Month: November 2017

A look into sophomore class president Chris Montalvo’s remarks and reactions from students

By Ariana Spinogatti 

The Student Government Association and the Multicultural Student Leadership Council invited members of the community to come speak at its event, “Your Voice, Our Quinnipiac.” The event was hosted in the Carl Hansen Student Center Piazza. The event was scheduled for Monday Oct. 23 to promote the “My Culture is not a Costume” campaign before the start of Halloween weekend. At this open-mic event, students spoke about their personal experiences with diversity, racism and sexism.

Sophomore Class President Chris Montalvo took the stage that evening and said he was going to share his life story. However, Montalvo made remarks that he disagreed with the previous speakers and made statements that left viewers in shock. The overall theme of this speech was that he ignores racially biased individuals and believes students should be educated about various topics before speaking.

Joseph DeRosa, a senior who attended the event, said that after Montalvo spoke he generated a lot of resentment from the crowd. 

“I think he made any student who may feel discriminated even more fearful,” DeRosa said. “We already go to a school that severley lacks in diversity. It doesn’t bolster anyone’s confidence in being who they are if the Class President expresses borderline discriminatory views.”

DeRosa said that Montalvo left shorty after he made his comments with a look of disappointment.

“I personally feel that his role assumes much more responsibility than normal, and he should have known better than to spark controversy,” he said. “He also should have stayed to hear the remaining stories the students shared. In my honest opinion, leaving early after saying what he said is quite cowardly.”

Senior Class Representative Ian Zeitlin drafted a petition to impeach Montalvo from The Student Government Association after expressing himself that evening.

On Oct. 25, SGA held its weekly general board meeting where students and other members of the executive committee could participate in an open forum to express their concerns. Students and faculty spoke both for and against Montalvo, but no conclusion was made on whether or not he would be impeached.

10 signatures are needed from current members on the executive board in order make the petition for an impeachment. An impeachment does not always mean an immediate removal from office. There will be a further investigation of Montalvo’s actions to determine a proper evaluation and punishment.  

Junior Class President Jack Onofrio said that aside from an impeachment, SGA should censure Montalvo. This would show that student government is disapproving of his comments.

Camilo Lemos, a senior who attended the general board meeting, spoke out against Montalvo.

“I think it has brought up the issue that many students here at Quinnipiac are vastly uneducated in racial sensitivity and sociological education, and can feel free to make offensive comments simply because of their right to, rather than taking time to word things that creates discussion, while remaining inoffensive,” Lemos said.

In wake of the event, Montalvo gave out his personal phone number and email address and offered to speak one-on-one with anyone who was offended or wanted to have a deeper conversation.

Lemos said how he felt Montalvo handled the situation once he saw the impact his speech had on the student body.

“I’d like to preface this by saying I don’t know Chris Montalvo personally, so my comments are based upon what I saw and felt through the days after the speech,” he said. “I know that after I brought up to the SGA that his comments were offensive and that I believed that he should be removed from office, I was contacted by Chris Montalvo on my personal cellular phone asking if I would rather talk to him and instead work it out between him and I personally.”

Lemos said that he rejected Montalvo’s request and saw it as a way for Montalvo to avoid a public issue.

“I saw his wanting to meet with me privately as wholly based upon his reputation and position, rather than wanting to resolve the actual issue,” he said. “His comments on Wednesday during the SGA meeting, that he was sorry about the way people felt about his comments, indicate to me that he is not sorry about what he said, but rather that people wanted to remove his power because he said it. Most of what he said, that he was not a racist or a bigot and that he felt offended by my accusations of such.”

On Wednesday Nov. 15 SGA will have its weekly general board meeting where they will discuss the fate of Montalvo’s position in student government.

Montalvo spoke to us days after he gave out his personal contact information to see how he felt students have reacted to his jester and how he has changed since this event occurred.

What were your initial intentions before getting up on stage at the event?

“My initial intentions of speaking were to offer my story, and to try and show that it is unfair to rank one’s individual experiences because at the end of the day you don’t really know how that person felt.”

What do you think it was that you said in your speech that got students to react so strongly?

“I’m not quite sure exactly what it was that triggered certain students, but I do know that my words were unprepared, and often times when I go on tangents my word choice is boggled. I made the mistake of not preparing what I was going to say, and the affect that that made is evident.”

How have the responses been with members of the Quinnipiac community since giving out your contact information? 

“Unfortunately, nobody has reached out to speak with me. That however, is my fault; I shouldn’t have expected them to do that. What I should’ve said is I will be reaching out to those I offended and see if they are open to a discussion. I am currently working with a member of SGA to try and set those meetings up.”

How do you feel you have changed or evolved since this event occurred? 

“I now truly see the need to be prepared when speaking in a sensitive environment. Not being the best public speaker, this is something I need to work on, and will do in the future to avoid this from happening again.”

How did you react to the “impeachment” and “censoring” comments from SGA?

“While I believe there are no grounds to impeach me, I trust the process that is put in place to give our students a voice. I agree with the censure, as my words are my own and should not reflect the Student Government Association if they truly disagree with them.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Angela Varney

Amanda Herbert enlisted in the United States military three days after her 19th birthday. During the four years of her service, she was offered an experience completely different than a job, or college classes, ever could.
 
“I always look for challenges,” she said, smiling,“I always thought I would regret not doing it far more than I would ever regret doing it.”
 
Herbert is a 24-year-old legal studies major at Quinnipiac from Wallingford, Connecticut, where she juggles a 21-credit class schedule, a part-time job and being the vice president of the Student Veteran Organization on campus. She spends her summers working with elementary school children at a local camp.
 
“I like working with kids because there are a lot of problems really fast,” she said, laughing, “It keeps me on my toes.”

Just a few years ago, working with F-15E Strike Eagles for the United States Air Force in England kept Herbert on her toes. She served two out of her four years at RAF Lakenheath base near Cambridge in Intelligence Operations where she was specifically selected to work with air-to-air and air-to-ground combat. Within the two-year time period, Herbert was also deployed to the Middle East for six months — spending one in Israel — where she continued her work with Intelligence Operations.
 
Referring to herself and others working in Intelligence Operations as “jacks of all trades, masters of none,” Herbert and her unit at RAF Lakenheath spent half of her second year in the service working in anti-terrorism operations. She said that they would typically be given an assignment and have to find all of the information necessary to “negate or destroy the problem.”
 
“At the end of the deployment, they had a six-month certificate of ‘most valued players,’ and I was one of the only enlisted people to get it,” she said humbly, “It sounds like just a little piece of paper you’d get when you’re little, but it meant so much. You don’t always get a lot of credit, especially in Intel Operations, but I liked not getting credit until the end because … I guess all of my dedication payed off!”
 
Above all else, Herbert said that her service taught her the most about herself.
 
“I learned a lot about myself and my strengths and weaknesses,” she said, “The hardest part was working with people that misunderstood certain things about myself or the work I was doing, but it only pushed me to understand that there are different ways to do one thing. Now I’m always looking at things with a billion different perspectives.”
 
While Herbert noted that the military might not be the right option for everyone, she insists that true happiness lies within — and may look different for everyone. According to Herbert, having a lot on your plate doesn’t always account for happiness.
 
“Success is based on yourself, not external forces. We always mistake happiness for success and success for happiness,” she said, “I’m doing what I’m doing because that’s what makes me happy, but I couldn’t give that advice to somebody else who isn’t made happy by that.”
 
When asked to describe her experience in the service, Herbert smiled wide and laughed.
 
“There’s a joke a lot of us say: If someone were to ask if we wanted to re-enlist today versus tomorrow, you’d have two totally different answers,” she said, “I would not be the person, student, every aspect of who I am, I would not be who I am today without it. But, it’s not everything I am.”

 

 

By Angela Varney

Shamar Farmer had been through 26 foster homes, four group homes and two homeless shelters before serving four years in the Marine Corps. He is now 27 years old and a senior political science major at Quinnipiac University, still celebrating his adoption three years ago with his family.
 
“I’ve known my family since I was eleven,” Farmer said. “I was supposed to be adopted by them, actually, but it didn’t happen until I was 24. Being in all of those homes and stuff left gaps in my education, so the learning curve was different for me.”
 
Due to the time spent cycling in and out of foster homes throughout high school, Farmer fell behind in his classes, leaving his teachers to believe he may not be able to graduate on time with the rest of his class. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. Farmer volunteered to take community college classes to make up for what he had missed and, despite his teachers’ doubts, he succeeded.
 
“I ended up doing it, which, kind of blew me away that I actually did it,” Farmer said, smiling. He continued to attend community college classes upon graduation but soon realized it wasn’t for him.
 
“I was in class one day and said, ‘I’m not going to be here,’ so I left. Walking down the street, I saw this guy in a tan uniform,” Farmer said, “We started talking and, next thing I know, I’m signed up for boot camp. That fast.”
 
After completing boot camp, Farmer spent a few years traveling within the United States before being deployed to Japan where he would spend a year and a half immersed in their culture. He was there in 2011 when the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the country.
 
“It scared the shit out of me,” Farmer said, shaking his head. “When it first happened, I was coming off of Mt. Fuji after warfare training. I went to the grocery store and thought that the elevation change was why I was about ready to faint and pass out because I was just shaking.”
 
He realized the elevation change was not to blame, once he began to notice the look on everyone else’s faces: terror.
 
“We all ran outside and the next thing I know, I see cars shifting parking spaces,” Farmer said. “I was like, ‘Woah, that’s crazy! It’s like the world is going to open up and swallow us whole.’” 

Within a week, Farmer and his fellow service members drove 22 hours across mainland Japan to go to Sendai Airport to go help clean up the rubble so the U.S. could fly in supplies.
 
During his service, Farmer was one of the youngest lance corporals in the Marine Corps’ history to be awarded his black belt red tab in the Marine Martial Arts Program after training while being a chaplain bodyguard in Japan. This, Farmer said, is the fondest memory of his service. The hardest? Losing brothers and sisters that he served with.
 
“When you try and tell a story about someone that you have lost … it’s very realistic,” Farmer said, “It brings you back to reality when you’re thinking about the great times you’ve had with that person before realizing, ‘Oh wait. They’re not here anymore.’ But, you’re here, and you’re going to do the best you can to live up to their memory.”
 
Farmer said he has learned a lot throughout his lifetime, but the biggest lesson he learned was about the importance of humility.
 
“Be humble,” he suggested.
 
Farmer acted on his own advice after being thanked for meeting for the interview.
 
“Most veterans I’ve had the conversation with don’t really know what to say when people say thank you,” Farmer said,“It’s not like we expect it, so we say thank you because it’s all about (all of) us.”