Mirror - Vol. 26, No. 02 - September 21, 2000

              TheMirror
Volume 26, Number 2 Thursday, September 21, 2000
[ The sound ofsilence
Votecmrwoise orctincmjC& £%rctws nearer
ByGlenn Coffin
STAFFWRITER
The Fairfield Police commission
reached a deadlock in votingto support
implementation ofnew ordinances at
Fairfield Beach thatwould place finan-cialpunishmentsonrepeatoffendersthis
pastWednesdaynight
Kevin Hayes, president of the
FairfieldUniversityStudentAssociation,
said he was surprised that the police
commission didnotcomeout againstthis
issue.
"The police commission had raised
o^estionsregardingthis matterandhave
also expressed a low level ofconfidence
in this type ofprogram," Hayes said.
The long time battle between
Fairfield Beach residents and Fairfield
students reached an all time low this
summerwhenbeachresidents proposed
legislationtomakestudentoffenders re-sponsible
for the overtime payments of
Fairfield police responding to distur-bance
calls at the beach.TheRTMis set
to make a final vote on this legislation
on September25th.
The relations between students and
residents was further inflamedwhen a
homevideo takenby Colleen Sheridan,
a member ofthe RTM, last Saturday
night duringthe firstweekend ofschool
was shown at this meeting.
"There were close to 2,000 student
until three in the morning.The students
don't belong there."
Tim Healy, Fairfield's student repre-sentative
ontheRTM,sees this in anen-tirely
different way.
,:^C
Photo:BrianHuben
Kegparties, deemedbysomeastoo I^uJ, could soonbecome morecostly.
revelersinmyneighborhoodthatnight," "Ms. Sheridan lives several blocks
said Sheridan to the Connecticut Post, away from where any ofthese parties
"I have a 4-year-old child, and I am a havebeen going on," said Healy. "In fact,
single mother. I shouldn't be kept up sheandothersfromtheSBRAhavebeen
sighted with cell phones roaming
streets...Most ofwhat she saw withher
camera was legal age students coining
out ofThe [Sea] Grape after last call."
Healy lobbied the members ofthe
commission to see that calling police
would only increase tensions with stu-dents.
"Tensions at Fairfield Beach are
nowatthe highest pointtheyhave been
in at least the last two years,"he said.
Healy has repeatedly advocated a
moreactiverole fertileuniversitywithin
this problem.According to Healy, call-ingDuaneMelzer,
the universityliaison
betweenoff-campus students andshore-line
homeowners, is by far better than
calling the police. "By calling officers
to the beach, you only amplify the ten-sionsbetweenstudentsandresidents"
he
added
"This is misbehavior on both sides
that is borderline harassment," said
Hayes at last Wednesday's meeting.
Hayes apologized for the extraordinary
number ofstudents at the beach that
weekend, but was displeased with
Sheridan's behavior. He spoke at
Wednesday's meeting in support of
Fairfield student residents. "Thiswhole
thingcomes fromindividualswho al
See'Hayesr'onp^
Residents reveal hidden concerns in apartments
ByKellyDiMario
STAFFWRITER
Leaking ceilings, stains on the rugs,
wires hanging out ofthe walls and no
phone lines hooked up.
This was the reality Chris Matarese,
'02, andmanyotherapartmentresidents
faced when they moved into the new
complex earlier this month.
"You assume it's going to be a brand
newplace, butwith all the stains on the
floor and everything else, it feels like its
been lived in," said Matarese.
Matarese's main concern, as well as
mostofthe otherapartmentresidents, is
that there is stillno Internet connection.
ZachNewswanger, assistant director of
Residence Life, who oversees the
townhouses andthe apartments, prom-ises
Internethookupfor everyone in the
apartmentsbySeptember30.
"On campus maintenance is in charge
of hooking the Internet up,"
Newswanger said. "They're working
veryhardbutthere's onlya couple guys
working on it so it's taking a while."
Anotherconcern raisedby apartment
residents is that there currently is only
onephonelineperapartment,whenthere
shouldbe two. In addition, some apart-mentresidentswaited
almost aweekaf-ter
moving in to have their first line
hooked up. The second phone line is
expected to be turned on by the end of
October.
Amongother glitches that need to be
worked out are broken locks, ultra-sen-sitive
smoke detectors, IDs notworking
on some ofthe outsidetioors, and doz-ens
ofdiningroomchairs that arebreak-ing
frequently.
"The chairs are,being replaced with
abetter style,"Newswanger said. "They
are goingtobeamuchsturdierbuildand
you won't need to worry about them
breaking."The new chairs are expected
to arrive in about four weeks and stu-dents
will not be charged for broken
ones.
Somepeople are questioningwhether
'"'-•^U...
Photo; Brian Huben
SeniorsJennyBumsandColleenMcDonaldrelaxin the livingroomoftheapartment
manyof the problems are attributable to Constructionwas supposed to begin
the shortamountof time allocated to the inAugust 1999byGilbane Construction
construction ofthe apartments. See"Universitv"cHiij5
This Week ...
CampusLife:
Students adjusting to
altered campus
Page 7
Commentary
Studentspeaks
out about StagStock
Page 10
A&E
Review ofCrow's new
film "AlmostFamous"
Page 14
Sports
Football falls to
MAACfoe Duquesne
Page 19