Student athletes often garner attention for their 20-to-40-hour work weeks they have in season, and the juggling act they must put on between academics and athletics. But an unsung group of students suffer a similar schedule, with much less fanfare and reward.
Emma Carman, a senior at Quinnipiac, was originally intent to walk on to the Acrobatics and Tumbling team. However, a back surgery in her sophomore year of high school prevented her from remaining on the team as an athlete. But she was still passionate about the team, and was determined to contribute.
“I told the head coach, Mary Ann Powers that I still wanted to be involved with the team anyway I could be,” Carman said, “so she gave me this wonderful opportunity and I am so thankful for that.”
Emma Carman filming an Acrobatics and Tumbling meet courtesy Emma Carman
Despite no longer being a student athlete, Carman still put forward just as much effort and time commitment as she would have as a student athlete.
“I go to every single practice which is about 20 hours a week during the championship season. The championship season for our sport runs from the beginning of October until the end of the school year,” said Carman, “Our national championships are held the last weekend in April, so we are practicing 20 hours a week for almost eight months.”
On top of attending and filming all practices, Carman’s responsibilities include traveling on the road with the team to things such as film and record transactions made on the road, filming home meets, organizing packing lists and so many other little details throughout an average week. Indeed, Carman, like other managers at Quinnipiac, is truly an integral part of the team.
The importance of managers is not lost on the teams they put their hearts into, either. Coaches and players alike can go on for hours in regards to just how important their managers are. Tricia Fabbri, the coach of the women’s basketball team at Quinnipiac, was especially grateful for her group of student managers.
“They bring so much professionalism, responsibility, they carry themselves, they are a valued member of the program,” said Fabbri, “without them we are not running at a high capacity.”
Tricia Fabbri walking the sidelines courtesy Liz Flynn
She continued to rattle off the variety of different details and responsibilities she gave to her managers, from setting up the chairs and water before a game, to running drills with the clock, to minor things as simple as knowing which shoulder to go over when giving a player their water. To Fabbri, each responsibility, no matter how seemingly minor or unnecessary, is crucial to the team’s success.
“The orange slices at halftime are so important to our players,” said Fabbri, “to make sure that they are getting that real natural sugar to go out there and play that second half.”
Much like with her athletes, Fabbri expects her managers to be ready and prepared at a moment’s notice to meet each player’s individual needs, because in her mind they are a crucial part of the team.
“Players get picky in the heat of the game,” said Fabbri, “and as a valued member of the team you better get it right.”
Paige Warfel, a senior forward for the Bobcats, believes it is easy for the work that managers do to go unnoticed, but that in her and her teammates eyes, they are just as much a part of the team as the athletes are.
“They are 100 percent a part of this team, as much as any other person,” said Warfel, “you know we’re all in this together and they play a huge roll, just like we do.”
Paige Warfel running back on offense courtesy Liz Flynn
Taylor Herd, a senior guard for the Bobcats, agreed with Warfel.
“They just brighten up the team’s day,” said Herd, “because they are always with us and are also students, but they have a different perspective than we do.”
As Warfel and Herd said, managers truly are a part of the team in just about every sense imaginable. They put in similar time commitments, travel with the team, and are a crucial to how the team functions. Yet, not only is their work often overlooked, there is no record of any of it at all.
The sad reality is that unlike with student athletes, there is no basis or standard for what a manager’s workload should typically be, and how they should be compensated. The only national resource they have, the National Association of Collegiate Basketball Managers, could not be reached for comment and has no information available.
Of the schools reached out to regarding stats on their managers or others, not one school could offer a single nugget of information.
Every school which was reached out to was unable to find one piece of data that could serve to represent the hours of work their managers had put into their programs. Only the Athletic Compliance Officer at the University of New Hampshire had an idea of where such stats might exist, and that was also a dead end. Mike Stefanelli, a former four-year manager for the UNH men’s basketball team, had some answers.
Much like other managers, Stefanelli recalled 20-to-40-hour work weeks, filled with the same various responsibilities and travel obligations as his colleagues. Yet for all his contributions to the team, he was only rewarded with spring internship credit in his junior and senior years. Yet to Stefanelli this was not an issue.
“I did this because I managed teams for four years in high school,” said Stefanelli, “and I realized that it was something I loved, something I had a passion for.”
Stefanelli was able to manage the time commitment of being the for UNH for the entirety of his four years at UNH, but not all students can meet the demands of the job for their full enrollment. Between academic demands and extracurricular demands, some managers have to make the decision to leave the team for the sake of their futures. Even with thousands of dollars on the line.
Francesca DePalo, now a Senior at Quinnipiac, came to the school in large part due to the hockey program and the opportunity to be a manager. She signed a contract with the team, treating her as a volunteer year one, and 1,000 dollars towards her tuition in the second year, with that number increasing by 1,000 each following year. DePalo loved being a manager, doing many of the same duties and responsibilities as Carman, but realized her senior year that she had to make a choice between her position and her future.
“My grades were slipping as I went into my senior year, and I realized that I needed to make a choice for my future,” said Depalo, “so I stepped down from being a manager to focus more on my career and my other responsibilities.”
Those responsibilities included her position as the President of the Quinnipiac’s Association of Women in Sports Media and her role as manager, as well as being a full-time student. Since stepping down from her position, DePalo has seen her grades rise once more, and has felt a weight lifted off her shoulders. But despite having to leave her post as manager, Depalo only had fond memories of her time with the teams.
“Being able to be a part of the program and seeing the behind the scenes was so cool, and I made so many connections,” said DePalo, “plus I learned a lot of time management skills, so I definitely wouldn’t change a think about my time as manager.”
So yes, it is an issue that a job with this many responsibilities is not tracked and regulated to a greater extent, and it does leave open the door for exploitation down the line. But that is not the story of most collegiate managers. Warfel may have put it best when describing college managers, even if she singled out her sport specifically.
Francesca Depalo at a Quinnipiac Athletics event courtesy Francesca DePalo
“They do this strictly because they love basketball and love being here,” said Warfel, “and I have a lot of respect for them for that.”
“Hate crimes in the U.S. have increased, so I wouldn’t be surprised if college campuses were acting as a microcosm of the greater U.S.,” said Quinnipiac University Student Government Association President Austin Calvo.
Calvo is a senior at Quinnipiac University, where he is studying political science. He is openly gay and was the victim of multiple hate crimes at Quinnipiac while he was running for SGA positions. These crimes emotionally hurt him.
“Freshman year it kinda sucked because I was just a little freshman,” Calvo said. “I didn’t really have my place at Quinnipiac yet and all those kinds of things, so it just kind of like hurt and made me realize how much people still suck.”
The first crime against Calvo took place in the spring of 2017 when he was running for sophomore class president. Calvo had three running mates who were also running for class SGA positions. The four students hung up posters around campus to campaign prior to elections. At the height of campaign season, Calvo received a call from one of his running mates telling him that someone vandalized one of their posters and to come by her room to see it.
“I went by her room, and I saw what was written on it,” Calvo said. “It was just like penises, like defacing it and something written about me, like me being gay, like a word bubble coming out of my mouth.”
Calvo then spoke with a resident assistant (RA) about this issue. The RA brought this to the attention of the residence hall director, and they filed a report within student affairs.
The second incident occurred in April 2019 while Calvo was running for SGA president.
“I was running for an executive board position, so I had posters up all over both campuses,” Calvo said. “It was in Irma (residence hall), I believe, there was a poster that I had to face. Someone wrote something about me, just like a slur about me being gay or something.”
Although it was similar to the situation Calvo went through two years earlier, he felt differently than he did as a first-year student.
“The one (hate crime) that happened last year (hurt) a little bit less so just because I was like, I’m very confident,” Calvo said. “I’m very sure of myself, and I love myself, and I love who I am. I was like, whatever, someone can hate me. It doesn’t affect me. Who cares?”
Calvo is confident about who he is, but if this were to happen to someone else, he isn’t sure that person would have the same response.
“People of marginalized populations spend their entire lives trying to love themselves for who they are, and then all it takes is one thing like that to tear down years of confidence building,” Calvo said.
When crimes that occur on college campuses are reported, specific steps are taken when investigating and filing reports.
According toclerycenter.org, “the Clery Act is a consumer protection law that aims to provide transparency around campus crime policy and statistics.”
The Clery Act requires every college and university across the country to release an annual security and fire safety report by Oct. 1 of each year. This is called the Clery report and includes a record of all reported crimes that occurred between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of the year prior. This document is required to be made available to the public.Quinnipiac’s 2019 Clery report was released on Sept. 23, 2019.
Karoline Keith, Quinnipiac University Clery Compliance Officer
When the crime was first committed, Calvo was busy campaigning for president, so he did not report it right away. At the beginning of this semester, he decided that he should report it; however, he did not go through student affairs this time. Calvo reported the incident directly to the Quinnipiac University Clery Compliance Officer Karoline Keith.
As stated in Quinnipiac’s Clery report, the Clery Compliance Officer must work with the Department of Public Safety, local and state law enforcement, Office of Human Resources, Office of Residential Life, Office of Student Affairs, Division of Athletics, the Title IX coordinator, the deans, the Office of Cultural and Global Engagement and other campus security authorities to track any crimes that take place throughout the year. This is tracked in all areas where students live in Quinnipiac housing. This includes the Mount Carmel campus, the York Hill campus, the North Haven campus, when students travel to conferences or games paid for by the university and students who are studying abroad at places that partner with Quinnipiac.
“Things reported to me this year, in 2019, will be reflected in the 2020 annual security report,” Keith said. “It’s always a year behind.”
According to page 52 of Quinnipiac’s Clery report, “there are four categories of offenses that are required by law for statistical documentation within this report.” These include: criminal offenses, such as murder, sex offenses and other identified serious crimes; VAWA offenses (Violence Against Women Act), such as domestic violence, dating violence and stalking offenses; arrest and referrals for disciplinary action and hate crimes.
Calvo’s incidents are both considered hate crimes on the basis of sexuality, so they fall under the category of offense. Both incidents will appear in the log for the 2020 Clery report reflecting crimes that were reported in 2019. Although the first incident occurred in 2017, it was not reported to Keith until last month along with the incident from April 2019. It is too late to go back and change the statistics from the2017 Clery Report.
“The Clery statistics reflect numbers on the time they were reported, not the time they occurred,” Keith said. “If something is reported to me this year that occurred last year or two years ago, it would show up in the statistics for the next annual security report that reflects those that year.”
Although all reported crimes are said to be cited in the Clery report, some may not appear in the annual report for various reasons, including people not coming forward with crimes or miscommunications between offices.
“I’d like to think that if they’ve (students) reported it (a crime) to a campus security authority or to one of my campus partners that that statistic would definitely be reflected in these statistics,” Keith said. “But, I do know that whether they want to talk about it is entirely up to whether or not they want to.”
In 2018, the majority of crimes reported took place on the Mount Carmel campus. Very few crimes occurred on the York Hill campus, and no crimes were reported on the North Haven campus.
Over the course of the last three years, the numbers indicated for each crime have fluctuated back and forth. Some noteworthy numbers include rapes, burglary, drug law violation arrests, and hate crimes.
Clery report statistics comparing the number of recorded rapes, drug law violations arrests, burglaries and hate crimes in 2016, 2017 and 2018
In this case, the increase in hate crimes on campus is noteworthy. There were two incidents reported in 2016, one in 2017 and five in 2018.
“There’s a lot going on with our society and our culture and our Supreme Court and the media in those areas,” Keith said. “You start to look at what’s going on outside of the university because we’re just a subculture right of that.”
E-mail sent to all residential students by Quinnipiac University Director of Residential Life Mark DeVilbiss on Nov. 4, 2019.
The university continues to see an increase in hate crimes across campus. On Nov. 4, Director of Residential Life Mark DeVilbiss sent an e-mail to all residential students addressing “recent incidents involving the alleged use of derogatory and racist language by Quinnipiac students.”
“The university prohibits bias and discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, ability, national origin, age, gender identity, gender expression, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status,” DeVilbiss said in the e-mail.
DeVilbiss said that he has seen bias related incidents through the use of derogatory and racial terms throughout his time with the university over the last three years.
“That happens sometimes both in person, sometimes it has been in the form of a social media post or graffiti occasionally or vandalism of some kind,” DeVilbiss said. “We don’t have a ton of incidents, but we have some, and we address those.”
During RA training sessions, a topic that is heavily stressed is identity.
“Last August, a keynote speaker (came), we had time to break out into small groups to discuss,” DeVilbiss said. “We want to make sure that our staffs are educated about the many different types of identity and whether that’s racial, gender identity, abilities, all of that, we talk about that.”
The RAs are trained on how to respond to information that they learn as well. They are told to take pictures or screenshots if it is on social media and collect details. This allows the Office of Residential Life to follow up appropriately once an incident is reported.They are also taught how to respond sensitively by using inclusive language and providing comfort.
“We seek always to support the people who are involved,” DeVilbiss said. “It can be challenging to support because being the subject or discriminated against in that way is a very traumatic experience for students and can be very emotional.”
DeVilbiss encouraged students to fill outan incident report form if they are aware of any hateful behaviors occurring on campus.
Hamden Police Department
“We file incident reports, Residential Life incident reports, for all incidents that involve bias and discrimination,” DeVilbiss said. “Then those are reviewed by our Student Conduct Office in consultation with our Clery Officer, who would then include that data in the annual Clery report.”
The Hamden Police Department works closely with the Department of Public Safety when it comes to crimes on campus. Between Jan. 1, 2019 and Oct. 1, 2019, Hamden police responded to calls on the Mount Carmel campus on 339 occasions, and they responded to the York Hill campus 75 times. Most of these were general patrols because the university hires the department to do nightly patrols. The majority of the other reasons that they came to campus were for motor vehicle accidents, intoxicated persons and general medical calls.
Case incident reports for the Mount Carmel campus (left) and York Hill campus (right)
“Even when they don’t hire us, the area car is going to go over there and patrol it (campus) normally and also take complaints there,” said Sgt. Anthony Diaz of the Hamden Police Department. “If it’s a serious call for whatever reason, they’ll send two cars in addition to a supervisor.”
Timely warning e-mail from Quinnipiac University Chief of Public Safety Edgar Rodriguez
On Nov. 13, Chief of the Department of Public Safety Edgar Rodriguez notified the Quinnipiac community about a student who reported being sexually assaulted just outside of campus. The notification came via email as a timely warning to comply with the Clery Act. The student reported that the incident occurred at the intersection between New Road and Mount Carmel Avenue.
In a situation like this, the Hamden Police Department has to step in to assist with the investigation.
“The special victims unit, they’re going to investigate that type of crime,” Diaz said. “It’s not going to be like a patrolman function or an officer who was hired there just for patrolling factors. He might do the initial investigation, but we’re going to call in the detective division and let those guys who specialize in that stuff handle that case.”
Hamden Police have not found the men accused of the assault, so Quinnipiac’s Title IX office can’t do much to help since its job is to help remedy hostile situations. But sometimes, even if the accused is known, Title IX offices don’t always help. That was the case at DePaul University in Chicago earlier this year.
The DePaulia, DePaul University’s student-run newspaper
They began by going to more sexual assault awareness events and speaking with groups on campus who were directly involved with these events. They then sent out a survey to the student body by posting in class group Facebook pages asking about students experiences with the Title IX office. Students were allowed to remain anonymous if they chose to because of the sensitivity of the topic.
“We did have one instance of a student who gave her name and was willing to be quoted under a fake name, who said that she had an encounter with the office where she was assaulted at a campus event,” Oxnevad said. “She was told by whoever she was in contact with within that office (Title IX) that they had spoken to the person she had accused prior to meeting with her, and that given that she had been drinking at this event, or that she had admitted to drinking, that they couldn’t believe her story.”
The only response that the Title IX office gave the student was that she should go to counseling for alcoholism. This alarmed Lee and Oxnevad because it proved to them that things were not being handled properly within the Title IX office.
They published the student’s story, but they could not get in contact with the Title IX coordinator or get a statement from the university. They sent multiple messages but never received a response. After several weeks went by, the DePaulia’s faculty advisor told the student journalists that they needed to get something from the coordinator because it was only showing one side to the story.
They decided to go to the Title IX office to ask to speak with the Title IX coordinator in person. When they got there, a student worker was at the front desk. They explained what they were inquiring, and the worker set up an appointment for them to meet with the coordinator.
The following day, their advisor was sent an email from the dean of the School of Communications who received word that Lee and Oxnevad had faked being assaulted to get an interview. The students both said this was completely incorrect and there must have been miscommunication along the way.
“There was talk about there maybe having to be a student trial, but then obviously, the coordinator or whoever in the Title IX office backtracked and said that it didn’t happen and that she misunderstood the situation,” Lee said.
The students had finally received permission to interview Jessica Landis, who was the Title IX coordinator at the time and releasedher response to their original story. After the story was published, Landis left the university in the middle of her contract. The students did not know if she was fired or if she quit, but they believe that it had to do with the story they wrote.
At the beginning of the fall 2019 semester, DePaul hired anew director of gender equity. This role was previously known as the Title IX coordinator. Lee and Oxnevad sat down tointerview Ann Skiffington on Nov. 11, who was hired for this position, to learn more about the Title IX office and what her role is.
Lee and Oxnevad said that the most important thing that they learned is that Title IX officers must remain objective and cannot support any students in their cases. They felt that a lot of students were not aware of that.
“The Title IX office could be mishandling cases, but also, they’re not there to be a shoulder to cry on,” Lee said.
The student journalists said that they believe that there is still more to the story about issues within the university’s Title IX office.
When asked her opinion on the Title IX issues at DePaul University, Quinnipiac University Title IX Coordinator Catlin Wells said, “I cannot speak to the specifics of the DePaul case. I can tell you, however, that Quinnipiac University takes seriously all allegations of discrimination. Students have a right under the federal law, and under university policies, to file a complaint of discrimination or misconduct. Additionally, students have a right to a prompt, thorough and impartial response.”
Although there are not any current issues within Quinnipiac’s Title IX office, there have been previous issues prior to when Wells began in December 2018. One of these issues included acase that went to trial in July 2019 saying that the university was “motivated to favor female students over male students in its (Title IX) disciplinary proceedings.” This was an older case from 2017.
“As a Title IX coordinator, it is my responsibility to treat everyone who comes through my door with dignity and respect and to give all students an opportunity to be heard,” Wells said.
The result has meant more work for Wells and her office, but students know they have a safe place to go when they encounter a hostile environment.
“I train on every single policy,” Wells said. “I have found that as I have trained the institution more, we’ve seen an uptick in reporting overall realistically because people know where to go if something happens. When people know who to tell, they’re more likely to share that information.”
That information can lead to courageous students.
“The spirit of Clery is intended to give guidance to prospective students and students that are going here to whether or not they would want to come here and how the university in general is, what kind of crimes are occurring here,” Keith said. “I think the next question, the Clery report, the annual security report, is embedded with what we’re doing to protect our students and what we’re doing in the area of being proactive rather than reactive.”
Calvo has another idea that he believes can help, which is having conversations about hate crimes and their impact on students.
“Being gay is just part of my identity, but it’s not who I am,” Calvo said. “I think that just kind of having dialogue and conversations can really work to reduce hate crimes.”
Imagine being on a stage, in front of a live audience. No script. No lines. No costumes. Just you and another scene partner sharing a common goal of making the audience before you laugh or feel engaged. For some, this is nightmare fuel, but for someone who has practiced the art of improvisational acting this is a place of comfort.
According to Britannica improvisation is, “The playing of dramatic scenes without written dialogue and with minimal or no predetermined dramatic activity. The method has been used for different purposes in theatrical history.”
James Freeman and Frank Scott of Quinnipiac’s Improv troupe communicate during a scene.
This definition uses words like “drama” and “theatrical”, but this style of acting is becoming a key tool in how college students get an edge above other college students when applying to jobs and entering the professional world.
Take Josh Gudelski for example, a law student at Quinnipiac University who stepped outside of his comfort zone and took an improv class, because he recognized how diverse this skill can be.
“No matter what your ambitions are in life, you have to be quick on your feet, and that is what improv taught me.” He said, “It also helped me communicate well with others under pressure, which also helps in my profession.”
This is an underrated style of acting that if practiced can improve a student’s communication skills, improve their performance under high pressure situations, and display the confidence needed to separate oneself to employers.
Neil Mullarkey, a co-founder of the Comedy Store Players told Financial Magazine, “Improv can be about finding ways to convey your story to nonfinance colleagues in a way that makes sense to them, and to convince people that this is the best way to go. More broadly it’s about how we work with others, how we notice other people’s feelings and stay truly in the moment.”
The United Kingdom National Theatre organization says, this style of acting dates all the way back to the mid 1500s when groups would travel town to town to preform and entertain. Many improv theater games were introduced in the 1920s and 30s to warm actors up for a performance. The actors only use word suggestion or story inspiration from the audience or fellow actors. In today’s world people are now beginning to realize that this style of acting, and the techniques behind it strongly relate to everyday life in the professional world. Main strategies like listening, body language, effective communication, team building, preforming under stress, and creativity. Each one of those strategies that improv brings together to make a scene can be brought together for a college student to perform in a job interview, and when that students gets that job become a strong employee.
Kevin Daly, an assistant professor of theater at Quinnipiac University, agrees that listening is one of the most important skills in improv and in the real world.
“Whatever it is you’re doing you’re still going to need to have really sharp listening skills to be successful,” he says.
Sarah Fisher expresses ideas to Kevin Cathy, both members of Quinnipiac’s Improv troupe.
Daly teaches two improvisational acting classes at Quinnipiac and develops the students who are brave enough to try his class, like Gudelski. He also fully believes that practicing improvisational acting can help students in whatever profession they choose,
“You develop the skills to sort of take a breath out there and say OK I don’t have to force this, I can develop through agreement that will have a payoff at the end,” he says.
He also preaches that practicing improv can elevate you as a stand out employee, “Anyone in any sort of business situation says we need an idea. Right there they’re not saying I want the most obvious idea, or the most specific, or the most close to home idea. They want you to expand and improve,” he says.
A map of the amount of Improv theaters across the United States.
Another career advising expert who stresses the importance of improv skills as a college student is Lila Carney, Director of Career Development within the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University. She is also someone who connects improv with the real world,
“There are a lot of similarities to interviewing and improvisational acting. And I also think when you get into the workplace you’re dealing with a lot of different conflicting situations, and having the ability to make decisions that have a positive impact on you, your job, and your company that you work for are all great skills to have,” she says.
One of Carney’s concerns though is that students aren’t consciously connecting improv acting and job interviews.
“They don’t connect the two necessarily consciously maybe subconsciously. I think every job interview you do is improv related and every networking opportunity that you experience has improv built in. But I don’t think students consciously make that connection, but they are doing it everywhere they go,” she says.
Another communications expert who put these skills into action in his profession is Kenneth Venit. Venit worked in television for decades, and coached many news broadcasters who worked for the Fox News Channel and more. Part of his longevity and success, and what he taught certain broadcasters was improv.
“In broadcasting just everything was live in the studio. Then it became live in the field. So we had to adjust the skill set because we didn’t have the filtering system of writing a lot of stories that we were going to be read first. You were thinking on your feet. With all of the laws you had to make sure you were saying the right things,” he says.
Fisher, Cathy, and Kirsten Koeding all listen to their scene partner and wait to respond.
In a profession like broadcast news, breaking news can happen at any moment which is why Venit stresses the importance of thinking on your feet, which is a big skill in improvisational acting. Venit admires the beauty of improv and how it is a healthy challenge for anyone willing to try it.
“When its improv somebody else has led you to that point. It’s not that you did something voluntarily. You are somewhere you didn’t necessarily think you’d be or plan to be.” He continued saying, “If you think of how a meeting in a business works or even an interview, somebody else is doing so impulsively and I think there is references to it.”
Three experts echoing the importance that trying improvisational acting, and practicing this unique hobby has plenty of benefits. As college students the goal after graduation is to obtain a job in the field you love. Now more than ever students need to recognize the importance of this hidden gem that is improvisational acting. One can become one step closer, and have a step above others who want to obtain the same job in the field of that students choice.
The other unique thing about improvisational acting and how it relates to the work world is its diversity. The strategies of improv can also relate to professions that do not relate to communications or theater. Gina Pallanta and Bridget Kavanagh are two women who have experience in improv at Quinnipiac, Hartford, and New York City and who currently work in health science fields: Pallanta as an emergency room nurse and Kavanagh as an occupational therapist. Both recognize that within their job force body language, quick thinking, and team chemistry is vital.
For Pallanta, lives can be in danger if she doesn’t make certain decisions quickly enough, and is grateful to have the improv experience that she does.
“Working with other health care professionals it’s good to have that mentality because especially an emergency you don’t know what’s coming,” Pallanta said, “And you don’t know what you’re walking into and you want to have that fluid aspect to be able to be flexible.”
Kavanagh tries to add in a humorous and conversational aspects to her work, while thinking on her feet. Both skills she learned as an improvisational actor. Using that quick humor, she makes sure her clients feel comfortable.
“You’ve got to deal with caseloads you’ve got to deal with people’s disabilities. They’re in a place like a nursing home that they don’t really want to be,” Kavanagh said, “So having that humor and having that ability to build rapport and have a conversation with these people helps motivate them.”
Communication and health science are not the only professions improvisational acting helps with either. Justin Furtado, a man who also gained his improv skills at Quinnipiac, is gaining a masters in finance, and when working with his co-workers is when his improv skills come out to play.
Scott responds quickly to one of his scene partners ideas.
“A lot of times the better improviser in the scene is usually the one that is less funny because they’re able to give everything to their partner and make their partner seem like an absolute star. And that is probably the most important part of looking into the team is you don’t try and make it all about yourself. You act as a supplement to the team,” he said.
Listening, body language, effective communication, team building, performing under stress, and creativity: All skills that experts echo help you with job interviews and becoming a strong employee. Now all it takes is for students to be brave enough to practice the art. If students want the edge they must take a leap of faith, step outside their comfort zone, and grow.
Imagine a LinkedIn-style site for college athletes who want to attend a new school. Aaron Falzon experienced the real thing.
“I put my name in,” said Falzon, who now attends Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. “I went to go write my 20-page paper. 30 minutes later I had four emails, two texts and five missed calls, and I was like, what is going on?”
Aaron Falzon warms up for his first home game at Quinnipiac against Albany. (Photo by Liz Flynn)
Welcome to the NCAA Transfer Portal, where the students can enter their name into a system that serves as a gateway to the vast reservoir of colleges seeking top athletic talent.
The NCAA opened the portal Oct. 15, 2018, to give students the opportunity to change schools without the hassle of sitting out a year per long-standing transfer rules.
The portal gives athletes a chance to seek opportunities – the role of college in general. But it has turned into something much, much more, even for mid-major Division I schools such as Quinnipiac.
Quinnipiac men’s basketball head coach Baker Dunleavy has recruited five transfer students, including one through the portal in Falzon. The portal is a profound development for the school.
“The wave of transfers isn’t going anywhere,” Dunleavy said. “It’ll only get bigger. It’ll only get more popular. I think player movement and freedom is something that continues to grow.”
The Good
The Bobcats took advantage of the portal to land Falzon, who previously attended Northwestern, a Big Ten school. Dunleavy found him on the portal and sent one of those emails that overwhelmed the Massachusetts-born player.
Why did Falzon leave a major school outside of Chicago to attend Quinnipiac in suburban Hamden, and play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with its one-bid status for the NCAA Tournament?
“I wanted to go to a place where I have an opportunity to play and have the chance to win a conference championship,” said Falzon of Newton, Mass. “Also, the bonus when I come here is being close to home. Mom and Dad can drive to every game.”
Dunleavy, in turn, saw Falzon as a player who fit the team’s culture.
“For us, we can be really opportunistic with transfers when they fit our culture and our identity and really being disciplined in knowing when that’s the case,” Dunleavy said. “With an Aaron Falzon, that was the case. We were really aggressive to recruit Aaron.”
The Bad
Jaden Daly, a sports writer for A Daly Dose of Hoops, has been covering New York-metro area men’s college basketball for 10 years. Daly has seen both sides of the story: the high-major schools bringing in players that out-matched their competition on the mid-major front and the mid-major schools taking advantage of this chance to recruit the nation’s top talents.
Between grad transfers ,players in the transfer portal and players that have entered their names in the draft teams will look very different come end of the summer. Roster management has become as important as any aspect of coaching for high major programs. @CollegeGameDay
“The lower level schools are losing out because now it’s created a marketplace where if you are a higher major and you’re losing out in recruiting, it’s a ripple effect with the one-and-done’s. You have to go to the next best option,” Daly said.
That next option? Well, it’s plucking the best of the best from conferences like the MAAC. In the portal era so far, Quinnipiac has not been a team that has had to see players leave to other schools. However just three years ago the Bobcats were forced to wave goodbye to their two top scorers in Mikey Dixon and Peter Kiss. Dixon joined St. John’s in the Big East and Kiss is now playing at Rutgers in the Big 10.
Mikey Dixon (left) and Peter Kiss (right) pose together during their freshman year at Quinnipiac. (Photo by QBSN)
This has been the issue for mid-major teams in the last calendar year with the portal.
“If you’re a high major coach, you see a 15, 20 point per game scorer that goes into the portal,” Daly said, “why not take a shot at him? If you’re not able to get a one-and-done like a Kentucky or Carolina or Duke is going to get, you have to find some way to keep up with the Joneses.”
The Jury’s Still Out
On the other hand, mid-major schools need to compete with each other, and Quinnipiac’s program is no different: it needs to find talent flying just below the major-school radar. The transfer portal facilitates that effort.
Jessica Hegmann-Grasso, the MAAC’s associate commissioner said, the transfer portal gives these types of schools, especially in her conference, ways to get a hold of the players they would not be able to typically recruit out of high school.
“The transfer option does benefit the mid-major conferences, like ourselves. Being able to get access to those players that may go elsewhere and then come back to us,” Hegmann-Grasso said, “we do benefit from that.”
MAAC men’s basketball has gained 20 transfer student-athletes for the 2019-20 season, while losing 11 in the portal.
Hegmann-Grasso did point out that we are only in year two of the portal process. There is so much still to come.
“It has only been two years. It’s still new. Like anything else it takes that adjustment period to see how the full reaction will be from it. Right now it’s waiting and seeing.”
One thing that it has already accomplished is it has made it easier for the student-athletes to explore all of their options.
“The process to dealing with the transfers prior to the portal was a lot more restrictive, a lot more interaction and conversation,” Hegmann-Grasso said, “where the portal is now making it a little bit more free.”
Is it free enough? Not for ESPN’s Jay Bilas.
Now, Quinnerly will play as a 24-year old, redshirt senior. For what purpose? The NCAA’s transfer policy is an unholy, unjustifiable mess. If Quinnerly played softball or all but five other sports, he could transfer at semester and be immediately eligible. https://t.co/tju0iA1kGJ
The transfer portal has continued to progress this freedom that the student-athletes desire. Phillip Lamar Cunningham, a professor of media studies who formerly served as co-director of the sports studies program at Quinnipiac University said that the portal, itself, has legitimized the power that the student-athletes can have. Though, he does not believe it has had an outstanding impact on the landscape of college athletics.
Falzon stands with his teammates before his first home game with Quinnipiac.
“The transfer portal, like most NCAA initiatives, is a little late and doesn’t necessarily change much as much as it capitulates to the forces that they already had to give way to.”
Knowing that you have options is an important part of a young athlete’s mindset, and those are really on full display all the time now.
“For a small school like Quinnipiac, the benefits are if you’re an elite college athlete, you are coming home,” Cunningham said. “If you are someone that’s on the cusp of a major conference team but you can’t really break through, you can possibly come here [Quinnipiac] and be a star. We see this in every sport. If you are a star in a mid-major you are suddenly more attracted to more established teams.”
The new rules have led to confusion over the transfer portal’s role. For Hegmann-Grasso and her colleagues in the MAAC’s league offices, they just would like to see it play out a bit more.
“I think it’s just too early to start changing anything because it took a while to get to this point, and to just change it right away?” Hegmann-Grasso said. “I don’t think we do our due diligence of really setting up a system, even though some were in favor for it and some were not.”
It’s just the start of more and more changes in college basketball, and so far, Quinnipiac can call itself a beneficiary. So far.
When Quinnipiac University President Judy Olian posted news on Instagram last spring that the school would officially sponsor club sports teams, baseball players took notice.
The players, including many who did not survive the cut for Quinnipiac’s Division I team, immediately applied to make club baseball official.
“The boys were actually freaking out in the group chat,” said Brendan Cavaco, who helped to start the informal club team in 2017. “We were all excited.”
But the news that followed crushed the team. The Hamden Braves, as they are known, would not be among the group of clubs to receive official sponsorship. Yet the team still competes in club baseball without official sponsorship as it awaits formal university sponsorship.
“So, everyone found out through like the Twitter and Instagram club pages,” said Finbarr Saunders, an infielder. “Everyone was obviously disappointed because we knew we would be like on our own again.”
Cavaco and several other players formed the club in 2017 so they could continue to play baseball.
Cavaco said he understood the decision but added he might have been misled.
“The only thing that I made some of my teammates and I frustrated was that we were informed by the start of the application process that every team has a clean slate,” Cavaco said. “So even if you’re not established, you know, a fair shot or if you’re established first or prior.”
Cavaco said the school ended up selecting club teams that have played for years, undermining the clean-slate competition.
When asked for a comment, Michael Medina, the associate director for intramurals, pointed to a Q30 Television interview on the launch of club sports for his formal response.
“The professionalism that we all handled ourselves in the room of giving every team an equal, a fair chance of being a club sport, I have to take my hat off to everybody on the committee who helped me along with this process,” Medina said during the interview.
Medina added that more club teams could be coming to Quinnipiac soon.
“I think the university realizes this is an initial investment and that there’s going to be potentially more club sports teams that come around in future years,” Medina said.
Players make the walk to the field at Central Connecticut State for their game on October 26.
The Braves again found themselves isolated. Back to running the day-to-day operations on their own again. But the questions still remained. Cavaco knew that he couldn’t let this bad news stop him or this team.
Cavaco and Christian Cooper worked to form the team but learned quickly that they needed to handle such baffling off-the-field pieces such as insurance.
“Insurance, definitely, lack of funding from the school,” Cooper said. “I mean we’re all generating from each other as far as money goes and field space that still an issue. Just being able to get a baseball field. Honestly, if you can think of it, it’s something we’ve got to deal with.”
The two decided to form a non-profit organization to serve as the legal infrastructure through which insurance and player dues would be handled.
Now they needed a team and getting the word out was the next step. When they got the team, the dues from the players were collected and the Braves were now in business.
“I think that’s pretty interesting that, you know, it’s just a bunch of high-quality baseball players come together to still buy something they love to do,” outfielder John Pesce said.
And whether they liked the decision made to not bring them on as a club sport or not, the Braves had a season to play in the spring and it was the team’s first full season as a team playing in the American Club Baseball Association. They ended up winning the championship that spring.
“A lot of guys actually use it like as a chip on our shoulder,” Saunders said. “Like, like they didn’t approve us. Like they don’t want us, you know, like that kind of mentality.”
But there is a lot that goes into a season like that. Money is a big factor in it all. Money gets you on the field to play and money gets you the umpires to call the game. And that money the Braves have comes from the players on their roster. The players had to pay $250 per semester they were on the team, a total of $500 for the fall and spring.
“They’ve actually done all, the administrative part,” manager Jim Withington said. “And that includes procuring fields, getting umpires, you know, practice facilities and all that. They do all that out on the road.”
The carpool of Hamden Braves pulls out of Hogan Lot before their game at Central Connecticut State.
Speaking of the road, the Braves have logged a lot of miles on the road too. Road trips mean driving personal cars, not hopping onto a team bus.
Uniforms still need to be purchased, and the team is searching for a place to practice to stay sharp for ACBA play.
But one thing that might separate the Braves from the others is the team dynamic. The team plays loose. They have the music going, even if it isn’t considered their home game, and every player has a walk-up song.
“We work so hard during the week academically that maybe go in the cage for an hour or go in to play baseball for a couple of hours, it’s really meant to like relieve some stress,” Cavaco said about the way his team plays.
Even their skipper agrees, and Withington does not mind how his team plays loose because they proved they could win that way.
“They do enjoy themselves but when it’s time to take it seriously and get out and play, they do that too, which they proved,” Withington said.
At the end of the day, the players on the Braves are just there to keep playing the game they love to play. Even if they aren’t affiliated with the school, they won’t stop them from playing America’s Pastime. But the thought of being a club team of all Quinnipiac students that wasn’t selected as one of the club sports still remains.
“You just got to deal with what you have. I can’t do anything to change that decision and we’re going to try our best as a team to show that we deserve an affiliation,” Pesce said. “But, you know, we’re all still having a good time. It’s not changing the way we play.”
This week on QNN, a look at how students are getting ready for Thanksgiving break. Plus, Hamden finally gets help paying for tornado cleanup, and we’ll introduce your to the new director of the Quinnipiac University Podcast Studio! Those stories and more are in this week’s QNN newscast.
Multiple racist incidents have been the topic of discussion across the campus of Syracuse University. These incidents have taken place over the past month on the western New York campus.
One of the incidents included a white supremacist manifesto that was “air-dropped” to students in a campus library on a Monday night.
Black students have been leading a sit-in at Syracuse University for 6 straight days. #NotAgainSU has a list of demands for their university, including:
◾️Expel anyone involved in racist incidents ◾️Hire more counselors that represent marginalized groups pic.twitter.com/1JhNW67MtE
Other reported incidents include nine racist or anti-sematic emails or graffiti on the campus.
As of Thursday, four Syracuse students have been arrested in connection with these incidents.
The university also canceled all social activities with the fraternities on campus in response to a black student who claims she was verbally assaulted on campus later Saturday night.
The Sleeping Giant State Park has been reopened for some time not, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded the Town of Hamden with just over two million dollars in aid.
The money is for the tornado recovery after a tornado ripped through the area of Hamden by Sleeping Giant State Park in the summer of 2018.
“People are just glad that is it open,” Quinnipiac student Jack Main said. “After it having to be shut down for two years for clean-up and stuff like that.”
The damage from the tornado included many downed trees that fell throughout the various pathways in Sleep Giant Park. The park reopened back in June of 2019.
Soon after winning reelection in Hamden, Mayor Curt Leng announced that acting police chief John Cappiello will be taking over the post full time pending approval from the legislative council.
Cappiello also just recently announced that he recommended Officer Devon Eaton be fired after Eaton was involved in a shooting in New Haven back on April 16.
Black Lives Matter New Haven calling for justice for Paul Witherspoon and Stephanie Washington. They are calling for the firing of Devon Eaton and Terrance Pollock following the State Attorney investigation of the April 16 officer involved shooting. pic.twitter.com/YC9axAmZ8t
Eaton fired 13 shots at the car of Paul Witherspoon III during a traffic stop. Witherspoon was not injured but his girlfriend, Stephanie Washington, was seriously injured.
After the incident, there were protects in Hamden and in New Haven calling for the firing of Eaton. Eaton was also charged with assault in connection with the shooting.
Quinnipiac Student Government Association hosted its annual “Ask Away” event on Tuesday, Nov. 19. Students who came to the event in Burt Kahn Court were encouraged to, you guessed it, ask away on tough topics happening in society.
Students discuss various topics during “Ask Away” which was a safe space for students to talk about topics.
Topics of discussion ranged from abortion, politics, race and more. The topics were about things happening on campus and going on nationally.
“My idea was to create a space to have inclusive and controversial dialogue,” SGA Vice President of Student Experience Esau Greene. “Where students can kind of learn to agree to disagree.”
Students were spilt up into different tables to talk about these difficult topics in a calm and civil conversation.
