Mirror - Vol. 27, No. 22 - April 04, 2002

              N/\lONAL
STUOtNACAMTAlOH
AGAIHSnHON<i£t
BROOMS OUT
Fairfield community gear up for
Hunger Cleanup this Saturday
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Page 10 .'"..; 'I'.M'i'j'mnr'
Fairfield
April 4, 2002 I JYlIRRuR University
Volume 27, Number 22
Jamstifldammedup
BY CHRIS ZEITZ
There shall be no Clam Jam
because of a court injunction
issued last year. "The town has
no way to authorize such an
event... the courts have ruled
that it is illegal," said Ken
Flatto, First Selectman of
Fairfield.
FUSA President Joe
Piagentini said, "the tradition of
Clam Jam will never be the
same" as a result of the injunc-tion.
However, he said that his
administration is working with
Flatto and the town for a more
controlled and less populated
party. Flatto has said that the
town can do nothing but enforce
the law as it. is written.
Dean of Students Mark
Reed advised that students
"need to obey court orders."
The injunction stipulates that
there can be no event "attract'
ing more than 250 students to
take place upon the common
areas" at Lantern Point. "The
court finds that... Klam Jam
(sic) and other events held by
Fairfield University students in
the common areas at Lantern
Point... constitute a nuisance,"
according to the court order is-sued
on April
26, 2001. A
violation of
the court or-der
could re-sult
in legal
c o n s e -
quences for
student resi-dents
and the
Clam Jams of previous years are just a memory thanks to the injunction. A new version of Clam Jam is being considered.
REED
landlords of the Lantern Point
Association.
Though the injunction is
called temporary, Reed said that
it is not temporary in the collo-quial
sense. The injunction re-mains
in effect forbidding gath-erings
of 250 students and en-forcing
Town Ordinances for
noise violation in common ar-eas
"until further order of the
court."
Reed said that there have
been sincere, well-intentioned
efforts by FUSA, the Student
Beach Residents' Association
(SBRA) and Fairfield adminis-tration
to heal the relationship
between student and non-stu-dent
residents of Fairfield
beach. However, "this problem
is 100 times bigger" than a par-ticular
FUSA or SBRA admin-istration.
It pre-existed these
current administrations and will
exist after they have left the
school. It requires a degree of
legal knowledge and historical
perspective, Reed continued.
Flatto expressed
reservations about the
future of Clam Jam.
"Large scale
events like
Clam Jam are
not destined for the future," said
the First Selectman. Flatto said
that the risk of injury and un-foreseen
complica-tions
were
difficult to
manage with
such a gather-ing.
Also,
Flatto im-plied
a desire
to have a bal- FLATTO
ance between social events for
upperclassmen and the mainte-nance
of good relations with
non-student residents.
These sentiments were also
expressed in
the court order.
The injunction
reads that at a
——
visit to Lantern Point "what im-pressed
the court most... was the
concentration of many small
cottages... It was evident to the
court that any boistrous (sic) ac-tivity
at Lantern Point would in-trude
upon the senses of sur-rounding
property inhabitants."
However, the injunction also
expressed a willingness "to bal-ance
the needs of the students
for recreation against the abso-lute
rights of the plaintiffs,"
non-student residents.
However, Flatto also said
that the court action was not
something enacted by town of-ficials.
Flatto also encouraged
more on-campus events, such as
concerts, which could help to al-leviate
the "town gown" strife.
He said that it was "very impor-tant
to have a variety of activi-ties
for students."
Both Reed and Flatto de-scribed
the year as relatively
quiet. "A number of student
beach residents have worked
hard to represent themselves re-sponsibly,"
said Flatto. Both
also referred to the in-creased
police activity. Flatto
said that the police department
has been more "aggressive."
Reed differ-entiated
the
university's
policies from
town en-forcement,
and said that
students are
entided to the
due process
outlined in
the student
handbook
when con-fronting
uni-versity
sanc-tions
after
police action.
Reed made
an analogy to further explain
some of the strains on the uni-versity
saying that if a 20-year-old
Gap employee parked in
front of garbage cans, "I doubt
they (non-student residents)
would call the Gap."
Reed paraphrased Fr. Car-rier
from a homily. "We per-ceive
from where we stand."
Reed continued saying that the
students and non-students at
Lantern Point were standing in
different places with different
frames of references and
have been talking past
each other, at times."
ONLINE POLL
Qamjam'sdone
Whatdoyouthink?
Vote online at
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INJUNCTION
Full textavailable
onlineat
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EDITORIAL
Is the injunction
constitutional?
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