April 2018 – Page 2

Quinnipiac students feel the job pressure with graduation looming

By Victoria Rutigliano

Ryan Devaney

Victoria Saha

Liam Kenney

Nik Griswold

Mike Bonavita

Janine Jay

James Studley

Click each picture to learn more about the graduates.

Purchasing a small home in Wallingford, buying a brand new luxury Audi and the tuition for a private school in Connecticut. What do these all have in common? They cost upwards of $70,000.

This year Trinity College in Hartford raised its tuition and fees to this hefty price tag and it’s not the only school that is increasing tuition.

Quinnipiac Commencement 2017, Credit: Quinnipiac University

For the 2017-18 school year, the price for both tuition and room and board at Quinnipiac University was $63,770 with tuition growing by 6.5 percent from the school year before, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. While 95 percent of students receive aid and 93 percent attain scholarships, this still means most students will be in debt of more than six figures upon graduation, according to NCES.

With the price tag of a degree so high, some students say they feel pressure to major in a field where they’ll make enough money to pay back their loans and may decide to choose a job outside their path to make enough to support themselves.

But many students say they are aware of the costs and still only put some thought into their future salaries when choosing their major, according to a survey of 59 Quinnipiac students.

Screen Shot 2018-04-06 at 11.55.09 AM.png

In 2017, 43 students graduated from Quinnipiac with a journalism degree.

The average salary for a news reporter in the market size of 151 and higher, which are the stations with the least number of viewers per area, is $26,000 according to the Radio Television Digital News Association. Usually, entry-level reporters must start in a small market in order to build their reputations and improve their on-air presence.

Victoria Saha, who graduated in 2017, is one of these people.

As a multimedia news reporter for WAOW in Wausau, Wisconsin, Saha is an hourly employee making $12 an hour. If she signs a two-year contract after her three month “trial” when she and the station decide if she should continue, she will be making $24,000 a year.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, any salary below $24,120 can qualify for food stamps.

“It’s kind of sad, no?” Saha asked. “That doesn’t really cut it, you know, with taxes and everything. I mean the cost of living here is cheap, but sometimes I feel like it’s not enough.”

Saha applied to more than 300 jobs and was without work from the time she graduated in May until she was hired seven months later.

While this salary isn’t one any student would hope to start out with, Lila Carney, the director of advising and student development for the Quinnipiac School of Communications, said this is something students in this field usually know going in.

“I think students in journalism are aware of the fact that those first jobs in no-mans-land may not pay all that great,” Carney said. “But if you do a little bit of sacrificing eventually you make it to a market where you are making OK money. So that little time that you’re sacrificing is generally a short period of time.”

From the time you are a child, you’re asked who you want to be when you grow up. You’re told to “reach for the stars” and “follow your dreams.” When you apply for college you’re told to find what you love.

But you’re never told that doing what you love could mean a salary where you could qualify for food stamps.

From one end of the communications department to another, Mike Bonavita is feeling the same struggle.

Bonavita, a senior film major, said if you want to make it in film, you know you’ll probably be starting as an assistant or in the mail room.

“It’s basically where you want to be and there’s a lot of success stories that come out of the mail room,” Bonavita said. “In film as a (production assistant) you’re not making much. The film industry is tricky that if you’re really dedicated and you really want to do it you’re going to be working the crappy hours and the crappy days.”

But the job front isn’t just an issue for communications majors.

When you think of someone starting out in acting, “struggling” is probably a word that comes to mind. It’s no secret it’s tough to break into this job.

Ryan Devaney, a senior theater arts major, knows this too.

In his first year out of college he hopes to buy a computer, purchase editing software and get a microphone to start a YouTube channel to play songs.

This stepping stone for him is just one step toward his dream of opening his own theater.

“None of that can happen unless I have a stable income,” Devaney said. “I won’t be able to create my art unless I have a job. It will happen on my off time that I deal with creating art.”

But finding that job is also something he has found issue with.

“Right now I don’t have anything set currently in my mind,” Devaney said. He also knows he has a little more leeway than other people in his major to find a job since his father is a public safety officer at the university and thus he went to school tuition free.

According to NBC News, three in every four millenials, or people born between 1981 and 1996, are in some type of debt, whether this debt be through student loans or credit card debt.

Kevin Daly, an assistant professor of theater at Quinnipiac, knows that the school comes with a hefty price tag which could keep theater majors from wanting to come to an expensive school like Quinnipiac. For this reason, he said the department will be starting a theater three-plus-one program this fall so students can follow their passion in obtaining a theater degree while also graduating with a masters in business.

But working the smaller jobs is no surprise to a theater major, and with just 16 people in the department, each student is taught that in this major, you must follow three points to succeed, according to Daly. Constantly working on your art, networking with people in your chosen industry and using “survivability skills” – like finding a job outside of film to have a stable income – Daly said are imperative to finding a job as an artist.

For this reason, Daly advises his student to double major in other specialties like communications, film or even math to help them find jobs that will pay while also working on their art and networking.

College Major Salaries
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It’s not just a matter of landing a job that pays a livable wage, it may also be a matter of finding a job at all in tight markets.

Liam Kenney, a senior biomedical marketing major, is as worried as Devaney.

“It’s been quite the struggle at this point,” Kenney said. “A lot of the pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, they want experience. It’s difficult to find that experience because we’re entry level people.”

Kenney said once he does nail down a job, starting salaries in his business aren’t what he hoped they would be.

“It’s hard because when you start off in marketing and sales you start off with very low pay,” Kenney said after applying for one job at $45,000. “You don’t make commission in your first year and after your first year they cut you salary by $10,000 because you can start making commission.”

Both Bonavita and Kenney expressed their struggles with finding a job that paid the bills while also making enough to pay off Quinnipiac’s large tuition and student loans.

When students come into school, they often aren’t thinking about finding a job when they graduate because it’s so far down the line. For some majors like with Devaney, Kenney and Saha, a job is tough to find, but with others a job is everything but guaranteed when they graduate.

All majors pay the same tuition, but some have better starting opportunities than others.

In a Quinnipiac survey about majors and salaries, the majority of respondents said they felt very confident they’d attain a job after graduation with only two respondents saying they felt very uncertain about getting a job.

Screen Shot 2018-04-06 at 11.52.32 AM.png — The poll went from one being very likely to five being very unlikely.

The Quinnipiac School of Communications and Engineering might hold classes for both majors, but once the classroom doors close and the jobs start, the majors couldn’t be more different.

Nik Griswold, a mechanical engineering major, chose to major in engineering when he arrived on campus rather than his initial choice of business because there are more opportunities.

“I wanted to get a job so I picked engineering,” Griswold said. “Demand is high, where the world is going to is very (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) based. Everybody wants to be technical.”

Janine Jay, a computer software engineering major already has a job after graduation with Liberty Mutual Insurance in Boston after meeting with a representative at the Grace Hopper Celebration this year in Orlando, Florida.

She chose between three job offers. Jay said while engineering does have monetary benefits and she knew a starting salary was around $50,000 and moves up fast, she went in to engineering because for her, it was just fun.

“While everyone else was taking exams, I was building a video game,” Jay said.

Like Jay, James Studley, a computer information systems major, accepted his first job before his senior year began, accepting an offer to work as a systems engineer for Fidelity Investments in Rhode Island.

According to Studley and Payscale.com, the average salary for a CIS major coming out of Quinnipiac is about $65,000 with a $5,000 signing bonus. Studley will be starting out making $68,500 with a $5,000 signing bonus and will have $2,000 worth of his student loans paid for by Fidelity every year for five years.

“I feel like it made this year, it like took so much stress off,” Studley said. “I would be a lot more stressed right now if I was looking for a job especially with student loans starting up.”

Quinnipiac in Los Angeles program is a professional gold rush for students

By Sam Prevot

More and more Quinnipiac students are turning down the opportunity to travel across the ocean for study abroad. Instead, they are choosing to travel across the country to Los Angeles, California for the Quinnipiac in Los Angeles program.

The QU in LA program launched in 2014. The goal of the program was to send communications students, especially film students, to LA for a semester or summer to do an internship and take classes.

Since the program’s launch, enrollment has increased by 150 percent. 26 students will participate in the program this summer, and about the same will go for the Fall 2018 semester.

The program website boasts many well-known companies where students completed their internships. Some of those companies include ABC News, Disney, Marvel Studios, Miramax, Universal Music Group and Warner Bros.

Senior film major Remy Sullivan spent the Spring 2017 semester in Los Angeles as an intern for a company called More Media. She says the program is important for communications majors to get a taste of what it is like to be in the film or television industry and that influenced her decision to go there.

“LA is one of the top places to be right now I’m the film and television industry,” she said. “Plus I love the city and wanted to get a feel of what it would be like to live there long term.”

Mark Contreras, the new dean of the School of Communications, agrees that going to LA will benefit students in their professional lives.

“The environment (in LA) is just filled with people who do this for a living,” he said. “To me if you’re going to get out of school with a complete understanding of both coasts, it’s a really important part of your life … Our QU in LA program puts a student right in the middle of this maelstrom.”

Contreras credits program director Jameson Cherilus for much of the program’s success. Cherilus is a Quinnipiac alumnus and is the only QU in LA faculty member that is physically in Los Angeles with the students.

Cherilus comes to Quinnipiac twice a year to provide information sessions for students and spends much of his time finding companies that will work with the university to expand internship opportunities for students in Los Angeles. He does all of this without a physical office in California or Connecticut.

“He lives in West Hollywood and his office is his cell phone. He’s very hard working.” Contreras said.

Contreras says expansion of the program is due to a combination of word of mouth from previous participants in the program and the university’s efforts to improve the program and make students more aware of the opportunity.

“I do think there is a buzz occurring largely because of Jameson’s leadership that it’s a really good experience and he’s making it that way,” he said.

There are three students majoring outside of the School of Communications that are going to Los Angeles in the summer. Contreras says this is also a growing trend with the program.

“I think as the buzz continues, more and more students will want to be out there,” he said. “One of the things I want to add as dean is you’ll be prepared but you’ll also have choice and optionality for where you go to work. To me, that’s important.”

Sullivan’s advice to other students that may want to do the program is simple: just go for it.

“Clear the fence and run,” she said. “You will not regret the experience as a whole if you want to be a part of the industry in the future.”

When it comes to future plans for QU in LA, there housing options have already been improved and Contreras is working to get more faculty members out to Los Angeles. But will there ever be a Quinnipiac campus in Los Angeles?

“No, not yet,” he said. “A person can dream … it would take a lot of planning and a lot of fundraising for us to be able to afford a permanent place.”

Hamden recognized as the most underrated city in Connecticut

By Rob McGreevy

Thrillist.com recently published a list of every state’s most underrated city. The list ranges from cities mostly everyone would recognize – like Sacramento, California and Tulsa, Oklahoma – to more obscure cities such as Alliance, Nebraska and Sisters, Oregon.

While there are plenty of cities outside of the sphere of common knowledge, one city on the list should stand out to Quinnipiac students. Connecticut’s most underrated city, according to Thrillist, is Hamden.

The travel blog pegged Hamden as an underdog primarily because of its juxtaposition to New Haven and Yale.

“Hamden is one town away from New Haven, and somehow worlds different,” the writer notes.

According to the author, New Haven’s influence on Hamden can be seen in the brick oven pizza, the classic New England architecture, and even the similarly collegiate atmosphere. The writer goes on to differentiate the towns by bringing attention to Hamden’s “rural charm.” This rural charm includes the nature, the various trails, and of course, Sleeping Giant State Park. However, the writers at Thrillist aren’t the only ones to notice the natural aura of the town.

Quinnipiac graduate student (and one-time Massachusetts resident) Shannon Ryder loves Hamden.

“I’m never, ever leaving so I’m a little biased,” Ryder admitted.

Ryder expanded upon Thrillist’s decision and cited many of the same reasons of the same reasons that they did.

“I think there are plenty of other bigger, better cities in Connecticut but I feel like Hamden is homier than those places. It has the Sleeping Giant and the bike trail which makes it stand out from other cities,” Ryder said.

Not everybody agrees with Thrillist’s assessment, however.

“Honestly, I have to disagree with that. I’ve always said that Hamden is one of the worst places I have ever lived,” Quinnipiac senior and New York native Luke Brenner said. “The traffic between 2-6 p.m. makes it impossible to get anywhere without wanting to pull my hair out. In addition, absolutely nothing is open late besides fast food and rent is absurdly overpriced.”

The scathing review however, did not come without at least a few compliments.

“The only nice thing I can say about Hamden is the locals and staff of the restaurants and bars happen to be pretty nice people,” Brennan said.

Even the most passionately disgruntled Hamden resident can find a bright spot in Connecticut’s new underdog city, it turns out.

From acai bowls to baked potatoes: how food trucks came to campus

By Grace Manthey

As a freshman in Quinnipiac University’s Student Government Association, Camilla Abreu noticed one of the biggest complaints from students was the food on campus.

Then a professor told her about a food truck festival he went to every year and Abreu formed an idea: Get food trucks on campus.

But it wasn’t easy at first.

“It was a lot harder than you think because they need a permit to get on campus and they need to sign all these documents and they need to go through so many people on campus to make sure that they have all the right documents and stuff like that,” Abreu said.

And it wasn’t just the paperwork that was a pain. Abreu said sometimes if the weather wasn’t nice the trucks wouldn’t show up.

“It’s not just like, a thing you can just drop by and do, because at some schools it is like that … But here, like it’s more regulated with public safety and everything,” she said.

Once the food truck owner knew the effort Abreu and her fellow students were putting in to get the food trucks on campus, they became a lot more reliable.

“(The food truck owners) realized that we went out of our way to let people know that they’re coming on campus and that they’re here for the students, and students are expecting them at a certain time. They realized that it was like a bigger, more serious thing,” Abreu said.

Senior Mikaela Canning and junior Tyler Culp were in charge of booking the food trucks for the Wake The Giant concert. They said sometimes getting in contact with the owners is hard, but if they don’t hear from them after a time, they look for another truck.

And luckily for students, at some events they don’t even have to pay the trucks for the food. It’s called a “buyout.” SPB gives the food truck owners an estimate of how many people will be at the event, then the food truck owners tell SPB members how much to pay.

According to Culp, for Wake The Giant, “we bought out 150 (potatoes from the Spuds truck) for this previous concert and were given a set amount that we had pay for it.” Once the truck ran out of the 150 potatoes, they stopped selling.

And while the logistics can be kind of complicated, Canning said one of her favorite food trucks is, in fact, the Spuds truck.

“He’s always so happy to work for us if he’s available and if he’s busy he’ll do his best to fit us in, he’s also very personable. He also works with his dad who is also just as great,” Canning said.

Even though Abreu she’s not in SGA anymore, as a senior she sees the growth of her hard work.

“It was such a struggle, like calling 50 food truck places and only having like, three actually wanting to come on campus. It’s really cool that now it’s a thing that happens all the time.”

Emotional support animals benefit Bobcats

By Tatyana Youssef

As mental health awareness expands in concurrence with millions of college students newly diagnosed each year, coping methods are reaching new heights.

Furry friends are welcome on campus-owned housing for student support. Known as emotional support animals, students and administration seem to be encouraging this experience for countless benefits of the everyday routine.

Quinnipiac senior Ally Foltiny runs around her yard behind Whitney Village with her puppy inspired by the adventurous character, Huck. The energetic golden retriever and Australian cattle dog mix is known for having a goofy, happy personality. Foltiny recalls the loss of her family dog led to the realization that, “an emotional support animal was the best way to decrease [her] anxiety at school.”

“I cannot talk enough about the benefits of having a support animal with me at school,” Foltiny said.

She first heard about this opportunity through on campus resources when she turned to them for guidance through a rough time. Her routine remains consistent, now taking on a new responsibility of raising a puppy.

“My dog, Huck, forces me to get up early every day, go on walks, and makes so much happier,” she said. “I have also become more social. We go to the dog park and interact with other dogs and owners.” Huck is her motivator to maintain an active, social lifestyle, simultaneously taking care of her and her puppy.

She admitted the first few months were hard, requiring a lot of maintenance when raising Huck. “I had to housebreak him, train him not to nip, bark, etc. It is a lot of work, if you are looking for a young animal, you have to dedicate a lot of time.”

The dedication seems worth it as the young pup continues to grow with Ally, keeping busy with completing her entrepreneurship degree.

Kerry Patton, the director of health and wellness at Quinnipiac, emphasizes the need for more improvement regarding mental health resources for students. Due to the severity, urgency, and commonality of mental health today, the field seems to be lacking in the quantity of resources.

According to Patton, the health center currently has 5.5 counselors, one part-time counselor who started in November, and a part-time psychiatrist. However, she adds that the International Association Counseling Standards recommends one full-time equivalent professional staff member to every 1,000 to 1,500 students. Patton revealed that the school needs one more full time counselor to meet this recommendation.

“This ratio is aspirational by nature, encouraging counseling centers to approximate the range in order to ensure an adequate number of staff members to meet the clinical needs of students,” Patton said.

In the meantime, opportunities like approval of emotional support animals aids in the process of fighting mental health disorders while the campus is in the process of meeting national demands.

Director of Residential Life Mark DeVilbiss explained the process of approval and protocol before officially enjoying the animals on campus. First, the student provides documentation that is reviewed by Matthew Cooper, Director of Student Accessibility. After the student meets with him, the emotional support animal may or may not be approved.

The next step runs through residential life, as Associate Director of Residential Life Melissa Karipidis meets with the student to go over guidelines and expectations of the Emotional Support Animal (ESA). This includes “providing documentation that the animal is healthy, has been vaccinated, and is licensed,” DeVilbiss said. After these two meetings are complete and approved, the animal may be allowed on campus.

Velvet Chestnut, a senior public relations major, lives at the Flats in North Haven, an apartment complex under Quinnipiac housing. She lives in a studio apartment with her puppy Kairo, a small white maltese yorkie mix. “Having my ESA has helped me get through hard academic periods, such as midterms and finals. It’s been great having him with me senior year,” she said.

She recalls seeing ESA ads on the internet before looking into Quinnipiac’s policy. “I wanted to know more about Quinnipiac’s exact process so I asked one of my friends who is an RA (Residential Assistant),” she said. “They were able to put me in contact with the person who oversees the process, Matt Cooper.”

Matt Cooper approves the qualification for having an animal on campus before the student meets with residential life. “Students have reported that they are calmer, more social, and feel a sense of responsibility for their ESA,” Cooper said.

This semester alone has brought in more than 20 new animals on campus. Cooper said,“since February 16, the office of student accessibility has approved 26 emotional support animals.” Although most get approved, some students do a trial run with their pups on campus to see if it will be a “great fit,” according to Cooper.

DeVilbiss agreed with the benefits of having an emotional support animal, especially in the college atmosphere where stress is heightened and evident.

“I think ESAs are a tremendous benefit to students who need them,” he said. “They can help students manage anxiety, depression, and other conditions. ESAs are wonderful if they can help a student who is otherwise struggling have a successful experience at QU.”

Junior psychology major Emma Alaimo recalls a dark time where she knew she needed help, but did not realize a support animal was the answer.

“A few years back I had a traumatic experience in which led me to have many panic attacks and high anxiety,” she said. Often finding herself in bed, keeping to herself and lacking the motivation for a social life, Emma began seeking counseling. The counseling helped, but she needed more.

She remembered hearing about the opportunity by seeing a campus pup the semester beforehand. After getting her mini australian shepherd Koda approved, she said she kept her smiling and gave her motivation. “Not only did she put me into a routine and made me more responsible, she made me more active and want to be outside more.”

Emma recommends taking advantage of this opportunity and following the regulations respectfully when it comes to training and keeping up with the maintenance of the animal. Through her experience, she said, “last semester was the best semester I had at Quinnipiac grade-wise and it was honestly all because of her.”

Cooper encourages more students to look into the opportunity of having an emotional support animal.

“They feel that they have better control of their daily life because their animals rely on the human to take care of them,” Cooper said.

The sense of responsibility seems to be the staple element that pushes the opportunity for emotional support animals on campus. Student experiences show a recurring theme of responsibility over the animal leading to motivation, eventually leading to a routinely lifestyle with structure.

Professional women’s sports teams in Connecticut prove the future is bright

The Connecticut Whale celebrating a goal (credit: Michael Hertzel)

By Sam Prevot

Cydney Roesler first stepped on the ice when she was 5 years old.

Her father was a former college hockey player for Colgate University and taught her how to skate along with her mother. This is normal for a kid growing up in Canada, where ice sports are a way of life. At 8 years old, she made the switch from a Canadian sport called ringette to hockey. She immediately fell in love with the game. Even at a young age, Roesler was competitive and this fast, physical game was a perfect match. However, there was one catch: Roesler had to play with boys.

“There weren’t any good, competitive girls’ leagues at that time so I felt like boys hockey was my only option,” Roesler said. “People would always ask me, ‘Did the boys try to hit you all the time?’ and to be honest some of them did.”

For Roesler and so many other girls, the opportunity to watch their role models only came once every four years.

“For me it was tough growing up because I wasn’t really exposed to female hockey players … it was really just every four years,” she said. “You watched the Olympics and that was kind of it.”

Roesler on the ice for the Connecticut Whale of the NWHL (credit: Rob Rasmussen)

Roesler started playing girls hockey in high school and then played for the Quinnipiac University women’s ice hockey team.

Since the passing of Title IX, opportunities for women in sports have increased dramatically. However, there is still a long way to go when it comes to professional women’s sports. In professional women’s sports leagues are much smaller, teams struggle to put fans in seats and media coverage is lacking.

Women’s hockey has progressed since Roesler’s childhood. The Canadian Women’s Hockey League was founded in 2007 and the National Women’s Hockey League was founded in 2015, during Roesler’s junior year at Quinnipiac. She now plays for the NWHL’s Connecticut Whale.

The NWHL is just three seasons old. The league’s only broadcasting deal is with Twitter, to stream a “Game of the Week”, and three out of the four teams are still league-owned.

Attendance was high in the inaugural season, with an average of 1,000 people attending each game. Now, that average is closer to 750 people. Salaries are also an issue for the league, some players have been downgraded from a set salary to now receiving payments for each game they play. Most players have other full time jobs in addition to playing NWHL games on the weekends.

The Women’s National Basketball Association is a more established league, but it faces similar questions about attendance and salaries.

The WNBA celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017. The league has a television deal with ESPN and a few of its teams have partnerships with their NBA counterparts. Average attendance continued to decline, but resurged and reached its highest levels since 2011 last season.

Sylvia Fowles of the Minnesota Lynx won the WNBA regular season and finals MVP in 2017, and was paid a salary of $109,000. The NBA minimum salary is more than $562,000.

Amber Cox, vice president of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, sees the league as a growing business that needs more commitment from fans.

“There’s a patience involved when it comes to building a fan base. In this day and age you can survive and be a growing sport,” Cox said.

“I think sometimes the miss is with fans, they’re sort of casual about it. When I’m talking to potential season ticket holders, you think you’re supporting us by coming to three games and watching us on TV and reading about us in the paper, but the way that we are going to continue to have financial success and grow this thing … is by full season tickets … Take that commitment up. If you say that to people, typically the light will go on.”

There is a disconnect in our society when it comes to men’s and women’s sports. The widely held belief is that a men’s professional sport will be of higher quality and entertainment value than women’s.

Quinnipiac sociology professor Devon Gross who teaches “Sociology of Sport” says that looking at women’s and men’s sports differently is a learned behavior based on gender constructs and the way we socialize.

“We’ve always associated masculinity and sports together,” she said. “We think of sports as aggressive and violent and competitive and those are all things we associate with men more than women. We’ve been socialized and told constantly that sports and men go together. So when women are playing sports we don’t really know how to react to that.”

There is a cultural belief that women are not as good at sports as men, and to watch women’s sports is to “settle.” There is also the comparison of women to men and the idea that female athletes are less feminine because they play sports.

“Anyone who is associated with that we automatically think of as having masculine traits. That’s where there’s the stereotype that women athletes are lesbians or that they’re more masculine,” Gross said. “There seems to be a pretty strict binary in sports and you’re either doing girls sports or boys sports and if you cross the line in any way we’re pretty uncomfortable about it.”

There is also the issue of sexualization of female athletes. Scholars say that the way male and female athletes are represented in the media is designed to “uphold sport as a male preserve” and there is still embedded sexism.

Cydney Roesler believes games like the gold medal finals between the United States and Canada’s women’s hockey teams in the Winter Olympics prove that the sport can be exciting and draw audiences.

“There shouldn’t be that disconnect between the two (men’s and women’s hockey),” she said. “Even games in our league, it gets pretty fired up. It gets physical and everything like that. It’s kind of like ‘Hey, here are the aspects the men’s game has that we’re bringing to ours too,’ why aren’t people more drawn to it? A lot of people watch hockey because they think it’s so tough with the fighting and the hits. We’re not going to fight … but we’re still physical, we’re fast, we’re skilled.”

The University of Minnesota is home to the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport. In an article titled Playing but Losing: Women’s Sports after Title IX, Tucker Center researchers discuss the inequalities between men’s and women’s sports that still exist today after laws like Title IX were passed.

One particular issue mentioned is media coverage of women’s sports. Although broadcast coverage of women’s sports has increased and improved in quality, this change has not translated to newspapers, magazines or televised news and highlight shows.

The article cites a 2010 study by the University of Southern California that found that ESPN aired 100 segments and over three hours for the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, and 11 segments and just six and a half minutes for the women’s tournament. That coverage of the women’s tournament was mostly a scrolling ticker at the bottom of the screen.

The Hartford Courant covers the Connecticut Sun’s home games, and some away games depending on how the team’s season is going. Jeff Smith, deputy sports editor at the Courant, says that the paper’s coverage is all about which teams are successful.

“Like any other industry that’s trying to find its way through financial challenges, we have to make choices,” Smith said. “So we can’t cover everything … when the team (Connecticut Sun) was not so good, we had to make choices and spread our resources. We would always have Sun coverage in the paper but not always with a reporter. But then last year, when the team did better … clearly that shifts the way we cover them.”

When Sports Editor Sean Barker started at the New Haven Register in 2000, there were 28 sports writers on staff. Now among three of the papers owned by Hearst in the area, there are six.

Barker believes in fair coverage for men’s and women’s sports. But he admits that traditional beliefs from older journalists and a small staff can affect coverage of women’s sports. The Register’s Connecticut Whale coverage consists of one feature per season.

“Women’s sports have come a long way in media coverage, but there is still a fight for media space. I get challenged by this every day,” Barker said. “There’s some arguments that there’s more media coverage on a television level that leads to people wanting to know more about men’s sports. Then there’s the basic argument that honestly people don’t give women’s sports the respect that they deserve.”

When it comes to these coverage choices, Barker points out that the media could sometimes create more readership for the sport instead of the sport dictating the coverage.

“Does attendance rise because there’s more media coverage, or do you get more media coverage because your attendance is higher? It’s an interesting dynamic. So if we covered the National Women’s Hockey League on a consistent basis, how would that affect attendance? It would probably go up.”

For the Connecticut Sun, Cox thinks the team should take matters into their own hands and help bring attention to the sport and the players.

“There is always more opportunity (for media coverage),” Cox said. “One of the things I tell my team all the time is that we have to continue to be responsible for telling our own story. If LeBron tweets something about something political or the type of cereal he likes, everybody retweets it and the media picks it up and they talk about it. We don’t necessarily have that critical mass on a national level.”

At the end of the day, Roesler and Cox are both optimistic about the future of women’s hockey and basketball. Rising attendance, increased coverage and social media presence are all creating a loyal fanbase for the NWHL and WNBA to build a foundation on and young girls have more role models to look up to.

“You’re just now getting to the point where WNBA players grew up watching the WNBA,” Cox said. “That is creating a cycle of ‘I know I can do this for a living, I can earn a living playing in the WNBA’ and as a result are training for it.”

Roesler recognizes loyal fans at games and at the team’s postgame signings. She sees that as a sign that the future is bright for the sport.

“There’s definitely that fan loyalty,” she said. “And you start to see the same little girls coming to the games … so you see new faces but then again you see those returners who just love to be there. For little girls now they can come watch us and dream and hope they’ll be where we are.”

Professor gives students a chance to produce a documentary in South Africa

By Grace Manthey

Film professor Liam O’Brien has an opportunity for students who don’t want to stay in the cold New England weather over winter break.

It’s a documentary production class that features a trip to South Africa. The trip will take place Dec. 29 to Jan. 18.

The class can count as FTM 355 for film students or COM 340, students can use as a UC credit.

Interested students should attend an information session on April 18 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in CCE 250 or they can schedule appointment.

A $1,500 deposit is due to the Quinnipiac Office of International Education by Sept. 7.

For more information contact O’Brien at lobrien@quinnipiac.edu.

Quinnipiac Student Government Association clears up confusion, plans to make changes

By Mary Rose Bevins

The confusion surrounding Quinnipiac University’s recent Student Government Association election isn’t isolated. And it seems to be affecting the entire organization.

In an interview with Q30, former SGA presidential candidate Joe Iasso said that without interest, he is worried about where SGA is headed.

“It’s very clear to me that student government is not something that people want to be a part of anymore and that’s really unfortunate,” he said.

Iasso said the cabinet member of SGA are made up almost entirely of those who ran for executive board positions and lost.

“We didn’t have that interest from people just to be the core of our organizations which are those class representatives. They’re the ones who are meeting with administrators every day and making sure that the best interest of students are being met. People just really don’t seem to care about that anymore.” Iasso said.

Part of the reason for the lack of engagement may be confusion when it comes to the bylaws, according to SGA advisor Erin Twomey.

To run for class cabinet, students must meet the following requirements:

Be a full-time undergraduate student
Have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher
Be in good conduct standing regarding the Quinnipiac University Student Handbook
Hold class affiliation as defined by the University
Attended an Election Committee information session
Submit a petition with signatures from 15 percent of their respective class
Submit a 100 word statement of purpose

However executive board position are slightly different. Eligible candidates must have a cumulative GPA of 2.75 or higher. They also must have been a student at Quinnipiac for three consecutive semesters, been in an elected position for two full semesters, and served on a committee or cabinet for three full semesters.

According to Twomey, these requirements create uncertainty around who is allowed to run for executive board positions.

“I think people zone in on one thing and don’t often think about all of the other five stipulations that are there,” she said.

Some students, like junior Jack Onofrio were concerned that not all candidates in last year’s election met the election requirements to run for executive board.

“The requirements are not consistently enforced. In the past we’ve had two members of last years committee, George Corde and Ali Munshi, they both ran for an e-board position despite only serving on an SGA committee for two semesters,” he said.

Austin Calvo, vice president of student experience, cleared up the confusion.

“The three semester thing is a huge misinterpretation,” Calvo said.

Matriculated students are full time students pursuing a degree. Calvo said that last year’s candidates started their SGA membership fall semester of their sophomore year and ran for an executive position in the spring. So they were running for an executive board position in their third semester of being a matriculated student. By the time the election process was over they were considered a three semester matriculated student and were qualified to run for executive board.

Twomey admits the bylaws and constitution are not easy to read but they are reviewed and re-written in some way every year to make it easier for students to understand.

“(SGA members) need to be as transparent as possible with the student body because the student body is the one that put them in the seat,” Twomey said.

According to Twomey, the structure SGA runs on is something that worked 20 years ago and doesn’t anymore. Members of SGA like Ryan Lynch are trying to make a change that will be effective for the next 10-20 years.

“You’re starting to see some of this change, this edition of the potential judicial branch, the change from representative to senators these are the things they want to change and they want move into an era with the new student government,” Twomey said.

Ryan Lynch started his membership in SGA his freshman year and wanted to change it to try to engage more students. His long term process includes people who are passionate about initiatives like sports, student organizations, school of business etc., having a significant role in SGA.

Lynch wants to “expand the organization make it larger and give people roles that they can be more excited and get behind, we have people who just take representative positions and they can only do so much with them,” Lynch said.

Lynch’s first step in this process is voting in the judicial branch. Lynch hopes it will combat the perceived lack of passion in the organization by making sure members are fulfilling their duties.

Lynch is hoping to see growth in the Student Government Organization and hopes it sticks with this process for a very long time.

President Elect, Ryan Hicks will make the transition to president this week.

Wake The Giant concert proves to be successful

Updated Sunday, April 15 to clarify Michael Ruta’s position.

By Grace Manthey

The 2018 Wake The Giant concert series was a success, despite some confusion with the ticketing process.

According to Michael Ruta, the director of publicity for the Student Programming Board, the original rule was if a student’s ticket didn’t match the name on their Q Card then they would have to to go the ticket office to get it changed.

After a while, those taking the tickets nixed that rule, but according to Ruta it wasn’t communicated very well to the long line outside.

However, once everyone got inside the concert was relatively smooth. Daya performed first, her more popular songs including “Hide Away” and “Sit Still, Look Pretty.” Then at around 9:30 p.m. Khalid arrived on stage wearing a Quinnipiac jersey with “Khalid” printed on the back. His backup dancers followed suit in bobcat t-shirts later in the show.

Senior Week committee releases housing forms

By Grace Manthey

It’s spring, and graduation ceremonies are fast approaching. At Quinnipiac University that means Senior Week is coming up even faster.

The Senior Week committee sent out an email Friday morning reminding students to attend a mandatory information session. The committee will remove any student who does not attend a session without a refund.

SENIORS!!! We are ready for you to attend one of our MANDATORY info sessions. You will be removed from the list if you do not attend ONE of these. See you there!

A post shared by QU SENIOR WEEK 2018 (@quseniorweek) on Mar 28, 2018 at 2:14pm PDT

The email also provided a link for the housing form. Seniors will be staying one night at Mohegan Sun Casino and one night in the freshman suite residence halls.

Only one person from each group is required to submit the form and must select a group of either two, four or eight people to stay with. Since the suites house a total of eight people the Senior Week committee will put any remaining groups of two or four together randomly.

Housing requests are due by 11:45 p.m. on April 24, 2018. For more information email SeniorWeek@qu.edu.