Mirror - Vol. 23, No. 04 - October 09, 1997

              FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
IRROR
Volume 23 Number 4 The Image of Fairfield
Are you guilty of binge drinking?
Kerri Kivlan
Staff Writer
Kate is a junior at Fairfield
University and to most people
she probably appears to be the
"typical" Fairfield student. She
goes to most of her classes and
has a large group of friends; she
seems to be enjoying college
life. However, what lies be-neath
this facade, is a habit of
binge drinking.
Kate's family has a history of
drinking problems. All four of
her grandparents were alcohol-ics
and most of her aunts and
uncles drink heavily at family
functions.
Kate said, "The fact that my
aunts and uncles drink is taken
lightly, they are able to hold
down regularjobs, and they just
drink until they fall asleep."
When asked how many nights
a week she drinks, Kate replies,
"At least four nights a week,
sometimes more."
A typical night for Kate and
her friend includes drinking three
or four beers before showering
and then three more before leav-ing
her house.
She frequently suffers from
blackouts, times when she can-not
remember what she did. "I
usually blackout around the time
that most people go home and
go to bed" said Kate.
Many times her friends try
to get her to go home and go to
bed, "that's when I run and hide
from them, it's as if I have two
personalities." The only way
Kate knows what she did on a
given night is when people
comment to her the following
day with statements like, "Kate,
how are you feeling today, you
were so wasted last night, do
you remember what you said
to me?"
On more than one occasion,
she has harmed herselfor other
more times during a two week
period for men, and four or more
drinks consumed in a row, one
or more times during the same
two week period for women."
In fact, forty-four percent of the
nation's college students fall into
the category of binge drinkers,
according to a soon-to-be up-dated
national survey.
With facts such as this cir-
In fact, fourty percent of the
nation's college students fall
into the category of a binge
drinker, according to a soon-to-be
updated national survey.
people around her. Kate re-members,
"One time I was
dancing ori a chair at my
friends' house and I fell back-wards
onto the concrete base-mentfloor,
cracking my skull."
When asked whether she
thinks she is a binge drinker,
Kate said, "I really don't think
I have a significant drinking
problem, I mean, everyone else
drinks here too, and everyone
has their stories about getting
wasted.,I just can't seem to
remember all of my stories."
Binge drinking is clinically
defined as, "five or more drinks
consumed in a row, one or
culating, the problem of binge
drinking on college campuses
has gained a lot of attention.
Last year, the American Medi-cal
Association (AMA)
launched a long term program
to attack binge drinking and
the consumption of alcohol by
American young adults.
The new AMA office of Al-cohol
and Other Substances
will manage $20 million in
grant money. The funds are to
be dispersed over a seven year
period in two specific areas.
One project will be target-ing
alcohol prevention among
youth through the development
ofcommunity coalitions. Another
project will focus on the reduction
of binge drinking on college cam-puses.
Binge drinking by young people
is a major health problem that we
can no longer ignore," said Nancy
W. Dickey, M.D., Chairwoman
of AMA.
. Any college or university
would gladly accept a new Olym-pic-
sized swimming pool. But
what if that pool was filled with
beer, wine and liquor? Each year,
according to the Harvard School
of Public Health, American col-lege
students consume 430 mil-lion
gallons of alcohol, enough to
fill 3,500 Olympic-sized swim-ming
pools (one for each college
and university in the country).
Collecting data from 17,600
students at 140 four year colleges
and universities, researchers
found that the extent of binge
drinking varied from school to
school, from a low of 1 percent of
students to a high of 70 percent.
They found that drinking pat-terns
established during high
school often persist during col-lege.
The study also concluded
that religion, ethnicity, athletic,
and fraternity/sorority involve-ment
contribute to whether a stu-dent
is likely to binge drink.
Students who said athletic par-ticipation
was important to them
versus those who said religion
was important to them were twice
as likely to be binge drinkers.
Continued on page 4
Homecoming weekend blasts off with pep
rally and fireworks
Jen Salfi
Staff Writer
A packed stadium of excited
athletes, supporters and loud mu-sic
surrounded Alumni Field on
Friday, October 3, as all Varsity
Athletes were honored at
Fairfield's second annual home-coming
pep rally.
The festivities began at 9:30
p.m. when the directors of athlet-ics
and recreation, Kristen Dalbec
and Dave Dzurec, welcomed stu-dents,
athletes, and alumni to the
rally. Bobby Harrison '98 sang
the national anthem. Following,
Father Liber offered a prayer to
wish the athletes the best of luck
and blessed Alumni Field.
The crowd continued to
show their school spirit with
applause when the dance team
came out to perform. The en-photo:
Athletic Department
ergy of the crowd was at its
height as the captains of vari-ous
varsity sports were an-nounced.
When the football team was
introduced and the team bar-reled
onto the field, team mem-bers
and supporters chanted,
"Go Stags!" Tri-captains,
Lomax Edwards, Derek
Aldridge and Brendan Csaszar
and coach Kevin Kiesel, thanked
everyone for coming out and
showing their support.
Finally, the energetic evening
concluded with a fifteen second
countdown to a fireworks dis-play
with music.
According to Kristen Dalbec,
director of athletics and recre-ation,
"The entire evening was a
success thanks to Chris
Cipriano, the members of
FUSA, the athletes and all the
supporters."
Thursday, October 9, 1997
Inside
this week
Are you a binge
drinker?
Find out how Alcohol
Awareness Week may
help you, see page 3.
A world of
silence
Senior Shannon Ruane
tells her revealing story,
see page 6.
Be aware of
your breasts
October is National
Breast Cancer Aware-ness
month, see page 8.
I believe in
Fairfield
A student speaks out
about recent sale of
land, see page 11.
Athletic
Center debate
Letters from Academic
vice-president, student
athlete, & staff writer,
see pages 10-11.
Want to see
some tongue?
Fuddle -they're
nothing to stick your
tongue at, see page 16.
Can't decide
whether you're
In or Out?
Solve the eternal
question , see page 16.
Meet Jim
Hankard
Freshman has played a
key role for the men's
soccer team this year, see
page 18.