Monday, Dec. 11 officially marks the beginning of finals week for Quinnipiac University students. While anxiety levels are running high as project deadlines, paper submissions and exam times quickly approach, students note it’s important to take a step back and laugh at the hilarity that ensues during this week that is notoriously rough for students.
Some seniors at Quinnipiac took time to reflect on their previous finals weeks in college and shared a few traumatic, embarrassing, yet funny memories with us.
Senior health science major Danielle Rattotti outside of the library.
Danielle Rattotti, a senior health science major, was in the middle of studying for her organic chemistry final when the bottom half of her Starbucks coffee cup completely broke off, spilling coffee all over her computer – and her notes.
“I spent a good two hours drying all of my stuff under the hand dryer in the bathroom,” Rattotti said. “After that didn’t work, I ran down Bobcat Way, with my computer open, back to my dorm room to try and back it up on my hard drive … in the middle of winter with a coat soaked in coffee that was now freezing cold.”
Senior health science major Jennifer Wisniewski even drew a picture of praying hands on one of her final exams and scribbled, “Jesus is the answer,” next to it in a last-ditch effort to salvage her physics grade.
Senior health science major Jen Wisniewski recalled her story in the library.
“The teacher hated me and always called me up to the board to do problems because I never knew how to do them,” Wisniewski said. “So, on the final, we had to draw a lever with tension and gravity or something, and I obviously had no idea how to do that. So, I drew a picture of Jesus with his hands in prayer form and wrote, ‘Jesus is the answer,’ basically saying my prayers for that final because I totally bombed it.’”
Wisniewski’s prayers were answered when she received a C-grade on the final, easily passing the rest of the course.
“Hey, maybe he felt bad for me and liked the drawing, and Jesus helped me out,” she said.
Samantha Masetti, yet another health science major seemingly plagued with bad luck during finals, described nearly missing one of her exams as “traumatic.”
Sam Masetti drinking coffee as she described almost missing her final exam.
“Every finals week I’m stressed, but this one was the worst,” Masetti said. “I got home from the library at 1 a.m. from studying for another class because I thought I had the whole next day to study since the exam wasn’t until 3. Well, guess what was at 12 p.m. and not at 3? My exam. So, I rushed to campus, couldn’t find the room, got lost, FaceTimed someone in my class for directions and sat down at my desk at 11:56 a.m. Horrible.”
Political science major Camillo Lemos may have had the worst luck of all when his car broke down on the way to his art history final, which he was already late for.
“I woke up at 9:30 a.m. Monday of finals week and was hanging out with my roommate Xavier. We started talking about whether or not I had many finals that week, which I thought started on Tuesday for me. I was wrong,” Lemos said. “So now it’s 9:45 a.m., and I’m barreling down the highway going 70 mph because my art history final started about an hour and a half ago. Then, my car breaks down because there was no oil in it.”
Lemos ended up leaving his car on the side of the highway with a note tucked under the windshield wiper reading, “please don’t tow this,” and then jumped into his roommate’s car and went to main campus.
“I arrived at 10:10 a.m. to discover I’m the last one in the room. My professor has me sit next to her to take it, and she knows I’m stressing. I had to take a two-and-a-half-hour final in 30 minutes,” Lemos said. “I almost cried.”
The holiday shopping season is in full swing with millions of people expected to participate in Cyber Monday.
According to the National Retail Federation, 69 percent of Americans – 164 million – planned on shopping during Thanksgiving weekend. About 78 million of those people plan on shopping on Cyber Monday.
Cyber Monday has been increasing in popularity in recent years. According to Adobe Analytics, it is expected to have the highest growth in revenue (16.5 percent since 2014) of the five-day major shopping weekend including Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Super Sunday and Cyber Monday. It is also predicted to have the highest revenue of the entire weekend with $6.6 billion. The day with the second highest revenue is Black Friday with $5 billion.
Cyber Monday, and the rest of the weekend’s popularity, stems from discounts and traditions. According to the NRF, 66 percent of Americans say they shop during this weekend because of the deals while 26 percent say they shop because they consider it a tradition.
For those who shop because of the deals, Cyber Monday has great discounts on toys. According to Adobe, the average discount for toys will be 19.1 percent. Meanwhile, Black Friday has better discounts on televisions, tablets, jewelry and appliances and Thanksgiving’s best deals are on computers, sporting goods, apparel and video games.
The National Retail Federation’s expectations for Thanksgiving weekend shopping show Cyber Monday as the second most popular day.
These deals are popular among most Americans, but they can be especially enticing to college students who do not have a lot of money.
“It’s great because I don’t have much money to spend on gifts for my family,” Julia Brown, a Quinnipiac sophomore said. “So, if I couldn’t get these kinds of deals, I wouldn’t be able to get them that much.”
The convenience of online shopping that Cyber Monday offers can also be very appealing.
“Black Friday is way too crazy for me,” Brown said. “The stores are always so nuts and crowded. It’s just so much easier for me to buy things online.”
But Black Friday is not limited to in-store shopping. Many people got their online shopping done on Friday as well.
“I’m not really shopping (on Cyber Monday) because I got all of it done on Friday,” David Rivera, a freshman, said. “I didn’t go to the mall or anything, though. I just did it all online.”
Rivera explained that the deals he sees on Black Friday and Cyber Monday are virtually the same.
“So, in that case, I’d rather just do all of the shopping before I have to come back to school,” Rivera said. “My Mondays are busy, so I don’t have much free time to shop, but I’m sure that won’t stop other students from shopping in class.”
Mental health awareness was the topic of discussion this past Monday night at Mind Body Soul — the second series of the Your Voice Our Quinnipiac events.
Student government organized the event and the Student Veteran Organization (SVO), Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA), and Quinnipiac’s new chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) all co-sponsored, with input from student health services as well.
“Stress relief is good for everyone, but especially right now preparing for the holidays … and preparing for finals … it can be very difficult to balance the academic goals and the personal goals,” said Kerry Patton, Director of Health and Wellness at Quinnipiac. “Managing and learning techniques on how to take care of yourself is really important.”
Patton also discussed with the audience the fact that mental illnesses are not always seen as equal to physical illnesses.
“If someone’s struggling with a certain medical diagnosis we tend to react to things a certain way, and if someone’s struggling with a psychiatric or mental [diagnosis] it seems like it’s different,” she said.
Tatyana Youssef, vice president for student experience, wanted the event to be a way to end the stigma.
“Wherever you’re at in life, mental health is real,” said Youssef. “It’s prevalent. It’s in our society. You know, in previous generations it’s always been there but it was taboo to talk about.”
But students were ready to talk about it. They got up in front of their peers and shared personal stories about their struggles.
Alex Hartman, a member of SVO and army veteran, shocked the audience with his story about his biggest failures in his life, the first being a suicide attempt.
“The first time I tried to kill myself I was 16,” he said.
Hartman described his method to hang himself, and his failed plan. He had tied a bed sheet to a ceiling fan, put it around his neck, and when he let go, the fan couldn’t hold his weight and he fell to the ground.
But it continued. Years later, in the army, Hartman made a second attempt – his “second biggest failure” as he describes it. He said the barrel of his gun was in his mouth, when his friend walked through the door and asked him to go play basketball outside.
“That was the hoop that saved my life,” Hartman said.
Jordan Atchley, president of SVO, also got up to speak.
“I found out my sister was killed in a drunk driving accident I was 12 years old,” he said. “We had just gotten off for Christmas break.”
Atchley explained that that day, he saw his parents “crumble” and he felt he had to be strong for them, so he internalized all of his pain and sadness in order to support them. But then, tragedy struck his family again.
“I was a sophomore in high school, my brother had just gotten back from Iraq, and they told us that he had liver cancer,” Atchley said. “Little did we know he had a year left to live. So when I was a junior in high school, I lost my brother.”
The two tragedies led him to engage in risky behavior, like racing motorcycles. He said he wasn’t trying to kill himself, but he didn’t think it’d be such a bad thing if it happened. Then, he joined the military, which he says taught him a lot about resilience, and allowed him to redirect his emotions towards something good.
Atchley is now studying to become a lawyer.
“One day I hope to change the laws that allowed the guy that killed my sister to be out of jail in three years,” Atchley said. “That’s the driving force behind me.”
Amanda Herbert, SVO Member and Air Force veteran, spoke about the importance of noticing lifestyle changes in yourself or those close to you, as it could be a sign of depression.
“You’ve been taking more naps. You’re just sleeping more in general but your sleep isn’t as good, so you’re sleeping more. And then you’re so tired that you need that candy bar or some kind of not really nutritious snack to get you through the next hour or the next class or the next thing,” Herbert said. “You start living in these one little hour time slots and forgetting that you have a body that you need to nourish so that your mind and everything else can follow through.”
According to Patton, student health services has seen about a 33% increase in the amount of students filling out intake forms for counseling appointments. She says the top three things students come to counseling for are anxiety, depression and relationship issues.
“I think it’s normal to feel stress every day,” Patton said. “Sometimes stress motivates us, sometimes anxiety motivates us. These are natural feelings that you’ll experience.”
Patton said the most important thing is being able to manage your stress at a healthy level so that it doesn’t overwhelm you.
“Yes you need to study a lot, you might need to prepare for a paper or an exam, but [you need] to also take that time for yourself, even if that time is ten minutes … to take care of yourself,” she said.
And while you’re taking care of yourself, don’t forget to do your part to help others too.
“Even the smallest little things that you do for other people can have a huge impact,” said Peter Chlebogiannis, president of Quinnipiac’s chapter of NAMI. “Even an extra second, an extra hello, an extra smile, an extra wave. A lot of us are going through a lot of hard stuff and the more we can be there for each other the better.”
Ever since dozens of women accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault six weeks ago, there has been a steady flow of new allegations against the men of Hollywood and beyond. Now, at least 25 high-profile men have been accused.
While the highly publicized allegations have been centered on the entertainment industry, sexual assault and harassment are highly pervasive in our entire society.
“It could be, like, endemic to the culture of Hollywood, and in some ways it is, except that it’s endemic to all cultures,” Jennifer Sacco, the director of Quinnipiac’s Women’s and Gender Studies program, said.
Victims of sexual harassment are not limited to actresses. According to a survey from 2015, 1 in 3 women has been sexually harassed at work.
“Virtually, every adult woman I know has been sexually harassed at work,” Sacco said.
That includes Sacco. She said she was sexually harassed while working at a department store when she was in her 20s.
These actions and comments can have many negative effects on the victims.
“They can cause serious anxiety which prevents us from doing our jobs, from feeling safe, from doing what we need to or want to, and generally from flourishing. And they are normalized,” Melissa Kaplan, a Quinnipiac professor who teaches English and women’s and gender studies, said. “A cat-caller is only scary at all because we don’t know when one might follow us home. And a guy who aggressively pushes for sex wouldn’t make us so queasy if we felt 100 percent sure he’d listen if we said no.”
To raise awareness about these issues, an online movement was started where thousands of women have used “#MeToo” to share their own stories about sexual assault and harassment. On Sunday, Nov. 12, the movement took to the streets of Hollywood for the #MeToo Survivors March. Hundreds of people joined in to show their support.
The #MeToo campaign and subsequent widespread discussion about sexual assault and harassment have allowed men to learn more about the issue.
“There are things to like and dislike about this #MeToo campaign, but I appreciate that it seems to be getting at a few basic things that I think are important for men—since they stand to benefit from a rape culture—to understand,” Kaplan said.
The movement has also had an educational effect on women.
Credit: Cosmopolitan
“Women are afraid to react because they don’t want to be told they’re overreacting,” Zara Khan, a Quinnipiac senior and president of Women Empowered, said. “I think the ‘Me Too’ movement is a great way to educate others on what is considered sexual harassment by being able to read these raw personal stories.”
The allegations themselves against men like Harvey Weinstein have also had a positive impact.
“I do like the fact that so many women came forward so quickly and included really prominent women” Sacco said. “I think that was helpful. I really do.”
However, the movement has not been all positive. In some ways, it has highlighted some deeper issues.
“I think it’s great that women are joining forces to support each other. However, it’s saddening how many women had to come forward in order for there to be consequences,” Khan said. “It shouldn’t be her word against his. We need to take these women seriously as soon as they come forward instead of sweeping this under the rug.”
Victims are often not believed and when they are, the focus is sometimes entirely on them.
“One of the more valid critiques of the #MeToo trend is that it is focused, as these conversations so often are, on the survivors, rather than the perpetrators and enablers; that it asks women to bear their pain instead of asking men for reflection and accountability,” Kaplan said.
Sacco also noted that this may be a flaw in the movement.
“Why do we ask more of the victims? You know, why do they have to bear themselves again in some way in public for people to take this seriously?” Sacco said.
The tendency to focus on the victims rather than the perpetrators is one of the many underlying issues of sexual assault and harassment.
“I think the biggest issue behind sexual assault (and) harassment is that the victim is often blamed,” Khan said. “That she shouldn’t have worn that skirt or shouldn’t have drank so much. That a woman should change the way she dresses and behaves because then she is ‘asking for it.’”
Kaplan says that gendered violence is a problem that stems from “systemic sexism.” This leads to women being silenced and bystanders not speaking up about the abuse they know is happening.
Credit: Cosmopolitan
“Women are taught to obscure the signs of our abuse, and our communities are taught to pretend they don’t know what’s really going on. Lie about our bruises. Claim we missed work because we had a cold. That we did poorly on an exam because we didn’t study,” Kaplan said. “Whether by pressuring women not to speak up in the first place or dismissing them when they do, the system insists that reports of gendered violence remain private rumor rather than public record.”
In order to combat this system, the #MeToo movement may be a good first step.
“Everyone needs to make this as vocal as possible because, collectively, maybe we could enforce some sort of change here,” Sacco said.
The key is that this movement is finally acknowledging the problem.
“Making radical change means acknowledging and confronting the injustices around us,” Kaplan said. “If we don’t acknowledge that something is a problem, we cannot transform it.”
A look into diversity, free speech and issues in between
By Ayah Galal
Devastating. Horrific. Shocking. These are some of the words members of the Quinnipiac community used to describe their reaction to the series of events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia over the summer.
Hundreds of white nationalists gathered on the University of Virginia campus to protest the removal of a confederate statue on Friday, Aug. 11. They held torches and chanted slogans like “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil.”
“I was actually really shocked,” said Mazel Genfi, president of the Quinnipiac chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “It was a moment of disbelief but then not surprised actually. I guess the country that we live in people actually feel comfortable to do things like that.”
Mazel Genfi, QU NAACP President
By the next morning, counter protesters clashed with protesters and events took a violent turn. A white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who lived in Charlottesville.
The series of events drew widespread attention across the nation and sparked conversation about America’s current racial climate.
Some activists, pundits and universities responded to the incident quickly, saying more conversations about white supremacy, racism and xenophobia need to occur.
Others argued universities should prioritize safety over freedom of expression. Racist incidents have certainly marred Quinnipiac over the years. It has been nearly three months now since the events in Charlottesville. How did Quinnipiac respond? Are conversations on race still happening? Should the university be doing more to address race relations?
Quinnipiac responds
Ten days after the Charlottesville incident, Quinnipiac Vice President and Provost Dr. Mark Thompson sent a memo to the university community.
In the email sent out on Aug. 21, he wrote, “The violence, hatred, bigotry and intolerance demonstrated by white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups in Charlottesville have no place in our world and certainly have no place within our university community. Acts of violence and hatred run counter to our values as a community, and each one of us has a responsibility to ensure that these despicable types of behavior do not occur here.”
He added that students will have the opportunity to participate in social justice and inclusion-related events throughout the year to deepen their “understanding and ability to learn from one another about various aspects of the world in which we live.”
A few days later Quinnipiac President John Lahey addressed the addressed the class of 2021. Each year Lahey welcomes the incoming freshman class during “Welcome Weekend” right before the semester starts. While President Lahey tends to avoid politics during his speeches and statements, this time it was different. He was quick to condemn the hatred and bigotry that was present in Charlottesville.
President Lahey discusses Charlottesville during an interview with Q30 Television
“I must say in light of recent events in Charlottesville it saddens me that in 2017 we still have to publicly and unequivocally condemn and state so clearly how unacceptable the views of white supremacists, Ku Klux Klan, neo-nazis [are]. Those views are simply not welcome here on the Quinnipiac campus,” President Lahey said to the freshman class. “Any behavior associated with any of these despicable kinds of beliefs and activities will not be tolerated on this campus.”
While President Lahey doesn’t consider what he said to be political, many were taken back by how direct and passionate his response was. In an interview with Q30 Television in September, President Lahey said he was “a little surprised by the reaction.” He thinks it’s because of the extent to which he discussed the incident and believes his address was “well-received.”
As students and faculty began settling in for the new semester, the Quinnipiac Center for Religion held an event titled “A Conversation on Charlottesville” on Sept. 5. The event was intended be an open forum for members of the Quinnipiac community to discuss their feelings and reactions to Charlottesville.
The incident especially hit home for Executive Director of University Religious Life Father Jordan Lenaghan. Lenaghan was a former Catholic chaplain at the University of Virginia.
“When I saw images, when I saw media coverage, when I saw news reports, when I saw photographs of places where I hung out with students, where I had worked, it hit me on a very visceral level,” Lenaghan, who helped organize the event said. “I have a job that involves words and I didn’t have words for what I saw.”
Breaking down President Trump’s response
During difficult times, presidents of the United States traditionally try to unite the nation. But at a moment where many Americans already felt divided, President Trump’s words did little to bring together the nation.
At a press conference in Trump Tower shortly after the incident, President Trump said, “I think there is blame on both sides.” Many at Quinnipiac were frustrated that he compared the violence perpetuated by white supremacists with the violence committed by counter protesters.
“I honestly believe President Trump is an absolute idiot,” Genfi said. “For him to say that says a lot about who he is and what he represents – which is basically white supremacy whether he likes it or not.”
But others at Quinnipiac did not consider his response problematic.
“He should have prefaced what he said by saying white supremacists have no place in this country,” Jeremy Wiss, President of the Quinnipiac College Republicans said. “But at the same time, both sides displayed some sort of hatred and violence; both sides showed the bad side of humanity.”
Wiss is Jewish and said the incident hit home because his great-grandparents fled persecution in Germany and Poland. While he says the situation was upsetting, Wiss believes Confederate statues should stay up so that history is not erased.
Jeremy Wiss, President of Quinnipiac College Republicans
“I can see why they continue to perpetuate issues because it is a big deal,” Wiss said.
Is hate speech free speech?
The national conversation surrounding freedom of speech intensified after white nationalists chanted slogans like “white lives matter” and “you will not replace us,” at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
But is hate speech actually protected under the First Amendment? The answer is yes.
“A lot of people think that hate speech is given no First Amendment protection,” Kearston Wesner, assistant professor of media studies said.
Kearston Wesner teaching a Communications Law and Policy course
Political speech especially enjoys careful protection under the First Amendment. Hate speech is difficult to define and banning speech because some view it as hate speech would be unconstitutional.
“If we start going around banning speech we dislike, usually what happens is the law that we build … tends to be applied in a broader sense against the people we were initially hoping to protect,” Wesner, who teaches Communications Law and Policy, said.
There is an exception, however. If hate speech contains incitement – an imminent threat of violence – that speech is not protected by the First Amendment.
Additionally, private universities can restrict speech. For example, Quinnipiac could choose to not allow controversial speakers like Milo Yiannopoulos or Richard Spencer on campus.
“Private universities can build their own rules and they can restrict speech how they want to,” Wesner added.
While the chances of extremely controversial speakers coming to Quinnipiac are not high, Wesner said, “It gets a lot greyer how much the university could get in and restrict that [speech] because it has a lot to do with whether it’s a university sponsored organization or an independent organization.”
When asked how Quinnipiac would respond if a student organization on campus wanted to bring a controversial speaker like Richard Spencer or Milo Yiannopoulos to speak, administration did not answer.
Confronting hate
Even before the Charlottesville incident in August, students and faculty have often discussed concerns related to race and diversity at Quinnipiac.
A racially insensitive Snapchat taken by a former Quinnipiac student
In September 2016, a Quinnipiac student posted a racially insensitive photograph and caption mocking the Black Lives Matter movement to Snapchat. The photograph went viral and sparked outrage not just at Quinnipiac, but in other parts of the country as well after large outlets like the New York Daily News picked up the story.
Other incidents such as swastika graffiti, caricatures of of people’s racial identity and use of derogatory terms have plagued Quinnipiac. Student Affairs takes these incidents seriously and has an established a “Bias, Harassment and Discrimination Policy” in the Quinnipiac Undergraduate Student Handbook.
“I would say the majority of the incidents hands down are in the first-year areas without a doubt,” Megan Buda, Director of Student Conduct said. “Traditionally if a student is found responsible for a violation of our bias-related policy there’s some form of removal, whether that’s from housing or separation from the institution.”
The Bias, Harassment and Discrimination Policy in the Undergraduate Student Handbook
The most common type of bias-related incident at Quinnipiac is offensive graffiti, Buda added. While displaying a Confederate flag is not a policy violation, Student Affairs understands that such a display could offend some people on campus, and tries to have constructive conversations with students who choose to do so.
Hate crimes are defined differently from bias-related incidents and the standard for a hate crime is higher since it’s defined criminally.
Screenshot of the Quinnipiac Annual Security report
According to Quinnipiac’s Annual Security Report, there were two hate crimes in 2016, three hate crimes in 2015 and four hate crimes in 2014. The report does not specify the nature of the incidents.
In June 2017, the Connecticut state legislature passed one of the strongest hate-crime bills in the nation. Punishment for hate crimes in the state once was a misdemeanor but the new law treats hate crimes as a felony.
While the Ku Klux Klan has had a presence within the state of Connecticut, the threat of its extreme beliefs is not high, according to Andy Friedland, Assistant Regional Director for the Connecticut Anti-Defamation League.
“Often these days we’ll see an individual print-off flyers from the KKK website, leading people to think there is an active branch of the Klan in their town, which is not true in the state of Connecticut today,” Friedland said.
What is Quinnipiac doing to address race relations on campus?
Especially after the Snapchat incident at Quinnipiac, departments ranging from Student Affairs to Cultural and Global Engagement have been organizing discussions, lectures and even Netflix series screenings to address topics related to race and diversity.
Quinnipiac Chief Diversity Officer Diane Ariza says that race-related incidents like Charlottesville have stirred up a lot of conversation.
“I think that’s healthy because it’s making us not too comfortable of where we’re at in the world,” Ariza said.
In September 2013 the Inclusion, Multiculturalism, and Globalism in Education (IMaGinE) strategic plan was created to help Quinnipiac become “a more inclusive, multicultural and diverse campus community.”
Some IMaGinE events planned for the Fall semester
Ariza, along with the help of the IMaGinE Advisory Board, organizes events that foster discussion of diversity in the Quinnipiac community. Events include “A Place at the Table” and “Circle of Perspectives” discussions.
A Place at the Table is a dialogue series that seeks to recreate an after-dinner atmosphere to encourage informal conversations about issues related to social justice and current events. Circle of Perspectives is a series of nonpartisan group discussions involving critical thinking about diversity and social inequalities.
“I think educating is what we’ve decided our department has decided to do with the social issues,” Ariza said.
Student Affairs is also taking a similar approach. Megan Buda and Mark DeVilbiss, co-chairs of the Student Affairs Diversity and Inclusion Committee, say the committee is dedicated to celebrating diversity and facilitating conversations on race and inclusion. The committee has representation from the Department of Cultural and Global Engagement, Residential Life, Counseling Services, Student Government Association Religious Life and Community Service.
The Diversity and Inclusion Committee started hosting screenings of episodes from the Netflix series “Dear White People,” followed by a discussion.
Dates Student Affairs is screening episodes of “Dear White People”
“It fueled a very thorough discussion of everything, from what it means to be white to what it means to be a person of color on a white campus,” Buda said.
The committee plans to show more episodes of the series during the semester in hopes of facilitating more conversations.
“We want to be able to help people understand and know how to talk about issues of inclusion and diversity, whether that’s religious or racial or ethnic,” Director of Residential Life Mark DeVilbiss said. “I’m proud to be part of the efforts that are happening campus-wide whether it’s in the classroom or something DCGE is doing, or any group on campus.”
Dr. Thompson also announced plans for establishing a new curriculum with more diversity-related courses. Two intercultural responsibility and citizenship courses will be mandatory for future students.
Opening ceremony of the multicultural suite in the Carl Hansen Student Center
Last semester, the Multicultural Suite – a space for culture and identity based organizations – opened in the Carl Hansen Student Center.
Quinnipiac is also hosting a one-day conference on social justice and civic engagement titled “Creating Space: Solidarity, Dialogue, Social Justice, Opportunity.” Director of Community Service Vincent Contrucci says the purpose of the conference is to provide students from across New England with a space for dialogue surrounding social justice related issues.
Additionally, 21 percent of the current freshman class identify as students of color, which makes the first-year class the most diverse in Quinnipiac history.
What still needs to be done
Last semester, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and the Department of Cultural and Global Engagement engaged MRW Consulting Group International LLC to help with an assessment of Quinnipiac’s campus climate and help the university identify ways to improve the attitudes, standards and behaviors of the university community.
A representative from MRW Consulting Group discusses findings from the campus climate study during a university town hall.
MRW held focus groups with 134 students over the course of the Spring 2017 semester. The firm interviewed 15 affinity groups including the Quinnipiac NAACP, Latino Cultural Society, Gender Sexuality Alliance and Greek Life. The consulting firm compiled a 51-page report and found areas where Quinnipiac can improve its campus climate, as well as suggestions on how to do so.
Thompson organized a town hall-style event in the Mount Carmel Auditorium on Oct. 3 during which MRW Consulting Group shared the findings from the campus climate study, suggested courses of action and answered questions from the audience.
The report acknowledged the progress the university has been making, but also pointed out areas where there could be more improvement.
The study found that many students felt that more could be done to recruit higher numbers of faculty, staff and students of color. The study also found that it would be helpful to train faculty members to be more comfortable having difficult conversations they may need to have with students.
Many minorities in the focus groups described how uncomfortable they are when asked to represent an entire group in classes. The study also found that Quinnipiac can improve the campus climate by increasing the number of minority Greek organizations on campus.
The firm also suggested that Quinnipiac should “leverage campus commitment by getting everyone involved in solutions.” Many students from the focus groups also emphasized the need to integrate diversity, inclusion and multiculturalism into the core curriculum.
Quinnipiac administrators recognize lots of work needs to be done and they plan to continue to facilitating conversations on diversity and race in an effort to make Quinnipiac more inclusive.
But some students think more can be done to address race relations on campus and make minorities feel more comfortable at Quinnipiac.
“In my honest opinion, I do see that they’re trying, but not trying hard enough,” said Genfi, the QU NAACP president. “I feel like if they were trying hard enough, certain things wouldn’t have happened.”
She believes the university is taking the right steps, but that Quinnipiac should be more proactive. Genfi also thinks that students at Quinnipiac are becoming more comfortable discussing race than they were four years ago.
“People are more open to being educated and stepping out of that Quinnipiac bubble, whereas four years ago that would have never had happened,” Genfi added.
The sports center on York Hill has been going through some name changes over the past few months. This past weekend, Quinnipiac unveiled the new name for the hockey arena and the men’s ice hockey locker room.
The ice hockey arena was renamed after Frank Perrotti Jr., who passed away on December 10, 2016. Perotti is said to have been a loyal and devoted fan to the program, showing a lot of support over the years. Perrotti was a Hamden resident and also served his country in the U.S. Army.
In an article published by the Quinnipiac Chronicle, Donald Weinbach, the president of Development and Alumni Affairs, noted that Perotti was a “huge benefactor to the university.”
Frank Perrotti Jr.
Source: Legacy.com
High Points Solution was the sponsor and had naming rights over the arena after they agreed to donate $1 million to Quinnipiac for the next five seasons. The contract was not renewed for this year.
The men’s ice hockey suite, also known as the locker room, was renamed after TJ Baudanza, who was important to Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey and the program’s growth.
TJ Baudanza
Source: Chapman Cole & Gleason
Baudanza was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2011 and passed away in 2015. Baudanza’s father, Tony Baudanza, requested the program rename the team’s suite in his son’s memory.
The family had a lot of support behind them. Numerous people and some of Baudanza’s close friends came to honor his name and memory during the ceremony and suite reveal.
In an article written by Jamie Deloma, the associate director of social media at Quinnipiac, Baudanza’s father said, “We feel so honored to have his name there.”
Baudanza graduated from Quinnipiac in 2006 with a business degree in entrepreneurial studies. After he graduated, he contributed to the making of what we once knew as the TD Bank Sports Center.
Earlier this year, it was announced that TD Bank would no longer be the sponsor of the TD Bank Sports Center. The partnership between Quinnipiac and TD Bank began in 2007, but ended after the bank chose not to renew its contract.
Weinbach told the Quinnipiac Chronicle that for 14 months Quinnipiac had been “aggressively looking for either TD Bank to renew or for another corporate entity to put their name on the arenas.”
A lot of growth is still in the works for the rest of the sports teams and facilities at Quinnipiac, mainly on the Mount Carmel campus. Weinbach noted that the university is already pursuing some companies and individuals to put their names on the field hockey and soccer/lacrosse venues.
In March, the school signed an official partnership with Adidas. With newly updated facilities and Adidas supplying the school’s athletic program’s gear, there is an expectation that the teams will now be taken seriously by big-time schools. It’s all about growth and exposure for Quinnipiac.
The 2017 Atlantic hurricaneseason has already proven to be extremely active and extremely dangerous. So far this year there have been 15 storms, 10 hurricanes and six major hurricanes (category 3 or stronger). These weather systems have resulted in more than 400 deaths, and more than $188 billion in damages. Connecticut has been spared the worst, but there is still a month to go in the season.
Connecticut’s coastline (photo via Google Earth)
On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy tested the limits of Connecticut’s emergency preparedness programs. According to the National Weather Service, Sandy was a “worse-case scenario for storm surge for coastal regions.” By the time Sandy got to New Jersey, it was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, but the storm surge hit Connecticut right at high tide, causing massive amounts of flooding.
The Tropical Cyclone Report created by the National Hurricane Center reports that there was storm surge over nine feet in New Haven, resulting in floodwaters as high as six feet above ground level. Approximately 3,000 homes were damaged, and the state sustained more than $300 million in damages.
Five years later, is the state of Connecticut ready for another hurricane… or not?
Rick Fontana, Deputy Director of Emergency Operations – New Haven
“Our biggest fear in the city of New Haven is a hurricane,” says Rick Fontana, Deputy Director of Emergency Operations in New Haven. “It’s number one. It really is. We’re on the coast, and I think we’re pretty resilient, but when storm surge hits … that becomes a very significant issue.”
In the event of a hurricane, Fontana would work to develop strategies that will lessen the impact of a storm, plan and prepare for different types of storms, and help with the response to and recovery from a storm.
Fontana also serves as one of five regional coordinators in the state for emergency management. His job there is to communicate with the 30 towns in Connecticut’s Region 2 throughout an emergency, and relay information up to the state coordinators.
Quinnipiac’s Plan for Emergencies
Quinnipiac University, located in Hamden, Connecticut, falls under Region 2. Edgar Rodriguez is the chief of Public Safety and is also co-captain of the emergency management team at Quinnipiac. The team is made up of about a dozen members from various university departments, including public safety, facilities, health services, and academics. Rodriguez says the team has extensive plans when it comes to storms.
“We’ve come up with an emergency evacuation plan and we talk about if there’s a hurricane or a storm coming, what are we doing, how are we preparing for it,” Rodriguez says, adding that although the plans haven’t been approved by the state, they are still important to have.
When a storm comes, those plans get put into action.
The team begins a 24-hour-to-landfall. Members track the storm, gather information from the state and submit that information to Quinnipiac President John Lahey and Provost Mark Thompson, who ultimately decide whether students should stay at school or be sent home.
Once that decision is made, the emergency management team starts prepping all departments for landfall. Quinnipiac’s emergency management team only goes through the regional coordinators for assistance if it’s a minor, isolated emergency – such as power outages on one specific campus. In the case of an event as major as a hurricane, the protocol is to bypass the region and work directly with the state.
“The rule of thumb is every town or city should be able to sustain themselves for 72 hours,” Rodriguez says, explaining that Quinnipiac acts as its own sort of town for those 72 hours after landfall, with the emergency management team in charge. “Then after that, you start getting assistance from the state. But the entire time that’s happening, you’re communicating back and forth with the state.”
All the information goes up to the state emergency operations center in Hartford, is organized and then is sent out to the public.
“Every hour [the state is] sending us an update on the storm and we take that update and send it to everybody,” says Rodriguez. He feels that this system of organizing the information is a good way to keep consistency and keep everybody on the same page at a time when there could be a lot going on at once.
A building-Block Approach
Dan McElhinney, federal preparedness coordinator and national preparedness division director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), explains that everyone takes a building-block approach for providing and receiving assistance after 72 hours.
“At some point [the town] may have to bring in mutual aid from surrounding communities,” McElhinney says. “When the mutual aid has been exhausted, they’ll ask for county level assistance, then they go to the state … then the state will declare a state of emergency. The governor then gets special powers to extend additional dollars to direct other state agencies to assist the local community. When the state no longer has the capacity, the governor will ask the president for an emergency or major disaster declaration. That’s when FEMA gets involved.”
FEMA’s regions (photo via FEMA.gov)
FEMA is divided into 10 regions, and McElhinney is in charge of FEMA Region 1, which includes all New England states. He says although FEMA can respond in numbers that would outweigh the state help 100-to-1, they are there to support, not to supplant.
“Basically under the Stafford Act, we pretty much have tasking authority over all the agencies and departments to assist the state in response and recovery,” McElhinney says. “We provide a lot of technical assistance, but we are not there to take over.”
Mandatory training
Not only does FEMA provide assistance in the aftermath, but it also provides training services. According to the Quinnipiac website, those who are on the emergency management team have to complete FEMA’s National Incident Management System training. This training is similar to the statewide Emergency Preparedness and Planning Initiative training exercises.
Map of Hurricane Maria on the monitor in the New Haven EOC
“The state of Connecticut has gotten very aggressive on keeping everyone prepared,” Rodriguez says. “Every year in October or November we do a drill. It’s mandatory for every town and every city through the state of Connecticut and the last few years have been some type of a hurricane.”
During the two-day statewide drill, state officials provide updates as if there were a real hurricane approaching. The state sends out maps of the storm and asks participants to respond to ongoing situations.
“You just lost all power in your town, what are you doing? You’ve got multiple trees that are down, what are you doing? Are you opening up a shelter? How are you transporting people? How much help do you have? Is the fire department on standby? And you have to keep reporting back and forth,” Rodriguez says.
Emergency operations center – New Haven
The exercises are meant to be intense, but they’re also meant to replicate a real-life situation so that if and when a hurricane does hit, everyone is prepared. And apparently, you can never be too prepared.
“When a hurricane strikes, people kind of become complacent and never think it’s going to be as bad as it is. We’ve been fortunate, but … our departments on the preparedness level always scale one level higher than we normally would,” says Fontana. “We’re always prepared but we always prepare above and beyond because it’s easier for us to scale back than it is to scale up in the middle of a crisis.”
The training drills are mandatory for cities and towns that want to receive grant money in order to build resiliency in places along the shorelines or rebuild after a weather event occurs.
coastal resiliency and innovative thinking
Giovanni Zinn, city engineer – New Haven (photo via Yale.edu)
Giovanni Zinn, an engineer for the City of New Haven, explains why that grant money is so important.
“There’s a lot more land now and it’s low lying land,” he says. “In the large storms we face two major threats: coastal storm surge, where water is piling up in the harbor and coming up the rivers, and large rain events of six, seven, eight, nine, 10 inches in a short period of time. Where does the water go? When you get both at the same time, you have a particularly bad problem. And there’s no getting around the laws of physics. There are certain situations where you can’t drain the city.”
Zinn says that coastal protection methods — seawalls, living shorelines and storm surge barriers that are employed in some areas of the state — are “extremely expensive” and put financial pressure on local communities. He also said he thinks that those preventative measures are “not really a priority” and the long-term thinking tends to be put on the back burner.
But Guilford town planner George Kral says that hard infrastructure like a seawall is actually discouraged by the state of Connecticut.
“The view is that it doesn’t really solve the problem, it just pushes the problem from one place to another,” Kral says, adding that if anything, the goal is to implement green infrastructure instead.
Towns like Guilford have already completed major projects to raise the lowest-lying roads above flood level, as part of the town’s coastal resiliency plan. According to the plan, “coastal resilience is the ability to resist, absorb, recover from, or adapt to coastal hazards such as sea level rise, increased flooding, and more frequent and intense storm surges.” Kral says the plan has two goals: to educate the public on the the importance of coastal resilience, and to suggest actions local governments could take to make themselves more resilient.
And Guilford isn’t the only place thinking about preventative measures.
David Kooris, Director of the Rebuild by Design and National Disaster Resilience programs (photo via CT.gov)
David Kooris, the Director of the Rebuild By Design and National Disaster Resilience programs for the state Department of Housing, says that after Hurricane Sandy, the federal government reserved about a billion dollars in relief funding to be “competitively awarded to places that demonstrated a new way of recovery that better positioned them to be more resilient for future disasters.”
In 2012, the state of Connecticut had already received $160 million in federal disaster relief money, and was looking for more from the department of housing’s two competitions.
“Teams worked over the course of a few months and put together a proposal to the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and to a jury of architects and urban planners to compete for portions of the discretionary funds,” Kooris says about the international Rebuild by Design program. “Seven out of the 10 were awarded funding – the largest being lower Manhattan at $330 million, and the smallest being Bridgeport and the State of Connecticut with $10 million.”
Based on the success of that first program, Kooris says HUD took another chunk of the Sandy money and created a new competition — this time at the national level — which became the National Disaster Resilience program. There were 68 eligible government entities (states, cities and counties) that could enter the competition, and 13 were awarded funding at the end – Connecticut coming in 9th place with $54 million.
Kooris says the purpose of competitively divvying the money up was to “move beyond the standard recovery funding through HUD and FEMA, which more than anything else is just rebuilding.” The programs forced cities and towns to work on disaster prevention, rather than disaster recovery.
“Rarely you get the type of project that is new infrastructure – not repairing what was damaged – and do so in a way that explicitly addresses social and economic vulnerabilities in addition to environmental vulnerabilities,” Kooris says.
Connecticut’s plan involved combining “grey and green approaches” as Kooris puts it, by using “traditional, hard engineered solutions combined with natural solutions that mimic the functions of the environment.” He says that the state is planning to raise roads, build berms and add other green infrastructure to mitigate flooding in Bridgeport, in addition to pinpointing other coastal locations with the greatest number of critical facilities — power plants, roads, hospitals, wastewater treatment — and putting the majority of the investments into protecting those places.
where connecticut stands now
Since Sandy, officials have had five years to revise and strengthen emergency weather response plans.
“We have developed an emergency operation plan that’s worked on on a daily basis,” Fontana says. “Our primary goals … are preparing our residents, making sure that they’re prepared for any type of a disaster and making sure our infrastructure is protected.”
If another hurricane hit tomorrow, there are mixed feelings on whether Connecticut would be ready.
“If it were some kind of extreme storm like a category 5, that is a whole ‘nother ball game. The impact would be severe,” Kral says about the town of Guilford. “Hopefully we’ve done a little better job in terms of planning, but that remains to be seen I guess. If we had 50 inches of rain, we’d have a lot of problems.”
Kooris acknowledges there are still some things that need to be worked on, but for the most part, he says he is “confident that we have implemented targeted infrastructure projects … that reduce risk from future storms.”
As far as Quinnipiac goes, Rodriguez admits “you’re never going to be 100 percent” prepared, but he is confident that the annual mandatory state training has everyone as prepared as they can be to respond.
And in New Haven, Fontana recognizes that a category 3 hurricane “would be devastation to the entire coast” but he is confident in his department, which he says “works every day” and “works hard.”
“We prepare all the time. We plan all the time. We don’t respond all the time, and we don’t recover all the time, but we’re confident that we have the necessary strategies in place to handle a hurricane,” Fontana says.
Adding to his confidence is the fact that FEMA recently awarded the city of New Haven a class 7 rating for flood preparedness and recovery – the highest rating available. Having this rating allows homes in the designated 100-year flood zone to get a 15 percent discount on flood insurance. “So I think that puts it in a nutshell.”
The most important thing through it all? Keeping the lines of communication open, Fontana says, at all times.
“Consistent, timely, good information. I always say, ‘Be first, be right.’”
If the reports are true, then Quinnipiac’s men’s basketball’s new head coach is also the school’s highest-paid head coach…and he’s never been a head coach.
However, Baker Dunleavy, 35, does have the background of a basketball head coach. His father, Mike Sr., played in the NBA for 11 years and was also an NBA head coach for 17 years, spending two of those years as the Los Angeles Lakers head coach. He’s now the head coach at Tulane University.
“I was going to (my dad’s) practices watching the players, watching their footwork, watching them go through drills and trying to play them one-on-one after practice,” Dunleavy said. “But I wasn’t watching the coaching, the teaching, the little things that right now I wish I had access to. But just being around it, I think was a privilege and helped me a ton.”
Dunleavy’s brother, Mike Jr., is a 15-year NBA veteran that’s played for six teams.
Dunleavy was good enough to play basketball at the Division-I level. In fact, he played for Villanova University, one of the premier teams in college basketball from 2003-06. Even though he only played in 28 games in this three-year career, former teammate Mike Nardi realized the importance Dunleavy had to the team.
“Within his role as one of the guys coming off the bench, (Dunleavy) always knew what we were doing as a team,” Nardi said. He always knew what the coaching staff was looking for. He did a great job at pushing guys at practice…He knew what we were doing. Really good guy off the court. Smart, intelligent and great locker room leadership.”
Dunleavy didn’t have the same talent that his father and brother had to make it into the NBA, so he left basketball after graduation to work at Merrill Lynch. That only lasted until 2010, when he returned to his alma mater to work for his college head coach, Jay Wright, as the program’s director of basketball operations. After working his way up the program’s totem pole for a few years, Dunleavy became Wright’s right-hand man in 2013 when he was named the team’s associate head coach.
“Just the way our staff is and what coach Wright wants us to be is everyone pretty much has their hands on everything,” Nardi, who is now in his third-year on the coaching staff at Villanova, said on Dunleavy’s rise in the program. “Honestly, (Dunleavy’s) pedigree and his basketball-mind, he’s just very intelligent and knows the game very well. He has a calm demeanor about him that I think a lot of time helped coach Wright. You need someone that’s managing the game and helping you and see where the players heads are at.”
In his four years as associate head coach, Dunleavy’s Wildcats went 129-17 (.883) overall and 63-9 (.875) in Big East play. Dunleavy’s tenure as the Villanova associate head coach can be defined by one play. In 2016, the Wildcats won the national championship as Kris Jenkins made a three-pointer at the buzzer. The play is seen as one of the most iconic in college basketball history, if not sports history.
Dunleavy had a significant impact on the title, according to Nardi.
“I think (Dunleavy) was a great backbone for coach Wright and someone that he could always go to whether it be player relationships, recruiting, X’s and O’s, anything off the court with our guys,” Nardi said. “Baker was involved with everything, That’s why he’s where’s he’s at today. He was very prepared for this opportunity and he’s ready for it.”
On March 7, Quinnipiac relieved its 10-year men’s basketball head coach Tom Moore after the team went 10-21 in the 2016-17 season. Some of the early candidates for the job were coaches that had Quinnipiac ties like Iona assistant coach Jared Grasso, who played and coached for the Bobcats, and Southern Connecticut State head coach Scott Burrell, who was an assistant coach for the Bobcats for eight years.
However, DHR International, the search firm hired by Quinnipiac for the hiring process, keyed in on Dunleavy a couple of weeks after the national search began.
“I’d never seen the school, but I knew it had a really good reputation in terms of facilities. And that’s certainly the case,” Dunleavy said. “I knew it was a really good academic school, an up-and-coming academic school that was exploding in the northeast.”
“It’s never one thing. Just like a player looking to commit to a school, coaching’s the same way. You want to find the right fit,” Dunleavy said. “The environment that I was used to was a really well-rounded place…I thought that on the surface was a fit. Came to school, saw the place and was blown away but what it looked like…then by far the most important thing meeting the athletic director Greg Amodio and meeting Dr. (John L.) Lahey the president, and then from there on and continuing to meet other coaches and administrators.”
And if Dunleavy’s as good as advertised, then Quinnipiac is lucky to have him as multiple other schools were looking to hire him, according to Nardi, who is also a close friend of his.
“I think we all knew that day was coming much sooner than later,” Nardi said. “He was just waiting for the right fit and waiting for a job that he thought he could thrive in and be successful…Not to say that those other programs weren’t good positions or spots, but Baker just didn’t feel that at the time that was the right move for him.”
In his two interviews with the school, Dunleavy discussed how to run the program and how it can take the next step.
“Now that we’re here, the next step is establishing an identity,” Dunleavy said. “My eventual goal for this program is to be a perennial contender in the MAAC. That’s the end-goal. You can’t get there right away. My job right now is to establish a culture, an identity, a style of play, recruit and develop the players I have right now and make them the best they can be.”
In establishing the identity of his team, Dunleavy wants the Bobcats to do the simple things really well.
“We talk about playing really hard first and just being an effort team. I think every team in the country talks about that, but who commits to it? And we want to be a team that plays together,” Dunleavy said.
The men’s basketball team is coming off of its third-straight losing season in conference play. To add to this, the team lost its top-two scorers from last season in Mikey Dixon and Peter Kiss due to transfer after Dunleavy was hired as the head coach. The team also lost five other players due to graduation or transfer.
It’s clear that the school wants Dunleavy to make the NCAA Tournament after Moore failed to do it in his 10-years at Quinnipiac. But both sides aren’t expecting that result to come right away.
Only time will tell if Quinnipiac managed its wealth properly in the former Merrill Lynch employee.
As the world struggles to wean itself off of fossil fuels, the town of Hamden is taking the initiative to try and go green in a new event.
Photo from Town of Hamden Facebook
On Saturday, November 4, Hamden will hold its first-ever “Environmental Services Day.” The event is being held to encourage people to be more eco-friendly with food trucks, free electronics recycling, paper shredding, and a chance to learn about the benefits of renewable solar energy.
Haley Starvaggi, Hamden’s Solid Waste & Recycling Coordinator, said that she was inspired to address environmental concerns after many residents wanted to find an area to shred mass amounts of paper.
The contents of the event, such as hiring an outside company to shred large quantities of paper, were originally planned to be included in the farmer’s market held earlier in the year. When that did not pan out, this snowballed into an event that could educate the town about ways they could do their part in environmental conservation.
“The focus of the event is two things. It’s to reducing energy consumption at their house, as well as take care of recycling, some of those things you can’t put in your curbside bin… you are not advised to put shredded paper into your recycling bin. If you have important documents to shred, this is a more environmentally-friendly way to do it,” said Starvaggi.
Energy Efficiency Coordinator Kathleen Schomaker said that while she is not sure how much money can be saved in the average Hamden house by going solar, you can save money based on how many products using fossil fuels you convert into renewable energy.
An example of this Schomaker gave was that if you converted your house to solar power and then traded your car in for an energy efficient electric car, you would save more money and resources than if you converted your house without getting rid of your gas-powered car.
The event is being held in conjunction with Solarize CT, a partnership between the government and a company that installs solar panels, which is trying to convert people in Connecticut to solar power. They do this by selecting panel installers and help offset costs of converting a home to solar-powered energy with special financing options.
This is not the first time that Hamden has experimented with more efficient ways of fueling the town. According to New Haven Register, Hamden unanimously approved the construction of 4,000 solar panels in the Wintergreen Avenue landfill by True Green Capital, which will help save the town $600,000 in energy costs over 20 years.
Mayor Curt Leng released a statement praising Solarize CT’s mission and encouraged residents to find out if their house is able to be converted to solar power.
“The Town of Hamden is very happy to bring Solarize CT back to our residents for a second round. Hamden is committed to sustainability and this program is a great way for our residents to become involved and take control of their energy bills … It truly is a great way to save money and help our environment too!” said Leng.
Starvaggi said that if it is successful she would like it to happen annually.
“I think our ultimate goal is to attract people with the paper shredding and electronics recycling, and then while they’re here doing those things they would want to do no matter what, then they’ll stop by and get some more information that might get them thinking about improvements they might make around their house to reduce energy consumption,” said Starvaggi.
Environmental Services Day will happen on November 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2750 Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, Connecticut.
The Summit Learning Platform is a free online program the Cheshire Public School District brought into the student curriculum this year. Summit Learning is centered on personalized learning and progress tracking for students. This program allows teachers to customize their instructions to fit student needs and build strong relationships between the teacher, student and his or her family.
Cheshire Public School Superintendent, Shawn Parkhurst, brought in Summit Learning for grades five, six and seven. As of now Cheshire Public Schools is the only district in Connecticut that is using the program. Historically, Summit Learning got together with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, who helped get engineers to build the platform. This program was first used out of a charter school in California and some schools in Washington before going national.
The students from Cheshire access Summit via Google Chromebooks, however, you can access Summit through any computer or tablet. Cheshire does not use Summit full time for every student in every classroom.
–Doolittle School located on 735 Cornwall Avenue in Cheshire uses Summit to help teach social studies and science. This school’s highest education level is the sixth grade.
–Chapman School located on 38 County Club Road in Cheshire used Summit to help teach science and math. This school’s highest education level is the sixth grade.
–Norton School located on 414 North Brooksvale Road in Cheshire uses Summit for all sixth grade subjects. On the school’s website they highlight technology as being an integral part of their learning environment. Norton uses Smartboards, Chromebooks, iPads and Google apps for student learning. This school’s highest education level is the sixth grade.
–Highland School located on 490 Highland Avenue in Cheshire uses it for two out of the five sixth grade classes.
–Dodd Middle School located on 1000 Park Place in Cheshire is just for seventh and eighth grade. Students are broken up into teams by color. The teal color is the only team who uses Summit, especially for math.
Some may argue that Summit is cutting edge and can be personalized to each students needs. Others may say it replaces the teacher role in the classroom and allows for students to have too much screen time. Another argument to investigate is what kind of school districts use Summit. Summit may be used in challenged school districts where achievement is not high. Some schools may offer this charter program for various students who need to do better by taking more responsibility of their learning and adapt skills to be more independent.
Parents in the Cheshire School District have voiced their concerns whether or not Summit is necessary and safe for their children.
One parent says his daughter at Dodd Middle School uses Summit for all her subjects.
“When I talked to the superintendent, who is really responsible for bringing Summit to the schools, he basically said last year in the spring of 2017 he brought it back to the school and talked to various teachers about who was interested about learning about the platform.”
This parent said that he doesn’t think there is a lot of data to support the claims that Summit is a successful program for student learning.
“The schools that are using it are not schools like Cheshire, who have good teachers on its own. I am still on the fence about Summit. I am trying to understand if we really need this yet. It is so new and for next year to potentially have the whole school district using it doesn’t make much sense.”
Summit is divided up into different pillars to how the education system works.
Image from Summit Learning Website
One is personalized learning time. Students work through various modules with learning objectives that has provided content so they can work at their own pace. The module will have notes, articles and YouTube videos to help them study and understand the material before they take a quiz. To move onto the next section, the student must score at least 80 percent.
Two is mentoring time to help students set goals with a teacher at the school. On Summit the teacher can add or subtract material Summit uses and can even display their own material. Students are responsible to set goals for what they want to accomplish each day or week. This is a way for students to be responsible for their own learning.
Three is the classroom. This is part of the student education geared towards critical learning, complex thinking, project and presentation based learning. The material going on during computer time is supposed to correlate to what’s going on in the classroom setting led by the teacher.
Another parent expressed that she went to the schools informational sessions about Summit. She felt if this program was used properly it sounded worthwhile. She said that “personalized,” and “cognitive learning,” were common buzzwords the district would use to sell the program.
“My first concern was the advertisements,” she said. “A lot of the articles the students use have pop ups from third parties, like Web MD, which is concerning. The school district had to put an add blocker onto Summit. These kids are 10 and 11 and on the side of their articles there are links to other concerning topics.
This parent said that whenever she talks to someone in the community there is a different answer and a different opinion. She also said that she was shocked Shawn Parkhurst did not know that these articles were on the platform.
“The superintendent said he would go through each article to approve it appropriateness,” she said. “It is a concern they didn’t even realize this was a problem in the first place. It is a big waste of time that they have created all of this work for themselves since we had a good curriculum before. It was a mess about how the district put it out.”
Image from the document Parkhurst sent to families surrounding the myths and facts of Summit
Image from the document Parkhurst sent to families surrounding the myths and facts of Summit
Image from the document Parkhurst sent to families surrounding the myths and facts of Summit
Three parents said that their children have been complaining about the program, saying that it is too much information for them to handle. They said that this program has caused their children to be nervous about going to school in fear that they will not be able to keep up with their peers.
One mother said that she feels the overuse of screen time in the classroom is detrimental to her son’s development.
“Friends of mine who work in education and work with kids think these students are too young to work with this material and filter what is or is not important,” she said. “They need that face to face interaction with other students and their teacher. When kids are still developing socially and emotionally, still forming habits and commination, they need to see things first hand for their development.”
Shawn Parkhurst said he spoke with teachers in the district and has held information sessions with parents when he decided to bring Summit Learning into the Cheshire curriculum.
“We have had personalized learning as a strategic plan for the past 10 years,” he said. “We have had many teachers who are using Google classrooms and Chromebooks in previous years. We shared it with our team and they shared information about it when it was still at its building level. Teachers saw it as a way to enhance what they were doing and move forward. There was an application process to see if they have the minds and philosophy for this. There is also only development with that.”
When we asked Parkhurst how he felt the school should deal with concerned parents, he advises families to not rely on online research and work directly with their children.
“Regarding the parents feedback, we have been transparent from the beginning that we will provide education night for parents,” he said. Any parent that has requested or reached out to us, we have met with them individually. We recommend that they go to the child itself and to their school instead of researching and finding general information online.”
On Nov. 6 there will be a board of education curriculum committee meeting on 29 Main Street at the board of education offices. The Summit Learning program will be one of the topics covered so attendees can ask questions and have a discussion.
