Editorials

Over the past two weeks, we have seen some of the best and worst of the Fairfield student body. The vote for the new FUSA constitution took place the Thursday before spring break. After much effort done by FUSA to publicize the event, only about 130 students actually voted.

CHEERS to Fairfield athletics doing so well in the NCAA's report from the 2003-4 school year in regards to graduation rates. At some of the bigger schools, such as UConn, athletics often take more prominence than the true purpose of college, which is education.

The Fairfield University Student Association should be commended for finally completing and approving a new constitution, which works both to simplify and clarify existing policy, as well as instituting some new changes. However, it still does not go as far as we had hoped in order to create a completely transparent government open not only to the media, but the students as well.

On April 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I have a dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. We, the students of Fairfield University, also have a dream. We have a dream that one day this campus will meet the Jesuit ideals of promoting both diversity and tolerance.

According to a perfunctory survey done by Mirror staffers, students are mostly unaware that the Fairfield University Student Association (FUSA) functions as the student's government. They would likely be surprised that this government conducts closed-door meetings with no clear policy regarding them, as reported in this week's Mirror.

Over the past several years, The Levee has attempted to lure in Fairfield students by increasing its variety of student programming. Even though the addition of some excellent bands last year helped matters, it did not yield a consistent or long-lasting result.

Cheers to being able to use our StagCards off-campus. For years, students at a slew of colleges around the country have been able to use their student IDs for a variety of purposes both on and off-campus. Finally, Fairfield has followed suit. Students will only be able to use money they add to their StagCards, not their dining dollars, at participating locations, yet the change is a major convenience for students wishing to dine and do errands off-campus.

CHEERS to the university for putting more effort into stopping academic dishonesty. Cheating is pervasive in any competitive atmosphere and will only come to a stop when there are sufficient penalties to stop people from feeling the risk is worth the reward.

In last week's editorial we wrote that the U.S. Department of Education's report ranking Fairfield twentieth-eighth in the nation for alcoholic violations was overdrawn. It is ironic that the release of this study was followed by the raid on John Adams bar this past Thusday night.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, Fairfield is ranked 28 in the nation for reported alcohol violations of colleges and universities. Even more prestigious, Fairfield is number one in Connecticut. These numbers are dubious, especially considering that state schools with upwards of 25,000 students, such as the University of Connecticut, are reporting a meager 136 violations compared to our 651.