Duffy prepares for his term

Paul Duffy, FUSA president-elect, was also a friendly bartender Monday night at the Levee. A busy man around campus, Duffy squeezed in an interview during his shift and in between his bartending duties.

Duffy is “still on a high from the election” and although still just getting his feet wet in terms of actual presidential duties, he is excited to start getting his game plan together.

“I want to start small and build big,” he said. “I just want to do what I can do.”

Duffy, above all else, has a set goal for his term in office. “The biggest thing is getting more people involved,” he said. “The more people you have, the more you get done.”

He pinpointed music and sports as two sure-fire ways to get more students involved.

An avid college basketball fan, his favorite memory of Fairfield is the men’s basketball team’s NIT opening round game against Boston College last March.

“Everyone was there, screaming and wearing red,” he said. “It was absolutely great and Deng Gai is my man.”

Duffy remarked that the thing he gets asked the most are bands and programming for next year. This repeated concern that many students have has had Duffy thinking of new ideas and ways to get programming for next year.

“A lot of people care about a good band,” he said. “I think Barenaked Ladies would be really cool, too.”

One idea he had is a possible combined effort between local universities, pooling resources and student bodies to create a larger venue and more money to draw in bigger named bands. He also wants to find another way to gauge student responses than this year’s polling method.

A self-described “people person,” Duffy considers the best part of being president-elect is that students come talk to him and tell him what they want from FUSA next year and he encourages more to do so.

“It’s about making FUSA fun,” he said. “I want people to like it again.”

Being the FUSA president has been a dream of Duffy’s since freshman year. He said the best part of the election was having his mother, his friends and supporters there with him.

Duffy added that he wants FUSA to be open to all. “I want all the students to feel like they are appreciated and they do matter,” he said. “Because they are the university.”