Mirror - Vol. 24, No. 09 - December 04, 1998

              Volume 24 Number 9 The Image of Fairfield Friday, December 4, 1998
On-campus
sickness made
worse by bad
bathroom
habits
By Maureen Cuddy
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Carol Mclntyre woke up one
November morning with a scratchy
throat and a stuffed up nose. As she rolled
over to shut off her alarm clock she let
out a sickly moan, and began to cough
repeatedly. Then, with a barely audible
voice she groaned, "Oh no, I think I'm
sick."
"Starting in November is when
we see an increase in the amount of ill-ness
on campus," said Anne Cole, direc-tor
of the Department of Health Services
at Fairfield University. "When the sea-sons
change it is triggered." This makes
the residence hall bathrooms an ex-tremely
risky place for picking up germs
during the winter months.
Mclntyre, a junior at Fairfield
University, has also noticed an increase
in illness among students during the win-ter
months. "You often see people get-ting
sick at the same time, which I think
is greatly due to the bathrooms."
On any given day, anyone can
walk into a residence hall bathroom at
Fairfield University and see people con-stantly
coming in and out, using the toi-lets,
sinks, and showers. What they can-not
see are the many germs which live
on the toilets, sinks, and even door
handles, just waiting to be picked up.
Bathroom cleanliness has al-ways
been a concern in the residence hall
bathroom at Fairfield University. This
is because hand soap and towels were not
always available in residence hall bath-rooms,
which can be used by approxi-mately
30 or more students. This led
many to worry about picking up germs
and getting sick. Only in April of 1998
the residence halls get soap dispensers,
but they all still go without hand towels.
"They're trying to make it feel
Looking for a few good stores?
Something may finally be moving into the
By Liz Harder
CIRCULATION MANAGER
"There's nowhere to shop
around here," said Teri Heavey '99. "I
usually go to Trumbull or Westport."
Since the Fairfield Store shut
down over a year ago, Fairfield Center
is slowly becoming a ghost town. Many
businesses that have been a staple in
town for decades have gone out of busi-ness
because they no longer have as
many customers. Others are hanging on
by a thread.
However, downtown Fairfield
photo: Nick Ouimet
area vacated by the Fairfield Store.
is on the verge of resurection. Developer
Starwood-Ceruzzi, has designed a $16 mil-lion
redevelopment plan for the site of the
former Fairfield Store and the adjacent block.
The new 80,000 square foot structure would
house retail stores on the first floor and of-fices
on the second.
Retailers who have expressed inter-est
in opening stores at the site include
Starbuck's, Victoria Secret's, Border Books
& Music, and Gap Kids. Due to the antici-pated
increase in business in Fairfield Cen-ter,
the redevelopment plan also calls for an
18 foot high parking deck to be built above
the existing lot behind the site.
Once a few wrinkles had been
ironed out last spring and early summer, it
looked as if the project was ready to go
forward. The plans were approved by the
Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance,
RTM and Town Planning and Zoning
Commission.
In mid-summer, the project hit
a brick wall named Douglas Munson and
Robert Krai. Munson owns a building
on Reef Road which backs up to the pro-posed
parking deck. The two men be-lieve
that the deck is too big and unnec-essary.
Therefore, they filed suit against
the town to take the parking deck out of
the plans. The developer and many mer-chants
and residents claim that the deck
is crucial for the plans to proceed. As a
result, the project is stalled until it goes
before a judge.
Right now, the town and devel-opers
are in a heated battle with Munson
and Krai. Neither side is willing to meet
the other's demands. Munson and Krai
are stalling the process further by re-questing
extensions of the court date,
which has infuriated many.
"Our problem is time," said
Robert Bilek, Executive Director of the
Fairfield Chamber of Commerce.
"There is a window of opportunity in
order to be ready for the 1999 holiday
season." Construction will take about 9
months and the possibility of Fairfield
Center being empty for the next two
holiday seasons could prove devastat-ing
to many businesses that are trying
to hold on.
like it is your own bathroom by making
you use your own hand towels," said
Cole. "They recently put in soap dispens-ers,
but I find not having towels is a prob-lem."
A 1996 study by Purdue Univer-sity
reported that washing one's hands
with both soap and water greatly reduces
the risk of contracting illness.
"The biggest thing is to wash
your hands," agreed Cole. "This is the
biggest thing to cut down on infection."
A 1992 study by the New En-gland
Journal of Medicine found that ap-proximately
60 percent of people forget
to wash their hands after using the bath-room.
This percentage is extremely high,
making it easy for one person to contami-nate
an entire bathroom with his or her
continued on pg. 3
Gonzaga: The worst offender?
By Jason Butsch
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Garbage heaps reach the full capac-ity
of their receptacles and beyond as pizza
boxes, beer cans, candy wrappers, and other
pieces of trash overflow onto the floor by
the doorway.
The urinals are clogged with wads
of chewing tobacco and cigarette butts. The
sinks, a couple of which are still dripping
from the last time they were used, are also
made into ashtrays and food disposals.
This is the third floor bathroom in
Gonzaga Hall, which possibly exhibits the
worst of the horrendous bathroom conditions
that seem to prevail on campus. More than
likely these conditions are the result of ex-cessive
drinking and partying that takes
place on the floor each weekend. The
floor is notorious around campus for its
rowdy behavior, which seems only to
attract more students than repel them.
However, many of the floor residents
are fed up with the treatment of their
floor, especially the bathrooms, which
they accredit to visitors from the other
residence halls.
"We're a pretty obnoxious
floor to tell you the truth," says sopho-more
John Dion, "but seriously doubt
that the damage done to the bathrooms
is because of the people that live here.
Not most of it anyway." Dion, who
lived on Gonzaga three as a freshman,
continued on pg. 3
Inside this edition,
Students lack
political
knowledge,
see p.3
Students'
views on
RA's
see p. 5
Headrick
responds to
criticism
see p. 9
Double Live
is magical
Garth's new
album reviewed,
see p. 11
Football
wrap-up
Relive the season's
highlights
on p. 14