Mirror - Vol. 27, No. 18 - February 21, 2002

              9 DAYS LATER
Some unhappy with hos-tage
crisis handling
Page 5
CROSSROADS
New movie takes road
nobody should travel
Page 10
Fairfield MIRROR University
Volume Number IS
Then there were two
Donoghue, Farisello face off in FUSA Presidential election
BY CHRIS WOOD
The final stretch of the
FUSA presidential race began
Tuesday when the field of four
candidates was narrowed down
to two.
Karen Donoghue and Vin
Farisello came out on top at the
primary, defeating candidates
Patrick Noonan and Jordan
Schibter, alljuniors.
Almost 1,000 students
showed up to the polls on Tues-day.
416 votes went to
Donoghue, while 312 students
chose Farisello, allowing them
to continue in the presidential
race. Schibler received 106
votes, while Noonan received
102 votes, according to election
commisionerEd Hertwig '02.
After discovering that he
would not continue in the race,
Noonan announced that he
would endorse Farisello.
"He's a very hard worker,
and I think that his policies
about student rights and student
advocacy are very important,"
Noonan said.
The two remaining candi-dates
will be featured at the fi-nal
election which is to be held
this Tuesday, Feb. 26. If
Donoghue wins on Tuesday, she
will be the first female FUSA
president in Fairfield University
history.
Hheprimary ransrrxxrtbty
and I was very pleased with the
turnout," Hertwig said.
At the end of the day,
Donoghue and Farisello said
that theywere pleased with their
victories, yet fatigued.
"I am overwhelmed, but in
a positive way," Donoghue said.
Farisello said he was "ex-hausted
yet elated."
But neither candidate will
have much time to recuperate,
nor do they plan on it.
"I'm going to go to meet as
many students one-on-one and
tell them why they should
choose me," said Donoghue.
The candidates are focus-ing
on varying issues as they
move ahead.
"I want to focus on mak-ing
FUSA uphold students
rights and promote the welfare
andwell-being ofthe entire stu-dent
body," Farisello said.
Donoghue will focus on
what she calls "school pride. "I
want to know what is going to
Karen Donoghue and Vin Farisello won the primaries
onTuesday.
make students feel proud about
this school, what's going to
make them go to sporting
events," she said.
Another position that will
be determined on Tuesday is the
vice president of senate. Casey
Butteriy and Michael Franco,
bothjuniors, are running forthis
position.
Both vice-presidential can-didates
cite communication be
SEE "PRIMARY" ON P. 3
Campus Comparison
Arts and Sciences vs. The Dolan School of Business
BY ETHAN FRY
Communication is the most
popular major in Fairfield's
College of Arts and Sciences, a
fact which is not very evident
when looking at the faculty ros-ter
of the communication de-partment
There arejust six full-time
faaitymembers in the commu-nication
department, according
to the 2001 -02 staff directory.
The result is a student to full-time
faculty ratio of 45:1, and
although the department does
make use of adjunct professors,
concerns have been raised that
such a high ratio limits the ef-fectiveness
of academic advis-ing
within the department.
"During registration, ev-erybody
is stressed out," said
Caroline Casey'03. "When we
gotopre-regBter,rt'sjust chaos.
There should definitely be more
communication professors
hied"
The lack of professors
within the department has other
ancillary effects, such as large
class sizes.
"The class sizes are pretty
big," said Deirdre Kelly '03.
"All the classes are probably
about five to six people over,
because some classes are so
hard to get into and seniors have
to be written into them or they
won't graduate."
In contrast, the most popu-lar
major in the Charles F.
Dolan School of Business, mar-keting,
has a student to fU-time
faculty ratio of roughly 31:1.
Other majors within the school
SEE "DOLAN" ON P. 3
No butts
about it
Administration
considers ban
on smoking in
dorms
BY SEAN TOOLAN
Just over a year after pull-ing
tobacco products from the
university bookstore, Fairfield
administrators are considering
restrictions on cigarette smok-ing
within residence halls due
to the negative health aspects of
second hand smoke.
Fairfield has considered
regulations to smoking in resi-dence
halls before, but had
never changed its policy. As
more universities go to smoke-free
dorms, the university re-quested
that Gary Stephenson,
director of housing operations,
gather, information about the
subject. The university will
work in conjunction with Inter
Residence
Hall Govern-ment
(IRHG)
and Fairfield
University
Student Asso-ciation
"0*^&KING
(FUSA) to determine student
opinion on the matter.
"This is not a rights issue,"
Stephenson said. "We are not
telling students they can't
smoke, we are just looking to
protect those who don't."
The issue was presented to
FUSA at a Senate meeting on
Jan. 27, who is currently work-ing
to obtain the opinion of the
student body. The student gov-ernment
is also creating a web
page where students can cast
their vote to what action, if any,
should take place. The web page
will appear on the FUSA
website as early as Sunday.
"The students have a strong
voice in the matter and they
should exercise their opinions,"
said FUSA President Joe
Piagentini. "The Dean of Stu-dents
has worked well with us
and won't make a decision un-til
he hears the student voice."
"A total ban would not be
a good idea, because smokers
and nonsmokers alike have
rights," said Vin Farisello '03,
a smoker and FUSA senator. "I
would not be opposed to a com-promise."
SEE "POSSIBLE" ON P. 4