Mirror - Vol. 23, No. 09 - November 20, 1997

              FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
IRROR
Volume 23 Number 9 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, November 20,1997
Three university students attempt suicide
Angel dePara
Contributing Writer
At the mid-way point
of the fall semester, Fairfield
University officials confirmed
a grim statistic: there were three
attempted suicides at Fairfield.
"Generally we have
about four or five suicide at-tempts
in a year," Director of
Security Todd Pelazza, who has
been with the Fairfield Univer-sity
security department for 20
years, said. "We are a little high
this year."
Pelazza declined to re-veal
the location or dates of the
suicide attempts.
"The stress peak peri-ods
are at the beginning of the
year, due to the adjustment to a
new school year," Pelazza said,
"and at the end of the school
year when there are a lot of
stresses on the students."
Fairfield is not alone
in coping with this problem. For
example, The Chronicle of
HigherEducation reported that
Michigan State University had
six suicides during the 1996-
1997 academic year, while
Oxford University had three
student suicides.
In response, Oxford
strengthened their advising and
counseling services, especially
those offered to first-year stu-dents;
the school is also trying
to get more students involved
to speak with counselors, fac-ulty,
and any others who in-teract
directly with the stu-dents,
according to The
Chronicle.
The counseling cen-ter
in Dolan Hall and the
Health Center at Fairfield
University provide confiden-tial
counseling sessions with
trained professionals.Theuni-iir
'The most frequently seen cata-lyst
in suicide attempts is alcohol
because it lowers inhibitions and in
those who are already depressed...
[it] heightens the depression.'??
in campus activities.
University .of Vir-ginia,
created a suicide pre-vention
program that brings
suicide experts to the campus
versity has three full-time
counselors Elise Harrison,
Susan Birge, Cynthia Swift to
help students with problems.
"We are all on hand
to deal with any difficulties that
may come up," Harrison said. "
There is also a counselor on duty
24 hours a day, in case there is an
emergency, there will be some-one
to respond."
Pelazza said that the
university follows a procedure
when handling an attempted sui-cide.
"In the case of an at-tempted
suicide by a student,
they are first attended by secu-rity,
who are all E.M.T.' s [Emer-gency
Medical Technicians],"
he said, "trained to deal with
such medical crises."
"The security officers
will then attend to the situation
as best they can, and then get the
student to the Health Center or
to the hospital," Pelazza said.
"Because a student is involved,
security would then contact resi-dence
life, who would then con-tact
the Health Center or secu-
Continued on page 3
Driver slams into three parked cars
Maura Parsons
News Editor
A university student
took his friend's jeep out for a
spin last Saturday night and
wound up with a police record
after smashing into three parked
vehicles.
According to univer-sity
security reports, the acci-dent
took place at approximately
11:38 p.m. on Nov. 15 on the
road beside Campion Hall. The
suspect, a male freshman, fled
the scene of the accident after
crashing into the cars. The
Fairfield police department
charged the suspect on Sunday
with evading responsibility and
reckless operation of a vehicle.
The suspect's name was not of-ficially
released at press time.
Mike Lauzon, assistant
director of security, said that
security located the vehicle
driven by the suspect 20 min-utes
after he fled the accident.
The suspectparked thejeep, also
damaged in the crash, in the
photo: A. Miller
This is one of the victim's car.
nearby Jogues parking lot. The
suspect, who was not the owner
ofthe black Jeep Cherokee that
he was driving, turned himself
in on Sunday, Nov. 16 at noon,
Lauzon said.
Lauzon said that both
the suspect and his passenger,
an unidentified male under-graduate
student, denied that
the suspect was speeding or
driving recklessly. "The driver
said that he took his eyes off
the road," Lauzon said.
Yet, one eyewitness
to the accident tells a different
story. Becki Riedel '98 was a
passenger in another car that
witnessed the entire crash. She
said that the suspect was speed-ing.
"It was like a scene in a
movie. It was surreal," she
said. "He was driving so fast.
After he passed Loyola, he
gunned his acceleration. I
could tell that he wasn't going
to make it around the turn past
Campion and he collided into
the cars."
"He didn't stop at all,"
Reidel continued. "I watched him
leave the scene of the accident."
Lauzon said that the sus-pect
denied consuming alcohol
before driving his friend's Jeep.
Yet, his passenger told security
that the suspect may have con-sumed
a beer before getting be-hind
the wheel of the vehicle but
he wasn't sure. Security could not
confirm that alcohol was a factor
in the accident.
Three students had to be
notified by security that their cars
were damaged in the accident. One
of the students, Jaime Turner '00,
was told by securityjust after mid-night
that her car was hit by the
suspect. Turner's Jeep Wrangler
received body damage including
a broken tail light, dents, and
scratches.
"I was angered," Turner
said. "I paid $60 to park on cam-pus
and I expect my car to be safe.
It's a shame that stuff like this
happens and people can't own up
Continued on p. 4
Inside this
week
Are we letting
the burglars
in?
Find out how to be safe,
. see p. 3
A tale of two
mice
Friends learn that
opposites attract,
^^^^se^^^^^
A date in
cyberspace
All you need is a compute)
and a dream see p. 6
Responses to
"Some advice
forAHANA"
SALSA President,
FUSA VP ofMulticultural
Relations, see p.9
Dorm Damage:
It's not fair to
pay
Staff writer suggests
why it takesplace, seep. 10
Get Addicted
Read about Jane's
Addcition's reunuin
tour, see p. 11
Voila!
Check out Fairfield's
French Connection, Bistro
Voila, seep. 12.
Women's
volleyball
qualifies for
NCAA Tourney
Find about it, see p. 14