Mirror - Vol. 24, No. 10 - December 10, 1998

              Volume 24 Number 10 The Image of Fairfield Thursady, December 10, 1998
Bus to business school sadly unreliable
By Brian Huben
STAFF WRITER
As the semester comes to a
close, it's easy to consider the many
things that have changed since Septem-ber.
One thing that hasn't changed
though, is the unreliable bus service to
and from the School of Business.
This semester, the School of
Business moved from Donnarumma to
the former Conference Center. This move
opened up classroom space across cam-pus
and gave business students new and
modern classrooms, but at the same time,
it also made it harder to get from one class
to another on time.
Students have 10 minutes to get
from one class to the next, but many are
complaining that it's not enough if you
have to go from the School of Business
to Canisius or the other academic build-ings.
"It's at least a 10 minute walk up
the hill, if not more, Liz Cassinelli, '01,
said. "I'm almost always late for my class
when I have to walk from the School of
Business to Canisius."
Mike Piagentini, FUSA presi-dent,
said that he has received some com-plaints
about the bus service to the School
of Business and the he has addressed
them to William Schimpf, vice president
of student services. He also said that they
had performed some tests, following the
bus on a few, runs without
the drivers knowledge, and
did find some problems.
A sidewalk, from
the Chapel to the School of
Business, is almost com-pleted
but students say that
the sidewalk is only benefi-cial
to their safety and
doesn't help them make the
walk any faster.
"Our first concern
was to get the path to the
School of Business to en-sure
student safety,"
Piagentini added. "Now
we'll see how things go
when it starts to get cold and
hopefully solve the prob-lem."
One possible solution
he offered is adding another
bus.
"The school needs
to develop a more efficient
way of getting students to
the School of Business be-cause
the present system
isn't working," Cassinelli
added. "Or, if they can't think of a better
way, they should allot more time between
classes."
Most students asked, said they
had never taken the bus to the School of
Business generally because it was never
A new sidewalk will be safer, but not quicker.
available when they needed it. "I've never
seen the bus waiting outside after class be-cause
if 1 did, I definitely would have taken
it, Mike Caserta, '01, said.
The real test, however, will come
once the cold weather settles in and stu-
Students fume over false fire alarms
photo: Nick Ouimet
dents become less likely to walk down
the hill. "It really hasn't been a prob-lem
so far because the weather hasn't
been too cold," Cassinelli said.
Walter Ryba, dean of the
School of Business, was unavailable
for comment on the situation.
By Chris Stanton
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Residence Life
considers fining
students responsible
for false alarms.
After studying for your big fi-nal
for the last six hours, you can now
get some valuable sleep. Unfortunately,
the fire alarm has just gone off, and you
must stand outside for an hour waiting for
the fire department.
This has become more of a com-mon
occurrence in many residence halls.
Although it does not come with a penalty
of a fine, some are considering institut-ing
one. "There is no fine for false alarms,
although I wish there was. It would help
reduce the number of incidents on cam-pus,"
said Henry Humphreys of residence
life.
Many students do not realize that
several of these alarms are not due to the
deliberate pulling of the alarm, but other
actions, such as cigarette smoke near an
alarm, or the flash of a camera setting off a
sensor, according to Stephen Dailey, the
residence hall coordinator in Campion.
"These alarms that go off due to
the technical error are called nuisance
alarms. An example would be a fire extin-guisher
being used. The alarm system works
by beams being refracted off of mirrors, if
something obstructs the beam, it will cause
an alarm to go off. When the smoke from a
fire extinguisher is released into the air, it
causes this thick layer of smoke to disrupt
the system. If the head of the system, which
sets off the alarm is not changed, it is more
sensitive and thus more likely to go off
again," said Joseph Bouchard of envi-ronmental
health and safety.
"Despite the mistakes, it is a
very new system and better than most
on other campuses, the problems with
the system are being looked into," said
Bouchard.
Many students are also out-raged
with the false alarms going off
during the early hours of the morning.
The ones that seem to be angered the
most are those who have early prac-tices
for their teams.
"Often times, the alarm goes
continued on pg. 3
Inside this edition...
Get to know
the new
trustees,
see p.4
Help on
holiday gift
ideas,
see p. 5
Sodexho
wants some
answers,
see p. 8
The infamous
shower scene
runs dry,
The new "Psycho " is
reviewed, see p. 11
Women's
volleyball
falls flat,
Clemson cleans up,
see p. 14