Quinnipiac – Page 5

Quinnipiac makes strides to fight hunger in Hamden

By Kristen Altmeyer and Victoria Wauters

Amongst circulating conversations about Quinnipiac’s dining option, Chartwells, regarding undercooked and moldy food, Chartwells and Haven’s Harvest announced their partnership, Dec. 3, 2019, to address hunger in Hamden.

“5 days a week, QU Dining will pack up excess food from the Mount Carmel cafeteria where our partner, Haven’s Harvest, has a system for putting together those with excess food with those who need food,” said Sean Duffy, professor of political science and the executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Quinnipiac. “Volunteers will transport that food from one place to another will ensure that the food is connected to community partners in Hamden.”

A view of the crowd with Quinnipiac’s new live feed of the Piazza.

Those who are hungry in Hamden are not alone, as this is a nationwide problem. Every year 40% of the nation’s food gets thrown away. That’s about 125 billion tons of food, which is the equivalent of 615 aircraft carriers of food.

In hopes to resolve this problem, Quinnipiac has made many recent partnerships with Hamden organizations like the Albert Schweitzer Institute, Haven’s Harvest and United Way. One of the biggest ways Quinnipiac has partnered with the community to prevent this issue is with a program called Be Kind, Leave your Food Behind.

“This organization creates a very large food drive at the end of the academic year during move out and students have excessive food, instead of throwing it away we collect it.” said Bethany Zemba, vice president and chief of staff at Quinnipiac University. “Last year, 5.5 tons of food was collected and donated to the local non-profits and food pantries and and over the past 12 years this initiative has collectively distributed an estimated 34 tons of food”

Duffy mentioned that estimates put the number of people who are food insecure in the US as high as a ⅓ of the population. Food security is often described as the ability of a household or community to satisfy its need for affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food.

“There is an increasing number of those hungry in the United States. In Hamden, 39% of all households fall into the category called ALICE households,” Duffy said. “This stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed Households.

Though difficult to measure, The United Way focuses on households annual and monthly earnings and if they fall between the official poverty level in the United States and the minimal cost of living at a particular location and region.

“These are the households that are making money, but not enough to get by and so it’s quite possible that these are the households that have difficulty assessing an efficient quantity of affordable, nutritious, and culturally relevant foods,” Duffy said.

Quinnipiac plans to continue to help the hunger problem in the community, and is in the works to build a vegetable garden on campus in the spring of 2020.

Microaggressions on university tour raise concerns over Quinnipiac’s diversity

Quinnipiac University’s Arnold Bernhard Library. A recent string of incidents on a Quinnipiac tour has raised questions about issues of diversity at the school. Photo by Bryan Proctor.

At a university diversity and inclusion meeting last week, students and staff raised concerns about the university’s ability to accommodate people of different backgrounds. A sociology professor said his son, who is Latino, took a tour and felt it was unwelcoming for minorities.

Jim Buccini, a sociology professor and the chairperson of the College of Arts and Sciences Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, is the one who spoke up. He said his son was not interested in going to Quinnipiac after the tour.

According to Buccini, three separate incidents were problematic during the tour. One problem was the only student organization the tour guide talked about was Greek life. The second issue was how the guide described some study abroad programs as “mission trips to third-world-countries.”

The third incident is what stuck out to the Buccinis.

“… When we walked passed the multicultural suite, and I think that was the biggest flub, (the guide) was talking about how that was a place where black and Muslim students hang out,” Buccini said.

This was when something was evident to Buccini, who wished to speak for him and his son.

The multicultural suite located in the Carl Hansen Student Center at Quinnipiac. The incident that stuck out the most to the Buccinis during their tour was when the guide implied the multicultural suite was the place black and Muslim students hang out. Photo by Bryan Proctor.

“They were all microaggressions, right?” he said. “It was nothing intentional. It was nothing to overtly say, no students of different backgrounds, experiences aren’t welcome here.”

Buccini said while the microaggressions weren’t intentional, they are the sorts of things that can easily roll off your tongue when one culture is pervasive.

In an email, Katie Strong, Associate Director of Undergraduate Admission, said diversity is something it works to include in their efforts.

Strong continued in the email:

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“The Office of Undergraduate Admissions’ tours provide information on the offerings of the university and student experience with input from departments, offices, colleges and schools to ensure that a well-versed perspective is given to tour groups. Student Ambassadors are provided with on-going training with guest speakers from the university community and Admissions Staff members attend trainings, including a microaggressions training this upcoming Spring. Our office continues to work with the Center for Cultural and Global Engagement to ensure that we are inclusive to all students in accordance with university standards. ”

— Katie Strong

The most prominent ethnicity at Quinnipiac is white. According to College Factual the student body is 76% white and the faculty is 79% white.

To avoid microaggressions Buccini said people can think about what they’re saying and choose their words carefully. He also said diversity training and mindfulness of other people’s experiences are important steps in being sensitive.

“We can become mindful of the experiences of those who are different than us, of the students who are not represented, the cultures that are not represented or underrepresented on this campus,” he said. “We can become aware, we can train ourselves, or at least attempt to train ourselves, on how to avoid the microaggressions.”

One student, Sheariah Stevens, a sophomore political science major who was tabling for the African Caribbean Student Union, believed the university is working to better diversity on campus.

Sheariah Stevens was tabling for the African Caribbean Student Union in the student center when she mentioned diversity and inclusion efforts are a constant work in progress. Photo by Bryan Proctor.

Stevens was at the diversity and inclusion meeting last week and she says in her three semesters at the school she doesn’t think she’s seen an event that has elicited much change. She said the university’s issues are emblematic of a larger picture.

“I don’t necessarily think it’s a Quinnipiac thing, it’s more our climate it general,” she said. “As people are more understanding and open to other people, then in a few years, Quinnipiac can get more diverse and in touch with other people’s thoughts, ideas and needs.”

One thing Stevens highlighted is the complex nature of diversity issues.

“It’s always important to know that even the people at the top don’t know exactly how to solve everything, so I think it’s a work in progress for everyone and for everyone to be willing to put in the work and hold each other accountable to see that through,” she said.

Students and faculty gathered in the Mount Carmel Auditorium last week for an open discussion on inclusivity and diversity at Quinnipiac. This is where Buccini spoke up about him and his son’s experience. Photo by Taylor Sniffen.

As Quinnipiac works to improve its diversity challenges, Buccini,the sociology professor suggested that students and staff be cautious about how they treat underrepresented groups of people.

“One thing that I think that we need to be careful of, as a predominantly white university with a predominantly white faculty and student body, is we need to be very careful about tokenizing anyone,” Buccini said.

Terrific Turkey Day Events

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and Quinnipiac University is gearing up for students to go home for a week long break.

Starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, November 22, Quinnipiac will close its residential buildings, cafes and school buildings until Sunday, December 1. According to the Office of Residential Life, Quinnipiac is expecting over 224 students to stay over Thanksgiving break and it can be very challenging for these students to find food, entertainment, and social time.

Even though Quinnipiac closes its doors, many students don’t have the ability to go home for a week. Many international students, athletes, members of the pep band or students who have jobs in Connecticut don’t find it financially or physically possible to go all the way home for a few days and then come back to then just go right back home two weeks later for winter break.

One member of the pep band, Evangelia Markoulis, isn’t a fan of having to stay late or come back early from break because she says it difficult to get things cause you feel trapped and all alone.

“Yea it gets hard to find food, especially if you don’t have a car because then you’re pretty restricted to like the food in your fridge or spending $20+ on food in your own cash,” said Markoulis.

In order to help students on campus who are stuck over the Thanksgiving break we’ve compiled a list of things to do and places to eat.

Many places close down on Thanksgiving in order to give their employees a break, but here is a list of restaurants that stay open for Thanksgiving and that are in close range to Quinnipiac’s campus.

Another issue students face on top of finding food, is being bored. Most of the campus goes home, so the students who stay no longer have their friends to hang out with and pass the time.

“It gets so boring being here alone sometimes,” said Margoulis, “You’re so used to seeing life on the campus and then it’s just pretty dead. If you don’t live with someone from band (like freshman year) you’re all alone and there’s no one else to kind of talk to so yea in a way it feels like you’re trapped.”

Here is a list of different places and activities to keep students busy over the week.

The movie theater never closes for Thanksgiving and there are a ton of great new films being released this week.

If your looking to still have fun, but not spend $13 dollars on a movie ticket then Quinnipiac’s different athletic games are the place to be. All student athletic tickets are free for Quinnipiac students just go to the QU Box office and print out the ticket for the game you wish to attend.

Of course if you’re feeling left out of the holiday festivities because you’re stuck on campus, then these off campus events will get you away from Quinnipiac and surrounded by fun.

All of the lists in this article are just some of the events and food venues that are available in the area, but if there are other places you wish to check out, make sure to call ahead to see if they’re still open over the holiday, and we hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

QU Dining opens a discussion for feedback from Quinnipiac students

For the first time, QU Dining held an open discussion with Quinnipiac students to talk about the food on campus. QU Dining had seven total representatives in the Echlin Center that welcomed students to come and express any problems, issues and feedback about the food on Wednesday, Nov. 13.

“We don’t like those social media posts,” said Chuck Couture, the Residential District Manager of QU Dining, on why they decided to hold the discussion. “We’re embarrassed when those happen. We don’t come to work every day (thinking), ‘how are we going to get on Barstool today?’ … We’re constantly trying to train and retrain our staff. And we have to do better.”

The most recent incident of “those social media posts” was a picture of uncooked chicken that the infamous Instagram account, QU Barstool, posted on on Nov. 4.

The next day, Nov. 5, Quinnipiac Dining sent an email out to all students and staff, addressing the Instagram post. That following week, on Monday, Nov. 11, the Student Government Association announced a town hall discussion between QU Dining and the student body.

QU Dining sent this email out to all students and staff on Nov. 5, in response to the Instagram post with raw chicken.

Corporate Executive Chef for Chartwells, Joe LaBombarda, reiterated that message from the Instagram comment in his opening statement during the discussion.

“It was a pretty honest mistake with the chicken,” LaBombarda said. “We don’t like to have mistakes. We were pretty embarrassed by it.”

While this is the first time QU Dining has done an open forum, it certainly is not the first time complaints about rotten or spoiled food have been brought about from Quinnipiac students.

Over the 2018-19 school year and through most of the first semester of this year, QU Barstool has had nine posts about QU Dining food. The pictures have ranged from raw chicken to moldy buns to even slugs in containers of food.

However, the forum gave students and staff a chance to discuss a wide variety of topics. From healthier options to late dining hours, anything and everything was on the menu for discussion.

QU Dining staff announced that they would be making some changes to the dining halls. Using the survey that QU Dining and SGA put out for the students, the staff was able to come up with some new ideas that either already are being put in place, or are nearing completion.

Some of those changes include the addition of potstickers to the menu, weekend hours for the acai bowl station in the main cafe, a BBQ concept called Smoked for main campus, daily availability of chicken noodle soup and a variety of pop-ups the main cafe. In addition, Sono will be introduced on York Hill as a zTex-Mex, do-it-your-own station.

One of the concerns of students was having food options, like these vegetables at the salad bar, out and in the open for long periods of time.

Students like junior history and education major Traci Duff, still want to see some other changes made.

“For me, bringing more healthier options like whether it be vegan or vegetarian,” Duff said. “I also think they can change some of their workers’ attitudes, like I’ve experienced their attitudes, I’ve had a worker just disregard my order, so I think that would be good.”

Duff wasn’t the only one to bring up the attitudes of workers. However, in response, QU Dining asked for specific identities of workers and said they would handle it in-house.

That was how most of the questions were answered — either a direct response with the students saying they were satisfied with or a promise from QU Dining to do better.

“I think this meeting was really good, I personally couldn’t sit in front of a whole group of students and face the criticism and answer questions, so I think it was good that they did this,” Duff said.

QU Dining staff also encouraged students to come directly to them – and not social media – in the future.

“If we do make a mistake, bring it to one of us and we’ll fix it,” Couture said. “We have a 100% money-back guarantee (policy). If you’re enjoying something, come and find me. A lot of you have, and I try to make it right. That’s my promise to you, so next time, find a manager, find a chef, and we’ll make it right.”

If students have any questions or concerns in regards to the food, they can text QU Dining directly at 203-889-9123.

Quinnipiac hosts an open discussion regarding inclusivity on campus

On Wednesday afternoon, over 175 students and faculty gathered in the Quinnipiac Center for Communications and Engineering auditorium to participate in an open forum regarding the issue of inclusion on campus. This event comes in the wake of multiple negative events occurring in the past few weeks, such as racist language being used in the dorms and a professor tweeting her discontent with Chick-fil-A on campus, which became an outlet for hateful commentary on Twitter.

Pictured (left) Kevin Parker director of health and wellness, (middle) Vice President and Provost Jennifer Brown, (right) Elyssa Wrubel, senior english major.

“I do think it was helpful in the sense of informing students as there were topics discussed today that I know other students didn’t know as well as myself,” said Tyler McNeil a junior public relations major. “Most notably for me was that I was unaware that faculty here did not have ‘clock stop’ with their tenure.”

The “Clock stop” policy that McNeil mentions is when a school allows faculty and staff to stop the clock on their way to achieving tenure. This would be beneficial if professor or staff member fell extremely ill, or had to leave for maternity/paternity leave. Right now Quinnipiac does not have this policy in place so if a professor were to have to leave, their eligibility for tenure would be in jeopardy.

This was the email sent to the entire student body regarding the racist language used in the dorms.

This was the email sent to all students, faculty and staff inviting them to this open forum, discussing the topic of inclusion.

On top of the discussion regarding clock stop, around five students and seven faculty members stood up in front of the room and voiced their concern about different topics of inclusion on campus. These ranged from the LGBTQIA community, racial minorities being underrepresented, religious discrimination, handicap accessibility and more executive support for faculty and staff when it comes to school policy.

Specifically, Austin Calvo, the student government president spoke about the issues when it comes to ADA violations on campus and how the schools SGA has tried in the past to fix inaccessible pathways to buildings and residential halls.

A sociology professor, Jim Buccini, voiced his unhappiness with how unwelcoming this campus feels to students of minority races. He used his son’s experience of touring the campus and how at the end of the tour he absolutely did not want to attend Quinnipiac and was disappointed that his father taught at such an uninviting school.

Another student, Andrew DePass, a junior Biology & Computer Science major also talked about the issues of race on campus and discussed the toxic academic environment many minority students face in class. He said that this feeling is created when professors allow students of the majority to use their freedom of speech to say things that immediately make minorities feel inferior and/or alienated.

This open discussion is a product of Quinnipiac President Judy Olian’s strategic plan, which pushes the importance of diversity and inclusion in a competitive and creative work force, but for the past few weeks, Quinnipiac’s community has not been living up to its ideals.

Over a week ago, an email was sent to the student body from the university’s Office of Residential Life about racist language and actions being used in the dorms. The director of Residential Life, Mark DeVilbiss, stated in his email, “The university is committed to a culture of inclusion, openness and civility and is strongly opposed to discriminatory words and actions.”

Then two weeks before the email was sent, journalism professor Margarita Diaz expressed her discontent on Twitter with the use of Chick-fil-A on campus, due to their non-inclusive beliefs. The tweet blew up and users began attacking her and the community. The school newspaper also published an opinion piece that took her view and twisted it into something very different from the original intent of her comment.

Why does @QuinnipiacU continue to welcome @ChickfilA to campus? This company’s ownership has zealously embraced a homophobic stance. We can do better. @QUChronicle @Q30News @QUJournalism

— Margarita Diaz (@Buena_Tinta) October 28, 2019

This is the packed CCE Auditorium as faculty, staff and students listened intently.

After the constructive conversation concluded, Don Sawyer ended the discussion by promising there will be more open forums throughout the year and that over time, there will be change.

Vice President Don Sawyer addresses the crowd and helps lead the discussion on inclusivity on campus.

“When changing campus culture an hour is not gonna do it, a year might not even do it, but it will happen over time,” said Sawyer.

The Time to Quit Vaping Is Now

By Dante Turo

Quinnipiac senior Dylan Lewis started to vape during his senior year of high school because he wanted to join in on what his friends were doing. Without knowing the consequences, he continued to vape because he enjoyed the act of smoking itself.

After sharing vaping devices with his friends for some time, Lewis would eventually go on to buy his own vape. He purchased a Juul, which is one of the most popular e-cigarettes on the market. It’s known for its various flavors and high nicotine percentages.

Lewis became addicted to the nicotine.

“When I first started, I did it just because I weirdly liked the act of smoking in general and would join in with my friends when they were smoking,” Lewis said. “The past year or so, however, is essentially just because I’ve become addicted to nicotine.”

Nicotine is a highly addictive chemical that can increase a person’s heart rate and blood pressure. It can also increase the flow of blood to the heart and can lead to the hardening of the arterial walls. In some e-cigarettes, you can buy pods that have a higher nicotine percentage than most e-cigarettes.

Photo by Vaping360 ( https://vaping360.com/best-vape-starter-kits/pod-mini-vapes/ ) — Photo by Vaping360 (https://vaping360.com/best-vape-starter-kits/pod-mini-vapes/)

Lewis didn’t know of the long-term effects of smoking e-cigarettes when he started to vape, but now there are reports of people suffering from mysterious lung illnesses that have been linked to vaping.

There have been over 1,400 lung illnesses that have been reported from 49 states and one U.S. territory. So far, there have been 33 confirmed deaths from this illness.

The most concerning part about these reports are how it’s affecting the younger generation, including college students. There are students at Quinnipiac who admit to vaping even with all the news coming out about these illnesses and deaths. Over 65 students were surveyed, and thirty say that they still continue to vape.

Some college students started to vape because of its easy accessibility and seeing others doing it in a social setting. Emily Taft, a health science major at Quinnipiac, has admitted to vaping in the past before she knew the long-term effects it can have on your health.

“I started doing so in the first place due to vaping becoming very popular in a social setting, so I believe that the social influence surrounding vaping is why I had decided to try it,” she said. “I do think that vaping is addicting. The behavior or constantly holding a vape in your hand, or having it in your mouth, makes the behavior easy access and creates addictive tendencies.”

Out of the 66 students that were asked if they believe vaping is addicting, a staggering 61 students said that vaping is addicting.

A new survey for Health Capsule showed an alarming increase in adolescents who have tried vaping in 2018. More than 44,000 students took part in the survey, which found that about 37 percent of 12th graders reported vaping in 2018, which is a 9 percent increase from 2017. They saw an increase in substances that were being vaped, which included nicotine, marijuana, and flavored liquids.

Monitoring the Future held a nationwide survey on drug use for college students. The results found that 11 percent of college students had vaped marijuana within a month of taking the survey. They also found that more than 15 percent of college students vaped nicotine within a month of taking the survey.

With all the deaths and illnesses that have been reported thus far, why do people, and students in general, continue to vape? The numbers keep rising, with a new death being reported not too long after the one before.

Christy Chase, director of Student Health Services at Quinnipiac, says the epidemic is awful, and students need to be more aware of what they’re putting in their lungs.

“I think young people have been misled and thought that it was a safe thing,” Chase said. “I think we’re starting to see that that was not true, and I think there’s a lot more that’s going to be uncovered.”

As a nurse practitioner, Chase would ask students if they smoked or were active smokers. They would say no, but when asking if they vape, she gets a different response because students don’t link the two together. She’s worried about the long-term effects this will have on students.

“Those (15 deaths) are even immediate,” she said. “I’m thinking long-term.”

Kevin Parker, prevention and wellness educator at Quinnipiac, agrees this is a problem in the long run.

“I think the sneaky specter of all of this is the long thing down the road when students who are 18 now are 35, what’re we going to see?” Parker said. “We don’t know, and I don’t think anybody knows.”

The chemicals in these vapes, more specifically the Juul, is what’s most concerning to Chase.

“Who knows what these chemicals are going to do. Are they just going to change the surface in the lung? Are they going to change the exchange of gasses?” she said. “Nicotine is so bad for your body. That alone, it narrows the cardiovascular pathways, so it affects the heart, the lung, and the brain.”

Besides nicotine, e-cigarettes contain harmful ingredients that can be harmful to a person’s lungs. These ingredients include ultrafine particles, diacetyl, volatile organic compounds and heavy metals. The New York State Department of Health found high levels of vitamin E acetate in almost all of the vaping products that contained cannabis. A pesticide that can transform into hydrogen cyanide when burned was linked to bootleg marijuana vapes, as well.

These ingredients and chemicals may play a role in why people are coming down with these vaping-related illnesses.

Reese Mentiply, a junior at Quinnipiac, still vapes from time to time, but not as often as he used to. He says he stopped vaping as often because of how it made him feel.

“Mostly I stopped because it made me feel awful,” he said.

Even though vaping made Mentiply feel “awful,” he believes that vaping is better than smoking cigarettes. He started vaping in the first place to cut back on smoking other products.

“I started vaping at first to cut down on smoking,” he said. “I vaped for nicotine.”

Parker added how bad nicotine is for your body. People try to justify nicotine and what it does and play it off as something that isn’t as bad as it truly is.

“One of the interesting things I’ve seen people make a counter-argument for is ‘nicotine isn’t actually all that bad.’ Actually, there’s significant research as well on what nicotine alone does in your body,” he said. “I think people just don’t see that research pushed out all that often because the public don’t want to think of it.”

The state of Connecticut is taking note of the younger generation getting their hands on these products. The state raised the legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21, which became effective on October 1. The state is also enforcing restrictions on where people can smoke or vape. The use of a vaping device will be prohibited in any state or school buildings, food and liquor stores, restaurants, college dorms and race tracks.

Senator Richard Blumenthal is calling for the FDA to stop the sale of vapes that are disguised as smartwatches, sweatshirts, backpacks and phone cases.

Sean Patten, a senior at Quinnipiac, says he tends to vape, especially when there’s alcohol in his system, and finds the reports “scary.”

“I have no reason why. When I am drinking alcohol, my body seems to always want it. That is the only time,” Patten said. “The reports scare me, but I feel as if I am far too gone.”

Patten said he began vaping in the first place because of the various flavors these vapes have to offer. Because of how addictive it is, he has a hard time turning down the need to vape when he goes out.

“I started vaping because it tasted good and made me feel good. There are so many flavors, and the taste is all different,” he said. “I have cut down a lot from my previous years, but it is addicting. There are so many pressures. They are all around on a night out, so it’s hard not to.”

Both Chase and Parker believe flavorings and peer pressure plays a huge part in why adolescents began to vape.

Parker worked at a high school before working at colleges and said that social media and influence from older siblings played a role in why students started to get hooked on these devices.

“It was all around the social media piece. It was ‘well I saw people doing this that I know from home, or that I know who aren’t even in my school.’ So, it trickled in through that way,” he said.

“When they did research around that, 80 percent of students who were in high school or younger were getting it from an older source.”

Joseph Guido, a senior business major at Quinnipiac, admitted to vaping in the past because of peer pressure and wanting to be cool. He can count on both of his hands how many times he’s vaped in his life, so the reports don’t really scare him.

“Since I have hardly vaped in my life, these reports don’t scare me, but they make me worry about my friends,” Guido said. “I still have friends that vape heavily. I worry about them more than myself.”

The idea of vaping was to give people an alternative to smoking cigarettes. Out of 65 students questioned in an in-house survey, 40 believe vaping is better than smoking cigarettes.

Even if vaping may be deemed safer in their eyes, it can lead to bad habits, like smoking cigarettes in the future. At a recent conference, Parker learned that students who started smoking e-cigarettes were more likely to begin smoking combustible cigarettes later on.

“We would not be recommending e-cigarettes as a smoking sensation tool based on that research,” he said. “If it’s your primary thing, it’s something you start with; it’s definitely likely that you’re going to be going to combustible cigarettes.”

Quinnipiac has been finding ways to urge students to quit vaping.

The Health and Wellness department held an event where students could throw away their vaping devices in return for school gear. Parker said they collected around 40 different vaping devices.

“For us, that event’s intent was to hit the population who are ready to quit. We know that people hear the media and hear the messages around ‘Juul is bad,’ and some of them don’t believe it, and some of them do,” he said.

“That event’s intent was not to convince people one way or the other around what was going on of risks but was to be an option for people who were ready to quit.”

The department is looking to offer more events like this in the future, especially with more news and reports coming out as time goes on. Parker said he had around 10 students who told him that they vaped within the past hour and many more who said they’ve tried to quit before but couldn’t. He’s hoping future events will allow more students to hand in their devices and quit vaping.

Some students have tried to quit vaping but are having a hard time doing so.

More than 65 college students were asked multiple questions about their vaping habits. One question that was asked was if they had tried to quit vaping, if they even do vape. Thirty-five students say they have successfully or at least tried to stop, but some have not been able to fully quit. One student said he has tried to quit six to seven times but has been unsuccessful in doing so.

Smoking is one of the hardest addictions to kick, and college students are now starting to learn that.

Chase and Parker strongly urged students to stop vaping now. When asked if they could give a message to students who do vape, their message is simple: stop now.

“Don’t be tricked by the fancy devices,” Parker said. “Don’t get tricked, but if you’re addicted, get help for it.”

(Juul Photo by Vaping360 (https://vaping360.com/best-vape-starter-kits/pod-mini-vapes/)

Quinnipiac’s melting pot

How the Quinnipiac men’s soccer team recruits from all over the world

The United States was built by people who came from other countries for new opportunities.

The same can be said for some of the Quinnipiac men’s soccer team.

Take senior defender Conor McCoy for example. He hails from Forkhill, Ireland, and the opportunity to go to school and play soccer at the same time was too good to pass up.

“The whole dream of football and study, I think that was the real selling point,” McCoy said. “Both coaches sold it really well, and this school is really great. I really wanted to get a degree out of it as well. I didn’t want to just finish playing football and whatever age and not have any future opportunities.”

McCoy is one of 13 international players on the Quinnipiac men’s soccer team who has made his way to Hamden.

The team has the most international representation of any sports team at Quinnipiac. There are 27 players on the roster, with 13 from outside the United States, representing nine different countries.

Men’s soccer also has the highest percentage of international players at just under 50%. The next highest is the women’s soccer team having 36% of the team from outside the U.S.

How they recruit these players is an overt strategy with Quinnipiac head coach Eric Da Costa at the helm.

“It’s a really complicated process,” Da Costa said. “The first thing that we’re looking for is that first impression. What we get on video from a player, usually it’s some type of highlight reel. You’re really just focused on the technical ability of the player. Then we start to do some digging. We need full matches and we have a couple different scouting software that we use that have a pretty in-depth database globally.”

After the first step is taken, Da Costa said it’s about finding out who the player is as a person. It becomes less about the soccer player and more about the international student trying to come to a new country. When he gets the chance, Da Costa will travel to different countries to meet with his prospective recruits personally.

According to Da Costa, that’s not always the case. Due to budgetary restrictions, there is only so much international travel that Da Costa and his staff can do. So they rely on technology to keep their relationships with these players growing.

“We do a lot of Skype; we do a lot of Whatsapp and Facetime,” Da Costa said. “Just trying to get that face time with these guys and figuring out who they are, what they’re about, what makes them tick and does that fit into what we do here. It’s really important that we bring the right character into this program.”

Da Costa is also looking for players that want to not only be a part of a collegiate soccer program, but want to be a part of his program.

“I want someone who wants to be at Quinnipiac, not because it’s an opportunity to play soccer or there’s a potential scholarship, or it’s an opportunity to come to the United States,” Da Costa said. “That means nothing to me. I want someone who wants to be at Quinnipiac University for all the right reasons. They want to play for me, they want to be a part of this program. They want to help continue to grow and help us continue to win.”

That same “want” that Da Costa looks for in his players, is also reciprocated the other way. Junior midfielder Simon Hillinger, a native of Ditzingen, Germany, felt that as much as he wanted to come to the United States, Quinnipiac wanted him as well.

“I saw that coach had big dreams for the team and big goals, so I was really just like ‘Why not? I want to be a part of this family and this team.’”

-Chrysostomos Iakovidis

“I really felt like the coaches wanted me here,” Hillinger said. “Compared to other coaches I talked to, I always felt like the second choice. But with [Quinnipiac assistant coach Graciano] Brito and Da Costa I felt right away that they really wanted me and really wanted me in their program.”

Hillinger isn’t the only one that feels that way. Senior goaltender Chrysostomos Iakovidis comes from Thessaloniki, Greece, and he also credits Da Costa in why he eventually chose coming to the U.S. to play soccer.

“Coach was really close to me from the first time (we met),” Iakovidis said. “He seemed like he really wanted me to get with the team and be a part of it. …I saw that coach had big dreams for the team and big goals, so I was really just like ‘Why not? I want to be a part of this family and this team.’”

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Why they cross the Atlantic

For the players, there is a multitude of other reasons they come to the United States. And that changes from person to person.

In the case of senior defender Jeppe Haehre, it was his older brother, Daniel Haehre, who influenced his decision. Daniel made the choice to come to the U.S. and play soccer in 2011. Coming from Baerums Verk, Norway, the elder Haehre attended Virginia Commonwealth University before transferring to Hawaii Pacific University for his final three years.

“I kind of knew about the whole college experience from [my brother] so I kind of looked into it early,” Haehre said. “Then I reached out to Da Costa and Brito, and they told me a bunch of stuff about Quinnipiac. The people, the diversity that was here, that really pulled me into wanting to come here.”

Haehre first attended a showcase in Sweden, joining other prospective Europeans who wanted to come to the United States for soccer. From there, Da Costa and his staff watched Haehre’s video highlights from the showcase, reaching out to him afterward. It wasn’t long after that Haehre decided Hamden would be his home for the next four years.

“I was really ready for it because my brother did it,” Haehre said. “He always came home and told a bunch of stories about the cool experiences, so I was very open to a new culture and embracing that.”

Quinnipiac sophomore defender Jordon Bennett kicks the ball up the field. Bennett comes from Central Coast, Australia. He is the only non-European international player on the team.

For others, such as freshman defender Henry Weigand, coming to the United States provided an opportunity for additional development. Weigand was playing in the U19 Bundesliga North/North-East league, which is considered to be the highest division in German youth soccer. However, when scouts approached him, they felt he wasn’t quite ready for the next level in Germany.

“A scouting agency came to me and said that they thought I had the potential to play at the high, college level,” Weigand said. “But they didn’t think I could go to next division in Germany. I had to develop a little bit more, and I know that I will be [eventually be] a professional in Germany. So I took the other option [for college].”

Unlike in the United States, it’s not common for people to go to college. Most will go straight into the workforce and never even give a thought about higher education.

“In this country, you raise your kids and they’re going to college,” Da Costa said. “A lot of other countries aren’t like that … at the end of the day, an international kid and their family want to go to a place where they’re cared about. They want to go to a place where they know they can study and play at a high level, which they can’t do in most of their own countries.”

Complications in the process

With that said, it’s not always smooth sailing for these players to come play. They might have the destination, but they now have to get to the U.S., which includes applying for and receiving a visa. Raya Al Wasti, the secretary for Multicultural and Global Initiatives at Quinnipiac, explained how the process can differ depending on where the player is form.

“We have countries that are really easy to get their visas here, but sometimes it’s harder because of political issues in the country,” Al Wasti said.

Weigand was one of the players that experienced some difficulties in getting his visa. After going through all the paperwork, the visa eventually did arrive, but later than expected. As a result, it threw off Weigand’s entire move to the U.S.

“I had a little issue with my visa, so it came three days late,” Weigand said. “I had to cancel my first flight and at that point I really wanted to go [to the U.S.] because when you are focusing on one point to leave and then you have to move it to a second point, it was like I was wasting time in Germany.”

From within U.S. borders

As for the 14 Americans on the team, eight of them are coming from the Nutmeg state. Some are from the local area of Hamden, such as sophomore midfielder Ivan Ramos, and North Haven, such as sophomore midfielder Alex Holle.

“We have a really good pool of talent in Connecticut,” Da Costa said. “Myself and my staff being involved in the local club [soccer] scene, we’re able to identify them early. If the kid’s not leaving the state, then why is he not coming to Quinnipiac? We think that if you’re not going to Yale, then Quinnipiac should be high up on your radar because we feel like we can offer everything else any other Division I institute in Connecticut can offer.”

If you’ve followed the team recently, the name Eamon Whelan is constantly being brought up. The reigning MAAC Offensive Player of the Year and the Preseason MAAC Player of the Year isn’t from across the ocean. In fact, he’s just about an hour away, coming from New Fairfield, Connecticut. But having these players come from all over provides Whelan with something that he wouldn’t have been able to get at home.

“I grew up in a very suburban area where there’s not that much diversity,” Whelan said. “So being able to come [to Hamden] and play and be around kids from all around the globe, it’s been a big eye opener. I think on the field I’ve grown, but socially as well.”

Looking at other student athletes near the area, Glastonbury, Wallingford and Farmington are a few more of the areas that the players come from. Having this close distance to the campus allows for the international players to have a warm welcome when being a Bobcat.

For example, Holle and his family treats some of the international players to Thanksgiving, a tradition most have never heard of, but get that exposure to when in the U.S.

Quinnipiac goaltender Jared Mazzola reaches up to tip a shot away. The Bobcats currently own a 4-4-3 overall record, while they are 2-2-1 in the MAAC.

“The Connecticut guys are massive for us just because those families are here,” Da Costa said. “Again, we recruit good people, so they come from good families. These families open up their doors and their hearts for these guys and they become almost surrogate parents which is really cool to see.”

Regardless of whether a player is from Spain or Norway, Connecticut or New York, at the end of the day, they all are here for a reason – to be a Quinnipiac Bobcat on the men’s soccer team.

“When you come here, it’s not about you,” Da Costa said. “It’s about us, it’s about the program, so we spend a lot of time figuring out ‘Do they have that type of mentality?’”

He continues, “We’ve spent a long time building a culture that we’re all really proud of. I always say culture is people, so the people in our program make our culture. We obviously know what we want to be but these guys have to carry that out. So we try and make that we get the right person to come in and fit in what we do.”

Q&A With Mayor Curt Leng

By Adrianna Lovegrove

Mayor Curt Leng is running for re-election against Councilwoman Lauren Garrett in the Democratic primary. The primary will determine who is going to run against Republican candidate, Jay Kaye. Find out where you can vote here. This article was originally published on Sept. 10, 2019.

Q: What was it that made you want to run for a third term?

A: Serving as mayor for four years seems like a lot longer term than it actually is and it gives you the chance to get a lot of things started and a lot of things moving but you need more time to really see them through. A third term would allow us to continue the financial stabilization we’ve been working on, some of the major buildings and infrastructure investments that we’ve been doing, and then some of the changes to the police department that have been really proven successful.

Q: What were some of the projects that you wanted to see through to the next term if you were re-elected?

A: Two of them in particular, that we’ve got grant applications in the state and we’ve gotten word that we’re in the running and we’re very hopeful would be: Fire Station 2 and the Keefe Community Center. We’ve got about $4.5 million grant request in for renovations to add reconstruction to one of those buildings. And those buildings haven’t been touched in decades and are desperately in need of repair.

We have paved 45 miles of road in the last four years but we have a lot of roads that still need attention. I want to continue that paving schedule and sidewalk improvements to go along with them. So that our neighborhoods have more walkability with the sidewalks and we can save a few axles, where people are hitting our potholes.

On the financial end, we’ve been successful in negotiating every single union contract to include cost savings in health insurance Everyone in the entire town has switched over to a high deductible health savings account, HSA. It’s proving to save money. They’re actually showing medical costs savings. Medical in the budget is ⅕ of our town budget. So slowing the rate of increase of medical insurance impacts the towns annual budget by millions of dollars. And usually, for the past decade plus, the increases in our health insurance account that we expect each year, has been anywhere from 8%to 15%. This year it was 3 percent to 5 percent. So we’re finally actually seeing that impact of all the different unions moving forward with the health insurance program and showing some serious savings.

Q: What has been your biggest challenge so far?

A: Probably the same as any campaign. Just working to get your message out to as many people as you can and trying to be the actual person that directly talks to as many people as possible in town. And there is never enough time in the day to accomplish all those things.

Q: Do you think that during your two terms that you have been financially irresponsible?

A: No. We have very tangible improvements in our town finances and I’ll give some specific examples.

So, we talked about the union contracts. The union contracts are some of the largest drivers of your budget. The town’s pension plan, 10 years ago, was down to 9% funded. It was almost broke now, after a lot of reform efforts, and those reform efforts included some borrowing but the borrowing happened eight years ago and we’ve made eight payments on that borrowing. But beyond that we’ve been contributing higher amounts into the fund. In the last four years alone, we put in $64 million, which is more than double the length of time in the town’s history. So we’re putting more money in, the employees that we’ve negotiated with, that was the second part of the contract negotiations that was a big impact driver was the pension. We’re still working with the public safety union, but every other union on the town and the board of education side agreed to additional contributions into the pension fund and a reduction of the cost of living adjustment in retirement. Those two changes had an impact on our pension liability as a town, saving us approximately $25 million.

We look at our finances on a daily basis and that’s always the focus. The town’s mill rate is already too high and we need to do everything we can to hold it back. I did four budgets and in one of the budgets we did no increase, the first no increase budget in a decade. This year, I recommended a mill rate increase of three quarters of a mill and the council voted for an almost 2.5 times higher tax increase this year. Which would have pushed Hamden to 50 mills, 49.99. That would have been harmful to our residents. It was not necessary and it would’ve sent a bad message to anyone that might want to invest here, whether buying a home or investing to bring a business here. It would show that the mill rate is already high and yet you see excessive increases. It’s not a good way to market the town as a sustainable entity and we are a sustainable entity.

Q: Quinnipiac and Hamden have always had a rocky relationship. Why do you think that is?

A: It’s been up and down. There is a very small percentage of students that don’t behave like the rest of the students do and don’t behave in a way that a typical neighbor would on a typical neighbor street. You buy a house and you don’t expect there to be loud parties and a lot of people and a lot of traffic on any given night into late hours. I want to really stress that it’s a small percentage of the students and a small percentage of the off-campus housing. But it makes it very difficult for certain residents and certain neighbors in certain streets and it gives everyone that has an off-campus house a bad reputation. I know it’s not fair but that’s what tends to happen. So then because of that a lot of residents end up being very vocal in their opposition in different things that the university brings forward to our planning and zoning and other approvals.

So we’re really working hard. President Olian and I have developed a relationship. We actually went to Mikro like 15 days ago and just had a very casual, friendly, really productive conversation and we’ve had other, more formal meetings as well. And it’s bringing really fruitful things forward. The university is assisting us in addressing these off campus housing issues in a way I don’t think we have seen before and that’s very appreciated. The university is even more dedicated to putting resources into the town to help programs in three areas. They help kids, so after school programs that we’re working on that help our schools and last but not least, a program that we’ve been really expanding on that helps people that are in financial need.

Fortune Magazine’s CEO says facts matter

Fortune CEO Alan Murray spoke at Quinnipiac University’s Mount Carmel Auditorium about the future of journalism, and how Fortune Magazine is raising its journalistic standards going forward.

Chief executive officer of Fortune, and journalist since the age of 9, Alan Murray, came to Quinnipiac University on Friday to discuss the future of journalism, the importance of facts in a functioning democracy and old ladies on Facebook.

“Look, I do believe that facts are the most important building blocks of a successful society,” said Murray, “The discovery of facts is the first step in our legal process, and an understanding of facts is critical to the democratic process. A common basis of factual knowledge is the key to our ability to work together in our communities, and in our nation.”

The event titled “The Death of Truth: The Future of Journalism in the 21st Century” began around 2 p.m. at The Center Communications and Engineering, in a three-quarters full Mount Carmel Auditorium, for a discussion between Murray and School of Communications Dean, Chris Roush.

Murray, who says he’s been a journalist since the age of nine, gave an introduction to the crowd expressing the need for facts in society “Unfortunately, we live in a time when facts are under attack in lots of different ways,” said Murray.

From the beginning, Murray expressed he wasn’t interested in talking about the president and politics, but what he calls the ‘disturbing’ trend of the devaluation of facts in America.

“Unfortunately, we live in a time when facts are under attack in lots of different ways,” said Murray, “Let me say right up front, this is not going to be about President Trump. Yes, he has a peculiar attitude towards facts, but I think the problem we have as a society predates the election, and will continue long after he’s gone.”

Roush, the dean of the School of Communications, lead the discussion with Murray and asked him what things Fortune Magazine is doing to address issues of accuracy. “I think understanding that the values have to change somewhat and that people need to know that Fortune Magazine, like People Magazine, is committed to being right, more than it is to being first.”

What is Fortune magazine doing to address this issue? What are the standards that Fortune has, and what are they doing to make sure its readers understand that this is a credible news organization?

There are a couple of ways to answer that question.

One is just that in the age of 24/7 news organizations, all of us, have had a shift in priorities, and we explicitly tell our reporters it’s more important that you be right, than you be first. Because somebody who doesn’t care about right is more likely to be first. And then that’s a change from the days of print newspapers when you have a 24/7 news cycle, and you had enough time to do the adequate checking to make sure what you’re putting out is accurate. Sometimes you’d be on deadline and there’d be a lot of pressure, but it’s not the pressure you have now where every minute is madness. I think understanding that the values have to change somewhat and that people need to know that Fortune Magazine, like People Magazine, is committed to being right, more than it is to being first.

The second thing is one of the things that’s happened in the move from print publications to online publications is that there’s been a desperate search for eyeballs, because eyeballs are the way you get more ad dollars. I think that’s had a negative effect on all of journalism because the kinds of things you do to get eyeballs aren’t necessarily the things you would do to ensure the quality of the coverage. Being first helps you get more eyeballs. The google algorithm will treat you better, if you’re first. Having a sharp edge point of view will always get you more eyeballs than giving the straight take on the story. I think the desperate chase for eyeballs has caused a deterioration in journalism, including at Fortune.

What we are doing, in the midst of right now, is changing our business model. We will, in January, put up a paywall, we’re going to focus more on premium journalism, we will depend more on those who read us to pay for the journalism we do. That’s a good thing in terms of our focus because we’re going to be focused on producing news of a quality people are willing to pay for. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing for democracy because the only people who are going to get that news are going to be the people that pay for it.

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“That’s a good thing in terms of our focus because we’re going to be focused on producing news of a quality people are willing to pay for. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing for democracy because the only people who are going to get that news are going to be the people that pay for it.”

— Murray

Tell the Audience a little bit about what’s been happening at Fortune the last couple years, you’ve had three owners in the last two years, is that correct? What does that mean for the magazine?

Its been pretty wild. I joined five years ago just as Time Inc., the magazine company, was being spun out of Time Warner. That actually at the end of the day was a good thing, because what Time Warner had done is said ‘You, Time Inc., will continue to publish magazines, but we will let CNN handle online.’ so Fortune until five years ago, didn’t have a website. The Fortune web presence was part of CNN Money, and they said ‘We’re going to let Warner Brothers be our video outlet. So you can’t do video, you can’t do online, all you can do is print magazines.’ Which is effectively a death sentence. So it was essential to get Time Inc. out of Time Warner. That happened five years ago.

That was about the time I joined Fortune. We spent a lot of time building up our online presence, and when I became chief content officer I really focused on that. One of the things that had happened is there were 24 magazines at Time Inc. They didn’t talk to each other, so there were days, in 2017, I think it was 2017, Adele was at a concert and revealed that she had been asked to perform the Super Bowl, and she said ‘no.’ which was a huge story. We thought ‘How could somebody say no to performing at a Super Bowl?’ and at Time Inc. there were eight different stories written by eight different publications, on that Saturday, largely identical stories. So we weren’t taking advantage, at all in the digital world, of the scale of publishing a bunch of different magazines.

There was another day that same year when two different websites, that were part of Time Inc., published an avocado banana nut bread recipe on the same day. Different recipes. They all had different technology platforms, and it was just crazy. So I spent a lot of time unifying the digital platforms of the 24 magazines, which helped get them a larger digital presence.

But then very shortly after I took the job, Time Inc. was up for sale. We spent a year in investment banking meetings talking to potential buyers of Time Inc., but most of them after closely looking at it said ‘Nah, this is a print magazine, see ya later!’ Finally at the end of that year, Meredith, which publishes Better Homes and Gardens, AllRecipes, and a number of service magazines largely aimed at women, purchased time Inc., and then very quickly said we’re not interested in Henry Luce’s most favored babies, the first publications of Time Magazine. Which were Time, Fortune, Money, and Sports Illustrated, so we’re gonna sell all those. Then we went back into the investment banking process for another year to sell Time, Fortune, Money, and Sports Illustrated.

Murray spoke to the crowd at Quinnipiac about the changing journalism landscape. He talked about how journalists face the constant threat of job loss, and media outlets tanking or being sold. He said “I don’t want to discourage anybody here, but if you can find any place in journalism that isn’t in the midst of constant disruption these days, applause to you. I think what happened among journalist was ‘Yeah, wow. Is this place even gonna be here in a year? But is any other place going to be here in a year?’ It's no more disrupted than any other media organization.” — Murray spoke to the crowd at Quinnipiac about the changing journalism landscape. He talked about how journalists face the constant threat of job loss, and media outlets tanking or being sold. He said “I don’t want to discourage anybody here, but if you can find any place in journalism that isn’t in the midst of constant disruption these days, applause to you. I think what happened among journalist was ‘Yeah, wow. Is this place even gonna be here in a year? But is any other place going to be here in a year?’ It’s no more disrupted than any other media organization.”

Fortune was ultimately bought in December. It’s a long story, I’ll finish up soon, I promise. Fortune was finally sold last December to a Thai billionaire by the name of Chatchaval Jiaravanon, who asked me to be the CEO, and we’ve spent the last eight to nine months carving ourselves out of the company we were in for 89 years, and setting ourselves up.

Big step towards independence on Monday. We moved into new offices.

Because of that uncertainty around Fortune and its future, how do you keep journalists from leaving to go to greener pastures and how do you attract journalists to work at the magazine?

I don’t want to discourage anybody here, but if you can find any place in journalism that isn’t in the midst of constant disruption these days, applause to you. I think what happened among journalist was ‘Yeah, wow. Is this place even gonna be here in a year? But is any other place going to be here in a year?’ It’s no more disrupted than any other media organization.

I mean, think about what we’ve been through in the last couple of years with the rise and the collapse of MIC, the millennial news organization, which a year before it collapsed was seen as the kind of answer that everybody should follow. I mean BuzzFeed has had its ups and downs. I think for those of you who want to go into journalism careers you need to have good seat belts because it’s not a smooth ride.

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“I mean, think about what we’ve been through in the last couple of years with the rise and the collapse of MIC, the millennial news organization, which a year before it collapsed was seen as the kind of answer that everybody should follow. I mean BuzzFeed has had its ups and downs. I think for those of you who want to go into journalism careers you need to have good seat belts because it’s not a smooth ride. ”

— Murray

How can I get my 79-year-old mother to stop reading Facebook for her news?

Yeah, I know what you’re saying. It’s really tough. I think you need to sit and have a conversation with her about the importance of facts and the importance of truth.

She doesn’t want facts she just wants to read what she wants to read.

If we’re going to survive as a society, I think we need to get beyond that, but I think your mother will probably be okay at this point, but the rest of us need to figure out a way to get beyond that.

Dean Roush sat down next to Murray to lead the discussion on the future of journalism. Roush amused the audience when he asked how he can stop his 79-year-old mother from reading her news on Facebook. “She doesn’t want facts she just wants to read what she wants to read,” said Roush.

Roush then opened the room for discussion,

Attendees picked Murray’s brain for approximately 30 minutes on everything from paywalls, to the possibility of there being one central organization everyone believes as factual,

Though Fortune is pursuing standards to improve its story’s truth and accuracy, some feel larger solutions are still out there blowing in the wind.

“People have certain beliefs, so anything that supports them, it makes them more comfortable,” said Don Everett, Milford, “I’m not sure what can be done about it. How do you reach people who are so involved in social media today?”

What Everett expressed relates to the issue Roush raised with his mother. No matter how much quality journalism is out there, they feel people will continue to go on social media and be surrounded by a bubble of information they find to be true.

Everett believes this creates problems.

“They don’t have time to even think about checking what they hear, they’re processing and going on to something else,” said Everett. “I’m not sure what can be done.”

People in the Mount Carmel auditorium sat as Murray gave an introduction highlighting everything from how he got started as a journalist at 9, and what he believes the solutions are to keeping journalism accurate and safe in the future.

Although Everett felt some questions were left unanswered, one audience member was impressed by Murray’s appearance.

“I didn’t expect him to be so capable of answering questions,” said William Dean, freshman journalism major, Quinnipiac. “He was very quick on his feet, and I appreciated his ability to answer questions thoroughly, and interestingly. He kept the audience engaged, and you don’t normally expect that from a CEO of a big company.”

Avoiding a ‘trick’ this Halloween

While students are putting the finishing touches on their costumes for Halloween, those at the Health and Wellness Center are making sure that everyone has a safe holiday.

As part of Wellness Wednesdays, the Health and Wellness Center tabled outside of Starbucks in the Student Center to educate students on the importance of bystander intervention and the alcohol content within common drinks.

This week’s Halloween theme brought awareness to the alcohol content in drinks.

“We’re focusing on National Alcohol Awareness Week,” Carisha Moore, a graduate biomedical science student, said. “This one is called ‘Don’t Get Tricked’ and about bystander intervention. So really just learning more about what you can do to look out for your friends and figuring out what are risky kinds of alcohol.”

The table was lined with a beer can, a bottle of wine and red solo cups to illustrate how the physical amount of liquid doesn’t represent the strength of that type of alcohol.

Carisha Moore (left) and Tami Reilly (right) host Wellness Wednesdays weekly in the Student Center.

“Often times you think that a shot isn’t that much, so it’s not going to impact you that much,” Tami Reilly, director of fitness and wellness, said while at the table. “But you realize how much alcohol is in it and even things like getting a drink from someone you don’t know is risky behavior.”

Along with candy, those who stopped by the table also could pick up handouts with information on alcohol awareness. According to one of the sheets, a typical red solo cup can hold two standard-sized beers or filling it halfway with 80-proof liquor can be five standard drinks.

“These (handouts) remind us that if you’re going to drink, take care of yourself,” Reilly said. “Know what you’re drinking, know how much so you don’t get tricked. It happens to so many people. They’re not aware of what’s in their drink. Someone keeps refilling their cup and that’s when a problem happens.”

Each Wednesday, the Health and Wellness Center tables with a new theme with the goal to help students become more proactive about their health. In the past, they’ve hosted, “Take Back the Juuls” for students to hand in their vaping and nicotine products. The department plans to focus on de-stressing during exam week.

“We have a calendar that we put out at the start of the semester,” Reilly said. “And every week has a different theme related to wellness that can help students tune in to be more aware of their overall wellness.”