Author Michelle Morrison

The sun peeks out from behind fluffy white clouds as the clock strikes three and the annual New England Day festivities begin. But wait, why are the yellow-orange leaves the only moving objects in the Quad? For the first time ever, IRHA's New England Day carnival took place in the lower level of the Barone Campus Center last Friday afternoon.

At 10 p.m. on Friday, the Barone Campus Center looked like a scene from the running of the bulls as students stampeded up to the dining hall for the second annual Wild West Buffet, sponsored by IRHA. By midnight, however, with two hours of the event left to go, tumbleweeds could have blown across the cafeteria floor without running into more than a couple of students' legs.

Over 80 clubs and organizations turned out to recruit new members at the annual Student Activities Fair held on Friday, Sept 7. The Student Activities Fair has habitually been a chance for undergraduates, particularly freshmen, to learn about the wide variety of opportunities to get involved at Fairfield.

The Fairfield softball team finished the weekend with three wins and one loss in back-to-back doubleheaders against Rider and Georgetown. The Stags now stand in fifth place out of the nine teams in the MAAC, with a 4-6 conference record and an overall record of 14-21.

A season filled with injuries ended on a strong note for the women's tennis team, who finished in fifth place in the MAAC tournament, with a 9-12-1 record this past weekend in Flushing, N.Y. The Stags overcame injuries to Paulina Rys '10, Dana Postupack '10, Marisa Voloshin '09 and Michaela Cerrone '09 to defeat Rider and then tie Manhattan for fifth place.

It is 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. More than 500 people crowded around on the floor of Alumni Hall as Ken Flatto, first selectman for the town of Fairfield, shouted, "Let's kick some butt!" No, this is not a strange political rally. It's Hunger Cleanup, a national day of community service, that Fairfield University has participated for 19 years.

It seems that some home cooking and a familiar field were all that the Fairfield softball team needed to kick off its MAAC season with a bang last weekend. After splitting a doubleheader against Yale on March 28, the Stags won three out of four against Niagara and Canisius to open their MAAC schedule.

In the preseason poll of league head coaches, the Fairfield softball team was picked to place second in the MAAC tournament behind Canisius College. Will they make it all the way to the NCAA? If the pattern of the past few years holds firm, things are not looking up.

Coming out of a the fall season, the men's golf team looks to find more success in the spring season, which includes the MAAC Championship. The Stags will look to improve on last years' eighth place finish in the championships. Last fall, in the NEIGA tournament, the biggest of the season, Fairfield finished in eighth place out of 43 teams and they hope to build on that in the spring.

While the Fairfield campus seems to be full of students whining about the low temperatures and freezing winds, there is one group that is definitely dreaming of snow: the Fairfield Ski and Snowboard team. An established club on campus, the Fairfield Ski and Snowboard team is just one of many competitive sports clubs.