As a part of International Education Week at Quinnipiac, large groups of student and faculty members gathered into the Carl Hansen Student Center for the Culture Night dinner. Known as the most popular event of the week, lines formed wrapping around the piazza as students filled their plates with foods prepared by our international students.
The event is put together by Quinnipiac’s Department of Cultural and Global Engagement and the International Students Association. Culture Night gives students a chance to showcase the diversity on campus and educate others on the various cultures apart of the Quinnipiac community.
There were ten tables set up with different traditional foods from various countries. Formed in a U shape, students sat behind their assigned table and created their own displays. Some of the table displays were from China, Poland, Nicaragua, Poland, Muslim Student Association and Saudi Arabia.
The Culture Night performance schedule included videos of Cape Verde, poems from the United Kingdom and performances titled Cabo Snoop preformed by Audrey Chigarira and Sun Raha preformed by Margy Shah.
Abbie E O’Neill, the Specialist for Student Engagement, said this event is great for promoting the variety of cultures we have on campus.
“I work in the department for cultural and global engagement so my role for this particular event is to organize it, reach out to students who are both international and domestic to give them a platform to display their culture and showcase the variety of different cultures that we have from around the world that is present on our campus,” O’Neill said.
When we asked O’Neill how the event was planned, she expressed the importance of having an open mic portion at the end of night so all attendees can have the opportunity to express themselves.
“The first hour are food and table displays,” she said. “The second hour is performance where student will give presentations about their countries, tell stories, read poems, they sing, dance, and then afterwards there is an open mic so people who did not originally sign up can preform as well so it’s not closed off.”
O’Neill said this event is a safe environment to talk openly without judgment.
“This event last year was widely successful,” O’Neill said. “We had a great turnout and we had a lot of students engaging and asking questions to their peers. This serves as an opportunity for those to talk who might be afraid to ask and learn a bit more about each other.”
O’Neill was asked what Quinnipiac should do moving forward to have students more aware of others cultures and more accepting of their peers.
“I think we need to have more events and have students be willing to educate themselves on their own,” she said. “It should not be the responsibility of the minority to educate the majority. It should be that the majority is activity trying to educate themselves and also working with students in our department to make sure their cultures are highlighted in the way they want them to be and not picked apart.”
Thanksgiving is right around the corner. People across the country will either be traveling or opening their doors to spend time with family. Some of Quinnipiac’s international students will have that same opportunity to visit family, while others will have to choose between staying on campus or accepting invitations from their friends or roommates to their house for a turkey dinner.
Gregory Hardman
For those who choose not to spend their break on campus, they either spend the break with family members or with friends. Gregory Hardman, a film and English double major, was born in America and spent his early years here. Hardman also grew up and went to high school in South Africa. When he was accepted into Quinnipiac, his parents decided to move to Vermont. Hardman will be spending his Thanksgiving break in Vermont.
Similarly, Miriam Monteiro, a graduate student from Cape Verde, an island off the coast of West Africa, will be spending her Thanksgiving break with her family in New Haven.
Miriam Monteiro
“Dinner. A lot of turkey. Cousins. Just pretty much spending time with family,” Monteiro said of how she plans on spending Thanksgiving.
Alessandro Woodbridge, a 21-year-old management major from the United Kingdom had originally planned on staying on campus to focus on his work but he will be having Thanksgiving dinner with a friend and his family.
Alessandro Woodbridge
“(My friend) is a very sweet lad,” Woodbridge said. “He lives in New York but he has family an hour away from here. So I’ll be eating and dining with them.”
According to Abbie O’Neill, the specialist for student engagement, around 21 students will be staying on campus during this year’s Thanksgiving break. One of them is junior Konstantin Khvan. The finance major from Kazakhstan says the break is too short to fly more than 20 hours to go home.
“Quinnipiac provides you with housing for the whole week for free. Which is really nice, they don’t kick me out,” Khvan said. “It’s really expensive to go home for just one week plus just because of the trip you will lose three days. Two days when you go there, and one day when you come back.”
During his freshman year, Khvan stayed with a distant cousin that lived in New York, however, he didn’t want to be an imposition on them and has been staying on campus during the week off.
Konstantin Khvan
“Pretty empty,” said Khvan of the campus during Thanksgiving break. “It’s pretty empty, but it’s liveable.”
The Department of Cultural and Global Engagement often plans shopping trips and excursions for students who choose to stay on campus or put students in contact with a host family so that students can get to experience the Thanksgiving holiday. Members of the department are usually still in their office and offer students the chance to stop by and talk to them if they get bored.
This year, the department is not offering any programs or trips for those left on campus. Students who choose to stay on campus will also have to face the shorter hours of certain facilities and resources on campus being limited due to the holiday.
“I’m planning to buy a lot of groceries for the week and stay on campus, not really many plans, ” Khvan said. “I might be visiting New York on a day trip but that’s still under consideration.”
The National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) announced that Quinnipiac will host the tournament’s final four from Friday, Nov. 17 to Sunday, Nov. 19.
“The semifinals being at 10 a.m. on Friday is a difficult time window but we have no doubt the usual QU fan base will be on hand in addition to the the two other teams battling at 1 p.m.,” said Quinnipiac rugby head coach Rebecca Carlson.
Brown University was the host of the 2015 championship and in 2016 the championship was played at West Point at the United States Military Academy. Quinnipiac is the league’s two-time defending national champion and is looking to repeat its winning streak.
In 2015, the team got its first championship topping Army 24-19, and went in with a five-game winning streak. The team’s second championship win last season came to a 46-24 score in a win over Central Washington and was its only win in the series against Central Washington. Coming into that season, the Quinnipiac women’s rugby team was ranked No. 2 in a NIRA coaches poll.
This season the team was granted a new and improved playing surface and new scoreboard for bringing in two consecutive championship titles, a very big contribution to the school’s program exposure.
Coach Carlson talked about how having the new parts of the facility adds to the team morale going into playoff.
“Great to have the space. Honored to be at home,” Carlson said. “We still have a ways to go to be one of the top rugby facilities in the country across both genders but a will get there.”
Carlson’s team has been successful again this season as it has made it to the tournament’s semifinals for the third-straight season.
Coach Carlson also added to how tough the team’s competition would be and how the team expects to finish out the year.
“Our schedule was the most down challenging in the entire country,” Carlson said. “We played 9 NIRA games prior to playoffs while our opponents and the other side of the bracket played less than 5. Our adversity and two losses were/are more valuable than any team with a soft schedule and undefeated status, we expect to finish strong.”
Quinnipiac will face Central Washington in one of the semifinals on Friday. Dartmouth and Harvard will play against each other in the other semifinal, which is also on Friday. The winner of each game will face each other in the national championship game, which will take place on Sunday.
Many families around the nation have their age-old holiday traditions they follow when it comes to celebrating Thanksgiving. However, for Quinnipiac University student Emma Robertson, one of her favorite traditions happens when the feast is over.
“Usually on the car ride home, it’s a really long car ride, we always play Christmas music,” Robertson said with a smile. “We don’t start it before and then we always do it on the car ride home. We play a new CD every time.”
Every Thanksgiving, since the time she was little, Robertson and her family travel from her house in Maine to her grandmother’s house in Vermont. The drive is five hours each way. However, for Robertson, the drive is worth it.
“I don’t have a lot of family close to me,” Robertson said. “Christmas is always just me, my parents and my brother, and Easter is always just me, my parents and my brother. So Thanksgiving is the only holiday I actually spend with family.”
Robertson explained that its become more difficult to see her family over the years as she has become more involved, both in school and in extracurricular activities.
Aside from her parents, brother, and grandmother, Robertson’s aunt and cousins are usually in attendance. They enjoy their Thanksgiving meal together in the early afternoon before her cousins leave to visit their father.
Robertson and her cousin are often involved in the cooking process. Robertson specifically remembers the times she would help her grandmother cook the homemade studding when she was little.
“I remember when I was younger, I used to always help my grandmother cook,” Robertson laughed. “Specifically I remember, I don’t remember what year it was, but helping her make the stuffing, and I remember they always put me on ripping the bread. I just remember ripping up bread.”
For Robertson, though every Thanksgiving is almost the exact same as the last, she finds comfort and warmth in the familiarity of the holiday’s events. Above all else, she is happy to be able to spend time with her extended family, even if it is for just one day out of the year.
“It’s nice because we all get together and it doesn’t often happen.”
Ever since dozens of women accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault six weeks ago, there has been a steady flow of new allegations against the men of Hollywood and beyond. Now, at least 25 high-profile men have been accused.
While the highly publicized allegations have been centered on the entertainment industry, sexual assault and harassment are highly pervasive in our entire society.
“It could be, like, endemic to the culture of Hollywood, and in some ways it is, except that it’s endemic to all cultures,” Jennifer Sacco, the director of Quinnipiac’s Women’s and Gender Studies program, said.
Victims of sexual harassment are not limited to actresses. According to a survey from 2015, 1 in 3 women has been sexually harassed at work.
“Virtually, every adult woman I know has been sexually harassed at work,” Sacco said.
That includes Sacco. She said she was sexually harassed while working at a department store when she was in her 20s.
These actions and comments can have many negative effects on the victims.
“They can cause serious anxiety which prevents us from doing our jobs, from feeling safe, from doing what we need to or want to, and generally from flourishing. And they are normalized,” Melissa Kaplan, a Quinnipiac professor who teaches English and women’s and gender studies, said. “A cat-caller is only scary at all because we don’t know when one might follow us home. And a guy who aggressively pushes for sex wouldn’t make us so queasy if we felt 100 percent sure he’d listen if we said no.”
To raise awareness about these issues, an online movement was started where thousands of women have used “#MeToo” to share their own stories about sexual assault and harassment. On Sunday, Nov. 12, the movement took to the streets of Hollywood for the #MeToo Survivors March. Hundreds of people joined in to show their support.
The #MeToo campaign and subsequent widespread discussion about sexual assault and harassment have allowed men to learn more about the issue.
“There are things to like and dislike about this #MeToo campaign, but I appreciate that it seems to be getting at a few basic things that I think are important for men—since they stand to benefit from a rape culture—to understand,” Kaplan said.
The movement has also had an educational effect on women.
Credit: Cosmopolitan
“Women are afraid to react because they don’t want to be told they’re overreacting,” Zara Khan, a Quinnipiac senior and president of Women Empowered, said. “I think the ‘Me Too’ movement is a great way to educate others on what is considered sexual harassment by being able to read these raw personal stories.”
The allegations themselves against men like Harvey Weinstein have also had a positive impact.
“I do like the fact that so many women came forward so quickly and included really prominent women” Sacco said. “I think that was helpful. I really do.”
However, the movement has not been all positive. In some ways, it has highlighted some deeper issues.
“I think it’s great that women are joining forces to support each other. However, it’s saddening how many women had to come forward in order for there to be consequences,” Khan said. “It shouldn’t be her word against his. We need to take these women seriously as soon as they come forward instead of sweeping this under the rug.”
Victims are often not believed and when they are, the focus is sometimes entirely on them.
“One of the more valid critiques of the #MeToo trend is that it is focused, as these conversations so often are, on the survivors, rather than the perpetrators and enablers; that it asks women to bear their pain instead of asking men for reflection and accountability,” Kaplan said.
Sacco also noted that this may be a flaw in the movement.
“Why do we ask more of the victims? You know, why do they have to bear themselves again in some way in public for people to take this seriously?” Sacco said.
The tendency to focus on the victims rather than the perpetrators is one of the many underlying issues of sexual assault and harassment.
“I think the biggest issue behind sexual assault (and) harassment is that the victim is often blamed,” Khan said. “That she shouldn’t have worn that skirt or shouldn’t have drank so much. That a woman should change the way she dresses and behaves because then she is ‘asking for it.’”
Kaplan says that gendered violence is a problem that stems from “systemic sexism.” This leads to women being silenced and bystanders not speaking up about the abuse they know is happening.
Credit: Cosmopolitan
“Women are taught to obscure the signs of our abuse, and our communities are taught to pretend they don’t know what’s really going on. Lie about our bruises. Claim we missed work because we had a cold. That we did poorly on an exam because we didn’t study,” Kaplan said. “Whether by pressuring women not to speak up in the first place or dismissing them when they do, the system insists that reports of gendered violence remain private rumor rather than public record.”
In order to combat this system, the #MeToo movement may be a good first step.
“Everyone needs to make this as vocal as possible because, collectively, maybe we could enforce some sort of change here,” Sacco said.
The key is that this movement is finally acknowledging the problem.
“Making radical change means acknowledging and confronting the injustices around us,” Kaplan said. “If we don’t acknowledge that something is a problem, we cannot transform it.”
HAMDEN- People are talking about whether or not stores should be open on Thanksgiving Day and on Black Friday. Chain discount stores across the country are taking different approaches to the holiday hours. The different hours will affect local chain stores such as Target, Walmart, and Kohls.
Students at Quinnipiac University shared their opinions on the Black Friday shopping tradition.
Annie Schuppe, a Quinnipiac student, didn’t see anything wrong with having stores open on Thanksgiving or Black Friday.
“I don’t see any issue because the hours are split into shifts,” she said. “The workers can still make time to see their families and shop for the holidays, too.”
Another student, Kelly Gorman, has worked Black Friday the past four years. She thinks it is fine to have stores open on Black Friday.
“They should 100 percent be closed on Thanksgiving Day, but opening at midnight is perfect, I don’t mind it at all,” Gorman said.
Peter Concilio, another student at Quinnipiac, agrees with the idea to have stores closed on Thanksgiving Day but open on Black Friday.
“For Thanksgiving Day, absolutely not! For Black Friday, absolutely yes,” Concilio said. “People need to walk off all those calories and look forward to another long day of mayhem.”
The Walmart in Hamden will be open on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. The store hours will not change due to the holiday. It will remain open on both days from 7 a.m. until midnight. There are Black Friday discounts in store, followed by Cyber Monday deals.
The Hamden location for Kohls will open later than normal on Thanksgiving Day. It will be open from 6 p.m. until 12 a.m. after Black Friday. The normal hours are 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. on Thursday’s and 8 a.m. until midnight on Friday’s. There are 66 pages full of discounts available in store on Black Friday. Kohls will also be participating in Cyber Monday.
The Target in North Haven is also opening its doors later on the holiday. On Thanksgiving Day, it will be open from 6 p.m. until midnight. It will open again on Black Friday at 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. Shoppers can apply early for the REDcard to gain early access to deals. There are thousands of deals for Black Friday as well as Cyber Monday.
Since Ally Foltiny was little, she and her family would travel to one of her aunts’ houses for Thanksgiving. However, this year, the senior Quinnipiac University student and her family are slightly breaking tradition.
Now that Foltiny’s cousins are in their early thirties, they will be tasked with the challenge of hosting the holiday.
“My cousins are getting to the point where they’re old enough to host, which is kind of crazy, because they’re all starting their own families,” Foltiny said.
Another new factor? Foltiny will be bringing her 3-month-old puppy, Huck Finn, to the celebration. She has already received permission from her cousin to do so.
However, despite these new factors, traditions from the past will still remain a part of the family’s Thanksgiving celebration.
“My entire family is still going to be there,” Foltiny said. “It’s really special to see my nana, she always makes this really good cranberry sauce that’s better than the canned cranberry sauce […] and the warmth of all of my family there, I think that’s really special.”
Foltiny shared that she and her family usually start their meal around 2 p.m. and continue eating into the evening. Every year, she looks forward to sitting around the table and listening to stories from when her parents, and even her grandparents, were young.
This year, she looks forward to celebrating old traditions, as well as starting new ones.
“Our traditions are mostly food traditions, but I’m very okay with that,” said Foltiny.
On Friday Nov. 10. a transformer exploded around 7:30 p.m. on Quinnipiac University’s Mount Carmel Campus leaving various power outages. The Outages affected three residence halls.
-Commons: freshman dorms
-Hill: sophomore apartments
-Village: sophomore townhouses
The biggest concern was how cold it would get at night in the residential halls. Officials set up different sleeping areas in the Carl Hansen Student Center and Burt Kahn Gym. If students had a friend’s house to stay at or lived close enough to campus they were advised to find a place to go to to those places for the remaining time.
Quinnipiac posted information on the MyQ website and social media pages to update students on where to sleep and how they were working towards getting power back.
Via Quinnipiac’s MyQ Website
Sophomore Rachael Pasquarose expressed disappointment in the school’s plan for students affected by the power outage.
“I would say they didn’t handle it as well as they could have,” she said. “I felt like there should have been better plans in place and more resources for students who were unable to stay in their dorms instead of having to sleep in the gym.”
Pasquarose ended up traveling to New York as she couldn’t be in her room in Village.
“On Friday Night I stayed in Bakke Hall because they had power,” she said. “My roommates drove to their friends houses who had power and who could fit people in their rooms. By Saturday we still didn’t have power so we ended up driving to New York since we couldn’t be in our room at all.”
Apple launched its new iOS 11.1 update on Tuesday, Oct. 31, the latest update since the iOS 11 update that was released on Sept. 19, 2017. Since the iOS 11.1 update, people have reported that their has been a mass glitch going around on their phones.
The glitch doesn’t let you type the letter “i” without it suggesting different characters like “A” and a question mark symbol.
“Our own limited testing doesn’t really support this: Some phones that have updated iOS 11.1 are still affected by the bug, and other phones that are still on iOS 11.0.3 aren’t,” one of Apple’s support forums said.
Apple was relayed this message and came out with some tips to work around this or potentially fix this problem.
How to fix the lowercase ‘i’ bug in iOS 11
1. Go to Settings, then General, then Keyboard, then Text Replacement.
2. Hit the + button to add a new text replacement shortcut.
Apple has concluded this issue by letting the public know that if they follow these steps this will end the problem for now but are still unsure what caused this problem in the first place.
Apple stated to Loop Insight that it’s “aware of instances where the iPhone X screen will become temporarily unresponsive to touch after a rapid change to a cold environment.”
To prevent this, Apple has recommended to keep your phones in approximately 32-degree to 95-degrees fahrenheit temperature range to get the best out of the Iphone X’s capabilities.
Apple reps also did a test to discover this problem that many people reported having and if it was all models or specific models. They took the phone through different temperatures going from 68 to 41 degrees fahrenheit and reported that “the screen remained responsive as we surfed the web and clicked on emails. Regardless, Apple is planning to fix the problem in an upcoming software update,” according to Don Reisinger of Fox News.
A look into diversity, free speech and issues in between
By Ayah Galal
Devastating. Horrific. Shocking. These are some of the words members of the Quinnipiac community used to describe their reaction to the series of events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia over the summer.
Hundreds of white nationalists gathered on the University of Virginia campus to protest the removal of a confederate statue on Friday, Aug. 11. They held torches and chanted slogans like “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil.”
“I was actually really shocked,” said Mazel Genfi, president of the Quinnipiac chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “It was a moment of disbelief but then not surprised actually. I guess the country that we live in people actually feel comfortable to do things like that.”
Mazel Genfi, QU NAACP President
By the next morning, counter protesters clashed with protesters and events took a violent turn. A white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who lived in Charlottesville.
The series of events drew widespread attention across the nation and sparked conversation about America’s current racial climate.
Some activists, pundits and universities responded to the incident quickly, saying more conversations about white supremacy, racism and xenophobia need to occur.
Others argued universities should prioritize safety over freedom of expression. Racist incidents have certainly marred Quinnipiac over the years. It has been nearly three months now since the events in Charlottesville. How did Quinnipiac respond? Are conversations on race still happening? Should the university be doing more to address race relations?
Quinnipiac responds
Ten days after the Charlottesville incident, Quinnipiac Vice President and Provost Dr. Mark Thompson sent a memo to the university community.
In the email sent out on Aug. 21, he wrote, “The violence, hatred, bigotry and intolerance demonstrated by white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups in Charlottesville have no place in our world and certainly have no place within our university community. Acts of violence and hatred run counter to our values as a community, and each one of us has a responsibility to ensure that these despicable types of behavior do not occur here.”
He added that students will have the opportunity to participate in social justice and inclusion-related events throughout the year to deepen their “understanding and ability to learn from one another about various aspects of the world in which we live.”
A few days later Quinnipiac President John Lahey addressed the addressed the class of 2021. Each year Lahey welcomes the incoming freshman class during “Welcome Weekend” right before the semester starts. While President Lahey tends to avoid politics during his speeches and statements, this time it was different. He was quick to condemn the hatred and bigotry that was present in Charlottesville.
President Lahey discusses Charlottesville during an interview with Q30 Television
“I must say in light of recent events in Charlottesville it saddens me that in 2017 we still have to publicly and unequivocally condemn and state so clearly how unacceptable the views of white supremacists, Ku Klux Klan, neo-nazis [are]. Those views are simply not welcome here on the Quinnipiac campus,” President Lahey said to the freshman class. “Any behavior associated with any of these despicable kinds of beliefs and activities will not be tolerated on this campus.”
While President Lahey doesn’t consider what he said to be political, many were taken back by how direct and passionate his response was. In an interview with Q30 Television in September, President Lahey said he was “a little surprised by the reaction.” He thinks it’s because of the extent to which he discussed the incident and believes his address was “well-received.”
As students and faculty began settling in for the new semester, the Quinnipiac Center for Religion held an event titled “A Conversation on Charlottesville” on Sept. 5. The event was intended be an open forum for members of the Quinnipiac community to discuss their feelings and reactions to Charlottesville.
The incident especially hit home for Executive Director of University Religious Life Father Jordan Lenaghan. Lenaghan was a former Catholic chaplain at the University of Virginia.
“When I saw images, when I saw media coverage, when I saw news reports, when I saw photographs of places where I hung out with students, where I had worked, it hit me on a very visceral level,” Lenaghan, who helped organize the event said. “I have a job that involves words and I didn’t have words for what I saw.”
Breaking down President Trump’s response
During difficult times, presidents of the United States traditionally try to unite the nation. But at a moment where many Americans already felt divided, President Trump’s words did little to bring together the nation.
At a press conference in Trump Tower shortly after the incident, President Trump said, “I think there is blame on both sides.” Many at Quinnipiac were frustrated that he compared the violence perpetuated by white supremacists with the violence committed by counter protesters.
“I honestly believe President Trump is an absolute idiot,” Genfi said. “For him to say that says a lot about who he is and what he represents – which is basically white supremacy whether he likes it or not.”
But others at Quinnipiac did not consider his response problematic.
“He should have prefaced what he said by saying white supremacists have no place in this country,” Jeremy Wiss, President of the Quinnipiac College Republicans said. “But at the same time, both sides displayed some sort of hatred and violence; both sides showed the bad side of humanity.”
Wiss is Jewish and said the incident hit home because his great-grandparents fled persecution in Germany and Poland. While he says the situation was upsetting, Wiss believes Confederate statues should stay up so that history is not erased.
Jeremy Wiss, President of Quinnipiac College Republicans
“I can see why they continue to perpetuate issues because it is a big deal,” Wiss said.
Is hate speech free speech?
The national conversation surrounding freedom of speech intensified after white nationalists chanted slogans like “white lives matter” and “you will not replace us,” at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
But is hate speech actually protected under the First Amendment? The answer is yes.
“A lot of people think that hate speech is given no First Amendment protection,” Kearston Wesner, assistant professor of media studies said.
Kearston Wesner teaching a Communications Law and Policy course
Political speech especially enjoys careful protection under the First Amendment. Hate speech is difficult to define and banning speech because some view it as hate speech would be unconstitutional.
“If we start going around banning speech we dislike, usually what happens is the law that we build … tends to be applied in a broader sense against the people we were initially hoping to protect,” Wesner, who teaches Communications Law and Policy, said.
There is an exception, however. If hate speech contains incitement – an imminent threat of violence – that speech is not protected by the First Amendment.
Additionally, private universities can restrict speech. For example, Quinnipiac could choose to not allow controversial speakers like Milo Yiannopoulos or Richard Spencer on campus.
“Private universities can build their own rules and they can restrict speech how they want to,” Wesner added.
While the chances of extremely controversial speakers coming to Quinnipiac are not high, Wesner said, “It gets a lot greyer how much the university could get in and restrict that [speech] because it has a lot to do with whether it’s a university sponsored organization or an independent organization.”
When asked how Quinnipiac would respond if a student organization on campus wanted to bring a controversial speaker like Richard Spencer or Milo Yiannopoulos to speak, administration did not answer.
Confronting hate
Even before the Charlottesville incident in August, students and faculty have often discussed concerns related to race and diversity at Quinnipiac.
A racially insensitive Snapchat taken by a former Quinnipiac student
In September 2016, a Quinnipiac student posted a racially insensitive photograph and caption mocking the Black Lives Matter movement to Snapchat. The photograph went viral and sparked outrage not just at Quinnipiac, but in other parts of the country as well after large outlets like the New York Daily News picked up the story.
Other incidents such as swastika graffiti, caricatures of of people’s racial identity and use of derogatory terms have plagued Quinnipiac. Student Affairs takes these incidents seriously and has an established a “Bias, Harassment and Discrimination Policy” in the Quinnipiac Undergraduate Student Handbook.
“I would say the majority of the incidents hands down are in the first-year areas without a doubt,” Megan Buda, Director of Student Conduct said. “Traditionally if a student is found responsible for a violation of our bias-related policy there’s some form of removal, whether that’s from housing or separation from the institution.”
The Bias, Harassment and Discrimination Policy in the Undergraduate Student Handbook
The most common type of bias-related incident at Quinnipiac is offensive graffiti, Buda added. While displaying a Confederate flag is not a policy violation, Student Affairs understands that such a display could offend some people on campus, and tries to have constructive conversations with students who choose to do so.
Hate crimes are defined differently from bias-related incidents and the standard for a hate crime is higher since it’s defined criminally.
Screenshot of the Quinnipiac Annual Security report
According to Quinnipiac’s Annual Security Report, there were two hate crimes in 2016, three hate crimes in 2015 and four hate crimes in 2014. The report does not specify the nature of the incidents.
In June 2017, the Connecticut state legislature passed one of the strongest hate-crime bills in the nation. Punishment for hate crimes in the state once was a misdemeanor but the new law treats hate crimes as a felony.
While the Ku Klux Klan has had a presence within the state of Connecticut, the threat of its extreme beliefs is not high, according to Andy Friedland, Assistant Regional Director for the Connecticut Anti-Defamation League.
“Often these days we’ll see an individual print-off flyers from the KKK website, leading people to think there is an active branch of the Klan in their town, which is not true in the state of Connecticut today,” Friedland said.
What is Quinnipiac doing to address race relations on campus?
Especially after the Snapchat incident at Quinnipiac, departments ranging from Student Affairs to Cultural and Global Engagement have been organizing discussions, lectures and even Netflix series screenings to address topics related to race and diversity.
Quinnipiac Chief Diversity Officer Diane Ariza says that race-related incidents like Charlottesville have stirred up a lot of conversation.
“I think that’s healthy because it’s making us not too comfortable of where we’re at in the world,” Ariza said.
In September 2013 the Inclusion, Multiculturalism, and Globalism in Education (IMaGinE) strategic plan was created to help Quinnipiac become “a more inclusive, multicultural and diverse campus community.”
Some IMaGinE events planned for the Fall semester
Ariza, along with the help of the IMaGinE Advisory Board, organizes events that foster discussion of diversity in the Quinnipiac community. Events include “A Place at the Table” and “Circle of Perspectives” discussions.
A Place at the Table is a dialogue series that seeks to recreate an after-dinner atmosphere to encourage informal conversations about issues related to social justice and current events. Circle of Perspectives is a series of nonpartisan group discussions involving critical thinking about diversity and social inequalities.
“I think educating is what we’ve decided our department has decided to do with the social issues,” Ariza said.
Student Affairs is also taking a similar approach. Megan Buda and Mark DeVilbiss, co-chairs of the Student Affairs Diversity and Inclusion Committee, say the committee is dedicated to celebrating diversity and facilitating conversations on race and inclusion. The committee has representation from the Department of Cultural and Global Engagement, Residential Life, Counseling Services, Student Government Association Religious Life and Community Service.
The Diversity and Inclusion Committee started hosting screenings of episodes from the Netflix series “Dear White People,” followed by a discussion.
Dates Student Affairs is screening episodes of “Dear White People”
“It fueled a very thorough discussion of everything, from what it means to be white to what it means to be a person of color on a white campus,” Buda said.
The committee plans to show more episodes of the series during the semester in hopes of facilitating more conversations.
“We want to be able to help people understand and know how to talk about issues of inclusion and diversity, whether that’s religious or racial or ethnic,” Director of Residential Life Mark DeVilbiss said. “I’m proud to be part of the efforts that are happening campus-wide whether it’s in the classroom or something DCGE is doing, or any group on campus.”
Dr. Thompson also announced plans for establishing a new curriculum with more diversity-related courses. Two intercultural responsibility and citizenship courses will be mandatory for future students.
Opening ceremony of the multicultural suite in the Carl Hansen Student Center
Last semester, the Multicultural Suite – a space for culture and identity based organizations – opened in the Carl Hansen Student Center.
Quinnipiac is also hosting a one-day conference on social justice and civic engagement titled “Creating Space: Solidarity, Dialogue, Social Justice, Opportunity.” Director of Community Service Vincent Contrucci says the purpose of the conference is to provide students from across New England with a space for dialogue surrounding social justice related issues.
Additionally, 21 percent of the current freshman class identify as students of color, which makes the first-year class the most diverse in Quinnipiac history.
What still needs to be done
Last semester, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and the Department of Cultural and Global Engagement engaged MRW Consulting Group International LLC to help with an assessment of Quinnipiac’s campus climate and help the university identify ways to improve the attitudes, standards and behaviors of the university community.
A representative from MRW Consulting Group discusses findings from the campus climate study during a university town hall.
MRW held focus groups with 134 students over the course of the Spring 2017 semester. The firm interviewed 15 affinity groups including the Quinnipiac NAACP, Latino Cultural Society, Gender Sexuality Alliance and Greek Life. The consulting firm compiled a 51-page report and found areas where Quinnipiac can improve its campus climate, as well as suggestions on how to do so.
Thompson organized a town hall-style event in the Mount Carmel Auditorium on Oct. 3 during which MRW Consulting Group shared the findings from the campus climate study, suggested courses of action and answered questions from the audience.
The report acknowledged the progress the university has been making, but also pointed out areas where there could be more improvement.
The study found that many students felt that more could be done to recruit higher numbers of faculty, staff and students of color. The study also found that it would be helpful to train faculty members to be more comfortable having difficult conversations they may need to have with students.
Many minorities in the focus groups described how uncomfortable they are when asked to represent an entire group in classes. The study also found that Quinnipiac can improve the campus climate by increasing the number of minority Greek organizations on campus.
The firm also suggested that Quinnipiac should “leverage campus commitment by getting everyone involved in solutions.” Many students from the focus groups also emphasized the need to integrate diversity, inclusion and multiculturalism into the core curriculum.
Quinnipiac administrators recognize lots of work needs to be done and they plan to continue to facilitating conversations on diversity and race in an effort to make Quinnipiac more inclusive.
But some students think more can be done to address race relations on campus and make minorities feel more comfortable at Quinnipiac.
“In my honest opinion, I do see that they’re trying, but not trying hard enough,” said Genfi, the QU NAACP president. “I feel like if they were trying hard enough, certain things wouldn’t have happened.”
She believes the university is taking the right steps, but that Quinnipiac should be more proactive. Genfi also thinks that students at Quinnipiac are becoming more comfortable discussing race than they were four years ago.
“People are more open to being educated and stepping out of that Quinnipiac bubble, whereas four years ago that would have never had happened,” Genfi added.
