Mirror - Vol. 39, No. 10 - November 06, 2013

              THE MIRROR Student newspaper Week of November 6,2013 Vol. 39, Iss. 10
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The Fairfield Mirror
No leads
in Lantern
Point theft
By Salvatore Trifilio
News Editor
Fairfield Police Department an-swered
the call of a reported theft at a
house on Lantern Point early Saturday
morning, officials said.
Police responded to the house on
Lantern Point between the hours of 11
p.m. on Friday, Nov. 1, and 12:30 a.m.
on Saturday, Nov. 2, and noted the
incident had occurred after the resi-dents
hosted a party with numerous
guests in attendance.
Two wallets - belonging to two
separate residents of the home - val-ued
at $1,100, along with $80 in cash,
two licenses and multiple credit cards,
were stolen from the residents' un-locked
rooms, FPD spokesperson Sgt.
Sue Lussier stated.
"There are no suspects at this
time, no witnesses or additional in-formation,"
stated Lussier.
While students initially began
referring to the incident as a burglary
over the weekend, officials explained
they believe it to be a theft because of
the events that occurred earlier in the
evening.
"We believe under this circum-stance
the suspect was granted entry
by the resident and there is no way to
know they entered with the sole pur-pose
to commit the larceny," Lussier
stated.
Many residents and guests who
socialized at Lantern Point in the days
after the reported theft expressed
their frustrations with the crime at
hand.
"Living at the point, we have se-curity
guards but they don't do much,
even though we pay them to be there,"
said Andrew Kringas '14. "For the
first week or so, our back door keys
wouldn't lock the door, so it was kind
of sketchy leaving the house at night.
But we were finally able to lock the
back door and feel pretty safe now."
FPD explained that having a par-
READ STUDENTS ON PAGE 4
While administrators see college rankings as a necessary evil, potential students use these rankings as a resource when weighing their final
decisions on which university is best for them. Tebben Gill Lopez/The Mirror
Rankings don't define Fairfield's value
By Danica Ceballos'
Executive Editor
Normally in a college setting,
students are denned by numbers.
In this case, Fairfield University is
too.
A number of rankings have
been released, placing Fairfield
alongside some of the most presti-gious
colleges in the United States.
One of the more important rank-ings,
according to Fairfield, posted
on the homepage of the university
website, is the 2014 Kiplinger's Per-sonal
Finance ranking that listed
the school in the "100 Best Values
in Private Colleges."
One of the main components
of the report requires an under-standing
of the word "value."
In a recent New York Times
article, titled "Lists That Rank Col-leges'
Value Are on the Rise," Ariel
Kaminer wrote, "There is no agree-ment
on how to measure the value
of a college, and there is no agree-ment,
or anything even close, on
what value is in the first place."
According to the Kiplinger
ranking, value is defined as "aca-demic
quality and affordability."
Assistant Vice President of
Administration and Student Af-fairs
James Fitzpatrick '70 expand-ed
on these qualifications, saying:
"I think everyone, in terms of ad-ministration,
wishes they would
go away because in many cases,
this says nothing about what po-tentially
Fairfield University could
offer students, but the reality is that
nowadays there are rankings that
are out there."
While Fairfield ranked 97
out of 100, the contrasting crite-ria
present different perspectives
on this specific rank. The criteria
for determining value in this sur-vey
include: admission rate, stu-dent
per faculty ratio, four-year
graduation rate, total cost per year,
average need-based aid, average
non-need-based aid, percent of
non-need-based aid and average
debt at graduation.
Senior Vice President for Aca-demic
Affairs Rev. Paul J. Fitzger-ald,
S.J., explained: "Some schools,
like Yale and Harvard, do extreme-ly
well because they are the top of
the top. At Fairfield, you don't have
to be the top one-half of one per-cent
to get in, but four years later,
people have really stepped up their
game."
While the report defines value
as focusing on both quality and
cost, five of the eight specified
qualifications related to money.
"Dollars-and-cents tabula-tions
... are the fastest-growing
sector of the college rankings in-dustry,
with ever more analyses vy-ing
for the attention of high school
students and their parents who are
anxious about finances," said Ka-miner.
Questions were directed to
Dean Karen Pellegrino as a repre-sentative
of financial aid and ad-missions,
but she was unavailable
READ QUALITY ON PAGE 3
Advising is more than PIN numbers
By Margaret Andrew
Online Editor
The College of Arts and Sciences has revealed
a new process for academic advising, affecting the
1,600 students enrolled in the largest of Fairfield's
four colleges.
CAS has released a student advising checklist
that includes six sections that students must prepare
in advance. The questions range from a straight-for-ward
list of what core and major classes remain, to
reflection questions on how study abroad and intern-ships
could help in preparation for career goals. The
checklist concludes with course preferences for the
upcoming semester.
The completed checklist and a printed degree
evaluation are required at each advising session.
Students without their prepared materials will not
receive advising. An email sent to students enrolled
in the College of Arts and Sciences explained these
changes by stating, "Advising is a conversation that
requires student preparation."
The new system requires students to take time
to reflect on their academics beforehand, which
Dr. James Simon, associate dean of CAS, hopes will
"bring more balance to the process of advising."
In the past, students showed up to advising ses-
READ COLLEGE ON PAGE 2 ING NYC Marathon coverage on Page 2. Danica Ceballos/The Mirror
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