Mirror - Vol. 24, No. 04 - October 22, 1998

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FAIRF1ELD UNIVERSITY IRROR
Volume 24 Number 4
The Image of Fairfield
Thursday, October 22, 1998
Student attacked at beach:
Investigation againstfour assailants is under way
Dana Ambrosini
News Editor
Dave Bastos
Contributing Writer
Four assailants allegedly attacked
a female Fairfield sophomore as she
walked along the end of first path at the
beach last Saturday night.
The student, who asked to remain
unidentified, stated she was walking alone
when four males came up from behind her.
One of the men covered her mouth so that
she could not yell then they told her that
they were in a gang and that she had to
have sex with them. When the man let
go of her mouth the student screamed.
One of the assailants then took out what
the student believes was a steak knife,
and slashed her in the face and stomach.
The group then ran away.
The student stated that the men,
who were dressed in all-black attire, did
not appear to be University students. Af-ter
the attack, the student went to a nearby
house. An ambulance and the police
were then called onto the scene.
One beach resident saw the vic-tim
after the incident, but before the po-lice
arrive, and observed her bleeding.
"She was moaning" the resident stated.
Officer Kelly of the Fairfield
Police Dept. has stated that the victim
was treated and released from the hos-pital
and is helping police investigate the
incident. At 12:30 on Sunday morning,
patrol officers were asking all residents
on the second path, the middle of the
three paths at on Lantern Point, whether
they heard any sounds. They also in-formed
some of the residents they talked
to about the incident, according to
sources.
When word of the attack cir-culated,
some residents began to ask
Lawyer to advise students on beach rights
Dana Ambrosini
News Editor
A lawyer and police officer will
attend the mandatory meeting for student
beach residents scheduled for some time
early next week to discuss student rights
and responsibilities at the beach, said
FUSA President Michael Piagentini.
The problems at the beach came
to a head last weekend when town resi-dents
handed out flyers to parents visiting
the University for parent's weekend. The
flyers were designed to alert parents to the
"rowdy" behaviorof their children. Resi-dents
have also sent letters to Alumni and
Trustees, asking Alumni to think twice
about donations to the University.
Piagentini has stated that an
obligatory meeting for all student beach
residents will be held early next week to
address student concerns about the beach
problem. Other University students are
also welcome to attend.
A lawyer and police officer will
be on hand at the meeting to address stu-dent
questions about their rights in regards
to such matters as the recent health inspec-tions
that some students claim they have
already been subjected to twice.
"It's a bigger situation than
people think," said Domenic Paniccia,
a '98 grad who is an RTM member.
"They're [the town residents] are seri-ous."
Meetings took place last week
between town residents and both the po-lice
and fire commissions. At the po-lice
commission meeting, residents
blasted police for failing to enforce the
laws and insisted on better inforcement
in the future. RTM member Jerry Schli-chting
'00 attended the meeting and
stated that he expects police enforcement
to be increased as a result of the pres-sure
being placed on them.
"Things have really come to a
boil and it would be unrealistic for stu-dents
not to see changes at the beach,"
said Schlichting. "Many residents ex-pressed
concern that the police right now
go too easy on student violators and I
can only imagine the police presence be-coming
a little more stringent in re-sponse
to the residents' concerns."
At the fire commission meet-ing,
the theme of overcrowding was ad-dressed,
and while the fire commission
has maintained that fourth amendment
rights prevent unwarranted searches,
town residents have been clear about
their targeting of various houses.
The Fairfield Beach Road As-sociation,
an organization of approxi-mately
200 year-round residents at the
beach, has split into task forces to handle
various aspects of efforts to cease the
problems they feel are caused by stu-dents
living at the beach.
Observing cars parked in stu-dent
homes and videotaping license
plates is one way that residents are at-tempting
to prove that student renters
are overcrowding. One group of resi-dents
has been tracking certain houses
from the very start of school. They have
targeted at least 12 houses to seek evic-tions
for and have voiced their determi-nation
to increase that number.
Dean of Students Gwendolyn
Vendley visited the FUSA Senate last
continued on pg. 4
male guests to take them and their parents
to their cars or to the Grape, the local bar.
According to residents, last year in the
Grape, an individual pulled a knife on the
customers. This second incident has spurred
student residents to question the motives and
presence of a police force that can ticket loud
and drunkenly behavior, but cannot stop a
woman from being attacked by four suspi-cious
men wearing black clothing.
The victim has stated that she cau-tions
students against walking alone at the
beach. "Everything is not as safe as the stu-dents
think," she stated.
Gerry Adams
addresses packed
audience at
Quick Center
photo: Internet
Gerry Adams, President of Northern
Ireland's Sinn Fein, discusses what
many consider to be the best chance
at peace for Northern Ireland in
many years. See article on pg. 3
Inside this edition...
Kennedy
speaks:
economy vs.
ecology,
see p. 3 for details
Alcohol Aware-ness
Week
commemorated
at Fairfield,
see p.5
Students speak
out for gay &
lesbian rights,
see p. 9
Barenaked
Ladies &
Aerosmith take
center stage,
see pgs. 11 & 13
Volleyball
spikes Notre
Dame,
get the play by play on
p. 14