First year resident students are NOT permitted vehicles on campus.
This message, stated in various forms in the Student Handbook, Fairfield’s official Web site, and many memos from both the Security Department and the Dean of Students, appears to be unheard by some.
This school year security has experienced an increase of freshmen illegally bringing their cars onto campus. Due to this, greater enforcement has gone into effect.
In the past, freshmen with illegally parked cars on campus were simply issued tickets, which were ignored by most.
One member of the sophomore class who had a car on campus freshman year and asked not to be named, said, “If your car isn’t registered you could just get tickets then throw them away. When I registered the same for sophomore year they didn’t say anything about the tickets.”
This student was lucky that those unpaid tickets were overlooked, because they will not be in the future.
Ticketing was formerly the greatest penalty imposed on the majority of illegal parkers, but this year further action may be taken.
According to a recent memo from Dean of Students Mark Reed, freshmen who park illegally on campus may face judicial action, as well as the possibility of losing their sophomore year parking privileges. Also, upperclassmen who assist in illegal parking by freshmen by such methods as obtaining parking permits in the upperclassman’s name will also face the risk of judicial action.
Frank J. Ficko, associate director of the Security Department, said, “Parking at Fairfield is manageable if people comply. It was made very clear at orientation that freshmen were not to have cars on campus.”
He added that the only way for the parking situation to remain manageable is through enforcement of the parking regulations by security officers.
Although many freshmen complain of the hassle of not being allowed to have a car on campus, this frustration only grows when students become sophomores and have difficulty finding parking for their legally registered cars.
“I had to wait a year, why can’t they?” said Lauren Fedechena, ’05. This sentiment seems to be common among sophomores, especially those who live in Regis Hall, where parking is generally hard to come by.
Compared to students at other universities, those at Fairfield are lucky to be able to have cars on campus their sophomore year.
Marist College also does not allow parking for freshman residential students. Villanova University only allows parking for junior and senior students. Boston College does not allow parking for any of their residential students. The University of Connecticut uses a different system which requires residential students to have at least 54 credits to be eligible for parking.
Many methods are available for freshmen students to get off campus. Shuttles are available to the Fairfield Center, shopping areas and local movie theaters.
The bus schedule is posted on the Fairfield official Web site under Student Services.
Fairfield Taxi is also available, and if one is feeling particularly motivated, he or she could simply walk into town.
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