Mirror - Vol. 25, No. 07 - November 11, 1999

              The Mirror
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
Volume 25, Number 7 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, November 11, 1999
Starving for justice
By Diana Fusco
STAFF WRITER
On Tuesday two students, a faculty
member, and a janitor began a hunger
strike in order to pressure the university
to terminate its contract with Service
Management Group and hire a respon-sible
contractor.
Mike Burke '00. Felipe Polanco '01
and Professor Betsy Gardner announced
at a press conference on Tuesday in front
of the Barone Campus Center that they
will go on an indefinite hunger strike.
Marisio Fuentes will start the strike and
after 24 hours will rotate with another
worker because they do not have health
insurance and do not know if they are in
good physical condition to continue with
an indefinite hunger strike, according to
Fuentes.
Burke talked to a nurse from the
school of nursing who advised those
people on the hunger strike to drink wa-ter,
Gatorade. juices and multivitamins.
Todd Pelazza. head of security, agreed.
"When you drink just water, your body
looses electrolytes and vitamins more
quickly and you loose your rationale
more quickly. By drinking Gatorade
they will be able to sustain a little bit
longer."
Security will also be keeping lines of
communication open and will be avail-able
for medical and transportation
needs.
Concerned University Community
Members (CUCM) has tried several
times to show the University how poorly
the janitors are being treated. They have
held vigils, rallies, handed out leaflets
and even took over Bellermine Hall last
April, after which new guidelines for
contractors were drawn up and adopted.
CUCM is now saying that the Uni-versity
has been telling them that a new
contractor would be hired by the time
school started in September. Then the
date changed until October. The Uni-versity
still has not hired a contractor un-der
the new guidelines, according to
Polanco. "We are just pushing them to
make the right decision." Polanco added.
According to a leaflet produced by
CUCM, SMG has proven to the univer-sity
that it can not respect the guidelines
A university junior (far left) and
of the University. They have lied to
the University about how much work-ers
are being paid, asked janitors to sign
a blank petition and later put a anti-union
message on top and SMG abuses
janitors at Fairfield by violating their
rights to organize a union free of in-timidation
and harassment. CUCM is
also saying that the bidding process
was a sham, making SMG look better
Mirror Photo: Donovan Weidniann
his interpreter speak to students.
than all the other competing contractors.
"We want a responsible contractor
that will adhere to the guidelines to be
hired and that contractor is not SMG,"
said Burke.
Gardner said that in Fairfield the pov-erty
level is $9.61 and hour. "Our jani-tors
still will not make that after the
guidelines are followed. We are push-
See "Four" on p. 4
Beach residents no longer welcomed
by First Year Experience
By Christopher Stanton
ASST. COMMENTARY EDITOR
The separation between on-campus
and off-campus students is increasing
because of new criteria that essentially
will prevent off-campus students from
becoming freshmen facilitators.
"We have had three major prob-lems
with off-campus students as fa-cilitators."
said Timothy Lloyd, direc-tor
of new student programs. "They
often fail to met their responsibilities
of going to meetings and programs:
they are not easily accessible to their
freshmen, and they have had parties
and invited freshman to them." Lloyd
explained.
Off-campus students are not the
only ones suffering from these new
criteria. RA's no longer will be in-cluded
in the selection process. Lloyd
said. The reason pointed to the heavy
workload of facilitators and the need
for those students with more time
available for their freshmen.
Llyod said that off-campus stu-dents
could continue to be coordina-tors
for the FYE program, noting that
the duties of these positions are com-pleted
by the beginning of the school
year.
Some students are outraged bv the
new requirements for the facilitator
position. "This is down right discrimi-nation!
It is stereotypical of beach
residents." said Kristen Geschine '98.
a graduate student working in the of-fice
of the dean of freshmen, former
beach resident and two-year facilita-tor.
"I worked as a resource person
with an off-campus facilitator, and she
was the best facilitator that I have ever
"This is downright dis-crimination!
It is ste-reotypical
of beach resi-dents."
—Kristin Geschine
seen. It would be a shame for her not
to have been one. I do not think it is
fair for the University to discriminate
against beach students w hen they can-not
provide housing for everyone."
she said.
"Last Sunday night, the Fairfield
University Student Senate proposed
that Timothy Lloyd rethink his deci-sion
on banning off-campus residents
from being facilitators." said Gregory
Morris. Class '01 Senator.
Some students are angered by
Lloyd's suggestion that they are not
willing to sacrifice for the program.
"How can you say we (off-campus
students) are not dedicated when I
came up here as a board member
with no place to live in order to help
the First Year Experience program
(FYE)?" Asked senior Melissa
Maundrell. "We slept on the floor
in Campion for a night." she ex-claimed.
"This is depriving the Class of
2004 of a large portion of the
Fairfield Community. As a beach
resident for two years and a co-co-ordinator
of the 2002 FYE program.
I feel the decision was hastily made."
said Jane Nolan '00. Board Mem-ber
of the Student Beach Resident
Association (SBRA). "They should
look at the selection process before
ruling out an entire group of stu-dents."
she said.
Nolan also pointed to the hypoc-risy
of the new criteria. "The idea
of a commuter student living in
Shelton being more accessible to a
student is ridiculous." Nolan said.
"The idea that students living at
home with their parents are more re-sponsible
is not fair to students who
live in a beach house with a family
of their own." she said.
The possibility of an off-campus
facilitator's house serving as a safe-haven
for a lost freshmen seems to
have been overlooked by Lloyd. "Stu-dents
will often end up alone with no
idea of where to go," said John
Frissora '00 and member of the
SBRA. "I remember last year fresh-man
would often come to my house
looking for a ride home or to use the
phone and I would help them out.
Because I lived at the beach my fresh-men
knew they had a place to come to
if needed." said Frissora.
See "Beach students' p. 11
Lloyd rejects all suggestions that
his new policy is unfair. "My main
concern is new students, and I need
students who will commit their time
to them." said Lloyd. "I have identi-fied
a certain group of students that
have caused problems, and I do not
want to deal with the obstacles of pre-vious
years."
Although Lloyd is content with his
new policies, he said that he would
allow off-campus students who are
willing to sacrifice and show their
dedication to the program to possibly
become facilitators. He wants those
interested in applying to meet with
him and send him a letter expressing
their desire to participate.
This Week ... Campus Life:
Facts on abusive dating
see pg. 6
Commentary:
More 60s backlash
see pg. 10
A&E:
Nauti Dolphin reviewsd
see pg. 15
Sports:
Football destroys Maiist
see pg. 18