Author Michelle Morrison

With music blaring, hazy smoke rising from long grills, tables full of ketchup and soda and 50 underclassmen hanging out on a sunny day, the Great Tailgate '08 had begun. On Saturday, April 19, FUSA hosted its first annual tailgate party in the Kelley Center parking lot and the Levee.

The decision has been made to remodel the First-Year Experience (FYE) program. Instead of the current program, where groups of freshman meet once a week, First-Year Mentors (FYM) will meet with students who live on the same wing each month and individual students will meet with their mentors individually once a semester.

A year and a half ago, I was one of the many freshman sitting in FYE class with 15 strangers learning how to transition into college. I can still remember those 50 minute sessions spent reading aloud from the FYE handbook about the Jesuit tradition, diversity and the dangers of drinking jungle juice.

Theft. Assault. Armed robbery. Underage drinking. Fund-raising for the Special Olympics? Many situations can get students in trouble with the law, but the penalty for doing good deeds isn't usually jail time. On Wednesday, April 23, however, some students will voluntarily get locked up for "Jail 'n Bail," a fund-raiser held by Public Safety to raise money for Special Olympics of Connecticut.

Two students are sitting around in the conference room in the Public Safety office when a radio sitting on the table suddenly crackles and emits the voice of an officer. The students stand up. As representatives of the Fairfield Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Rescue Team, they jump into action.

It was a sweltering 85 degrees as I ran around the concrete court that served as a soccer field for the neighborhood children. My eyes were suddenly caught by 3-year-old Dana sitting alone in the rocky dirt alongside the court playing with an empty Sprite bottle she found in the garbage.

Seven tutors and one Writing Center for 3,941 students. This semester, the Fairfield Writing Center faces rising numbers of students in need. At the same time, the Writing Center staff has dropped from 11 tutors to only seven. "We're just feeling the pressure of having all of our slots filled," said Alexandra Gross '09, a tutor since the fall of her sophomore year and current assistant managing editor of The Mirror.

Radios blaring 'N SYNC's "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays." Miniature plastic pine trees covered with tinsel. Doors wrapped in shiny red and green paper. An explosion of color and lights rocked campus residence halls and townhouses last week as students returned from Thanksgiving break with holiday spirit on their minds.

WVOF, Fairfield University's radio station, is putting students on the air and on the road this winter, covering Fairfield men's and women's basketball games live for the 2007-2008 season. "WVOF is trying to be everywhere," said Dan Stanczyk '08, director of the sports broadcasting program at the station.

Screams of joy could be heard around campus as Red Sox fans ran out of dorms and townhouses Sunday night to celebrate the team's second World Series victory in four years. A group of fans paraded through campus carrying brooms and chanting "Let's Go Red Sox" and "Yankees Suck," as others gathered in the Quad, all while Public Safety told them to go back inside and go to bed.