Mirror - Vol. 28, No. 03 - September 26, 2002

              Fairfield
September 26, 2002 - Vol. 28, Iss. 3
w *F The ^^ ^^ MIRROR University
2> Near*- of Publication
Ham Channel video censored
Sexual innuendo, use ofmiddlefinger considered inappropriatefor orientation
BY TARA LYNCH
Every September the Ham Channel has
had the opportunity to address the incom-ing
freshman class - until now. This year,
the Class of 2006 video, written and pro-duced
by students at the Ham Channel, was
thrown out moments before it was to be
shown this fall at freshman orientation.
The video focused on two college fresh-man
who are dropped off on the first day of
school and thrown into college life. How-ever,
certain content limited it from being
shown.
"It was a great video and wonderfully
made," commented Deidre Eller, director of
First Year Programs and Orientation, who
made the final decision not to show the
video, "it just had some sexual references I
didn't feel were appropriate."
Melissa Witkowski, '04, who was in-volved
with the video, was told that the
video would not be played for a few rea-sons.
Courtesy of Pat Tobin/The Mirror
Dealing with consequences: Pat Tobin '03, left, and Ryan McCre '03, who filmed the
orientation video for the Class of 2006, are frustrated by the censorship of the video.
"We were told that it was because the
people in charge of Freshman Orientation
did not approve of basically three things: a
middle finger reference, a sexual innuendo
and one particular homosexual reference,"
Witkowski said.
According to Pat Tobin,'03, "The only
thing I could even see being deemed inap-propriate
in the video was a scene where
someone was 'given the bird'."
Perhaps most surprised by the decision
was writer/director Ryan McCre,'03. Both
he and Tobin arrived on campus Aug. 7 to
begin work on the project, which had been
proposed to him in the spring. "I agreed to
do the project understanding that if I worked
hard on it and produced a good product, it
would be shown," said McCree. "I wrote
the script in the summer then spent a full
week shooting and another week editing. It
was a huge project."
Sarah Courtney, '03, an actor in the
film, thought that this year, the Ham Chan-nel
was just trying to do something more
creative than past years.
"In the past these videos for the fresh-man
had been educational, informative and
outdated," said Courtney. 'This year the
SEE "STUDENTS" ON P. 4
Is student safety at risk?
Forcible sex offenses see sharp increase Emergenciesfrom alcohol rise this semester
KEITH WHAMOND
Campus crime dropped dramatically at
Fairfield last year, despite the fact that forc-ible
sexual assaults rose from just one inci-dent
in 2000 to eight in 2001.
Todd Pelazza, the head of campus se-curity,
called the increase in forcible sexual
assaults "pretty dramatic." The numbers
were reported in the 2001 Fairfield Univer-sity
Campus Crime Statistics booklet, dis-tributed
last week.
"We are concerned about it," Pelazza
said during a news conference in a journal-ism
class. "Just one assault would concern
the security department."
When asked what might be the cause
of the rise, Pelazza indicated that the in-crease
might be due to the university's re-cent
push to urge students to come forth to
security to report any kind of forcible sexual
assault.
"We are encouraging people to report
these incidents. There has been an effort by
residence life to get people to make a report
when something like this occurs," Pelazza
said.
"It's very possible that these offences
were taking place in previous years but
people did not report them," he said. "I think
eight forcible sexual assaults is a low num-ber
for a campus this size."
Yet an analysis of crime rates at com-parable
schools suggested the eight incidents
were unusually high. For example, Loyola
of Maryland, a Jesuit university of compa-rable
size to Fairfield, had zero sexual as-saults
of any kind in 2000. Holy Cross in
Worchester, Massachusetts, another Jesuit
university, only had four forcible sexual as-saults
in 2000. And, perhaps most surpris-ingly,
Fordham University, which is located
in the Bronx in New York City,
only had two incidents of forcible
sexual assault in 2001.
"I can't speak for Fordham. I
am not involved with the proce-dures
of other universities," said
SEE "NINTH" ON P. 7
BY LAURA PFEIFER
SMOKE-OUT
No girls and guys
and now no butts?
Page 1
During the first two weekends at Fair-field
University, Sept. 7 to Sept. 15, of the
2002-2003 semester, the number of
hospitalizations and overnights at
the Health Center increased signifi-cantly
from the same time period
from in 2001, according to Anne
Cole, director of the Student Health
Center said in an interview with the Mirror.
There were seven hospitalizations at St.
©MIRROR Policy violations
C TvT A O C T_J^\ T ^^0<)1 crimerePort states now raany criraes were commited
J J> Ai brlL/1 Here's how they compared with 1999 and 2000 totals.
Referrals -
ol Violations Abuse
2001: 778
2000: 718
1999:383
2001:107
2000: 67
1999:32
ns Possession
2001:0
2000:3
1999:2
Offenses
2001:8
2000: 1
1999:0
y-Theft
2001:73
2000:114
1999:114
Source: Security Department
Incidents
2001:0
2000: 0
1999: 1
ary
2001:18
2000: 47
1999:33
ivated Assault
2001:0
2000:2
1999:2
eft
2001:1
2000:0
1999:3
Graphic by Joshua O'Connell/The Mirror
Vincent's, three of which were freshman.
There were also 17 students brought up to
the Health Center, 10 of which were fresh-man.
While exact figures from last year
could not be computed, Cole did say that
there was an increase this year.
"We've seen an increase in drinking and
in drug use. There have also been cases of
drugs being slipped into drinks. It's very
scary," commented Cole. "More students
flunk out, are thrown out, or leave college
due to alcohol related incidents than are
awarded a post-graduate degree each year.
It blows my mind."
In addition, the number of with secu-rity
involvement has increased to 16 from
14 over the period from Sept. 1 until Sept.
23. Todd Pelazza, head of campus security
for Fairfield University is concerned. "One
incident has been serious. People need to
drink responsibly and legally. We need to
avert tragedy on campus."
Not only are students concerned with
heavy drinking, but also the policy that stu-dents
may be documented for going to the
Health Center, regardless of whether secu-rity
or other university staff members be-come
directiy involved or not.
Miguel Delgado, '04, states, "If you
can't handle you liquor, don't drink. If you
do, don't be stupid about it. But with the
new points system, I'd rather take care of
my friend the whole night than bring them
up to the health center. Why should some-one
get penalized for doing what the uni-versity
suggested?"
SEE "OFFICIALS" ON P. 6