Hamden encouraging solar panel use through new event

By Michael Brennan

As the world struggles to wean itself off of fossil fuels, the town of Hamden is taking the initiative to try and go green in a new event.

On Saturday, November 4, Hamden will hold its first-ever “Environmental Services Day.” The event is being held to encourage people to be more eco-friendly with food trucks, free electronics recycling, paper shredding, and a chance to learn about the benefits of renewable solar energy.

Haley Starvaggi, Hamden’s Solid Waste & Recycling Coordinator, said that she was inspired to address environmental concerns after many residents wanted to find an area to shred mass amounts of paper.

The contents of the event, such as hiring an outside company to shred large quantities of paper, were originally planned to be included in the farmer’s market held earlier in the year. When that did not pan out, this snowballed into an event that could educate the town about ways they could do their part in environmental conservation.

“The focus of the event is two things. It’s to reducing energy consumption at their house, as well as take care of recycling, some of those things you can’t put in your curbside bin… you are not advised to put shredded paper into your recycling bin. If you have important documents to shred, this is a more environmentally-friendly way to do it,” said Starvaggi.

Energy Efficiency Coordinator Kathleen Schomaker said that while she is not sure how much money can be saved in the average Hamden house by going solar, you can save money based on how many products using fossil fuels you convert into renewable energy.

An example of this Schomaker gave was that if you converted your house to solar power and then traded your car in for an energy efficient electric car, you would save more money and resources than if you converted your house without getting rid of your gas-powered car.

The event is being held in conjunction with Solarize CT, a partnership between the government and a company that installs solar panels, which is trying to convert people in Connecticut to solar power. They do this by selecting panel installers and help offset costs of converting a home to solar-powered energy with special financing options.

This is not the first time that Hamden has experimented with more efficient ways of fueling the town. According to New Haven Register, Hamden unanimously approved the construction of 4,000 solar panels in the Wintergreen Avenue landfill by True Green Capital, which will help save the town $600,000 in energy costs over 20 years.

Mayor Curt Leng released a statement praising Solarize CT’s mission and encouraged residents to find out if their house is able to be converted to solar power.

“The Town of Hamden is very happy to bring Solarize CT back to our residents for a second round. Hamden is committed to sustainability and this program is a great way for our residents to become involved and take control of their energy bills … It truly is a great way to save money and help our environment too!” said Leng.

Starvaggi said that if it is successful she would like it to happen annually.

“I think our ultimate goal is to attract people with the paper shredding and electronics recycling, and then while they’re here doing those things they would want to do no matter what, then they’ll stop by and get some more information that might get them thinking about improvements they might make around their house to reduce energy consumption,” said Starvaggi.

Environmental Services Day will happen on November 4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 2750 Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, Connecticut.

Summit Learning: The new direction for Cheshire public schools

By Ariana Spinogatti

The Summit Learning Platform is a free online program the Cheshire Public School District brought into the student curriculum this year. Summit Learning is centered on personalized learning and progress tracking for students. This program allows teachers to customize their instructions to fit student needs and build strong relationships between the teacher, student and his or her family.

Cheshire Public School Superintendent, Shawn Parkhurst, brought in Summit Learning for grades five, six and seven. As of now Cheshire Public Schools is the only district in Connecticut that is using the program. Historically, Summit Learning got together with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, who helped get engineers to build the platform. This program was first used out of a charter school in California and some schools in Washington before going national.

The students from Cheshire access Summit via Google Chromebooks, however, you can access Summit through any computer or tablet. Cheshire does not use Summit full time for every student in every classroom.

Personalized learning @chapman_school @CheshireSuper pic.twitter.com/Qojxpam9Xo

— Shawn Parkhurst (@ShawnParkhurst) September 14, 2017

–Doolittle School located on 735 Cornwall Avenue in Cheshire uses Summit to help teach social studies and science. This school’s highest education level is the sixth grade.

–Chapman School located on 38 County Club Road in Cheshire used Summit to help teach science and math. This school’s highest education level is the sixth grade.

–Norton School located on 414 North Brooksvale Road in Cheshire uses Summit for all sixth grade subjects. On the school’s website they highlight technology as being an integral part of their learning environment. Norton uses Smartboards, Chromebooks, iPads and Google apps for student learning. This school’s highest education level is the sixth grade.

–Highland School located on 490 Highland Avenue in Cheshire uses it for two out of the five sixth grade classes.

–Dodd Middle School located on 1000 Park Place in Cheshire is just for seventh and eighth grade. Students are broken up into teams by color. The teal color is the only team who uses Summit, especially for math.

Some may argue that Summit is cutting edge and can be personalized to each students needs. Others may say it replaces the teacher role in the classroom and allows for students to have too much screen time. Another argument to investigate is what kind of school districts use Summit. Summit may be used in challenged school districts where achievement is not high. Some schools may offer this charter program for various students who need to do better by taking more responsibility of their learning and adapt skills to be more independent.

Parents in the Cheshire School District have voiced their concerns whether or not Summit is necessary and safe for their children.

One parent says his daughter at Dodd Middle School uses Summit for all her subjects.

“When I talked to the superintendent, who is really responsible for bringing Summit to the schools, he basically said last year in the spring of 2017 he brought it back to the school and talked to various teachers about who was interested about learning about the platform.”

This parent said that he doesn’t think there is a lot of data to support the claims that Summit is a successful program for student learning.

“The schools that are using it are not schools like Cheshire, who have good teachers on its own. I am still on the fence about Summit. I am trying to understand if we really need this yet. It is so new and for next year to potentially have the whole school district using it doesn’t make much sense.”

Summit is divided up into different pillars to how the education system works.

One is personalized learning time. Students work through various modules with learning objectives that has provided content so they can work at their own pace. The module will have notes, articles and YouTube videos to help them study and understand the material before they take a quiz. To move onto the next section, the student must score at least 80 percent.

Two is mentoring time to help students set goals with a teacher at the school. On Summit the teacher can add or subtract material Summit uses and can even display their own material. Students are responsible to set goals for what they want to accomplish each day or week. This is a way for students to be responsible for their own learning.

Three is the classroom. This is part of the student education geared towards critical learning, complex thinking, project and presentation based learning. The material going on during computer time is supposed to correlate to what’s going on in the classroom setting led by the teacher.

Another parent expressed that she went to the schools informational sessions about Summit. She felt if this program was used properly it sounded worthwhile. She said that “personalized,” and “cognitive learning,” were common buzzwords the district would use to sell the program.

“My first concern was the advertisements,” she said. “A lot of the articles the students use have pop ups from third parties, like Web MD, which is concerning. The school district had to put an add blocker onto Summit. These kids are 10 and 11 and on the side of their articles there are links to other concerning topics.

This parent said that whenever she talks to someone in the community there is a different answer and a different opinion. She also said that she was shocked Shawn Parkhurst did not know that these articles were on the platform.

“The superintendent said he would go through each article to approve it appropriateness,” she said. “It is a concern they didn’t even realize this was a problem in the first place. It is a big waste of time that they have created all of this work for themselves since we had a good curriculum before. It was a mess about how the district put it out.”

**Image from the document Parkhurst sent to families surrounding the myths and facts of Summit**

Three parents said that their children have been complaining about the program, saying that it is too much information for them to handle. They said that this program has caused their children to be nervous about going to school in fear that they will not be able to keep up with their peers.

One mother said that she feels the overuse of screen time in the classroom is detrimental to her son’s development.

“Friends of mine who work in education and work with kids think these students are too young to work with this material and filter what is or is not important,” she said. “They need that face to face interaction with other students and their teacher. When kids are still developing socially and emotionally, still forming habits and commination, they need to see things first hand for their development.”

Shawn Parkhurst said he spoke with teachers in the district and has held information sessions with parents when he decided to bring Summit Learning into the Cheshire curriculum.

“We have had personalized learning as a strategic plan for the past 10 years,” he said. “We have had many teachers who are using Google classrooms and Chromebooks in previous years. We shared it with our team and they shared information about it when it was still at its building level. Teachers saw it as a way to enhance what they were doing and move forward. There was an application process to see if they have the minds and philosophy for this. There is also only development with that.”

When we asked Parkhurst how he felt the school should deal with concerned parents, he advises families to not rely on online research and work directly with their children.

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“Regarding the parents feedback, we have been transparent from the beginning that we will provide education night for parents,” he said. Any parent that has requested or reached out to us, we have met with them individually. We recommend that they go to the child itself and to their school instead of researching and finding general information online.”

On Nov. 6 there will be a board of education curriculum committee meeting on 29 Main Street at the board of education offices. The Summit Learning program will be one of the topics covered so attendees can ask questions and have a discussion.

Getting to know Melissa Kaplan

By Camila Costa

Melissa Kaplan, Hamden resident and English professor at Quinnipiac University, contemplated putting her two children in private school after being told the school district was not good enough.

“I kind of second guessed myself and said ‘What are you doing?’ The whole point is not to run away, but to make the schools stronger themselves and to not participate in that problem, but actually do something about it,” said Kaplan.

Twelve years later, she is making changes to fix those problems and running as a democratic candidate for a four year term as an elected official in the Board of Education (BOE) in the upcoming elections, happening on Nov. 7.

Alongside making changes in the Hamden school district, she is changing the lives of many students at Quinnipiac University.

About three years ago, Kaplan became the Associate Director of the Honors Program at Quinnipiac. Now she is the Interim Director of the program.

Since her move to the town, Kaplan has been actively involved in her children’s education as well as the greater Hamden school district.

Kaplan was sworn in on the BOE in September to fill in a seat that was recently vacated due to an unexpected resignation of another BOE member. She applied for the position with this letter of intent.

Kaplan has always been political; she believes that teaching itself is political, and when it comes to the upcoming elections in Hamden, she believes anything is possible.

“I think one of the things we’ve learned from this past election is that there are no guarantees,” she said. “Hamden is a traditionally blue town and out of the nine districts, eight have traditionally been democratic, but it’s not to say that we don’t have a tough race ahead of us.”

Although the elections are approaching soon, Kaplan has been actively involved with her political career outside of the race.

She recently took her ‘intersexual feminism ideology’ and her activist actions outside of the classroom in various ways.

She was involved with the BOE before running for the position, as well as being apart of other groups such as the Hamden Parent Supporting Education Excellence (SEE) and The Connecticut Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).

One of her duties, due to the current political situation, was ensuring the safety of transgender and non-binary students in the Hamden school district.

“You can’t cherry pick your issues,” said Kaplan. “If you are going to stand there and fight against sexism, that is intersexual, and so it’s also fighting homophobia, racism, classism and all the various classes of ‘isms’ that exist. So for me, advocacy was really very important.”

Kaplan has only been apart of the BOE for less than two months, however, she is very excited about it and looks forward to working on fixing issues within the community.

“[We are] Getting different initiatives passed and dealing with issues of diversity and inequality in our school system and also focusing right now on the state budget and funding and making sure that our students’ needs are taken care of,” she said.

Kaplan has had a voice in the Hamden community as well as within the Quinnipiac community, so she fights for those who do not but need their voices to be heard.

Although the BOE deals with different topics, one of Hamden’s biggest issues of the moment is the financial situation.

“We have a bunch of different committees, some of them deal with curriculum and policy. Others deal with finance, and that’s one I had a lot to learn about,” said Kaplan. “I think that’s also the most important one because we are dealing with a lot of budget cuts and so we need to find a way to make the most out of the little that we’re given.”

Jody Ian Goeler, the Hamden Superintendent of Schools, proposed this budget for the 2017-2018 school year.

Other issues include special needs education and sexism within the school district.

“I think there needs to be initiatives to really provide equity and equal opportunities for students,” she said. “One of my projects also, I’m sure it’ll be met with some resistance, but I’d like to get rid of the sexist dress code.”

Kaplan is the newest member in the BOE and believes she has a lot to learn from her colleagues, who have connections and knowledge and are helping her fight her battles.

“It’s very humbling to be mentored by these people,” said Kaplan.

When it comes to balancing her schedule between the BOE and being a full-time employee at Quinnipiac, she laughs and says it is stressful, however, so far she has been able to manage.

“I think it’s kind of dealing with competing jobs in terms of my time,” she said. “But I think they are also complimentary as well – supporting students in the classroom and advising students, and then supporting students in my school district.”

Although she cannot be in two places at the same time, she makes time for both jobs and for all students she has been involved with, especially her students in the Honors Program at Quinnipiac.

“I absolutely love the students in the Honors Program and it’s a privilege to work with them,” Kaplan said. “As much as students have learned from me, I have learned from them as well.”

Kaplan sees many activist actions coming from her students at the university and she feels proud to think she might have had something to do with their initiative and courage.

“I’m always moved by their acts of activism,” she said. “It’s something as singular as a student coming out in class for the very first time – the courage, the bravery. Or students who create organizations on campus where they feel the need for something where the school isn’t perhaps feeling a need for them so they create that space and that arena for themselves.”

Another thing she loves about her students is their passion for knowledge.

“They are not there for the grade, they’re there to learn and what meaningful learning is something that not only just happens in the classroom, but it transcends,” said Kaplan.

Kaplan is also very passionate about creating a connection between her two jobs, therefore, creating a connection between Quinnipiac students and students from the Hamden school district.

In the past, students from the Honors Program at Quinnipiac have served as mentors for students at Hamden Middle School and Kaplan wants to expand this program.

“I would love to branch it out and have students outside of the Honors Program to mentor in the elementary schools and even the high schools,” said Kaplan.

Kaplan, whether she is working for the BOE or Quinnipiac, wants to maintain the relationship between Hamden schools and Quinnipiac and hopes that more students and faculty take initiative to make that happen.

Hamden mayoral candidates: What do they think?

By Lindsay Pytel and Dorah Labatte

Hamden and QU’s relationship

The 2017 Hamden mayoral race between current mayor Curt Leng and underdog republican candidate Salman Hamid is coming to a close on November, 7, and the results could potentially impact Quinnipiac’s relationship with the town. Since being elected in 2015, Leng says that the relationship between the town and Quinnipiac University has greatly improved and that he regularly communicates with QU’s president John Lahey.

“We meet, we talk, we text,” he said. “We have a regular communication now and that’s really nine tenths of the whole game, because if you’re communicating then you can say ‘hey I have a problem with this and this’ or ‘hey can you help me out with this or this’ and (it’s) going both ways.”

Leng said he has seen this growing communication in other areas of the town as well. For example, he mentioned better communication this past year between the Hamden police and Quinnipiac’s public safety.

Created by Lindsay Pytel. Data accessed 10/30 at http://seec.ct.gov — Created by Lindsay Pytel. Data accessed 10/30 at **http://seec.ct.gov**

The expansion of the student body and increasing amount of student housing, however, is still an issue between Leng and Lahey, but Leng says they have been finding the balance between the town of Hamden and QU.

“It’s a balance of trying to figure out how you can have rules that are appropriate and legal that kind of incentivize locations that make more sense for student development period,” Leng said. “So it’s a matter of trying to plan these things out and the more that you work, I think, with the neighbors, university, town (and) students together, which we haven’t perfected yet.”

Hamid says if he is elected as mayor he will improve Hamden’s relationship with Quinnipiac by discussing housing with the incoming president.

“They should never have been barred from enjoying the benefits Hamden has to offer.”

He added that he will invite QU students back into Hamden for shopping and dining.

“…By working (with) the president of the university to smooth over the issues that have caused division such as student housing. We will use QU security to help ease tensions between neighbors.”

Money

Leng says that throughout his time as mayor, town financing has always held a major role.

“…We really focus on (it) a lot and we’ve been able to strengthen the town’s finances quite a bit,” Leng said.

He says that in regards of improvements in town financing, there is a lot for everyone to be proud of.

“Our bond rating has been upheld,” Leng said. “We had the first budget without a tax increase in ten years this past year, so that took a lot of work and spent a lot of time with our delegation making sure that our our state funding is fingers crossed still coming through.”

As for Hamid, key issues include high taxes, energy efficiency, animal shelter construction, equality in education and resident participation in spending for local government.

“You probably heard over and over of residents complaining about Quinnipiac student housing and so on and so forth,” he said. “That situation wouldn’t have happened if taxes were sustainable in town, because people have either foreclosed on their property or they rent it out to students because there is no other option because they can’t sell their homes.”

One can clearly see the difference in numbers and that on certain issues the two candidates don’t see eye to eye. All will be decided next week on Election Day Nov. 7. Who will you vote for?

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What we are watching: Halloween in Hamden

Hamden prepares for Halloween after heavy storm

By Ryan Chichester

As the debris and fallen tree branches are cleared off the local roads in Hamden, citizens will be preparing their costumes to celebrate Halloween on Tuesday evening.

Fortunately, for hopeful trick-or-treaters the rain is expected to be out of sight by Monday afternoon, and there is currently no chance of rain throughout Tuesday, according to local weather reports. However, for those planning on strolling the neighborhoods for candy, you may want to incorporate a jacket into your costume, as temperatures are expected to drop to 35 degrees during the evening hours.

For anyone laying off the sweets and looking for a Halloween scare, Creeperum Haunted House on Marne Street will be open for business and tickets are available on its website. The attraction is recommended for citizens over 13 years of age.

While local firefighters are working to extinguish a transformer fire on Whitney Avenue due to last night’s storm, they also recommend that citizens keep their Halloween decorations away from open flames and heaters, specifically cornstalk materials.

Have fun dressing up the house for #Halloween, but please keep these fire safety tips in mind! pic.twitter.com/0L4LjTkmz4

— U.S. Fire (USFA) (@usfire) October 23, 2017

To keep trick-or-treaters safe, stores like Walgreens have helped put together a nutritional guide so parents know what candies to avoid if their children have specific allergies.

With sunset expected before 6p.m., a popular safety precaution for children has been glowing reflectors that can be worn to make trick-or-treaters more visible to local drivers. Many of these safety reflectors are Halloween-themed, and can be found at Party City in Hamden.

Humans of Hamden: Kiku Jones

By Beverly Wakiaga

There’s a warm aura that surrounds Professor Kiku Jones. Her yellow top matched her warm personality on a grey Tuesday Morning. It is easy to see why she was one of the professors to receive a Center for Excellence Award.

“It’s absolutely amazing. I am so lucky to be able to do this and to get an award for it,” she said. “I can’t even process it. It’s just hard to say. I am absolutely blessed to do this.”

2017 has been a good year for Jones, she attended the award ceremony on October 19, she recently got tenure, and as a Kentucky basketball fan the recent changes to the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team have her excited.

“We were like ‘oh this is great, he’s (Baker Dunleavy) got basketball in his blood, it’s like a long line’ we were really excited,’ explained Jones. “We’re super excited and we’re definitely going to be at the basketball games.”

It’s been five years since Jones began teaching at Quinnipiac. She is originally from Kentucky but was teaching in Oklahoma before she made the move to the Northeast.

“We were there for nine years and everything in Oklahoma is kind of dead and flat. It was hot and nothing grew on the trees,” Jones said laughing. “My sons … we were driving and they said ‘Mom look, the trees are green’ and I thought that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard. We love it here. We absolutely love it here.”

Jones, a professor of computer information systems, made the move to New England because she was interested in the School of Business IT for Good program. The Kentucky native is also very passionate about giving back, she is always part of the big event and has gone to Guatemala twice to help different organizations build websites. She also wants to show her students that they can work outside of their expected career paths.

“For the senior capstone I try to have different projects that are based on non-profits so that the students can see that their skill sets can be used in that way, and I want the students to really see that the skills that they’re doing don’t only have to benefit themselves,” Jones said.

It’s clear to see that Jones doesn’t only love her job but her students too. She describes herself as a behind-the-curtains person who wants to help build her students.

“I succeed when they succeed and that’s what makes me happy.”

Humans of Hamden: Jamien Jean-Baptiste

By Beverly Wakiaga

“Why are you intimidated by what makes me unique? Why are you intimidated if English isn’t the language I speak?”

There were some tough stories to hear this past Monday at the Your Voice, Our Quinnipiac event and there were also some tough questions to answer.

The questions were posed by freshman Jamien Jean-Baptiste in his spoken word piece. This wasn’t something that he got up and thought of on the spot, Jean-Baptiste spent the weekend immersing himself in learning about movements like Black Lives Matter in order to better prepare himself. He mentions that he would not have spoken for the right reasons at the event if he had not spoken to Tatyana Youssef, the student government association’s vice president for student experience.

“It enabled me to do a little research into the topic itself, step outside of my comfort zone and talk in front of an audience about something that people find uncomfortable,” Jean-Baptiste explained.

According to Jean-Baptiste he used rhyming to make it easier for people to follow what he was saying. Lines such as “power can provoke unity, power can uplift communities, power can dwindle the differences between you and me” accomplished Jean-Baptiste’s goal of portraying his subject matter in a unique and different angle than what most are used to.

“I feel that translating what we’re trying to do into different mediums like poetry or music, I feel like that can really hit people,” Jean-Baptiste said

Jean-Baptiste doesn’t just speak at SGA events, he is also a member of the organization as a representative for the class of 2021. The behavioral neuroscience major joined SGA because he wants to avoid being the student that complains but doesn’t do anything to change it.

“It’s a real privilege and it’s a real honor to just be able to make change,” Jean-Baptiste explained. “I really want to fight for the things that people want to change rather than just complaining about them.”

It has been less than two months since the new members took their position and the organization is already facing some difficulties, particularly after the same event Jean-Baptiste spoke at. After the general board meeting on October 25, some SGA members have pushed to begin the impeachment process of two members of the class of 2020 after questionable conduct at two different events. But this does not deter or waver Jean-Baptiste’s belief in the organization, in fact he “guarantees” that it will make history at Quinnipiac.

“I’m really happy I went to that voice series, and i’m really looking forward to attending more of those,” Jean-Baptiste said. “I really encourage that everyone try to make it to these events because it’s just so empowering and it made history because of what happened that night, and you could either be a part of that history or take an early nap. I really encourage everybody to come.”

Humans of Hamden: David Ives

By Beverly Wakiaga

David Ives is the executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute, also known as the white house on the corner of Mount Carmel Avenue and New Road.

Ives is also a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and has been teaching at Quinnipiac for 15 years as well as leading students to volunteer in different countries and attend Nobel Peace Summits since Jan. 2002.

“A friend of mine named Mohammad Elahee said he thinks that I brought the world to Quinnipiac and sent Quinnipiac students into it. So it’s something I’m proud about, ” Ives said.

This mission to bring Quinnipiac students to the world began 30 years ago when Ives was a Peace Corp volunteer in Costa Rica where he was measuring the height and weight of babies. During a visit to one family, he noticed that their daughter was having trouble breathing and decided that he would take her to the hospital. The only way to get to the hospital was through a boat that left at four am.

Ives said he would take the baby and pay if there were any charges. He remembers that the family was late getting to the boat and the captain threatened to leave without them, but Ives made it clear that he would throw the captain into the lake if he even tried to do it. The family got to the boat but they told him that the baby could not breathe. Ives tried to give her mouth to mouth resuscitation but he could not get any air into her lungs and half way across the bay, Ives says he felt her soul leave her body.

“I’ve never gotten over that since then,” Ives explained, “and that motivates me to do what I do, in terms of getting Quinnipiac students overseas.”

When he came back, he found that not too many people knew or seemed to care about people from other countries. Ives believes that we are all connected in one way or another regardless of where we live. Here at Quinnipiac, Ives tries to take students on a trip outside of their lived experience, he tries to ‘shock’ them by exposing them to different ways of life through living with host families.

According to Ives he has been criticized for not being academic enough but he has countered that by designing a program where the student goes to a particular area, ‘gets shocked,’ then comes back and takes a class that explains the nitty gritty of the situation in that particular country.

“There are academic aspects to the problem of the world but first you have to give a damn about them. I wanted to create a situation where people cared about other people around the world and then do the reasoning behind the poverty,” Ives explained.

Something else that has motivated Ives to continue his work is having had four different diseases. Polio, post polio syndrome, Guillain-Barre syndrome (a disorder in which the bodies immune system attacks the nervous system), and he is currently dealing with Parkinson’s. He has found that his own struggles help those in developing countries stop stigmatizing certain conditions. His selflessness and caring nature have led many students at Quinnipiac to love not only the work he does but who he is. One could say he has his own following, something he did not know.

“I deeply care about students and I try not to be pretentious and I try to act human in classes, and I’m a storyteller,” Ives said. “I don’t lecture, and I’ve had real world experiences from having polio and recovering from that and to helping people learn to walk in other parts of the world.”

Ives describes the students as his ‘lifeblood,’ so much so that even though this is his final year at Quinnipiac, he will be back to teach courses on nobel laureates and Albert Schweitzer. To fill the time between his classes, there are endless possibilities, he may write a book, a play may be written about his life or he may win the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I was pretty excited, I don’t talk about it much but I don’t deny it either. I hope to get it one day but I am not holding my breath for it.” Ives said of his Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

What we are watching: Alumni Weekend 2017

Alumni celebration at Quinnipiac kicks off this weekend

By Ryan Chichester

Quinnipiac University will be recognizing its past students and graduates this Friday and Saturday for Alumni Weekend across campus.

According to the Quinnipiac Alumni website, more than 1,000 former students and their families and friends attended last year’s festivities on campus. Festivities included alumni softball games, family block parties in the Alumni Gardens and a tailgate party at York Hill prior to the men’s ice hockey team’s game against Northeastern. The tailgate featured beer tasting, music and a photo booth to capture the memories.

This year, the tailgate will be held prior to the men’s hockey match against Colgate on Saturday night. The weekend is expected to attract both Braves and Bobcats, even those who just recently tossed their hats at graduation.

“I’m very excited for alumni weekend,” 2017 journalism graduate Gabbi Riggi said. ” Not only is it exciting as a recent graduate to come back and see the people that are still in school, but to see the growth that has already happened since I left.”

The university sent out postcards to members of the Alumni Association and advertised the event through multiple social media platforms.

Sunday storm hits Connecticut hard, numerous residence halls leaking

By Ayah Galal

Strong winds, heavy rain and flash flooding impacted many towns and cities across Connecticut Sunday night.

Trees and power lines came down as a result of the severe weather, which came on the five year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. Eversource Energy is reporting that over 139,000 customers in Connecticut did not have power as of 10:41 a.m. Monday. An additional 4,900 United Illuminating customers are without power, 507 of them are Hamden residents.

A map showing the number of Eversource Energy customers in Connecticut without power as of 10:47 a.m. Monday.

A map showing the number of United Illuminating customers in Connecticut without power as of 10:38 a.m. Monday.

The storm debris created difficult driving conditions and many schools near Quinnipiac closed. Hamden, Cheshire and North Haven public schools closed Monday, according to WTNH.

Despite there being much debris on campus, Quinnipiac did not close or have a delay. Several residence halls have been leaking including Irma, Dana, Ledges, Perlroth and Larson on the Mount Carmel campus and Crescent on the York Hill Campus. The Athletic Center, School of Business and Arnold Bernhard Library are also leaking, according to the Department of Facilities.

A Facilities worker holds a bucket up to a leaking roof in the Dana Residence Hall.

The Hamden Fire Department responded to twenty-six storm related emergency calls overnight in Hamden.

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Hamden Police also responded to several transformer fires overnight, one happening on Whitney Avenue near Walgreens.

For more updates on the impact of the storm, follow HQ on Twitter @hq_press