Mirror - Vol. 27, No. 07 - October 25, 2001

              A SEALED DEAL
They bond dance & classical
music - not your daddy's Bach!
Page 19
DAMNYANKEES
The Yankees win! And then the
eruption begins...
Page27
Fairfield
Octobe- * MIRROR University
Volume 27, Number 7
SITTING ROOM ONLY
New arena fails to defeat student apathy
By Kate Rickard
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Apparently, Alumni Hall was not
the problem.
Arena Madness opened up Harbor
Yard to Fairfield University students this
past Thursday. Attendance was poor.
The event, advertised in a blitzkrieg
of posters, mailbox slips, dining hall
placards and balloons failed to attract a
large number of students, despite the
promises of give aways, prizes, the
chance to see the basketball teams in
action and, most importantly, the first
chance students would have to see the
brand new Bridgeport facility.
In the aftermath ofArena Madness,
many are left scratching their heads won-dering
why turnout for Fairfield sport-ing
events is so low.
It is not just Fairfield basketball
games that are poorly attended by stu-dents;
it is true of many of the sports
events at the university.
Most student athletes are well aware
of the poor turnout for sporting events
— and they find it frustrating. One of
these teams is women's volleyball,
which is lucky to fill 10% of the seats in
Alumni Hall for matches. "I would like
more people to come. It is great to play
in front of a big crowd," said Sasha Blake
'03 of the women's volleyball team.
Keith Moran '02, from the men's
crew team agreed. "I don't row for other
people, I row for me, but it would be
great if we had some support."
When asked why they do not attend
sporting events many students agreed
that is just wasn't considered a "big"
thing on campus.
"It just isn't the fun thing to do on
campus," said Meghan Flaherty '03. "In
high school the football games were the
social event of the weekend. Here, no
one cares."
Other Fairfield students believe that
if the athletes were excited about their
sports and promoted their teams, people
would come. "The teams themselves
aren't always pumped about their games.
Why should I be?" said Maryn Mikula
'03.
Fairfield's football team draws the
biggest crowds on campus. Like many
of the athletes on-campus, football play-ers
practice for hours a day. When it fi-nally
comes time to make their fellow
classmates proud, they get an average
turnout of 2,571 fans, according to the
sports information office.
This may seem like a high number,
but it is important to realize that a large
majority of the fans at home football
See "SPORTS" on p. 27
Princeton Review: town-gown2ndworstin US
By Jen Malcom
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Fairfield University has scored
high among the national collegiate
rankings of the prestigious Princeton
Review. Unfortunately, it was not in
the category of smart students, great
food or best dorms.
Instead, the conflict at Fairfield
Beach has caught national attention,
causing Fairfield University to be
ranked No. 2 in the category of worst
town-gown relations across the entire
country. Babson College was the only
school with a worse ranking than Fair-field
in terms of relations between a
school and the local community.
Doug Whiting, associate vice
president for Public Relations at Fair-field,
was surprised to learn about the
rankings. "There have certainly been
incidents in the last several years, but
we are well beyond that and are work-ing
cooperatively with the leadership of
Fairfield," he stated.
Some students were also shocked
to find out how bad it really is. "I knew
the relations with the townspeople were
poor, but I had no idea that it was so
much worse here than at other col-leges,"
said Laura Orozco, '05.
Other students said they weren't too
surprised. "It's not really all that shock-ing
considering all the media coverage
it gets," said Chris Karch, '04. Kim
Liaw, '04, added, "It's unfortunate, but
not unexpected, relations at the beach
have gotten considerably worse."
Since the establishment of Fairfield
University in 1942, students enjoyed the
freedom of dff-campus living at the
beach. In recent years, however, their
freedoms have become increasingly
fewer. This is due to the changing dy-namic
at the beach, according to Whit-ing.
There are more full time residents
and families living there. There is also
more construction of upscale housing.
With all these "improvements" stu-dents
are left with astronomical rent
prices and outlandish tickets in their
hands. Joe Piagentini, president of
FUSA, along with many other student
beach residents, hope to preserve the
longstanding Fairfield tradition of stu-dents
living at the beach.
"We have to sacrifice now for the
future to be better," said Piagentini.
Sacrificing means putting up with
the increasing regulations. There is a
new fence blocking the entrance to the
main path, as well as a security booth
in the parking lot checking passes.
There was a temporary injunction
passed last year that clearly prohibits
any event attracting more than 250 stu- "
dents to take place in the common ar-eas
of Lantern Point. This directly re-sulted
with the official cancellation of
clam jam last year and the luau this year.
There are also increasing numbers
police officers roaming the beach on a
given night ticketing more and more
students than ever before. Permanent
beach residents are doing everything in
their power, from filming students with-out
their permission to running for town
government positions, to stopping the
students from coming to the beach.
"The school was here far before
they moved here, they should have ex-pected
it," said Colleen Lamb, '04.
"The truth is, the townspeople are here
to stay and demand to be respected. The
students are here to stay and demand
to party. And nothing is noticeably im-proving.
But it's a situation desperately
in need of compromise."
Whiting does not place that much
stock in the rankings. He feels the
See "DESPITE" on p. 6