“I’ve been with the Hamden fire department 16 years, 8 years in the firehouse and 8 years in the fire marshal office. I was watching a documentary, after 9/11, on firehouses and FDNY and it seemed like a rewarding career. I like the comradery and decided that after I got my master’s I would enroll in EMT school and pursue this career. Any call we go on, we’re responding to a crisis situation and you’re trying to bring the most positive outcome possible. Something bad’s happening and you try to make the situation better than what it was before the call started. There was one (a fire) in my neighborhood, an old friend’s house I had been in plenty of times and I was new. I was told to go to the roof. We cut holes in the roof to vent out the heat for the crews going inside with the hoses. When you’re in the moment we all have a healthy fear and respect of fire. You’re also focused on the task at hand so you don’t think about, well it’s always in the back of your mind, that stuff can go bad.”
Quinnipiac Public Safety stands by the suspicious individual in the cafeteria.
(Photo: Cait Fish)
A suspicious white male caused a scene in the Mount Carmel Campus cafeteria after attempting to sell bagged white powder to Quinnipiac students Tuesday, April 16. Matthew Allen, a New Haven resident according to his Facebook profile, was surrounded by Public Safety officers in a booth in the cafeteria where they confiscated and searched his bag, witnesses said.
Quinnipiac Public Safety confirmed that the powder was not an illegal substance, but rather an energy powder. Allen was arrested and issued a no trespass order by Quinnipiac that he signed.
“It wasn’t drugs,” Public Safety Officer Lieutenant Don Distefano said. “It was a substance called Bang Energy Powder that he put in different bags and tried selling at $80 a bag.”
A member of the Hamden Police Department Records Division said that the last he heard, the substance was not illegal, and a police report is currently being filed and will be available in five to seven days.
Allen posted Tuesday morning stating his intentions to head to QU and ‘pitch’ to students the substance.
“Getting banged up before heading to Quinnipiac College to “pitch” and con gullible coeds into sleeping with me,” the post stated.
Allen then followed his initial post hours later with visuals of the powder and of himself sitting in the cafeteria.
“If anyone at Quinnipiac University wants to try Bang Energy Powder for free I’m here waiting in the dining hall while everyone ignores me except the coeds in their skintight yoga pants who keep eyefucking me,” the post read. “I’m not actually looking for sex but I am looking to make money off a high quality product I invested in. I’m charging Yale students $80/bag not everyone, fwiw.”
Screenshots of Matthew Allen’s Facebook page in which he mentions attempting to sell Bang Energy at Quinnipiac and explains the substance.
The campus breach comes only months after Uber driver Sean Brozek was arrested with stalking, threatening and trespassing onto the Mount Carmel campus for following a female student to her dorm. At that time, the Public Safety Department issued a ‘timely warning’ regarding the ongoing investigation to students via the university alert system, forwarding students to their MyQ account for more information.
Distefano explained that this was not the case this time around because Allen did not serve the same kind of threat that Brozek had.
“Based on a person’s behavior we do a threat assessment and we determine, ‘Is this an isolated instance we have at this moment or is it a threat to the community?’” Distefano said. “The threat assessment [in this case] was very low. He wasn’t targeting anyone specific, was in one place, wasn’t violent, was very cooperative and clearly had mental health issues.”
The Quinnipiac Annual Security and Fire Safety Report breaks down the specifics of why a ‘timely warning,’ like the one issued last November, would be issued to students, faculty and anyone subscribed to the university alert system.
“The university does not condone actions that are detrimental to the school’s resources, facilities, community members or image, or those that violate applicable laws or school policy,” according to the 2017 Annual Security and Fire Safety Report of the Mount Carmel and York Hill campuses. “A ‘timely warning’ will be issued in the event that a situation arises, either on or off campus, that in the judgment of the chief of public safety or his/her designee, constitutes an ongoing or continuing threat criminal in nature.”
In Brozek’s case, Public Safety was unaware of the situation until after Brozek had entered campus, followed a specified student to her dorm, harassed her and then left without notice. Allen, on the other hand, was sighted and reported immediately by officers who responded with Hamden PD to remove and arrest him in a timely manner that, once detained, was no longer deemed a threat to the Quinnipiac community by Public Safety.
“The past instance he was focusing on a specific student, penetrated the campus in the form of a dorm and left before we were notified,” Distefano said. “This person yesterday wasn’t.”
In wake of these incidents, students have begun to question their safety at the university when it comes to intruders.
“It was odd because there was this older looking man sitting in the cafe, surrounded by public safety officers,” junior biology major Matthew Williams said. “Whether it ended up being cocaine or an energy powder doesn’t matter to me. What was concerning is the fact that this man easily obtained access to our campus, despite the fact that we have Public Safety.”
Allen has been contacted, but has yet to respond with a comment.
Stay with HQ Press for further updates and details as they become available.
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.”
The Keefe Community Center in Hamden hosted its first free community health fair on Saturday, April 13.
The event lasted from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m. and had over 20 providers present, offering information about health concerns and benefits including, dental care, nutrition, eyesight, food banks and therapy.
The Keefe Community Center held its first community fair Saturday. (Photo: Ross Lager)
Nancy Juliano, a Hamden resident and member of the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer committee, had her Paint Hamden Pink station to spread awareness for breast cancer.
“Events like these are very important and should happen more often,” Juliano said. “People can learn about breast cancer but I can also spread awareness and grow support for the people and families affected by this disease.”
Attendees had the chance to learn about and seek possible treatments for diseases such as sickle cell anemia, breast cancer and AIDS.
The Quinnipiack Valley Health District, Yale-New Haven Health Hospital and representatives from the Town of Hamden were present, providing information about services for mammograms, diabetes and how to better care for your body.
Nearby universities such as Quinnipiac University, Yale University, the University of Connecticut and Southern Connecticut State University each had a station with student representatives available to speak about topics such as AIDS care, cancer and nutrition.
A food pantry truck was set up for an hour to give away free fresh products such as vegetables, fruit, cold cuts and drinks.
Attendees visit the Connecticut Food Bank truck. (Photo: Ross Lager)
The Community Services Coordinators at the Keefe Center, Y’Isiah Lopes and Anne Marie Karavas, said they believe the first health fair was a success.
“It was a good turnout,” Karavas said. “There were about 160 people here today.”
While attendance numbers are important, Lopes said he is happy to provide services for the community and help any number of people in any way possible.
“As long as we are offering the community something, you can never predict the number,” he said. “We could have had five people or 500. In the end, I can leave happy saying that we provided information and education for those who may need it.”
Lopes explained that this event will serve as a pilot program to help the Keefe Center understand how community members will respond to a health fair and how to better serve their needs for the next one.
He stressed the importance of bringing more awareness to the event as the Keefe Center’s goal is to spread the word as much as possible.
“I think we should work with the faith-based organizations like churches and have them help spread this information to their congregations,” he said.
Lopes said that he and his team have a lot to learn from this event about ways to improve it in future years. He said he hopes to make next year’s event bigger and better.
“We are going to recap from this event, see what we can do better, what we did well and what we can change moving forward,” Lopes said.
Alessandra Sillo, 33 years old, Hamden’s jewelry queen
Owner of William’s Exchange on Whitney Ave.
“It is unimaginable how much stuff people accumulate over the course of time. They just have decades of stuff. So some of it I buy on-site and the other half people just come in with, literally pounds of jewelry. I do knickknacks, I have some toys, but I love jewelry especially Victorian jewelry. I got my degree in English, but I really like the Victorian period in literature. Everything was so lavish and embellished with flowers. It was such a beautiful time. I love that jewelry and unfortunately not everything you can buy is Victorian. So I buy it all. It’s like looking at a piece of history. I like recovering it and learning about it and I’m really lucky to have this opportunity. I’ve always done it as a hobby. I have to admit, it’s hard to sell the jewelry because I want to keep all of it, but I sell most of it. It’s so hard to sell antiques right now. People don’t buy them. I’ve been evolving to see what people like and what they don’t like.”
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.
Quinnipiac University dining is now implementing orange “paid” stickers in an effort to combat student stealing.
“Unfortunately, we have been noticing an increase in the number of students stealing over the past couple of years,” Morgan Watson, marketing manager for Quinnipiac Dining said. “Theft has continued to increase and become a prominent issue at our dining facilities.”
The new policy, which began on April 2, will help staff to identify drinks that have not been paid for.
“The paid stickers are part of our effort to identify who has paid for their beverage,” Watson said.
The cafeteria has experienced a 10 percent shrinkage in inventory due to theft, according to Watson. The stickers are one of a few ways Quinnipiac dining plans to address this issue.
Results out of 200 respondents from survey sent out on HQ Press Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.: (click to scroll)
The university is also considering installing new camera systems in the Mount Carmel and York Hill cafeterias to further monitor stealing, Watson said. The cameras, which are planned to arrive in the fall of 2019, will have a live feed monitored by public safety.
Some students said they believe these new additions will damage the relationship between the university and the student body.
“I feel like that really puts a disconnect between Quinnipiac and the students,” Aryn McClure, a senior at Quinnipiac University, said. “It makes it seem like they can’t trust us and like they’re watching us as we go and eat. I think that just adds more stress to the students knowing that maybe I can’t be comfortable in my own school, in my own environment.”
Some members of the Quinnipiac community suspect that inflated prices are one of the main causes of frequent stealing.
“You can buy this stuff at a store off-campus for half the price that it is here, seriously, it’s crazy,” Christina Lucas, a Chartwells cashier, said. “Every year the prices go up.”
For example, a peanut butter chocolate Gatorade Whey Protein bar at Walmart is currently priced as low as $1.50, however, it is priced at $3.59 in the cafeteria, almost three times more expensive than what it would be at market value.
Cost of peanut butter chocolate Gatorade Whey Protein bar at the Quinnipiac cafeteria versus the cost at Walmart.
Quinnipiac Dining claims that the high prices on food are no excuse for students to consistently steal.
“The majority of the students who remove unauthorized food and beverage from the dining facilities still have money on their meal plan account,” Watson said.
In addition to steeper prices, some students feel like the cafeteria needs to do a better job decreasing the amount of time that it takes to purchase their food.
“I think students steal so often in the cafeteria based off time,” Chelsea Jones, a senior Quinnipiac student, said. “If you go into the cafeteria around 12 o’clock it’s really packed in there and it’s busy, so you’re not going to wait in line to pay for a juice when you can just take it and keep going about your business.”
Jones said she believes opening more registers will allow for a quicker checkout time and keep students from skipping the lines when they are in a rush.
“They probably need to open up more registers around the times that they know they’re going to be busy,” Jones said. “Not just have one or two registers open around those busy hours, because nobody’s going to wait.”
Watson and Quinnipiac Dining understand the student’s concerns regarding the wait time and stated that they try to avoid the backlog during peak periods as much as possible.
“Our standard is to have all registers open at peak periods,” Watson said. “However, there are times when we are understaffed at the moment and a register may not be open for a period. We try to avoid closing any registers at peak time if possible.”
Jones also said that she believes providing discounts on certain items toward the end of the semester will keep students from stealing when their meal plan is running low.
“During the times of the school year where students may be lower on meal plan, I definitely think that the prices should drop on drinks,” Jones said. “Water bottles are around $3, that’s unnecessary. If anything it should be at most $2.”
Even with the new sticker policy, as well as the camera system that is on the horizon for next year, it is safe to assume that students will still steal at least in some capacity despite the efforts of the dining staff.
Student responds to the news of the orange paid stickers on Twitter.
“They just walk right out. It’s like what can you do? I can’t do anything to these people,” Lucas said.
Moving forward, the university will continue to work with the dining staff to come up with the best solution to the theft dilemma. However, some students say the answer might be easier than many would’ve thought.
“I think (the university) should just trust the students a little bit more,” McClure said. “I do understand they need to make profits, but stealing isn’t OK. They should work with the student body and create resources for them to eat in an affordable way. Just trust Quinnipiac because we are one community.”
The Keefe Community Center, located just off Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, welcomed hundreds of job seekers on Saturday April 6, as it hosted its first job fair. Armed with their resumes and an entrepreneurial spirit, eager attendees arrived in droves. They were met by dozens of equally eager local employers excited to meet new potential employees.
The event was arranged by community service coordinator Y’Isiah Lopes, who less than a year ago was tasked with managing the Keefe Community Center and overseeing outreach projects in Hamden.
“I’ve been employed for seven months now with the town of Hamden, and when they brought me in they wanted me to do some outreach in the community,” Lopes said. “I thought it’d be a great idea to find some of the local employers along Dixwell….and get these jobs together and these employers together for the community.”
Unemployment is currently at an 18-year low nationwide, and Connecticut’s unemployment rate is similar to the national average at 3.8 percent. However, according to a 2019 study conducted by the Connecticut Department of Labor, thousands of individuals in Hamden and the greater New Haven area remain jobless. Both employers and job seekers agree that events like the Hamden job fair are an effective way to close that gap.
“I think unemployment is an issue everywhere, unfortunately. I don’t think it’s just in Hamden,” Angela Vey, an officer with the Hamden Police Department said. “But I absolutely see a lot of benefit with functions like this…I know that the town of Hamden does do a lot to help people try and get jobs.”
The Keefe Community Center has long played a critical role in the town of Hamden. For years it’s served the community through its food bank, by providing shelter for displaced families and by giving assistance to individuals facing heating emergencies during the cold winter months. After taking the position of community service coordinator, Lopes sought to expand the center’s role.
“It’s great being a charitable organization, but we also have to offer something else,” Lopes said.
With this goal in mind, staff from Keefe and Hamden Adult Education organized a job fair featuring mostly employers from businesses located along Dixwell Avenue. From Marshall’s and Stop and Shop to the Hamden Police Department, dozens of organizations participated in Saturday’s event.
TJ Maxx was one of the event’s most popular employers, with over 150 candidates filling out applications.
“Bringing employers in, especially employers like Home Depot, ShopRite, Starbucks, these national employers, I thought it would be great for the community to have the opportunity to work for them,” Lopes said.
For New Haven resident and job seeker Jatajia Copeland, the vast array of employers was a major factor in her decision to partake in the event.
“I go to CT Works in New Haven, and they told me about the job fair in Hamden today,” Copeland said. “When I saw the list of companies I decided to come. I’m not applying anywhere particular, I just applied everywhere.”
In addition to companies looking to hire, the job fair also invited representatives from employment resource organizations like the American Job Center (AJC) to participate.
“My role here today is to find qualified candidates to fill eligible jobs for local employers,” AJC representative Kevin Lawrence said. “People come to me and I register them for a job screening event at our facility. It takes place every week on Tuesday and Thursday.”
Based on attendance, there should be no shortage of qualified candidates. Lawrence explained that in the dozen or so job fairs he’s attended across the state, the usual turnout is around 75 potential employees. In just three hours, the Keefe Community Center had already drawn in 400 participants.
“A lot of employers really love the turnout,” Lopes said. “TJ Maxx and Marshall’s, they said they only came with 75 applications and they already have 150 filled out. They asked us to make more copies because they weren’t prepared.”
When asked why they thought the job fair was such as success, both employers and job seekers came to the same conclusion: it provided an opportunity to make a first impression.
“I think it gets people in and talking to people one-on-one and it gets the ball rolling really quickly because they’re accepting resumes and filling out applications right on the spot,” Vey said. “When you fill out an application online you miss that.”
Lopes echoed her sentiment, adding that taking part in a job fair also lets an applicant stand out from the throngs of online competition.
“When you go online and fill applications out, you have the challenge of 300 other people filling that same application out. By having employers here, you get more of a preferential treatment because you’re actually here,” he said.
Though this was the Keefe Community Center’s first time hosting a job fair, it certainly won’t be the last. Due to its success, Lopes hopes to make the Hamden job fair a semi-annual event.
“Six or seven employers are already committed to coming back next year,” he said. “I may actually do this twice and make it semi-annual, maybe do another in September with other employers in the Dixwell area.”
Bomb Wings and Rice, a new restaurant in Hamden, opened its doors March 16 and gives a margin of every purchase to an organization called Change the Play, making it much more than your typical wing spot.
Owned by Jason Teal, 39, and his partners Ray Guilbaut and chef Stephen Ross, Bomb follows a social business model that emphasizes a contribution to the surrounding society.
Teal built the restaurant so that a portion of every purchase goes to an organization called Change the Play, a nonprofit organization that strives to help at-risk youth by creating programs around education, healthy lifestyle choices and identity.
The idea was partly inspired by a friend of Teal’s who was running a nonprofit in Virginia that fed 2800 children a day. As a former member of the NAACP, Teal realized he could tackle issues of at-risk youth in his community more directly. He decided to launch his own nonprofit version of the program in Connecticut in 2013.
He founded Change the Play, a nonprofit organization that strives to help at-risk youth by creating programs around education, healthy lifestyle choices and identity.
“I partnered with a local church in Meriden in the summer of 2017 and we were feeding 200 kids a day at the time,” Teal said. “I had maxed out the capacity of the kitchen and so I was looking for commercial kitchens or spaces around, and people were charging me a crazy amount of money for only like four hours. So I was like, I could start a restaurant for this.”
Chef Stephen Ross, left, and co-owner Jason Teal, right.
That is when Teal reached out to Stephen Ross, a friend and board member of Change the Play. Ross also happened to be well-known in the New Haven culinary scene for his work at restaurants such as Cast Iron Soul and Anchor Spa. Together with Ray Guilbaut, they conceived the idea of a fried rice bar with wings.
“This restaurant serves as a central kitchen for the food program, so in the morning and on the off days, we make all the meals for kids, free, and at 11 o’clock we kick into the forward-facing business which is Bomb Wings and Rice Bar,” Teal said. “A portion of every meal goes back to the food program to feed kids.”
Teal is planning a grand opening for May 1, 2019 and has much more in store for the restaurant, located at 2373 Whitney Ave., for the future.
“I’m looking to build a franchise and open up a few more locations,” Teal said. “Once we prove that this is a successful model and it does great, then we’ll be looking to open up some more.”
Gus Eliopoulos is a co-owner of Fat Wedge U, a new restaurant on Whitney Ave. Eliopoulos said he believes the most important aspect of running a food business is making sure that their food is fresh. “We thrive on freshness and good quality,” he said. “We make all our own sauces and grind our own meet for burgers in house. We get product shipments in every morning, and we marinate our own chicken. If we don’t use all the chicken that was marinated for the day it goes in the trash and we start a fresh batch the next morning.”
