Mirror - Vol. 26, No. 21 - April 19, 2001

              SO LONG
Our Editor in Chief looks
back on his years with us
Page 13
The
GEARING UP
Tennis prepares for the
MAAC tournament
Page 15
Fairfield
April 19, 2001
1IJC MIRROR University
Volume T/', Number 2i>
Meningitis can spHgd in
kissing or sharing ci
s, including
and drinks.
By Sean Hayes
ASST. COMMENTARY EDITOR
For the second time in four years, a
Piagentini will rule the Fairfield Univer-sity
Student Association.
On April 10th, following in his
brother Mike's footsteps, Joe Piagentini
was declared the winner of the FUSA
Presidential Election.
"I'm very excited," the new presi-dent-
elect said. "I want to thank my cam-paign
managers and everyone who voted
for me."
The results were announced at ap-proximately
9:30 p.m. on a week ago
Tuesday night, after some delays caused
by the lack of audio for the feed to be
broadcast to the student population.
When the results were announced,
Piagentini was declared the victor by 25
votes. His total was 560 votes, compared
to Michael O'Donovan's 535. Despite
his loss, O'Donovan still remained up-beat.
"I feel awesome. We worked really
hard and got a vote that's never taken a
part in FUSA-apathy." O'Donovan con-tinued,
"Joe ran a great campaign."
The announcement capped a two-week
blitzkrieg of campaign posters,
door-to-door greetings and a controversy
that seemed out of place in a student
government campaign.
The roster of three presidential can-didates
became two when Amanda Betz
was forced to withdraw from the race due
to questions surrounding her GPA.
While Betz seemed to be the early
favorite to win the presidency, her with-draw
and eventual endorsement of
Michael O'Donovan did little to change
the outcome.
Alumni Hall was filled with sup-porters,
yet most were predominately
supporters of Piagentini. Amanda Betz
was in attendance, holding O'Donovan's
hand until the results were read.
In the other top races, Bridget
Hennessey bested Paul DeSena by 94
votes to win the Vice President of Pro-gramming.
Hennessey's total was 555
votes; DeSena's 461 votes. Running un-opposed,
Adam Sheehy was elected
Vice-President of Senate with 699 votes.
This year's election brought 1,100
students to the polls. Election Commis-sioner
Ed Hertwig '02 said that this was
"pretty on par" considering the lack of a
localized campus center to act as a vot-ing
hub.
^o a\ Meningitis
concernsgrow
by Sean Hayes
A second Fairfield University stu-dent
has contracted the sometimes-fatal
disease meningitis, according to univer-sity
officials.
In the e-mail to the university com-munity,
Director of Student Health Ser-vices
Anne Cole, R.N. stated: "a second
Fairfield University student, a female
off-campus resident, has been diagnosed
with meningococcal disease."
The University Health Center sug-gests
that anyone who was present at the
SBRA "Mock Wedding" or Beirut tour-naments
and shared cigarettes, eating
utensils or drinks should immediately
contact the health center or their local
physician.
The announcement comes one week
after the first campus declaration that a
student had contracted meningitis, a dis-ease
that can result in paralysis or death.
The university has not released
many details behind the new case. The
only information known is that this case
involves a female off-campus resident.
This university announcement
thickens the trouble caused by the dis-ease,
as the first case involved a resident
of the townhouses, while this case in-volves
an off-campus resident. Further
complicating matters was that most Fair-field
students returned home after the
announcement for Easter Break.
A sign of the seriousness of the
event is that the university sent a total of
six e-mails to student accounts, and left
a voicemail on all university students'
phone mailboxes.
Fortunately both students are mak-ing
great progress. A health center offi-cial
has said that both are doing well.
According to the official, one student has
returned home and the other will be
home soon.
The university is not alone in this
problem. Six Northeastern University
students have contracted the disease in
the last 10 days, according to The Bos-ton
Herald. Furthermore, LaSalle,
Lehigh, and die University of Notre
Dame have all had meningitis scares
since the beginning of the year.
Meetings were held Monday night
in both the residents' halls and Quick
Center to educate all students about the
disease.