The owner of a Hamden deli frequented by Quinnipiac University students pleaded guilty to one count of federal tax evasion last week and faces up to five years in prison, as well as a hefty restitution.
Ray George, 52, owns Ray & Mike’s Dairy and Deli at 3030 Whitney Ave. and is a popular fixture at the bustling shop.
Ray George, 52, owns Ray & Mike’s Dairy and Deli, a business that has served Hamden for 21 years. Pictured here in a photo from the deli’s website, George pleaded guilty to one count of federal tax evasion on Friday, May 17.
But, according to a Monday release from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for Connecticut, George “underreported his income by approximately $365,065 for the 2012 tax year and by $273,108 for the 2013 tax year, and failed to pay a total of approximately $220,000 in taxes.”
George evaded his federal income taxes in multiple ways, the court documents say, using his Ray & Mike’s business account for personal expenses, failing to deposit cash receipts from the deli into his business account and using a portion of the cash to fill an in-store ATM and not reporting the cash as income.
The court documents also say George deposited three checks totaling nearly $300,000 from the Ray & Mike’s business account into his personal investment account, without reporting the funds as income in any capacity, and then withdrew funds from the investment account to purchase personal investment properties.
He also deposited a $25,800 check from the Ray & Mike’s lottery account into his personal investment account without reporting them.
George waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty on Friday, May 17 in the U.S. District Court in Bridgeport.
George faces a fine of up to approximately $440,000, as well as potential jail time. He has agreed to pay back taxes of $220,663, plus interest and penalties.
The 21-year-old business is known best for its sandwich menu, as well as the fact it is open seven days a week, 365 days a year, including holidays and during winter storms.
It has been 10 years since the editors ofThe Quinnipiac Chronicle stepped down from their positions to form the student-run off-campus newspaper,The Quad News. It has been 10 years since student journalists took it upon themselves to develop their own media outlet after they believed university administration was denying their first amendment rights and censoring their work.
It has been 10 years and yet, nobody seems to remember.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Quinnipiac 2010 graduate and one of the founding members of The Quad News, Matt Andrew said.
In 2008, the returning editor in chief, editors and applicants for editorial board positions handed an empty manilla envelope to their advisor, announcing their resignation from The Chronicle, the official student-run newspaper at Quinnipiac University.
“In the end, at the end of 2008, we all resigned,” Andrew said. “We handed them an empty manilla envelope and said ‘We’ll see you later.’”
The Quad News was an off-campus, student-run independent publication created in 2008 by frustrated members of the university paper. Following a decision made by the university to take control of the on-campus paper, The Chronicle, by selecting editors going forward and constraining the publication of content, the staff realized they had had enough. Tired and disappointed by the university policy they believed was censoring their content, they disbanded to create their own publication.
This crisis began in 2006 when the paper published on its website and front page an article regarding an incident with two Quinnipiac basketball players. After the story appeared, the university imposed a new policy that prohibited the paper from posting material online until the print edition had been published. Things proceeded normally, until a year later, just before the start of the fall semester, an incident on campus got the attention of student journalists.
“Somebody on our staff had heard about somebody writing on a freshman’s dorm who was African American, all of these racial slurs on her door,” Jason Braff, the Editor in Chief of The Chronicle at the time, said. “We investigated, we found out more information, we ended up speaking with the student who had the racial slurs written on her door, we contacted the Hamden Police Department, we were reaching out to everybody putting this story together. We felt like it was a very important story and the students should know about it and people outside of the campus should be aware of it too.”
The story was newsworthy, but The Chronicle could not publish it online.
So, Braff, in his first semester at the helm of the paper, had to make a decision: Should the piece be published although it would break university policy, or should the editors shelve it until the publication of the first issue? The editors thought a way to get the story out, without breaking the policy, would be to publish a single sheet with the article and distribute it on campus. But before they could do that, they heard from then-President John Lahey who persuaded them to wait by offering them an exclusive interview.
In order to avoid any conflicts with the administration, The Chronicle editors chose to save the story for the first issue, which was scheduled for Sept. 12.
“In the 24 hours news cycle, even back then, there wasn’t really Twitter or Instagram or anything – we wanted to publish it online,” Andrew said. “And the school wanted to basically read the article and kind of have oversight over it, before it was published online, kind of limiting first amendment rights. They kind of wanted control over the information that was being disseminated rather than letting the students act as journalists and kind of provide that information.”
Quinnipiac University is a private institution. Unlike public universities, students give up certain rights when agreeing to attend the private school of their choice. Student journalists deal with the specifics of these rights daily in their reporting.
Private institutions face many challenges compared to public universities when it comes to accessing sources within the administration.
Current chair of the journalism department Margarita Diaz was the faculty advisor to The Chronicle at the time these policies were put in place by the administration.
“They understood that they [student journalists] were not doing public relations and their job was to cover what was going on on campus, and that sometimes that would reflect negatively on the university. And the university had a lot of trouble with that,” Diaz said. “They would not call it this, but it was about prior review. It was about being able to look at what the paper had and prepare a response if necessary before the outside media got wind of it.”
In a December 2007 statement, the faculty of the Quinnipiac University School of Communications voiced their opinions to the administration regarding student media policies and the changes the university administration was trying to enact.
“Basic First Amendment values are a focus in all of what we teach,” the statement said. “Therefore, the faculty of the School of Communications considers any attempts to restrict the access of student journalists to administrative sources and attempts to control the manner in which student media may disseminate information as threats to the basic principle of free expression and contrary to the mission of the School.”
In response,Vice President for Public Affairs Lynn Bushnell emailed the school a reiteration of the policy manual and what was expected of both faculty and student journalists in four bullets:
Scanned email courtesy of Margarita Diaz
No media outlet is to be contacted or responded without prior consent to John Morgan or Lynn Bushnell. This includes WQAQ, Q-30 and The Chronicle.
Student media can no longer be viewed as internal owing to the ability of external media to access these stories immediately. What appears in the student Chronicle likely will be picked up by the New Haven Register and other media outlets. The media considers ALL administrators to be representatives of the University, speaking on behalf of the university.
While this policy also applies to faculty, it is understood that faculty have the ability to speak to media without specifically representing the University. However, faculty should exercise caution in presenting their views on University-related matters by clearly stating that they do not represent the university.
Members of the division of athletics (coaches, administrators) should work through the office of athletic communications in regard to media contact. That office is responsible for contacting me directly in any special or sensitive circumstances prior to responding to media queries.
The email ended with Bushnell noting that the policy is ‘routine,’ but must be re-stated due to recent examples where the rules had not been followed.
In the spring semester of 2008, the university administration created a media task force to review student media policies. After it completed its work, the task force recommended a change of policy: Chronicle editors would now be selected by the university deans.
The result: a staff-less newspaper and a group of journalists determined to create uncensored news by becoming self-sustaining and independent.
“I remember sitting in the School of Communications and all of us were there, I think Margarita Diaz was there, and we were just like ‘This is the start of something new,’” Andrew said. “We were literally just throwing out names, a business plan and coming up with everything. It was a really cool moment for us to all come together, and we all had each others’ backs.
“We were kinda like family, we were friends. Nobody wanted to let each other down and we all just kind of came together in solidarity and decided this is what’s best. In the end, that was what was best.”
And thus, The Quad News was born.
Essentially establishing their own business, the founding members of The Quad News created their own bank account, outsourced for their own website, recruited people for positions such as a business manager and web designer and, themselves, went door-to-door gathering advertisements from local businesses. The students became completely self-made. Through their efforts selling merchandise and fundraising they were able to successfully create and run the independent paper.
“We had a whole web staff, we had a business group, we met every single week as a group and then throughout the week as editors meeting with writers and publishing stories,” Andrew said. “Instead of a weekly publish, we were publishing three times a week like Monday, Wednesday Friday or something like that. We were all in on it.”
The Quad News staff faced many obstacles in their five-year existence at Quinnipiac. Members were unable to formally recruit writers in and out of the classroom per university restriction and could not table as an outside business.
“We were doing outreach again to classrooms and Mark Thompson [Executive Vice President and Provost] said we couldn’t do that and sent us an email,” Andrew said. “The three of us, we went to his office and had this whole meeting like ‘Listen, we are students, we want to reach out to the students. We’re just trying to garner our attention for the Quad News,’ and he was just like, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ So I asked him, ‘Where in the handbook does it say we can’t do this?’ and he couldn’t give an answer.
“They hated that we were going to classrooms and, from their perspective, wasting other students’ time. We literally tried to pay the school, as paying students, with money that we raised through advertisements with the Quad News, we tried to pay for a table in the Student Center as an outside vendor and they wouldn’t grant us that as the Quad News.”
One of The Quad News’ first meetings. Jason Braff stands in red (right). Photo courtesy of Margarita Diaz
As if recruiting wasn’t difficult enough, Quad News staff editors and members, such as Jennifer Swift, were not allowed to meet or reserve rooms on campus.
“Being a student at a university where I’m paying to go to school but still feeling like an outsider, has to get outside press access to events and you can’t recruit on-campus,” Swift said. “We couldn’t reserve a room on campus for a meeting and it was like – for what? You’re a journalism school, how are you not going to let us do this?”
While many members of the paper expressed this same anger about being treated as if they were not students of the university, Bushnell defends that the university has the right to deny a non-affiliated organization the use of school property.
“I think administration generally has a right and responsibility, if it’s not a sanctioned club or organization, that we do have the right to limit their use of the property, of the facilities and I think that holds true today,” Bushnell said. “It’s always a gray area when it’s a non-sanctioned organization, but it’s comprised of students.”
Throughout it all, and to this day, members of the journalism department, of which only Richard Hanley, Margarita Diaz and Karin Schwanbeck still remain as current faculty, stayed firm in their decision.
“This idea that the students were somehow doing irresponsible journalism that was somehow going to place the university in a position of legal vulnerability is entirely false,” Diaz said. “And I have no problem saying that, but this is the line, and I think they still think it is.”
Looking back, Bushnell notes that, at the time, the administration did not fully understand the influence the Internet was going to have on journalism. If a similar situation occurred today, she isn’t sure the university would respond the same way.
“We were probably shortsighted in understanding what online publishing was going to mean in reality,” Bushnell said. “The best hindsight is 20/20. If we had to do it over again, would we take those same steps? I think probably not. That’s easy to say now 11 years down the road where everything is on our phone and we expect instant information.”
Although The Chronicle, as well as any student media outlet on campus, are now allowed to publish material online at any time on any day of the week, the concept of going through the Office of Public Affairs office is nothing new to the university.
“I have always, pretty much, been the point of contact for probably since then [2008], if not before then,” Associate Vice President for Public Relations John Morgan said. “I have always been the person that all media has to contact and that includes all external media too. That means if they want to come on campus they need to work with our office.”
Quinnipiac’s Student Media Information Manual states that in order for students to speak with or interview university administration/staff, students are required to contact Morgan prior to contacting the employee. This is also mandatory for athletes, coaches or administrators.
Screenshot from Student Media Information Manual.
This concept of being granted ‘permission’ to speak with an administrator rather than directly going to that person for a response brings in the debate of true journalism versus public relations.
“Any organization does not allow you to just come in and talk to their employees,” Morgan said. “Organizations have a spokesperson and obviously I can’t be expected to know every higher education topic from top to bottom, that’s why we have departments and we work with them, you call us, I put you in touch with that person, you’re getting an authentic answer. I’m not sitting with them going over bullet points as to how we want to position it unless it’s something critical, but the run of the mill stuff they just rely on their own expertise to share that information.”
While it may be ‘required’ to contact Morgan before speaking with an administrator now, this was not always the case.
“Before the racial incident, student journalists could contact any administrator directly,” Diaz said. “The policy was changed by administration to be able to monitor the student journalists. The issue is simply that they realized students were doing real journalism and they had to be ready to respond.”
College Recruiter defines Public Relations as working to improve and monitor a client’s branding. Journalism, on the other hand, is defined as being ‘beholden to the truth,’ not to the image and opinions of clients. The line between the two has been one students have been fearful to cross at Quinnipiac.
Although Morgan does assist students by directing students to the right person to contact, he has also prevented them from contacting or interviewing an administrator if he does not deem it necessary or appropriate. In the nature of public relations, he is protecting the university, but when it comes to journalism, he is blocking students from what could be a crucial side of the story.
“We find that student media, as part of the learning process, is inclined to make a lot of mistakes,” Bushnell said in a recent interview. “Things blow up in people’s faces because of hearsay or rumors. That’s why some people will only respond in writing and some people won’t even respond at all.
“I think that it’s important to recognize that as journalists in training, you have responsibilities too. Just because you’ve heard something repeated over and over and over again doesn’t make it true.”
Contacting the public relations department is a known requirement before speaking with certain university members, yet there are cases in which a student either purposefully or by accident have broken this unspoken rule. In these cases, it is understood that ‘consequences’ are to follow.
“I’ve never actually said the word consequences,” said Associate Director of Campus Life David McGraw, who advises all of the student organizations on campus, including student media. “I do not know of any black and white punishment that you would get. It’s probably the biggest question of what the actual consequences would be that, at least for me, no one has told me, ‘If they do this, this is what will happen.’”
As the rumored ‘consequences’ loomed over students 10 years ago, the same threat, if you will, still stands now. For McGraw, such punishment would depend on the importance of the topic being covered and the extent that it was taken to.
“Being a private institution, I will say the university, in theory, does hold that power still that I could get a phone call that says, ‘We will not fund The Chronicle anymore,'” McGraw said. “This day and age with first amendment and all that kind of stuff, I do think the university would definitely take a different stance on it. We also have a new president who I think would probably approach the issues that happened 10 years ago differently than our previous president did.”
With similar guidelines still intact 10 years later, the question arises of: Were the efforts of The Quad News all for naught?
Andrew, the former Quad News managing editor and later editor in chief, recognizes that the emotions that fueled the founding editors may not be present among the current student body.
Ten years later, the editors of The Quad News have moved on from their days at QU. Where are they now?
“In the end it’s hard to duplicate that passion in other people if they didn’t experience it like you did. It’s hard to get students to want to be involved in general,” he said. “To get them to support something that’s not sanctioned by the university is even harder.”
A topic not taught or discussed in classrooms or among student media, the memory of The Quad News and their fight for the journalistic integrity of Quinnipiac has become just that: a memory.
“They did something different and it was just swept under the rug, like it’s off the grid, nobody knows about it,” said Logan Reardon, a current journalism student previously involved in The Chronicle. “I feel like we should know more about that.”
In a survey of 22 Quinnipiac communications students, 14 responded that they had never heard of The Quad News. Eighteen responded they believed there to still be censorship going on at Quinnipiac.
Some of the original members of The Quad News. Featured sitting in front Brendan Rimetz (left) and Matt Andrew (right). Photo courtesy of Margarita Diaz.
A decade later, Andrew hopes that, despite the fact that The Quad News failed to outlast those who restrained them, hindered their progress and denied their rights, that the mindset of what it means to take action rather than shy away lives on in the paper’s wake.
“I was always fired up,” Andrew said. “I was so passionate about the Quad News that I would do anything to make it survive and make it successful, within reason. But it was something I truly believed in and I would go a great lengths to make sure that it was going to be successful.
“Nobody else was doing the Quad News. We were like ‘This is something we’re going to do, we’re not going to back down, we’re not just going to get pushed around. We’re going to do something great and that we truly believe in and we’re not going to give up on it.’”
Quinnipiac clinches yet another MAAC championship.
As the buzzer sounds, head coach Tricia Fabbri eagerly storms the court with her team, making sure she hugs each and every person she can find.
Her family – who, from the 25th row in a mostly empty arena, berated the referees endlessly throughout the game – comes down and gets their chance at a hug. A long embrace between the family, tears inching down some faces, and then it’s back to business.
The next day, she’s in her office preparing for the NCAA Tournament.
Fabbri and her five seniors celebrate the 2019 MAAC title. (Photo by Morgan Tencza)
Fairfield University to Quinnipiac University.
It’s a short, 30-minute drive north on I-95.
For the last 32 years, Tricia Fabbri’s life has been defined by those two schools. And for the last 25, the 30-minute drive has been a staple of her daily life.
It all began in 1987, when a 5-foot-11 forward from Delran Township, New Jersey was a freshman on the Fairfield women’s basketball team. Tricia Fabbri – then Tricia Sacca – was a bruiser on the court, tallying 1,622 career points and 1,037 rebounds – both ranking her among the program’s top five.
That fall, though, Tricia found something that she didn’t go to Connecticut expecting to find.
Paul Fabbri graduated from Fairfield in 1987 – just a few months before Tricia arrived – and stayed at the university as a part-timer in the sports information department. He worked with the women’s basketball team during Tricia’s freshman year.
After three All-MAAC First-Team selections, Tricia stayed with the Stags as an assistant coach until 1995, when she saw an opening at Quinnipiac College – a Division II school in nearby Hamden.
“I thought, ‘Hey, I’m ready to become a head coach at 26,’” Tricia said. “I knew a couple people at the University of New Haven who made some calls to (then-Quinnipiac AD) Burt Kahn. I’m still convinced (I was hired because) Burt had two golden labs, and when I went into his office for the interview they were very happy to see me, I was unfazed and we had a good conversation.”
That was a monumental year for the young couple. Tricia and Paul got married in 1995, and both started new jobs that summer – new jobs that each of them still hold 24 years later.
Tricia went to Quinnipiac, while Paul started teaching and coaching baseball at Ridgefield High School, as the couple resided – and still does – in Stratford, a town neighboring Fairfield.
Quinnipiac wasn’t an ideal landing spot for Tricia. It was a lowly Division II program coming off back-to-back 4-22 seasons and it hired a new athletic director – Jack McDonald – soon after Tricia was hired.
“If you have aspirations to be a head coach, you have to start somewhere,” Paul said. “Quinnipiac was in the area and it offered a great opportunity for her just to start and have her own program.
“I think you have to take a risk, but never did I think it would become what it’s become.”
Tricia inherited the program and won 15 games in her first three seasons. Despite the on-court struggles, McDonald and then-Quinnipiac president John Lahey were determined to elevate the university to Division I.
“It was a difficult time,” McDonald said. “She had no full-time assistant coach. She had an office next to the elevator, as big as a closet. The proper support was not there for her. The first three or four years were a real struggle.
“To top it all off, we then dropped on to her, ‘Oh, coach, now you guys are Division I.’ We were playing a Division I schedule with Division III resources.”
Quinnipiac didn’t finish above .500 until Fabbri’s sixth year, but that year was almost her last.
On Dec. 4, 2000, Fabbri nearly left Quinnipiac.
The Quinnipiac Braves (2-2) hosted the Seton Hall Pirates (2-3) at Burt Kahn Court. The Pirates played in the highly-competitive Big East with teams like UConn and Notre Dame, among others. The Braves led by double digits at halftime, but the Pirates stormed back and won in overtime, 63-58.
“The crowd was disappointed – some people chirped some bad things at Trish,” McDonald said. “I go up to my office and I’m shutting down my computer and all of a sudden she walks in. She looks at me – and if the tears weren’t coming down her eyes, they were pretty close.
“She said ‘Jack, I can’t handle this. You deserve better than me. I want to resign.’ And I said ‘Trish, I’m going to pretend you never said that. Get the heck out of my office, go home, have a glass of wine, kiss your husband and hug your kids and we’ll talk on Monday.’ Frankly, that’s sort of the benchmark moment for the program.”
Fabbri (left) was emotional after the 2018 MAAC Championship Game.
Photo by Logan Reardon
Quinnipiac has had just three losing seasons since that day.
Now, the only tears Fabbri cries are after winning MAAC championships.
“That was the best thing for us, we took a great turn after that,” Fabbri said. “Jack saw the big picture and I just couldn’t see it. He saw the program moving, even if it was a step-by-step path. He believed in what I was doing.”
Off the court, the Fabbri’s were young parents. Their daughter Carly was born in April 1996, and sons A.J. and Paul Henry followed shortly after.
“I remember coming to her basketball camps when I was 3 years old,” Carly said. “I always had a ball in my hand. Growing up I was the water girl for the team and my mom would take me on any away trips I could go on. I loved being on the road and the bus with the team.”
While it was cool to have her mom coaching a Division I team, it did have some disadvantages.
Carly Fabbri cuts down the net after winning the 2018 MAAC title.
Photo from Logan Reardon
“(Tricia) missed Carly’s games when she was playing in high school, same thing with Paul Henry and A.J.,” Paul said. “She missed their games because of her responsibilities and it was extremely frustrating for her.”
Sports are everything in that family. Both of Tricia’s older brothers played Division I college football and each of the three children played in high school. They describe the family as a “team dynamic,” as sports dominate their lifestyle.
For Carly, knowing her mom had to miss some of her games was no big deal. She understood. It was the summer’s that hurt the most.
“I think it really hit home the hardest over the summer when she would go on almost two weeks of being on the road at a time and wasn’t home,” Carly said. “That’s when I would miss her the most. When I was off from school and if I wasn’t able to go recruiting with her, she was just gone for a long time and that’s when I got the most sad.”
As the kids grew older, Tricia’s program began to excel.
Now the Bobcats of Quinnipiac University, Fabbri’s squad won at least 10 conference games for six straight years from 2001 through 2006.
Fabbri credited Kim Misiaszek (‘01) and Colleen Klopp (‘01) – two Connecticut recruits from Old Lyme and Southington, respectively – for getting the team so competitive early in the Northeast Conference (NEC).
Still, people didn’t know what Quinnipiac was.
The name is funky and it’s in the middle of nowhere. So, how was Fabbri able to sell her budding program to recruits?
“As much as recruits will say they choose the school for the school, the coach is a very, very big reason why,” Mandy Pennewell (‘09) said. “It’s somebody that you’re going to love, and love to hate sometimes. You have to be able to handle that relationship at a young age where you are getting critiqued and certain things are expected of you.
“It felt like she was the mother of our herd, and you don’t cross that. You knew you had an environment where you were going to be protected, you were going to thrive and she was going to challenge you and hold you accountable.”
Quinnipiac was – and likely always will be – the “other” women’s college basketball program in Connecticut.
“When I was getting recruited, no one knew what Quinnipiac was,” Pennewell said with a laugh. “Honestly, after I committed, I just started saying I was going to school in Connecticut and everybody would think UConn. If you don’t know women’s college basketball you wouldn’t know.”
Quinnipiac lost to UConn in the 2018 NCAA Tournament Second Round, 71-46. (Photo by Morgan Tencza)
Now in 2007 with a growing program, Quinnipiac athletics changed forever – and people started to know the name. The People’s United Center (then the TD Bank Sports Center) opened on Jan. 27, 2007, moving the men’s and women’s basketball and ice hockey programs to the new $52 million arena.
“The building separated us from other mid-major universities,” Fabbri said. “This is just the brilliance of John Lahey. He wanted to continue to nationally build an academic reputation for the university, and he used athletics as the front porch. He saw athletics as a way to bring the university to national prominence.
“But it also brought a big responsibility, because if you build this, you better have success.”
MacGillivray celebrates his fifth and final conference championship as a Quinnipiac assistant coach in 2018.
Photo by Logan Reardon
Quinnipiac played its first full season on York Hill in 2007-08 (25-6, 16-2 NEC), and that coincided with the first postseason berth in program history. The Bobcats hosted future conference foe Iona at the TD Bank Sports Center in the first round of the WNIT on March 18, 2008, but lost, 71-59.
Still, it was another step for the program. Expectations were high as Quinnipiac brought in Mountain MacGillivray as a full-time assistant in 2009.
“When I got there, I said ‘If we don’t have the best roster in the league, we aren’t doing our job, because we’ve got a great school and a great coach and a great campus and a great arena,’” MacGillivray said. “What happened next was kind of inevitable. You just have to work hard and not make mistakes – and Trish rarely made any mistakes when it came to evaluating players and getting the right fits.”
Pennewell, along with Erin Kerner and Brianna Rooney, were some of the “right fits” that MacGillivray described. The trio graduated in 2009 and each made their mark on the program as part of that first postseason team in 2008.
After those three graduated, the program – and the university – took a detour from the progress they were making.
In April 2009, Quinnipiac women’s volleyball coach Robin Lamott Sparks and her players filed a lawsuit against the university. And as Pennewell, Kerner and Rooney left the school, Fabbri was forced to rebuild on the fly while her administration went through the lawsuit.
“(The Title IX case) really was a low point, but Trish did stay focused during it,” McDonald said. “A sign of a good coach is what you can do in adversity more than what you can do in success. She continued to be someone for all the younger women’s coaches to lean on. She was a rock.”
Sparks was a newer coach at Quinnipiac, so she didn’t really establish a relationship with Fabbri before the case.
“I was only there for about a year or two before the Title IX suit,” Sparks said. “And then after that, no one in athletics wanted to talk to me.”
Fabbri spoke on behalf of the basketball program during the case, but the suit didn’t affect her program in any way. In fact, they tried to avoid it all together.
“To a degree, there was separation by distance (because they were on York Hill and the rest of the sports were on main campus),” Fabbri said. “With that separation, I didn’t really know what was going on to be honest with you. No one was really talking about it because it was confidential. We were physically removed from it so I didn’t really get the ins and outs.
“I played a part in the trial, but I just had to answer everything that came and happened with the women’s basketball program. I was resourced and supported very well. It was just basketball, basketball, basketball questions from me so I just answered them.”
Framed QU Chronicle cover in Fabbri’s office after the Bobcats clinched their first NCAA Tournament berth.
Photo by Logan Reardon
While the program was not directly affected by the trial, the team did suffer back-to-back losing seasons in 2009-10 and 2010-11. It’s up for debate whether that was more related to the loss of their three star players or the trial. Coaches and players will say the right thing, but no one will ever truly know.
The case was settled in April 2013, and Quinnipiac agreed to keep all of its current women’s teams, add scholarships and improve facilities for its female athletes, according to a statement issued by the university.
In 2013-14, Fabbri was faced with another challenge. One year after her first NCAA Tournament bid, Quinnipiac jumped from the NEC to the MAAC.
“There was definitely a step up in competition (to the MAAC),” Adily Martucci ‘17 said. “I think there’s always going to be challenges when you are faced with teams you haven’t seen before. We were getting comfortable in the NEC.”
Martucci saw it all during her years. From her freshman year, the last in the NEC and the first in the NCAA Tournament, to her senior year and a Sweet 16 berth, Martucci likes to say she “joined the team at the perfect time.”
Martucci, along with Morgan Manz (‘17) and Carly Fabbri (‘18) (remember the 3-year-old at basketball camp?), helped bring the program to new heights.
Now, the Bobcats have been to three straight NCAA Tournaments and five of the last seven. It’s a dynasty by every definition of the word – there’s no way around it.
So with everything she’s achieved, what keeps Fabbri at Quinnipiac?
“I’ve had the opportunity to go and talk to the perceived bigger and power conferences. That’s been extremely interesting to go and do. But, just like recruiting, when you yourself are going and getting recruited, you find that the grass is never greener.”
Fabbri was a finalist for the Penn State job after last season, according to Blake DuDonis on High Post Hoops. Despite the reports, Fabbri insists she’s not interested in moving on.
“I’m really happy where my feet are and I still can make an impact within this program,” Fabbri said. “We can still achieve what I personally want to achieve. I really believe that second weekend (of the NCAA Tournament) is sitting there and I always like a challenge. It’s extremely difficult, but it’s also doable.”
If that’s the goal, then so be it. Fabbri holds the key to her future.
If she wants to use that key to make the drive north up I-95 for another 25 years, Quinnipiac will be better off.
But she’s earned the right to make that decision – whether she stays for life, or leaves tomorrow.
From the Spring concert, to the lack of a solidified music program, Quinnipiac University is falling behind on a major part of a student’s experience in college – music. With the lack of interest in the performances of Bryce Vine and Blackbear for the annual “Wake The Giant” concert, fewer and fewer open mic nights, and the closing of the school run radio station, WQUN, due to lack of student interest, the school and it’s students seem to be disconnected on a musical level.
In this podcast, we hear from all ends of the student spectrum, from the main stage chair of the Student Programming Board (SPB), Olivia Morgan, to the casual music listener, Paul Caracciolo. Other people we hear from include mainstay DJ at Toad’s Place, Casey Erickson, and Singer/Songwriter John Franklin, both students at Quinnipiac who reached out to SPB about opening up for the school’s spring concert. We also hear from Emma Spagnuolo, General Manager of WQAQ, the student run radio station at Quinnipiac, and how Quinnipiac wasn’t quite enough for her when it came to preparing her for her career choice after college.
Dirt roads that went for miles, no dwellings in sight- just a lush grassland lined with hills of blossoming trees– that was Hamden in the 1600s. Once a rural region, Hamden has evolved into a thriving and developing city nearly 70 years later, changing from masses of open farmland to a bustling landscape with buildings on every corner. The engine driving this progression is people.
Hamden center in 1936, courtesy of Dave Johnson
Today, the small town is a developing city on the rise with stores in every corner and residents on every street.
While these mental health disorders play a major role in the lives of college students, Quinnipiac University handles cases such as these and others through the university’s CARE (Community, Assessment, Response and Evaluation) team.
The university’s CARE team, along with many similar teams at other colleges, began as a result of the 2007 shooting on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (commonly known as Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia, according to the Chair of the CARE team, Courtney McKenna.
“The CARE team is our name for our dual model behavioral intervention and threat assessment team,” McKenna said. “Different schools call them different things. Some schools call them a BIT – behavioral intervention team. Some call them an SOS team – support of students team. Our CARE team and teams like them are teams that began being formed after the Virginia Tech shooting back in 2007.”
During the shooting incident at Virginia Tech, 23-year-old senior Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people on campus, before taking his own life, according to CNN. Prior to the shooting, Cho was ordered by a judge in 2005 to seek out mental health care after making suicidal threats around his roommates, according to CNN.
McKenna explained the purpose behind the university’s CARE team.
“What a CARE team, behavioral intervention team, threat assessment team, exists to do is to provide a centralized place on campus for people to refer behaviors, observations, students of concern (or) disclosures students make to them about a variety of different concerns,” McKenna explained.
The behaviors that are reported to the CARE team vary, according to McKenna.
“As a CARE team specifically, we will get referrals about students who have missed significant amounts of classes… they get referred to us by the Learning Commons,” McKenna said. “All the way up to students who have very concerning writing pieces. Writing pieces or class assignments that have some elements of violence or potential threats.”
McKenna explained that a CARE referral could come from any number of sources that are connected to the student of concern in some way.
“Our referrals come from a variety of people – faculty, fellow students… anyone inside or outside the (Quinnipiac) community,” McKenna said. “It can be parents and family members as well.”
McKenna described how the CARE team categorizes various warning signs in students.
“We encourage folks to look for three buckets of behaviors: health and wellness behaviors, situational concerns and also behavioral concerns,” McKenna said.
McKenna went on to explain what symptoms from each of the three categories look like.
“Health and wellness concerns can be excessive substance use, it could be a student who disclosed that they have been experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety, injuries, chronic illness, etc.,” McKenna said. “Behavioral concerns can be anything from a student who is really disruptive in class, a student who is engaging in threatening behavior with others, that type of thing. The last is situational – the loss of a loved one or family member, students who may be experiencing homelessness or food insecurity, interpersonal conflict with another person on campus or somewhere.”
Graphic by Jeremy Troetti
Lynn Hendricks, associate dean of student affairs and core member of the CARE team, explained the various behaviors that get reported, and how the CARE team handles the referrals.
“We have an entire range (of behaviors)… there are students who we are afraid might hurt themselves to students just not going to class at all,” Hendricks said. “I think what’s really nice about our team is that we treat every situation as if it’s the most urgent situation.”
Hendricks explained that her role on the CARE team is very comprehensive, as she supervises the leaders of the different departments students can be referred to.
“I’m listening if a student’s not feeling well,” Hendricks explained. “I’m also trying to look at what was the student’s behavior, because I supervise conduct… Do they live in housing, because I supervise housing. For each case, I try to think about resources… How can we best help the student? What’s the issue, and then also, what are the resources?”
Similarly to Hendricks, Christy Chase, director of student health services at Quinnipiac, explained that the various departments of CARE work together to evaluate how to best help the student in need.
“You can go from having someone with a very serious illness or injury that we’ve seen here (at the university health center) and then I’ll let other departments know, whether it be academics… How do we support this student? What can we do?” Chase said. “If it was something they went through that was traumatic, are they hooked up with counseling? Do we have things in place? I think the CARE team is wonderful at that – looking at it from a holistic perspective of all the different disciplines.”
*Statistics from CARE (2017) Graphic by Jeremy Troetti
Beyond members of the CARE team, student organization leaders receive training from the CARE team to learn how to identify potential issues in the students they work with.
Graphic by Jeremy Troetti
Quinnipiac senior Rosie Persiani, who is both the editor-in-chief of Montage, the university’s art and literary magazine, and is a peer catalyst for the university’s First Year Seminar class, explained the training she received from CARE.
“We are told what to look out for with some of our members, what to do in case one of our members is going through something (and) how to report it,” Persiani said.
Persiani believes that the training student leaders receive from CARE is helpful, and has especially made an impact on her role as editor-in-chief of Montage.
“We can use our discretion if we need to report (a student) or not,” Persiani said. “If we feel that we need to, we say something. Especially with Montage, because so many people share so many things at the open mic (events), it was helpful to have that training from CARE so I can distinguish if something is actually a call for help or if it’s just someone’s creativity.”
Persiani explained what exactly her training for the peer catalyst role taught her to look for in the students she assists.
“With students, you not only have to pay attention to their performance in the classroom and their grades, but what is their norm,” Persiani explained. “If a student regularly doesn’t come to class and then starts coming to class every day and participating, that’s not their norm. And even though that’s a good thing that they’re coming to class and participating, we have to check in with them.”
Persiani navigates the CARE form, accessible via Quinnipiac’s MyQ webpage. Photo by Jeremy Troetti.
Much like Persiani, Quinnipiac senior Lauren Heery, a student orientation leader for two years, explained that she went through training to identify potential warning signs in students’ behavior.
“(CARE) mostly discussed how to identify warning signs in the new students, such as if they’re struggling with adjusting to college and getting homesick, or are struggling to keep up with school work, things like that,” Heery said. “And they also explained to us the resources we had available to help the students.”
While Heery explained that she has never had to refer a student to CARE, she has had students reach out to her seeking various resources on Quinnipiac’s campus.
Leah Lavin, who is a peer mentor at Quinnipiac, described the training that CARE provides to peer mentors.
“For (the) peer mentor (position), we had a representative from both the health center and learning Commons come in again and talk to us about the resources the CARE team can provide,” Lavin said. “This training wasn’t as structured due to the smaller group size and that many of us had already been trained on the CARE team resources through previous experiences since we were all upperclassmen.”
Graphic by Jeremy Troetti
Persiani explained that she has experienced having to refer a student to the CARE team due to a concerning piece the student performed at one of Montage’s open mic events.
“I’ve had to say something to the CARE team about an incident at an open mic,” Persiani said. “It was told to the (residence hall directors), who then took it forward.”
Hendricks, who began working in higher education in 1990, and has worked on similar behavioral intervention teams at the University of North Florida and Florida International University (FIU), described a specific concerning case that she and other members of the CARE team had to address.
“One of the situations that I think everyone on the team found particularly challenging is we had a student who was consistently getting arrested. But it was all happening off campus, so our public safety wasn’t responding to it,” Hendricks explained.
Hendricks said that the CARE team did find particular difficulty in addressing this case, due to the arrests not occurring on campus.
“We were doing some checking and finding out that he was in different counties, doing different things and getting in trouble,” Hendricks said. “So we talked about as a team how we should approach it. Because as a team, we are equipped to talk about if you’re not going to class, we have the tools, or if you’re telling us you’re sad, we can talk about it with counseling. But when someone is involved in serious situations away from the campus, how do we approach it?
Following confirmation of the student’s arrest, members of the CARE team determined that the university’s “community” extends to every member of it, and the student was suspended.
“There was a lot of dialogue, because people felt really strongly ‘Well if it’s not happening on campus, it’s not a problem for us’… but I was really pleased that we were able to agree that our community extends and that we do have to worry about people’s behavior on campus, but also away from campus,” Hendricks said. “The student actually was suspended from the university and then that prompted parent involvement, so the student could get help.”
Hendricks highlighted the importance of having a team to make decisions such as these, rather than just one individual.
“I’m one of those individuals who believes that you need a group to assess situations,” Hendricks said. “You need to hear different perspectives and different opinions. It shouldn’t be one person decides (an appropriate course of action).”
As for how the CARE team can increase its impact on Quinnipiac’s campus, Hendricks explained that she believes the university should seek to hire additional members of the team to address both legal and academic advising issues.
McKenna explained that she is working on putting together documentation to further increase the impact of the team at Quinnipiac.
“I am working on a document folder that looks like a manila folder printed with campus resources on it, [including] general behaviors that we want people to refer to us and what that looks like in real life,” McKenna said. “What are some of the signs and symptoms that might let someone know that maybe a student might have a substance abuse issue or a student might be experiencing depression or someone might be moving toward a potential act of violence on campus.”
Hendricks believes that the goal of the CARE team is to not simply discipline students, but rather do what is best for their well-being.
“For me, it’s always the same goal to get the individual the help they need, while keeping in mind the safety of the entire community,” she said.
College life differs from student to student. It is an opportunity to not only grow as a person, but act as a highway to the next stages of our lives. They can grow in the classroom learning about biology. Others hone their craft by going out in the professional world with real life experience. While students attend Quinnipiac University for education, they have other interests outside the classroom. Greek life might be an option for some, while others get involved in volunteer work. Then there are few who represent the university in another way, athletics.
Student-athletes have one of the toughest lives on campus. Their schedule is jam packed with practices, games, workouts, and most important, attending class. They live a double life as athlete who represents the school, and a student attempting to enhance their life by receiving an education.
They live this hectic life for four years, only to have it gone in the blink of an eye. When it is gone, there is a void to fill. What do they do with their time? What comes next? Most athletes do not have the chance to play their sport professionally after college, so they need to fall back on what they attended school for.
After playing their sport for their entire life, it is not a simple task to adjust to life without it. In this podcast, Life of a Student-Athlete: Post Graduation, I talk to former college athletes, Quinnipiac Field Hockey Head Coach
Becca Main, and Career Advisor Lila Carney.
Maggie Pruitt playing college soccer at Shorter University. Pruitt’s love for the game was the main reason for her job in college athletics today.
Carly Fabbri posing for her senior roster photo. Fabbri won three conference championships in her collegiate career.
Becca Main is the head coach for the Field Hockey team at Quinnipiac. She was a two time All-American at Penn State.
Mary Alice Limperopulous played on the Women’s golf team at Fairfield University for four years. She was a two year captain.
The battle to end smoking has been ongoing for decades. Just when cigarettes began to die off completely, e-cigarettes and Juuls became the hottest trend of the last five years.
This podcast looks to explore the trend of Juuling specifically in high school settings. High school students, teachers, college students, and advertising experts give their take on why vaping has grown in popularity. We look to understand, why is it cool to Juul?
Beneath the flurry of caps and gowns, tassels and sashes brims an undeniable anxiety that is alive within every Quinnipiac student approaching graduation day. With three weeks left till that prospective date, such fear is rising to the surface and threatening to boil over.
Considering the theme for this week’s presidential inauguration is “Your Future,” Quinnipiac’s next batch of graduates can’t help but think about theirs.
“I am scared,” QU alum and Ted Talk speaker, Lauren Cantu said in the opening of her recent speech. Taking place Tuesday, April 30, Cantu’s talk was the first of four speeches in a lineup dedicated to the dilemmas that lay ahead. Her’s specifically dealt with the the well-being of physicians as well as the potential for burnout in her future career.
“I am scared for my future,” Cantu said. She’s not alone.
Like Cantu, another QU alum Anthony Allen voiced concerns in his own Ted Talk about communities and sustainability.
“We’re facing some big challenges and systemic failure today,” Allen said. “We urgently need a new approach and a new perspective.”
As of Wednesday, May 1, Quinnipiac heard from someone offering just that.
The People’s United Center before guests’ arrival
During the inaugural celebration of Quinnipiac’s first female President Judy Olian, she spoke to these concerns. She also presented an array of solutions and addressed possible ways to secure a future that is bright for all who seek it.
She started with what Quinnipiac can do as an institution of higher learning, for both its students and the larger community they will soon become apart of. When Olian was named as the university’s ninth president just over a year ago, she was tasked with creating a strategic plan for the university’s future.
“Here we are– this relatively small school with this giant ambition,” Olian said in Wednesday’s speech. “I believe we have the potential to define a piece of the landscape of higher education.”
Just how does she plan to make Quinnipiac an institution of excellence? The truth is, it’s a work in progress. It’s work that is never fully done, but constantly underway.
“In the spirit of constant beginnings, the strategic plan in process over the last eight months has resulted in an exciting vision for Quinnipiac that builds the bridges to our shared future,” Olian said.
This vision is one that hinges on several factors: distinctive academic programming, nurturing internal and external communities and inclusive excellence.
“We will aspire to become a community that’s built on trust, openness and stability,” Olian said. “One that can have honest conversations about difficult subjects and that cares for and elevates marginalized members of society.”
Olian mentioned the importance of celebrating the differences within the community and welcoming members of underrepresented groups. This includes first-generation students, LGBTQ members, veterans and individuals from various socioeconomic backgrounds.
Along the same lines of diversity and inclusivity, students and faculty alike were thrilled enough at the prospect of having Olian as the university’s very first female president.
“It’s a landmark celebration– this is really exciting for Quinnipiac,” professor of women studies Melissa Kaplan said. “I think having inclusive excellence and celebrating diversity is the hallmark of any higher educational institution and I’m excited to be apart of her vision for the future.”
QU alum and masters student Brian Koonz was also in attendance. At the age of 53, Koonz is working on his graduate degree while also working as an adjunct in the school of communications. Like Kaplan, he appreciates and stands in support of Olian’s vision.
“It’s a powerful and pivotal moment in the university’s history,” Koonz said. “It’s a time of transformative change, not just for higher education as a whole, but really for Quinnipiac.”
Beza Indashaw, senior health science studies and pre-med student agreed wholeheartedly.
”I think we’re heading towards the right direction,” Indashaw said. “Trying to make this a more inclusive community is big for us, and her ideals are something I think Quinnipiac needs right now.”
Such ideals include an emphasis on lifelong learning, openness and the ability to embrace and effect change when necessary.
“I like higher institutions who are able to pivot with relative ease to the opportunities of the future,” Olian said. “That combination of comprehensiveness with focus, warmth and embracive change, are the contours of Quinnipiac distinctiveness and they drew me to this unique institution.”
In addition to the great potential Olian sees in the university, she also recognizes that complex problems and effective solutions are best approached by teams with a variety of perspectives. She admitted in her speech that there is still a ways to go.
“We are not yet where we need to be as an inclusive institution– not in faculty or staff, not in students or alumni, not in programming. We aspire to be more,” Olian said. “The university of the future cannot be a replica of what it was yesterday, or even what it is today.”
None of the changes Olian proposed will be achieved by looking back. As someone taking the reins from former president of 31 years John Lahey, Olian shows no signs of doing so.
Many, including Koonz, are excited to see her at work.
“We look forward to seeing what the future of Quinnipiac University has for us under her guidance.”
Abandoned cars. Streets closed. Locals forced to walk back to their homes. Holly Masi reflects on the one-year anniversary of the unexpected and destructive tornado that ripped through her hometown of Hamden, Connecticut last May. Masi was fortunate enough to not lose power, but many of her friends that live in northern Hamden did not have that same fortune. Luckily for Masi and other Hamden residents, there is always one reliable outlet for local news and information, even in times of emergency, Quinnipiac University’s commercial AM radio station, WQUN.
“You’re not going to get the same up-to-date coverage on a statewide level, “ said Masi, “The fact that I had local radio to tune into – that was critical to me.”
Masi is unsure, however, of where she’ll turn for guidance when the next major storm or outage hits, as nearly three months ago, Quinnipiac University officials announced that WQUN would be shutting down this summer.
Masi’s petition, which she created in February, has since collected over 1,000 signatures.
In a statement emailed to the university community, Lynn Bushnell, Vice President for Public Affairs, wrote, “This difficult decision was made after careful consideration of our first priority, the needs of our students. The number of students who even consider a career in radio, or want to intern at WQUN-AM has declined sharply, prompting the university to re-examine the prudence of contributing to operate a community radio station.”
The decision to close WQUN sparked anger in the community, which is why Masi, a lifelong Hamden resident and the town’s Zoning Enforcement Officer, decided to create a petition in an attempt to save the station. Since it was created in February, Masi’s petition has racked up over 1,000 supporters.
“When I heard that it was closing, something sunk in me,” said Masi, “It just seemed like one of those decisions that was like, there’s just no way to wrap your head around it. I’ve not run into one person that hasn’t had the same reaction, so I just was sitting at home and I started the petition.”
Her petition pulled support from all facets of the community, from Hamden residents, to Quinnipiac students and even town officials, including Mayor Curt Leng. Mayor Leng even left a comment on the petition in support of the station writing, “This is an incredible community resource, the Public Safety centerpiece, I’m hopeful that the university rethink this shortsighted decision.”
WQUN’s mission statement, which was introduced in 1997 when the station first took to the airwaves.
Though Bushnell cited that the decision to shut down the station was influenced by the changing needs of students, the initial reason why WQUN was established, however, was not for students at all. In fact, according to the station’s original mission statement, it serves to connect Quinnipiac to the Hamden/ New Haven community.
On top of the original mission statement, a 1997 New York Times article further reported that WQUN was designed to connect the university to the community. It stated, “students at Quinnipiac are not the station’s primary audience; rather, the entire New Haven area is, encompassing 15 towns.” In the article, Michael Collins, former WQUN station manager, indicated that the station’s focus would be on “community activities – on positive things.”
According to Quinnipiac’s official website, WQUN has now been serving the local New Haven area for over 20 years. The station also “entertains audiences with a variety of music from the ‘60s through the ‘80s, as well as Bobcats sports, local traffic and weather, and award-winning local news.”
WQUN currently features radio shows like The Morning Show with Ray Andrewsen and Lunch with Landry, which highlight community leaders and elected officials, showcase local small businesses and community events and even broadcast information related to Quinnipiac. Not to mention, the station serves as a source for Quinnipiac athletic broadcasts.
“I am a huge local radio supporter because I know the value that’s in it,” said Masi, “I know the community it cultivates. It helps bridge the gap between the university and the community. It’s a place where everyone can go to get their information.”
Masi’s petition already collected 800 signatures just a few weeks after taking off, which made the decision to shut down WQUN one of the hottest topics around campus moving into President Judy Olian’s “State of the QUnion” address in February.
Quinnipiac administration continued to take heat for the decision at the event, however President Olian stepped up to defend the decision when she said, “AM radio is no longer a very well-listened to outlet. In fact, audience has gone down dramatically for AM.”
Though President Olian argued that AM listenership is down, industry research indicates otherwise. According to Nielsen’s second-quarter 2017 Comparable Metrics Report, Americans tune into AM/FM radio each week more than any other media platform. In fact, 93 percent of Americans over the age of 18 listen to radio every week. Comparatively, 88 percent of Americans watch TV, 83 percent utilize smartphones and only 50 percent use personal computers weekly. Radio is without a doubt America’s top reach medium.
Perhaps one reason for why radio is America’s most popular medium, as the Hamden community proved in its outcry about WQUN, is because of radio’s ability to engage with local audiences. More than eight in ten respondents to a recent Jacobs Media poll indicate that they agree or strongly agree with the statement “one of radio’s primary advantages is its local feel.”
Masi, of course, is one person who values radio’s local feel. “I’m all about being a local person. I only buy coffee local. I don’t really like to go to the chains, so I’m the same way with radio. I might dabble in listening to other stuff, but I always stay true to my hometown people.”
Even industry experts believe in local radio. Steve Chessare is the General Manager of two Cumulus stations in Connecticut, both WICC and WEBE. Prior to working for Cumulus, Chessare spent years working in management roles for several other radio conglomerates, from Greater Media to Clear Channel Communications (presently known as iHeartMedia.) After 34 years of working in the industry, he is still an advocate for listening local.
Steve Chessare, General Manager of WICC and WEBE. Photo courtesy of Radio Ink, the industry’s premiere management and marketing magazine.
“People want to know what’s going on in their communities,” said Chessare, “They want to know what is news that impacts their daily lives. Whenever there’s a natural disaster or a major event, the majority of people turn to the radio to find out what’s going on.”
Community radio stations have the ability to deliver hyperlocal information to listeners that they cannot get from regional or national stations. Stations that broadcast voice-tracked programming that is syndicated across the nation especially fail to localize news for listeners. According to Chessare, local radio is going through a renaissance.
“Right now, local radio is hot and a lot of broadcasters that have turned their backs on the local initiative are now coming back to realize how valuable it is and how profitable it is,” said Chessare, “I think you’re going to see more broadcasters focusing on local radio – live and local, instead of just these big national platforms.”
Although Bushnell indicated in her statement that students are moving away from careers in radio, many Quinnipiac students, including over one hundred members of Quinnipiac’s student-run radio station, WQAQ, and four current student interns at WQUN this semester, feel otherwise.
Marc Regis, one current WQUN intern and WQAQ member, feels that Quinnipiac administrators turned their backs on many students interested in broadcasting when they released the initial statement announcing WQUN would shut down.
“Personally, I feel that radio is incredibly popular at Quinnipiac,” said Regis, “During my four years here, the number of radio shows has grown exponentially. It angers me that Quinnipiac students will no longer be able to use the skills they learned at WQAQ in a low-stakes, professional environment.”
Quinnipiac’s School of Communications does not currently offer a radio broadcasting or concentrated audio journalism-related degree, so students interested in these avenues must pursue them outside of the classroom, through WQAQ or outside jobs and internships.
Another WQUN intern, senior Alessandro Woodbridge from Brighton, England, loves the industry so much that he was willing to work for the station unpaid, after he missed the traditional deadline to apply for a paid semester-long internship.
Woodbridge said that the “community feel” is the reason why he loves radio so much, as he noted he is particularly inspired by Lunch with Landry, a daily midday program hosted by WQUN’s Operations Manager, Pam Landry. The show often spotlights local businesses, politicians or other prominent members of the Hamden community.
“It felt like she was actually helping people and that was kind of a really nice thing about it,” Woodbridge said, “I’m all for helping people. I think it’s a really beautiful thing, it makes you think you’re trying to give back. That’s why I like Lunch with Landry.”
Woodbridge felt so inspired by Landry’s show that he actually plans to work in radio himself following graduation. He hopes to someday host a program similar to Lunch with Landry and be the voice of a community.
“WQUN was literally the perfect opportunity for me to have that radio experience that’s local,” said Woodbridge, “Getting that exposure to that radio environment, knowing how it works, it was so valuable.”
Many former WQUN interns have gone on to have successful broadcasting careers, as Woodbridge hopes to. Kevin Rincon is one former intern who can attest to how the station prepared him for a career in radio, despite the university’s suggestion that students have turned away from these careers. Rincon interned for WQUN through 2010 and currently works for WCBS, an Entercom station in New York City, as an anchor and reporter.
“I had the growing pains at WQUN as an intern there and that really prepared me to hit the ground running when I came out,” said Rincon, “It taught me the persistence, it taught me good work ethic, it taught me to be held accountable. It really gave me the opportunity to be in a professional capacity without being a professional just yet.”
Kevin Rincon, former intern at WQUN and current Anchor/ Reporter for WCBS. Photo courtesy of LinkedIn.
Rincon explained that WQUN prepared him for a range of opportunities in the industry, as he has both worked for traditional terrestrial radio stations, as well as radio startups.
“That’s really a testament to WQUN where I was both prepared to walk into a heritage station, where people have been doing the same thing for decades, and I was also able to help out at places that literally were just trying to find ideas on how to build something from the ground up.”
He, too, is saddened by the university’s decision to close the station.
“I think it’s disappointing because I think it’s shortsighted,” said Rincon. He went on to say, “It’s disappointing because I think there’s more avenues for growth in that field than there is in some other mediums that Quinnipiac is investing in. That’s my take – they obviously didn’t share in that.”
Not to mention, he feels that WQUN’s connection to the community is extremely valuable. As a radio journalist and news junkie, Rincon feels the most valuable aspect of local radio is to be able to hear from local leaders.
“In radio, we have the opportunity to hear someone, to go through what they believe, what they think about certain issues that impact the community,” said Rincon, “It’s a great tool to hear from your elected officials, to hear from your community leaders, to hear from people who make an impact on your community and hold them to account.”
Rincon hopes that Quinnipiac will revisit and reverse their decision, however as the clock ticks down on WQUN’s final broadcast on May 31, it seems unlikely that they will. It should not go unnoticed that Quinnipiac Board of Trustee members have thoroughly supported the decision to shut the station down. The Chairman of Quinnipiac’s Board of Trustees, William Weldon, told the New Haven Register back in March that “to continue to invest in areas that are part of the past is probably not the best use of the resources.”
Though President Olian’s reasoning for shutting down the station appears to be contradicted by recent studies, she has made it clear that the university is unwilling to reconsider. President Olian has since expressed that she intends to utilize the building housing WQUN as a podcast center for next year, however no further information regarding that has been announced yet.
This still leaves Masi and many other community members who have supported her petition unsatisfied.
“What keeps fueling the fire is the fact that we don’t have an answer from the university that actually makes sense – that’s truthful, that supports what we know to be the truth.”
