Mirror - Vol. 27, No. 21 - March 21, 2002

              GAME ON?
A look at plans for the
new, open space game room
Page9
OSCAR PICKS
Oscar predictions and firsts
for this year's awards show
Page 15
Fairfield
March 21,2002 MIRROR
Arrestsup atFairfieldBeach
Newno-tolerancepolicycracksdownonstudentpanying
University
BY PAUL PARISI
As springtime tempera-tures
get warmer and outdoor
activity increases at Fairfield
Beach, police officials say they
are ready to strictly enforce laws
designed to curb rowdy behav-ior
by Fairfield students and
others in the beach area.
"Events at the beach have
become a cultural situation,
something that is being handed
down year to year," Lt. Michael
Walsh told The Mirror in an in-terview.
"Whatever problem or
problems that have existed at
the beach area are still very
much there."
Since September, police
have been exercising a "No-
Tolerance" policy when it
comes to behavior at the beach,
Walsh said. Fairfield Police
define this policy as follows:
"When there is a nuisance or
disturbance violation- to the de-gree
that satisfies a legal thresh-old
for arrest- an arrest will be
made without exception."
Walsh added that this can and
will be done without the of-fender
first receiving a warning.
Due to this new policy, the
lieutenant confirmed that there
have been more arrests in 2001-
2002 then in previous years.
Betz feels that overall this
year has been a definite im-provement
when it comes to
student behavior at the beach.
"The students have been more
mature and quiet than in years
past. We haven't been able to
do everything we wanted to this
year, but we have made strides.
However at this moment we are
at a crossroads."
"My advice to the students
is if you live at the beach do not
SEE "TONED" ON P. 4
Volume 27, Number 21
Fairfieldreacts
toBerriardDLI
BY MIKE PIGNATARO
A week after accusations of
head football coach Joe Bernard
drinking on the team bus, one
member of the team, the
Fairfield athletic department
and community respond in de-fense
of the first-year head
coach.
Junior Chris Hook told The
Mirror last week that Bernard
is "always drinking on the bus
on the way home from away
games." Hook was suspended
from the team
indefinitely
prior to mak-ing
this state-ment
for vio-lating
team
rules, accord-ing
to Ber-nard.
Students takingtoomuchcredit
Q)ai^mrckmmngfinamMissuesforcollege^oers
BY JEN MALCOM
No cash? No problem.
With the swipe of a card and a
signature you're off. Off that is
until the monthly bills start roll-ing
in and piling up.
Take a stroll by the
mailroom and chances are
you'll see a student or two with
their eyes popping out of their
pale green faces as they stare at
the long list of purchases
they've made.
"The problem is I have too
many and I go over my limit on
every single one. Sometimes I
look at my bill and not even re-member
what's on it. But, I pay
my monthly bills in full, I don't
just pay the minimum," said
Laura Orozco, '04.
Today, many credit card
companies offer amazing in-troductory
rates that are
exceptionally low.
But like all good things that
come to an end, those great rates
soonjump extraordinarily high.
In June 2000, a Bankrate.com
survey of lenders that offer stu-dent
credit cards found the av-erage
rate was 17.51 percent.
"Credit cards are such a
scam. They try to lure us inno-cent
college students and then
they charge astronomically high
rates," said Marisa Muzic, '03.
Under regular credit crite-ria,
many students would not be
able to get a card because they
have no credit history and little
or no income. But the market for
young people is valuable be-cause
as industry research
shows young consumers remain
loyal to their first cards as they
SEE "CREDIT" ON P. 7
SacredHeart-kss?
Photo: Target Center
Ludacris is performing at Sacred Heart, but Fairfield students
may have to pay full price.
BY SEAN HAYES
According to FUSA Vice
President of Programming
Bridget Hennessey, a large-scale
spring concert rivaling the
success of 112 will not happen.
"I have a big issue with
having a big band and not sell-ing
a lot of tickets," Hennessey
said.
Hennessey's decision to
scale down the spring concert
is not due to budgetary con-straints.
Rather, she does not
want another concert catastro-phe
like Ben Harper one year
ago. Harper attracted only
1,100 students and cost FUSA
upwards of $75,000, according
to Hennessey.
"We have the money (for a
big spring concert), it's just not
cost-effective. We don't want
to do what's happened in the
past."
Adding to the spring con-cert
troubles is the deterioration
in the relationship established
with Sacred Heart University
for the 112 concert. While Sa-cred
Heart received blocks of
tickets for the 112 show at
Fairfield student prices, FUSA
has still not heard whether or
not Fairfield students will be
given a discount for Sacred
Heart's upcoming Ludacris
SEE "IS PAYING" ON P. 6
BERNARD
"I deny the allegation made
by Hook," Bernard said.
Hook, a member of
Fairfield's offensive unit, has
never rode on the same bus as
Bernard, since Bernard rides
with the defensive players on
another bus. However, mem-bers
of the defensive unit that
are on the same bus as Bernard,
who wish to remain anony-mous,
have confirmed that
Hook's accusations are true.
Director of
POLL:
What do you
think of Coach
Bernard's DUI?
Results, p. 12
Athletics Eu-gene
Doris says
that until one
player comes to
the athletic ad-ministration
with this infor-mation,
nothing can be done at
this time.
"There's nothing I can do
at this time. Right now it's just
an accusation," Doris said. "I'm
not saying the investigation is
over, but until a player or some-one
comes forward—the accu-sation
is unsubstantiated and is
just that—an accusation."
Doris discredits Hook's
accusation and believes Bernard
hasn't committed any wrongdo-ing
while representing Fairfield
University.
"I went to him [Bernard]
and he told me on the record that
the accusation wasn't true,"
Doris said. "He's been honest
and upfront about his DUI ar-rest—
I have no reason not to
believe him."
Senior members of the de-fensive
unit (Joe Roberts, Scott
Gelber, Mike Duggan, John
SEE "STUDENTS" ON P. 6