On Friday, the temporary court injunction that prohibits more than 250 college students from gathering at Fairfield Beach’s Lantern Point was made permanent.
Since 2001, the town of Fairfield has been enforcing a temporary injunction after nine year-round Fairfield beach residents brought a case against the Lantern Point Association.
The conflict was over large beach gatherings, the most widely recognized being “Clam Jam,” a spring party organized on and around the Point’s deck. It attracted approximately 5,000 partygoers with 270 kegs of beer at the height of its popularity.
While year-round residents are now happier, many current Fairfield students say they feel cheated and discriminated against.
“Obviously I’m upset,” said beach resident Carla Pasquale ’06. “Senior year at the beach was one of the reasons I came to Fairfield in the first place, and it seems like every senior class had all these crazy parties, and it just stopped with our class.”
“I still wonder why people who don’t like college kids would ever move to the Fairfield beach area, though it looks like they’re trying to weed us out,” she added.
Now, Fairfield police will have full access to Lantern Point grounds during the academic year. Police normally do not have access to private property, but the landlords of the houses located at Lantern Point consented to the injunction.
Many current students do not know what the event entailed.
“I really don’t know what Clam Jam is,” said Kristen Ryan ’09. “But it sounds like a lot of fun. It’s a shame the students don’t have the opportunity to experience the FU tradition that alumni have been a part of for so long.”
Fairfield graduate Derrick Whritenour ’03, who attended Clam Jam as a freshman, said the event brought all classes together.
“Everyone just got sh*tfaced and had a good time,” he said. “There weren’t any worries about getting in trouble. There were bands playing at the Point, hundreds of kegs and thousands of people. People were ripping beer bongs off the second floor decks of houses.”
Mirror Editor-in-Chief emeritus Sean Hayes ’03 said the Point was filled with people eager to party.
“As someone who saw the last ‘full’ Clam Jam, I can definitely say it was remarkable simply because of its size,” he said.
The now-permanent injunction also requires security guards to be on watch during days that students usually socialize. A representative must be on call at all times to take year-round residents’ complaints, all students living at Lantern Point must present identification cards to be admitted into the grounds and bands may only play five times during the year, until 10 p.m. on Fridays or Saturdays.
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Timothy Snyder said the injunction has pros and cons, but what startles him most is the discriminatory treatment of students. The restrictions placed on gatherings of more than 250 people do not apply if less than 50 percent of the tenants at Lantern Point are not students.
“Students are full-fledged members of the community, contributing to its richness and intellectual and creative culture, not to mention their vibrant contributions to the local economy, from which all residents benefit,” Snyder said.
First Selectman Kenneth Flatto said he “totally supports” the injunction.
“There wouldn’t be a way to enforce crowd behavior without these sanctions,” he said. “The beach is public property and unfortunately bon fires and poor behavior have resulted in proposals for fencing and other things.”
Flatto also said that he believes the police should have access to the Point whenever possible “wrongdoing” is suspected.
“When a few houses… abuse and ruin the quality of life for neighboring families, all rental houses bear the brunt of the crack downs that follow,” he said.
Vice President of Student Services Mark Reed said he does not think the permanence of the injunction will change beach life.
“From my perspective, students seem to still be having plenty of fun,” Reed said. “Laws are laws and common decency is common decency. At times, the lifestyle of some college student conflict in these regards.”
But Hayes said it was the temporary injunction that changed beach life, back in 2001.
“It was tough to have a large gathering on the beach without the police breaking it up,” he said.
Whritenour said freshmen and sophomores stopped visiting the beach and seniors started going to the Sea Grape every night.
“When Clam Jam still existed, Fairfield was one of the biggest party schools on the east coast,” he said. “College kids from all over the east coast would come to visit.”
Hayes acknowledged the university’s effort to provide students with an alternative to Clam Jam. Spam Jam, which takes place every spring, is a university-sponsored event on the townhouse quad that only junior and seniors can attend. All those who drink must be 21 years old.
But Hayes also said the university event will never gain the popularity Clam Jam once had.
“Comparing Spam Jam to Clam Jam is like comparing Fairfield to the Ivy League,” he said. “In either case, Fairfield students would overwhelmingly prefer to attend the latter.”
Don Partyka ’03 said that during the four years he spent at Fairfield, he watched the school “tighten things up.”
“Fairfield doesn’t even have a football or hockey team anymore,” he said. “There are a great deal less of the ‘work hard, party hard’ types I recall in my class. The student body just can’t, because either the school or the town has made it too difficult.”
Many current seniors say they aren’t necessarily upset about the loss of huge parties, but they feel like they are slowly losing their traditions.
“The fact that Clam Jam is now certainly never coming back just adds to the void of socially distinguishing and celebrating our senior class,” said Will Yost ’06.
Partyka said that even if he cut out his memories from all beach traditions, he would still have “plenty left over.”
“Amazing friends by far makes up the vast majority of college social life, not the three or four traditional events that have been dropped,” he said.
Zoel Z. Green, attorney for the year-round beach residents, was unable to be reached for comment.
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