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Are esports the next big thing in sports?

via GIPHY

By Cliff Nadel

Most basements are dead places, where things deemed too valuable to throw out but not worth enough to keep in easy reach are stored, but not this basement-style room. It teems with 20 vibrant television screens connected to Nintendo WII video game machines. The sounds of characters from the game Mario Super Smash Bros. mix vibrantly with the often shrill voices of young people expressing surprise, frustration and the other emotions that accompany esports.

In Wallingford, Connecticut, every Thursday night the organization Hall of Gaming (HoG), hosts a Mario Super Smash Bros. event, called the “Hall of Gaming Melee Weekly.”  According to Hall of Gaming employee Sean Thomas O’Connor, the weekly melee tournaments are the biggest of their kind in Connecticut.


Hall of Gaming’s Melee Weekly is held every Thursday night at 150 Center Street Wallingford, Connecticut.

Hall of Gaming’s Melee Weekly is held every Thursday night at 150 Center Street Wallingford, Connecticut.

“So you pay five dollars for the venue as a thank you to the owner for letting us use this space, and then five dollars to enter the singles bracket, and then I calculate all that money.  Then I pay out to the top three,” said O’Connor, who is also a student at Quinnipiac University in nearby Hamden, Connecticut.

O’Conner notes that there is a range in the amount of money winners take home.

“You can walk out of here with anywhere from $50, to I’ve seen people walk out of here with $500,” said O’Connor.  “Big or small we always have a good time here at HoG. We’re kind of like a tight-knit family in that sense.”


The Hall of Gaming snack bar with Hall of gaming employee and QU student Sean Thomas O’Connor

The Hall of Gaming snack bar with Hall of gaming employee and QU student Sean Thomas O’Connor


Mario Super Smash Bros. Melee was released on the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2001.

Mario Super Smash Bros. Melee was released on the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2001.

So what is “esports” anyway? Well, basically “esports” is what has developed out of playing video games on a competitive level. It has turned the competitive playing of video games into a sport. Playing esports can be done on an individual level, but mostly it’s played through teams.

Free streaming services like Twitch and YouTube allow anyone with a Wi-Fi connection to watch various esports tournaments and matches.  These internet services give gamers the opportunity to watch their favorite esports athletes, mostly for free.

Esports is a rapidly growing industry around the world and according to Newzoo, an esports market research firm.  The esports industry is expected to have a worldwide audience of over 557 million people by 2021.  In Connecticut, esports programs and teams have made their way into high schools across the state, a prime example is the esports team in the New London Public Schools.

this chart shows the current as well as projected worldwide esports audience Size

Tyler Schrodt, the founder and CEO of the Electronic Gaming Federation, said that esports have changed into something more important than the original goal. Esports isn’t just a game, he says, but it can also give players a community that they can’t find elsewhere.

“It’s evolved beyond just the idea of people playing against each other in video games, into something that really makes a real impact for a lot of people,” Schrodt said.  

There are hundreds of video games that have developed esports connections: including real-time strategy (RTS) games like Starcraft II, multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games like League of Legends and DOTA 2.  There are first-person shooter games like Call of Duty, Halo and Overwatch as well as fighting games like Street Fighter and Mario Super Smash Bros.  There are also sports games like Ea Sports FIFA and Madden   

League of Legends, made by publisher Riot Games, is the most popular esports game.  It has more 100 million monthly active users, or MAU,  according to research firm SuperData. MAU is a key figure used to measure the popularity of digital applications and games.  In the MOBA game League of Legends each team has to work together using strategy to destroy what’s known in the game as a nexus in the center of each team’s base.  Last year’s League of Legends World Championship had a nearly $5 million prize pool.

Arguably the most successful esports athlete Lee Sang-hyeok, also known as “Faker” has earned over $900,000 in prize money playing League of Legends. It has been rumored that “Faker” was offered a $2.5 million per year contract extension to resign with his team SK Telecom T1, after they won their third League of Legends World Championship.  

Dota 2, made by publisher Valve Software, is another popular MOBA esports game that has more than 12 million monthly active users, according to SuperData   The Dota 2 World Championship boasts one of the biggest prize pools for an esports tournament, with nearly a $24 million prize pool.

Statistics show how much money the esports industry is making, how many people watch esports and how valuable the esports industry will be in the future, according to a Morgan Stanley report titled “Have eSports Hit the Majors?”   

“Esports is on track to be a $1.5 billion industry by 2020 as it emulates the business models of major league sports, complete with sponsorships, advertising, media rights, ticket sales and merchandise,” according to the Morgan Stanley report. The report’s statistics show that the esports industry was worth approximately $700 million in 2017.

“In 2017, esports attracted an audience of more than 380 million, 20 percent increase from the year prior,” according to Newzoo, an esports market research firm, cited in the Morgan Stanley report.

this chart analyzes the number of global online esports viewers vs. us sporting event tv viewers

Vince Nairn, managing editor of DBLTAPESPORTS, a media company focused on the coverage of esports using a combination of fan generated media with traditional sports journalism elements said, “Video games have always been popular and as technology has advanced and as kids today have lived their entire lives in the digital age (and a growing one at that), that interest has gone beyond just playing games with the handful of friends who live on your block.”

Nairn went on to explain, “We have a giant mass of people in the 13-24 age range. That demographic is the most desirable for advertisers because it’s huge.”  He went on,  “So you have this giant mass of young people and a lot of people interested in trying to reach them, and that’s why you’ve seen so much investment and sponsorship from non-endemics. Everybody wants a part of esports because it’s young and it’s trending up.”

Professional sports teams have started to get in on the esports action as well. For example, several of the world’s biggest soccer clubs have started to sign their own EA Sports FIFA esports athletes.  

In 2016 English Premier League Club Manchester City signed Kieran Brown, also known as “Kez,” to be Manchester City’s official esports FIFA pro.  Since Manchester City’s first FIFA pro mostly played on the XBOX, in December 2017 Manchester City signed a second FIFA pro, Marcus Jorgensen, also known as “ExpectSporting,” becoming Manchester City’s dedicated PlayStation 4 FIFA pro.  


Marcus “ExpectSporting” Jorgensen Manchester City’s EA Sports FIFA pro.  Image via his Twitter @Marcuzo45

Marcus “ExpectSporting” Jorgensen Manchester City’s EA Sports FIFA pro.  Image via his Twitter @Marcuzo45

Blizzard Entertainment, creators of the First-Person-Shooter game Overwatch, this year introduced the first season of The Overwatch League, which Blizzard intends to run like a traditional sports league.  The inaugural season of The Overwatch League features 12 teams from all over the world including New York, Houston, Philadelphia, Boston, Seoul, London, Shanghai, and two teams in Los Angeles.


The Overwatch League Logo. Picture Via The Overwatch League

The Overwatch League Logo. Picture Via The Overwatch League

The first Overwatch League season will take place in Los Angeles, with plans for home and away games in the future.  Each of the 12 teams in the Overwatch League paid $20 million for a franchise spot and some of the owners of the Overwatch League teams include traditional sports team owners like New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft, who owns the Boston Overwatch League team, and Mets COO Jeff Wilpon, who owns the New York Overwatch League team.  With no revenue sharing until 2021 other prospective owners will have to wait and see if owning an Overwatch League team is a profitable venture.  


The Logos of All 12 Teams in The Overwatch League.  Picture Via The Overwatch League

The Logos of All 12 Teams in The Overwatch League.  Picture Via The Overwatch League

When asked if traditional sports teams will continue to invest in esports, Nairn said that, “In the short term, definitely. I expect more of that to continue in the short term.” But Nairn isn’t sure that the investment in esports will continue in the long term,  “So much money has gone into esports, and not a ton of those investors have gotten money back out of it, at least to this point. That’s going to need to change for people to continue to think their investments are worthwhile.”

High School esports In Connecticut and The Electronic Gaming Federation

Organizations like the Electronic Gaming Federation (EGF) have partnered with various gaming clubs in high schools in Connecticut to help create an esports league for Connecticut high schools.  The EGF also helped Connecticut’s high school esports league become an official partner with Connecticut’s state high school sports organization known as CASCIAC.

The EGF was created in 2013 and according to its founder and CEO Tyler Schrodt, EGF’s goal is, “to do what the NCAA does for traditional sports, but apply it to esports.”

The EGF oversees both a high school and a collegiate esports league and according to Schrodt, the EGF wants its league to have a similar kind of professionalism that traditional sports organizations like the NCAA have.  According to Schrodt, the EGF also works with various high schools across the country to help them build their esports programs.


The EGF Logo. Picture Via The EGF Website

The EGF Logo. Picture Via The EGF Website

“We (The EGF) also spend a lot of time working with individual schools to build their programs from the ground up,” Schrodt said.  “We spend a lot of time helping to educate staff. We help them figure out what their program is going to look like, establish their goals and assist them up to the point of helping them design their facilities.”

The EGF also does all of its own event production and broadcasts. They even have their own esports broadcast training program that educates people interested in producing and commentating in the esports world and about what it takes to get a job.

According to Schrodt, the EGF often faces knowledge gap challenges when it helps high schools create esports teams and programs. The EGF helps explain what esports are, to students, parents, teachers and administrators who are unsure of what it is.  The EGF also helps set realistic goals for the high school esports programs, as well as helps them reach those goals. EGF is working on expanding to other states besides Connecticut, but has yet to identify the states. The main tool that EGF has used to promote its services is through word of mouth.

“We put a lot of effort into enabling our members to talk completely about what they’re doing with their programs and how we as EGF can help new programs find their feet in esports,” Schrodt said.  “Beyond that, we generate as much content as we can and make sure that we’re visible at conferences and wherever else students or administrators might have an opportunity to interact with us.”

One of the school districts in Connecticut where EGF helped develop an esports program is the New London Public School District.  Clint Kennedy, who holds a doctorate degree and is the director of Innovation Technology for the New London Public Schools, decided to start a gaming club for the New London Public Schools after he saw a few of his students playing League of Legends during their free time.  

After Kennedy started playing League of Legends with his students,  Kennedy realized that games followed a pattern common to all technological developments. It required collaboration, research and critical thinking.  During the first year of New London’s gaming club, about 80 high school students showed up for every gaming club meeting. This led Kennedy to approach the New London Public School administration about starting an esports team.  

After an inconsistent first season for New London’s esports team, the students of New London and Kennedy decided that they wanted to start an esports league for Eastern Connecticut.  While earning his doctorate at UConn one of his professors connected him with a guy named Andrew Cutter who worked at EGF and is currently the Operations Architect for EGF. In the summer before the 2016-2017 school year, Kennedy worked side by side with EGF and 15 high school students from Eastern Connecticut for eight days over the summer to create all the rules, marketing strategies and the ins and outs of the Eastern Connecticut esports League.

“EGF did some pro bono work to really help guide us in the creation of the league,” Kennedy said.  “EGF also recommended that we open it up (the league) to the entire state.” EGF helped assist Kennedy and his students at New London as they pitched the idea of making their esports an official recognized student activity by the CASCIAC.  “Once CASCIAC blessed it EGF became the official organizing body of the league.”

The New London esports program is not funded by the school system. Instead, it raises money on its own with tournaments and other events.  The program does its own fundraising and they have monthly tournaments The Friday night fights tournament is among the most popular,, with funds raised through a $5 or whatever gamers can afford, admissions fee and the sale of food and beverages.

Collegiate esports

Esports has also started to make waves at the collegiate level with over 50 schools having their own varsity esports programs.  Robert Morris University Illinois located in Chicago, was the first school to offer a partial scholarship for esports athletes for their League of Legends team back in 2014.


Robert Morris University Illinois esports Team Logo. Photo Via Robert Morris University’s esports Team Twitter @RMUesports

Robert Morris University Illinois esports Team Logo. Photo Via Robert Morris University’s esports Team Twitter @RMUesports

Lebanon Valley College (LVC), located in Annville, Pennsylvania,  started its collegiate esports program last December. According to Director of esports Operations, David Shapiro, LVC treats its esports athletes and teams the same way they treat their traditional athletes and teams.

“At LVC we look at esports as a varsity sport,” Shapiro said.  “Our esports athletes are a part of our athletic department, they have specific meeting times, specific measurements they have to meet, training schedules, coaches.  We really treat it as an athletic organization and we maintain it as a full varsity level team.”

LVC has a Hearthstone, Overwatch, League of Legends, and Rocket League esports team. According to Shapiro, Lebanon Valley’s esports athletes practice Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for about two-three hours when they aren’t competing. When they are competing they only practice for about one-two hours on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.  Even though LVC plans to start offering partial esports scholarships in the fall of 2019, Shapiro believes divisions similar to how the NCAA has DI, DII and DIII will form after esports scholarships become more prevalent.

“I think what will end up happening as more colleges and universities join esports on the varsity level and colleges see an opportunity to offer scholarships or incentivize coming to play there, it will kind of like NCAA, it will create divisions,” Shapiro said. “Those divisions will be those who offer full rides and those who don’t.  We play Boise State (a school with over 22,000 students compared to LVC’s 1,700 students) and I’m not sure if we will in the future.”

 

 


Lebanon Valley College via lvc.edu

Lebanon Valley College via lvc.edu


Lebanon Valley College Logo via godutchmen.com

Lebanon Valley College Logo via godutchmen.com


UC Irvine esports Program.  Photo Via UCI Irvine esports website

UC Irvine esports Program.  Photo Via UCI Irvine esports website

Mark Deppe the Acting Director of UC Irvine’s esports program believes that esports scholarships haven’t had that big of an impact on collegiate esports yet. 

“There are only a few schools that have esports program scholarships for League of Legends or Overwatch that are good,” Deppe said. “Schools that were historically good at esports, and I would count UCI in that group, are still good at esports.  Last year when Maryville won the national title for League of Legends, it was the first time a scholarship team had won the national title.  In Overwatch, we were the only scholarship team that was in the finals and we ended up losing to a non-scholarship team.”

Maryville University won the college title for League of Legends in 2017

Professional, high school and collegiate esports are on the way up the and the future of esports looks very bright, but there are still some important questions for esports going forward.   Mark Deppe, Acting Director of UC Irvine, raises one of the biggest questions going forward for esports, how long the current popular esports games will last.

“I’m not gonna promise that League of Legends and Overwatch and the games of today are going to be around 20 years from now,” Deppe said. “I think things will change and evolve faster, that’s just the world we live in now. Esports will be the new frontier of competition, I don’t think we are going to be playing football forever, and all the sports that we are playing right now forever, and I think esports will be in a good position to kind of take over that space in our hearts and minds.”

Shapiro, said that he believes more schools will start to have more varsity esports programs in the near future and that esports will become as commercially popular as traditional sports.

“In the next five years most colleges will have a varsity level esports program or will be in position to create one,” Shapiro said.  “I think that major networks will air esports on TV seasonally, if not always. The market will continue to grow, we will one day see a Super Bowl commercial with Alienware or ASUS or Samsung or somebody that has two or three of the major players or teams in it.  It’s not going away it’s only going to grow.”

Alienware Computer

Asus Computer

When asked about the future of esports, Vince Nairn, managing editor of DBLTAPESPORTS said, “Whether that growth is sustainable or not? That’s the question that everybody is trying to answer. But the growth to this point has been undeniable.”

 “I don’t think esports will ever fully be mainstream. And that’s OK. It can have its functional niche in the gaming and entertainment world, and a lot of people can be successful,” Nairn said.  

Nairn went on,  “But I don’t think esports needs to be seen as a traditional sport, or esports athletes being considered “real” athletes. That’s a debate going on in the industry right now about that, and it’s just pointless to me. Esports athletes are the best in the world in their profession, just as the NBA players are the best in the world at their profession and the top musical artists are the best in the world at their profession. It doesn’t matter how they’re classified, or if people believe they’re “athletes” or not.”

The rise of esports is evident in the number of participants and the growing list of schools that are fielding teams.   Its future looks bright, as the buy in and financial investment from the established sports world continues to grow. It appears to be making a successful transition from the fringes of the sports world, to the sports mainstream.  The development of both high school and college programs will only help in this transition.

A culture of abuse: How to avoid it before it’s too late


Athlete 1.jpg

By Grace Manthey

Note: this article was updated on April 9 to clarify Sara MacDonough’s comments.

When Nicole Connery signed with Quinnipiac’s women’s ice hockey team for the 2012 season she didn’t know the suffering she would endure for the next three years.

Coaches from her hometown of Newmarket, Ontario, warned her when she told them where she was going. They told her they had heard things.

“But I was like, a lot of coaches yell,” Connery remembered.

Rick Seeley was Connery’s coach at Quinnipiac until her junior year when the university fired him in April 2015 for verbal and physical abuse of his players. But according to student surveys originally reported by Q30 Television, students had been reporting incidents since 2009.

“It could have been avoided earlier if our surveys were read and understood,” Connery said. “It’s the only thing I don’t understand of how those things were swept under the rug. I’ll never understand that.”

Every student athlete fills out a survey at the end of his or her season. After Connery’s first year she said she wrote long and honest answers detailing the abuse. But after a while she figured no one seemed to be listening.


Photo courtesy of Nicole Connery

Photo courtesy of Nicole Connery

In her first survey, Connery described an incident where Seeley had the team run from the Mount Carmel campus to York Hill at 5 a.m. Afterward they had practice without an athletic trainer and a player tore a ligament in her knee.

After her sophomore year, Connery said since she didn’t feel like administrators were listening to the surveys. She just wrote that Seeley, “probably shouldn’t aim a slapshot at a player that did something wrong in practice.”

A more public incident at an NCAA tournament loss against Harvard sparked the end of the abuse.

Seeley not only started swearing at his players, but also grabbed one by the facemask. Another coach had to pull Seeley off of the player. 

“Not only did we all see the incident but my parents, other parents, parents on the other team, and players on the other team saw this incident and was horrified,” said one player in her anonymous survey.

Former athletic director Jack McDonald, who was at Quinnipiac during the Seeley scandal, declined to comment on the incident.

The university hired Sarah Fraser in 2016, so she wasn’t around for Seeley’s firing. However, as the deputy director of athletics she is now one of the administrators who reads the athlete surveys.

Fraser is also the senior women administrator at Quinnipiac, a role designed to promote women within the school, according to the NCAA.

She said the student athlete surveys are anonymous because they allow student athletes to feel more comfortable being honest. While she said she feels strongly that they should stay that way, she also thinks the anonymity makes it hard for administrators to pinpoint problems.

“The challenge is not being able to follow up with somebody to get additional detail or verify how true something may be,” said Fraser.

This challenge may be part of why physical, verbal and emotional abuse is widespread in high-level sport – and why it’s been traditionally ignored. Players say that the culture demands that athletes tough it out for fear of retaliation or being seen as weak. So they don’t usually speak up. This leads to a communication barrier between athletes and coaches that can leave abusive behavior hiding in plain sight. 

In fact, nearly half of all current or former athletes have experienced some negative interaction with a coach, whether they felt like the coach was picking on them, or crossed a line, according to an online survey of 62 current or former high school and college athletes in the U.S.


Survey Chart.png

It’s a decades-long problem that has recently gotten the spotlight because players are starting to speak out.

Earlier this year, a Michigan court sentenced former USA Gymnastics (USAG) team doctor Larry Nassar on sexual assault charges. The statements from the hundreds of girls and women Nassar abused exposed the true abusive culture of USAG’s desire to win more medals. Meanwhile, a book published back in 1995 explained the abusive culture of elite gymnastics, yet the governing body did nothing until gymnasts started speaking up.

But most athletes do not speak up, according to the online survey. One anonymous respondent said, “we are taught to put our heads down and deal with it.” Many ignored negative interactions with their coaches. But that has consequences.  

A study from 2008 found that emotional abuse, rather than verbal or physical, had the most negative effect on the well being of 14 elite, retired swimmers. The study defined emotional abuse as “sustained and repeated patterns of contact-free harmful interactions between an athlete and caregiver (coach) that resulted in emotional upset of the athlete.”

Quinnipiac fired Seeley for verbal and physical abuse, but the surveys also show signs of emotional abuse.

“He even told a member of the team that she was in fact nothing to this team and that she was worthless,” said one student athlete in a 2013 survey. “He told a girl … when she was ready to quit that if she goes home all she will be is a waitress and that she will have no life.”

The study also found emotional abuse was the least studied form of abuse, especially in athletics. But it’s one of the most common.  

In another 2004 study, all interviewed athletes said their coach had abused them in some way. This resulted in them feeling worthless, lacking self confidence, depressed, humiliated or fearful.

The study went on to point out that these feelings lead to a “lack of belief in their own ability to perform,” which ultimately ends up making them play worse.

Also, the “only the strong survive/no pain, no gain” attitude is a myth according to Celia Brackenridge, the director of the Centre for Youth Sport and Athlete Welfare at Brunel University in West London.

“This attitude reflects institutional intolerance for maltreating athletes and overlooks the longer term harm that can result for ‘tough’ training and coaching regimes,” said Brackenridge in a 2010 keynote address at the “How Safe is Your Sport” conference.

Sara MacDonough, Quinnipiac University athletic trainer and mental health liaison said she couldn’t comment on the women’s ice hockey incident. But in general she thinks communication could be a way to foster a good relationship between athletes and coaches.

“If you can talk it out and understand where people are coming from and understand why they’re doing what they’re doing, then no one abuses their power and we can keep that check and balance in place,” she said.

According to former student athlete Connery, communication wasn’t always a solution for her. While her friends would go to other staff members to “let it out and cry,” Connery said she had no one she felt like she could trust. She said Seeley gave the impression that if anyone talked it would get back to him and they would be punished. 

“For me it was hard because I never let myself flush out those feelings, what I had was just bottled up,” Connery said. “It’s not good for your health and you end up numb. Communication was just non-existent for me.”  

Kelly Frassinelli, the field hockey coach and senior woman administrator at Southern Connecticut State University, said every school handles the role a little differently.

At Southern, Frassinelli’s role as SWA can include sitting down with athletes and talking with them about athletic, academic or social problems. As the field hockey coach she has regular meetings with her players to check in. However, in addition to communication on the athlete’s end, coaches must have a strong moral compass, Frassinelli said.

“I guess for me with all the stuff that’s going on in the world I just, I’ve never tolerated that. I’ve never felt that you know that in a role of power … you should ever take advantage of that role,” Frassinelli said.

She continued and said it might be easy to get lost in a moment, but that coaches have to remember there is life after sport.

“You have to stick by knowing that these are individuals you’re trying to make better people so that when they leave here, they might not be an Olympic athlete, but they’re going to be a good person,” she said.

Frassinelli recognizes that conversations between athletes and coaches will not always be pleasant, like after a game when a player has made a mistake.

“That’s where we encourage them to come talk to us,” she said. “And I know it’s hard for them sometimes but we’re going to give the honest answer whether you like the answer or not. But we’re going to try to communicate it.”

The line between being a tough coach and an abusive one is sometimes blurry, according to Frassinelli. Avoiding it totally may be impossible, but the important part is the way potentially abusive behavior is managed, she said. Coaches, athletes and administrations must build enough trust to do that.

“I think about how often is there oversight, how often are athletic directors or even associate ADs watching the interactions that are happening with their coaching staff and their student athletes just to check, just to make sure,” Frassinelli said.

Fraser, Quinnipiac’s SWA, said she believes administrator involvement is vital to understanding the cultures of the programs they oversee.

“I think the role is knowing enough about the programs you’re reading about going into the survey, so that most of what is said isn’t a surprise,” she said. “So if you’re doing your job [as an administrator] there shouldn’t be too many things there that you had no idea about because you’re close enough to the coaches, you’re close enough to the student athletes, you’re close enough to the program from just being around.”

However, Quinnipiac counselor Mary Pellitteri believes trust may be the wrong word to use when trying to avoid abusive behavior.

“Take trust and throw it right out the window,”Pellitteri said. “That’s a word that is way overused in my opinion because it’s something that has to be earned.” 

Pellitteri said athletes need to not only get to know their coaches, but also get over the possible embarrassment of speaking up if they feel wronged.

“We feel like, ‘oh don’t be such a fuddy duddy’ or whatever, and that’s when it gets more and more uncomfortable,” she said. “So I think it’s more about trusting yourself to be able to stand up for things.”

However, as an athlete who has witnessed this behavior, Connery believes athletes sticking up for themselves can be a double-edged sword.

“They’re a wuss if they [admit it bothers them] and then people pull the whole ‘if you’re at a high level, if you’re a D1 athlete you need to be able to handle this,’” she said.

NCAA surveys mirror Connery’s thoughts.

In the most recent Growth, Opportunities, Aspirations and Learning of Students in college or GOALS survey, about half of female respondents said they were “very comfortable” going to their captains with team problems. The percentage increased from freshmen to seniors.

However, when asked how comfortable they were talking to coaches about team problems, a higher percentage of student athletes selected “somewhat comfortable” or “somewhat uncomfortable.”

When asked how comfortable they would be talking with administrators about problems on a team, over half were “somewhat uncomfortable” or “very uncomfortable” across all years.   


GOALSSurveyChart.png

It was Connery’s captain, Morgan Fritz-Ward who faced discomfort and requested a meeting with administration. She and her team decided they were not going to let any more athletes suffer from their coach’s behaviors.

And once Seeley was gone, Connery, in her senior season found her love for hockey again. 

“The coaches let me be a little more like, free, the way that I am,” said Connery. “And all the love poured in again.”

While the new head ice hockey coach and assistant under Seeley, Cassandra Turner, was not someone the players felt like they could go to in their time of suffering, Connery found a way to enjoy her senior season.

“In order for you to do better you have to forgive,” Connery said. “She’s very good at communicating with people … She’s very good at understanding people’s minds. I trusted that she could do well, could teach us well, could be a good coach and everything.”

MacDonough, the Quinnipiac trainer and mental health liaison, said that it’s important for coaches to have a healthy line of communication between them and their athletes and to not let too many personal feelings get in the way.

“We have a duty to check those behaviors, check our emotions at the door. If our student athlete isn’t performing well I do think that we have to hold them accountable and say ‘hey you’re slipping, what’s going on,’” she said.

So while student athletes can sometimes feel like no one is listening, experts say there is a way of managing problems between athletes and coaches. Abuse in women’s sports can be avoided with communication, accountability, respect and self esteem.

From Connery’s point of view, “you’ve gotta really value yourself … and know what you deserve and the kind of way you should be treated … put that value up higher.”

Reporter’s note: In the interest of full disclosure, Grace Manthey is a student athlete at Quinnipiac on the Acrobatics and Tumbling team.

Quinnipiac gives $700,000 to Town of North Haven

By Cliff Nadel

On March 26, Quinnipiac University President John Lahey presented a $700,000 check from the University to the town of North Haven and first selectmen Michael Freda at the North Haven’s Memorial Town Hall. 


Quinnipiac President John Lahey presenting check to North Haven First Selectmen Michael Freda.  Photo Via Quinnipiac University Photographer Autumn Driscoll

Quinnipiac President John Lahey presenting check to North Haven First Selectmen Michael Freda.  Photo Via Quinnipiac University Photographer Autumn Driscoll

According to a press release from Quinnipiac, Freda and the town of North Haven plan to use the money for two new playgrounds at the Montowese Elementary School and Ridge Road School. 

“Quinnipiac has enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with the Town of North Haven, where we have invested more than $350 million since 2007 to develop our North Haven Campus,” President Lahey said at the press conference according to Quinnipiac’s press release. 

Kathryn Russo the Principal of Montowese Elementary School, said that the school’s new playground will be a kindergarten playground for kids five to six-years-old. 

“We are hoping to have the playground completed by the beginning of next school year (August 2018),“ Russo said. 

Patrick Stirk the Principal of Ridge Road Elementary School, said that the playground committee hasn’t decided on what playground equipment to purchase yet, but that the playground will be designed to make sure that all students can use it. 

“The new playground is designed to ensure that students can access it regardless of any physical limitations.  The equipment will allow/promote all of our students to play together,” Stirk said. 

Both Principal Stirk and Russo said that their schools plan to hold dedication ceremonies for the new playgrounds but the dates for them haven’t been set. 

The money Quinnipiac has given to the town of North Haven has been used to pay for the instillation of lights at North Haven’s town softball field and a playground at Green Acres Elementary School. 

 

Shackled to words: The language of news extends punishment of the formerly incarcerated


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By Thamar Bailey

In early February, a woman gave birth in her cell at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, Connecticut’s only women’s prison. Two days later reports began circulating that the institution was investigating how a child could’ve been born at the facility while health workers knew of the pregnancy.

Only one of the news reports published soon after the incident featured a headline referring to the new mother as a “woman.”  Among the other headlines, one labeled her a “prisoner,” five labeled her an “inmate” and the remaining three referred solely to the birth of the baby.

Amber Kelly, a partner of the Quinnipiac University Prison Project and Quinnipiac assistant professor of social work, noted a similar trend. According to Kelly, when the news media refers to the female as an “inmate” or “prisoner” she is dehumanized.

“She is a woman. She is now a mother, and to read ‘inmate gives birth in cell’ hits you so differently than ‘a woman gave birth in her cell’, [than] ‘a pregnant woman gave birth in her cell,’” Kelly said. “When most people hear the word inmate there’s immediately a distancing. [People view the incident as] ‘That has nothing to do with me.’ ‘ I am not that thing.’”


Graphic by Thamar Bailey

Graphic by Thamar Bailey

At a time when incarceration is a widely discussed and polarizing topic, experts say journalists’ word usage may have an effect on the public’s perception of previously incarcerated people and those currently incarcerated.

Don Sawyer, a Quinnipiac sociology professor who is serving as the university’s chief diversity officer, explained that upon reentry previously incarcerated people run into obstacles obtaining housing, applying for jobs and being accepted back into the community. Instead, they’re viewed as “monsters” that shouldn’t have been let out of their cage, Sawyer said.

The news media places a label on people by using stigmatizing words such as: inmate, prisoner, convict and offender, according to Quinnipiac Assistant Professor of Criminology Stephen McGuinn. When journalists use these words, they don’t realize the “dramatic stigma” associated with them, he said.

“And the disservice initially is that we don’t see [incarcerated or currently incarcerated people] as individuals,” he added. “We see them as part of some kind of group that we’ve outcast and don’t belong back in.”

Society reflects this mentality. Previously incarcerated people are disenfranchised upon their exit from prison and re-entrance into society. For instance, they are stripped of their right to vote in various states and are excluded from some state-managed welfare programs. Society, by implementing these laws and restrictions, reinforces the idea that incarcerated people are somehow undeserving of these rights and in turn they are treated as second-class citizens, Sawyer said.  


Graphic by Thamar Bailey

Graphic by Thamar Bailey

Kelly, the social work professor, points out that stigmatizing words act as labels that extend the punishment beyond the criminal justice system.

“Why is it that the consequence thrown down by the state isn’t enough? Why do we need to continue punishing someone on so many levels?,” Kelly asked. “Who decided journalists were a part of the punishment of society?”

Sawyer explained the weight behind labels by comparing it to what happens when a child gets in trouble at school.

It begins with the initial instance of calling the student “bad.” The teacher then tells the child’s next year professor to “watch out” because that child is a “bad” student. Sawyer explained that this child is then perceived as such and will be treated accordingly. Along the way the student begins to internalize that they’re a “bad” student and eventually behaves in that manner because it’s expected of them. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, according to Sawyer.

The role of the news media in perpetuating the stigma against incarcerated people is borne out by the words often used in articles regarding previously or currently incarcerated people.

A search of the Hartford Courant site found that in headlines and articles journalists at the Courant had a higher propensity to use the word inmate to refer to incarcerated people, while felon, offender, convict, prisoner, and ex-con were less frequent but still used.

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“Why do we need to continue punishing someone on so many levels? Who decided journalists were a part of the punishment of society?”
— Amber Kelly, Quinnipiac assistant professor of social work

Meanwhile a search of the New Haven Register site found that in headlines and articles journalists were more likely to use the words: prisoner, offender, felon and inmate to refer to incarcerated people.

Josh Kovner, a journalist at the Hartford Courant, has spent the past 21 years covering criminal justice, mental health and child protection. Kovner tends to refer to incarcerated people by their name in his articles. When asked why Kovner explained it in terms of a story he was recently working on about bad mental health care, noting that the humanity of the person should be at the forefront of the story.

“It’s not totally advocacy journalism, it’s straight journalism,” Kovner said. “If we’re talking about bad medical care or bad mental health care or a brain injury or something, then you know, they’re a person first.”

Does the language used depend on the story being written?

Kovner notes that he sees no reasons to use words other than the name of the incarcerated persons unless quoting from police documents or other official documents to that effect. However, overall according to Kovner, journalists shouldn’t be afraid to use words like offender and inmate, even with the stigma they entail.

“I don’t need to dehumanize them further to make a point,” Kovner said. “But you know if they weren’t wrongly convicted, they got themselves into a situation and they’re going to have to take a certain amount of pain and stigma.”

New Haven Register City Editor William Kaempffer, a previous fire and police reporter, explained his stance on the use of these words. On one hand he acknowledges the negative connotation that comes with the words inmate, convict etc. However, according to Kaempffer  there are words that are better to use than others. He specifically prefers the word offender or ex-offender.

“Words matter and different words carry different connotations, different implications draw different inference, and we as writers and reporters need to be mindful of that,” Kaempffer  said. “Because you’ll hear conversations about unconscious biases.”

On Jan. 26 Quinnipiac University held a panel “The Real Women of Orange is the New Black: A Discussion of Women’s Experiences of Prison in the U.S.” One of the purposes of the event was to start a dialogue about the unconscious biases in society that not only people in power have but also everyday people, according to Sawyer, who co-sponsored the event.

These unconscious biases apparent in society are ingrained in individuals via the language one sees, reads, hears as well as the way prison is depicted in the media, among other things, according to Sawyer.

For example, when a previously incarcerated person attempts to buy a house, neighbors whisper. They question whether anyone conducted background or credit checks, Sawyer said. This line of questioning is in response to the act that a person was in jail. It’s an unconscious bias, according to Sawyer.

“It creates a monster in our minds, it creates a boogeyman,” he said. “And then when someone is coming out of prison and they tell you ‘I was formerly incarcerated,’ what does your mind go back to? Seeing those images on TV, seeing those 100-feet walls, seeing those electric fences and the barbed wires and the guards that were used to contain this individual, so they must have been a monster if they were in there.”


Graphic by Thamar Bailey

Graphic by Thamar Bailey

In response to this reality, McGuinn emphasizes the importance of using people-centered language.

“I’d say language is real powerful and there is no reason to broad stroke an entire population with one word,” McGuinn said. “The label, yeah, that’s a part of their past, but that’s not them. That’s why people-centered language is important. Yeah, you might have to type a couple extra words instead of inmate or ex-imate, you might have to say formerly incarcerated person.”

McGuinn shrugged and added, “But if that’s the worst of it.”

Kaempffer agrees that some words are better to use than others, but disagrees that there should be an enforced uniformity among journalists’ word usage when regarding a person currently or previously involved in the criminal justice system.

Word usage should be left in the hands of the journalist writing the story, Kaempffer  said. Noting that there are various ways to refer to the incarcerated population Kaempffer said word usage depends on what fits a particular story.

“So to say an ex-prisoner versus an ex-offender, my preference is ex-offender. Sometimes, you know, ‘the prisoner was in jail’ fits into the story,” Kaempffer said.  “I’m not sure there are set rules that need to be put in place. I think we trust our journalists, hopefully, to be cautious in the language that they use.”

But the fact remains, Kelly said, that damaging language is still used at a high rate as proven by the recent incident involving the woman that gave birth at York Correctional Facility. Journalists’ words have an impact on every level, all the way to the landlord who takes in the news every day and is debating whether to rent to a previously incarcerated person, she said.

The prolonging of pain is unnecessary and the stain of a label and the stigma it carries isn’t easy to come back from, according to Sawyer.

“Labels shape the perception that we have of the person that’s labeled,” he said. “So if you say that someone is an ex-con they are forever tied to what they did and so their personhood becomes their crime. They exist as a person who committed a crime. They never get to the space where they’ve paid their debt to society.”

Hamden approves Quinnipiac residence hall expansion


Photo Courtesy: Centerbrook.com 

Photo Courtesy: Centerbrook.com 

By Thamar Bailey

Quinnipiac is prepared to create a 220-bed residence hall on its York Hill campus, Lynn Bushnell, vice president for public affairs, said in a statement.

On March 27, the Hamden Planning and Zoning Commission approved Quinnipiac’s plan to build a new senior residence hall that would include air-conditioned single rooms and three community rooms, according to Bushnell. The community rooms are said to be able to hold more than 200 people. According to the statement, the new building will provide additional space for students and student organizations to hold meetings.

Below you will find an aerial view of the York Hill campus as well as where the university plans to construct the new residence halls, courtesy of hamden.com. 

 


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For more information and visuals, click here.

International Women’s Day Teach-In inspires forgotten stories and controversial ideas


Quinnipiac philosophy professor Anat Biletzki spoke at the International Women's Day Teach-In," which she helped organize.

Quinnipiac philosophy professor Anat Biletzki spoke at the International Women’s Day Teach-In,” which she helped organize.

By Grace Manthey

Snow may have postponed the International Women’s Day Teach-In by a few weeks, but that didn’t stop the speakers from embracing the “Silence Breakers” theme in the Quinnipiac Piazza on Thursday, March 29.

The goal for the event was “to elicit a discussion about those who have taken active measures and public stances to disrupt a culture of silence,” according to the organizing committee.

Linda Lindroth, a part time professor at QU, and one of the 16 speakers at the event, talked about racism and sexism in the fashion industry. She showed photos of clothing and ads that reflected racist and sexist sentiments. In one instance, Lindroth showed a photo of a t-shirt that a clothing company sold that read, “It’s not rape, it’s a snuggle with a struggle.” She showed another image of boots for sale online that make swastikas with its footprints.

Lindroth also discussed H&M, a popular clothing chain, that has $4.8 billion in unsold merchandise. Lindroth advised people to try shopping at consignment stores and nonprofits to help with waste and unfair working environments in the fashion industry.


Sixteen speakers spoke at Quinnipiac's International Women's Day Teach-In.

Sixteen speakers spoke at Quinnipiac’s International Women’s Day Teach-In.

While some topics were clearly controversial, some controversial discussions came from less controversial topics. Communications professor Ewa Callahan’s presentation about the forgotten history of Polish female journalists during the solidarity movement sparked a debate about abortion.

At the end of her presentation Callahan talked about the problems still facing women in Poland, including abortion rights. When a member of the audience tried to debate more about the issue, organizer Anat Biletzki cut it short, trying to stay on time.

But the event wasn’t all negative. Lindroth talked about how polo shirt company Lacoste, who is famous for their alligator logo, put a series of endangered animals on their shirts to help with the environmental issue.

Economics professor Linda Fisher talked about ways women can close the wage gap “regardless if there is discrimination or not.” Specifically, she talked about negotiating wages, something she said women are less likely to do than men.

Biletzki, who is a philosophy professor at Quinnipiac, seemed to be happy with the turnout and the support from Quinnipiac organizations.

The first teach-in, Biletzki said, had an audience of “maybe one,” and now with seeing how many women were at the forefront of the March For Our Lives rallies across the nation, she feels like “progress has been made.”     

 

 

Toys R’ Us Store Closings Bring Feelings of Nostalgia to Quinnipiac Students

By Joe DeRosa

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Toys R Us is closing its doors nationwide. While local students are disappointed about losing the experience taking a trip to the toy store, they understand the change in today’s toy culture has contributed to the close.

“I think it’s kind of sad,” said Pat Pitts, a junior journalism major at Quinnipiac. “Everything they [kids today] want is on electronics or something like that, so they don’t have that toy experience that you and I had growing up.”

In its long history, Toys R Us has emerged as an important part of the childhoods of Quinnipiac students. Ben Kuru, a freshman marketing major at Quinnipiac even had a specific memorable experience. 

“My favorite thing there was a bike that I got to ride around there a little bit,” said Kuru. “The workers there were really friendly and it’s unfortunate that the place is closing down.”

Over the past year, Toys R Us has faced a series of financial miscues that have led to the company’s downfall.

On September 18th the company declared bankruptcy after being over $5 billion dollars in debt. Four months later the company announced that it would be closing over 100 stores across the country.

By March Toys R Us announced its liquidation, leading to the closure of over 700 nationwide locations.

While debt is arguably the biggest contributor to the company’s demise, some saw different reasons for Toys R Us’s decline.

“I noticed that their video game section wasn’t that drastic,” said Shannon Marmot, a junior public relations major at Quinnipiac. “They tried to base it more on board games and I feel like that was a huge downside to them.”

Others saw issues with the pricing of the items in the store.

Kuru said he thought prices at Toys R Us were “a little bit out there,” but it’s not the only reason he thought the toy store failed.

“Kids are more into technology than they are into physical toys nowadays,” said Kuru.

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Lori Hershman, an employee at Evan’s Toy Shoppe in Hamden, Connecticut, had similar feelings on children’s shift towards technology.

“I see in restaurants that they’re playing with iPads instead of coloring books,” said Hershman. “In cars, they’re watching movies or playing games instead of looking out the window.”

Amy Cavallo, a sophomore finance major at Quinnipiac, said there could have been a way to save the store.

“If debt was truly the issue…I think at that point you really need to refocus your business practice on repaying,” said Cavallo. “You could’ve invested that [money] into repaying your loans.”

With the end of the Toys R Us in sight, Hershman is concerned that the absence of the company could have a negative effect on children.

“If there isn’t a toy store and they couldn’t get what they want, that would be detrimental. It’s important for kids to have that experience of saving their pennies and getting that toy they’ve wanted,” said Hershman.

Toys R Us has commenced liquidation sales in all of it’s nationwide locations. The company is anticipated to run out of money by May.

 

The Quinnipiac Law School wants to educate about refugee policy

By Cliff Nadel

Quinnipiac University’s School of Law held its 2018 Symposium at its ceremonial courtroom on the North Haven Campus on Friday. The school titled the event, “Psychiatric and Epigenetic, Legal, and Public Health Challenges Facing Refugee Children: An Integrated Approach.”


The 2018 Quinnipiac University Law School Symposium at the ceremonial courtroom at Quinnipiac's North Haven Campus.

The 2018 Quinnipiac University Law School Symposium at the ceremonial courtroom at Quinnipiac’s North Haven Campus.

The symposium not only included speakers from Quinnipiac, but also Brown University, Yale University and Integrated Refugee and Immigration Services.

Quinnipiac law and medicine professor W. John Thomas and his colleagues want the Symposium “to initiate a world-wide conversation about the potentially multi-generational consequences of failing to serve the needs of refugee children,” said Thomas.

 


An audience of about fifty people attended the symposium.

An audience of about fifty people attended the symposium.

The presenters led the attendees through the history of the laws pertaining to international refugees. They explained that current laws relating to international refugees were based off of World War II white European international refugees, as opposed to non-western groups that make up the majority of international refugees today. Professor Thomas said how drastically different the Trump administration’s refugee policy is compared to past administrations.

“In 2016 we had a limit of 110,000 refugees and according to some actors around the world that was sufficient enough to fulfill our moral obligation and obligation as fellow human beings,” Thomas said.

But according to Thomas, the Trump administration announced a new maximum of only 45,000. 

Thomas also said the United States had a moral responsibility for creating some of the refugee crises that exist today.


Quinnipiac law and medicine professor W. John Thomas explaining the US's moral responsibilities.

Quinnipiac law and medicine professor W. John Thomas explaining the US’s moral responsibilities.

Similarly, Quinnipiac law professor Sheila Hayre discussed the complex issues surrounding immigration and refugee laws. She explained the legal definition of someone who should receive refugee status, as well legal terms associated with refugees. 

 Here is a video of Professor Hayre explaining the legal definition of someone who should receive refugee status. 


Hayre explaining the differences between Asylum Seekers and Refugees. 

Hayre explaining the differences between Asylum Seekers and Refugees. 

After a short lunch break the second half of the Symposium began with Brown University senior neuroscience student Caleb Brown. He talked about epigenetics, which is the idea that gene expression can be altered by personal experience.

 


Brown University senior neuroscience student Caleb Brown explaining the relationship between epigenetics and the refugee experience.

Brown University senior neuroscience student Caleb Brown explaining the relationship between epigenetics and the refugee experience.

“If you have these very drastic effects in your genome because of extreme exposure to stress this can also be seen in your progeny,” Brown said.

He also explained refugees could be particularly influenced.

“The extent to which that actually effects how they react to every day life is still being tested, but there are some implications that could effect how your progeny interacts with stressful environments,” Brown said. 

Thomas, whose last two books have been oral history projects, said he thinks that presenting information about refugees in an engaging way is an important tool to help educate people. But it’s specifically the stories about people that have the greatest effect.

“I have come to believe that personal narratives are most effective in honestly and accurately presenting information in a form that draws in the viewer/reader/listener,” Thomas said. “I urge journalists to seek out personal narratives of refugees to use a stage from which to report their plight.”

Thomas and his colleagues have already presented their findings about the challenges facing refugee children in Washington, D.C. and Spain. He has also recruited several experts in relevant fields to write chapters in what will be an edited book about the challenges facing refugee children. Thomas and his colleagues plan to present their findings this summer in Prague and Japan.  

How Quinnipiac is supporting DREAMers after the March 5 deadline

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By Thamar Bailey

Experts are trying to figure out how to support Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients in the wake of President Trump’s passed March 5 deadline for DACA, according to Maria Praeli, Quinnipiac University alumna and immigration policy associate at FWD.us, a bipartisan organization with a hand in commonsense immigration reform and criminal justice reform advocacy.

The Obama Administration established DACA in 2012. It granted undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as minors with a temporary and renewable two-year work permit and protections from deportation, according to informedimmigrant.com.

But President Trump put the program in jeopardy in September. He announced a March 5 deadline, after which no one can renew or or submit an application.

A week before the the Trump Administration’s deadline the Supreme Court announced they would not hear a California case concerning the integrity of the DACA program. As a result, the case returned to the ninth circuit. The court ordered an injunction that made the deadline obsolete. While it didn’t create a solution, Praeli described the injunction as a “small victory.”


Timeline by Thamar Bailey

Timeline by Thamar Bailey

  

“What the court petition did was that out of a California injunction say that the way in which the Trump administration ended the program wasn’t right and therefore the administration had to accept renewal applications,” Praeli said. “But what it did not do was say that the administration had to accept new applications.”

FWD.us is currently working on is assisting businesses and universities to support their DACA recipients.

“It’s someone’s well being being turned upside down, but it’s also people within their communities, their circle that’s affected by this,” Praeli said. “So if you’re an employee your employer is now losing someone and that’s [a] cost to business. If you’re a teacher at a university you would be potentially losing a student.”

Several universities have showed their support for DACA recipients by paying for legal fees associated with applying for and renewing DACA permits as well as offering scholarships.

More than 700 college and universities signed on to the Pomona College statement, symbolic of their support for DACA students, otherwise known as DREAMers, stating their refusal to share information on DACA students and refusing to use campus enforcement for deportation.

Quinnipiac University was not one of those universities, according to Executive Vice President and Provost Mark Thompson.

“The concern that the president had with signing on to the [Panoma statement] was about the potential political backlash against those institutions that were signing on to that agreement,” Thompson said. “So he didn’t want to position our students who are DREAMers to potentially in any way be impacted by any backlash that would come from the federal government.”

While Quinnipiac didn’t officially sign the Panoma statement, Thompson said the university follows the same sentiment. In an email addressed to the Quinnipiac community on Sept. 6, 2017, Thompson reaffirmed the universities commitment to diversity and inclusion.

“DACA students are an integral part of our community,” Thompson wrote. “The university does not share private information about our students in accordance with the Family Educational and Rights of Privacy Act (FERPA). While the university is bound to comply with state and federal laws, enforcement of federal immigration policy primarily rests with federal authorities.”

Praeli, who graduated in 2016, believes the university could have firmer policies. During her time at the university she noted she had great professors, but lacked a sense of community. Instead, she had to make her own network of professors and faculty members to support herself.

According to Thompson, the Quinnipiac Department of Multicultural and Global Education would’ve been in charge of facilitating such a network and community. He added that he believes this is something the university ought to do if it’s not being done already.

Community is only one issue of various academic barriers that DREAMers have to face, Praeli said.

In Connecticut prior to 2011, even if a student had lived in the state their whole life they wouldn’t be eligible to pay in-state tuition. It wasn’t until Governor Malloy signed An Act Concerning Access to Postsecondary Education in July 2011, that undocumented immigrants who met the criteria were eligible for in-state tuition.

Praeli also explained that DREAMers are not privy to financial aid and state funding in the forms of grants and loans, which is why various private institutions have created scholarships for DREAMers.

Quinnipiac doesn’t offer any scholarships specifically designated for DREAMers, according to Dominic Yoia, the university director of financial aid. However, Yoia said all students are considered for academic scholarship, regardless of their U.S. citizenship status.

While there’s no official count of the number of DACA students attending Quinnipiac, Thompson suspects the number is relatively low.

However, executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute and political science professor Sean Duffy said regardless of the number of DACA students, the university should provide better assistance for them, especially because there’s a reality that many of Quinnipiac students have mixed-status or undocumented families while they are citizens themselves.

“It would be nice if our university actually had more than just to say ‘oh if you’re concerned about this then go to the office of multiculturalism and global education and they’ll be able to refer you to some resources in the community that may be able to help,’” Duffy said. “That’s really a kind of weak kind of support in my mind.”

The department of multicultural and global education was unavailable for comment for this story.