Mirror - Vol. 26, No. 23 - May 03, 2001

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SAFE & SECURE
The Mirror s Matt Thompson
takes a ride in the big car
Page 7
ALL FOR YOU
Janet's new album sizzles
with hot R&B jams
Page 13
Fairfield
Mav 3, 2001
■WL mr The MIRROR University
Volume 26, Number 23
Despite the recent injunction pre-venting
the gatherings at the common
areas of Lantern Point, an unofficial
Clam Jam still occurred.
The Town ofFairfield had to pay the
police over-time for their work this week-end.
Previously, much of the money
raised for Clam Jam through the selling
of wristbands was donated to pay this
charge. This year, the town had to pay
over $14,000, while last year over
$11,000 was raised by the students..
"It's costing them money now," said
new FUSA president Joe Piagentini. "It
kind of backfired on the residents that
wanted it [the injunction]."
This was not sponsored or organized
by any student leaders, and it consisted
only of individual private parties at the
beach.
However, while the residents pushed
for the injunction to prevent disturbances
and infractions by students, it was a
Fairfield Beach resident, and one of the
plaintiffs in the court case, that allegedly
attacked a Fairfield University alumnus
on Sunday. It is undecided if charges
will be pressed, and no one could be
reached for comment.
Additionally, there were conflicts
witnessed between students and Colleen
Sheridan, one of the nine residents who
brought forth the suit and who has been
witnessed videotaping the beach scene,
and Vincent Biondi, the plaintiff lawyer.
As of now, it is being disputed
whether or not the injunction was in vio-lation
this past weekend.
"It's not illegal to walk around the
street the last time I checked," said
sophomore Brian Leverone. The injunc-tion
passed on Thursday, April 26, did
not say that parties at the beach were il-legal.
It only restricted events that at-tracted
over 250 students to the common
areas of Lantern Point.
With the passing of the injunction,
students are afraid that relations with the
beach residents will only get worse.
"I don't think that the law suit
helped student and year round resident
relations," Leverone said. "The residents
are looked on as evil people at the beach
and that's not fair to them," he said.
"We were making a lot of progress
to please them [the beach residents],"
added Leverone. "We've done almost
everything they want us to do, and it's
never enough for these people... The suit
took all the progress we made at the Uni-versity,
and set it back to zero," he said.
Most ofthe students said they stayed
clear of the point, due to the injunction,
and only participated in the parties in
people's houses.
"I didn't plan on going to the point,"
said sophomore Tim Pantano. "We
played Wiffle ball at the park," he said.
Pantano also said that many ofthe adults
at the beach were holding their own par-ties.
"They had their own little Clam
Jam," he said. Pantano said that these
people were about 30 or 40 years old,
and had set up a bonfire.
For his first Clam Jam experience,
freshman Paul Cincotta thought that the
students were well behaved and under
control. "We were barbequing," he said.
"The neighbors didn't seem to have a
problem [with us] at all."
At this year's unofficial Clam Jam
this past Sunday, there were five "ar-rests"
for having open alcohol in public,
and two for possession of alcohol by a
minor, according to the daily Fairfield
Police arrest log. These arrests consist
of a fine payable through mail for the
former offence, and a misdemeanor
charge and appearance in court for the
latter. No one was held taken into cus-tody.
Police are unable to arrest anyone
breaking the injunction because it is a
civil suit, not a criminal suit.
Piagentini said that he sent a letter
to the students living around the Lantern
Point, to remind them of the injunction
and to advise them to be responsible. He
said that students were contentious ofthe
order, and even called the police to re-port
that there were too many people
gathering on the Point. When the police
arrived, they said that everything was
under control, he said.
Both the police department and the
First Selectman have been in favor of
students holding Clam Jam, according
to the letter sent by Piagentini.
"I think the Fairfield residents who
wanted the court order shot themselves
in the foot, because instead of one con-trolled
party there were several indi-vidual
parties that were not controlled
by student leaders," Leverone said.
"Its not as big as it's been," said
Sheridan in a recent Connecticut Post
article. "The point is there wasn't sup-posed
to be any," she said.
i: ■ --': ' r'.V Graduation tickets a hot item
By Melissa Walker
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Four years ofperseverance and hard
work. Approximately $ 100,000. Support
from friends and family.
A combination of these things is
what has brought the class of 2001 to
this final step: graduation. But this year,
Fairfield's policy has changed and no
longer will everyone close to graduates
be able to watch them receive diplomas.
Under a new policy each graduate
will be issued five tickets for the gradu-ation
ceremony and no others will be ad-mitted,
according to Maria Curesky, an
operations assistant at Student Services.
Two weeks ago parents were first
informed in a letter from James
Fitzpatrick, assistant vice president for
Student Services, that there would be no
lawn seating at the outdoor ceremony
and strictly only five guests allowed.
Students and parents are outraged
that after paying for such and expensive
education, Fairfield is actually limited
graduation tickets. Stacy Long '01 said,
"The letter should have been sent ear-lier,
it's completely ridiculous. I have im-mediate
family members who already
have flight reservations and now they
can't even come to graduation."
Maria. Curesky also said, "If you
would like to request more tickets, you
need to write a letter or email with the
reason and number of tickets."
Fitzpatrick is cooperating with stu-dents
who have special situations. Beth
Mac Corkindale '01, called and ex-plained
that she has five people in her
immediate family and that she has two
remaining grandparents, who would be
very upset if they couldn't watch her
walk. Fitzpatrick granted her request for
two more tickets.
Nancy Habetz, Director of Media
Relations, said that both she and Doug
Whiting, Vice President of Public Rela-tions
didn't attend the commencement
meeting, so therefore they were unaware
ofthe new policy. But Habetz thinks that
it's possibly a parking reason.
James Fitzpatrick was unavailable
for comment.