March 2019 – Page 3

Quinnipiac and club sports are affiliated again

by Ross Lager

Club sports are officially affiliated with Quinnipiac University after many years of students pressing for this change — and they are thrilled about the decision.

Sophomore Kaye Paddyfote, a member and coordinator for the women’s club lacrosse team, the Hamden Heroes, could not contain her excitement.

“I was in the Student Government Association (SGA) suite and I yelled really loud and jumped up and down,” she said. “I was so happy knowing that our school has heard us beg and plead for something and they finally approved of it.”

Club sports initially lost affiliation with QU after the school was sued for violating Title IX. The case started in 2009 when the women’s volleyball team felt they were treated unfairly. The 2013 consent decree mentions the violations QU committed, including not providing equal opportunities and financial support to female athletes and teams.

Quinnipiac was forced to comply with the consent decree that said women’s athletic teams will receive the same attention and support the men’s teams receive. QU had to maintain the women’s sports fields and they could not eliminate the volleyball team or any other division one team.

Part D of the terms section in the consent decree reads, “If Quinnipiac sponsors or otherwise provides support to club sports teams during the term of this Consent Decree, it must allocate those opportunities on a gender equitable basis.”

Following this, Quinnipiac sponsored no club sports in 2013-14. Since then, it has been an uphill battle for students to reacquire affiliation between QU and club sports.

Students were tasked with figuring out the logistics on their own to continue playing. The students funded the teams, they found places to practice and provided transportation themselves, all while trying to be an organized team to compete in games. Paddyfote mentioned these constant issues.

“Some of the struggles with being unaffiliated was having nowhere to practice and relying on a few girls who had cars to take us to games,” she said.

President Judy Olian made the announcement on Tuesday, March 5, via twitter.

President Judy Olian is sending our students off on spring break with some great news — about key investments and initiatives we are embarking on in the coming months. pic.twitter.com/61YjZJ9tkD

— Quinnipiac University (@QuinnipiacU) March 5, 2019

Many students, along with the SGA, have spent time and effort to bring back club sports. SGA vice president Luke Ahearn mentioned that this journey started in 2015 and really gained momentum in 2017 from the efforts of Brandon Vattima, who wrote the proposal for the return of club sports to QU.

“I followed up on his (Vattima’s) efforts and we were feeling very positive coming into this year,” he said. “President Olian is very much in support of this and so we were all excited for this.”

Ahearn noted that this process just started, so many of the details are still unknown. The applications for the teams have not been sent out yet.

Ahearn thinks the number of teams will be determined by how many women’s club teams apply because it must be equal. He explained that it is an important decision for which teams will become affiliated.

“By the end of March, every team should know if they are on campus or not,” he said. “It’s not that we don’t want every team to be on campus, its that we have to abide by Title IX.”

This is major progress for club sports, especially for the Brave Hockey Club, New Blue Rugby and Sleeping Giants lacrosse team. The hockey club started in 2013, New Blue in 2005 and the lacrosse team in 2009 they have been playing for many years and are ready to play and practice on campus.

Paddyfote is hopeful that QU will provide the correct support and attention that club sports teams deserve.

“I think they should pay for buses for away games, and provide us with space on campus to practice and actually hold home games,” she said.

Ahearn spoke to the Quinnipiac Athletics Department briefly about the plan moving forward and he believes that it will provide “some financial support” and the players will have annual dues to pay.

According to Ahearn, administrators are meeting next week to further discuss how to handle this process before the applications go out for club teams to fill out.

The Associate Athletic Director of Intramurals, Mike Medina, confirmed that more information will soon be available for everyone.

“All information pertaining to the new Club Sports Initiative will be distributed to the campus community in the coming weeks via social media platforms, including the application process,” he said.

Paddyfote can’t wait to start playing on a club team that is affiliated with the university.

“I’m looking forward to having matching uniforms with my team and an actual coach or a student-coach because we don’t have one and I think that would polish our team,” she said.

Ahearn thinks that five or six club teams will be affiliated by next fall. Since he is also a member of New Blue Rugby, he has high hopes that the team will be playing their games on the QU pitch.

“Next fall, we’d like to see New Blue Rugby play the inaugural club sport game, I would like to see that be the path we take,” he said.

Hamden’s Lucky Ewe is closing up shop

By Shayla Colon

Screen Shot 2019-03-08 at 6.47.57 PM.png

As of March 17, 2019, the Lucky Ewe Irish Goods shop on Whitney Avenue will be closed. The store is in the process of selling any merchandise left in a closing sale and shutting down operations.

But the Lucky Ewe Irish Shop is going out with a grand celebration. On St. Patrick’s Day, the shop owner will be hosting its annual party. There will be Irish music, step dancers and a bagpiper to celebrate the holiday and the store’s closing.

Kathleen O’Neill, 56, opened the shop three and a half years ago and is parting with the store on good terms. According to O’Neill, the shop is not closing because it was not doing well- it was actually growing, but O’Neill has come to a crossroads and decided it was time for her to make a transition in her life.

“I’m planning on spending more quality family time. My family has grown, I have three grandchildren and also my kids have moved away. I just want to have more availability,” said O’Neill.

Although O’Neill is closing the location on Whitney Avenue, that leaves the possibility of pop-up stores for her to dabble in. She hopes to have some pop-up locations across Hamden at the Playwright Irish Pub Restaurant and Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum. She plans to donate the store’s heraldic pins to the museum.

“We would like to do whatever we can to support the Hunger Museum. I think it would be a great fit if they [Ireland Great Hunger Museum] do a little gift shop. I’ve been planting those seeds and watering them, so we’ll see what happens with that one,” said O’Neill.

In her time running the shop, O’Neill finds the best part to have been the people she met as a result.

“It’s been amazing that people have come in and shared their stories. It’s been wonderful just getting to know people and when people come into an Irish store they tend to talk, so they’ve been sharing their stories, sharing their families. On a personal level, it has been wonderful because it has helped me to reconnect with my Irish heritage. As much as you think a store is about selling goods, no. It’s been more about the relationship with people that has been the best blessing of all,” said O’Neill.

Hamden celebrity of the week

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, 46, Professional Wrestler and Actor

Though “The Rock” was born in Hayward, California, he attended fifth and sixth grade at Shepherd Glen Elementary and Hamden Middle School when his father, “Rocky Johnson” moved to Connecticut to wrestle professionally for WWE. Johnson, who later moved to Pennsylvania, played collegiate football on scholarship at the University of Miami before beginning his career as a professional actor.

Quinnipiac students donate blood this week

By Kyle Levasseur

Quinnipiac University students and members of the local community donated blood at the Mt. Carmel campus on Thursday, March 7. The Community Action Project teams up with the American Red Cross for the blood drive twice a year as a way to give back to the community.

The Community Action Project’s co-directors Taylor Fay and Melissa Neves were busy signing people up throughout the day. Both are health science students at Quinnipiac and have special ties to donating blood.

Quinnipiac students donating blood with registered American Red Cross nurses.

“My mom had breast cancer,” Fay said. “We were on a family vacation and she wasn’t feeling well so we brought her to the hospital and she actually had no white blood cells so she needed a lot of blood transfusions. Now I hope to pay it forward to others that need help.”

One donation of blood can save three lives according to the American Red Cross. That was enough for Neves to join the Community Action Project, even though she can get queasy when she sees needles.

“I actually fainted once,” Neves said recalling one of the three times she gave blood. “If you can just put up with (the pain) for a little while, it’s worth it.”

The pain does not last long according to Neves. One trip to Quinnipiac’s blood drive lasts about 15 minutes and consists of laying down on a medical bed while squeezing a stress ball to pump blood to the person’s arm.

The Community Action Project says most donations of blood are a pint, but lesser amounts can also be used for research.

The American Red Cross has a promotion with HBO’s hit series Game of Thrones from March 7-12, part of which is free t-shirts and stickers for each donation in that time frame. Another part of the promotion includes a chance to win a free trip to the Game of Thrones season eight world premiere if a donation is made before March 17.

The American Red Cross gave out Game of Thrones stickers for anyone that donated blood.

Game of Thrones fan and Quinnipiac senior Nick Borgman came to the blood drive for the free t-shirt but says he will be donating blood again in the future because of what he learned.

“I never realized just how helpful donating blood can be,” Borgman said. “I just didn’t think that me giving a little bit of blood could help others. It wasn’t until I actually donated my own blood and saw it with my own eyes that I realized I was wrong.”

Snow days don't stop the need for blood. As soon as it is safe to leave the house, please consider making an appointment to give blood or platelets. https://t.co/SwYdTKlTqO

— CT Red Cross Blood (@RedCrossBloodCT) March 4, 2019

The American Red Cross is offering other days to donate blood on it’s website: redcrossblood.org

Humans of Hamden

Valerie Smith, 61

“I grew up in the ’70s, this may have been the ‘60s. I remember my mother taking us out of school so we could go and protest the Vietnam War (at the time Valerie was about 10 years old). That was kind of like a big ‘oh God mom, you’re breaking the rules.’ So I was aware that there’s something going on and aware that you’re supposed to do something about it and speak up about it, which makes me feel very empowered in a lot of ways. It was comfortable because I was with my mother and I knew she wasn’t going to let anything happen to me. A lot of it was sitting on the ground and listening to speeches, and then someone would come out and play some music and it was exciting to be involved in a mass movement of people like-minded, knowing that you were doing something that was actually meaningful. I think the marches that we have been having in the last couple of years sort of replicate some of that sense of there’s something really wrong going on here and people need to start absolutely doing some grassroots because otherwise, it’s not going to get fixed.”

Student Programming Board cannot afford ‘top-tier’ artists for Wake the Giant

By Marissa Davis

Although the Student Programming Board (SPB) did not suffer a budget cut this year, it is missing a significant donation from former Quinnipiac President, John Lahey.

The donation, specifically intended to be used for the spring concert known as Wake the Giant, allowed SPB to obtain contemporary R&B artist, Khalid, as a headliner last year.

“SPB did not experience a budget cut this year from SGA, last year they did receive a donation from President Lahey specifically to use for the concert,” said Hannah Pancak, the SPB faculty adviser and assistant director for Student Centers and Student Involvement.

Many students such as Quinnipiac senior, Julia DeLutrie, were disappointed to learn that Blackbear would headline this year’s spring concert, “I don’t plan on attending Wake the Giant this year because I think it’s a waste of money to pay $20 for an artist that I’ve never even heard of and I really just have no desire to attend,” DeLutrie said.

The Wake the Giant stage has hosted many notable artists such as Jason Derulo, Fetty Wap, Tiesto and Kesha.

“In past years I have liked the Wake the Giant performers…their track record has been pretty good. It’s really disappointing that as a senior this is the concert we get and it’s just kind of disappointing,” said DeLutrie.

Some students seem to believe that SPB has paid hefty fees for artists to perform at Quinnipiac, and this year’s concert will be much more inexpensive.

“I don’t know why people think that SPB’s budget got cut,” said Student Government Associations vice president of Finance, John Khillah. “It seemed that people believe that to reserve Tiesto it’s actually a more expensive concert. That’s not true.”

Killah said that every year, the artists for Wake the Giant are usually around the same price range. He said SPB does their best to find an artist within the $50,000-75,000 range.

SPB has a number of things to consider when it comes to selecting an artist for Wake the Giant, like artist availability and the genre the university voted on via a survey put out by SPB.

“There are other factors that go into what creates our list of artists to choose from: 1. Tour date conflicts 2. Coachella (an annual music festival held in California) is the same weekend 3. Some artists do not perform on college campuses,” said Pancak.

SPB is able to provide a number of different programs for the student body through the budget it is provided, but Killah says it does not have enough to book an extremely well-known artist for Wake the Giant.

“So overall SPB has an operating budget of $380,000, they also then keep and utilize the ticket sales for Wake the Giant and that adds on top of their budget, so they’re roughly around $420,000 for the year,” said Khillah. “Do they have enough to be able to effectively program for the student body? Absolutely. Do I think that they have enough to be able to get the top tier artists for our spring concert? Um, probably not.”

If SPB was allowed a slightly higher budget, Khillah thinks it could be used to improve Wake the Giant.

“They don’t have enough money to get a ‘great’ artist but I do think that with a budget increase they can effectively allocate a little more to be able to get someone who’s in a higher tier,” he said.

Tolling Connecticut – how proposed tolls will impact major roadways throughout the state

By Shayla Colon

Today, Connecticut leaders will hold a meeting to discuss the future of bringing back tolls to the state. Governor Ned Lamont is considering building 53 gantries state-wide as part of his plan to toll all vehicles, according to CT News Junkie. The gantries are bridge-like, overhead structures that will have cameras for tolling purposes. The idea to toll all vehicles came from a 2018 study done by the CT Department of Transportation that initially sought to have 82 gantries with the potential to produce $1 billion dollars annually. Lamont’s plan has the tolling structures mapped out along major interstates (I-95, I-84 and I-91) and routes (15 and 8).

Quinnipiac Facilities to take over off campus property management

By Owen Meech

Quinnipiac University Office of Facilities will soon take over day to day facilities management of all University-owned off campus properties.

In a statement Feb. 13, Associate Vice President of Facilities Operations Keith Woodward announced that effective April 1, 2019, management responsibility will transition from Palmer Property Management to Quinnipiac University’s own team.

A Quinnipiac owned off campus home on New Road.

Although the University provided no explanation for the switch, Woodward assured students via email that no complications would arise.

“I am optimistic that this will be a seamless transition as providing excellent service to students remains a top priority for the Office of Facilities Operations and the University as a whole,” Woodward said.

But despite Woodward’s promise of a smooth turnover, students have had mixed reactions to the news. While some students are embracing the change, many remain wary of Quinnipiac’s decision.

Residents of Quinnipiac owned off campus properties have noted a discrepancy in care and maintenance between off campus housing and on campus dorms, such as Julianna Pliskin, who lives on Ives Street.

“When we moved into the house, there was mold on multiple walls in our laundry room,” Pliskin said. “Housing inspections work both ways. Quinnipiac should’ve taken care of that before anyone even moved in.”

Additionally, Pliskin said she has a broken microwave, multiple stove burners that don’t work, and broken kitchen cabinets, including some without knobs. She hopes that the switch from Palmer Properties next month will make things easier, as her and her roommates have had to fix many problems on their own.

“I’m actually happy about the switch because I think by Quinnipiac using their own service, it makes it a little bit easier to put in our work orders,” Pliskin said.

New Road residents Amanda Perelli and Christina Popik concur, and said their home also has no shortage of issues.

“A couple of weeks ago, we noticed that the floor in our downstairs bathroom started to crack, and if you push down on the toilet it starts to push down on the tile and appears to be pushing down into the basement,” said Perelli. “Eventually I have a feeling that our toilet is actually going to fall into the basement.”

A toilet at a New Road home that appears to be sinking into the bathroom floor.

Palmer Properties employees came to Perelli’s house and told her and her roommates that they were very concerned with the situation. They instructed her and housemates not to use the toilet until a new one is installed over spring break.

Although Perelli’s home also has rusted drains, an outdated shower and broken kitchen cabinets, she says she is most upset that she doesn’t have a dishwasher.

“When we moved in we noticed that our dishwasher had been taken out, so there’s just an empty space in our kitchen,” Perelli said. “Other QU owned houses along this road have dishwashers and we pay the same price, so it’s weird that they didn’t replace it or give us an explanation.”

Popik echoed Perelli’s sentiment, and calls her home “pretty gross.”

“We had a moth problem last semester. They were honestly flying from everywhere, they were inside of our food,” Popik said. “Last week I found larva in a cup that I had, there were three little nests.”

A broken cabinet located in one of Quinnipiac’s off campus properties on New Road.

Cameron Silver, another New Road resident, said his home has a major drainage problem.

“The sink hasn’t been working, and when we take a shower the water is up to our ankles,” Silver said. “With all that drainage being stuck in the house, it also affects the basement downstairs. It’s leaked through the ceiling and there’s mold. You can smell it, it’s not safe.”

Silver said he has put in multiple work orders, but the sink was the only problem that was addressed.

“Everything else is still the same. It’s been taking a while,” Silver said. “It’s been happening pretty much the entire school year.

Quinnipiac’s decision comes only a few months after Palmer Properties employees installed deadbolts on all exterior doors of Quinnipiac owned off campus houses. Residential Life informed students in Dec. 2018 of the additional safety measures following a string of burglaries at Quinnipiac owned houses on New Road.

In addition to the management change, students learned Feb. 5 that Danielle Demers, former residence hall director for off campus properties, had accepted a position at another university.

“If you need assistance for the remainder of the year, please contact your CA (community assistant) and they can help you directly or connect you to the proper resource,” Demers wrote in her departing email.

A replacement residence hall director has not been announced.

Quinnipiac winter sports programs wrapping up successful seasons

By Logan Reardon

This winter? Cold. Quinnipiac’s winter sports programs? Hot.

At this point in the year, most collegiate winter sports programs are starting to finish up their seasons. For Quinnipiac, it’s the opposite. Three of the four teams (men’s basketball, women’s basketball and men’s ice hockey) are still alive and well as they look to win their conference tournaments in the coming weeks.

The Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team finished its regular season on Saturday with a convincing 4-1 win at Yale. The Bobcats’ record was 25-7-2 as they now move on to postseason play.

While a big win on the road against a rival is thrilling enough, Quinnipiac also clinched the No. 1 seed in the ECAC Hockey Tournament. The Bobcats finished tied with Cornell for first in the conference and got the top seed based on a tiebreaker (1-0-1 head-to-head vs. Cornell).

“It was awesome,” Quinnipiac junior forward Nick Jermain said on finding out the team won the Cleary Cup (winner of ECAC Hockey). “We didn’t really know what was going on and then (Quinnipiac associate head coach Bill) Riga was like ‘We got it’. Everyone just freaked out and it was an awesome feeling, still being on the ice and being able to celebrate with everyone.”

The Bobcats finished the year on fire, winning four of their last five games and outscoring opponents 20-10 across those games. Still, securing the No. 1 seed and an all-important first-round bye in the ECAC Hockey Tournament was pivotal.

“It’s huge, we have a couple guys who could use a week off,” Jermain said after the win. “I mean, we all can this time of year. It’s going to be a big advantage for us to be able to rest up, lick our wounds and then be ready to attack the rest of season.”

The rest of the season might not seem like much, but there’s still a lot of hockey to be played. The bottom eight teams in the conference will begin the tournament on March 8, with the higher seed hosting a best-of-three series on their home ice. The top four seeds get that weekend off.

The following weekend (March 15-17), No. 1 Quinnipiac will host the winner of No. 9 Princeton vs. No. 8 Brown at the People’s United Center for a best-of-three series. The winner of that series will head to Lake Placid, New York for the ECAC Hockey Semifinal on March 22.

After wrapping up the ECAC Hockey Tournament that weekend, Quinnipiac will learn its fate for the NCAA Tournament as it hopes to get back to another Frozen Four.

The Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey team wasn’t on the same level as the men’s team this season, as the Bobcats were eliminated in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals on March 2 after Clarkson swept them in two games.

Quinnipiac finished the season 12-18-6, but a solid 9-9-4 record in ECAC Hockey earned it the No. 6 seed. But facing No. 3 Clarkson on the road proved to be a challenge. After playing Clarkson to a 1-1 tie in the season finale, the Bobcats couldn’t get it going in the playoffs. A 3-0 loss in the first game and a 4-3 loss in the second game ended Quinnipiac’s season.

Unfortunately for the Bobcats, next season might be another tough one. Quinnipiac is losing its top three leading point-scorers, in seniors Melissa Samoskevich, Kenzie Lancaster and Randi Marcon. On the bright side, the next 12 leading point-scorers after those three were underclassmen, so the expectation is that they will all step up and fill the void.

On the other side of the People’s United Center, the Quinnipiac women’s and men’s basketball teams have been two of the strongest teams in their respective conferences.

The women, as usual, have dominated the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). For the fifth straight season, the Bobcats won the MAAC regular season championship. But that’s not all. For the second straight season, the Bobcats finished a perfect 18-0 in the MAAC. They have won 49 straight MAAC contests heading into this weekend’s MAAC Tournament in Albany.

“Going into the MAAC, any team has to be as confident as possible,” Quinnipiac senior guard Brittany Martin said. “Every team, even the last team in the conference, they’re coming in wanting to win. You have that energy coming in, you never know what could happen. There could be an upset, but that’s not what we want. We’re coming in hungrier than ever.”

Quinnipiac travels to Albany looking for its third straight MAAC championship (and NCAA Tournament appearance). The Bobcats have won an NCAA Tournament game in each of the past two seasons.

As good as the Bobcats have been on the national stage, their dominance in the MAAC cannot be overlooked. Nine of Quinnipiac’s 18 conference wins this season came by 20 points or more and 16 of 18 came by at least 10 points. Pure dominance.

The Bobcats had a few “close” games down the stretch, including an eight-point win at Fairfield on Feb. 17 and a six-point win at Rider on Feb. 21, but they’ve again been largely unchallenged this year. Look for that to continue in Albany.

While the women’s team is a perennial powerhouse, the men’s basketball team has been anything but that. Things might be starting to change, though.

After four straight years finishing below .500, Quinnipiac finished the 2018-19 regular season 16-13. While this might seem like a modest step, it’s actually pretty huge for a program that won 12, 10 and nine games in the past three seasons.

More importantly, the Bobcats finished 11-7 in the MAAC, good for a No. 3 seed in the upcoming MAAC Tournament. Quinnipiac will face the winner of No. 6 Monmouth vs. No. 11 Niagara. The Bobcats swept Monmouth in two games this season and split two games with Niagara.

The season was Quinnipiac’s best in years, but it could’ve been better. Heading into Sunday, Quinnipiac just needed a win over Manhattan, who was 7-10 in the MAAC entering the game. A win over Manhattan and Quinnipiac would’ve been crowned co-MAAC regular season champions and entered Albany as the No. 2 seed. The Bobcats disappointed, though, losing 62-58.

“Disappointing day for us,” Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy said. “We’ve been playing good basketball on the road, with two straight roads wins and I feel really good about where we are.”

Still, for the first time in years, it seems as if both the women and the men have a realistic shot to win the MAAC Tournament. The men have never done it in program history, but this year they’ve got as good a shot as ever.

So while people are begging for this long, cold winter to end, these teams are praying it never does.

Hamden native wins Oscar at Academy Awards

Embed from Getty Images

Two people with ties to Connecticut have won an Oscar at the 91st Academy Awards.

Hamden native Anthony Rossomando took home an Oscar for Best Original Song for “Shallow.” He co-wrote the song with Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt.

Receiving this Oscar was the third award the four of them have won from the popular song from “A Star is Born.”

Rossomando was raised in Hamden and is the son of Quinnipiac University music professor, Fred Rossomando.

“I also had Anthony Rossomando’s as a professor and he was a really cool guys,” Sean Raggio, a junior at Quinnipiac University said. When talking about “Shallow” Raggio said, “I think the beauty’s in how it’s simplicity. Not saying it’s simply written. Just how you can take a simple strong structure and make something so intricate.”

This win shows students that even growing up in a small town can lead to success.

“It’s very, I should say securing, because I’m not from a big town either. I’m from a very small town in New Jersey and I go to school in Hamden which is a small town as well,” Taylor Sniffen, a film and journalism double major at Quinnipiac University, said. “You don’t have to be in LA or be in New York City to be big.”

Another Oscar winner, who happens to be a Quinnipiac University alum, is David Rabinowitz. He won Best Adapted Screenplay for Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman.”

These Oscar wins come from people who started out in similar positions as Quinnipiac University students, which sends some inspiration to the bobcat nation.

“If you want to go do something make it happen, if you have an idea pursue it,” Raggio said. “I’m sure they both had many ideas that were shot down and they got one that worked.”