Opinion

It's 4:30 a.m. and the phone rings. I figure it's someone calling for the person who used to live in my room. I mean, I NEVER give my house number out. If you want to reach me, call my cell. It rings again, so I get worried and I pick it up, but by then they've hung up.

At last Fairfield University has a student president that is willing to fight for student rights. Karen Donoghue, already noteworthy as our first female president, has once again shown her true zeal, determination and drive by calling police activity on the beach last Saturday "ridiculous," and calling on members of her administration to consult town officials and discuss the problem.

Benazir Bhutto, the first female prime minister of a Muslim country, opened Fairfield's Open Visions Forum last Monday with an insightful lecture on a variety of issues ranging from her political history in Pakistan, the current problems in the middle east, the role of women in Islamic society, and the reaction of Muslims to Sept.

Before we begin, family issues caused me to take a week off from A Word of Advice. This column is definitely alive and well, so keep sending in those questions to joconnell@fairfieldmirror.com - I'm definitely answering as many as I can in the column. My roommate keeps hooking up in her room while I'm in the living room and usually makes demands about how loud I can be, while she's being fairly loud herself.

So it's 4:30 am and the phone rings. I figure it's someone calling for the person who used to live in my room. I mean, I NEVER give my house number out. If you want to reach me, call my cell. I pay enough for the plan. Anyway, it rings again, so I get worried and I pick it up, but by then they've hung up.

Success: a difficult thing to define. Last Sunday at the Fairfield University 2002 Leadership Conference, speaker John Spence referred to personal success as, "When your self-concept and core values are in harmony with your lifestyle and behaviors." He also suggested that there are three necessary components of success: 1) knowledge 2) network, and 3) love.

In and of itself, Fairfield University's decision this summer to ban smoking in the residence halls was a highly debatable decision on a very controversial issue. However, the most appalling part of the entire decision-making process is that no public debate on the issue ever took place.

What's with that big deer head on the wall in the Campus Center? It seems out of place with all the other stuff that's in there. Why do we have that in the first place? —A head for decoration Ah, you're talking about Lucas the Stag looking down at everyone on the first floor of Barone.

This column's shorter than normal because one question was used for the Fairfield-based column Information Desk. I didn't have any other drinking questions submitted, but I did want to answer these. Keep sending in those questions! I pretty much have avoided drinking in high school.

To the Editor, Whatever happened to the promotion of clubs and the democratic style of the Board of Governors? The General Assembly meeting two Sundays ago was met with disdain from the university's club leaders. Despite the $2,000 increase in the Board of Governor's budget for 2002-2003, regulations for club funding were heavily imposed.