Last Thursday afternoon public safety put yellow caution tape around the South Lot parking lot, and just like in years past, Fall Fest was upon us. This year, AJR, an indie rock group, was the headliner of the Sept. 15 event.
While this is the first big recreational event for all students in the fall each year, students and alumni say it is not well attended and is mostly for freshmen and sophomores.
“The bands are bad,” senior Patrick Brooks said. “I went to a darty (day party) instead and the school can’t do anything more because it’s meant for freshmen.”
Students also say they wish that they could have more of a say in the process of choosing a performer. The Student Programing Board (SPB) tells the student body who it has picked for the concert and does not ask for input outside of SPB.
Students – and alumni alike – say they have felt frustration about the event for some time.
“Personally it wasn’t my type of music,” alumna Nikki Hunyh said of the Fall Fests during her time at Quinnipiac from 2014-2018. “I feel that if the school got the students more involved, like ask them what type of music they wanna hear it would be more of a popular event.”
Another issue that students say they have with Fall Fest is the lack of advertising by the school to entice the student body.
“You don’t really hear much about it. All you get is an email,” senior Ethan Reever said.
Recent Fall Fest artists include Jamie Lynn Spears, Timeflies, Jana Kramer and The Hennigans.
Students watching tennis during Fall Fest.
“The artists decide if people will go. If the artists are popular, a lot of people are going to go. If they’re just somewhat decent, than people aren’t going to go,” junior Areesa Jasmine said.
This year many students found alternatives to attending the fall concert. During a survey of campus during the concert, reporters found that students were hanging with friends or going to sporting events. Many students said they went home for the weekend.
“I just stay in my dorm and hang out with my friends instead of going to the concert,” sophomore Robert Weinfeld said.
Whether they like it or not, students say Fall Fest will still be the official start of the fall semester for the Quinnipiac community. And some students will continue to feel the same about Fall Fest.
“I don’t know what Fall Fest is,” sophomore Robert Martinez said.
As Hurricane Florence makes landfall in North and South Carolina, most students at Quinnipiac University don’t have to worry about any direct implications from this major storm.
But for some students, their families, friends and loved ones are right in the line of fire. While some chose to evacuate to different states, others boarded up their windows and are hoping for the best. All these students can do is watch and wait from afar.
A new batch of student reporters are starting in the HQ Press newsroom. Before reporting, we went around Quinnipiac and asked members in our community what they want to see in our coverage. Check us out on social media @hq_press on Instagram and Twitter. Send tips to hqpress.org@gmail.com.
John Lahey is Quinnipiac University’s longest standing president. In 2014 he was the second-highest paid in the country, making over $3.7 million a year, according to an article from Business Insider.
However in a few short weeks the reign of Lahey will end and Judy Olian will take over. As the university’s first female president, Olian will be making history.
But Lahey already has. For the last 31 years Lahey has expanded the physical campus and increased the population. But he’s also dealt with the consequences of that growth.
When the university hired Lahey as president in 1987, Russia was still called the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan was president. Walk Like an Egyptian was the number one song.
And the quad on Quinnipiac’s main campus didn’t even exist. According to an article from Quinnipiac Magazine, Lahey was the one who first envisioned the current “quad.” Prior to 1987 it actually resembled more of an “L,” with just the library and a classroom building to the left.
Lahey and his team of architects built and renovated nearly 10 buildings amongst the three different campuses:
1989: Echlin Center
1993: Lender School of Business with the Ed McMahon Communications Center
1995: School of Law (now the Center for Communications and Engineering)
2000: renovated the Library, the Student Center and Buckman Theaters
2007: The York Hill arena
2007: North Haven campus
2009: York Hill residence halls dorms
2013: Frank H. Netter M.D. School of Medicine
Slide the white line back and forth to see changes from QU in 1991 to QU in 2017. Notice that while the school had built Echlin by 1991, it hadn’t built Center for Communications and Engineering, and it has also expanded the dorms since then. Also, York Hill was still just a hill back in ’91.
But all this expansion came as a result of the growing enrollment. The university needed somewhere to put the students they were admitting.
The graph above shows growth rates for Quinnipiac and Hamden over 30 years, according to Hamden’s website, the Quinnipiac registrar and Quinnipiac’s annual reports, which are on file in the library (photos of select pages are available here). In all but seven of those years, QU’s growth rate exceeded Hamden’s. The school’s enrollment dropped only one year, but Hamden’s population dropped or stayed virtually the same about half of the three decades.
And although reasons for an increase in enrollment aren’t definite, some peaks in growth rates happened around the same time as university expansions.
For example, according to Quinnipiac Magazine, the university opened the law school in 1995. The next year there was a small spike in enrollment rate.
Also, after President Lahey’s 2006 agreement with the town of Hamden to offer housing for all students on campus, the University saw its first negative growth rate in years in 2007.
Quinnipiac had not yet built the York Hill dorms; the expansion had only been approved in 2006. By the time the dorms were finished in 2010, the university had the highest growth rate in a decade.
However, with this growth came tension, as more young adults opted to live in off-campus housing in the surrounding town.
And in recent years, students having parties in off-campus housing have caused some conflicts between the town of Hamden and Quinnipiac. Although the university does offer housing for students for all four years, President Lahey said it’s unrealistic to expect all students to choose that option.
“If we’d built 500 more beds, more students would have come on campus, but there would still be the 20 percent who wouldn’t. It wouldn’t solve the problem, and we’d have hundreds of empty beds,” said Lahey in an interview with the Hartford Courant in 2015.
Since 2015 total enrollment has increased by close to 1,000 students. To keep the peace with the town, QU plans to expand housing. On March 27, the Hamden Planning and Zoning Commission approved Quinnipiac’s plan to build senior housing on York Hill, including over 200 more beds.
But it’s only a few problem houses a year that hurt the university’s relationship with the town. During the most recent school year eight noise complaints came from homes that had permits to rent to students, according to records from the Hamden Police Department (there may be landlords that rent to students without permits).
However there were close to 300 noise complaints over the same amount of time, spread across the entire town.
The black icons are addresses of noise complaints filed with the Hamden Police Department. The purple dots are addresses that have permits to rent to students. It should be noted that there may be some homes that do not have a permit to rent to student, but students may still live in some of the homes that are close to the Quinnipiac campus.
So despite the growth of Quinnipiac during the Lahey years, his tenure hasn’t been perfect. In 2015 Lahey attended an off campus party during “May Weekend,” a notorious party weekend at QU.
In an attempt to “be humorous” with the students, Lahey celebrated their May Weekend party, and his remarks enraged some Hamden residents and Quinnipiac alums.
“I deeply regret having made these remarks, for which I sincerely apologize. I have already personally conveyed this apology to Interim Mayor Jim Pascarella and renewed my commitment to work with him and town officials to resolve these long standing student housing issues in the immediate future,” Lahey said in a statement in 2015.
But just in time for his retirement, Lahey seems to be easing tensions.
“Quinnipiac and the town are on better footing right now than we have been in a very long time, and that is a great benefit to the university and to the town,” Leng said at the press conference.
Perhaps the goal of mending university-town relations is the reason for the increase in tuition. While the average student doesn’t pay the current full tuition of over $60,000, according to annual reports, the amount has increased by over 200 percent over the last three decades.
Adjusted for inflation, in 1988 the average student paid almost $12,000. The most recent year available showed that an average student pays about $40,000.
And the university’s revenue increase isn’t just from tuition. Between 1988 and 2017 revenue from everything but tuition (including gifts, grants, and investment returns) increased nearly 400 percent, after adjusting for inflation.
But the distribution of that money hasn’t changed much over the years. The biggest difference in the expense data over the past 30 years was in student aid and scholarships, and sponsored research.
In 1988 less than a quarter of Quinnipiac’s expenses went to student aid and scholarships, but by 2017 it was close to a third. By increasing student aid, the university can increase enrollment and give opportunities for students who may not have been able to afford Quinnipiac’s hefty tuition.
While Lahey’s departure has left students wondering how life at Quinnipiac will change under a new president, Lahey has his own plans.
He plans to spend the colder months in Florida with his wife, Judy. But Lahey does plan to come back and teach a philosophy or logic course in spring of 2019, according to an interview with The Chronicle.
“I hope, I’m leaving Quinnipiac as someone who doesn’t take themself any more seriously than they have to and appreciates the people around them,” Lahey said.
Connecticut sports fans see April 13, 1997, as the day pro sports died in the state. It was the final time the NHL’s Hartford Whalers would play before heading south to North Carolina.
But that perception is wrong, Pro sports are thriving in Connecticut, just not in the way a casual sports fan may see.
So how has this passed by some fans? Pro sports evolved as a largely male activity in the United States, with the role of women restricted to sideline activities such as cheering, even though they participated in leagues of their own.
An act of the United States government was the first step in growing sports for women. In 1972, the United States Congress sought to provide steps forward in the battle for civil rights. As part of a larger bill, Title IX was given power to prevent discrimination based on sex. This law was not enacted with sports in mind, but has since grown to assist participation among women in sports.
Per the National Women’s Law Center, “There is no shortage of interest by women and girls in participating in athletics. Since 1972, when Title IX first opened up opportunities for women and girls, female participation in high school athletics has skyrocketed by almost 900%, disproving claims made by opponents of Title IX that the lower numbers of female athletes are due to lack of interest as opposed to lack of opportunities.”
Since the law was passed in 1972, female participation in high school sports has grown an astonishing 1,018 percent, compared with 23 percent for men.
However, despite the growth, women continue to look for equal footing among the sports world. The NWLC has found that “women in Division I colleges, while representing 53 percent of the student body, receive only 45 percent of the participation opportunities, 34 percent of the total money spent on athletics, 45 percent of the total athletic scholarship dollars, and 32 percent of recruiting dollars.”
That bottom line? Equality in sports is within reach, yet continues to be pushed to the side. The fault, however, is traced among many lines.
“There are very few women in leadership positions in sports organizations across all domains, from interscholastic, intercollegiate, professional or international sport. Women are really underrepresented in leadership,” Burton said. “Half your participant population is women, or girls, (so) why don’t we have an equal number of people at the leadership table?”
Burton believed the connection between sports and masculinity created stereotypes that hold women back from administrative roles.
“We don’t perceive women to be capable of and/or do we want them in leadership positions in general. In sport organizations, because we think it’s a real male domain, we don’t think that women can run a football program or an athletic department. There’s a lot of stereotyping that’s influencing women, both trying to get into those positions and how we evaluate them when they’re in it.”
The presence of women’s sports in the media also plays a role. Per the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, women’s athletics receive only about 4 percent of all sports media coverage.
Amanda Ottaway. a former college basketball player at Davidson and now a journalist, delved into that study. Her work with women’s sports has seen publication in The Washington Post and ESPNW among others. She pinned the issue solely on media portrayal.
“Other studies have put television time as low as 1 percent,” Ottaway said. “Yet, 44 years after the passage of Title IX, women and girls in the United States are playing and following sports in unprecedented numbers.”
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“40 percent of all sports participants are female, according to the Tucker Center, and roughly a third of fans of major sports are women. The evolution of women’s sports over the last four decades has been dramatic; the media coverage, not so much. All these statistics beg the question: Would we have more reporting on women’s sports if more sports reporters and editors were women? And would the quality of that coverage be better?”
Rebecca Carlson, a three-time national champion as the women’s rugby coach at Quinnipiac University, uses a trip to the ice cream parlor to best describe the issue. Picking a sport to watch on television is like picking a flavor, and every sport with men is just another bowl of strawberry ice cream.
“I have two choices for you, and I want you to try them and then you tell me which one you like more,” Carlson said. “Here’s some strawberry ice cream, and then also some strawberry ice cream. If I’m not given anything else, I guess I’ll take the strawberry.”
Carlson explained that data shows viewers prefer to watch men’s sports, but only because they are given more men’s sports than any other option, including the women.
“If you hate it you’re not going to watch it, but there’s going to be people that will be like ‘It’s what’s on, I’ll watch,’ or ‘it’s there, I’ll eat it.’ How do we change that? (Connecticut) gives us a clean slate because the airwaves aren’t cluttered with (mens sports). That opportunity is there… because of our state. What else do they talk about in Connecticut?”
Carlson joins a handful of coaches that face a unique situation in Connecticut. A lack of men’s professional sports, combined with a hungry fan base, has given women’s sports open ground to thrive. Given the state’s history with women’s sports, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Donna Lopiano 1966, 1971 and 1972. She led the 1972 Women’s Fast Pitch she led the Brakettes in hitting, 1970 (.316) and 1972 (.367) pic.twitter.com/ZC0UQ3p7Zh
In 1947, before Title IX or most of the half-hearted attempts to grow women’s sports emerged, William Simpson had an idea. The chairman of Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. founded a fast-pitch softball team, sponsored by his factory. The team, named the Raybestos Bracketts to publicize the company’s motor vehicle brake linings, set the standard for women’s sports in Connecticut. Donna Lopiano, a national champion with the Brakettes, joined in 1962 when she was only 16 years old.
“Prior to the 1970s, prior to Title IX, girls sports were relatively nonexistent,” Lopiano said. “If they existed at the high school level, a high school’s idea of a girl’s basketball team might be five or six games in the season. It might not even be head to head competition against another school. It might be four or five schools getting together and having a play date with two kids from every school on each team.”
Lopiano lamented the lack of opportunities for young female athletes.
“There were no scholarships. Postseason play was nonexistent. Those things didn’t exist. As a result, if you were good at something, you had to turn to open amateur sport, or be satisfied with terrible opportunities at the high school or college level.”
Open amateur sport was the only option for Lopiano, who wanted to prove her skill years after being kicked out of Little League baseball for being a girl.
“Fortunately, the Raybestos Brakettes were a nationally successful women’s softball team,” said Lopiano. “They had the same reputation of being at the top of the game.”
With that history in mind, Lopiano claimed Connecticut was ready for professional women’s sports.
“There was a fertile garden for (women’s sports in Connecticut) to grow, and a lot of it was whether or not there were competing plants. (There are no) weeds that will take over. It’s still true today.”
Brakettes won 3500th game in 65 yr softball team history tonight. Overall record is 3500-380 for a winning percentage of .901
In the 1970s, the Brakettes went on to form the core of the Connecticut Falcons of the international women’s pro softball league. The Falcons played in Meriden, Connecticut, and drew over 2,000 fans per home game. The team featured one of the greatest athletes of all time in pitcher Joan Joyce, who once faced Ted Williams in an exhibition game in Waterbury, Connecticut. The Falcons were owned by Joyce, Billie Jean King and Jane Blalock, and helped grow recognition of both the sport and the athletes, all women.
The Brakettes prepared the ground for an even more popular team, one that is now considered to be a dynasty in women’s sports.
— W.J. Irish Insurance (@WJ_Irish_Ins) April 9, 2014
The rise of the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team from obscurity in Storrs, Connecticut, to national prominence stands as an example of how state fans stood ready to rally behind women’s sports. The UConn men’s basketball team was earning its national reputation at the time, but the UConn women had something the men’s team did not have: local television coverage. UConn women’s basketball drew record ratings and would dominate the local market when it played, eventually leading to higher volumes of fans at the games.
“In 1989, the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team played before just 287 fans in the front half of a doubleheader shared with the men. During the 2009-10 season, UConn women set the NCAA record for invincibility by earning a 90-game winning streak, supported by a total of 357,627 fans attending Connecticut’s 39 games,” the NWLC stated.
Amber Cox, the vice president of the Connecticut Sun, has a special name for it. Her Sun play in the Women’s National Basketball Association, and find their home in the Mohegan Sun casino.
“I think what’s interesting about this state— and specifically what I would call the ‘UConn effect’— is that there is less bias when it comes to women playing basketball,” Cox said.
“You don’t get as much resistance when you call somebody up and say ‘Hey, would you like to buy a season ticket to the WNBA, (to) the Connecticut Sun.’ The resistance is never that it’s women playing basketball, and I think it’s accepted in this state, probably more so than other parts of the country.”
The WNBA attracted a record attendance of 1.5 million in 2017, with teams averaging 7,716 fans per game, the most since 2011, according to Ben York of the Connecticut Sun. The Sun’s attendance grew 15.3 percent, he said. On social media, the WNBA broke records with more than 679 million impressions, a growth of 59 percent, and over 140 million video views, which was a growth of 233 percent.
The reach of the “UConn effect” extends beyond basketball. Connecticut harbors growing amounts of women’s sports teams, at both the collegiate and professional levels. The National Women’s Hockey League features only four teams, including three in major markets such as Buffalo, Newark, and Boston. However, they also found a home for a team in Stamford, with the Connecticut Whale.
Kelly Babstock, a forward for the Whale, set a Quinnipiac record with 203 career points before joining the NWHL.
“Personally, playing professional sports in Connecticut connects with me more because I went to school at Quinnipiac,” Babstock said. “I have had fans that followed me at Quinnipiac who follow the Whale now. I think that is amazing to have their continued support.”
“Connecticut has become my home away from home and I love every minute playing in this state as it provided me with great memories. It was a perfect fit to continue my professional career.”
Babstock is prominently featured on social media with the Whale, including this gif here.
Soccer has found a way into the Constitution State as well, with growth at youth levels reaching its way into a team with United Women’s Soccer. The impact of having professional players nearby to serve as role models is not understated to JP DiTommaso, the head coach of the Connecticut Fusion in the UWS.
“This is an opportunity for girls who have worked tirelessly over the years, putting in work to perfect their trade,” DiTommaso said. “(Young female athletes can) go on to play in college and have (soccer as) an outlet in college. After college they can showcase the hard work and dedication they’ve put in (by going pro).
“It’s a great opportunity for these young girls to look up and say ‘Hey, I want to be there some day’ and it would be at this next stage. For the girls, they can say this is possible, this is achievable.”
DiTommaso also serves as a coach with youth soccer for girls, working with a club in Farmington. He sees the UConn effect growing in his backyard.
“You have people of all ages and all backgrounds coming out to support (UConn women’s basketball). I think that’s a tremendous trickle down effect to not only other schools and other programs across Connecticut, but down to all ages. It’s helped to create an environment that can foster growth in women’s athletics.”
Work remains in creating equality for women in sports. At Quinnipiac, Carlson has hurdled through media hoops repeatedly trying to get attention for her team, which has set an example across the nation for how to grow a women’s rugby program.
3-PEAT COMPLETED! QUINNIPIAC RUGBY DEFEATS DARTMOUTH 29-20 TO WIN THE 2017 NIRA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!
Like many coaches in women’s sports, she has faced challenges head on. She founded TheFearlessCoach.org after dealing with Title IX issues herself, and lends support to other coaches facing discrimination or lack of administrative support.
Connecticut’s history with women’s pro sports that started with the Raybestos Brakettes in the 1940s will persist as the 21st century deepens, giving the state a unique place in modern sports history as one whose fans love a winner regardless of gender.
“You change (women’s sports) by the next generation being exposed to it where it becomes the norm,” Carlson said. “(Any) little girl has access to watch women on television. That exposure, now you see it.”
“Women’s sports” are on the way to becoming, deservedly, just “sports.” Soon, the casual sports fan will see it, too.
By Grace Manthey, Thamar Bailey and Mary Rose Bevins
Contributions by Rob McGreevy and Samantha Prevot
NOTE: Updated 6:15 p.m., May 3.
North Haven Police rushed to 385 Quinnipiac Ave. on reports of a “barricaded subject,” on May 2 at around 8 p.m., according to the North Haven Police Department Facebook page.
Later reports emerged that a large explosion set fire to the area, injuring first responders and leaving one unidentified person — possibly the homeowner — dead.
Doctors are still treating the nine injured first responders at Yale New Haven Hospital, said Public Information Officer for Connecticut State Police Kelly Grant this morning. These officers came from three different counties and were all a part of the South Central Regional SWAT Team, according to Grant and Deputy Chief for North Haven Police Johnathan Mulhern.
Conflicting reports from witnesses and neighbors make many details hard to confirm, but a White Pages address search listed John Sayre, Jr., owner of Sayre Plumbing Inc., as a resident. His wife Deborah was also listed.
According to Grant, Deborah went to the police department around 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Mulhern said in a press conference Wednesday night that his department responded to a domestic violence incident.
“During the course of this investigation (police) had reason to believe that a tactical intervention or a SWAT team was needed to take the subject into custody.”
At about 8:15 p.m., witnesses say a garage exploded, which injured the first responders.
Sayre has not been apprehended, but Grant confirmed that investigators found unidentified human remains in the carnage. Grant said the coroner will identify the remains.
Four dogs were in the building when it exploded, according to a police officer on the scene, and are presumed to be dead.
Kenny and Nancy Mahoney live next door. They said the blast shook their house and public utilities shut off power for three hours Wednesday night. The Mahoneys got their power back at around 2:15 a.m. Thursday morning.
“We looked out our door and you could see the flames and the smoke. The smoke was unbelievable,” Kenny Mahoney said. “There were a lot of other blasts after that, smaller blasts.”
According to Grant, parts of the structure are still burning.
As of 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, police reopened Quinnipiac Avenue near Orient Lane.
North Haven resident Francisco Garcia said he moved to the North Haven area just six months ago, and noted that the incident was “crazy and just sad” and the smell of smoke was “overwhelming.”
More fire trucks arrived after the first wave, and Connecticut State Police sent an armored vehicle.
Quinnipiac University sent out an email at around 9 p.m. Wednesday telling students to “avoid the area of Quinnipiac Avenue in North Haven, near Orient Lane, because of heavy police activity.”
Quinnipiac University announced its 10 commencement speakers on April 24. The docket includes people ranging from an ESPN sportscaster who had two life altering diseases to a lawyer that devoted his life to human rights issues.
Hover over the pictures below to learn more about each of the speakers.
Undergraduate School of Nursing commencement speaker
Victoria Arlen now an ESPN sportscaster spent four years “locked” in her body after being diagnosed with two life altering diseases at 11 years old, according to School of Nursing Dean Jean Lange. Arlen would go on to lose her ability to speak, eat, walk and move. While from the outside it appeared she was in a vegetative state, on the inside she was fully aware of what was going on. Now, 12 years later, Arlen has regained all of her abilities and has gone on to be a professional athlete among other things.
While Lange didn’t have a hand in picking this years speaker, she said Arlen is “going to be our best speaker yet.” Lange hopes, after listening to Arlen, her graduates will understand the importance of not giving up hope.
“I hope that our nursing students will take away from this the incredible power of the human spirit and that (Arlen) really is a wonderful testament of why we care so much about our patients and to try to help them achieve their best potential,” Lange said.
Arlen will speak at the undergraduate School of Nursing commencement ceremony on May 20 at 1 p.m.
School of Law commencement speaker
Stephen Bright, a visiting lecturer at Yale University and former director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, has made a career of fighting for human rights, according to School of Law Dean Jennifer Brown. Bright’s litigation focus include capital punishment, legal representation for poor people accused of crimes, and prison condition, according to schr.org. Bright has argued before the Supreme Court four times, his most recent case in 2017 McWilliams v. Dunn.
Bright will address the School of Law graduates on May 13 at 9 a.m. After listening to Bright, Brown said she hopes her graduates will see how powerful the law can be and how much of an impact one can have when truly serving the public interest.
“He has given up his life to do the right thing in his legal practice and not everyone is going to rise to that level,” Brown said. ”But if people can do even a tenth of what he has done (by) just putting aside his own interest, his own comfort, his own material wealth and just giving his life and his career.”
Undergraduate School of Health Sciences commencement speaker
Denise Fiore, COO of L+M Healthcare, will address undergraduate health science students on May 19 at 5 p.m. Fiore, a QU alum, received a bachelor’s degree in technology and returned to get her masters degree, according to School of Health Sciences Dean William Kohlhepp. Kohlhepp believes Fiore is a “shiny” example of what the School of Health Sciences aspires to accomplish with its graduates, creating leaders in their field.
“Many times when people are in health care professions they look at serving their patients or serving the being part of the science behind the healthcare profession, but we want them to think about being leaders and shaping the world of health care and health sciences down the road,” Kohlhepp said.
Kohlhepp said he believes Fiore is a role model of progressive leadership.
“I think she is someone who along the way has had opportunities and she’s embraced those opportunities and said ‘yes I can do that I believe I am confident enough in my education and experience that I can do that,’” Kohlhepp said. “ She said yes to other roles along the way, built her expertise and now has really moved up in a very important organization.”
School of Engineering commencement speaker
Jonna Gerken, program chief manufacturing manager for Pratt & Whitney and president of the Society of Women Engineers, will address the School of Engineering graduates on May 19 at 5 p.m. Gerkin is adamant in her belief of inclusion in the engineering field, and Justin Kile, dean of the School of Engineering, follows her sentiment.
“Engineering is about solving problems from very diverse ways of thinking the people that use things that engineers design come from a lot of backgrounds and abilities,” Kile said. “So someone who is focusing on that makes a lot of sense, because that’s the world our graduating students are going to go off in work in.”
While the School of Engineering population is mostly male, Kile said he believes the schools’ commencement speaker choice shows their commitment to thinking about diversifying the schools’ population and “bringing in a more broader scope of the population.”
“As a planet we need engineers,” Kile said. “We need people that can solve these problems, we need creative people, we need hard working people. That has nothing to do with your gender.”
School of Medicine commencement speaker
Frederick Kaplan, a dear friend of Frank Netter — the namesake of the Quinnipiac School of Medicine, will be the school’s 2018 commencement speaker, according to School of Medicine Dean Bruce Koeppen. Kaplan collaborated with Netter on a book focused on the muscular skeletal systems. While working on the book, the duo became close. Kaplan would go on to give Netter’s eulogy in the 1990s.
Kaplan studies fibrodysplasia progressiva, a disease that essentially turns people into living statues, according to Koeppen. While the disease is rare, Koeppen notes that Kaplan’s work on fibrodysplasia progressiva has helped the science community understanding bone formation.
Koeppen hopes graduates will leave commencement inspired by what they can accomplish in their own career.
“(Kaplan) was involved in discovering the defective gene and now is working on therapies that may be able to help these patients,” Koeppen said. “So it’s a remarkable career and I think that if he just tells his story to show what’s possible in a career in medicine that should inspire each and everyone of our graduates.”
Graduate College of Arts & Sciences and School of Health Sciences and Nursing commencement speaker
This year the College of Arts and Sciences chose the commencement speaker for graduate students in the college of arts and sciences and schools of health science and nursing. Robert Smart chose Scarlett Lewis, founder of the Lewis Choose Love Movement. Lewis created the movement after her son was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Lewis aims to change the “mental frames” that people use to understand the world we live in, according to Smart.
“What I hear her saying is that we have worked from such a limited set of frames ‘you’re either with us or against us’,’’ Smart said. “ ‘You’re either on this side of the issue or that side of the issue’ that we sometimes end up acting in ways that if we had a chance to step back for a moment would find appalling.”
Smart said he hopes the graduate students will leave commencement inspired to think outside of the normal bounds of society.
“This is a woman that has brought herself past the point of forgiving because of the love she bore her son,” Smart said. “And when you hear her story you realize she has made something really transformative out of a really incredibly powerful tragedy.”
Lewis will speak at graduate Arts and Sciences, Health Science, Nursing commencement ceremony on May 12 at 9 a.m.
School of Communications commencement speaker
Jarl Mohn, CEO and President of NPR, is a multifaceted news junkie, according to School of Communications Dean Mark Contreras. Mohn has a strong background in radio. From there he spring boarded to MTV and would go on to be the head of E! entertainment. Along the way, Mohn ran newspapers, served on board of digital start up companies and volunteered for non-profits. Mohn takes no salary as president and CEO of NPR. It’s this sense of selflessness and commitment to the industry that Contreras believes makes Mohn stand out.
“He’s a good example of somebody who believes strongly in giving back to the industry where he came from,” Contreras said. “He casts a very wide and bright light across the media world.”
After listening to Mohn come commencement day, May 20 at 9 a.m., Contreras hopes his undergraduate graduates walk away with pride in their industry.
“I hope that students and their families are left with a sense that news in America in 2018 matters,” Contreras said. “ Hard hitting investigative news still is important, the news media is not an enemy of the people and in fact is the foundation and bull work of which democracy stand or fall.”
Undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences commencement speaker
Tracy Smith, U.S. Poet laureate and director and professor of creative writing at Princeton University, will address the undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences on May 19 at 9 a.m.
Smith, with the help of local historian and gospel groups, is working to bring the “power of poetry” to rural communities throughout the American south, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Robert Smart said.
Smart explained that Smith has a voice that is “driven by something that you don’t often find in a poet.”
“I wanted that voice speaking to our graduates and saying now that your horizon of understanding has suddenly been lifted, you have a responsibility,” Smart said.
Smart said he hopes his graduates walk away from commencement with confidence in the power of language.
“All of us should have (a voice),” Smart said. “ And if her work and words can provide my graduates of a sense that the world is waiting for their voices then I’m done. I’m happy with that.”
School of Business commencement speaker
Louis Ursini Jr., vice president of enterprise information technology at Aetna, will address the undergraduate School of Business on May 19 at 5 p.m. Ursini, a QU Alum and former QU hockey player, has remained close to the business school, according to School of Business Dean Matthew O’Connor. Ursini has served on the School of Business Advisory Council for more than ten years.
While at Aetna, Ursini has provided opportunities for not only School of Business students, but students from Quinnipiac as a whole. O’Connor noted that various students have had internships and went on to obtain careers at Aetna.
Come commencement O’Connor would like his students to note Ursini’s commitment to giving back to his community.
“We would like to think that students that not only graduate from the business school, but graduate from Quinnipiac do graduate with a sense of being engaged as a citizen,” O’Connor said. “(With) whatever they choose to do that they remain engaged in their communities and give back to their communities.”
School of Business, Communications and Education graduate commencement speaker
This year the School of Business chose Joe Natarelli, construction services leader for Marcum, as the commencement speaker for the graduate School of Business, Communications and Education. Natarelli, a QU alum, has spent much of his time giving back to the community, according to School of Business Dean Matthew O’Connor.
“Not only is (Natarelli) a great example of a School of Business alum,” O’Connor said “He’s a good example of remaining connected to not only the university but the School of Business. Remaining connected to the accounting program (and) remaining connected to our students.”
Natarelli serves on the School of Business Advisory Council and has provided various internships for Quinnipiac students.
Natarelli will speak at the School of Business, Communications and Education graduate commencement ceremony on May 12 at 9 a.m.
After a two year battle for a budget increase, on April 25 Quinnipiac University Student Government Association President of Public Relations Victoria Johnson announced the SGA budget will be increased to $725,000 for the 2018-2019 academic year.
In 2016 the university announced it would cut the SGA budget to $600,000. This figure was based on SGA’s historical spending pattern. The organization, on average, was only spending that amount, according to SGA President Ryan Hicks. Hicks also noted the lack of checks and balances and fiscal responsibility among the student organizations were also factors in the universities’ decision to the limit funding.
Now, SGA will receive a $125,000 increase for the upcoming academic year.
The budget increase comes a week and a half after SGA had its “Spring Finance Weekend,” when the organization distributes its budget among the student organizations that requested money for the upcoming academic year. While the organization now has over $700,000 to work with, that wasn’t the case when SGA made its budget breakdown for next year.
Based on the budget cut that was first implemented in the 2017-2018 academic year, SGA only had $600,000 to distribute among the 79 different campus organizations that requested money, and they went over.
Graphic by Thamar Bailey
“The process we did [that] weekend, we went through and we heard every single organization and allocated all the money as if it was in-line with policy and came in way over our $600,000 mark,” Hicks said. “So then we went through and cut all conferences and competitions to get that number down and then we cut all that off-campus travel and then all the growth.”
As a result various student organizations took hits to their requested budget. In the projected 2018-2019 budget Public Relations Society of America was set to lose 91 percent of its budget. Last year, the first year the budget cut was implemented, PRSSA requested less money and still lost 91 percent of its budget.
The budget cut decreased the groups presence on campus as well as its members chances of gaining professional experience, according to PRSSA President Samantha Nardone.
“For my group this meant we weren’t able to attend the National Conference in October, where students got to network and attend workshops focused on specific areas of public relations,” Nardone said. “We also weren’t able to go on agency tours, which in the past has been a great way for students to get internships.”
PRSSA is just one of the various academic groups that have taken hits to their budget. The Global Affairs Association, Entrepreneurship Club and Pre- Physician Assistant club among others have lost more than half of their budget.
Academic groups are integral in preparing students for their careers, according to Nardone.
“Academic groups give students the opportunity to get real world experience in their field in ways the classroom can’t,” Nardone said. “ In any field that has a professional group for college students, employers will expect that you have been a member.”
Cultural groups were also affected. The Black Student Union and Italian Cultural Society were among those that lost 50 percent or more of their budget.
Major campus events like the Big Event and Relay lost a quarter or more of their funding.
Even the Student Programming Board, which was allotted 65 percent of the SGA budget in the current academic year, lost a minor percentage of their budget.
However, even though a majority of the SGA funded student organizations lost funding they were still able to receive additional funding through the special appeals process.
Graphic by Thamar Bailey
This year 81 special appeals were made and 51 were approved for additional funding. The special appeal approval ruling is based on the purpose of the appeal made by the student organization. The event has to be aligned with the organization’s mission, and SGA needs to have available funds.
The special appeals process was one piece of evidence Hicks used to request a budget increase. Since special appeals allow for off-campus travel, competitions and conferences, Hicks used the appeals process as evidence to note the valuable experiences students were able to have.
Hicks delivered multiple proposals to the university hoping to show the university that additional funding was necessary to facilitate better student experiences.
“The majority of the student experience is surrounded by what you get involved in and we hear that preached so often ‘Get involved in student organizations because they help you develop these qualities that you need in the field, they help you develop professionally, they allow you to network,’” Hicks said. “But if the money’s not there and they don’t have these opportunities then that limits their student experience.”
While the money is now available to benefit student organizations there is no set plan as to how SGA will allocate the funds among the student organizations, according to Hicks.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Quinnipiac women’s tennis team is the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champions. The Bobcats defeated the Marist Red Foxes 4-1 on Sunday to seal their fifth title in as many years as they’ve been in the MAAC.
After shutting out Niagara University yesterday 4-0, Quinnipiac was able to hold on to beat Marist in New Jersey at Mercer County Tennis Center.
Although dominance has become a normalcy for the team, Paula Miller, the director of Quinnipiac tennis and the women’s team’s head coach, says it never gets any easier.
“Everyone always talks about the success,” Miller said. “But every time we come out here to play I feel the nerves and every year the teams actually compete harder against us.”
Miller added that nerves aside, she will always believe in her team.
“I’m always worried but I have the faith in my girls to come out and win,” Miller said.
For this team, faith and trust is a necessity due to the youth of the roster since all of the starters were either juniors or freshmen.
The younger teams came through today when the team needed them most, even after a tough start.
“Payton (Bradley) at number three was down five-one in the second set and ended up coming back and winning the set so my freshmen are tough,” Miller added.
However, the success was not held to only one freshman.
Moments before Jennifer Lu’s clincher, this was Dominique Vasile’s match point at 1 to give the Bobcats a 3-1 lead – Vasile and Lu at 1 and 2 had simultaneous set points and simultaneous match points. pic.twitter.com/C5gbtvfchP
“Two of three (freshmen) ended up winning singles matches for me that so that tells you right there how they are under pressure as freshmen,” Miller said.
Without one senior on the roster, it is important that you build a foundation for a team right from the bottom.
For Quinnipiac, the future looks bright.
“You always think its something you’re gonna have to build,” Miller said. “But then they come in and they grow. But to have that coming as freshmen, I think they’re just going to get tougher and tougher as the years go on.”
On Thursday, December 1, 2016, Quinnipiac women’s rugby players were celebrating their second consecutive national title in the cafeteria of Quinnipiac’s main campus. Joy filled the room-they had done it again with a victory over Central Washington to bring the title back to Hamden. Everything was good, except for one thing: John Lahey, current president of Quinnipiac, was nowhere to be seen.
“He said he shook hands with us and everything but he wasn’t actually present,” said Flora Poole, a senior at Quinnipiac who played four years of rugby. “It’s [President Lahey’s support] that is like one extra thing we haven’t gotten or accomplished yet.”
President Lahey’s office could not be reached for comment.
Hillary Haldane, an anthropology professor with a focus in gender studies, echoed this same sentiment.
“All the things that women do and get no credit for, it’s no different with sports. You hold up and value what the people in power hold up and value,” said Haldane. “The fact that our president goes to the men’s games and doesn’t go to the women’s games is appalling. Your job as the president his to simply act like you care about something.”
Other female athletes say they feel the same way – regardless of success or accomplishment, the lack of recognition for women’s athletics at Quinnipiac will continue.
“In my almost four years of being here there has definitely been a blind eye to the success of the women’s teams,” said Mackenzie Merkel, a senior member of Quinnipiac women’s indoor track and field. “There have been national champions, records broken, huge upsets, but the cycle continues as none of it gets the recognition it truly deserves.”
Despite the victories and consistent success inequality prevails when it comes to women’s athletics at Quinnipiac. There is an argument to be made that women’s rugby is the most successful sport at the school. However, the exposure the team gets and the following it attracts do not reflect that.
Image via Quinnipiacbobcats.com
“The coverage of the sports are different,” said Taylor Schussler, another senior who has played her last rugby game for Quinnipiac. “I think if you’re breaking down coverage it shouldn’t be based off of what’s the most popular sport.”
What Schussler is saying is that although the women’s rugby team is more successful than most sports here, it does not get the coverage that the others do. Lack of recognition and support for women’s athletics is not limited to Quinnipiac, it also extends to the rest of the NCAA.
This inequality stems in part from a lack of opportunity to compete in the first place. Without the opportunity to play, a lot of these women athletes do not even get the chance to earn support.
“Even though female students comprise 57 percent of college student populations, female athletes received only 43 percent of participation opportunities at NCAA schools which is 63,241 fewer participation opportunities than their male counterparts,” according to an NCAA publication cited by the Women’s Sports Foundation from 2014.
Graphic by Bill Ruocco
Even with Title IX in place, there is still a vast discrepancy in the opportunities that men get in sports in comparison to women. And even when women get the opportunity to play, the amount of financial aid granted to men and women athletes remains unequal.
Graphic by Bill Ruocco
“Although the gap has narrowed, male athletes still receive 55 percent of NCAA college athletic scholarship dollars (Divisions I and II), leaving only 45 percent allocated to women,” the 2014 NCAA publication stated.
Title IX implies that men’s and women’s athletics will receive the same opportunities both financially and substantially. That is not what the report reveals.
According to Attorney Felice Duffy, a New Haven attorney specializing in title 9 suits, it is not uncommon for schools to not fully comply with Title IX.
“I don’t think any school has ever had to fully comply with what Title IX needs, they just come up with some type of settlement. I mean, you’re familiar with the situation at [Quinnipiac],” said Duffy.
Back in 2009, a lawsuit was filed by members of the women’s volleyball team after Quinnipiac announced that it would eliminate the team in favor of competitive cheer, which since has been renamed acrobatics and tumbling. Quinnipiac ended up settling after the judge ruled competitive cheering to not be a sport and the school agreed to spend more money on facilities and equipment for women’s “sports of emphasis.”
Differences in finances for men’s and women’s sports, Title IX or not, have always been a problem.
“There is no clause in Title IX that says ‘except if one gender generates more revenue than the other,’” Andrew Zimbalist pointed out in a 2016 New York Times article.
A very good example of gender disparities in athletics is a comparison of the University Of Connecticut men’s and women’s basketball programs. The women’s basketball program at UCONN is one of the best, if not the best, women’s basketball team ever, winning four consecutive national titles from 2013 to 2016 and 11 altogether. The women’s program also owns the two longest win streaks, irrespective of gender, in college basketball history.
The men’s program has won four national titles total in its existence. Nevertheless, the men’s team still attracts about 2,000 more fans than the women’s program to every home game.
In the 2014-2015 season, the UCONN men’s basketball program averaged 10,687 fans at every home game. The women, on the other hand, averaged 8,216 fans per home game.
All together, in the 2016-2017 season, NCAA Division One women’s basketball had an average attendance of 1,538 per home game. NCAA Division One men’s basketball had an average of 4,633 fans in attendance per home game. The disparity is not lost on women athletes.
Graphic by Bill Ruocco
“It is obvious that there is a big difference in attendance between men’s and women’s sporting events,” said Mackenzie Merkel, a senior on the women’s track and field team at Quinnipiac.
Haldane compared the difference in interest in men’s and women’s athletics to the attitude of the restaurant industry.
“I look at sports as no different. Women are good and competent.. can make a mean stew, but it doesn’t come out of that five-star restaurant,” Haldane said.
Though the difference in attendance is glaring, the female athletes here have learned to focus on the task at hand rather than dwell on the negatives.
“We get a lot of support from the people that we care about,” Schussler said. “In my time here I have learned to not put a lot of emphasis on the outside support of the people that we don’t care about.”
Attorney Duffy believes that no matter how much we worry about attendance or financial attention, the problem is deeper with women’s athletics.
“All these things you’re talking about, we don’t pay as much attention, we don’t need a new stadium because of lack of attendance, is all putting the cart before the horse because if they actually supported them the way they supported men’s, it would change the culture and people would look at them the same way,” Duffy said.
This inequality is a problem that players say still bugs them. But some players say that hope is on the horizon for their beloved sport and women’s athletics in general.
“You can see the following grow, even how small it was, incrementally over the years,” said Tricia Fabbri, head coach of the Quinnipiac women’s basketball. “With the platform that social media has, it has allowed us to grow our fanbase … At each home game it has gotten better and better.”
Even locally the support has picked up, with someone noticing this billboard on 91 this past November.
Haldane believes that journalism is a great starting point to attack this problem.
“I think student journalism can help a lot, you create the news that’s fit to print,” said Haldane. “If women’s lives and stories and women’s sports gets printed, it sets a tone for what people are going to think is normal.”
Women athletes are waiting not only for steady attendance, but also the attention and support from their school that they think they deserve. Incremental growth in both attendance and support is key for women’s athletics at Quinnipiac, according to women’s athletes and coaches. It is on it’s way, but just at it’s own pace.
“There has definitely been a great improvement this year with getting the other sports event out there via Instagram,” Merkel said. “I just think its not much of an interest to the students who come out to those things because there isn’t as much hype around it … I hope [recognition] happens sooner rather than later but I do think it will take some time.”
