Mirror - Vol. 27, No. 26 - May 02, 2002

              THIRD DEGREE
20 Questions (and more) with
the outgoing Editor in Chief
Page 8
ART WORKS
Students let their
artistic talents shine
Page 16
Fairfield MIRROR University
Number 2d
Spam Jam sizzled... aamjamdrizzled
BY CHRIS WOOD
Cups and cops actually got along during this year's Spam Jam.
Photo: Amy Womack
BY JEN MALCOM
Despite a little drizzle and
the threat of ominous weather,
Spam Jam rocked the afternoon
away with very few problems.
"This is the first time I've
seen Spam Jam," said Laura
Cantrell, associate director of
residence life. "It was
very well-run. We've
had many comple-ments
from deans, se-curity,
and students."
There was not one
illegal keg found dur-ing
the party. Security was very
pleased. The only incident in-volved
two non-university stu-dents
who were found with fake
wristbands and they were es-corted
off-campus.
Tight security surrounded
the 8, 9, and 10 block town
houses allowing only students
with official wristbands into the
party. Approximately 1100
EDITORIAL
Weneedmore
events like this
Page12
wristbands were given to stu-dents
over 21. Almost 400 jun-iors
and seniors under 21 were
given wristbands. Nearly 200
of the people in attendance were
non-university students.
Spam Jam was sponsored
by UNITE, university town-house
experience and RASOR,
Residential Apart-ment
Student Organi-zation.
The cost of
Spam Jam, including
the DJ, wristbands,
security staff, and
Sodexho food, was
nearly $10,000.
"Beer was bought by stu-dents,"
said Cantrell. "No uni-versity
money was used to pur-chase
alcohol."
"I think it was well-orga-nized,
but I thought maybe it
was too long," said Lynn
Raimondo, '03. "At the end,
everyone was pretty tired and
cranky. I'm glad it's just for
juniors and seniors, it's a nice
tradition for upperclassmen."
Rob Rocco, '02 said, "It
was pretty much the same my
freshman year, except I think
there were less people there.
When I was freshman I drank
with everyone else, without the
underclassmen there are less
people. From a liability stand-point,
it's better. But if they can
provide fun entertainment at the
quad, I think it's a good idea to
have the two separated."
This year May Day events
in the quad included carnival
rides, a cotton candy stand, a
magician, picture pins, and a
psychic. On campus bands,
Crosseyed Charlie and Awk-ward
Silence, rocked on
throughout the day.
"I thought May Day was a
lot of fun this year," said Dora
DeNardo, '04. "The rides were
a fun addition to this year's fes-tivities."
Last Sunday was supposed
to be the final showdown be-tween
Fairfield University stu-dents
and their neighbors, the
town's beach residents, at the
annual Clam Jam.
It turned out to be a wash.
The Sunday before the end
of spring classes has tradition-ally
been the day of Clam Jam,
when masses of students gather
at Fairfield Beach in the vicin-ity
of Lantern Point. However,
it cannot be called Clam Jam
anymore due to the injunction
ruling in April 2001 that prohib-ited
social gatherings of more
than 250 students at Lantern
Point.
InFUSA
President
Karen
Donoghue's
mind, Clam
Jam is dead.
"I don't think
that it's my
business to
tell students to go to the beach
or not," Donoghue said. "FUSA
has nothing to do with Clam
Jam, and that's how it will re-main."
"There is no such thing as
Clam Jam," she added.
Last year's Clam Jam was
renounced via email by then
FUSA president Joe Piagentini
'02.
Despite this
mentality, many stu-dents
were ready to
hit the beach on Sun-day
after Spam Jam
at the townhouses on
campus, but were
discouraged by the
injunction and poor
weather conditions.
DONOGHUE
"A mixture of rain and the
unwelcome weight of academic
responsibilities kept me locked
up indoors, not to mention the
wicked hangover from the night
before," said townhouse resi-dent
George Pylyp '02.
Parties were contained
within the beach houses instead
of catering to a mass of people
that, in past years, covered the
beach and nearby paths.
"I don't know of anyone
who went," Andrea Bazos '04
said. "People were hesitant to
go to the beach, knowing that
they would be crowded inside
beach houses. The rain seemed
to dampen the festivities."
In light of the injunction,
the past year has been less both-ersome
to town residents. Ac-cording
to police records, this
year's special day went entirely
without incident.
"As I understand, the event
known as Clam Jam didn't oc-cur
on Sunday," said Attorney
Joel Z. Green, who represents
the town residents who filed the
injunction.
"The residents and I are
constantly monitoring the situ-ation,
and it appears that the in-junction
has reduced the nui-sance
behavior," Green added.
Good behavior won't
lessen the beach restrictions,
however. According to Green,
the injunction stands until other
legal action is taken.
Parkingcrunch couldberesolvedbygarage
BY DEIRDRE SLATER
University security has is-sued
a "color coded sticker sys-tem,"
which identifies where
people park based on where
they live. But parking remains
a big batde recently due to the
2,600 registered cars on cam-pus.
The search for improve-ments
goes on, including talk of
a campus parking garage.
"A parking garage is some-thing
that's been discussed, but
there's a lot of factors in-volved,"
said Frank Ficko, the
associate director of security.
Such factors include funding,
appearance, and space for its lo-cation.
The first and most deter-minable
factor is cost. "A park-ing
garage would be very ex-pensive
but maybe Fairfield
could use the money that they
make off parking tickets to help
pay for it," said Dan Reid, '02.
According to last year's
statistics, Fairfield made
$130,000 off parking tickets,
which goes to the University
general fund. But Ficko said the
cost could be in the millions of
dollars for a large structure such
as a parking garage.
If Fairfield decided to build
a parking garage, it would be
built over an existing parking
lot. Such a move would upset
some students.
"Fairfield is a beautiful
campus and I think a parking
garage would take away from
its appearance," said Christine
Cuddy, '02.
While aesthetics is an im-portant
factor, other students
feel that having a sufficient
SEE "SECURITY" ON P. 7 Will this be a thing of the past?
Mirror file photo