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.
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?
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.”
The air is particularly charged within the dim black box theater on 515 Sherman Ave. It is 6:30 p.m. sharp on Wednesday, February 27 with exactly one hour till show time. Stage crew hands run in and out of the space, adding last minute details to the set, which so far includes a series of wooden beams that raise the main stage up high above the soon-to-arrive audience members. A soft blue light filters in from the lighting sets that decorate the entire theater ceiling. Actors dressed in variations of button-ups, dress pants and suits stand clustered in a loose circle of optimum zen and focus, carrying out a series of scales, trimming, humming and other warm-up vocalizations.
The new black-box theater on opening night of ‘Next to Normal’
This is the scene that takes place before Quinnipiac University’s theater department debuts its highly-awaited musical “Next to Normal.”
QU junior Amanda Bushman, who will star in this spring’s student-run production of “Seven Minutes in Heaven,” was in attendance on opening night and she said the audience seemed to wholeheartedly enjoy the show.
“I definitely saw a lot of people crying at the end, including myself,” Bushman said.
It turns out there was a lot of crying that week as all five nights of the show were sold out.“Next to Normal” is the eighth student-run production in the recently converted Theater Arts Center.
What was merely a vacant building 18 months ago is now a fully-furnished space for the dramatic arts. The theater program produces three shows a year within this space and the student theater company produces and additional two of their own on top of that. Including “Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Little Shop of Horrors,” the music program also holds its concert series here each semester. Many productions now take place in the new Theater Arts Center, the likes of which also see the rehearsal for the new play festival which the student theater company eventually takes to New York.
But back in 2016, when the stages of planning had only just begun, none of this was yet possible at QU.
“We had this building and we had this opportunity. Instead of just doing a one-space black box theater, we could create a whole department,” Sal Filardi of facilities and capital planning said.
Over the following months, the theater program such plans come to fruition. Complete with new lighting and design sets, dressing rooms and a larger, more impressive black box theater, Quinnipiac’s drama department has a new performance space, and it’s one that students and staff say blows the previous tiny black box theater located in the College of Arts and Science out of the water.
“It’s more than just a classroom we painted black,” Filardi said, referring to the CAS black-box theater. “There’s a practice theater, faculty offices, student spaces, a gallery and lobby space, scene shops, costume shops, dressing rooms– it’s a complete facility.”
Location of Theater Arts Center on Sherman Ave
While Quinnipiac University has owned the building on 515 Sherman Ave. since purchasing the property in 1974, it was not until the summer of 2017 that it was developed into a space for the arts. Before then, the school used it to fulfill a variety of different needs. Its most recent purposes included classroom space and furniture storage as well as Hamden fire and police training.
After a year of planning, the theater department officially moved in during August 2017.Students involved in theater say that they could not be more pleased with the new building. Paige Parton, president of the student run theater company, Fourth Wall, experienced the transition first-hand.
“Coming from Buckman and the old CAS black box theater to the theatre arts center was a huge shift and it took a little adjusting – especially with having more classrooms, a design studio and a fully equipped shop, which we had never had before,” Parton said. “We also have a professional looking lobby. It’s a nice touch.”
With such nice touches costing a total of $ 5.5 million, facilities saw entire project as a real investment in the arts. An investment that’s paid off. Now,a little over a year and a half following the move, QU’s theater program and department has seen an upward trajectory in terms of growth and overall enthusiasm.
Quinnipiac has always largely been viewed as a sports school. However, since the conversion of the building, QU has seen a peaked interest in its underdog of departments – the theater arts. The incoming class in fall 2016 had a total of four theater majors; the following year it had three. In fall 2018, the first year of the new theater arts center, the theater department acquired 12 new majors.
Kevin Daly, QU theater program director and assistant professor of theater, said he could not deny the correlation between the timing of getting the building and the sudden surge in numbers.
“I certainly wouldn’t call it a coincidence,” Daly said. “I do think that it has to do with not only the building but also the spirit of a commitment to theater.”
At the same time that the department obtained the new building, it added two more faculty staff members. It has also since developed new programming. There is now an accelerated 3+1 theater degree program with the School of Business where students can receive both a theater degree and a Master of Business Administration.
“I think all of those things converged along with what I think was a really strong commitment from the College of Arts and Sciences and from the university that this was important,” Daly said.
With all the added weight a new building carries in terms of dedication to the arts, the space has proven to be more than a space for performance and rehearsal. For many drama students, it’s a place for both solo and group study sessions as well as a place to come for peace and quiet. Every theater major can use his or her Q-card to access the building during study hours.
“I’ll come here and study,” QU senior Connor Whiteley said. “If I have two classes with a few hours in between, instead of hanging out at the library, I’ll come here.”
Whitely, who starred in “Next to Normal,” is a double major in theater and economics. Prior to this most recent musical, he was in two productions in the fall semester as well as a musical last spring and even directed the student run play last semester. As someone writing a full-length play for his senior project and directing his own production for the Spring festival, Whiteley is highly involved in the QU theater space, and as such, has been thrilled to see it thrive.
“We have more of a presence now. A lot people assume there aren’t really any arts at Quinnipiac but I think having our own building kind of sets us apart.”
He is not alone in this way of thinking. Parton, who is directing “Seven Minutes in Heaven” as well as her own play in the spring festival, saw the building as a sign of further legitimacy. “Since we got the new space our Quinnipiac community has started to take us more seriously, attends the productions and sees that we have a talented and hard working program,” Parton said.
‘Seven Minutes in Heaven’ Set
‘Seven Minutes in Heaven’ set
‘Seven Minutes in Heaven’ set
And while there is no denying the obvious benefits of the building as well as the push to establish a larger theater and arts presence, there is also the question of who will notice.
As far as putting QU on the map for theater, realists like Kevin Daly do not believe we should be kidding ourselves by comparing Quinnipiac to schools with more concentrated theater programs.
“I don’t think we should ever strive to be that. What we offer is not a conservatory experience,” Daly said.
According to Daly, QU’s program is one committed to a Bachelor of Arts in theater or a theater studies degree where a student spends about one third of their education in theater. Almost half of the university’s theater majors are double majors who have the ability to explore other disciplines.
“If a student commits to a conservatory style program, almost 75%, maybe more of their education is not only in theater but in a very specific discipline in theater like acting or directing or lighting design,” Daly said. “That’s great if the student knows at 17 or 18 years old that that’s the career they want.”
Most, however, don’t. The reality is that the theater industry business is tough to delve into. “The only way to survive is to be ultra-talented, somewhat lucky and very capable of the tougher elements of the business,” said Daly. “Not everybody can do that, and so what we want to make sure of is that if a student gets to that point and decides ‘you know what, this might not be for me,’ they can pivot into something that still feels very rewarding.”
According to Daly, while QU has launched a couple students into high-quality graduate programs, it’s theater program is not a “pipeline to broadway.” Instead, its focus is more on providing a theater or arts experience that prepares students for the more conservatory style programs, if they so choose it.
“That’s how we put ourselves on the map – by becoming a program where students can come in and safely explore theater and get really quality training,” Daly said. “I’m very proud of the program we’ve developed. I think that they can get a very good understanding of all the areas of theater: acting, directing, playwriting, stagecraft.”
Moving into the new space has allowed students to push the boundaries of what they could accomplish with their productions. Parton says the new space has broadened the horizons for herself as well as her fellow classmates.
“I found my own spirits lifted in the sense of expanding my need to learn about different aspects of the theatre,” Parton said. “I thought I wanted to stay within the realm of acting, but then that shifted when I learned of all the other aspects. Other students started to explore different areas too.”
As to what QU’s theater program will look like further down the line, Daly hopes to see a total of 40 theater majors within the next five years.
“Hopefully we can show that the theater program really grew as a result of coming out here,” said Daly. “We have at least, in the small view, seem to have gotten on the right trajectory.”
This trajectory extends to the community outside the university’s walls. Executive Director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute and QU Professor of Political Science Sean Duffy has witnessed and been involved with multiple performances in the Theater Arts Center. Duffy’s partner Andy Morgan is part professor and part performance artist whose acts involve magic and illusion. In addition to places like Lyric Hall and Lotus Studio in New Haven, the Sherman Avenue space was home to two of Morgan’s magic performances.
Duffy was also amazed by the new and improved black box theater when it was his partner’s rehearsal site. “I love that space. It was really flexible and really easy to use,” he said. “It’s nice the way the audience is right there because there’s no barrier between the audience and the stage.”
Currently, Duffy’s partner has a theater piece in New Haven called “The Women Who Saw All,” a show which incorporates illusion and mentalism. Morgan performed it for the first time in the Theater Arts Center, where he had Daly critique it.
“When he did it here at Quinnipiac, it was largely as a way of helping him work out that show. It was the first time he was able to do it in a larger space,” Duffy said. “He had an audience that he could try these things out on – see what worked, what didn’t work.”
So far, there have been only positive things to say since the center’s establishment. More than providing a common area for theater students and industry artists alike, more than creating a stronger sense of engagement and dedication to the theater arts program, the building on Sherman Avenue is a place that has fostered a connection between QU and those involved in the larger arts community. It is an amalgamation of all these things that shows the true value of having such a space.
While 18 months may not be sufficient time to measure its success, it can be seen in every proud smile of an audience member. After the last note rang through and brought the “Next to Normal” musical to a close, Bushman said an emotional Judy Olian may even have “shed a tear.”
It is also seen in the gleam of the eyes of every student who walks through the black box doors feeling inspired and ready to learn. “It’s been really fun for all of us,” Bushman said. “Even when we’re kind of tired, it’s pretty easy to still be excited.”
In between bursts of hairspray, a towering figure in six-inch heels shakes her mane. Kiki Lucia applies fake lashes with precision, masks a flat chest with flawless boob contour and cinches her waist tight to form a perfect hourglass figure. Lucia, 34-year-old drag queen extraordinaire, is ready for her show.
Kiki Lucia prepares for her performance at 168 York Street Cafe in New Haven.
She descends the wooden staircase at 168 York Street Cafe in her hot pink dress and blonde curly wig. The small room below her is packed with regulars and drag show virgins with dollar bills ready to tip their reigning queen. She cues the DJ as “Barbie Girl” blasts through the speakers. Her fuschia lips break into a smile as she lip syncs each line, spinning and dancing down the aisle with grace.
Every Friday night for four years, Lucia has performed her personalized show “Let’s Have a Kiki” at 168 York Street Cafe. She is one of the dozens of New Haven queens and is considered by some to be the “mom” of a drag scene that is starting to grow in popularity.
The university recognizes the need to advance inclusion initiatives in strategic plan proposal.
By Caitlin Fish
Abby Marton experienced a self-described culture shock when she arrived at Quinnipiac University in 2016 and found that the school did not reflect the world she understood.
“Coming here there was a culture shock on every level,” Marton said. “I noticed a lack of diversity right away. When I first got here I worried that I wouldn’t fit in. Everyone seemed tied together from home, there are mutual friends everywhere.”
Abby Marton, 21
Marton, a senior marketing major from Manhattan, New York, explained that she attended a diverse high school, The Bronx High School of Science, which exposed her to many different cultures and ways of seeing the world. Quinnipiac, in Hamden, Connecticut, did not reflect that diversity.
“I wouldn’t say white was the minority at my high school but it definitely wasn’t the majority,” Marton said. “I learned a lot about different people’s families and backgrounds, whether that be food, language or religion. It was just so immersive.”
Isaiah Nieves, a senior film major from Manchester, Connecticut, likewise noticed the sharp distinction between what he experienced in a high school teeming with racial and ethnic diversity and what he saw at Quinnipiac.
Nieves explained that he grew up around racial and class diversity and that he compares his experience attending high school to attending Quinnipiac as night and day.
“Considering that this school is a private school, it’s going to attract a certain crowd of people who can afford it,” Nieves said. “There is not much diversity on campus at all.”
Isaiah Nieves, 22
Marton and Nieves are not alone in describing Quinnipiac as an institution that is lacking in diversity. The school remains largely white despite efforts to shape the student body into one that reflects the changing demographics of the United States.
According to a U.S. Census Bureau report from 2018, the United States is projected to continue becoming a more racially and ethnically pluralistic society. By 2045 Non-Hispanic whites are no longer projected to make up the majority of the U.S. population.
“By 2020, fewer than one-half of children—49.8 percent—are projected to be Non-Hispanic white,” the report states.
Students find that the troubling lack of diversity extends to the people who teach them and keep the university operating.
An informal survey sent out by email to Quinnipiac students who belong to multicultural organizations on campus revealed that 70 percent noticed that lack of diversity in the faculty and staff.
“I think the professors are less racially diverse than the student body,” Issac Bauer, a junior communications major from White Plains, New York, said. “It makes me happy to see that there are a lot of women professors, but in education, it is important to have teachers of all different backgrounds.”
Isaac Bauer, 20
According to data on racial demographics cataloged on the university’s website, white students make up three-quarters of the undergraduate population, while data obtained by HQ Press from a faculty member who requested to remain anonymous reports that white faculty members make up more than three-quarters.
Pie charts outlining the racial demographics of the undergraduate population and fall 2018 full-time faculty at Quinnipiac.
Bar graph outlining the racial demographics of 2018 full-time faculty members by school.
Students have mixed opinions regarding the university’s attempts to increase diversity on campus. The informal survey of Quinnipiac students reports that 57 percent have noticed efforts by the university to increase diversity while 42 percent have not.
Quinnipiac President Judy Olian references diversity as a transformative element in her strategic plan proposal released in January to build what she described as a “university of the future.”
The plan recognizes that Quinnipiac needs to improve in that area.
“We are not yet where we need to be as an inclusively excellent institution–not in faculty or staff, not in students or alumni, not in programming,” the strategic plan states. “We aspire to be more.”
The university appointed Donald C. Sawyer III as chief diversity officer in 2018. Sawyer, a Quinnipiac sociology professor, is tasked with advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives and putting in place action steps to get there.
“My job is to create a plan that partners with other people on campus to do the work of inclusive excellence,” Sawyer said. “The role is to work as a community, that’s faculty, staff and students, to bring about a campus that is inclusive for all people. Some people assume that my job is just here for students of color. That’s not it. It’s for all people.”
According to Sawyer, one of the ways the university is planning to address this lack of representation in the faculty is by diversifying its applicant pools when hiring for a new position.
“We have to be looking at ways to diversify our applicant pools, he said. “Not necessarily telling people who to hire. But, how do we make sure that when we are hiring for a position that the pool is representative of the diversity that exists in that particular discipline.”
Sawyer explained that not every school has a chief diversity officer, but he expects the position to become more common as it is important for universities to increase diversity and inclusion in order to stay competitive.
“Universities see that diversity is not just about doing it because it’s a good thing and feels good, it is to make sure they’re going to be the universities that survive,” Sawyer said. “To prepare so that they’re not going to be behind the curve. If you look at the students that are coming, you have to prepare for that representative diversity that we’re seeing in the K-12.”
Sawyer explained that a big part of his job is educating students about the differences between the terms diversity, inclusion and equity because a lot of people use them interchangeably.
“When we talk about diversity, we’re just talking about the representative, the numbers,” he said.
Inclusion goes hand in hand, as it is the active engagement with that diversity.
“Getting people here is pointless if you don’t have anything in place to make people feel welcomed and a part of the campus community,” he said.
The equity aspect is more complicated, as it works to remove obstacles and improve access for underrepresented students, according to Sawyer.
Xi Chen, associate professor of sociology at Quinnipiac, said she believes a historical denial of education for underrepresented students and weak points in the U.S. education system both contribute to the lack of diversity at the university.
Chen explained that public schools are funded by local and property taxes, so schools in poor or urban areas do not receive as many resources or as much funding as they do from affluent neighborhoods. In order to become a college student, you have to have been prepared along the way to even be able to apply, and many under-resourced schools do not deliver in this aspect.
“Students from the under-resourced schools are competing against the students in resource schools for the same seats in colleges,” Chen said. “If you have those obstacles in the way the system is set up for some people to be more successful than others.”
Chen said that she believes even with financial aid and scholarships, the cost of tuition prevents a more diverse applicant pool.
“Tuition for this university is very expensive and is geared toward New England North-Eastern upper-middle-class,” Chen said. “There is a huge racial gap in terms of what type of family can afford it due to social inequality in class and wealth.”
Although the university lacks in representative diversity, some students believe it is beginning to make inclusion a priority.
According to the informal survey of Quinnipiac students, 73 percent of respondents said they believe the university supports an inclusive environment.
The university has 17 student-run cultural and identity groups on campus that frequently hold events, open to everyone, aimed at educating students about different cultures, religions and ways of seeing the world.
Christina Ojo, a junior biology major from Providence, Rhode Island, is involved in many of these groups, including the African Caribbean Student Union, Black Student Union, Latino Cultural society and the Asian Student Alliance. However, she said that she does not believe the greater population of Quinnipiac recognizes these organizations.
“I don’t think Quinnipiac does enough to even get at why these organizations are important,” Ojo said. “I appreciate that we are, at the very least, here. I think the responsibility of educating is left to the students of diverse realities. It’s gaslighting.”
Christina Ojo, 20
Chidi Nwuneli, a junior political science major from the Bronx, New York, has attended many university events put on by the multicultural organizations but does not believe many students respond to the invitations.
“Quinnipiac does try (to be more inclusive) but I feel like students aren’t receptive because it’s not something they grew up around,” Nwuneli said.
Chidi Nwuenli, 20
Diversity on campus is not just about having students of color, according to Nwuenli. It is also about having students who have grown up around students of color because then there will be more diversity in thought.
“Accepting of change is hard, so I think it more falls upon where they’re recruiting people from,” Nwuenli said. “I heard President Olian said she wants to recruit more people from Florida, Texas and California. When you have more people from urban centers mixing with people who are from mid-sized small-sized towns, people start to become more open-minded and friend groups become more diverse.”
According to the informal survey of Quinnipiac students, 64 percent of respondents said they do not believe the general student population is interested in learning about diversity and inclusion.
Anytime Quinnipiac wants to get something done, such as the Big Event or Qthon, it uses Greek Life, according to Nwuenli. He said that he believes the multicultural organizations should belong in this partnership.
“Greek organizations should work with the multicultural organizations, it’s something that I’ve been saying since freshman year,” he said. “That’s the only way you can have exposure for both of them. If there is an event hosted by a sorority and the African Student Union, both groups will be there and you get to meet new people and create those bonds.”
Julia Miles, a junior nursing major from Oakland, New Jersey, said she believes that a majority of the students at the university do not seek out information about diversity and inclusion because it does not affect them directly.
“I think the school could integrate this type of education into the academic experience because most students who are not underrepresented won’t pay attention unless it is put in front of their faces,” Miles said.
Julia Miles, 20
Miles explained that in her nursing classes aspects of diversity and inclusion are incorporated into many of her projects.
“It’s clear that our program wants to create nurses that are aware of the world,” Miles said. “When doing projects, there is a component that requires us to include some cultural or religious factors that may affect treating the patient.”
There are many benefits to a diverse atmosphere and the students at Quinnipiac may be missing out on opportunities to become more aware of the world, according to Marton.
“It’s a huge way for people to connect, to diversify your school of thought even, Marton said. “It’s so unhealthy and ignorant to think that the way you grew up and what you know and what you’re familiar with is the only way to do things. You’re missing out on literally an entire world of different experiences and it’s a shame.”
Increasing diversity on campus is not just about doing something for the greater good, it is necessary for an environment to thrive, Sawyer said.
“It benefits all who are involved,” Sawyer said. “When we have diverse teams we solve more problems. We can attack more issues that are facing us as a society. So it goes beyond just something that feels good. This is important for the future of our institution.”
The university is in the process of putting numbers to the strategic plan, developing a budget and a fundraising goal, according to Sawyer.
“We’re looking at creating different types of admissions and outreach programs to get Quinnipiac on the radar in different parts of the country,” Sawyer said. “We’re looking at different types of student populations, veterans, people who have been historically underrepresented in higher education, people who transfer from community colleges. Diversifying faculty and staff in order to attract more people.”
Quinnipiac has been criticized for catering to its white population while disregarding the needs of underrepresented students. According to Sawyer, the university is on a path to changing this.
“If you want to see if something is important to an organization you look at the budget. So, the fact that inclusive excellence is in the strategic plan is one of the first markers that let you know hopefully were serious about this,” Sawyer said.
The biggest meeting space on Quinnipiac University’s campus in Hamden is nearly empty save for three students, dressed in business attire and brimming with excitement.
The hollowness of the Mount Carmel Auditorium on that cold October evening did not affect three members of race-based Greek organizations as they prepared for their much-anticipated event centered on bridging the gap between white and minority students at their predominantly white institution.
The three students — a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., a black fraternity, as well as two Hispanic students representing Latin Greek organizations — spent weeks organizing the event and days promoting it with fliers on social media. They prepared a PowerPoint with statistics, composed discussion questions and broached ways to discuss the racial tension at a university that recently suspended another fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, after a racist incident earlier in 2018.
Finally, everything is in place.
But, 30 minutes after the event is scheduled to begin, only five students are in attendance.
The disappointment sets in.
As the few students that decided to make the trek across Quinnipiac’s quad settle into their seats, the realization hit that there would be a lot more vacant seats in the auditorium than filled ones.
Despite the dedication and efforts of the members of many of the multicultural Greek organizations, the reality is, these organizations receive little administrative support, and even less general visibility at predominantly white institutions, PWIs, across America.
“I can definitely say it is kind of discouraging. And it makes you think twice if you want to hold another event or if you want to do something like this again because it’s like, your afraid to get the same outcome,” said Bernard Grant, vice president of the National Society for Black Engineers at the University of New Haven. “You don’t want to feel like your time was wasted, like you put in all this effort, and only like three or four people showed up to it.”
Despite the struggles that multicultural greek organizations face at PWIs, things were far worse in the early 1900s when many of these organizations did not exist. African American students searched for something to be a part of in order to give them a sense of belonging at universities.
Fraternities at Cornell University prohibited black members, but African American students wanting to join a brotherhood got creative.
Henry Arthur Callis, for example, worked as a server at Sigma Alpha Epsilon events. George Biddle Kelley did the same for Beta Theta Pi. Others served as tutors — anything to experience fraternity life and see the inner workings of a successful organization.
Callis and Kelley used their experiences and knowledge of the institutional framework to help found Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. at Cornell in 1906 — the first ever historically black intercollegiate fraternity at the undergraduate level.
Over the next 60 years, eight more organizations launched across America. Seven were founded before 1925, with Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. being the latest, which was founded in 1963 at Morgan State University, a historically black university in Baltimore.
These organizations make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council, which is the collective governing body for these organizations, with the goal of “Unanimity of thought and action as far as possible in the conduct of greek letter collegiate fraternities and sororities, and to consider problems of mutual interest to its member organizations” as stated on the NPHC website. Ever since Iota Phi Theta officially became a member of the council in 1997, it has been commonly referred to as the “Divine Nine”(D9).
Jaylan Leon is the chief communications director of students of the diaspora at Yale in New Haven.
“My image of the D9 is black excellence. Black people that are trying to move forward and come together to make an impact in their community. People who are really motivated towards a like goal. It has an impact to really change communities and impact youth, especially,” Leon said.
Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha
Kappa Alpha PsiDelta Sigma Theta
Ques
Zeta Phi Beta
Members of the Divine Nine across the country in the mid to late 20th Century. Photos Courtesy of Creative Commons/ Flickr.
Three of these D9 organizations were founded at PWIs, with two sprouting up in the midwest when Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. launched at Indiana University in Bloomington in 1911, and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. began at Indianapolis’ Butler University in 1922.
Stephanie McClure, a sociology professor at Georgia College, and author of the book “Voluntary Association Membership: Black Greek Men on a Predominantly White Campus” says students founded the black fraternities as social support and political action organizations.
“I guess I’ve always felt like that was their role,” she said.
In 2019, these organizations look much different now, since they have grown immensely and expanded their outreach.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., chartered at Howard University in 1908, has now initiated upwards of 300,000 members. Alpha Phi Alpha has over 200,00 initiated members at more than 700 chapters across the world.
All of the D9 organizations have established chapters outside of the United States in places such as the Virgin Islands, England, Canada, South Korea, Germany and Jamaica.
Despite the growth of the D9 over the last century, the representation at Quinnipiac is scarce with just one D9 organization on campus. The Sigma Beta chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho has just one active member and has not welcomed any new initiates since Spring 2017.
Sevina Jackson is that lone member.
“I would say that my membership journey is different than other individuals that are in sororities on this campus,” she said. “I know my chapter does struggle to recruit members and maintain a size of five or more. As far as having events and stuff we do struggle to get an attendance.”
Though the chapter struggles to maintain membership, Quinnipiac administrators are committed to the sorority.
“We need to continue to provide support to the sorority that’s here. And we need to be honest with national organizations that want to come here,” said Katherine Pezzella, director of campus life for fraternity and sorority life.
“We need to get to a point where we’re also OK not only accepting the city-wide model but we also need to be OK with groups coming and going on our campus. We need to be OK that we can recognize the AKAs, while the AKAs are kind of in and then maybe they die out but we welcome them back whenever there is interest.”
The city-wide model is a model that is commonly adopted at PWIs in an effort to provide a chapter that can sustain on a campus where there aren’t many black students.
For example Alpha Phi Alpha and Alpha Kappa Alpha are two city-wide chapters that exist in the greater New Haven area and consist of members from Yale, University of New Haven, Southern Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac.
This fusion of universities provides membership numbers to be able to sustain over a long period of time.
The problem is, many universities don’t recognize city-wide chapters due to insurance issues.
Colleen Kazar, assistant director for Greek life and programming at the University of New Haven said, “We cannot monitor or manage what is happening in city-wide chapters, which creates a liability on the university should something happen to one of our students.”
This creates a high hurdle for involved students and handicaps the organizations greatly by creating situations in which members can’t host events or receive financial assistance from the university.
“We had to get a paper signed by our Greek advisor on campus just saying that we meet the requirements — saying that we had a 2.5 (grade point average), we’re in good standing with the school and we’re actually a student there,” said Bernard Grant, a recently initiated member of Alpha Phi Alpha at the University of New Haven. “But the reason they wouldn’t sign it was because we’re not recognized on campus.”
Quinnipiac holds the same policy regarding city-wide chapters, thus limiting options for African American students.
Since Quinnipiac does not allocate any funding directly to Greek organizations on campus, funds are raised strictly via chapter dues, meaning the members determine the budget for the chapter. For Jackson and Sigma Beta, that means just one person is contributing monetarily, deeming it nearly impossible to finance the chapter.
“It’s definitely something that we’re talking about. I think it’s something that we’ll revisit again this summer and just try to think through,” Pezzella said.
Sigma Beta
Sigma BetaSigma BetaSigma Beta
Jackson and other members of Sigma Gamma Rho in Connecticut at various events in the community. Photos courtesy of Sevina Jackson.
Another potential solution to the recruitment issue could be revisiting how these organizations appeal to non-African American students.
“…at top-tier universities, black undergraduate populations average 6 percent, a statistic that has remained largely flat for 20 years.” according to a 2015 article that was published by The Atlantic.
Therefore, if on average 94% of the student body is not African American, the D9 organizations need to find other ways to recruit members.
“Diversify the membership. Don’t simply focus on the color of folks’ skin. Focus on whether or not they hold the fraternity’s ideals,” said Gregory Parks, associate dean of research, public engagement and faculty development at Wake Forest.
“Do they care about racial equality? Do they care about high academic performance? Do they care about community engagement? Do they care about collegiality? Getting along with others or brotherhood. You might imagine some progressive-minded White, Latino, Asian American, Native American students on campus who’d be interested in Alpha — they just need to know more about it.” he said.
PWIs have not met the standard that the founders of these organizations envisioned more than a century ago.
“I think we can always do better. The work our fraternities and sororities do should be celebrated on a constant basis,” said Eric Lacharity, associate director of the Office of Student Involvement at Southern Connecticut State. “It’s our job to be advocates for our Greek Life community and create that visibility for them and educate others on their importance.”
Educate — just like the three students in the near-empty assembly room on Quinnipiac’s campus last October were doing. University administrators at PWIs must also bridge the gap to the D9 organizations on their campuses.
“I feel like their presence is getting more and more known by the day as we add more, and I really feel like it’s becoming a really good staple of this community,” said Kyle Lopez, Quinnipiac’s Interfraternity Council president.
“We’re all working together and we’re building this community that’s awesome,” Lopez said. “So, I think if we keep going in the direction that we’re going in now in terms of membership intake, in terms of organizations being added, that we’ll be in a really good place in a few years.”
Three NCAA women’s basketball tournament wins. Three NIRA rugby championships. One NCAA Women’s Frozen Four appearance.
All after one Title IX case.
Quinnipiac University’s women’s athletic teams have thrived in the aftermath of the case that is now 10 years old. It stemmed from a decision to cut the volleyball and add competitive cheer, an activity a judge later ruled to be not a sport for Title IX accounting.
Under federal Title IX provisions, schools must offer equal opportunity for men and women to compete in sports as determined by the gender ratio. In other words, if Quinnipiac women stand at 65 percent of the school’s enrollment, then 65 percent of athletic rosters must consist of women athletes.
In 2009, the University cut women’s volleyball for a cheer team. However, with the cheer team lacking competition, a federal judge ruled that it could not qualify as a sport.
Five volleyball players and the coach at the time, Robin Sparks, refused to back down and filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Quinnipiac had violated provisions of Title IX. The university reinstated the team pending the lawsuit’s outcome.
This on-going case led to a consent decree, which by definition is an agreement or settlement that resolves a dispute between two parties without admission of guilt or liability. This decree ultimately led to the building of the new soccer, lacrosse and field hockey stadiums at Quinnipiac.
Even though the outcome has been positive, female athletes have felt adversity since the case. The women’s volleyball team just fired its two coaches after another losing season. Even women’s rugby has struggled to gain recognition from the university, being forced to play on a field smaller than regulation for the last few years. With these situations to consider, this case has been a driver for success.
Because of these leaders in our community, women’s athletics have been responsible for some major growth at Quinnipiac. They have brought the Bobcat faithful new stadiums, national recognition and plenty of winning.
I interviewed three athletes who either attend or attended Quinnipiac to get their perspectives on Title IX, the court case and how the drive of equality continues.
John Franklin: In your time at Quinnipiac University, the Title IX lawsuit was a prevalent situation. How do you remember it effecting your career and the athletic department as a whole?
Elizabeth Kloos: I did read through all the court documents before my freshman year so I knew what I was headed into, but honestly so many of the lawsuit requirements had been taken care of before I arrived that it wasn’t talked about much.
Elizabeth Kloos playing middle hitter during her senior year at Quinnipiac University.
We did have meetings with the lawyers to ensure that the details of the settlement were still being followed, which I genuinely think they were, and it emphasized that we knew who the Title IX coordinator was if any issues arose. But otherwise it never really crossed my mind.
I do want to say that I do not feel that there were any negative repercussions towards the team because of the lawsuit, which says a lot about Quinnipiac. I think in some places a lawsuit like this could create a lot of tension between the volleyball team and other coaches, admin, etc. but I never heard anyone talking poorly about the lawsuit or the settlement requirements. Maybe because in the end it kind of benefited all athletes? Still impressive.
JF: How can you say athletics has shaped you to become who you are today?
EK: Athletics has forced me to have relationships with so many different people. I think that is what I am most thankful for. The people you meet in athletic environments are so driven and brilliant in their own inspiring ways, you can’t help but take a little piece of each person with you when you move on.
Athletics has also forced me out of my comfort zone and I don’t think anything else could have done that to that extent. I would have never moved across the country twice if it weren’t for athletics. But I did, and I learned and experienced so much good and bad from it!
And to reemphasize, I met so many great people! I look back and cannot believe the amazing people I would have never known. I still keep in contact with so many people that athletics connected me with- way more than people I met outside of athletics. So yeah, so thankful for the special people that have shaped me into me, and thankful for athletics for bringing us together!
JF: All things considered, the Title IX case came out in a very positive direction for the volleyball program. Looking back, would you change how it all went down or would you keep it the same?
EK: Because so much of the lawsuit/settlement had been taken care of before I got to Quinnipiac, I wasn’t really in the “hot seat” of it. I just happened to benefit from it. BUT I am so appreciative of and inspired by those that were involved throughout the whole process.
Having the courage to take on an entire University for something as controversial as Title IX is so impressive to me. Plus, they had to know that the entire process would take so long that it was unlikely that they would even benefit from the settlements (if they won). What an awesome group of females that stood up for the girls that would be following in their footsteps, again, the people!
JF: Other athletes must look up to you for the path you forged. What do you say to young girls everywhere trying to live their academic and athletic dream?
EK: I think being involved in athletics at any level is such an awesome opportunity. You don’t have to be the best player to reap the rewards athletics offers. Be a good teammate, and have a positive impact on those around you.
Those are the people that make it big in life. No one is going to look up your stats once it’s over, trust me. And it is hard to practice those skills outside of athletics, so stick with it.
JF: Being a former athlete at this school, was there ever a time you thought female athletics were treated less than men’s?
Jessica Bracamonte: In terms of equipment, supplies, training facilities, and coaching/support staff I believe that both the women’s and men’s team were treated equally. Typically, we trained on the same fields and lifted in the same weight rooms. We all received apparel and all equipment necessary to play the sport.
The only aspect in which I would have considered the women’s team to have been treated less than men’s would be the popularity and fan base at the games. There is always a larger fan base and turn out for men’s athletics than at female’s. It’s sad because female athletes are truly exceptional and very fun to watch.
Jessica Bracamonte signing her letter of intent to play for Quinnipiac University.
JF: How well were you made aware of the Title IX lawsuit QU went through just a couple years before you arrived to play on campus?
JB: I was not aware of the Title IX lawsuit QU went through until Junior year when I was joining the club lacrosse team. They informed me that the team was not affiliated with Quinnipiac as a result of the lawsuit.
JF: Do you know what Title IX is, what it does, and who it protects?
JB: I believe Title IX is used to protect groups of people against inequality in sports? For example, it ensures that a female athletic team receives the same support, gear, and budget as a male athletic team. Beyond that I’m not that sure. I know they educated us on it while I was playing.
JF: What do you tell girls who are trying to move on in their careers and play college sports?
JB: You have to have strong time management skills. Be prepared to sacrifice a lot of social events and late night hang outs. Also be prepared to meet your best friends, have the time of your life, and work harder than you ever have.
It’s beautiful to have a whole team of people you can rely on. You just need to be disciplined in both your academics and athletics. I would say follow your heart and trust your gut. You’ll know within a month or two if playing a college sport is what you truly want to be doing. The sport should always be something you love even when it gets hard, if it’s not it might be time to say goodbye to it.
JF: Being a female athlete, throughout your entire career did you ever feel like women’s sports have taken a back seat to men’s?
Allison Roethke: I have always felt that women’s sports have “sat in the backseat” to men’s. My parents actually had me play boys hockey growing up. They thought that it would be better for my future because of the lack of attention women’s sports was receiving in my town at the time.
JF: Female athletes maintain such an inspirational stature in the sports world. When you step on the ice, who would you say you “play for”?
Quinnipiac Junior Allison Roethke
AK: It’s so cliche but we all play for the little girl watching us from the stands. We see that little girl and it reminds us of where we started. We want them to see us, and think “Wow, I can do that!”, and they can. We are powerful people in a very important time for women.
JF: When you were growing up, was there a big inspiration you had to get you to play sports at the D1 level?
AK: My older sister. I always wanted to do everything that she did. She ended up committing to UConn and I ended up following in her footstep out to the east coast to play as well. She always showed me that it’s worth it to try and make a change.
JF: QU is set to host the women’s Frozen Four this year. Something that ten years ago during the Title IX case seemed impossible. How proud are you of this establishment and its ability to grow around talented and popular female athletics?
AK: I can’t even put into words how incredible it is for Quinnipiac to be hosting the Frozen Four. We have the best of the best facilities and resources.
I am proud to be a part of this program and its journey to grow the women’s game. We strive every day to not only be the best hockey players but the best people.
The End All
From then to now, female athletes have been forced to make a change. Elizabeth Kloos was part of the first group of trailblazers to suit up for the Bobcats. She was part of the first effort to drive Quinnipiac out of the throws of the consent decree.
Fast forward two years, and Jessica Bracamonte was made minimally aware of the case as a whole. She didn’t know much about it when we talked, and didn’t really grasp Title IX until she was three years into her college career. There needs to be more education on this topic, and transparency between the university and its athletes.
Look at what Allison Roethke said. She sees this university trending in the positive direction, especially with hosting the Frozen Four this year.
If the establishment continues to push forward, and make strides for female athletics, it will leave the Title IX case in the dust. However, the women who started it all can’t be overlooked.
Because of the strong fight those athletes had, the university has brand new facilities, plenty of trophies and will host a Frozen Four.
It is truly a turn of the tide, and should build excitement for Bobcats fans moving forward.
