HQ Press – Page 40

Emotional support animals benefit Bobcats

By Tatyana Youssef

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Professional women’s sports teams in Connecticut prove the future is bright

The Connecticut Whale celebrating a goal (credit: Michael Hertzel)

By Sam Prevot

Cydney Roesler first stepped on the ice when she was 5 years old.

Her father was a former college hockey player for Colgate University and taught her how to skate along with her mother. This is normal for a kid growing up in Canada, where ice sports are a way of life. At 8 years old, she made the switch from a Canadian sport called ringette to hockey. She immediately fell in love with the game. Even at a young age, Roesler was competitive and this fast, physical game was a perfect match. However, there was one catch: Roesler had to play with boys.

“There weren’t any good, competitive girls’ leagues at that time so I felt like boys hockey was my only option,” Roesler said. “People would always ask me, ‘Did the boys try to hit you all the time?’ and to be honest some of them did.”

For Roesler and so many other girls, the opportunity to watch their role models only came once every four years.

“For me it was tough growing up because I wasn’t really exposed to female hockey players … it was really just every four years,” she said. “You watched the Olympics and that was kind of it.”

Roesler on the ice for the Connecticut Whale of the NWHL (credit: Rob Rasmussen)

Roesler started playing girls hockey in high school and then played for the Quinnipiac University women’s ice hockey team.

Since the passing of Title IX, opportunities for women in sports have increased dramatically. However, there is still a long way to go when it comes to professional women’s sports. In professional women’s sports leagues are much smaller, teams struggle to put fans in seats and media coverage is lacking.

Women’s hockey has progressed since Roesler’s childhood. The Canadian Women’s Hockey League was founded in 2007 and the National Women’s Hockey League was founded in 2015, during Roesler’s junior year at Quinnipiac. She now plays for the NWHL’s Connecticut Whale.

The NWHL is just three seasons old. The league’s only broadcasting deal is with Twitter, to stream a “Game of the Week”, and three out of the four teams are still league-owned.

Attendance was high in the inaugural season, with an average of 1,000 people attending each game. Now, that average is closer to 750 people. Salaries are also an issue for the league, some players have been downgraded from a set salary to now receiving payments for each game they play. Most players have other full time jobs in addition to playing NWHL games on the weekends.

The Women’s National Basketball Association is a more established league, but it faces similar questions about attendance and salaries.

The WNBA celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017. The league has a television deal with ESPN and a few of its teams have partnerships with their NBA counterparts. Average attendance continued to decline, but resurged and reached its highest levels since 2011 last season.

Sylvia Fowles of the Minnesota Lynx won the WNBA regular season and finals MVP in 2017, and was paid a salary of $109,000. The NBA minimum salary is more than $562,000.

Amber Cox, vice president of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, sees the league as a growing business that needs more commitment from fans.

“There’s a patience involved when it comes to building a fan base. In this day and age you can survive and be a growing sport,” Cox said.

“I think sometimes the miss is with fans, they’re sort of casual about it. When I’m talking to potential season ticket holders, you think you’re supporting us by coming to three games and watching us on TV and reading about us in the paper, but the way that we are going to continue to have financial success and grow this thing … is by full season tickets … Take that commitment up. If you say that to people, typically the light will go on.”

There is a disconnect in our society when it comes to men’s and women’s sports. The widely held belief is that a men’s professional sport will be of higher quality and entertainment value than women’s.

Quinnipiac sociology professor Devon Gross who teaches “Sociology of Sport” says that looking at women’s and men’s sports differently is a learned behavior based on gender constructs and the way we socialize.

“We’ve always associated masculinity and sports together,” she said. “We think of sports as aggressive and violent and competitive and those are all things we associate with men more than women. We’ve been socialized and told constantly that sports and men go together. So when women are playing sports we don’t really know how to react to that.”

There is a cultural belief that women are not as good at sports as men, and to watch women’s sports is to “settle.” There is also the comparison of women to men and the idea that female athletes are less feminine because they play sports.

“Anyone who is associated with that we automatically think of as having masculine traits. That’s where there’s the stereotype that women athletes are lesbians or that they’re more masculine,” Gross said. “There seems to be a pretty strict binary in sports and you’re either doing girls sports or boys sports and if you cross the line in any way we’re pretty uncomfortable about it.”

There is also the issue of sexualization of female athletes. Scholars say that the way male and female athletes are represented in the media is designed to “uphold sport as a male preserve” and there is still embedded sexism.

Cydney Roesler believes games like the gold medal finals between the United States and Canada’s women’s hockey teams in the Winter Olympics prove that the sport can be exciting and draw audiences.

“There shouldn’t be that disconnect between the two (men’s and women’s hockey),” she said. “Even games in our league, it gets pretty fired up. It gets physical and everything like that. It’s kind of like ‘Hey, here are the aspects the men’s game has that we’re bringing to ours too,’ why aren’t people more drawn to it? A lot of people watch hockey because they think it’s so tough with the fighting and the hits. We’re not going to fight … but we’re still physical, we’re fast, we’re skilled.”

The University of Minnesota is home to the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport. In an article titled Playing but Losing: Women’s Sports after Title IX, Tucker Center researchers discuss the inequalities between men’s and women’s sports that still exist today after laws like Title IX were passed.

One particular issue mentioned is media coverage of women’s sports. Although broadcast coverage of women’s sports has increased and improved in quality, this change has not translated to newspapers, magazines or televised news and highlight shows.

The article cites a 2010 study by the University of Southern California that found that ESPN aired 100 segments and over three hours for the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, and 11 segments and just six and a half minutes for the women’s tournament. That coverage of the women’s tournament was mostly a scrolling ticker at the bottom of the screen.

The Hartford Courant covers the Connecticut Sun’s home games, and some away games depending on how the team’s season is going. Jeff Smith, deputy sports editor at the Courant, says that the paper’s coverage is all about which teams are successful.

“Like any other industry that’s trying to find its way through financial challenges, we have to make choices,” Smith said. “So we can’t cover everything … when the team (Connecticut Sun) was not so good, we had to make choices and spread our resources. We would always have Sun coverage in the paper but not always with a reporter. But then last year, when the team did better … clearly that shifts the way we cover them.”

When Sports Editor Sean Barker started at the New Haven Register in 2000, there were 28 sports writers on staff. Now among three of the papers owned by Hearst in the area, there are six.

Barker believes in fair coverage for men’s and women’s sports. But he admits that traditional beliefs from older journalists and a small staff can affect coverage of women’s sports. The Register’s Connecticut Whale coverage consists of one feature per season.

“Women’s sports have come a long way in media coverage, but there is still a fight for media space. I get challenged by this every day,” Barker said. “There’s some arguments that there’s more media coverage on a television level that leads to people wanting to know more about men’s sports. Then there’s the basic argument that honestly people don’t give women’s sports the respect that they deserve.”

When it comes to these coverage choices, Barker points out that the media could sometimes create more readership for the sport instead of the sport dictating the coverage.

“Does attendance rise because there’s more media coverage, or do you get more media coverage because your attendance is higher? It’s an interesting dynamic. So if we covered the National Women’s Hockey League on a consistent basis, how would that affect attendance? It would probably go up.”

For the Connecticut Sun, Cox thinks the team should take matters into their own hands and help bring attention to the sport and the players.

“There is always more opportunity (for media coverage),” Cox said. “One of the things I tell my team all the time is that we have to continue to be responsible for telling our own story. If LeBron tweets something about something political or the type of cereal he likes, everybody retweets it and the media picks it up and they talk about it. We don’t necessarily have that critical mass on a national level.”

At the end of the day, Roesler and Cox are both optimistic about the future of women’s hockey and basketball. Rising attendance, increased coverage and social media presence are all creating a loyal fanbase for the NWHL and WNBA to build a foundation on and young girls have more role models to look up to.

“You’re just now getting to the point where WNBA players grew up watching the WNBA,” Cox said. “That is creating a cycle of ‘I know I can do this for a living, I can earn a living playing in the WNBA’ and as a result are training for it.”

Roesler recognizes loyal fans at games and at the team’s postgame signings. She sees that as a sign that the future is bright for the sport.

“There’s definitely that fan loyalty,” she said. “And you start to see the same little girls coming to the games … so you see new faces but then again you see those returners who just love to be there. For little girls now they can come watch us and dream and hope they’ll be where we are.”

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

By Grace Manthey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Mary Rose Bevins

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wake The Giant concert proves to be successful

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

By Grace Manthey

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

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

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

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

Senior Week committee releases housing forms

By Grace Manthey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quinnipiac will wait for new president before building new dorm

By Cliff Nadel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ALDI grand opening provides more grocery competition in Hamden

By Grace Manthey and Thamar Bailey

Where Hamden community members used to find a seasonal Halloween store, they will now find an up in coming supermarket. Aldi opened its doors for the first time on Thursday, April 12 on Dixwell Avenue, marking the company’s 26th location in Connecticut.

The first 100 customers received a golden envelope with a gift card.

Hamden resident and Quinnipiac University alumnus Paula Santagata wasn’t one of the first 100 customers. However, having been to Aldi stores in both Wallingford and East Haven, she was excited to have the store closer to home.

“The prices are very good and it’s clean and it’s a good competition,” Santagata said.

Santagata’s husband Tony also appreciated the addition of another store for competition. He said it helps keep the prices down so people can, “make a living.”

“You’ve gotta live within your means and this works for us. Nobody walks in my house hungry and leaves the same way. So these stores work and I’m happy, I’ve still got money in my pocket,” he said.

Aldi is involved in sustainability initiatives, so they encourage customers to bring their own bags or buy reusable bags upon checkout.

The store is open every day 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Connecticut teachers are unlikely to organize walkouts

By Sam Prevot

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

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

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

The situation in Kentucky, Oklahoma and Arizona is similar.

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

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

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

(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quinnipiac approves virtual office hours policy

By Thamar Bailey

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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