Mirror - Vol. 24, No. 11 - February 04, 1999

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Fairfield Universtiy
Volume 24 Number 11 The Image of Fairfield Thursady, February 4, 1999
Victory by seven votes
By Maureen Cuddy
STAFF WRITER
History was made at this year's
election for FUSA president, as Luigi
Solla defeated Jane Nolan by only seven
votes, the closest election Fairfield has
ever seen.
Approximately 1069 students
voted in the election which was held on
Tuesday, Feb 2. Solla won a total of 527
votes, while Nolan had 520. Solla won
54 percent of the freshman vote, having
154 out of 285 votes, as well as 54 per-cent
of the junior class vote, with 148
out of 274 votes. Nolan won 52 percent
of the sophomore class vote, with 154
out of 319 votes, and also won 58 per-cent
of the senior class vote, with 98 out
of 169 votes.
Write-in candidate Mark
Sheppard captured 18 votes, Nikia Smith
General Election Results
Seniors
Juniors
Sophomores
Freshmen
Total
Luigi Solla Jane Nolan
71 98
148 126
154 165
154 131
527 520
Primary Election Results
Jane Nolan, 431; Luigi Solla, 250; Dave Bae, 223;
Nikia Smith, 178; Megan Loiaconi, 50
had 2 votes, and Dave Bae and Brian
Mello each had one vote.
"It was such a close margin,
Solla said after hearing of his victory.
" I am just so happy I can't wait to help
the students, I am so happy to have this
opportunity."
Nolan and Solla were the two re-maining
candidates in the race after the pri-mary
held on Tuesday, January 26. They
defeated other candidates Dave Bae, Megan
Loiaconi, and Nikia Smith, The primary
Fairfield joins the Solla System
By Chris Stanton
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
FUSA president-elect Luigi
Solla says he knows where he wants to
be now that all of his campaigning is
done. "Bed," he jokingly answered, due
to the strain of keeping up with classes,
being a member of FUSA and running
for president.
Solla is clearly a man who
loves Fairfield University. This can be
seen in his three years of service as a
FUSA member. This year Solla is also
serving as co-director of graphic design,
making many of the posters that are seen
all around campus.
"The current (FUSA) admin-istration
was more of a status quo, they
have done some great things, but I want
to make things spectacular, an adminis-tration
that moves mountains," said
Solla, when asked about the current ad-ministration
of Michael Piagentini in
comparison to what he hopes to do.
Louie Solla wants to break out of the
One of Solla's main concerns is
improving campus life. He sees the lack
of on-campus entertainment and wants to
improve it. He also sees a need to work
with admissions to lower the number of
incoming freshman so that many are not
forced to live in study lounges.
Solla is also hoping to help di-versify
campus by trying to help incor-plioto:
Nick Ouimet
FUSA "status quo."
porate multicultural celebrations into the
more traditional ones. He is impressed with
the recent efforts of the school to make a
multicultural campus a reality, pointing to
the recent Noche Caliente and Martin
Luther King Jr. celebrations as examples.
The largest part of Solla's cam-paign
would have to be his attempt to
Continued on pg. 3
had a turnout of 1138 voters, approxi-mately
38 percent of the undergradu-ate
student body.
Following the primaries, can-didates
David Bae and Nikia Smith
publicly shifted their support to Solla,
a move which many consider may have
been the deciding factor in Solla's vic-tory.
Solla's win came on the heels of
a primary that left Nolan with well over
a hundred votes more than her nearest
opponent (Solla).
Sharp differences did not
emerge between Nolan and Solla's
campaigns. Both were concerned with
issues such as creating a universal stu-dent
ID, expansion of weekend pro-grams
for students, the promotion of
multiculturalism and diversity, and im-proving
university-town relations.
"I know both candidates,"
said FUSA president Mike Piagentini.
They both have compassion and love
for Fairfield and want to make a dif-ference.
They did a great job, were cre-ative
and knowledgeable." Piagentini
also said that this year's campaign was
different than last year's, since there
was only two candidates, instead of
three ,and there was not a focus on any
one candidate in particular.
A presidential debate between
Nolan and Solla, in the Campus Cen-ter
on Monday, found both candidates
in agreement on most issues. Solla
closed by saying, "I hope I will have
the opportunity to work with you in
getting things done... that will make a
difference in the university."
"Because it was so close I
don't see it as a loss," said Shannon
Sullivan, one of Nolan's campaign
managers. " I want to congratulate
Luigi...but it's hard for it to end like
this after {Nolan} worked so hard."
Nolan was not available for comment.
" It was heart wrenching to
watch the votes being counted...they
kept going up and down," said Tim
Healy, election commission chair.
" I think it went so well," said
Solla. "We both worked really hard
and got the message out. I want to start
working with the students right away."
Inside this edition,
Shirley
Chisholm
speaks,
see p. 2
New Year's
resolutions you
can stick to,
see p. 6
Candidates
promises
questioned,
see p. 9
Italian film
Life is
Beautiful
reviewed,
see p. 12
Conference
standings
updated,
see Inside Sports