Three students have been suspended from campus after allegedly vandalizing and throwing a rock through the window of the on-campus apartment of Chief Experience Officer (CXO) Tom Ellett.
On Sept. 26, President Judy Olian sent an email to the university with the subject line “This behavior won’t be tolerated,” in which she explained that an “on-campus residence of a senior member of the university administration” was “vandalized.”
Ellett is the only senior member of administration who lives on campus.
The vandalism ranged from a rock thrown through Ellett’s window to a note with “inflammatory language” on his door, said an email sent to students by Otoniel Reyes, the chief of public safety, on Sept. 28.
Jake Patinella, a freshman undeclared computer programming major who shares a hallway with Ellett, said that he and his roommate were not on campus when the incident happened.
“[Since] it happened over the weekend, [most residents] were most likely not even in their dorms,” he said.
Patinella said he was shocked by Olian’s email, as that it was the first he had heard about the vandalism.
He said that Ellett has been “nothing but friendly” to him and his roommate, which made it even more surprising to him.
Freshman finance major, River Tardie, who lives in The Commons, disagreed.
“I don’t think Ellett has good intentions,” he said.
He mentioned that he sees Ellett around a few times a week, but also didn’t know his apartment was vandalized until after receiving Olian’s email.
Olian’s email did not detail the nature of the vandalism, which some students felt was representative of student-administration relations.
“So much gets swept under the rug here it’s ridiculous,” said Kylie Artemisio, a sophomore athletic training major. “This is only brought to our attention because it was faculty. They do not care about the students here.”
Sarah Cowden, a senior history major, raised a similar point.
“The university’s response to this incident shows that they clearly care more about a broken window than blatant bullying and discrimination that happens regularly,” she said.
Samantha Schnaars, a junior economics major, also felt that the university’s communications to students and faculty were flawed.
“I think the school needs to address situations way better because most kids never have a clue as to what’s going on,” she said.
Reyes offered more details about the incident two days later in an email sent out to students and faculty.
After explaining the “two separate incidents,” he said that the three students involved have been “issued an interim suspension” from the university.
Neither Reyes nor Olian has identified the apartment as Ellett’s publicly, despite it being confirmed by the associate vice president of public relations, John Morgan.
Both administrators also mentioned that Public Safety is working with the Hamden Police Department to continue the investigation.
As of publication, the Hamden Police Department has not responded to HQNN’s Freedom of Information request for the incident report of the crime.
The window outside of Ellett’s apartment has since been boarded up.
The incidents occurred after the Quinnipiac Chronicle, the university’s student-run weekly newspaper, published an opinion piece on Sept. 22 criticizing Ellett’s job performance.
Written by senior journalism major, Peter Piekarski, the opinion piece noted parking woes, shuttle issues, lack of club sports funding and the prioritization of the construction of Ellett’s on-campus apartment in The Commons freshman dormitory.
“I don’t condone the fact that there were any sorts of acts of violence or vandalism and [students] should be punished for doing so, [but] it’s the facts in the piece that are to blame,” he said.
Piekarski said that his article was rooted in “holding [Ellett] accountable,” and that his hope was to start a conversation with administrators after publishing the piece.
“[Administrators] have to recognize that this is not executives versus students,” Piekarski said. “This is literally you have to put the students first.”