Mirror - Vol. 23, No. 15 - February 26, 1998

              FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
MIRROR
Volume 23 Number 15 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, February 26, 1998
Student turns to the NAACP
Sarah Redman
Staff' Writer
A Fairfield student re-cently
made a complaint with
the National Association for the
Advancement ofColored People,
NAACP, after feeling that he
was not treated fairly by security
in the questioning of an assault
on a white student.
"We don't take things
lightly," said Murray Farber, Di-rector
of Public Relations. Ac-cording
to an article in the Con-necticut
Post, police and univer-sity
officials claim race was not
an issue in the assault or investi-gation.
The Connecticut Post
also reported that a white student
claims he was attacked Jan. 25
on campus by one of two black
men who approached him.
A black freshman, iden-tified
by the victim as the assail-ant,
was upset that security ac-cused
him of the alleged attack,
and that security videotaped an
interview with him, as was stated
in a Feb. 14 Connecticut Post ar-ticle.
Larri Mazon, director of
multicultural relations, informed the
student of the proper procedure the
University follows when there is
such a complaint, said Farber. The
student never filed a formal com-plaint
with Fairfield University and
went directly to the NAACP.
University officials met
with the NAACP on Feb. 17 to
discuss the claims of prejudice. "It
was good meeting," said Farber.
"We pointed out that we had never
received any written complaintfrom
the student about our security de-partment,
which was the whole is-sue
here, " said Farber in the Post
article.
According to the Post, the
university presented a packet of
information about efforts to recruit
minority students and foster posi-tive
racial relations to the NAACP.
Also, according to Todd Pelazza,
Director of Security, all officers
undergo diversity training.
The Connecticut Post also
reported that the NAACP chapter
president, Carolyn Nah, said
she had received other com-plaints
of alleged racism at
Fairfield, but that none of the
persons would come forward
to pursue their claims. She
claimed that many minority
students fear retribution in the
form of revoked scholarships.
Murray Farber said
that he did not understand this
claim, and that the administra-tion
at Fairfield is very under-standing
and sensitive to stu-dents.
Chris Cipriano,
FUSA president, has plans for
a unity march early next
month. Cipriano is hoping to
"create a visual reminder to
the campus."
He said that the
march was originally sched-uled
for April, but was pushed
up because he felt it would
make an impact in light of the
recent racial slurs found in the
residence halls. "We needed
to do something constructive,"
said Cipriano.
Update on
bias incidents
on campus
After The Mirror went
to press last issue, the administra-tion
revealed that several addi-tional
incidents of bias had taken
place at the university.
The incidents:
Jan. 8 - A letter with racist.
anti-Semitic, and homophobic
messages was mai led to the FUSA
president.
Jan. 28- Racist and homopho-bic
slurs were written in the el-evator
in Campion Hall.
Feb. 3- Racial slurs were dis-covered
on the name tags of stu-dents'
doors in Kostka Hall.
Feb. 5- During a verbal alter-cation,
a student uttered a racial
slur to another student.
Feb. 6- A student received an
anti-Semitic message over e-mail.
Feb. 12- A student recei ved a
sexually and racially biased letter
through campus mail..
Feb. 14- A student reported
finding "KKK" and a swastika on
a bulletin board in the commuter
lounge.
LL Cool J concert announced DejaVu?
Elizabeth De Jesus
Staff Writer
FUSA announced last
Thursday that LL Cool J, a rap
star, will b'e the featured per-former
at this year's spring con-cert.
LLCool J will be per-forming
at Alumni Hall on
April 23, the Thursday before
Dogwoods, said FUSA presi-dentChrisCipriano.
An open-ing
act has not been con-firmed.
"I'm glad we're go-ing
to be able to offer a con-cert
to the student body,"
said Cipriano.
After initially
opening ticket sales to
Fairfield University stu-dents,
tickets will be of-fered
to the public. "Tick-ets
will cost somewhere be-tween
$5-$ 10 for students and
between $10-$ 15 for the gen-eral
public," said Tracy Holly-wood,
vice president of student
activities.
"The original bid for
the spring concert was $50,000,
but after considering additional
costs for lighting, sound and
publicity, the total cost for the show
should come out to around
$60,000," said Hollywood.
"It is extremely expen-sive,"
Cipriano said, "but we had a
slight carry over from last year's
budget."
"Plans for getting a con-photo:
Def Jams records
cert," Hollywood said, "forthe
spring have actually been in
the works since last summer."
Mary-Alice Greco and David
Gnatek are heads of the stu-dent
entertainment committee
and will set up subcommittees
continued on pg 4
Security involved
in car chase,
student's Car
stolen by suspects
Maura Parsons
News Editor
For the second time
within a month, university
security and the Fairfield Po-lice
Department teamed up in
a chase to apprehend fleeing
thieves.
This time theculprits
got away with a university
student's car.
On the afternoon of
Feb. 19, an administrator
alerted security that three "sus-picious"
men were tampering
with a red Honda Prelude in
the parking lot behind Alumni
Hall, said Frank Ficko, asso-ciate
director of security.
Security responded
to the scene moments later to
discover that two of the males
were attempting to flee in the
stolen red Honda. The other
male fled in the suspects' black
Honda Prelude.
A chase ensued on
continued on pg. 4
Inside this
week
Piagentini
announces
VPs
Find out who he
selected on pg. 3
Honoring
Forseythe &
Halm
Ou r celebration of Black
History month continues,
see p.5
Worrisome
wages
Are custodial workers
paid fairly ? see p.6
Where is the
Stag support?
Student sounds off
about lack of fans for
athletics.see p.8
Crucifix
crusade
rages on
Read the latest
contribtions to this
ongoing debate, see
p.9-10
Are you a
skank?
Want to become one?
Check outDouglas Leader
Orchestra's new CD, see
1985 Flashback
Relive the time of
mohawks, sequinedgloves,
and lucky stars, ckeck out
"The Wedding Singer,
see p. 13
Men's &
Women's hoops
march to
MAAC
see p.15-16