When a student first sets off to college, he or she is forewarned about the serious issues that come along with drinking and driving.’
Sure, we listen to what they have to say, but for the most part we shrug it off, telling ourselves, ‘that would never happen to me’ or ‘those accidents rarely happen.’
Especially here at Fairfield University, it feels as if the vast majority of the undergraduate students become a part of this so-called bubble that our community subconsciously forms.’
We assume that there will always be a Fairfield Cab ready to come pick us up from the beach or that our friend who was the ‘designated driver’ is truly sober and they will just be a phone call away.’
We think the five-minute drive from the Fairfield Beach Road back to our campus is something we can easily take on; even if we have had the ‘one or two’ beers we always claim we have had.’
However, we have seen from the shocking and unexpected events dealing with a member of the class of 2010, Matthew R. Velky who under the influence of alcohol hit sophomore Jack Cleverley early Sunday morning on Sept. 28 that we are not as ‘invincible’ as we think we are.’
The fact of the matter is that our Fairfield bubble can be and obviously will be popped.’
Where do we go from here?’ As Dean of Students Tom Pellegrino stated in his campus announcement, ‘the injuries, while serious, had the potential to be worse.’ This is true, and as a community we must be grateful that there were no deaths.’
As for Pellegrino’s specific focus on the ‘sizable crowd’ and his request stating, ‘Please do not go down to the beach if you are not invited,’ he was missing the point of this serious accident.
The point is, ‘besides the nearly 1,400 college students killed annually, over half a million persons between the ages of 18 and 24 suffer from injuries while drinking alcohol,’ according to drunkdrivinglawyers.com.
It is inevitable that there will be University students at the beach, especially on the weekends. So what do we do to make sure that a shocking incident such as this does not happen again?
Before the accident at the beach occurred, Senate motioned to form an Ad-Hoc Transportation committee, dealing with the insufficient amount of transportation that is provided by our Stag buses.’
Mary Crowley ’09, the overseer of this committee states, ‘At the moment, we know we need to set up some sort of safe-ride program, and we are hoping to make this program an integrated on-campus and off-campus program that could be utilized during the day as well as into the night.’
Of course, there is much more work that is needed, but the initiative has been taken. The committee plans to meet with Pellegrino to discuss these issues further.’
One thing is obvious; we should not be na’iuml;ve by thinking that Pellegrino’s e-mail will stop underclassmen from going to beach.
As a student body, it is important that we comfort Cleverley and his teammates and become more aware of the serious consequences that come along with drinking and driving.’
If the weekend and subsequent injuries have taught is that we, as a student body, must voice our opinions regarding the desperate need for a safe-ride system, so that nothing like this will happen in the future.’
After all, as much as we would love to think so, life isn’t quite the idealized beach that is often romanticized.
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