While the new campus center boasts wildly upholstered furniture, fluorescent colored walls, and the most modern of architectural designs, many students are finding the most odd change to be the stag head located near the first floor entrance.
Lucas the Stag was named jokingly after Vice President of Finance William J. Lucas, for his support of the overall campus center project. While some students feel it should be done away with, others consider it to be a great representation of the school’s mascot.
Evan Vandehey ’05 feels the stag is “a little frightening.” When Colleen Turkal ’05 first saw the head, she was “really disturbed by it.”
Lucas does have supporters, however. Freshman John Sullivan believes the stag is important at Fairfield University.
“It’s our school’s mascot…it’s really cool looking,” he said.
Pam Marangi ’05, another Lucas lover, exclaimed that, “It’s weird, but I kind of like it. It adds character.”
Last summer, a former alumnus approached Assistant Vice President of Student Services James Fitzpatrick to see if he wanted an adult male red deer head for campus. Upon seeing the piece, Fitzpatrick thought it would make a perfect addition to the new campus center.
“Our mascot is the stag and a stag head was located in the snack bar before renovation,” Fitzpatrick said.
After paying $400 to have the head shipped to the university, it was placed in the first floor student activities lounge by construction workers. “We needed a location that was very open, angled to the left and visible,” Fitzpatrick said. In its new location, the head peers at students and faculty as they walk up and down the campus center stairway near the bookstore.
Although it was a generous donation to the university, some students feel that the dead animal head should be placed in a more rustic setting unlike that of the gleaming new campus center.
“It seems out of place,” said Chris DiBiase ’05. “It would look good in a paneled lounge, maybe the Oak Room. The campus center is so neutral/sterile…It doesn’t seem to fit.”
Students didn’t even think twice about a stuffed deer in the old snack bar, “The Stag-Her Inn,” because it was placed in a setting that looked as though it could be a den in someone’s house. This homier atmosphere, fashioned by pictures hung on wooden walls and a flickering fireplace in the winter, seemed like an appropriate setting for the stuffed deer.
The new campus center, on the other hand, has white walls, lots of windows, and modern furniture.
“It’s an odd place to have it,” said Patty Li ’02. “Compared to the surrounding areas, it’s odd to have a stuffed dead head. I mean it’s a study lounge.”
FUSA President Joe Piagentini said the stag head “does a good job welcoming you as you walk down the steps.”
Piagentini took part in decorating the stag head like Rudolph the red nosed reindeer during the Christmas holiday season. When asked if he intended to decorate it for other holidays, he wasn’t really sure, but would definitely consider it.
Director of Environmental Studies, Lisa Newton, is not bothered by the head. She believes that since deer are not an endangered species, having one in our campus center is not a problem.
Despite the mixed reactions from the crowd, Lucas the Stag seems to have found a permanent residence in the campus center at Fairfield University.
Eventually maybe all students and faculty will feel the same about Lucas the Stag as Michelle Keenan ’05, who said, “I get a kick out of it. I think it’s great.”
Do you love Lucas? Does he haunt your dreams? Let us know at: mirror@fair1.fairfield.edu or www.fairfieldmirror.com
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