fire emergencies are
Phoned in to Security anyway."
Continued Page 13
■ •■ C Mu Volume 3, No. 15, November 15,1979 ^^
rAlKrlELD ^^ FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY, FAIRFIELD, CONN. 064 M) [MIRROR \^^^^_ Incorporated 1977
United Way Breaks
Goal By $1,100
Jim Connolly, Rev. George Mahan and Steve Fassihi
U. Council Voices
Concern Over New
Parking Lots
by Stephen Banbury
In a campaign headed by Father
George Mahan, S.J. last week, the
Fairfield University United Way drive
netted $11,614.84, topping their ini-tial
goal of $10,500 by $1,114.84. In
reaching this goal Father Mahan re-ceived
tremendous support from
members of the University and the
Prep.
Father Mahan added, "I am very
pleased at having reached the goal
and proud of accomplishing the hat
trick, that's three years in a row in
leading all other centers of higher
learning in the area. I hope that our
success will provide the necessary
incentive for the good of their pro-grams."
Enthusiastic support brought
totals up to and over the $11,000
mark. Contributions were made from
the following people:
Administration $2224.00
Clerical, Secretaries
and Telephone ... 662.00
Faculty 2535.00
FoodService 4012.00
Jesuit Community ... 700.00
Maintenance and
Maids 519.00
Prep 283.00
Students 547.00
Library 132.44
Various fund raising events are
still planned for later on in the year.
The most prominent of these being
F.U.S.A.'s Vegas night which is to be
held in the Oak room in the spring.
by GiGi Byron
The University Council voted at its
first meeting last week to voice its
disapproval of the proposed con-struction
of two additional parking
lots on campus and study the subject
further.
This decision came as a result of a
memo from Provost John Barone to
the Council emphasizing the import-ance
of "representation from the
Fairfield University students as well
as faculty and administrators."
At the meeting, after extensive dis-cussion
of both the proposed new
building (including Bellarmine
renovations) and the two new park-ing
lots, the Council decided to voice
its approval of the building but their
concern with parking plans.
One of the two parking lots is
scheduled to be built on the hill
behind Canisius inside the existing
lot. The second would be cut into the
hill below Bellarmine on the left side
of the road as you approach the
school. Each lot would accomodate
75 cars.
Also at the meeting last week, it
was discussed whether to eliminate
the second Reading Day of the Fall
semester, scheduled for Wednes-day,
December 19th, and move the
last exam (now scheduled for Friday
the 21st) to Wednesday so that
school would let out one day earlier
for Christmas.
The idea was brought up with the
thought that it would let students and
teachers out sooner, enabling the
University to close down the
buildings a day sooner, thereby sav-'
ing energy.
In the discussion of the exam
schedule change, it was suggested
that the December 8th holiday be
made a Reading Day and the first
Reading Day be cancelled. All exams
would then be pushed up one day
and the same purpose would be
achieved.
This measure would not work this
year, however, since December 8th
falls on a Saturday and isn't a holi-day.
It was decided then, that the exam
schedule would remain the same for
this semester and the matter was
sent to the Academic Committee of
the Council to examine the idea for
possible use in future years.
Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy will be appearing in the Oak Room Nov.
30 for two shows ■ ■ 8:00 and 10:30. Be sure not to miss the biggest con-cert
in Fairfield's history.
Blood-
Mobile
Enjoys
Success
By Jeanne O'Connell
The American Red Cross, The
Student Nurses' Association and
The Cardinal Key Society spon-sored
a blood drive here at the
University on November 8th. The
Blood Mobile was set up in the
Campus Center Oak Room end
was open to donors from 11 am to
5pm.
The Red Cross unit travels to
various high schools and colleges
all over Connecticut. The vol-unteers
said that "out of all the
schools we visit in Connecticut, in
terms of donors, Fairfield always
comes out highest." This was
proven true once more this year,
when we went way over our quota
of 150 pints, with 262 pints of
blood.
To encourage some of the
more anxious students The Car-dinal
Key Society and Student
Nurses Association set up a
series of raffles and drawings,
with prizes, donated by various
stores in town, awarded to the
winning donors.
Erin Sullivan, was the winner of
a tape recorder courtesy of
Audiotronics; Pegi Ferguson
received a $25 gift certificate
from the Varsity Sport Shop, and
Patricia Collins received a record
from the Earport. The winner of
the Special Dinner was Regis
One, with 20 pints of blood. Two
close runners up were, Nor-thwest
Three and Fareast Three.
The chairmen of the Blood
Drive were John Zoidis and Chris
Snyder, members of the Cardinal
Key Society, when asked about
their feelings on the results they
commented, "The Red Cross did
a fantastic job and we would like
to thank all the students who
gave blood, as well as to urge
those students who didn't to con-sider
giving blood when the Blooc
Mobile returns next semester ir
the spring."