Throughout our time at The Mirror, we have been truly blessed to be an integral part of the campus community. We have been the observers and the primary authors of the events and ideals that shape Fairfield University, a task and responsibility that we do not take likely.
But we do not always receive the warmest welcome from our campus colleagues.
Last week, The Mirror sent a formal request to The Office of Student Activities (BCC 212) for two campus announcements. Unfortunately, through emailed responses with Janice Buswell, an operations assistant from that office, both were rejected.
The first was a campus announcement for two paid positions for sophomores, Webmaster and Business Manager. The Mirror’s Selection Committee felt it was important to let all sophomores know about the compensated on-campus positions.
The Mirror was told that campus announcements were not for businesses offering positions. At that point we thought about changing our name to Bloomberg or Aflac since we liked the way their campus announcements were set up. But on the other hand, we were excited that Fairfield administrators called us a business.
The second message was an effort to promote Garden Catering’s Nugget eating contest at the lacrosse game. Through strategic partnerships with our advertiser Garden Catering and our friends in Fairfield Athletics, The Mirror was able to help a local business in a recession while trying to increase the attendance against Hobart College, a perennial powerhouse. The Office of Student Activities informed The Mirror that campus announcements do not promote single events. We found this to be somewhat confusing, since one went out the week before to promote basketball coach Ed Cooley’s appearance on WFAN.
The Mirror found itself in a tight pinch. We didn’t want to spend excess funds printing out “environmentally destructive,” flyers to put in campus mailboxes. It’s Fairfield’s job to cut down the trees … not ours.
While we have no reason to believe these acts were specifically directed toward The Mirror, we have to recognize those that they affected in addition to us. To the sophomores who were not able to hear about the job opportunity, we apologize. To those that missed out on the contest and subsequently didn’t get to stuff their faces with delicious chicken nuggets, we apologize.
Part of our Jesuit tradition, is to be men for others. When University staffers prevent us from helping unemployed sophomores, atheletic teams and small businesses, we can’t help but sit back and scratch our heads.
BCC 212 in typical Fairfield fashion showed again that their actions do not match the University’s words.
-Christopher Haliskoe, Managing Director
-Keith Connors, General Manager
-Dan Leitao, Assistant Managing Director
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