Opinion • The World Needs A Little More Whimsy Page 6
Vine •
Hopping Around Fairfield Page 9
Sports • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2026
FAIRFIELDMIRROR.COM
INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Club Volleybal Prepares for Nationals Page 15
Gender and Sexuality Alliance Promotes Campus Pride with a Month Full of Celebrations By OLIVIA MARCEDA Head News Editor
Today kicks off Campus Pride, as April becomes a time of celebration, community and visibility led by the Gender and Sexuality Alliance. After being inactive for much of the past few years, the club has reemerged with new leadership and a renewed sense of purpose, turning April into a month dedicated to Pride. “I would say that GSA represents a safe space for people of all identities to form bonds and learn from eachother,” said junior Richie Herrera. “We pride ourselves on our inclusivity and our willingness to educate students within the Fairfield community regarding the queer experience.” At the center of that effort is GSA President, senior Alana Planas, who first joined the organization during its revival in her junior year. What began as an opportunity to help rebuild a missing space on campus quickly became more personal. “GSA for the greater half of my college experience wasn’t an active club,” Planas said. “So last year, like the beginning of my junior year, one of my friends kind of asked me, like, ‘Hey do you want to be vice president and we’re going to try and restart this club on campus?’ And I immediately kind of jumped on the idea.” Since then, Alana has served on the executive board, first as vice president and now as president, helping guide the organization through a period of growth. The experience, she said, has shaped her
GSA club is kicking off a month full of celebrations for students and faculty to celebrate Pride. Today in the Lower Level Barone Campus Center there will be food, drinks, giveaways and raffles from noon to 2 p.m. (Photo Contributed by Alana Planas)
sense of identity and belonging in ways she didn’t anticipate. “I never really knew that I could be a part of something this big, that could change our campus culture,” she said. “It really made me want to work harder to make other students like me and in our community more visible on campus.” That mission of visibility is at the heart of April’s Pride programming. Through a series of events held across
“
campus, such as Lavender Luncheon and
The main goal of Lavender Graduation, which celebrates this month is to be LQBTQ+ voices, experiences and gradstudents. visible, to show that uating “I think the main goal of this month we’re here and that we is be visible, show that we’re here and are proud to be here.” that we are proud to be here,” Planas said. - Alana Planas ‘26 GSA President
Fairfield Senator Announces Retirement After 2 Decades in Office By JULIAN NAZARIO Managing Editor
Fairfield’s state Senator Tony Hwang will not seek a sixth term for office, instead announcing his intention to seek retirement from public service. “After many meaningful years of public service, I have decided that the time has come to step away from state elected office and begin the next chapter of my life,” Hwang said in a statement on Monday. “Serving the people of Connecticut’s 28th Senate District has been one of the greatest honors and privileges of my life.” The Republican first entered politics in 2005, when he was elected to the town’s Representative Town Meeting. In 2008, Hwang made the jump to state politics, winning three consecutive terms to represent Fairfield at the State House and serving as state senator since 2014, when he became the first Asian-Pacific American state senator in the state’s history, according to his
official biography. The news of his retirement comes just a day after the senator published an opinion piece on the CT Insider calling on protecting democracy at the state and local levels. “If we want to defend democracy nationally, we must first practice it locally. And if we fail to protect public input, open debate, and representative process here at home, then our rhetoric about democracy means very little at all,” Hwang argued. Junior John Beam, a finance student who interned with Hwang for the 2024 election, told The Mirror he’s encouraged by the senator’s ability to set aside partisan politics. “No matter what he achieved in the Senate, his ability to put labels aside and just see people for who they are,” Beam said. “Tony Hwang definitely saw that in everybody, in his ability to simply work on the issues rather than sticking to political lines. Earlier this year, Hwang failed in his efforts to unseat Fairfield First Selectperson Christine Vitale in a special election he
“All of these events are really planned in order to celebrate our existence and celGSA continued on page 4
MIRROR IN A MINUTE
Monday Classes to Meet on Wednesday Next Week By BRENNA BELASCO Associate News Editor Sen. Tony Hwang represents Fairfield and three other towns in the State Senate. Earlier this year, he unsuccessfuly tried to unseat Fairfield’s First Selectperson. (Photo Courtesy of Tony Hwang Facebook)
forced through a petition campaign following the death of First Selectman Bill Gerber in his second year of a four-year term. During the campaign, Hwang was a student-favorite, with multiple Fizz posts promoting his bid and encouraging students to vote for the senator under the belief he would support “student rights.” He also spent time with students in The Tully. Hwang is expected to serve the remainder of his term before returning to his real estate profession.
On Wednesday, April 8, the university will be following a Monday class schedule. According to the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Excellence, Mark Ligas, classes need to meet at least 13 times during a semester. During the Spring semester, Mondays get “hit the hardest” because of the constant academic breaks, meaning that classes held on Mondays get less class time. To compensate for that, those classes tend to meet on Tuesdays after a break, but this year’s Easter Break is an exception. “While we are traditionally able to afford at least one Tuesday to make up for the President’s Day holiday, there were not enough ‘extra’ Tuesdays this spring semester, so we had to use a Wednesday,” Ligas added.