Author Ryan Blair

Elections for the Fairfield University Student Association are once again just around the corner, and it appears the cast of candidates for all offices this year is a diverse mix of interesting people. As a campus media organization, The Mirror strives to be a watchdog for students to let them know how FUSA is performing.

To The Editor: In rejecting my proposal to combat grade inflation at Fairfield, Dr. Alan Katz stated that "as long as the standards remain high," we need not be concerned about grade inflation. Yet exit surveys of Fairfield seniors show that 68 percent of the class of 2001 (77 percent of the men), spent ten hours or fewer studying outside of class.

To The Editor: I would like to address Dr. William Abbott's reasons behind his proposal to combat grade inflation ("Grades rise"). Drawing from the article, it appeared that Dr. Abbott based his proposal on information gathered from surveys. I would be interested in seeing these surveys, what questions were asked and what percentage of the Fairfield population was interviewed.

Over winter break I had surgery on my foot which left me on crutches for a month, including some time when I came back to Fairfield. Having never been on crutches before, I had no idea what a hassle they would be at home and I had no idea what problems I would encounter upon coming back to school.

Tenants of one section of adjacent beach houses known as "The Blue Balls" returned to find their kitchen ceiling reduced to a pile of soggy drywall on the floor, while the rest of the house was essentially unlivable. Near record low temperatures have been a problem for numerous beach residents, causing frozen pipes and high heating bills.

Computing and Network Services has raised the stakes against students who have not had their computers upgraded, even as a new virus is quickly spreading its way across the Internet this week. To ensure students have installed Norton and the latest Windows Update patches, CNS has begun scanning the network, dorm by dorm, identifying problem computers that have not been updated.

Guest passes to the DiMenna-Nyselius Library here at Fairfield will be available to all Fairfield Public Library cardholders after the Fairfield Public Library on the Post Road will be closing for renovation on Dec. 14 until spring of 2005. For the next year and a half, local library patrons will be forced to travel to a number of other libraries in the area.