Mirror - Vol. 25, No. 02 - September 30, 1999

              The Mirror
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
Volume 25, Number 2 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, September 30, 1999
They know
where you
live
By Paul Pennelli
MANAGING EDITOR
The constant allegations and fric-tion
regarding student residency on
Fairfield Beach is beginning to take
its toll on the relationship between the
university and its students.
Nowhere is this more apparent than
in the university's new policy of ac-cumulating
the addresses of all of its
students living off-campus.
Though off-campus residents have
always submitted their addresses to the
Student Beach Resident Association
(SBRA), this is the first year that the
addresses are being collected directly
by the university administration. If a
student fails to comply with these
guidelines, the university is planning
to prevent that student from register-ing
for the spring semester, according
to Dean of Students Gwen Vendley.
Some students who live at the
beach view this policy as an invasion
of privacy. Jane Nolan, '00, a board
member of the SBRA, believes that the
university does not have the right to
require its students to provide this in-formation.
"At the end of last year, off-cam-pus
residents did not sign anything that
obligated them to give the university
our local addresses," said Nolan. Be-cause
of this, argues Nolan, the uni-versity
should not threaten its students
with disciplinary measures.
However, Vendley, whose office is
compiling these addresses, feels that
this policy will actually protect stu-dents
living at the beach.
"[This policy] is for emergencies,
and to maintain a better relationship
with students [living on Fairfield
Friend or foe?
By Diana Fusco
STAFF WRITER
You are standing down at the
beach when the police come to break
up a party. As you stand there watch-ing
what is going on you realize that
you are not the only one watching.
There is a man who came with the po-lice
who is not doing anything but wit-nessing
the way the problems are be-ing
handled.
That man is Duane Melzer,
Coordinator for Off-campus Students.
His main responsibilities include riding
with Fairfield Police Thursdays, Fri-days
and Saturdays from 10 p.m. until
beach area settles around 3 a.m., ob-serving
any encounter with the police
and Fairfield students and if appropri-ate
filing a report of incident with the
Dean of Students. He also serves as a
moderator with the Fairfield Beach
Resident Association and hears judi-cial
cases which do not violate any of
the University's Code of Conduct that
occur off-campus.
It's a big job, one made
tougher by what Melzer sees as a
Duane Melzer monitors
lifestyle differences between perma-nent
residents and students. "There
is also a prejudice against young
people especially students, which is
true in all areas not just Fairfield,"
Melzer said.
But he seems to off to a good start.
According to Jane Nolan, a member
of the Student Beach Resident Asso-ciation
(SBRA) executive board,
"Duane has certainly adjusted well to
his new position and communicates
photo: Nick Ouimet
weekend partying at the beach
very well with students and the po-lice.
His presence has been noticed
by both off-campus and on-campus
students."
There are several things that will
happen as Melzer adjusts to his new
position. Soon, Melzer will carry a
beeper. Year-round beach residents
will have his beeper number and can
call Melzer to complain about a party.
Melzer can then call the house and
Continued on p. 4
New student ID cards serve many purposes
By Jen Sehnert
ASSISTANT A&E EDITOR
Fairfield University's march into
the next millennium includes not only
new buildings and campus facilities,
but also the creation of a new student
identification card.
The more modern student identifi-cation
card, issued this fall, currently
has the same primary functions as its
predecessor: meal/cafeteria card, li-brary
card, and means of entry to the
Continued on p. 4 residence halls. Director of Student
This Week...
Campus Life
Mosquito alert in Conneticut.
Protect yourself.
see page 6
Commentary
The Fairfield community comes
through.
see page 11
Arts and Entertainment
Movie madness:
Summer reviews and upcoming
previews
see page 16
Sports
Volleyball wins 19 straight
in MAAC.
see page 18
Services Jim Fitzpatrick added that
the new ID can also include a calling
card option if the student so desires.
"It's a lot more attractive, high-tech,
professional ... and is finally
marching us into the 21st century,"
said FUSA President Luigi Solla ex-pressing
his positive attitude about
the new ID card and system.
By September of, '00, the com-mittee
in charge of this project hopes
to begin the second phase of the plan,
which includes vending and laundry.
Fitzpatrick reported that the commit-tee
decided to give the system one
year before these new functions were
added to the card so that students and
administrators could get to know the
system and its supplier, AT&T, bet-ter.
"It's great that we're getting a one
card system. It's still wefrk in
progress, but eventually students will
be able to do laundry, get their meal
plans, go to snack machines, and get
into the buildings with one card,"
added Solla.
However, the modern identifica-tion
card has received mixed reviews
to date.
"It's more convenient now cause you
don't have to worry about stickers for
meal plans and worrying about the
plastic in the front of the card rip-ping
off," Tomas Ruiz de Luzuriaga,
'01.
"I don't see that it's really any dif-ferent
from the old card. It looks bet-ter
and it doesn't fall apart, but it
doesn't do anything different," said
Lisa Whitman, '02. "It's the same
thing basically and it could be more
high-tech. Freshman and sophomore
year, I had to have it all the time, but
since I'm in a townhouse it doesn't
"It's a lot more at-tractive,
high-tech,
professional
... and is finally
marching us into
the 21st century."
--Luigi Solla
make much difference," said Tara
Kennedy, '01.
"It would have been good if we got
more information about what the cards
did. No one seemed to have any in-formation
on them when we first got
them," said Nicole Sitar, '00.
According to Fitzpatrick, there
were several important reasons why
the new student identification card was
implemented this fall. The difficul-ties
that the old system posed for both
students and campus workers were
listed along with the card's lack of a
technological and up-to-date quality.
Despite the inability to have the sys-
Continued on p. 4