Hamden is in the worst financial position out of all of the towns in Connecticut, according to a report by the Yankee Institute for Public Policy.
Lauren Garrett, a representative at-large in Hamden, says she saw the report coming.
“Our debt is crippling us,” Garrett said.
Marc Joffe, a senior policy analyst at the Reason Foundation, did a study that ranked all of the town’s and cities in Connecticut based on each town’s 2016 financial report. Joffe gave Hamden a 25, which was the lowest in the rankings and 19 points below Hartford, which is experiencing a financial crisis of its own. Any town that received a rating below 50 in the study is thought to be in “severe financial distress.” The state announced that it would pay off Hartford’s $550 million debt over a 20-year period.
The Yankee Institute for Public Policy notes on its website that its “mission is to promote free-market solutions and smart public policy so that every Connecticut resident is free to succeed.” The Yankee Institute strives to help inform Connecticut residents about what is going on in their state. It is self-described as a “think tank” and the institute takes many conservative viewpoints on topics.
Brad Macdowall, a district representative in Hamden, called the Yankee Institute, “a political lobbying firm whose endgame is to push conservative agendas and conservative candidates.”
According to its 2016 fiscal report, Hamden has a debt of $784.1 million and much of that debt comes from promises that the town made to retiring employees that went unpaid according to the Yankee Institute report.
With its debt continuing to grow, Hamden took out a $125 million pension obligation bond in order to bolster its pension fund in 2014. If the town does not invest in the bond correctly, then it will only create more stress for itself, according to the Yankee Institute report.
As the debt in the town continues to increase, so do the property taxes as the town looks to minimize its debt anyway possible. Local government officials are not happy about having taxes increase.
“Taxes in Hamden are onerous,” representative at-large Marjorie Bonadies commented on the Yankee Institute’s original report. “There are twice as many houses for sale or in foreclosure than any of our neighboring towns.”
Marc E. Fitch, the author of the Yankee Institute article, believes that it would be easy for a Hamden resident to move one town over to North Haven.
“I think the rising property taxes will have an effect on whether people stay or leave. Essentially, a Hamden resident could move one town over to North Haven and probably save thousands per year,” Fitch said.
Fitch thinks that Hamden will face competition from surrounding towns but that it still has things that attract people to the town.
“Hamden has to compete with other towns in the vicinity. Luckily, it has some attractive qualities and Quinnipiac University,” Fitch said.
The state as a whole is struggling with debt, so Hamden may receive minimal help from the state government.
“Hamden can’t count on any help from the state,” Fitch said in an email. “If anything, they should prepare for cutbacks as the state faces four years of projected budget deficits.”
Quinnipiac University named Judy Olian as its new president this past January and local officials say they are looking forward to working with Olian to help rejuvenate the local community.
“One of the things that I’m really feeling positive about is the relationship with the new Quinnipiac president,” said Macdowall, the district representative.
Hamden will continue to search for ways to end its financial struggle but residents will likely continue to see taxes increase according to Bonadies, the representative at-large .
HQ Press reached out to Hamden Mayor Curt B. Leng for comment, but did not get a return call.
This week on the QNN Newscast there’s a live report from the scene of a hit and run in Hamden and an update on the Quinnipiac student who was hit. Also, New Haven has had many events lately including the I-Matter compassion campaign and a pride parade – QNN takes you there.
Two years ago on Sept. 19, Quinnipiac University exploded with controversy as a Snapchat circulated the campus. The snap included an image of a caucasian female student with a black-colored face mask on. The caption read, “black lives matter.”
The university faced major backlash as the image hit mainstream news media and officials tried to keep the image from being a representation of the school. The student who took the picture and wrote the caption left the school, and the student in the photo was left trying to rebuild her reputation.
And faculty, staff, and students had to determine how to promote a more diverse culture where this would never be an issue again.
Fast forward to today, university administrators say they have spent the last two years working on different ways to bring a more diverse mix of people to campus and to build an environment where students and staff feel they belong and are respected.
Yet even with the university trying to promote diversity and inclusion, many students and staff still say there’s more work to be done.
Chief Diversity Officer Don Sawyer said whenever people talk about an inclusive campus, people tend to only focus on students of color and that’s not what inclusive excellence is about.
“Inclusive excellence is about making sure that your campus is welcoming to all people,” Sawyer said. “We want to build a campus where everyone feels that they are a part of this Bobcat nation.”
“When we make the campus a welcoming space, it’s not just for those who are underrepresented or those who are marginalized, it creates a campus environment where everyone feels welcomed.”
Sawyer says inclusion and diversity are considered a “hot button topic,” and that people often don’t want to talk about things of that nature.
“Some people are afraid to talk about the topic, because some people think ‘ok if I talk about race people are going to think I’m a racist, you know I don’t want to say the wrong thing if I say the wrong thing people are going to smear my name.’”
“When we talk about inclusion people say we want to increase the number of underrepresented people on campus, but we have to talk about what does it mean once they get here,” Sawyer said. “So if the campus is not prepared for the increase, then I think the increase doesn’t make sense.”
“So we have to work with one another to create a campus that’s welcoming to everyone and then we can actually start talking about inclusion.”
Sawyer also explained that inclusion works when people have dialogue, interaction and perspective taking.
“If we have dialogue and then we have intentional forums, intentional programs, intentional opportunities with people to interact during that dialogue interaction. We are able to understand the perspective of others,” Sawyer said. “Understanding the perspective of others, understanding the reality of others, it broadens our mindset, it broadens our scope. Just because something is not our reality doesn’t mean that it’s not a reality.”
The Quinnipiac Bias Incident Response Team (QBIRT) reviews reports submitted by students online. The team looks at the reports to see if there’s a need for an investigation.
“What we’re going to be doing is to have an online submission portal where you can submit things whether it’s for Title IX, sexual harassment or bias incident or things of that nature where it will be a one stop shop for you to get educated,” Sawyer said. “It will also be a space where you can report anonymously.”
Edgar Rodriguez, chief of public safety, also admits that diversity and inclusion problems on campus still exist, but that the entire university continues to work on these issues.
“I think it’s very important to have those discussions and collaborate with different organizations and different students and get to the bottom of it,” Rodriguez said.
“You have to get people involved. You can’t do it on your own. This is not a public safety issue. This is not a Res Life issue. This is a community issue.”
Rodriguez says he plans to create a Community Partnership Advisory Board, a diverse group that will come together to discuss public safety issues.
“What’s going on out there, and what would you like to see, and are some people being stopped at gates, some are not?” said Rodriguez.
A quote from Chief of Public Safety Edgar Rodriguez
He wants to include faculty, a student, a member of the Student Government Association and a professor from the Criminal Justice program among others to bring a cohesive group together and have all students feeling safe and protected on campus.
“How do we handle that, how do we treat everybody the same, how does everybody be treated equally. It’s not about a color, it’s about being a human being. It’s about treating everybody with respect.”
Rodriguez wants his staff to reflect the school community and has increased the diversity ratio in his department from 4 percent to 25 percent.
Abbie O’Neill in the Department of Cultural and Global Engagement said progress is being made on making Quinnipiac more inclusive.
“There’s a large population of students who do not feel [Quinnipiac is] inclusive. I think it’s making strides to become more inclusive, but it’s not there yet,” said O’Neill, a specialist for student engagement.
She says the school has been starting to support different multicultural groups and events, which could help students feel included on campus.
“I think highlighting the multicultural student organizations as places that students can go and either learn or become a part of something is a step in the right direction,” O’Neill said.
Recent changes the school has made include opening the multicultural suite for the multicultural organizations, creating the multicultural student leadership council and, for the first time, running a multicultural welcome week. Different events were put on by multicultural organizations each day during the week, ending with the culture fair.
Senior Layomi Akinnifesi thinks campus diversity is improving slowly but surely, but that inclusion – and how comfortable students and staff are with their differences – is more of the problem.
“Everyone is in their circles and bubbles and that’s what we need to improve on,” Akinnifesi said.
For example, Akinnifesi said that the Greek organizations don’t really work with the multicultural Greek organizations, and that some students don’t see the black or Latino student unions as being for them.
Some students said they don’t think that Quinnipiac is diverse at all.
“Just walking around you can notice that it’s not a diverse campus,” sophomore Andrea Reyes said.
“This is a PWI (predominantly white institution) so a majority of my classes I’m like one of the only person of color in the class,” sophomore Esau Greene said.
Greene believes that you can see the lack of diversity on campus, but that the school is working to make changes so that all feel welcome.
“There’s a pretty big disparity, but I do believe we are working our hardest to change and create a really diverse campus,” Greene said.
Students anonymously give their thoughts on how Quinnipiac can be more diverse and inclusive
As President Olian has begun her time at Quinnipiac, university staff believes that she will push further to make the school diverse and inclusive of all.
When this school year started freshmen were brought up to York Hill campus for a welcome ceremony where President Olian – as well as Mark Thompson, executive vice president, and Don Sawyer, chief diversity officer – all discussed the administration’s goal to be an inclusive and diverse campus.
“I think with this new administration you’re going to see a lot of changes for the better and I think you’re going to see a big change in the next couple of years. I think everybody’s on board, everybody believes this is the way to go,” said Rodriguez, the public safety chief. “This is a healthy way for us to move forward.”
Last Thursday afternoon public safety put yellow caution tape around the South Lot parking lot, and just like in years past, Fall Fest was upon us. This year, AJR, an indie rock group, was the headliner of the Sept. 15 event.
While this is the first big recreational event for all students in the fall each year, students and alumni say it is not well attended and is mostly for freshmen and sophomores.
“The bands are bad,” senior Patrick Brooks said. “I went to a darty (day party) instead and the school can’t do anything more because it’s meant for freshmen.”
Students also say they wish that they could have more of a say in the process of choosing a performer. The Student Programing Board (SPB) tells the student body who it has picked for the concert and does not ask for input outside of SPB.
Students – and alumni alike – say they have felt frustration about the event for some time.
“Personally it wasn’t my type of music,” alumna Nikki Hunyh said of the Fall Fests during her time at Quinnipiac from 2014-2018. “I feel that if the school got the students more involved, like ask them what type of music they wanna hear it would be more of a popular event.”
Another issue that students say they have with Fall Fest is the lack of advertising by the school to entice the student body.
“You don’t really hear much about it. All you get is an email,” senior Ethan Reever said.
Recent Fall Fest artists include Jamie Lynn Spears, Timeflies, Jana Kramer and The Hennigans.
Students watching tennis during Fall Fest.
“The artists decide if people will go. If the artists are popular, a lot of people are going to go. If they’re just somewhat decent, than people aren’t going to go,” junior Areesa Jasmine said.
This year many students found alternatives to attending the fall concert. During a survey of campus during the concert, reporters found that students were hanging with friends or going to sporting events. Many students said they went home for the weekend.
“I just stay in my dorm and hang out with my friends instead of going to the concert,” sophomore Robert Weinfeld said.
Whether they like it or not, students say Fall Fest will still be the official start of the fall semester for the Quinnipiac community. And some students will continue to feel the same about Fall Fest.
“I don’t know what Fall Fest is,” sophomore Robert Martinez said.
On this week’s edition of the QNN Newscast hear about Hurricane Florence’s impact on Quinnipiac students, an update on Sleeping Giant State Park, what weather to expect for Fall Fest on Saturday and much more.
As Hurricane Florence makes landfall in North and South Carolina, most students at Quinnipiac University don’t have to worry about any direct implications from this major storm.
But for some students, their families, friends and loved ones are right in the line of fire. While some chose to evacuate to different states, others boarded up their windows and are hoping for the best. All these students can do is watch and wait from afar.
A new batch of student reporters are starting in the HQ Press newsroom. Before reporting, we went around Quinnipiac and asked members in our community what they want to see in our coverage. Check us out on social media @hq_press on Instagram and Twitter. Send tips to hqpress.org@gmail.com.
Quinnipiac’s community engagement programs strive to form ethical global citizens
By Tatyana Youssef
As senior Mackenzie Keenan approaches the podium, administrators hand her a glass award. With a humble smile, Keenan accepts her recognition for “Global Citizen of the Year” at the undergraduate awards ceremony on April 20.
Mackenzie Keenan at the top of the highest catholic church in Central America, León
Keenan traveled to Nicaragua three times during her four years at Quinnipiac. As a second-time student leader, she learned something new after each Global Solidarity trip. Every year, working with the Alianza Americana Institute in the city of León opened her eyes to a new aspect of humanity and cemented her connections.
“I learned that self-reflection is essential for growth as a member of a global society,” she says. “Remembering that each and every human is worthy of a dignified life.”
The evolving engagement with host families in a community known as La Villa shaped Keenan’s values and beliefs, which she plans to carry into her future career in healthcare. More importantly, she thanks her experiences in Nicaragua for contributing to her personal growth and progressive beliefs.
“I learned that self-reflection is essential for growth as a member of a global society. Remembering that each and every human is worthy of a dignified life.”
“To me, global solidarity is understanding that no perceived difference, whether that be skin color, religion, sexual orientation, whatever nonsense you can come up with, will diminish the responsibility owed by the rest of society to that person to provide basic human respect,” she says.
However, students returning from trips in developing nations are not always like Mackenzie Keenan.
The ideal outcome of the trip is for students to expand their mind, gain equal perception of the people they met, and make connections to our society. At Quinnipiac University, dozens of students travel each year in so-called global solidarity programs.The university is still refining what those trips mean and designing curricula to guide students toward ethical engagement abroad.
Despite 11 months of pre-departure education, the outcomes are still not clearly articulated. Before the title of the trip became “Global Solidarity” it was known as “Alternative Spring Break.” The shift in title reflects the central focus, as global solidarity hints at service learning while alternative spring break is a travel option without a clear educational component.
Quinnipiac’s Department of Cultural and Global Engagement is working to improve abroad opportunities, instilling essential educational outcomes. Erin Sabato, the university’s Director of International Service and Learning, plays a major role in the program’s development.
Sabato has traveled to Nicaragua numerous times throughout the last 14 years, feeling a great connection to the resilient nation she calls home. When reflecting on the program’s format years ago, Sabato says,”There was a lot of emphasis on exposure to poverty, and while I think that is important, there needs to be context. There’s a fine line between exploitation and educating our students, and that needed to be examined and put into better context.”
Founders of Alianza Americana Institute, Eira and Oscar Aragón standing next to Erin Sabato at a celebration in honor of the partnership’s ten year anniversary. Photo courtesy of Rachel Booth.
Junior psychology major Mikaela Rooney experienced Nicaragua for the first time as a global solidarity delegate this past March.
“Erin Sabato has truly molded the global solidarity program into one that is ethical and informative,” she says.
Global solidarity promotes a horizontal mentality when collaborating with other countries, featuring an equal exchange of culture and compassion while working toward the same goal. Sabato visualizes global solidarity as people standing shoulder to shoulder.
“Equal exchange is the idea that we are not forcing our ‘help’ onto people who we perceive as needy,” Rooney said. “We go into communities in places like Nicaragua not to educate, but to learn from each other.”
Ideally, the concept moves us toward actions of collaboration and engagement, working side by side with global members despite coming from different walks of life. Coming from a higher learning institution in the United States, Sabato emphasizes the importance of checking privilege and positionality when entering developing nations.
“It’s more about this horizontal partnership as opposed to this vertical kind of global north, global south relationship,” she says. “The program needs to be community driven–the community members’ voices need to be at the forefront.”
Before entering a new country, students are trained on the culture and historical context as part of pre-departure education. Chief Diversity Officer Don Sawyer has an interesting take on global solidarity and how it should be facilitated.
Chief Diversity Officer Don Sawyer sitting outside of the department of cultural and global engagement. Photo courtesy of Quinnipiac University.
“The global solidarity piece is building the relationship – that’s what it is in title. But what it is in action still needs to be hammered out,” he says.
There is an element of inquiry that goes with pre-departure education along with readings, videos and discussions. Sawyer poses questions to make students think from a sociological perspective.
“What does it mean to travel, what does it mean to be an American citizen in another nation, what does it mean to be a white American in a nation of people of color, what does it mean to be a person of color going to that nation with a history of racial issues?” he asks.
“The global solidarity piece is building the relationship – that’s what it is in title. But what it is in action still needs to be hammered out,.jpg
Sawyer believes that challenging student thought is vital to the learning experience. Global solidarity is effective when students are able to make connections at home.
“You didn’t need to travel six hours to understand poverty, ya know?” he states.“There’s poverty around us everywhere if you were to open your eyes and take a look, so a part of these trips and the struggle in doing international work is getting students to see how the local and the national is also connected to the global.”
Sabato agrees with the significance of making connections at home after traveling. Students are impressed by the sense of community in these nations, however they seem to forget the community around them at home, according to Sabato.
“I think students need to make better connections about what’s happening here, we’re all concerned about what’s happening in Nicaragua understandably so, but why can we not make that connection about oppression here?” she asks.
Quinnipiac University’s relationship with Nicaragua’s Alianza Americana Institute is reaching its second decade in partnership. The Alianza translators teach English to students in the country and become like family to Quinnipiac students. The bond within this delegation is strong, as global solidarity is practiced when students rely on translators for understanding every interaction. Anyoleth Rizo Gutierrez, 19, has worked with Alianza for two years, after excelling in English herself when she finally broke out of her shell through the confidence she found through this second language.
Anyoleth Rizo Gutierrez, nicknamed Any, smiling during work at Alianza Americana teaching English classes. Photo courtesy of her friend, Sonia Belén Lopez.
Rizo Gutierrez sees growth within Quinnipiac students throughout each trip, especially the bonds they form with their host families in La Villa.
“You see the difference from the first day to the last day,” she says. “They are always crying when they leave because they have a family here.”
However, the closeness does not always happen so smoothly. She recalls a disheartening experience regarding a Quinnipiac student who did not understand the meaning of global solidarity.
“Last year in my first delegation, she was like, ‘Oh, this kid is dirty, I don’t want to touch him.’” Rizo Gutierrez says the child no longer had a family, taken in by the school the Quinnipiac students were working with that week.
“And then we had a beach trip and I saw her with the kid, and I was like, ya know, maybe something changed in her,” she says. “ I think maybe she realized the story he had behind him. Sometimes Quinnipiac students, they live in this bubble, like the United States.”
College is a privilege in Central America, while students in the United States are societally expected to attend an institution of higher learning after receiving their high school diploma. Growing up in Costa Rica with a single mother Rizo Gutierrez learned to be strong and to rely on steady, hard work. Rizo Gutierrez does not take her education for granted.
The delegation between Quinnipiac and Alianza shows an exchange of humanity and understanding. Despite differences in living conditions and experiences, students are able to bond with the translators when humanity and empathy are put at the forefront of the engagement.
Sabato talks about the importance of empathy through the act of continuous support.
“Solidarity, to me, means that I may not understand your struggle, I may never be in your shoes, yet I will continue to stand beside you, continue to support you and your struggle in reaching your objective,” she says.
Sawyer recalls bonding with Haitian community members in the Dominican Republic through a cultural swap of dancing.
“They were teaching us Haitian dances and then we were teaching them American dances like the electric slide and the wobble, so there was this exchange,” he says.
Granted, people’s lives aren’t going to be changed from learning the wobble, Sawyer adds, “but seeing a relationship being built that wasn’t like what they tend to see when people just come, drop off rice, and leave –- there was actual engagement.”
Sawyer and his students witnessed a group from Canada drop off rice at doors in the community without any true engagement.
“They came in, went to the doors, handed out rice and beans, lifting up these kids from behind, hugging them, kissing them, taking pictures and then they left,” he says.
The use of photography during these trips can be particularly problematic, both Sawyer and Sabato say. Today’s generation puts a large emphasis on documenting experiences through the use of social media. As more and more students travel abroad, social media feeds tend to be filled with unrealistic, staged photographs. The Canadian group inserted themselves into the community by only ‘giving’ and over-affectionately interacting with the children when the cameras came out, according to Sawyer.
“They came in, went to the doors, handed out rice and beans, lifting up these kids from behind, hugging them, kissing them, taking pictures and then they left.”
This creates harm with visual exploitation, as photographs taken during these trips often show power dynamics with white volunteers from the global north smiling, standing above the loving, brown children positioned below or around them. Parental consent is usually unavailable in these circumstances. However, the students pose with the children’s faces regardless.
“We were not picking up kids and putting them on Instagram and Twitter, that’s not what it was about,” Sawyer says. “In those pre departure meetings we talk about responsible photography so most of the trip, hopefully we got photos of the trip, but people had their phones away- they were mostly engaging.”
In November 2017, the internet reacted to a viral photo of a white European tourist holding a young child in Kenya. As the child’s head leans on top of her shoulder, Jossa Johansson captioned her image on Instagram with ignorant words, including the lack of opportunities in the child’s future.
“One of the happiest moment in your life was probably when you met me and my friends,” Johansson wrote.”I am sorry to tell you that there is a very slim chance we will ever meet again.”
The Instagram post went viral, as viewers expressed harsh, justified opinions on Facebook and Twitter.
@xtiandela @jossajohansson @Jossie_99 Your post is a disgrace. The least you can do is apologize for portraying such false. I can’t fathom what kind of a horrid person could go ahead and imagine a child selling herself. In the name of help, there’s something awfully wrong with you.
Criticism included the need for ethical boundaries and need for education when traveling to other nations.
Although an incident of this magnitude has never occurred at Quinnipiac, Sawyer still sees the need for continuing education.
“This shows with all the work we’re doing, we need to do more,” he says.
The importance of ethical boundaries regarding photographs is discussed in the pre-departure meetings through articles and videos the students watch and analyze. Sabato states that she expects students to be engaged during each meeting.
Components to the pre-departure training include knowledge on the history of the partnership and who the stakeholders are abroad.
“I expect them to want to learn about the countries they are traveling to, the community members they will be working with, the ethics behind how to engage in these programs as a university, and what our role is as a university,” she says.
Sabato hopes that going forward these pre-departure experience will help avoid ethical lapses.
“It’s important to recognize the assets and the value that our partners bring to the table in this equation.”
Through inquiry and dialogue, Sabato ensures that each student is actively reflecting during the experience. She challenges students to be critical of themselves and their preconceived ideas, setting time in the itinerary for daily discussions on privilege, equality and cultural exchange. Sabato plans to continue these efforts, encouraging students to stay active through the entire process while maintaining a sense of cultural humility.
“It’s important to recognize what we don’t know,” she says. “It’s important to recognize the assets and the value that our partners bring to the table in this equation. And then I expect students to come back, take what they’ve learned and think about how to apply it in their future.”
The campaign season for 2018 midterm elections have begun. Across the country, current and aspiring politicians are vying for positions at the national and state level, including Connecticut.
But the 2016 election is still on everyone’s minds.
The Secretary of the State’s office is preparing better cybersecurity for the election, according to The CT Post on April 16. Deputy Secretary of the State Scott Bates was quoted saying, “Today it’s the Russians, but tomorrow it could be others.” In many places, it has been proven that Russia had an impact, directly or indirectly, on the 2016 election cycle and its aftermath. For example, the fear of fake news led to YouTube putting a disclaimer on Russia Today’s videos, saying that they are “funded in whole or in part by the Russian government.”
From the Russian issues, to a host of other controversies, the hype around the 2016 election was real. A recent paper by Markus Prior and Lori Bougher of Princeton University, makes mention of an overall increase in campaign interest for 2016, using information from the American National Elections Studies. However, what they argued is that the hype didn’t translate into a greater turnout; the numbers for 2016 were comparable to that of other recent presidential elections.
Specifically, the paper cited data from the United States Election Project, saying that 60.2 percent of eligible voters went to the polls 2016. This is more than 2012, with 58.6 percent, but less than 2008, with 62.2 percent turnout.
More people voted in 2016 for president than 2012. However, the turnout in 2016 is less than the turnout in 2008.
As for Connecticut, the numbers are similar to the national figures. Using numbers from the Election Project for presidential votes, in 2016, 65.4 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the 2016 election. For 2012, 61.3 percent turned out. In 2008, 66.6 percent of eligible voters participated.
The voting trend in Connecticut is similar to the national trend.
Quinnipiac’s Chair of Philosophy and Political Science Scott McLean said that there were many ways that the 2016 election was an average election. For example, independents usually prevent the party in power from having three consecutive terms, which in 2016 would have been the Democratic party.
“Most polls make the mistake that the undecideds in the last days of the election will just break evenly. No, they always break away from the party in power,” he said.
But the perception that voters were energized to vote was because there were so many new dynamics. McLean said the 2016 election sparked interest because Trump and Hillary Clinton were two unconventional candidates. For Clinton, he noted that she was the first female candidate in the general election and had experience being the first lady when her husband Bill was in office. As for Trump, McLean said that people were drawn to him because he was an outsider who was able to get the nomination despite early resistance in the Republican party.
The news media also played a big role in the hype around the 2016 election, publicizing investigations into the candidates, and the potential of Russian meddling.
“You never know what was going to happen from one day to the next. It was drawing a lot of interest. It was also generating extremely high levels of disgust and anger, so that people were tuning in and coming away from it not really more educated about the issues, but more angry about the candidates,” McLean said.
Marjorie Bonadies, an at-large Republican councilwoman in Hamden, agrees. She calls the 2016 election cycle “the best soap opera “ in the country’s history. She blames the news media in part for stirring the pot and disenfranchising some voters.
“It was a daily barrage of who said what, who was under investigation, Hillary Clinton’s emails; you couldn’t write it any better,” Bonadies said.
Politico compiled some of that “daily barrage” in an article from Nov. 11, 2016. It showed a spectrum of stories during the course of the election. Some of the headlines included, “Trump recorded having extremely lewd conversation about women in 2005,” which ran in the Washington Post, and “Foreign Government Gifts to Clinton Foundation on the Rise,” published by The Wall Street Journal.
This article appeared in the Washington Post on Oct. 8, 2016.
This article appeared in The Wall Street Journal on Feb. 25, 2015.
Jeffrey Foy, an assistant professor of psychology at Quinnipiac University, blames the public in part for the hysteria around the last presidential election. He said that the public finds the news boring, so they’re attracted to salacious stories. In turn, the news media are capitalizing on it.
“The real reason they’re doing this is that they need clicks, they need money. And so, they’re going to do whatever we pay for them to do. If I’m a person who’s conservative, there’s certain news stories that’ll get me to click readily, rather than ones that are maybe pro liberal,” he said,
Brad Macdowall, who is a Democratic councilman for Hamden’s 9th District, said that politicians can also be blamed for dropping the ball. He said the Democratic party “fell asleep” during the 2016 election.
“Republicans tend to, in general, have higher voting than Democrats,” he said. “They just turn out more. Which is why, when a lower turnout happens, Democrats lose. Turnout fluctuation happens with Democrats, not with Republicans.”
Foy was surprised by the Trump victory 2016, but he said that was the result of personally sticking to liberal-leaning social circles, thus being less exposed to conservative views. He said that, in the process of shaping a narrative for the election result, the right wants to emphasize a sense of exceptionalism, where the left is reflecting on their mistakes.
“There’s this thing in psychology that when something happens that is unexpected, particularly if it’s negative for a lot of people, they wanna understand why, “ Foy said. “So, if you lose something, you wanna say ‘why did we lose it’, as opposed to when you something, you’re less likely to say ‘why did we win’. You kinda just revel in the winning.”
In gearing up for the 2018 midterm Macdowall has reflected on the mistakes, as he is also a Democratic consultant. For Connecticut, Macdowall is focusing on seats in the state senate, which are currently tied 18-18 between the Democrats and the Republicans. He said that this was unheard of for Connecticut to not have a Democratic majority in recent history. Macdowall wants the Democrats to find their message again.
“Just think of where we came from in 2008, the party of ‘Yes We Can’, to 2016, where we became the party of shoving Hillary Clinton down everyone’s throats,” he said.
However, Macdowall is optimistic about the Democrats’ chances in 2018, considering that there will be opportunities for new faces, like in Connecticut’s 5th District. Kenneth Dautrich, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut, also said that the Democrats have good odds.
“Democrats will be more energized [because] of Trump. But this is not uncommon. When a new president takes office the opposition party voters tend to be more motivated 2 years later,” he said in an email. “ So in a blue state like CT dems will really be at an advantage.”
Back in 2016, Bonadies ran for a state representative seat, but lost. She said that there is still some Republican momentum in Connecticut, as the final result in her race was closer than expected.
Even though Bonadies said the Republicans have merit in the Connecticut midterms due to their positions on taxes and government debt, she said they’re still “swimming in the deep blue Democrat state of Connecticut,”.
“This coming election year would be ripe for a Republican, but the machinery in place for the Democratic party is pretty powerful,” Bonadies said.
John Lahey is Quinnipiac University’s longest standing president. In 2014 he was the second-highest paid in the country, making over $3.7 million a year, according to an article from Business Insider.
However in a few short weeks the reign of Lahey will end and Judy Olian will take over. As the university’s first female president, Olian will be making history.
But Lahey already has. For the last 31 years Lahey has expanded the physical campus and increased the population. But he’s also dealt with the consequences of that growth.
When the university hired Lahey as president in 1987, Russia was still called the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan was president. Walk Like an Egyptian was the number one song.
And the quad on Quinnipiac’s main campus didn’t even exist. According to an article from Quinnipiac Magazine, Lahey was the one who first envisioned the current “quad.” Prior to 1987 it actually resembled more of an “L,” with just the library and a classroom building to the left.
Lahey and his team of architects built and renovated nearly 10 buildings amongst the three different campuses:
1989: Echlin Center
1993: Lender School of Business with the Ed McMahon Communications Center
1995: School of Law (now the Center for Communications and Engineering)
2000: renovated the Library, the Student Center and Buckman Theaters
2007: The York Hill arena
2007: North Haven campus
2009: York Hill residence halls dorms
2013: Frank H. Netter M.D. School of Medicine
Slide the white line back and forth to see changes from QU in 1991 to QU in 2017. Notice that while the school had built Echlin by 1991, it hadn’t built Center for Communications and Engineering, and it has also expanded the dorms since then. Also, York Hill was still just a hill back in ’91.
But all this expansion came as a result of the growing enrollment. The university needed somewhere to put the students they were admitting.
The graph above shows growth rates for Quinnipiac and Hamden over 30 years, according to Hamden’s website, the Quinnipiac registrar and Quinnipiac’s annual reports, which are on file in the library (photos of select pages are available here). In all but seven of those years, QU’s growth rate exceeded Hamden’s. The school’s enrollment dropped only one year, but Hamden’s population dropped or stayed virtually the same about half of the three decades.
And although reasons for an increase in enrollment aren’t definite, some peaks in growth rates happened around the same time as university expansions.
For example, according to Quinnipiac Magazine, the university opened the law school in 1995. The next year there was a small spike in enrollment rate.
Also, after President Lahey’s 2006 agreement with the town of Hamden to offer housing for all students on campus, the University saw its first negative growth rate in years in 2007.
Quinnipiac had not yet built the York Hill dorms; the expansion had only been approved in 2006. By the time the dorms were finished in 2010, the university had the highest growth rate in a decade.
However, with this growth came tension, as more young adults opted to live in off-campus housing in the surrounding town.
And in recent years, students having parties in off-campus housing have caused some conflicts between the town of Hamden and Quinnipiac. Although the university does offer housing for students for all four years, President Lahey said it’s unrealistic to expect all students to choose that option.
“If we’d built 500 more beds, more students would have come on campus, but there would still be the 20 percent who wouldn’t. It wouldn’t solve the problem, and we’d have hundreds of empty beds,” said Lahey in an interview with the Hartford Courant in 2015.
Since 2015 total enrollment has increased by close to 1,000 students. To keep the peace with the town, QU plans to expand housing. On March 27, the Hamden Planning and Zoning Commission approved Quinnipiac’s plan to build senior housing on York Hill, including over 200 more beds.
But it’s only a few problem houses a year that hurt the university’s relationship with the town. During the most recent school year eight noise complaints came from homes that had permits to rent to students, according to records from the Hamden Police Department (there may be landlords that rent to students without permits).
However there were close to 300 noise complaints over the same amount of time, spread across the entire town.
The black icons are addresses of noise complaints filed with the Hamden Police Department. The purple dots are addresses that have permits to rent to students. It should be noted that there may be some homes that do not have a permit to rent to student, but students may still live in some of the homes that are close to the Quinnipiac campus.
So despite the growth of Quinnipiac during the Lahey years, his tenure hasn’t been perfect. In 2015 Lahey attended an off campus party during “May Weekend,” a notorious party weekend at QU.
In an attempt to “be humorous” with the students, Lahey celebrated their May Weekend party, and his remarks enraged some Hamden residents and Quinnipiac alums.
“I deeply regret having made these remarks, for which I sincerely apologize. I have already personally conveyed this apology to Interim Mayor Jim Pascarella and renewed my commitment to work with him and town officials to resolve these long standing student housing issues in the immediate future,” Lahey said in a statement in 2015.
But just in time for his retirement, Lahey seems to be easing tensions.
“Quinnipiac and the town are on better footing right now than we have been in a very long time, and that is a great benefit to the university and to the town,” Leng said at the press conference.
Perhaps the goal of mending university-town relations is the reason for the increase in tuition. While the average student doesn’t pay the current full tuition of over $60,000, according to annual reports, the amount has increased by over 200 percent over the last three decades.
Adjusted for inflation, in 1988 the average student paid almost $12,000. The most recent year available showed that an average student pays about $40,000.
And the university’s revenue increase isn’t just from tuition. Between 1988 and 2017 revenue from everything but tuition (including gifts, grants, and investment returns) increased nearly 400 percent, after adjusting for inflation.
But the distribution of that money hasn’t changed much over the years. The biggest difference in the expense data over the past 30 years was in student aid and scholarships, and sponsored research.
In 1988 less than a quarter of Quinnipiac’s expenses went to student aid and scholarships, but by 2017 it was close to a third. By increasing student aid, the university can increase enrollment and give opportunities for students who may not have been able to afford Quinnipiac’s hefty tuition.
While Lahey’s departure has left students wondering how life at Quinnipiac will change under a new president, Lahey has his own plans.
He plans to spend the colder months in Florida with his wife, Judy. But Lahey does plan to come back and teach a philosophy or logic course in spring of 2019, according to an interview with The Chronicle.
“I hope, I’m leaving Quinnipiac as someone who doesn’t take themself any more seriously than they have to and appreciates the people around them,” Lahey said.
