Quinnipiac – Page 17

Emotional support animals benefit Bobcats

By Tatyana Youssef

As mental health awareness expands in concurrence with millions of college students newly diagnosed each year, coping methods are reaching new heights.

Furry friends are welcome on campus-owned housing for student support. Known as emotional support animals, students and administration seem to be encouraging this experience for countless benefits of the everyday routine.

Quinnipiac senior Ally Foltiny runs around her yard behind Whitney Village with her puppy inspired by the adventurous character, Huck. The energetic golden retriever and Australian cattle dog mix is known for having a goofy, happy personality. Foltiny recalls the loss of her family dog led to the realization that, “an emotional support animal was the best way to decrease [her] anxiety at school.”

“I cannot talk enough about the benefits of having a support animal with me at school,” Foltiny said.

She first heard about this opportunity through on campus resources when she turned to them for guidance through a rough time. Her routine remains consistent, now taking on a new responsibility of raising a puppy.

“My dog, Huck, forces me to get up early every day, go on walks, and makes so much happier,” she said. “I have also become more social. We go to the dog park and interact with other dogs and owners.” Huck is her motivator to maintain an active, social lifestyle, simultaneously taking care of her and her puppy.

She admitted the first few months were hard, requiring a lot of maintenance when raising Huck. “I had to housebreak him, train him not to nip, bark, etc. It is a lot of work, if you are looking for a young animal, you have to dedicate a lot of time.”

The dedication seems worth it as the young pup continues to grow with Ally, keeping busy with completing her entrepreneurship degree.

Kerry Patton, the director of health and wellness at Quinnipiac, emphasizes the need for more improvement regarding mental health resources for students. Due to the severity, urgency, and commonality of mental health today, the field seems to be lacking in the quantity of resources.

According to Patton, the health center currently has 5.5 counselors, one part-time counselor who started in November, and a part-time psychiatrist. However, she adds that the International Association Counseling Standards recommends one full-time equivalent professional staff member to every 1,000 to 1,500 students. Patton revealed that the school needs one more full time counselor to meet this recommendation.

“This ratio is aspirational by nature, encouraging counseling centers to approximate the range in order to ensure an adequate number of staff members to meet the clinical needs of students,” Patton said.

In the meantime, opportunities like approval of emotional support animals aids in the process of fighting mental health disorders while the campus is in the process of meeting national demands.

Director of Residential Life Mark DeVilbiss explained the process of approval and protocol before officially enjoying the animals on campus. First, the student provides documentation that is reviewed by Matthew Cooper, Director of Student Accessibility. After the student meets with him, the emotional support animal may or may not be approved.

The next step runs through residential life, as Associate Director of Residential Life Melissa Karipidis meets with the student to go over guidelines and expectations of the Emotional Support Animal (ESA). This includes “providing documentation that the animal is healthy, has been vaccinated, and is licensed,” DeVilbiss said. After these two meetings are complete and approved, the animal may be allowed on campus.

Velvet Chestnut, a senior public relations major, lives at the Flats in North Haven, an apartment complex under Quinnipiac housing. She lives in a studio apartment with her puppy Kairo, a small white maltese yorkie mix. “Having my ESA has helped me get through hard academic periods, such as midterms and finals. It’s been great having him with me senior year,” she said.

She recalls seeing ESA ads on the internet before looking into Quinnipiac’s policy. “I wanted to know more about Quinnipiac’s exact process so I asked one of my friends who is an RA (Residential Assistant),” she said. “They were able to put me in contact with the person who oversees the process, Matt Cooper.”

Matt Cooper approves the qualification for having an animal on campus before the student meets with residential life. “Students have reported that they are calmer, more social, and feel a sense of responsibility for their ESA,” Cooper said.

This semester alone has brought in more than 20 new animals on campus. Cooper said,“since February 16, the office of student accessibility has approved 26 emotional support animals.” Although most get approved, some students do a trial run with their pups on campus to see if it will be a “great fit,” according to Cooper.

DeVilbiss agreed with the benefits of having an emotional support animal, especially in the college atmosphere where stress is heightened and evident.

“I think ESAs are a tremendous benefit to students who need them,” he said. “They can help students manage anxiety, depression, and other conditions. ESAs are wonderful if they can help a student who is otherwise struggling have a successful experience at QU.”

Junior psychology major Emma Alaimo recalls a dark time where she knew she needed help, but did not realize a support animal was the answer.

“A few years back I had a traumatic experience in which led me to have many panic attacks and high anxiety,” she said. Often finding herself in bed, keeping to herself and lacking the motivation for a social life, Emma began seeking counseling. The counseling helped, but she needed more.

She remembered hearing about the opportunity by seeing a campus pup the semester beforehand. After getting her mini australian shepherd Koda approved, she said she kept her smiling and gave her motivation. “Not only did she put me into a routine and made me more responsible, she made me more active and want to be outside more.”

Emma recommends taking advantage of this opportunity and following the regulations respectfully when it comes to training and keeping up with the maintenance of the animal. Through her experience, she said, “last semester was the best semester I had at Quinnipiac grade-wise and it was honestly all because of her.”

Cooper encourages more students to look into the opportunity of having an emotional support animal.

“They feel that they have better control of their daily life because their animals rely on the human to take care of them,” Cooper said.

The sense of responsibility seems to be the staple element that pushes the opportunity for emotional support animals on campus. Student experiences show a recurring theme of responsibility over the animal leading to motivation, eventually leading to a routinely lifestyle with structure.

Professor gives students a chance to produce a documentary in South Africa

By Grace Manthey

Film professor Liam O’Brien has an opportunity for students who don’t want to stay in the cold New England weather over winter break.

It’s a documentary production class that features a trip to South Africa. The trip will take place Dec. 29 to Jan. 18.

The class can count as FTM 355 for film students or COM 340, students can use as a UC credit.

Interested students should attend an information session on April 18 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in CCE 250 or they can schedule appointment.

A $1,500 deposit is due to the Quinnipiac Office of International Education by Sept. 7.

For more information contact O’Brien at lobrien@quinnipiac.edu.

Quinnipiac Student Government Association clears up confusion, plans to make changes

By Mary Rose Bevins

The confusion surrounding Quinnipiac University’s recent Student Government Association election isn’t isolated. And it seems to be affecting the entire organization.

In an interview with Q30, former SGA presidential candidate Joe Iasso said that without interest, he is worried about where SGA is headed.

“It’s very clear to me that student government is not something that people want to be a part of anymore and that’s really unfortunate,” he said.

Iasso said the cabinet member of SGA are made up almost entirely of those who ran for executive board positions and lost.

“We didn’t have that interest from people just to be the core of our organizations which are those class representatives. They’re the ones who are meeting with administrators every day and making sure that the best interest of students are being met. People just really don’t seem to care about that anymore.” Iasso said.

Part of the reason for the lack of engagement may be confusion when it comes to the bylaws, according to SGA advisor Erin Twomey.

To run for class cabinet, students must meet the following requirements:

Be a full-time undergraduate student
Have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher
Be in good conduct standing regarding the Quinnipiac University Student Handbook
Hold class affiliation as defined by the University
Attended an Election Committee information session
Submit a petition with signatures from 15 percent of their respective class
Submit a 100 word statement of purpose

However executive board position are slightly different. Eligible candidates must have a cumulative GPA of 2.75 or higher. They also must have been a student at Quinnipiac for three consecutive semesters, been in an elected position for two full semesters, and served on a committee or cabinet for three full semesters.

According to Twomey, these requirements create uncertainty around who is allowed to run for executive board positions.

“I think people zone in on one thing and don’t often think about all of the other five stipulations that are there,” she said.

Some students, like junior Jack Onofrio were concerned that not all candidates in last year’s election met the election requirements to run for executive board.

“The requirements are not consistently enforced. In the past we’ve had two members of last years committee, George Corde and Ali Munshi, they both ran for an e-board position despite only serving on an SGA committee for two semesters,” he said.

Austin Calvo, vice president of student experience, cleared up the confusion.

“The three semester thing is a huge misinterpretation,” Calvo said.

Matriculated students are full time students pursuing a degree. Calvo said that last year’s candidates started their SGA membership fall semester of their sophomore year and ran for an executive position in the spring. So they were running for an executive board position in their third semester of being a matriculated student. By the time the election process was over they were considered a three semester matriculated student and were qualified to run for executive board.

Twomey admits the bylaws and constitution are not easy to read but they are reviewed and re-written in some way every year to make it easier for students to understand.

“(SGA members) need to be as transparent as possible with the student body because the student body is the one that put them in the seat,” Twomey said.

According to Twomey, the structure SGA runs on is something that worked 20 years ago and doesn’t anymore. Members of SGA like Ryan Lynch are trying to make a change that will be effective for the next 10-20 years.

“You’re starting to see some of this change, this edition of the potential judicial branch, the change from representative to senators these are the things they want to change and they want move into an era with the new student government,” Twomey said.

Ryan Lynch started his membership in SGA his freshman year and wanted to change it to try to engage more students. His long term process includes people who are passionate about initiatives like sports, student organizations, school of business etc., having a significant role in SGA.

Lynch wants to “expand the organization make it larger and give people roles that they can be more excited and get behind, we have people who just take representative positions and they can only do so much with them,” Lynch said.

Lynch’s first step in this process is voting in the judicial branch. Lynch hopes it will combat the perceived lack of passion in the organization by making sure members are fulfilling their duties.

Lynch is hoping to see growth in the Student Government Organization and hopes it sticks with this process for a very long time.

President Elect, Ryan Hicks will make the transition to president this week.

Wake The Giant concert proves to be successful

Updated Sunday, April 15 to clarify Michael Ruta’s position.

By Grace Manthey

The 2018 Wake The Giant concert series was a success, despite some confusion with the ticketing process.

According to Michael Ruta, the director of publicity for the Student Programming Board, the original rule was if a student’s ticket didn’t match the name on their Q Card then they would have to to go the ticket office to get it changed.

After a while, those taking the tickets nixed that rule, but according to Ruta it wasn’t communicated very well to the long line outside.

However, once everyone got inside the concert was relatively smooth. Daya performed first, her more popular songs including “Hide Away” and “Sit Still, Look Pretty.” Then at around 9:30 p.m. Khalid arrived on stage wearing a Quinnipiac jersey with “Khalid” printed on the back. His backup dancers followed suit in bobcat t-shirts later in the show.

Senior Week committee releases housing forms

By Grace Manthey

It’s spring, and graduation ceremonies are fast approaching. At Quinnipiac University that means Senior Week is coming up even faster.

The Senior Week committee sent out an email Friday morning reminding students to attend a mandatory information session. The committee will remove any student who does not attend a session without a refund.

SENIORS!!! We are ready for you to attend one of our MANDATORY info sessions. You will be removed from the list if you do not attend ONE of these. See you there!

A post shared by QU SENIOR WEEK 2018 (@quseniorweek) on Mar 28, 2018 at 2:14pm PDT

The email also provided a link for the housing form. Seniors will be staying one night at Mohegan Sun Casino and one night in the freshman suite residence halls.

Only one person from each group is required to submit the form and must select a group of either two, four or eight people to stay with. Since the suites house a total of eight people the Senior Week committee will put any remaining groups of two or four together randomly.

Housing requests are due by 11:45 p.m. on April 24, 2018. For more information email SeniorWeek@qu.edu.

Quinnipiac will wait for new president before building new dorm

By Cliff Nadel

Quinnipiac University plans to wait until new President Judy Olian assumes her role as president before Quinnipiac’s board of trustees approves a final plan and funding strategy for building the new residence hall on Quinnipiac’s York Hill campus according to the Quinnipiac administration.

On March 27, the town of Hamden’s Zoning and Planning Department approved and granted Quinnipiac University’s special permit and site plan to build a new 220-bed senior residence hall on Quinnipiac’s York Hill Campus.

According to Hamden Town Planner Daniel Kops, Quinnipiac needs to accomplish several tasks before they can obtain the necessary permits to build a new residence hall.

“The first step is to revise the plans to make any changes required by the conditions of approval,” Kops said. “Then comply with any other conditions of approval that must be addressed prior to obtaining a Zoning Permit.”

After complying with the conditions of approval the Zoning and Planning Department can issue a zoning permit to the University.

“Once this is done, the University must obtain a building permit from the Building Department,” Kops said.

Kops believes because of the size and scale of a project, the whole permit process could take several weeks.

After filing all of the necessary permits, according to Kops, the University has five years to complete the project but can request a five-year extension. After the University’s permits are approved, it needs to obtain funding and hire a construction company before the project can start.

According to Kops, as long as Quinnipiac revises and follows the conditions and plans of the approval, there isn’t anything from the town’s point of view that could derail the project.

According to Quinnipiac’s Vice President of Facilities and Capital Planning Salvatore Filardi, the financial plans to build a new residence hall on York Hill won’t be finalized until new President Olian assumes her role as president of the University.

“Now that we have the town’s approval, the University is still required to get the final plan and funding strategy approved by the Board of Trustees,” Filardi said. “Given the timing and the cost of the project, I expect that such a decision will not be addressed until the new president takes office.”

After the project is approved to move forward, Filardi anticipates that the new residence hall will take about 18 months of construction to complete.

“Once the projected is approved to move forward, we will have a typical schedule of construction; starting in the spring and completing in the second summer, some 18 months later with students occupying that fall,” Filardi said.

Here are the conditions of approval that Quinnipiac has to follow in order to receive a zoning permit and be able to build a new residence hall

Connecticut teachers are unlikely to organize walkouts

By Sam Prevot

Students made headlines around the country for walking out and protesting for gun control in the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida school shooting. Now, teachers are protesting for better work conditions, higher wages, and fighting against budget cuts. These walkouts are becoming more and more widespread, leading to statewide school closures in some cases.

The question now is: will teachers in Connecticut walk out as well? The answer is, most likely not.

This movement began in March when West Virginia teachers went on strike and shut down every public school in the state. Those teachers’ demands included defeating the expansion of charter schools, fixing a health insurance crisis and pay raises. The teachers also wanted to stop a proposal that would eliminate seniority, meaning the state could replace older teachers with younger ones that could be paid less.

The situation in Kentucky, Oklahoma and Arizona is similar.

Kentucky teachers are walking out in protest of pension overhauls and are demanding better funding and working conditions. Arizona teachers are participating in “non-disruptive walk-in demonstrations” this week.

Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma signed a bill to provide $50 million more in funding for schools, increased teacher salaries and pay raises for support staff. However, this wasn’t enough to meet the teachers’ demands, and their walk out went on as planned. The teachers want the funding to improve conditions such as replacing decades old textbooks that are beginning to fall apart.

Teachers in Oklahoma are some of the lowest paid in the country, with kindergarten teachers making an average salary of $40,370 per year. Elementary school teachers in Arizona and West Virginia make an average of $42,730 and $45,520 respectively. Kentucky comes in a bit higher with an average salary of $52,420.

(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

On the other hand, Connecticut teachers are some of the highest paid in the country. An elementary school teacher makes an average salary of $76,740. The only state that pays teachers more is New York. There is the factor of cost of living, as it is higher in states like Connecticut and New York than in the Southern states.

According to USNews, Connecticut ranks 14th overall in education nationally, but ranks fifth nationally in PreK-12 education.

Professor Mordechai Gordon of the Quinnipiac School of Education says his students may not even be aware of these walkouts. However, the faculty are aware and according to Gordon, the professors at QU are very sympathetic to what the teachers in these states are going through.

“The school supplies were in very bad condition and teachers sometimes had to draw on their on personal funds to get supplies for their classes,” Gordon said. “And just in general the way teachers are treated in those states is very reprehensible. Our teacher candidates are hopefully going to go into situations where it’s much better.”

The QU School of Education works with many schools in the area and conditions there are “considerably better” according to Gordon. Teachers are getting raises, and are generally being treated better.

“We’re glad that they’re organized and were able to, at least in West Virginia, get some things changed in the right direction,” Gordon said.

There are currently no reports of walkouts or strikes for Connecticut teachers.

Teri Alves, a second grade teacher in Orange, Connecticut, does not expect teachers in her district to organize a walkout. She says she rarely spends much money out of pocket for classroom supplies and the district and Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) help meet her needs.

The PTA for Alves’ school gives teachers money to spend every summer, which is enough to get her through the school year. Her school also bought her a new classroom library this year when she made the switch from fourth to second grade.

Alves was surprised by the working conditions of other teachers around the country.

“When I saw some of the things on the news like those books falling apart, I’m like well I have some of those in my closet because they weren’t cleaned out from the other teachers, but I wouldn’t ever think of using them,” Alves said. “So if that’s what people really have to use as their teaching materials, that’s pretty sad. I’ve never had that experience at all.”

Alves’ school provides laptops for students, and she has a SmartBoard in her classroom. She also says there is little to complain about when it comes to her pension and healthcare plans. A former teacher in her district is now the president of the Connecticut Education Association union, and Alves says the union is strong when negotiating things like salaries and other work conditions in the teachers’ contract.

So when it comes to the question of Connecticut teachers striking in the future, Alves is confident in her response.

“No, not at all. I don’t see it happening.”

Quinnipiac approves virtual office hours policy

By Thamar Bailey

Starting this fall Quinnipiac professors will be able to hold office hours not in person, but through their screens.

According to media studies professor and Faculty Senate Chair Lisa Burns, a recent policy change will allow faculty members to hold office hours either in person, virtually or both. Professors will be able to hold virtual office hours via online communication platforms like Skype, Zoom or email. It’s really about “whatever best meets their students’ needs,” Burns said.

The amended policy will also allow for faculty to shift their office hours throughout the semester if needed.

“For example, a professor may not need to hold office hours during the first week of the semester,” Burns said. “But they might add extra office hours the week before an exam or a major project.”

The original policy called for each faculty member to hold at least one hour of office hours for each three credit course taught each semester. For a three credit course a professor would need to hold 15 office hours throughout the course of the semester.

Furthermore, office hours needed to be posted and remain on file within the faculty members’ school or college office, according to Annalisa Zinn, vice president for academic innovation and effectiveness.

While the quantity of office hours hasn’t changed, revisions were made to “accomodate and balance the needs of students, variability in the types of courses (on campus vs. online), the needs of faculty, scheduling, space opportunities and constraints for both students and faculty,” Zinn said.

Zinn said she believes faculty will have a positive reaction to the policy change, “as indicated by how it was well-received by the Faculty Senate.”

SGA announces executive board results after grievance investigation

By Thamar Bailey

The Quinnipiac University Student Government Association announced the complete 2018-2019 executive board Monday, four days after initially announcing grievances were filed resulting in an investigation that halted the announcement of the SGA president, vice president and vice president of finance.

In an email addressed to the Quinnipiac community, SGA Vice President for Public Relations Victoria Johnson said the grievances filed on election day were based on allegations of potential voter influence. In the consequent investigation SGA found the grievances unjustified.

“The combination of the grievance process, appeal proceedings, and an in-depth investigation of actual votes cast has now allowed the Election Committee to verify mathematically, without question, that the outcome of each position under review could not have been impacted by any potential influence,” Johnson said.

It’s still unclear who filed the grievances, though Johnson said the grievances can be filed anonymously.

The recently announced executive board positions are as follows:

President: Ryan Hicks

Vice President: Luke Ahearn

VP of Finance: John Khillah

Sexual assault awareness month programming pushing for change

By Grace Manthey

April is sexual assault awareness month. With the rise of the #MeToo movement and the number of high profile people accused of sexual misconduct, experts at Quinnipiac University feel a shift in awareness.

“(The faculty) have talked about feeling like there is a little bit of a wave and a push toward addressing and talking about these issues and acknowledging them and trying to change culture,” Courtney McKenna, the director of student affairs at QU, said.

But according to women’s studies professor Melissa Kaplan, the push is not enough.

“Women aren’t equal yet,” Kaplan said. “When women will feel equal is when women no longer fear rape.”

As the director of student affairs, McKenna sees herself as the overseer of the “care team,” which helps students who have concerns including those related to rape and sexual assault. She also organizes the online prevention programs students take at the beginning of their freshman year as well as all the sexual assault events on campus.

She said her trick to juggling so many responsibilities is to not go it alone.

“The goal is to find students and organizations and offices and programs on campus who are equally as interested in the topic and engage those folks to do the programs,” McKenna said. “Do events to bring awareness in the ways that make sense to their members.”

However, according to Kaplan, those events have a narrow audience and they are largely optional.

“When you make things that are optional you’re most likely going to be speaking to students who have been survivors or victims or know somebody who has,” Kaplans said. “Predominantly it’s only going to be students, or students that are told to go because of the courses that they are taking.”

McKenna agrees.

She said many classes in the college of arts and sciences like health science, psychology and sociology have higher participation in sexual assault awareness events. But more recently she has tried to expand that audience.

“I think some of the ways we need to move forward is looking at like, the school of business,” McKenna said. “Statistically it’s the school that has the most amount of men so we (need to) look statistically at those who may need to make sure they are aware of expectations, policies, how they can play a role to shift culture.”

The role of men in sexual assault awareness and feminism is something that Kaplan teaches in her women’s studies classes. She also feels like it’s not always talked about in the right way.

“Even the structure of consent is problematic because it is positioning women as kind of the gatekeeper, and puts the responsibility on women to say no. Rather than putting the responsibility on men to read women,” Kaplan said.

From McKenna’s point of view the issue of consent is one of the biggest issues surrounding sexual assault because many students coming to college don’t have any education about it before they move in.

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“We have have sex ed, but we don’t have consensual sex ed. We don’t have ‘how do you talk about what you want from a partner’ and ‘how do you know when you should engage in activities and when you shouldn’t’ and ‘what is a healthy dating relationship?’” she said.

One way the student affairs office can get information about the knowledge and behaviors of the incoming freshmen is through the AlcoholEdu and Haven programs. These are short online courses required by all students at the beginning of their freshman year.

“We have good data that shows even if some folks are just clicking through it and think its stupid that there is an increase in knowledge from before someone takes it and after someone takes it,” McKenna said. “We get good static data about each incoming class.”

For example, McKenna said she can find out that 30 percent of students in an incoming class are what would be considered binge drinkers before even coming to college, or that 15 percent have experienced some sort of sexual assault.

Through the company that puts out AlcoholEdu and Haven, the student affairs office is looking to roll out smaller, ongoing courses. McKenna said they wouldn’t be the “heavy lift” one that freshmen do, but it will give the office more data about the change over time.

According to Kaplan, this is essential because “we have to put pressure on everyone to end this kind of violence and this epidemic.”

Click here for more information about sexual assault awareness campus events.