Mirror - Vol. 25, No. 01 - September 23, 1999

              The Mirror
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
Volume 25, Number 1 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, September 23, 1999
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By Lori Rizzo
STAFF WRITER
A long line of cars circles
Canisius parking lot. Each driver
searches intently for the relief of red
brake lights, signaling a vacant spot
and an end to the dizzying sensation.
Along with the traditional
stresses of beginning a new school
year, finding a parking space here on-campus
seems to be adding to the ev-eryday
frustrations of students.
Many say that although park-ing
has been an ongoing issue for
years, the start of campus-wide reno-vations
is making it an even bigger
problem.
"It's a lot worse. People
weren't parking on the grass last year.
They obviously need more parking,
either that or (they could) not have as
many sophomores have cars," sug-gested
senior Ray Mansolino.
Other students agree and feel
that the University could have been
more efficient in planning an alternate
solution before the start of the school
year.
"They knew this construction would
Construction by Kostka/Claver has already begun
around campus
be happening and they knew it would
cause problems," said Megan Madden,
'00. "They could have done a lot of
trouble shooting, and they didn't."
Both seniors suggested reduc-ing
the number of registered vehicles
by seniority. In essence, this would
apply to sophomore driving privileges
being restricted until the construction
provides enough replacement parking
photo: Nick Ouimet
making it hard for some students to get
spaces. However, both
Frank Ficko,
Associate Director of Security, and
MaryAnn Demasi, Parking Opera-tions
Assistant, do not favor limiting
the number of registered vehicles. "It
is something at the moment I frown
on. The reason that people need cars
is to help fund their education," Ficko
said.
According to Ficko there pres-ently
are plans to erect new parking
lots in various locations. Canisius
parking lot will be expanded in the
very near future. Also, two new park-ing
lots will be created west of the
Quick Center beginning on October 1.
The Campus Center parking lot will
be removed as of Christmas break so
that renovations can begin.
However, the renovation of
the Canisius lot will take six to eight
weeks, and the creation of the two new
lots will take at least eight weeks to
complete.
In the past, townhouse stu-dents
have had fingers pointed at them
for causing a lack of available spaces.
This year, for the first time, townhouse
students will not be allowed to park
in Canisius parking lot.
In fact, students with a
townhouse parking permit are only al-lowed
to park in two rows near the
Rex-Plex, near the Athletic Center, or
in the Kostka/Claver lot. "They need
to leave their cars at the townhouses,"
Demasi said.
Nick Tuffarelli, a junior
Continued on r..4
Welcome Back...
A lot has happened on campus since the beginning of the 1999-2000 school yean Here is a quick recap:
* Major construction has remodeled the face of campus * Hurricane Floyd results in a university shutdown for 2 days
#• A lack of parking has students outraged * New policies change life at the townhouses
This Week...
Campus Life
F.A.C.E offers alcohol
free alternatives
See page 6
Commentary
Has the University made
partying impossible?
See page 10
Arts & Entertainment
Guster rocks campus
See page 14
Sports
Women's soccer strikes gold
See page 17
Sobering welcome for townhouse students-
Students return to new and tighter drinking policies
By Karen Affinito
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Change has been prevalent
all over Fairfield University's cam-pus
since students arrived to start the
fall semester. The library renovations
and new apartment building con-struction
are two of the University's
most obvious metamorphoses. How-ever,
many of the changes are invis-ible
to the eye and rather lie within
the campus's policies.
The townhouse alcohol
policies have been altered and took
effect at the start of this semester.
Talk around campus has townhouse
residents confused as well as con-cerned
about their freedoms and the
infringement of privileges.
"The townhouses are still
considered, by the University, to be
an independent community," Fran
Koerting, Associate Dean of Students
said. "The University's goal is not an
elimination of alcohol, but instead ir-responsible
drinking. We are trying
to create a healthier climate."
Many of the policies for
townhouse parties have not been al-tered,
but have rather been made
clearer and allow less room for specu-lation
and guessing. "Clarity was a
big concern," Gwen Vendley, Dean of
Students, and a member of the town-house
alcohol policies group said.
"There always seemed to be some con-fusion
with the polices so we (the
group) tried to make the rules clearer
and more defined. We wanted to
make the policies more understand-able
so that everyone was on the same
wavelength."
The maximum number of
people at a townhouse party is still 49,
while the amount of alcohol is still two
Continued on p.4