Red Sea Swells To 5,287 p.2 FREE | Take one Week of Mar. 2, 2011 | Vol. 36, Iss 16
The
Mirror
fairfieldmirror.com
The Independent Student Newspaper of Fairfield University The Reflection of Fairfield
The Price of Living...In Damages
By Luigi DiMeglio and Tom Shea Contributing Writers Broken windows. Vandalized exit signs. Furniture in the hallway. Vomit stained carpets. These are some of the types of damages that Fairfield U. students see in their residence halls every day. The fall 2010 semester, proved to be more costly than its 2009 counterpart. The total damage for this past semester for all of the on-campus residential areas combined was $15,527.32— an increase of $1,597.77 from the Fall 2009 semester. Residents of Jogues Hall, as of the end of last semester, will be receiving the highest bill
for hall damages. Jogues has accumulated $4,491.61 in damages, which is almost $2,000 more than the second highest-totaling residence hall; Campion. When asked about living in the most charged building on campus, Jessica Jacobs ’14 criticized those people in charge of the students for allowing the poor conduct to grow. “The leadership in Jogues seems to tolerate this kind of disrespect towards the building and our community.” A high concentration of vandalism in Jogues was most responsible for the residence hall’s high total. The semester’s most costly incidents include a damaged elevator and a broken glass door, resulting in fees of $299 and $244, respectively. The second floor alone has been subjected to damaged exit signs, destroyed paper towel dispensers and many other minor fees. It has proven to be the costliest out of all residence hall floors on campus. Another student, a sophomore who insisted on remaining anonymous, jokingly told The Mirror that “There are a lot of trouble makers around here.” He also went on to say that most of the kids who live there were written up frequently freshman year. “I feel that all of those kids were dumped here together.” Most damages are small but accumulate cost quickly due to their regularity. According to Associate Director of ResLife Charlie Sousa, the most frequent charge made is for the removal of items, such as bed parts, from hallways. “We have to put in a call to maintenance to remove these items because they present a fire hazard,” he said. Sousa added that while it may not be the most frequent damage, “hands down fire equipment such as alarms, sprinklers, and fire doors are the most expensive to repair.” This is because a specialized and licensed service must be called in to fix the equipment. Students are only charged for damage that has been deemed malicious or as vandalism. Wear and tear to residence hall property is covered by money set aside in the university budget. Due to their lack of common property, The Townhouses had the least amount of damage charges. Past trends suggest, however, that damage totals will increase for the spring semester. According to Sousa, this has to do with the increase of people partying outside in the warm weather and breaking fences. Loyola and Kostka Halls, along with The Village Apartments and Townhouses, were the only residence halls to see a decline in damage fees compared to the Fall 2009 semester.
Muniz Mutters in Speech to Students By Gabriella Tutino & Danica Ceballos Asst. Editor & Contributing Writer
When the State of the University Address started 13 minutes late at 7:43 p.m on Tuesday, FUSA President Eddie Muniz’s voice and the background sounds of bouncing ping-pong balls echoed throughout the B.C.C. “Our mission is to serve the student body and develop student leaders,” Muniz said; however, the attendance of less than 30 students at the speech proved otherwise. Every year the FUSA President is required to give a State of the University Address at the beginning of the President’s term. After delaying the delivery of the initial speech, Muniz and his Executive Cabinet Members made an appearance to talk about the initiatives and actions of FUSA. Muniz outlined the six “boards and initiatives” of FUSA: Senate, Class Council, S.W.A.T, Programming, C.O.S.O and Executive
Index Opinion • Page 9 The Vine • Page 11 Coffee Break • Page 19 Sports • Page 24
Cabinet, providing information on how each have worked towards improving student involvement this year. The address reiterated what the student body already knows: programming is the biggest part of FUSA. A budget of over $70,000 was spent this year in efforts to increase student activities, “to increase creativity and home grown events,” according to Muniz. This includes late night activities on Friday and Saturday, as an “alternative to drinking.” Muniz and the Cabinet also addressed controversial issues such as the negative image associated with FUSA. “We can’t make everyone happy,” Muniz said. “People complain that we have too many program events…I mean, I think that there is definitely a negative connotation, but I don’t know if there is
Speech | page 3
Are we Actually Learning Anything? P. 6
Peter Caty/The Mirror
Providing popular beers like Keystone Light and Coors Light, Stop & Shop would be a convenient place to shop if alcohol weren’t banned on Sunday. However, unlike large corporations like Stop & Shop, family-owned liquor stores often cannot afford to keep stores open an extra day without raises prices.
The Sunday Debate See p. 7 Inside Literary Journalism p. 11