During William Rom’s freshman and sophomore years at Fairfield, he ran naked through the quad during a big-screen viewing of “Meet the Parents” two days after September 11th. He dumped buckets of water from a window on students walking outside. He broke a mirror with a football. He drunkenly rode a dolly down the hallway of his residence hall after throwing up.
Now, the university may have to pay up to $200,000 for economic and non-economic damages it caused Rom, according to The Connecticut Post. The exact amount will be decided at a later date.
The verdict was returned on Feb. 3, after Rom claimed in Bridgeport Superior Court last week that he was libeled and defamed by university officials when he was suspended in 2002.
Residence Hall Director Kimberly Nickolenko and past Resident Assistant Reagan Smith ’03 were also included in the case.
But Vice President of Student Affairs Mark Reed, former dean of students, said the university’s ability and responsibility to discipline its students falls within the guidelines stated in Fairfield’s handbooks and catalogues.
“Courts have long recognized the right of educational institutions, especially private institutions, to conduct their business according to their own stated policies and procedures,” Reed said. “Suspension or expulsion from the university is a serious thing and those situations…are outlined in the catalogs and handbooks for all students to see and be aware of.”
Rom, 24, a Moorestown, N.J., native, graduated from Rutgers University in 2005 as a political science major. Now, he is a financial planner for Met Life.
Under his job description on a personal website, he wrote, “I help people save and invest their money. I plan for people’s future[s]. The funny this is I blow my paycheck on strippers, booze and drugs every weekend. Go figure.”
“He’s a maniac,” said John Cifelli, a senior at Rutgers University who lived with Rom last year. “He wasn’t running around naked or dumping water on people, but he was definitely still a party animal.”
“But he was loyal to his friends and a good guy at heart,” Cifelli added.
Rom believes he was targeted by Fairfield when he was suspended, according to The Connecticut Post.
Fairfield disagrees.
“If Bill Rom was a target, he made it awfully easy for the school,” said Fairfield’s lawyer, Robert Hickey in court. “The school had more than enough reasons to suspend this man.”
Rom graduated from college a year after he should have because Rutgers did not accept all his credits, according to The Connecticut Post. He said he deserves the tuition money he lost from Fairfield and the money he would have made at his job if he had graduated on time.
According to Reed, there were initially three claims. The judge reached verdicts in the university’s favor on two of the claims, but sent the last claim to the jury.
However, the case remains “pending,” meaning the university may appeal the decision.
The university declined to release whether the case will be appealed.
Reed said the university has held the position for a long time not to comment on students’ disciplinary records.
“That certainly exposes us to students themselves or others putting forward their version of the story or interpretation of the facts,” Reed said. “However, we feel an obligation to our students not to ‘air their dirty laundry,’ so to speak.”
Reed said this is an important part of how the university maintains good relationships with students.
“This former student or others may say what they want to say,” Reed said. “We only ask that people recognize that the reality or totality of the situation may be different from what one or more individuals state or claim.”
According to The Connecticut Post, Rom said the school did not punish him after he was written up several times at Fairfield, other than assigning him community service. Rom did not complete the community service requirement.
Rom denied that he went into a women’s bathroom and ripped posters down in a hallway in 2002. He admitted to getting into a fight with another student, but he said the student attacked him first.
Rom said he wasn’t allowed to bring his parents or lawyer with him when he was brought in front of Fairfield’s judicial board. He said he also wasn’t allowed to confront any witnesses. Then, he was suspended.
“The message should go out not only to Fairfield University but to other colleges that kids will make mistakes and, when they do, schools have to deal with them fairly,” said jury foreman Carey Dietmann to The Connecticut Post. “Fairfield University didn’t do that here.”
One Fairfield graduate who lived on Rom’s floor during his freshman year said he thinks the university should be able to suspend any student for any reason, because it is a private institution.
“It’s a privilege to be admitted there,” said Jack Harder ’04. “And especially when a school is private, they should have the power to choose who is worthy, for a lack of a better word,” Harder said.
Harder remembered hearing about the incidents for which Rom was suspended, but he did not witness them.
“Once he started doing stupid stuff, we just didn’t hang out with him that much,” Harder said. “Kind of left him alone. He was a nice kid, but could be a loose cannon.”
“He beat the hell out of a kid I know, twice,” Harder added.
Rom cried and hugged his parents when he heard the verdict, according to The Connecticut Post. His lawyer admitted he was surprised by the amount they were awarded.
“I am let down to think that Bill Rom, a disgruntled former student, can disgrace our university’s name in the press and receive a large monetary settlement based on the deception of a jury to see him for someone who he was not, and not see him as the social deviant that he was,” said an anonymous 2004 graduate.
Rom declined to comment to The Mirror.
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