Mirror - Vol. 25, No. 09 - December 03, 1999

              The Mirror
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
Volume 25, Number 9 The Image of Fairfield Friday, December 3, 1999
TUp close a.n.d personal
Fairfield's ChiefofPolice sets the record straight on town and university
Editor's note: He's been in the
middle of town-gown clash at
Fairfield Beach for over 30 years.
Fairfield Police Chief Joseph
Sambrook remembers the days when
only students lived at the beach in the
winter and "the Jesuit priests ruled
with an iron hand." Due to the in-flux
ofyear-round beach residents,
the job is a lot tougher and now
Sambrook says he is "between a rock
and a hard place" in enforcing the
law. Mirror News Editor Brian
Huben sat down with the chief this
week. The subjects discussed are
close to the hearts ofmany students:
whether they should be bannedfrom
living at the beach, whether police
overreact during disturbances and
how to smooth relations with year-round
residents.
Why are students at Lantern Point
continually given tickets for noise
violations and more likely than not
formal complaints have not been
called in to the police?
That's a difficult thing for us too
because pretty much by Supreme
Court ruling we (police officers) can't
be offended by other language or any
of these things. That's why, to the
frustrations of many of the property
owners down there, when the police
officers get there and says we have
to have a specific complaint they'll
say, 'well can't you hear it?' And
the police officer will say, 'well it's
not offending me, it may be offend-ing
you but it's not offending me.'
So Lantern Point is a tough spot
because everyone is jammed in there
so tightly. But if we get a specific
complaint and we have to go down
there and we do witness the sound,
we'll make the, well we did have the
situation where we were doing some
warnings and so forth but then it got
to a point where say house #471 or
something like that had a record for
a number of complaints. Then our
dispatcher would tell the officers
when they were responding that we
had numerous complaints for that
residence.
What changes have you seen be-tween
the relationship of Fairfield
University students, the Fairfield
Police, and the town of Fairfield
during your time as chief?
Photo: Brian Huben
Fairfield Police Chief Joseph Sambrook at his desk in his Reef Road Office
Fairfield University is a very well
known name and we're very proud
that Fairfield University is in our
town. I take every opportunity to de-fend
the students and their right to
be just that, to be students and to
have as good a time here at Fairfield
as they can while going to school as
long as it is tempered with good
common sense. And...based upon
percentages and the number of stu-dents
that balance is fairly well dis-played
and exhibited by the students.
However, there are a group of
young people, not any one group in
particular, that when they get together
and do a little beer drinking get a little
rowdy and out of hand. Our officers
are instructed to be fair, firm and
friendly and I think that's the simplest
way we can put it. I will be the first
person to defend their right to pursue
those activities and those programs or
See on p. 2
Our friendly neighbors
By Shannon Steinfeld
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Fairfield University is being sued
by College Park residents because of
the new astroturf football field, and
student relationships with year-round
beach residents continue to be vola-tile.
But the new University Park
neighbors next to the townhouses say
they have few complaints.
"We wouldn't have built our home
here if this wasn't Fairfield Univer-sity,"
said University Park resident
Leslie Donahue. "If this was UConn,
we wouldn't be here."
Donahue and her family moved
into their house a few months ago and
so far she said she has seen no major
problems. Her one complaint is that
two trailers have been parked since the
summer in the Dolan parking lot, right
next to her backyard. As far as noise
goes, she said, you can hear things
occasionally, but she is "tolerant of
'normal' student behavior."
Donna Tierney has lived in Uni-versity
Park for almost a year and said
that she has seen more advantages
than disadvantages in living close to
the university. Her children use the
university's basketball courts and
pool, and play lacrosse on the fields.
The family also enjoys listening to,
and attending, the sport games and
going to the Quick Center for special
events.
"I love living in an area with a
neighborhood atmosphere," said
Tierney. Her family's only disap-pointment
was not being invited to the
barbecue Alumni Weekend.
University Park is located behind
Dolan Hall and next to the
townhouses. This new development
area is made up of approximately 25
new homes, half of which reside on
the University's peripheral borders.
The property was owned by the Uni-versity
but was sold four years ago
for economic reasons, said Doug
Whiting, associate vice president for
public relations.
Residents Richard and Lois
Schlegel also have not noted any ma-jor
problems with living in close
Photo: Brian Huben
Houses in University Park have had relatively little complaints of the university
proximity to the university. "Sure, we
hear the kids on Friday nights, but it
hasn't been a problem," said Lois
Schlegel. "I can't imagine someone
moving in this close and not expect-ing
some amount of activity."
However, they did make a com-
"7 can't imagine someone
moving in this close and not
expecting some amount of
activity."
—Lois Schlegel
plaint to Whiting earlier on this year
about the trailers parked behind Dolan.
"They just aren't something that you
want to see constantly out your back
window," said Schlegel.
Another University Park resident
said he was disappointed that the Uni-versity
didn't plant any trees on the
border between their property and
Fairfield's campus.
"By and large, complaints have been
minimal. There have been no noise or
behavior complaints," said Whiting. In
all, there has only been about a half-dozen
complaints from the residents
See on p. 4
This Week.. Campus Life:
Christmas gift ideas
see p. 6
Commentary:
More complaints over FYE
policies
see p. 11
A&E:
Rage Against the
Machcine CD reviewed
see p. 11
Sports:
Rough start for men's
basketball
see p. 15
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