Daily Archives October 23, 2013

The war on drugs has been raging for upwards of 70 years, and for the first time we’re starting to see a legitimate end in the near future. Medical marijuana is now legal in 20 states as well as the District of Colombia, with more and more states leaning towards this resolution each year. Since grade school, we’ve been peppered with the idea that “drugs are bad,” but studies have proven that Drug Abuse Resistance Education is wholly ineffective when it comes to the root of the problem.

How would you feel if I told you that one of the central figures of your religion was nothing more than a myth to stop rebellions before they could occur?

Fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, America is still fighting for equal opportunity. This continuous struggle is not just coming from the gap between black and white, but the gap between rich and poor.

It’s 2 a.m. and you are a hungry college student, therefore you are obligated to find the nearest takeout menu that someone creepily slid under your door and order anything that you and your friends are craving. This is called the “college diet” and it lacks fruits and vegetables as well as self-control and proper nourishment.

This week, the English department is again revving up their celebration of the National Day on Writing. The specific day of writing – created in 2009 via a Congressional resolution - was this past Sunday, October 19, however, related events on campus have been scheduled through Thursday.

On Aug. 7, 2012, maintenance staffers of Fairfield’s Department of Facilities Management casted a majority vote to join Local 30 International Union of Operating Engineers, making them the first and only group of employees at Fairfield to unionize. It has taken over a year for Fairfield’s Administration and their Maintenance staff to come to agreeable terms for the new Collective Bargaining Agreement that the Maintenance staff made official on Sep. 9, 2013 after voting 28 in favor, two against, one abstained and one member of the 32 staffers who did not show.

In 2007, Fairfield was ranked 19th out of 20 colleges and universities in the U.S. as one of the most LGBTQ-unfriendly campuses, according to the Princeton Review. Fairfield is no longer on that list.

Fewer than 15 students came in and out of the two-hour-long Food Service Open Forum on Oct. 16. Stacks of uneaten pizza sat on the table next to full bowls of salad, all barely picked at by the few student attendees. The large Oak Room dwarfed the perception of the turnout, since less than a quarter of the Oak Room was filled with students.

Five new members join Fairfield University’s Board of Trustees for the 2013-14 school year. The Board of Trustees, consisting of 37 current members and four trustees emeriti, decides and approves Fairfield policies and ensures that the educational goals of the university includes a Jesuit and Catholic perspective.

A task force for adjunct professors at Fairfield was launched last year to examine the treatment of adjunct professors and other part-time faculty. This semester, it published results indicating that such faculty members have unstable employment and a lack of voice and respect due to their roles, compared to full-time faculty.