After 31 years, the holder of Quinnipiac University’s executive office changed with the arrival of Judy Olian as the ninth president last July. During the week of April 30, she will be inaugurated with a university-wide celebration.
The events include an inauguration ceremony at the People’s United Center on May 1, faculty talks and “A Taste of the Arts,” among others.
“It is deeply humbling to be entrusted with the leadership of a university as dynamic and well-regarded as Quinnipiac,” President Olian said on a Quinnipiac Now post. “As we build the University of Your Future, we take the first symbolic steps as a Quinnipiac family along with our guests at the People’s United Center on May 1. I am grateful that the inauguration committee has programmed events throughout the celebration days to bring our community together to learn, to serve and to celebrate.”
A list of events that are included in the Inauguration Ceremony. (Courtesy: Quinnipiac University)
One gathering of particular interest during the week is a TedX event, the second of its kind for the community with the first one held in 2014. A TedX event includes speakers who present powerful ideas and speeches. The theme of the event is “Your Future.”
Quinnipiac senior and TedX host Joel Vanner also spoke of this idea and how it relates to the president’s strategic plan.
“What we’re really looking for this year is people to really come out and talk about the topic of your future,” he said. “I know it’s something that President Olian really touched upon in her strategic plan is that this is positioning Quinnipiac to to be the university of your future.”
“I think President Olian is really committed to listening to the students, finding out what we need and want, and working her hardest to see it become a reality,” SGA President Austin Calvo said. “I didn’t have the best start to my relationship with President Olian, but she has proven herself time and time again as the leader Quinnipiac needs.”
Calvo believes that the events will be an accurate representation of the future.
“I think they’re going to be really cool,” Calvo said. “We rarely get to see a presidential inauguration, and the events planned seem like they’re really going to represent the future of Quinnipiac, with President Olian at the helm.”
The community can find additional information about the scheduled celebration on the university’s official inauguration web page.
A post on Facebook by UFCW Local 371 announcing that an agreement has been reached.
After an 11 day strike, Stop & Shop and local unions have reached tentative three-year agreements that will end the labor dispute.
“We are very pleased to announce Stop & Shop has reached fair new tentative agreements with UFCW Locals 328, 371, 919, 1445 and 1459, which represent our 31,000 associates in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island,” the Stop & Shop statement said, “We’re also glad to have our associates return to work as the strike has ended.”
The statement also includes some details of what is included in the agreement including increased pay.
“The tenative three-year agreements, which are subject to ratification votes by members of each of the union locals, include:
Increased pay for all associates;
Continued excellent health coverage for eligible associates; and
Ongoing defined benefit pension benefits for all eligible associates.”
Stop & Shops official update located on its labor page.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union also released a statement regarding the agreements.
“Under this proposed contract, our members will be able to focus on continuing to help customers in our communities enjoy the best shopping experience possible and to keep Stop & Shop the number one grocery store in New England,” it said. “The agreement preserves health care and retirement benefits, provides wage increases, and maintains time-and-a-half pay on Sunday for current members.”
UFCW Local 371 posted news about the negotiation on its Facebook page informing workers of the agreement and announcing information on the next steps.
“Members, as of minutes ago, we have reached a tentative agreement with Stop & Shop. For the time being, all department managers and regularly scheduled daytime full-time should report to their store at 7:30 a.m. Monday,” the post said. “For all additional full- and part-time members, you should receive a phone call from your store no later than 12pm tomorrow to get your schedule for the week. If you do not receive a call, please call your store for your schedule.”
Strikers will also receive some money for their efforts according to the post.
“Monetary benefits from the strike fund will still be coming soon for those who were on the lines,” the post stated.
In order to get back on track, Stop & Shop says it will focus on restocking its stores.
“Our associates’ top priority will be restocking our stores so we can return to taking care of our customers and communities and providing them with the service they deserve,” the statement said. “We deeply appreciate the patience and understanding of our customers during this time, and we look forward to welcoming them back to Stop & Shop.”
Union members are urged to attend their local ratification meetings in order to receive full details on the agreements.
“We strongly encourage you to attend your Local’s contract ratification meeting for a complete and detailed report of what is in the contract,” the UFCW Local 371 said. “We will send you immediate notices of when and where your Local’s meeting will be.”
The post ended with a thank you to all of those involved for their efforts.
“The message you sent by collectively standing up for yourselves, your families, and for good jobs, has resonated not only with the company, but all of America,” it read. “Thank you for everything that you’ve done.”
At 8 p.m., ballots closed. 8:30 p.m. No phone call. 8:45 p.m. The phone rings. Austin Calvo lunges for his cell phone. Just a friend. Not the person he hoped for, not the person he needs. Fifteen minutes pass. No call. Thirty minutes. No call.
9:45 p.m. The phone rings again. This time, it was Quinnipiac University’s current Student Government Association President Ryan Hicks. The moment Calvo was waiting for. His anxiety washed away.
He did it. He won.
Quinnipiac Student Government Association President-elect Austin Calvo
(Photo courtesy: SGA)
On Wednesday, April 10, the Quinnipiac student body elected Calvo, a junior political science major, as its next SGA president. Calvo has broken the mold as one of the first openly gay SGA presidents to be elected.
Joining Calvo on the executive board as vice president-elect is a second openly gay member of the LGBTQ+ community, Sophia Marshall. Along with Calvo and Marshall, the student body elected two people of color, Esau Greene, vice president-elect of student experience, and Jamien Jean-Baptiste, vice president-elect of marketing and public relations, making this one of the most diverse executive boards in Quinnipiac history.
“To have two out, proud people of the LGBTQ community and to have two proud black men on this executive board is amazing,” Calvo said. “This is the most unique SGA I’ve ever seen and I’m really excited to see what we can bring.”
The road to the office was not an easy one for Calvo. His sexuality was never something he wanted to hide and with it so openly on display, Calvo experienced slight pushback from members of the Quinnipiac community.
On the day of the executive board debates, one of Calvo’s campaign posters was defaced with homophobic remarks. Calvo received a call from Hicks informing him that the posters had been immediately taken down.
The comments affected Calvo’s confidence during the debates later that day. Calvo said he felt as if he needed to dial back aspects of his personality. He didn’t even feel comfortable bringing up his bright yellow water bottle covered in stickers for fear of appearing gay.
“It’s just something you’re always conscious of,” Calvo said. “You always have to be aware that you’re not the norm.”
According to Lindsey Downey, the sophomore president of Quinnipiac’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance, visibility of the LGBTQ+ community is necessary to eliminate homophobia like which Calvo experienced.
“A lot of hurtful actions that people say or do (come) from a place of ignorance,” Downey said. “They don’t know or they weren’t exposed to (LGBTQ+). If you’re not exposed to people of the LGBTQ community, if you don’t know people of color or what their culture is, the queer culture or any other culture, there’s no way to know what’s appropriate and what’s not.”
But Calvo refuses to let negativity about his sexuality affect him. His passion for student government and advocacy drove him to push through this homophobia.
Hicks explained that it was difficult to make that call and tell Calvo his posters were defaced, but added that Calvo’s tenacity was inspiring.
“It was heartbreaking to see that picture and it was heartbreaking to deliver that news,” Hicks said. “But I don’t think that that should really be the story, I think the way Austin handled that news and said, ‘This isn’t going to be something that I stop fighting for,’ I think that’s what should be focused on … Austin’s rebound to it and his continuation throughout the week.”
Instead of quitting, Calvo learned to adjust his campaign strategies. He made it his mission to seek out the opinions of the heterosexual males with whom he struggled to connect. He began to realize that the student body cared less about his sexuality and more about his ideas and how he could affect the university.
Throughout his first few years at Quinnipiac, even with slight resistance from a very small percentage of the student body, Calvo has been able to embrace every aspect of himself.
“It was just so nice that over these past three years I have unapologetically been myself,” Calvo said. “I have shared every view I have in class, any opinion I have with my friends and people around me, I have never been scared to step down.”
Sophomore Sophia Marshall, the SGA vice president-elect and also a member of the LGBTQ+ community, has faced less resistance than Calvo. As she puts it, she has the benefit of looking straight. There were points when Marshall herself questioned what people would think of her because of her sexuality. But she has ensured that what represents her are her ideas.
Unlike other members of LGBTQ+, she feels that, even among those who do not support her, she at least commands respect.
“I think even in my experience, some of the people who don’t accept the way that I am, which is very, very, very seldom, even those people will respect my work ethic and will come to me regardless because they know that I can get things done,” Marshall said.
Quinnipiac Student Government Association Vice President-elect Sophia Marshall
(Photo courtesy: SGA)
Marshall believes that the results of this SGA election are reflective of the progressiveness of Quinnipiac’s student body, of its faculty and of its community as a whole. The students backed ideas and chose their elected officials based on campaign platforms, not on sexuality.
“I think it kind of goes to show that Quinnipiac is moving in a more progressive way, which is really exciting,” Marshall said. “And I think the other thing is, I’m really proud of the fact that I’m super gay.”
Downey agrees and hopes that Marshall and Calvo can serve as inspirations for members of Quinnipiac’s LGBTQ+ community to feel more comfortable with their sexualities.
“Austin and Sophia are both very open about their identity within the community, which is amazing,” Downey said. “There are so many LGBTQ faculty, staff, students here, but to have them sort of like front and center is nice because people can look at them and be like, ‘they’re here.’”
But how will this diverse new e-board have an impact on the student body?
With new voices and perspectives on SGA’s executive board, the student body population, as a whole, has a voice. According to Calvo, advocacy for minority groups becomes stronger when minority groups have representatives speaking up for them specifically.
“It gives almost every niche community of Quinnipiac a voice in the room,” Calvo said.
The next few years of Quinnipiac’s future will be full of change. With a new president, Judy Olian, and with the introduction of her strategic plan, SGA will need to advocate for the students more than ever.
The newly elected executive board represents members of the LGBTQ+ community, it represents people of color, it represents women and it represents men. But more importantly, the board is full of passion for change and advocacy. It’s full of passion for Quinnipiac’s students. As the current e-board steps down, Hicks said he is more than confident that he’s leaving SGA in the hands of a new group of leaders that has every student at Quinnipiac in its best interest.
“When I look at how eager they are and how enthusiastic they are and how passionate they are, it just shows how much they want this and how much they want to represent and advocate for the students.”
Bruce Campbell, former National Football League offensive tackle
Hamden native, Bruce Campbell was picked in the tenth round of the 2010 NFL draft to play offensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders. A graduate of Hamden High who played collegiate football at the University of Maryland, Campbell went on to play for other notable teams such as the North Carolina Panthers and the New York Jets.
Now that I have your attention, an accessible safe sex pilot program is underway in Commons.
Quinnipiac’s Student Government Association (SGA) installed new condom dispensers which are now located in the laundry room of the freshman residence hall.
In an email to students, SGA said that if successful, the dispensers may be distributed to other residential halls.
“If the trial run goes well and students treat it with respect, we hope to implement this in other residence halls across campus,” it stated.
Junior Class Senator Julia Schade said that freshmen residence halls could possibly be the first to see the further installation.
“I think the plan is to expand gradually, so maybe implement in other freshmen (residence halls) first and gradually add to the others after that,” she said.
An example of the new condom dispensers that have been installed in Commons.
Christy Chase, Quinnipiac’s director of student health services, stated that a national uptick in sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhea are one reason for this sexual wellness initiative.
“It has been an increase in gonorrhea, chlamydia, more so chlamydia I would say,” Chase said. “Syphilis has also started to rear its ugly head again and you know, we’re not really sure what the reasoning is behind that.”
Schade and Junior Class President Anna Nardelli assisted in completing this initiative after former representative Hope Estrella got the ball rolling. The two worked with departments on campus including student health services, facilities and residential life to get them installed.
“I think it’s huge,” Schade said in regards to the program getting the green light. “I think it just shows how much power the students have and how much we can make changes happen that’s going to benefit the students.”
Schade said Commons was chosen because of its population.
“I think it was just because they have both guys and girls on the same floor,” she said. “It just kind of made it easy. There’s a large population of freshmen students in there.”
Gonorrhea Statistics – Connecticut
Information from the CDC regarding gonorrhea and age ranges in the state of Connecticut.
Graphic by Emma Robertson
Chlamydia Statistics – Connecticut
Information from the CDC regarding chlamydia and age ranges in the state of Connecticut.
Graphic by Emma Robertson
The discussion for the location started with the idea of putting condoms in the bathrooms of Commons. However, there were concerns of the possibility of vandalism which ultimately led to the final location.
“So, originally we were talking about putting them in the bathrooms, one girl bathroom, one guy bathroom in Commons,” she said. “But then with the vandalism we decided to put them in the laundry rooms.”
Mark DeVilbiss, Quinnipiac’s director of residential life, had reservations about the vandalism when discussing the program.
“My worry was that people would not be respectful of the dispensers or the effort,” DeVilbiss said. “I’ve seen the dispensers, they’re plastic, they can be broken very easily and so that was my whole concern was just the whole student behavior piece.”
However, DeVilbiss stated that he hopes the students will not only use the dispensers, but also educate themselves as well.
“Well I hope that students utilize the resource and I hope they learn something about sexual health along the way,” he said. “Students already have access to the free condoms through the student health services but if this makes it just a little bit easier, that’s great.”
One hope is that due to the easy accessibility of the condoms, Quinnipiac students may be more motivated to practice safer sex. Chase believes in this, but thinks it needs to be in conjunction with education and some programming.
“But then to know, OK, I’m in the moment or whatever I can run down to within the dorm, you know, for those people that it’s accessible,” Chase said. “So I do think I would foresee it being helpful.”
Emma Hunt, a freshman and resident of Commons, echoed the importance of this accessibility.
“I think the dispensers are a good idea,” Hunt said. “Condoms are expensive and having dispensers in the dorm is more convenient than having to walk to the health center which could be closed when you get there.”
She also said that the accessibility of the dispensers could lead to safer practices on campus.
“Because the condoms are free and in a convenient place I think people will feel more comfortable getting condoms so they’ll be used more often which in turn mitigates the spread of (sexually transmitted diseases) around school,” she said.
This is a fact sheet that the Student Government Association has attached to the dispensers.
Austin Calvo, SGA’s vice president for student experience and a former Commons resident, also highlighted the accessibility of the condoms.
“I think it’s just the concept that if people want to have sex, they’re going to have sex and this gives them more of an open, private way to get condoms if they can’t afford to get them, can’t make it to Walgreens to get them, can’t go to the health center when it’s open,” Calvo said.
Kevin Parker, Quinnipiac’s prevention and wellness educator, said it was important to understand the stigma around getting tested for sexually transmitted infections. This includes the asking of the question “when was the last time you got tested?”
“That might not be a question that people right now feel comfortable asking each other,” Parker said.
The program will run until May 3 and if successful, will be implemented in other residential areas around campus.
“If (the program) goes well in Commons and I really hope that it does, I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be like an across campus thing when we come back in the fall,” Calvo said. “Having access to condoms is never a bad thing, you know?”
Alissa Parker ‘s social media feed masked the horrific reality of her life as a college student mentally abused by an ex-boyfriend.
But she never discussed it because social media clouded her judgment.
“I never talked about it because in social media you look good, you don’t want to show that you’re having difficult problems,” said Parker, now a senior nursing major at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.. “So instead of dealing with my problems, I posted all the time on social media how happy I was, look what I’m doing because I thought that was a good way to kind of cope with the situation for lack of a better term.”
Parker, then a sophomore, knew she had to confront reality and do so without delay. She turned to her resident assistant for help and got the support she needed. She is an RA herself now, works in Quinnipiac’s admissions department as a tour guide and is a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority.
Parker’s use of social media as a mask to hide her personal pain is just one example of how the apps that seem to dominate the lives of the young can work to harm them while seeming to offer endless connections to good times.
“Yeah, it may look like I have my life together on paper and on social media because I’m posting with my boyfriend and I’m posting with my sorority sisters and I look like I’m doing great, but there are times inside I feel for a lack of a better term again, dead,” she said.
She’s not alone.
Nick Calderaro is a senior finance major who works in Quinnipiac’s campus life office, runs an organization on campus, serves as a first-year seminar peer catalyst and is an orientation leader, among other things.
He too has seen social media used as a mask.
“So it’s just so artificial in the sense that you can put whatever you want out there and you know, just make things out to be what they’re not at all,” Calderaro said.
An informal survey of Quinnipiac students in class Facebook groups yielded some telling results about social media and its effect, with a lean towards it having a mix of both a positive and negative effect.
Participants were asked how many social media accounts they use and if they believe their usage has a positive effect, a negative effect, a mix of both or indifferent.
Social Media and Mental Health: Survey Results
Some 150 respondents participated in a Google Forms survey posted in Quinnipiac Facebook groups. One question posed was: do you believe that social media has had a positive effect, negative effect, a mix of both or indifferent on your mental health or personal judgment?
Some 117 students responded to a Google form posted on Facebook that asked questions about the number of accounts they had and whether or not social media generated positive or negative mental health effects, a mix of both or indifferent.
A startling 89 respondents reported that social media generated a mix of positive and negative impacts on their mental well-being.
The idea of social media presenting unrealistic expectations and perhaps seemingly perfect lifestyles is no secret and fires up the idea that it may have an adverse reaction on someone’s mental health.
Quinnipiac counselor Kenneth Wenning, who holds a doctorate in clinical social work, said social media creates an environment of unrealistic expectations among individuals who believe their top goal in life is to be happy.
“I think it does give some people an unrealistic sense of what life is all about because life is always a mixed bag,” Wenning said. “It’s good stuff and it’s tough stuff and it’s drudgery and it’s boredom, it’s not always you know, what’s going on.”
Kenneth Wenning PHD, LCSW
Quinnipiac Counseling Center, Counselor
He also referenced an example drawn from a recent conversation with a patient.
“So, I had a graduate student tell me the other day she was done with social media, she stopped all of it and she said to me ‘and I discovered, I still have a life’ but it’s like life is now being lived vicariously almost in a way,” he said. “When you look at what’s going on with these people, and these people and all of the monitoring and you know, thinking about everybody else’s life and I think that is a real problem.”
But social media is not the evil that some may think.
After the Super Bowl ended on Feb. 3, 2019, content featuring the “world_record_egg” aired on Hulu. The storied egg had been posted on an Instagram account that wanted to break the record for being the most liked post. Through a series of multiple posts, the egg cracked a little bit more each time. When it finally did crack on Super Bowl Sunday, it revealed a message about cracking due to the pressure of social media.
Mary Dunn, an assistant teaching professor of advertising and the instructor of the Strategies for Social Media course at Quinnipiac, said the campaign worked in unexpected ways.
“They didn’t truly think it was going to turn into what it was and it wasn’t until they had the audience like of ten million that they sat down and decided what they were going to use it for and I think it’s a happy story, a charming story, an inspiring story that they’ve decided to use it as a platform for social messages and campaigns like mental health awareness,” Dunn explained.
Mary Dunn
Quinnipiac School of Communications, Assistant Teaching Professor of Advertising
Dunn said social media can drive powerful narratives but not all social apps are on-board with that idea.
“So platforms like Twitter resisted this for a really long time,” Dunn said. “They wanted the character limit, they wanted to force people to be succinct in their messages but when you’re succinct in your messages and you limit yourself, it can lead to misunderstandings, to oversimplification and so Twitter had to expand as well, right, and so I think that’s part of why they’re still alive and now they’re actually doing well this year, go figure.”
She also talked about the method of “scrubbing your social,” which involves unfollowing accounts that might be harmful to an individual. Olamide Gbotosho is a sophomore and one of Dunn’s students. In high school, she dealt with depression and said social media had a big influence in that.
Gbotosho has “scrubbed her social” before and finds it effective. While she has unfollowed some accounts of famous individuals that have an “ideal of perfection,” she has also followed others that play a more positive role.
“Sometimes I follow some positive Instagram accounts, so I do have that also,” she said.
There’s also the opportunity for social media to be used as a community builder of sorts for those suffering from mental illness. John Naslund, who holds a doctorate in health policy and clinical research, is a Harvard Research Fellow and has been doing studies on the benefits of peer-to-peer networking and support on social media.
“So we know that this peer-to-peer support is happening naturally online, it’s happening in forums, it’s happening in all kinds of places, well how can we kind of tap into that, tap into these positive interactions to actually support the delivery of some kind of services or programs that can be really helpful,” Naslund said.
While this research has promise to possibly provide support, he made it clear that it should not be replacing the care from a professional.
“This isn’t something that would be a replacement for existing mental health care, it’s most definitely not, it’s not a replacement,” Naslund said. “But what we see across the United States and especially in other parts of the world, the vast majority of people who have mental illness don’t have access to adequate care or don’t have access to adequate services and don’t have access to adequate support most of the time and this is consistent across the entire country where people really, the vast majority of people with mental illness don’t have the support they need.”
Naslund said that despite its negative associations, social media could be used to support mental health.
“Where we really need to think about this going forward (is) just thinking of the future of how social media can potentially be used for promoting mental health is I think really making sure that people who live with mental illness or have mental health issues are informed about how they can use social media in a positive way,” he said.
While social media may be a potential support network moving forward, Gbotosho believes that the best source of comfort may be in the form of the people in your respective circle.
“If you’re looking for comfort, social media isn’t the best place to find it,” Gbotosho said. “Rather finding it through the people that you surround yourself with.
The future of social media as it pertains to mental health and society in general might be uncertain.
But Allissa Parker, Nick Calderaro and Olamide Gbotosho may be able to sleep soundly tonight, knowing that hope may be on the horizon and that they are not alone.
