Mirror - Vol. 26, No. 01 - September 14, 2000

              The Mirror
FAIRFIELD UNIVERSITY
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Volume 26, Number 1 The Image of Fairfield Thursday, September 14, 2000
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Three's a crowd
;N University convertsfreshmen doubles into triples
By Kelly DiMario
STAFF WRITER
As students return to campus for the
new semester, there are many factors
causing changes to their housing situation.
Not only are there more upperclassmen
required to live on campus but the class
of 2004 is the largest freshmen class to
ever enter the university, consisting of ap-proximately
1000 students.
The dorms that are located in the quad
and had previously housed mainly sopho-mores
and juniors, are now housing many
freshmen. Half of the rooms in the quad
that were only built to accommodate two
people have been converted to triples.
Freshman Krysta Henderson shares a
room in Regis with two other girls and
expresses a feeling of claustrophobia. "It's
just not comfortable. If I want to come in
to my room and crash, I can't because it's
so crowded. Beds are lofted and bunked
so there's nowhere to sit." Each room has
Photo: Paul PenneUi
Kristen Sileo, a lucky freshman, lounges in her spacious Kostka double.
three beds, two armoirs, and two
desks. "The biggest problem is not
having a desk," said Henderson.
"You're paying this much to get an
education and, you can't even study.
It's just an inconvenience."
The university sent several letters
over the course of the summer notify-ing
the freshmen that many of the
double rooms would be converted to
triples. "The freshmen were told sev-eral
times over the summer that they
would be tripled and it was made clear
at orientation so they could change their
Disgruntled beach residents aim
ordinance at F.U. students
By Glen Coffin
STAFF WRITER
As Fairfield students return from sum-mer
jobs and re-enter the classrooms, the
residents ofFairfield Beach are once again
fighting to maintain control of what has
become party central for most Fairfield
students. The ongoing struggle between
Fairfield students and the residents of
Fairfield Beach hit a high point this sum-mer,
as a new piece of legislation that
could have damaging effects on students
came before the Fairfield RTM.
Beach residents are pushing for
a new ordinance that would bring
greater punishments to students host-ing
parties that violate existing town
ordinances. If a house is visited by
officers twice in a six month period,
students would not only have to pay
for the violation but also for the over-time
of the responding officer.
Subsequently, the students
would also be subjected to more ex-pensive
security deposits and pressure
from landlords. The Fairfield town
legislature is set to discuss this pro-posal
on September 25th. Fairfield
Photo: Nick Ouimet
Houses like this one, known as the Pink Box, may soon face stricter penalties from police.
University Student Association Presi-dent
Kevin Hayes, along with several
other FUSA officials have been fight-ing
this new legislation all summer. So
far, Hayes has succeeded in delaying
any action until classes resume.
"This is just the town trying to
find another way to hurt the students,"
he said. "The town believes its inten-tions
were good, but it is in actuality
just another way to make the students
feel-unwelcome within the commu-nity,"
added Hayes.
The ordinance focuses on houses
being cited twice by police officials, but
Hayes himself said that not even being
pulled over twice for speeding compels
the courts to order you to pay for the
officer's overtime. Hayes complained
that the members of the Representative
Town Meeting waited until after
Fairfield students had broke for sum-mer
recess before beginning work on
it.
"This issue has been debated, and
some on the RTM wanted to wait until
students had returned to campus to vote
on the issue," he said.
Colleen Sheridan a member of the
RTM and also an adamant opponent of
See "Noise" on p.4
minds," says Fran Koerting, director of
residence life. "There were still parents
upset when they arrived here though."
Approximately one hundred more fresh-men
than usual were accepted this year.
The big difference is that 25 percent of
those accepted decided to come to
Fairfield instead of the usual 22 percent.
The freshmen who are in triples are
receiving a $760 decrease in room and
board payments each semester until they
are moved into a normal living situation.
That is not expected until at least next se-mester
or next year.
One of the biggest frustrations for Resi-dence
Life and the freshmen are that the
quad renovations were not completed.
"The triples are tight," admitted Koerting.
"The furniture fits but it's hard for the stu-dents
to fit all their other things like ste-reos.
I'm very impressed with the way
the freshmen approached the situation and
the way they're making it work."
Another issue confronting students is
See "Expectations" on p.4
Dolan
donates
$25M
By Paul Pennelli
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The biggest donation in Fairfield Uni-versity
history will have a major impact
on business school students, but will also
be felt by all whom attend the university.
A large part of the $25 million gift from
Trustee Qiades F. Dotan, founder and
chairman of Cablevision, will be placed
in an endowment to create more faculty
chairs. Other endowment funds will be set
aside for student financial aid packages
and technology improvements at the busi-ness
school. In addition, the donation -
announced Tuesday— will allow the uni-versity
to complete the financing of the
acquisition of the former Conference Cen-ter
in which the business school currently
resides.
And effective immediately, Fairfield
has renamed its School of Business the
Charles F. Dolan School of Business. The
See "SOB" on p.3
This Week...
News:
University enacts new
alcohol policies.
Page 3
Campus Life:
Get to know
Friday's Convoca-tion
speaker
Page 6
Commentary:
Hayes addresses
readers o/The
Mirror
Page 8
Sports:
Look who's ranked 16th
in the nation ...
Page 12
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