HAMDEN, Conn. – With only about three months left, first, second and third-year students at Quinnipiac University are nearing the end of their living situations this school year. Many questions will appear in the coming months, but the most important one on everyone’s mind seems to be centered around differing living experiences.
Many Quinnipiac students trek off-campus for housing in their collegiate career. Quinnipiac offers several housing options, and two for their second-year students located on the Mount Carmel and York Hill campuses.
“Then there’s a bunch of them [student houses] in the neighborhood which could bring up some negativity with families,” local property manager Ari Gorfain said. “The Washington Avenue, School Street, and Whitney Avenue areas are [student] populated, and those are the better places for them.”
Students that choose to remain on campus are entered into a lottery system hosted by the school. This lottery system randomly assigns a number that leads to priority choosing when housing is made available. Students who receive a higher lottery number may be added to another student’s room who holds a lower one.
Quinnipiac recently sent out housing contracts that need to be completed by March 6, 2020. The Quinnipiac lottery for housing opens March 27, 2020, which although an early date, doesn’t deter landlords from acting sooner than the school.
Gorfain was able to touch upon his process of filling up off-campus houses.
“Most of the time it’s friends of friends, and if friends have been at the house and like it, they reach out the sooner the better,” Gorfain said. “It starts all the way from day one of school.”
Some students are reached out to well before the second semester even begins. First year student Matteo Naclerio remembers when he was first approached about off-campus housing.
“I remember seeing a group chat notification about housing,” Naclerio said. “An upperclassmen I met in early September was reaching out to fill houses in the beginning of October. It put me in a weird spot because I was just taking my first exams and didn’t know anything about housing at that point.”
Current third-year Student Justin Arrichiello was extremely opposed to living on main campus. His situation differed from most, as he transferred to Quinnipiac University in the Spring semester of his first year. Arrichiello took shelter at Aspen Glen Apartments with some friends who were renting.
“When housing selections came, they came pretty quick, and that was before I made a bunch of connections with people that lived on my floor,” Arrichiello said. “I would much rather take living with people that I know over having a good housing situation.
A look at the “Hill” living option on Quinnipiac’s Mount Carmel Campus | Photo by John Morgan
“I slept on his couch instead of sleeping in my dorm room. I brought all of my clothes to Aspen, parked my car at Aspen, kept my toothbrush in his bathroom. I did everything there.”
Gorfain had this to say regarding the benefits of off-campus housing, “I feel like they like their independence more. Kids are growing up a lot faster when they hit their sophomore or junior years, and they want to be in a house with their friends.”
Students that live off campus seem to share similar concerns about transportation. Cars seem to be the main concern, and students seem to rarely be in favor of testing the shuttle system. Third-year students Michael Trezza and Stephen Brisman had several comments regarding the convenience.
“We really wanted to be on our time with driving to campus. We didn’t want to have to wait for shuttles,” Michael Trezza said.
A look at the “Village” living option on Quinnipiac’s Mount Carmel Campus | Photo by John Morgan
“I had five of us on York, and thirty of us on the main campus. We just didn’t want to take the shuttles,” Stephen Brisman said. “I didn’t want to hike to the garage [to get my car], when I can just get an apartment and park right next to my door.” Many off campus houses run through a funnel of students. Those who graduate in the upcoming year and/or are moving on from their residence work with their landlords to find possible replacement tenants.
The previous students living in that house attempt to build a level of trust with their landlord, and their landlord a level of trust with those who follow.
Many students are pulled from social media groups, athletic teams, and on campus organizations. The commonality of these demographics revolves around numbers. Landlords have the opportunity to take common interests and put them under one roof.
Whether regarding early activity, random roommates, or transportation and convenience issues, some Quinnipiac students are pushing to get off campus. To them, this appears to be the safest bet when it comes to playing the lottery.
Even 3,000 miles away from Los Angeles, Kobe Bryant’s impact as a basketball player will be felt for years to come.
HAMDEN, Conn.— 2,878 miles. That is the distance that separates Newport Beach, California, the home of the late basketball legend, Kobe Bryant, from Hamden, Connecticut, where Notre Dame High School boys basketball plays Hamden High School.
Over the course of the afternoon, the freshman teams, junior varsity teams and varsity teams from these schools will play each other on the hardwood at the Hamden High School Gymnasium.
Nine hours by flight from New Haven, 42 hours by car, 69 hours by bus. The man who donned the gold-and-purple for two decades, and the young athletes who are playing today, seem to have little connection to one another besides playing basketball.
However, the connection and impact that Bryant has left in the basketball world can be felt today in this gymnasium, nearly 3,000 miles away from where the Los Angeles Lakers play.
> “I wanted to (in basketball), do something for him. He taught me to have fun, be there for my family, and do what you love.” -Elijah Holder”
That ‘Mamba mentality’ that Bryant oozed and trademarked will live on with basketball players no matter where they live of all ages, as Hamden junior varsity basketball player Miles Anderson says, “Kobe is a legend.”
“He inspired a lot of people to play basketball, including me partly,” Anderson said. “I would not say he’s like (Michael Jordan), you know, because he is Kobe. To me, he is a role model, which makes it kind of sad that he is no longer with us.”
Hamden Hall player Elijah Holder following a game versus Notre Dame High School on Monday, Feb. 3, 2020. | Photo by Jason Hirsch
Bryant and eight other passengers on his Sikorsky S-76 helicopter died in an accident on their way to Thousand Oaks, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020. In the aftermath, Millions of sports fans around the globe instantly felt a sense of both loss and devastation.
An athlete of Bryant’s status passing away so young and in such a tragic manner is something that so rarely occurs in sports. Roberto Clemente, Emiliano Sala, Roy Halladay, Thurman Munson and Rocky Marciano are other names that come to mind.
When athletes of such a high caliber die in such a way, two schools of thought can occur: one of them is sadness from the sense of grief, confusion and loss. The other is the inspiration to take what they preached and apply it to yourself.
Elijah Holder, a freshman on the Hamden basketball team and an avid fan of Bryant, will use his sadness as inspiration to apply Bryant’s, ‘mamba mentality’ into his own life.
“He’s in a better place, balling upstairs,” Holder said. “I try to be happy knowing that he is in a better place now. I wanted to (in basketball), do something for him. He taught me to have fun, be there for my family, and do what you love.”
Even with Bryant’s passing, his memory and competitive desire to always be the best will be a message that resonates not just with basketball players, but with people of all walks of life for generations to come.
When Bryant stood in front of the tearful crowd at the Staples Center and proclaimed, “Mamba Out,” the reality is that the lessons and examples set by Bryant on and off the hardwood will never be forgotten. From Los Angeles to Hamden, Bryant’s legacy will not only be remembered, but live on.
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HAMDEN- B&D Deli Works, which has been known for serving Quinnipiac students and Hamden locals for six years, officially closed down on Dec. 21, 2019.
B&D first opened in August of 2013 and was owned by Amy Brejwo. The name came from Brejwo’s two sons, Ben and Dan. Brejwo spent many days and nights building the diner from the ground up, but she was very family oriented and had to step away from the business when it began to take up a lot of her family time.
Mark Mashaw, a resident of South Hamden, was a school teacher at the time Brejwo was looking for someone to take over the deli.
“I was a teacher for 18 years and I was looking for something new,” said Mashaw. “I had always wanted to be my own boss.”
In September of 2018, Mashaw became the new manager of B&D.
“Amy was a super human that could do more in one day than three people,” said Mashaw. “Whatever she had done worked so well, so I wanted to continue to do that.”
It didn’t take long for things to go south once Mashaw took over.
“Amy had created so much volume that everyday people were out the door,” said Mashaw. “Without Amy on the grill and giving directions, we could not keep up with the demand.”
Mashaw was exhausted from the beginning and they quickly lost a lot of regulars within the first few months. Most people that had worked for Brejwo had moved on to other things not long after she left.
Mashaw quickly found himself being very new to the job and having a whole set of new employees as well.
Outdoor dining option at B&D | Photo by Mackensie Judge
“We eventually found our own equilibrium, but at that point I was so in debt and could not pay any of my bills,” said Mashaw. “It was too late.”
Mashaw learned a lot of lessons through this experience that he will take with him going forward.
“I wanted to be my own boss for so long,” said Mashaw,” but what I didn’t think through was how hard it is being everyone else’s as well.”
The closing of B&D came as a shock to most students leaving them questioning if there was anything they could have done to help.
“My friends and I would go every weekend,” said senior Leanna Daniels. “Saturday mornings will never be the same. We should have done more to help such a great business with the nicest people.”
Others will miss the family oriented atmosphere and the delicious sandwiches, especially the most popular sandwich, the Randwich.
“Throughout my five years of attending Quinnipiac, B&D was one of my top places to go for food,” said graduate student Christian Casagranda. “Everything was fresh and made with care, which is something you don’t find too often around here.”
B&D has been bought by two men, Dennis and Dan and will soon be called Funcle’s. It will still remain a diner that serves breakfast and lunch, but it will be more upscale food.
As for Mashaw, he plans on taking the lessons he’s learned back to the classroom in the fall. In the meantime he is catching up on his housework and reading, but he is hopeful that Funcle’s will be the new successful business in the area.
HAMDEN, Conn.- A new health food establishment opened its doors to the Hamden community on Jan. 13. Fresh Greens & Proteins, located at 3450 Whitney Avenue, distances itself from the other greasy food establishments located around the Mount Carmel Campus.
Interior View of Fresh Greens & Proteins | Photo by Pat Hickey
Fresh Greens & Proteins mission statement is to create healthy options so you can eat better, which allows you to feel better and live better. This mission statement is achievable with the wide variety of healthy options, which include a fruit smoothie, shakes, specialty salads, rice bowls, acai bowls, wraps and parfait.
The menu is tailored towards the customers’ needs with the options to create your own of any of the categories listed above. One ingredient that Fresh Greens and Proteins offers that you don’t see too often is CBD. CBD can be added to any smoothie, shake, açaí bowl or parfait.
“I have been waiting for a restaurant that serves healthy food like this to open around main campus for years,” said Quinnipiac University senior Avery Hayes (‘20).
AJ Cooney blending a Cinnabunn Smoothie | Photo by Pat Hickey
The location of Fresh Greens & Proteins is not only close to many local businesses, but it’s also within walking distance from Main Campus and a quick shuttle ride from York Hill to the polling institute. Part-owner AJ Cooney is familiar with the area, and is happy the way that business is currently going.
“Students love the smoothie shakes and the açaí bowls,” Cooney said. “People usually have to go into New Haven to get this stuff.”
What makes this establishment stick out compared to others on Whitney Ave. and in Hamden is the mentality of not only focusing on Quinnipiac students, but the people of Hamden as well.
“I’ve seen a lot of repeat Hamden locals, obviously the students are apart of it, but they aren’t the majority yet,” said Cooney.
If you’re looking for some popular choices, the Rice Bowls, Acai Bowls and the PB&J Protein shake are a must.
How American society began to appreciate the art of tattooing
Deviant. Unattractive. Criminal.
All words that have been associated with tattoos.
For a long time, tattoos have come with a bad reputation within American culture. Tattoos have been looked down on. Tattoos have been portrayed negatively. These negative perspectives about displays of body ink created a stigma around tattoos and the people that have them.
Dave Sevilla, a tattoo artist at Black Hatchet Tattoo Co. in Wallingford, Connecticut, has always seen the artistic side of tattoos, which America has struggled with for decades. America’s story mirrors his: tattoos were once not accepted as art, but that ideology has changed.
Sevilla’s uncle and cousin introduced him to art and tattoos. He drew in high school, but was too shy to promote himself.
“I never showed anybody my art,” he said.
Sevilla said he knew he wanted to be a tattoo artist right out of high school. He started working at Dunkin’ Donuts to fund his apprenticeship. His apprenticeships were at Imperial Tattoo in West Haven and Elm City Ink in New Haven, which are now closed.
Dave Sevilla, at his tattoo station in the “Black Hatchet Burrow.” Photo courtesy of Black Hatchet Tattoo Co.
Sevilla started his professional tattoo career on his 18th birthday.
When he started tattooing, Sevilla’s family told him to stop.
“That gave me more drive,” he said.
Sevilla comes from a very Christian family that thought he should not be getting tattoos, nevermind giving them to others, he said.
This perception toward tattoos dates back to the 1950’s. In the 1950’s, less than 1% of Americans ages 25-40 were tattooed, according to a 2010 study. This low number is due in part to the stigmas around tattoos at that time.
Tattoos were often associated with gangs and criminals, rather than art. Looking back to ancient Greece, criminals and slaves were involuntarily tattooed as a form of punishment, according to a study written in part by Gretchen Larsen, of Durham University.
The Greeks also saw their neighbors, the Thracians, using tattoos as a marker of status.
Criminals in ancient Greece later began tattooing themselves voluntarily as a way to document their criminal careers. Similarly, sailors also started to tattoo themselves to document their travels. They used tattoos as a way to differentiate their lives from everyday society, according to Larsen’s study.
Sevilla’s strength in tattooing is lettering and text, based on his years of studying those artistic disciplines. But as of late, he has started to step out of his comfort zone to try a different style.
“I’m doing more surrealistic stuff now,” he said.
This interest comes from his idol, Megan Jean Morris, who is known for surrealism, according to Sevilla.
Morris owned BHTC under the name Painted Souls Tattoos.
In June 2017, Morris sold Painted Souls to her apprentice Ricky Borchert. Borchert and his wife, Katrina, redesigned and rebranded Painted Souls into the modern-faced Black Hatchet Tattoo Co., located in Wallingford.
“We wanted a clean looking shop,” Borchert said. “We wanted it to be our own thing.”
The revamp of Black Hatchet mirrors the 1960’s, when tattoo shops were turning into studios, artists received formal training and the issue of sterilization was taken care of.
Borchert and Sevilla joke that Sevilla came to Black Hatchet to work with his idol, but she had already moved her career out west.
“I’m still waiting for (Megan) to show up one day,” Sevilla said to Borchert with a laugh.
Borhcert laughed back.
“Maybe one day,” he said.
Sevilla said he likes working with clients to turn their ideas into art.
“People come in with an idea and I end up convincing them to let me do it freehand,” Sevilla said.
Tyler Main’s most recent tattoo is a scene from his visit to Japan, done by Dave Sevilla. Photo courtesy of Tyler Main.
One of Sevilla’s recent works features a japanese scene. His client, Tyler Main, said Sevilla is a relaxed guy.
“It’s important that you can be comfortable with your artist, and he definitely created a chill environment,” Main said.
Main’s tattoo is a scene from when he and his sister visited Itsukushima, Japan.
“It’s one of my favorite places in the world,” Main said. “I love that I can look down at my arm at any time and it takes me right back there.”
Main’s tattoo also has a few Japanese characters, spelling out “daijoubu.”
“It means ‘it’s okay’ or ‘don’t worry,’” Main said. “I loved the way the characters looked when I was learning Japanese, and I like the simple message.”
In fact, Japanese culture has had a large influence on tattoos becoming more mainstream.
In the mid-to-late 18th century, English tourists in Japan sparked a “craze” in Victorian England, according to tattoo historian Anna Felicity Friedman.
“King George V had two very well documented tattoos–a dragon he got in Japan and a Jerusalem cross tattoo he got in the Holy Land,” Friedman wrote in an article on her website.
The craze continued in the 19th century, when European aristocrats were frequently tattooed, according to Larsen’s study.
Some scholars say the upper class’ tattoo phase was a desperate effort to modernize the aristocracy and stay relevant in an anti-aristocratic age.
Those are Sevilla’s words about his first tattoo. His first experience with ink was with his cousin, who tattooed an Aztec god on his shoulder.
“I actually didn’t want this, I wanted a grim reaper,” Sevilla said.
He said his cousin refused the idea. Instead, he decided to give Sevilla an Aztec god, based on their Mexican roots.
“He didn’t want to send me home with a grim reaper, so we did this,” Sevilla said.
Sevilla has family portraits of his son and father that are very meaningful to him.
But he also has more lighthearted and fun tattoos, such as a character from his favorite video game, Resident Evil.
“I get shit that I like,” Sevilla said.
Sevilla said he is not the type of person who thinks every tattoo needs to have a deep meaning. This mindset took over in the 1980’s, when tattoos began to be associated with art and free thinking, rather than crime and gangs.
One scholar, Arnold Rubin, called the late 20th century the “Tattoo Renaissance.”
In the late 1980’s, only 3% of Americans ages 25-40 were tattooed, according to the 2010 study. A 2% increase over 30 years. Despite that minor change, the youth of the 1980’s shifted the perspective on tattoos entirely.
Larsen’s study describes two “major forces” that came together during the Tattoo Renaissance: ethno-history and aesthetic legitimacy.
“Tattooists began to look to indigenous cultures and their traditional tattoos for inspiration rather than to more modern North American designs,” Larsen wrote in her study.
This trend of cultural inspiration is what built up the “force” of ethno-history in the tattoo world and increased the cultural value of tattoos. The tattoo world also experienced a surge of artists who saw tattooing as a “legitimate artistic pursuit,” according to Larsen’s study.
The art world began to accept tattoo artists into their realm. This is how the “force” of aesthetic legitimacy propelled tattoos into mainstream American culture.
In the 1990s, tattooing was one of the most rapid growing service industries in the United States, according to Larsen’s study. This push can also be attributed to celebrities with tattoos.
Tattoo’s push into mainstream culture was boosted in the mid 2000s with television shows like “Miami Ink.” In the late 2000s the percentage of Americans ages 25-40 with tattoos was 40%.
Another 20 years passed, but a 37% increase, according to the 2010 study.
Tattoos now have more cultural meaning, rather than being seen as deviant markings. Tattoos are a means of self-expression and often anchor a person’s identity, according to Larsen’s study.
“All my tattoos are a reflection of me showing how much those who are present in my life mean to me,” Emily McGuire, 20, of Kent, Connecticut said. “They are a way of expressing myself, and I will continue to use them as such.”
McGuire’s dragonfly tattoo, representing her strong connection with her grandmother. Photo courtesy of Emily McGuire.
McGuire got a dragonfly tattoo when her grandmother got sick. After her grandmother passed, she got the phrase “Love you now and always, Love Gram” beneath the dragonfly in her grandmother’s handwriting.
“I added the words underneath (the dragonfly) after she passed as a reminder she is always with me,” McGuire said.
McGuire also has a tattoo on the back of her arm of her brother and mother’s fingerprints interlocking to form a heart.
“They have been my rock my whole life,” McGuire said. “(the tattoo) reminds me to keep going.”
Sevilla said people are more open-minded toward tattoos, because they see the artistic value behind them.
“Times are changing,” he said. “Tattoos are definitely more acceptable.”
Sevilla has been on both sides of the needle. Given ink, and received ink. And he says that is right where he is meant to be.
“I couldn’t see myself doing anything else,” he said.
Operating an aerial lift, Megan Craig stood three stories high painting salt water marshes on the upper levels of Cold Spring School, a progressive independent school on James Street in New Haven. With a projector shining the image on to the side of the building, Craig drew the images of the native plants while students gathered around to join in on the nighttime party. This was just one day out of the 6-month long project where Craig would come out and work with students to paint the building.
Megan Craig worked with the students of Cold Spring School for six months on the mural of salt water marshes.
There are many forms of art that can be found whether it is commissioned, a mural, a sculpture, a tribute or a tag, artists are just looking to express themselves or their views. With cities and local communities beginning to endorse and commission works of art throughout town, public art and graffiti battle to find a balance.
Craig was a parent of one of the students at the school and after noticing the bricked-over windows at Cold Spring School, Craig decided to reach out and suggested painting a mural on the wall. She had previously worked with an organization called CITYarts in New York, where artists work with local public schools to create public art.
“It seemed very unfortunate to have a building in that neighborhood that had this sort of fortress-prison like quality with these concrete openings,” Craig said.
The mural depicts the different types of salt marshes that are native to the area and the different types of wildlife that abide there. The fifth graders at the school also spend a large chunk of time studying the salt marshes as a part of their curriculum. Craig and the students worked on an interactive sign where all the plants and animals featured in the painting can be found. It was critical that the project was able to tie back into the curriculum for the community to get on board.
“The idea was to make a mural that could also be sort of a learning wall,” said Craig. “I think once we were able to tie the mural into the curriculum, especially the teachers were a lot more excited about it and, and it really kind of gained momentum.”
Although the school was on board with the idea of a mural, the vibe of the community was still mixed. While some people were enthusiastic about the idea of the painting others felt like the area was fine the way it was.
“I think a lot of people were very enthusiastic ” Craig said. “And were sort of like, yes, anything’s better than these concrete block windows. But there were several people who felt like the block was actually fine and it was this very quiet kind of serene facade and why mess with that? So it was a mixed kind of reaction.”
With community projects, Craig has found it vital to make sure that the members of the community feel involved in the process. This fall, Craig worked on a geometric painting on Pearl Street that led up to the Yale School of Management. In order to make the neighborhood to feel included in the design process, she made numerous designs for the community to choose from and presented them over several meetings with the neighborhood.
Geometric pattern that Craig painted in front of the Yale School of Management on the corner of Pearl and Lincoln Street.
New Haven communities have been working with local organizations to commission murals across the city, including the New Haven and the Cedar Hill murals.
Along the same lines, Hartford has been working on a new initiative to work with local artists called Paint the City. The project worked with the communities to pick the designs that would win the competition. Seven were chosen as the beginning of the 14 mural project that the city was hoping to see. The city had put $128,000 into the project as a part of the public-improvement initiative Hartford Decides.
As a private school, Cold Spring School was able to decide whether they wanted to commission a mural on the side of their building without having to ask for permission from state or city officials. When it comes to public property though there are rules and regulations that artists must follow.
Hartford artist Corey Pane has been commissioned to work on a lot of public and private property throughout his career and hit multiple roadblocks when it comes to getting a building approved.
“A lot of times when I’ve done stuff through the city, you have to go through the city,” Pane said. “There’s paperwork, you have to get permits, get permission from the mayor and all that stuff takes forever. So there’s been a couple of times where I almost had a wall and I’ve been really excited about it and just kind of fizzles out because the paperwork or like somebody didn’t allow permission or something.”
While commissioned work and community art projects are well received, there are still concerns about tagging, where an individual will use a symbol or series of symbols to mark their territory. On SeeClickFix, a public forum where residents can go and voice their concerns regarding numerous topics, there have been plenty of concerns about graffiti popping up around New Haven. One user pointed out the symbol of three circles forming a triangle on numerous spots around New Haven.
“I’ve seen a surge in this type of graffiti / tagging across new haven,” SeeClickFix user Winchester-Dixwell-Community said. “I’m assuming it’s gang related. It has surged in the last two weeks so I’m wondering what’s going on. I wish the city would step in swiftly clean this type of tagging.”
Though the city has rules and regulations in place, some residents feel as though they aren’t moving fast enough to clean up the city. In response to one of the posts about graffiti a user commented advice on how to clean it up.
“I bought some graffiti removal wipes on Amazon,” Winchester-Dixwell-Community said. “They work really well. I got tired of waiting for the city to clean up the graffiti in my neighborhood (they never do). You might have to do the same.”
While graffiti can bring life and beauty to a city, it also costs the city a lot of money to clean up. New Haven budgets approximately $30,000 a year to cleaning up paint around the city, according to the Livable City Initiative Downtown/Wooster Neighborhood specialist, Carmen Mendez.
“Unfortunately, no sooner do we clean it up before another graffiti artist thinks it’s a clean canvass for their graffiti,” Mendez said. “It is a vicious cycle that the City loses time and time again. There are more graffiti artists then there is money to clean it up.”
Graffiti goes against the anti-blight and property maintenance laws. The law states that when considering “the foundation walls of every building,” “the exterior of buildings,” “fences” and “storefronts,” have to remain free of any graffiti.
“Even if we know who the graffiti artist is, unless we catch them in the act or have a picture that ties them to the graffiti, we can do nothing,” Mendez said. “The penalties are stiff per graffiti piece, and we do prosecute. However, to get them to pay, let’s say $9-15,000.00 takes a long time, even when the judges rule in our favor.”
New Haven mural by Josh Griffin at 1050 State St.
As local neighborhoods begin to raise money for murals around town, many are left to wonder what the difference is between paid art and free art? What’s the difference between street art and graffiti? John O’Grodnick, a visual artist based out of New York City believes the difference is only found in the legality of where the art is placed.
The main difference between Street art/Murals and Graffiti is that Most of the time street art is legally and paid by the owner of the building,” O’Grodnick said. “Graffiti is almost always done illegally or without permission and that’s why it’s looked down upon.”
The moral dilemma is finding the line to draw in between expression and defamation. While art can be beautiful and liven up a city or town, can it cross a boundary? And where is that boundary?
“I never think it’s a good idea to, to paint on somebody’s property, you know, as people who are property owners who have to deal with graffiti,” said Craig. “But I do think there should be more open areas for street art where people do not have to get permits, do not have to get permission and have access to big surfaces that they can express themselves in an urban environment.”
Heaven Skate Park: Museum of Public Art, located in Hartford, allows for artists to freely paint across the grounds of the park. There are no rules or regulations regarding who can paint what or where.
“I would say just let it all happen,” said Pane. “I don’t care. Like even like little tags and stuff. If you just do other stuff and it’s like a building that it’s not really bothering you. I don’t see a problem.”
While members of the community work together to clean up graffiti or tags that they don’t feel represent their area well, there are still many works of art around town that portray the culture and life of those around them. With murals and commissioned work popping up around town like the “Greetings from New Haven” and “Welcome to Cedar Hill,” there is an acknowledgement that art, commissioned or not, does bring pride and joy into the community.
The new economy of filmmaking has shifted to big business, according to David Atkins, Quinnipiac University film professor and professional screenwriter.
“Strong brand recognition equals a green light in the new economy of filmmaking. If there is strong brand recognition of a film, studios will invest in the product,” said Atkins.
Quinnipiac University film professor, David Atkins’ professional headshot.
Atkins partnered with “Hot Tub Time Machine” director Steve Pink on an independent feature film in 2017.
The partners were aiming to secure a $12 million budget in order to produce the film, which is relatively small for a feature film in comparison to the consistent $100 million-plus budgets Hollywood has produced over the years.
The two ended up in serious talks with LuckyChap Entertainment, a Los Angeles based production company that recently produced the 2018 Oscar award winning film, “I, Tonya.”
“I, Tonya’s” budget was $11 million.
After nearly securing LuckyChap Entertainment as an investor and producer for Atkin’s independent film, the production company decided to opt out of taking the risk due to the lack of the film’s brand recognition.
This was a surprise to the pair because Pink has a successful history in the industry as a director, including “Hot Tub Time Machine,” which grossed roughly $65 million globally in 2010. But in the eyes of the Hollywood studio executives, it did not matter.
This local story depicts one instance which many independent films have faced, the normality of being overlooked by production companies due to their lack of investment into original movie scripts as opposed to investing in previous well-performing and popularly-branded films in Hollywood, according to Stephen Follows, data researcher, film producer, and award winning writer whose work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and countless other major publications.
“Studios will pretty much do whatever they think will make money. So often the reasons why they don’t do x or y is because they don’t think it will make money. They may be right, they may be biased or they may have never tried it,” said Follows.
The tendency for Hollywood studios to invest in pre-existing, money making franchises, isn’t a new trend, according to Keith Kasper, former employee of MTV, and current Morris Knolls High School’s TV and film production teacher.
“From the early days of cinema with Edison to Cecil B. Demille, directors and movie houses wanted guaranteed money makers so they looked to popular books to bring in the crowds,” said Kasper.
Keith Kasper and his family attending a “Star Wars” convention at the Liberty Science Center on February 15, 2016.
Marvel Comics, for example, have had tremendous brand recognition, and the box office numbers prove the previous statement to be true. The Marvel movie franchise has produced 22 films, which have grossed approximately $18 billion globally. Marvel has profited more than any other movie franchise in the history of cinema, according to the Harvard Business Review. The “Star Wars” franchise trails behind the Marvel universe with an estimated $9 billion worldwide gross.
In an opinion piece for the New York Times, critically acclaimed film director, Martin Scorsese, wrote about the Marvel trend, and discussed changes that he has seen in the movie industry since he was a young filmmaker.
“I was asked a question about Marvel movies. I answered it. I said that I’ve tried to watch a few of them and that they’re not for me, that they seem to me to be closer to theme parks than they are to movies as I’ve known and loved them throughout my life, and that in the end, I don’t think they’re cinema,” wrote Scorsese.
In relation to the grouping of different film genres throughout Hollywood, Atkins related the current business model to a garden.
“Like any type of garden, there should be multiple plants. If Marvel movies represent one type of flower, there needs to be flowers representing other genres of film. If there is only one crop, the garden will die,” said Atkins.
Dr. Robert Thompson, Professor at the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University referenced the fact that artwork as far back as the late 1500s depicts remakes of other entertainment sources in one form or another.
“Franchises and sequels go back a very long time. Even Shakespeare implemented other sources of entertainment into his writing, and about half of Shakespeare’s original seven or eight plays were sequels or prequels to some extent,” said Thompson.
Sequels, for the most part, have remained a success in modern day cinema.
Disney Studios has consistently implemented sequels over the years, and their latest installment,“Frozen II,” proved to be a huge success at the box office.
The animated sequel had a budget of approximately $150 million, and broke domestic box office records by raking in over $130 million opening weekend, with a cumulative worldwide gross of over $920 million, according to IMDB.
“The ‘Frozen’ sequel would have broken opening weekend records if they had cats playing the piano on it. The ‘Frozen’ brand was already so powerful, not just as a film, but clothes, toys and all of the other entities that made it a huge hit,” said Thompson.
“Frozen” was more than a brand, it was a representation of a generation’s childhood, ultimately granting its inevitable success amongst the youth, according to Thompson.
Independent films have trouble receiving recognition from a globalized audience due to their lack of brand-recognition, ultimately preventing studios from investing in the projects altogether, according to Atkins.
“It is not guaranteed that an independent film will get recognition. Studios need the dollars, it’s not about the art of cinema. Production companies do better making fewer films with higher budgets because they perform better globally,” said Atkins.
Universal Pictures granted a $250 million budget for the eighth installment of the “Fast & Furious” franchise, and the film ended up grossing over $1.2 billion globally, according to IMDB.
“Cars appeal to a global audience, and films like ‘The Shape of Water’ still don’t make as much money as a ‘Fast & Furious’ even when they win Academy Awards. For any film to win an academy award is a needle in a haystack. Studios would rather invest their money in higher profiting films,” said Atkins.
“The Shape of Water” won four Oscars in 2018 including Best Motion Picture of the Year, and cumulated $195 million at the box office globally, according to IMDB.
Thompson pointed out the business obligations that studio executives have with regards to green lighting investments into films which will be guaranteed money-makers for the company’s bottom line.
“Imagine if you are an executive at a studio and your future depends on growing the company’s bottom line, I would consider giving ‘Fast & Furious’ the green light as well because it makes substantially more money than most films,” said Thompson. “A studio is going to put more of their investments into a sure thing, such as popular franchises.”
Hollywood studios have seen increased revenue due to a globalized business model, but their profits comes with a price to pay, according to Atkins.
“I do believe that there is definitely a lot of talent and originality that has gone missing due to the global profitization of the film industry,” said Atkins.
Jim Johnson, SAG-AFTRA member, and professional TV and film actor, recently starred opposite Al Pacino in HBO’s “Paterno.” He has seen the shift of originality within the film industry move from big production companies to student and independent filmmakers.
HBO’s “Paterno” actor, Jim Johnson’s professional headshot.
“There is still plenty of originality amongst filmmakers, but mostly in student, short and independent films. The big studios are all about the money. Whatever sells,” said Johnson.
Joe Marcello is a current senior film student attending Quinnipiac University, and he remains positive for the future of independent filmmaking. As he eyes graduation in May, 2020, he intends to be a director.
Joe Marcello directing his independent student film “Denver to Boston” at Quinnipiac University’s North Haven campus on Dec. 13, 2019. Pictured left to right: Joe Marcello (director), Matthew Allen (director of photography), Phillip Simon (Professor).
“I’m excited to jump into the industry and make my mark. I understand that a lot of studios favor big budget films, and turn their heads away from the new guy like me, but everything comes back around,” said Marcello.
Joe Marcello on set of his upcoming student film “Denver to Boston” at Quinnipiac University’s North Haven campus on Dec. 13, 2019.
Brandon Nieto graduated from Quinnipiac University’s class of 2019 with a BA in film production, and displayed a positive outlook on the future of independent film distribution.
“I think this generation has the best shot for independent filmmaking. It is still hard to break into the industry, it’ll never be easy, but there are more distribution outlets than theaters to get your film shown nowadays,” said Nieto.
Nieto went on to explain how the increasing number of streaming services will allow filmmakers to have a better shot than ever before at getting their films out there.
Atkins said that a wave of independent filmmaking is on Hollywood’s horizon because of historical trends in the industry.
“I think that we are going to see a new wave of small budget films, much like we did back in the 1970s, but these films will be distributed directly onto streaming platforms.” said Atkins. “Possibilities for the future of cinema are limitless.”
Student athletes often garner attention for their 20-to-40-hour work weeks they have in season, and the juggling act they must put on between academics and athletics. But an unsung group of students suffer a similar schedule, with much less fanfare and reward.
Emma Carman, a senior at Quinnipiac, was originally intent to walk on to the Acrobatics and Tumbling team. However, a back surgery in her sophomore year of high school prevented her from remaining on the team as an athlete. But she was still passionate about the team, and was determined to contribute.
“I told the head coach, Mary Ann Powers that I still wanted to be involved with the team anyway I could be,” Carman said, “so she gave me this wonderful opportunity and I am so thankful for that.”
Emma Carman filming an Acrobatics and Tumbling meet courtesy Emma Carman
Despite no longer being a student athlete, Carman still put forward just as much effort and time commitment as she would have as a student athlete.
“I go to every single practice which is about 20 hours a week during the championship season. The championship season for our sport runs from the beginning of October until the end of the school year,” said Carman, “Our national championships are held the last weekend in April, so we are practicing 20 hours a week for almost eight months.”
On top of attending and filming all practices, Carman’s responsibilities include traveling on the road with the team to things such as film and record transactions made on the road, filming home meets, organizing packing lists and so many other little details throughout an average week. Indeed, Carman, like other managers at Quinnipiac, is truly an integral part of the team.
The importance of managers is not lost on the teams they put their hearts into, either. Coaches and players alike can go on for hours in regards to just how important their managers are. Tricia Fabbri, the coach of the women’s basketball team at Quinnipiac, was especially grateful for her group of student managers.
“They bring so much professionalism, responsibility, they carry themselves, they are a valued member of the program,” said Fabbri, “without them we are not running at a high capacity.”
Tricia Fabbri walking the sidelines courtesy Liz Flynn
She continued to rattle off the variety of different details and responsibilities she gave to her managers, from setting up the chairs and water before a game, to running drills with the clock, to minor things as simple as knowing which shoulder to go over when giving a player their water. To Fabbri, each responsibility, no matter how seemingly minor or unnecessary, is crucial to the team’s success.
“The orange slices at halftime are so important to our players,” said Fabbri, “to make sure that they are getting that real natural sugar to go out there and play that second half.”
Much like with her athletes, Fabbri expects her managers to be ready and prepared at a moment’s notice to meet each player’s individual needs, because in her mind they are a crucial part of the team.
“Players get picky in the heat of the game,” said Fabbri, “and as a valued member of the team you better get it right.”
Paige Warfel, a senior forward for the Bobcats, believes it is easy for the work that managers do to go unnoticed, but that in her and her teammates eyes, they are just as much a part of the team as the athletes are.
“They are 100 percent a part of this team, as much as any other person,” said Warfel, “you know we’re all in this together and they play a huge roll, just like we do.”
Paige Warfel running back on offense courtesy Liz Flynn
Taylor Herd, a senior guard for the Bobcats, agreed with Warfel.
“They just brighten up the team’s day,” said Herd, “because they are always with us and are also students, but they have a different perspective than we do.”
As Warfel and Herd said, managers truly are a part of the team in just about every sense imaginable. They put in similar time commitments, travel with the team, and are a crucial to how the team functions. Yet, not only is their work often overlooked, there is no record of any of it at all.
The sad reality is that unlike with student athletes, there is no basis or standard for what a manager’s workload should typically be, and how they should be compensated. The only national resource they have, the National Association of Collegiate Basketball Managers, could not be reached for comment and has no information available.
Of the schools reached out to regarding stats on their managers or others, not one school could offer a single nugget of information.
Every school which was reached out to was unable to find one piece of data that could serve to represent the hours of work their managers had put into their programs. Only the Athletic Compliance Officer at the University of New Hampshire had an idea of where such stats might exist, and that was also a dead end. Mike Stefanelli, a former four-year manager for the UNH men’s basketball team, had some answers.
Much like other managers, Stefanelli recalled 20-to-40-hour work weeks, filled with the same various responsibilities and travel obligations as his colleagues. Yet for all his contributions to the team, he was only rewarded with spring internship credit in his junior and senior years. Yet to Stefanelli this was not an issue.
“I did this because I managed teams for four years in high school,” said Stefanelli, “and I realized that it was something I loved, something I had a passion for.”
Stefanelli was able to manage the time commitment of being the for UNH for the entirety of his four years at UNH, but not all students can meet the demands of the job for their full enrollment. Between academic demands and extracurricular demands, some managers have to make the decision to leave the team for the sake of their futures. Even with thousands of dollars on the line.
Francesca DePalo, now a Senior at Quinnipiac, came to the school in large part due to the hockey program and the opportunity to be a manager. She signed a contract with the team, treating her as a volunteer year one, and 1,000 dollars towards her tuition in the second year, with that number increasing by 1,000 each following year. DePalo loved being a manager, doing many of the same duties and responsibilities as Carman, but realized her senior year that she had to make a choice between her position and her future.
“My grades were slipping as I went into my senior year, and I realized that I needed to make a choice for my future,” said Depalo, “so I stepped down from being a manager to focus more on my career and my other responsibilities.”
Those responsibilities included her position as the President of the Quinnipiac’s Association of Women in Sports Media and her role as manager, as well as being a full-time student. Since stepping down from her position, DePalo has seen her grades rise once more, and has felt a weight lifted off her shoulders. But despite having to leave her post as manager, Depalo only had fond memories of her time with the teams.
“Being able to be a part of the program and seeing the behind the scenes was so cool, and I made so many connections,” said DePalo, “plus I learned a lot of time management skills, so I definitely wouldn’t change a think about my time as manager.”
So yes, it is an issue that a job with this many responsibilities is not tracked and regulated to a greater extent, and it does leave open the door for exploitation down the line. But that is not the story of most collegiate managers. Warfel may have put it best when describing college managers, even if she singled out her sport specifically.
Francesca Depalo at a Quinnipiac Athletics event courtesy Francesca DePalo
“They do this strictly because they love basketball and love being here,” said Warfel, “and I have a lot of respect for them for that.”
Photo by: Jordan Wolff (Quinnipiac has two Bobcat statues, this one is located on the York Hill Campus outside of the People’s United Center)
The NCAA has 347 Division I schools, and Quinnipiac University is one of them. Quinnipiac started out in the NCAA’s second highest conference known as Division II and has faculty and coaches who can describe what the transition process was like.
One of those members is Senior Associate Athletic Director Bill Mecca. For the last 41 years, Mecca has served as an assistant men’s basketball coach (1978-91), head tennis coach, assistant director of athletics and head men’s basketball coach (five seasons).
The one thing that’s resonated with Mecca is Quinnipiac’s increase in population.
“Back In 1978, Quinnipiac had probably around 1100-1200 students and if you could spell Quinnipiac back in the day, then I probably gave you an academic scholarship,” Mecca said. “In terms of where we were academically, we weren’t even close to where we are now.”
Canva By: Jordan Wolff
Photos Courtesy of Quinnipiac Athletics: Quinnipiac Athletics five coaches who’ve been a part of the University for over 20 years. Four of them had no previous affiliation with Quinnipiac, except for Dave Clarke who graduated with a Master’s Degree in 2010.
In 2019, Quinnipiac has 21 Division I athletic programs, five coaches who have 20-year tenures, and a staff of 38 members. It has a soccer, field hockey and lacrosse complex built in 2017 and a rugby team that plays on campus. The York Hill campus has a re-named People’s United Center (from TD Bank) dedicated to hockey and basketball.
Courtesy of Quinnipiac Athletics: Athletic Director Greg Amodio is speaking at the inaugural reception of the new Soccer, Field Hockey and Lacrosse complex opened in the fall of 2017.
The gradual transition started in the mid-1990s.
In 1995, Quinnipiac programs were in Division II athletics. The school was known as Quinnipiac College, and the mascot was the Braves.
Quinnipiac College took a chance, as they hired Fairfield Stags alum Tricia Fabbri as their first full-time female head coach.
Courtesy of Quinnipiac Athletics: Tricia Fabbri, then Patricia Sacca was hired from Fairfield University in 1995. She was inducted to the Fairfield University Hall of Fame in 1998.
“It was different back then because there were very few full-time coaches and administrators that made up the athletics department,” Fabbri said. “It was small, but I was really excited to put a program together because I was the first full-time female coach hired.”
Canva by: Jordan Wolff
The men’s programs remained the same throughout the history of Quinnipiac Athletics. The number women’s programs increased significantly, adding Indoor Track, Outdoor Track, Ice Hockey, Rugby, and Acrobatics and Tumbling.
In Fabbri’s first season, the Braves went 2-23 overall, 1-15 in conference and 1-13 at home. The Braves were also in the Northeast Conference (NEC) in which Fabbri details how difficult it was to navigate.
“The level when I initially started was not as competitive as it needed to be at that time,” Fabbri said. “I didn’t get out and start recruiting and we had a lot of ground to make-up, and not a lot of time to do it. There was a lot of catch-up to be done to get competitive in terms of resources from Division II to Division I to get in place.”
Besides the competitiveness, Mecca explained that Quinnipiac athletics didn’t have much exposure in Division II athletics.
Courtesy of Quinnipiac Chronicle: Mecca currently provides color commentary for Quinnipiac Athletics, along with hosting an annual Golf tournament named after him.
“Division II is one of those places in college athletics, where in my opinion you’re in no man’s land.” Mecca said. “My philosophy is either go Division III, where you’re focusing on the wellness of the athletes and the student-body. Or, go Division I where there is a commitment to go to the next-level.”
Division II was a place where Quinnipiac could still offer scholarships to athletes, but weren’t funded enough to be in the NCAA’s highest conference.
A part of going to that next level was Jack McDonald. McDonald was hired as the new athletic director in August of 1995, and had a chance to sit down with former Quinnipiac president John Lahey. In that discussion, McDonald was very candid on what direction the college needed to take.
“He thought that Quinnipiac’s academic reputation was national Division I-caliber and he’d like the athletic department to catch up to the academic reputation of the school,” McDonald said. “I thought that Quinnipiac would be a great Division I school.
Maybe not the upper echelon of Division I schools, but at the time there was about 321 Division I schools and Quinnipiac would easily fit among those group of schools.”
The men’s and women’s tennis teams each made their mark in 1996-97 (last year in Division II). The men’s team finished 18-1, and went 9-0 in conference play. They were inducted into Quinnipiac’s Hall of Fame in 2014.
The women’s team went 16-2 and also went 9-0 in conference play. They were also inducted into Quinnipiac’s Hall of Fame in 2014.
In 1998, Quinnipiac declared its intent for Division I athletics. McDonald still had some groundwork in front of him. He first had to see which conference Quinnipiac could start in.
McDonald said how Quinnipiac put out multiple applications, but it was ultimately accepted into the Northeast Conference. Another step was trying to elevate the Men’s Ice Hockey Program.
In 1998, McDonald founded a whole new league called the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Hockey League. The MAAC was the men’s ice hockey team’s first Division I hockey conference and it included AIC, Army, Bentley University, Canisius College, UCONN, Fairfield University, Holy Cross, Iona College, Mercyhurst University and Sacred Heart University. The Braves went 22-4-2 in its first season in the MAAC and lost in the semi-finals to Canisius College 5-2.
More change was upon the college two years later.
Part Two: Change the Game
In 2000, Quinnipiac changed its name from Quinnipiac College to Quinnipiac University. Quinnipiac expanded its programs and were now able to grant master’s degrees. Fabbri felt it was time not just for athletics, but for the entire community.
“I thought it was appropriate,” Fabbri said. “Lahey and his administration were growing the graduate programs here, so it was a very paralleled move to keep step in time that we are now broadening what we have to offer our students with moving from college to university.”
Some programs saw immediate results. The 2000 women’s soccer team went 13-6-1 and won the NEC tournament, while the Quinnipiac field hockey team went 12-8 overall and 10-2 in the NEC. Both programs respectively made the Quinnipiac hall of fame in 2010 and 2012. The Quinnipiac Hall of Fame is a place where the University honors there most impactful members, clubs, and athletic programs.
The men’s ice hockey program continued its rise in 2001, as they went 20-13-5. They went 15-6 in the MAAC and defeated Mercyhurst 6-4 in the MAAC title game to advance to its first ever NCAA tournament. They were also inducted into the Quinnipiac Hall of Fame in 2012.
McDonald also started to do some broadcasting duties for the Braves, and discussed how putting hockey games on TV affected the process.
“We wanted people to turn on NESN looking for a Bruins game and they’d see Quinnipiac playing UConn or Fairfield,” McDonald said. “Television was a great way of getting exposure for hockey in Boston and basketball in New York.”
Quinnipiac decided to adjust its mascot two years later. In 2002, they officially changed its mascot from the Braves to the Bobcats.
According to USHCO, this was a suggested move from Lahey as he noticed that Colgate University changed its name from Red Raiders to Raiders.
Quinnipiac Vice President of Public Affairs Lynn Bushnell, stated that, “Quinnipiac’s women’s teams were offended by the use of the Lady Braves moniker, and graphic representations-logos and mascots-were similarly burdened,” the release said. “The institution, out of concern for these sensitivities, had stopped using human representations of Native Americans years ago.”
According to a Quinnipiac Chronicle article by Viktoria Sundqvist, the university’s main factor of choosing Bobcats was due to how common they are in the New England area.
Fabbri remembers how important this adjustment was for the future of the university.
“I think that was a little bit to go with the sign of the times of being politically correct in what was happening in the landscape of college athletics,” Fabbri said. “It really fueled a conversation with Lahey and McDonald. I had nothing to do with making the decision, but I was happy with the move of going from Braves to Bobcats.
The athletics department was also going through transition as they hired Northeastern alum Mike Medina in 2004 as Assistant Athletic Director for intramurals.
Courtesy of Quinnipiac Athletics: Medina graduated with a journalism degree from Northeastern University and currently serves as Quinnipiac’s Director of Fitness and Recreation.
Hockey and basketball didn’t have an arena to play in and programs were still participating in the NEC. Programs were able to wear whatever uniform they desired, but Medina shared how that’s no longer the case.
“One of the things we’ve seen is how the Bobcat has evolved,” Medina said. “We’ve had a rebrand of some of the athletic marks, in particular with the Adidas contract that has started. Prior to that contract, all of our teams wore whatever uniforms they wanted. We’ve seen the consistency of the Bobcat stay, but we’ve seen these tweaks that’ve enhanced the image of the university.”
Part Three: blueprint for success
In 2006, the Quinnipiac men’s hockey team was admitted into the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference. A year later, approximately $52 Million was spent to design and open the TD Bank Sports Center on Quinnipiac’s York Hill campus.
Photo by Jordan Wolff: This was named the TD Bank Sports Center until September of 2017, as TD Bank’s sponsorship came to an end in favor of People’s United Bank.
Prior to that, Mecca revealed how the hockey team practiced at 11 p.m. on Sundays in East Haven. They had an opportunity to join the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference because Vermont decided to switch to the Hockey East conference. Mecca also shared how the university reacted when ECAC representatives came to visit the campus.
“We had put on emphasis on the fact that whatever we were going to do for the men, we would also do for the women,” Mecca said. “They brought bulldozers there and parked it on the side of the road. As they were driving people by in the car to show them where we we’re going to build this state-of-the-art facility, there was this bulldozer that wouldn’t start. It was on the side of the hill, signaling that we were ready to go,”
In 2009, Quinnipiac added a women’s rugby team. They won back-to-back-to-back national championships in their 10-year history.
The rugby team won its first and the inaugural varsity championship in 2015, defeating Army West Point 24-19. Quinnipiac Assistant Director for Athletic communications Nick Solari was a junior journalism major at the time, and remembers how special it was seeing it in person.
“Coach (Becky) Carlson has done a great job with that group,” Solari said. “It wasn’t your typical show up to the game and report on what you see. For the longest time, everyone associated men’s ice hockey as the team going to the national championship. They went to two frozen fours when I was a student there. Simultaneously, women’s rugby was competing for national championships too.”
Courtesy of Quinnipiac Athletics: Solari attended Quinnipiac from 2012-16, along with covering sporting events for the Quinnipiac Chronicle.
How does everything stand today? The Bobcats saw 21 conference championships and 33 NCAA championship appearances in McDonald’s tenure.
Each program elevated to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in 2013, with the field hockey team joining the Big East conference that includes the #1 UConn Huskies in 2016.
Courtesy of Quinnipiac Chronicle (Photo by Anna Brundage): The Quinnipiac 2012-13 Hockey team’s reaction after loss to Yale
The men’s ice hockey team made it to the Frozen Four in 2013. Quinnipiac scored 1:49 into the game and added two more goals in the first period, to make it a 3-0 lead. They held on by a final of 4-1 to advance to its only NCAA championship game.
They faced their in state rival Yale Bulldogs, and were tied 0-0 entering the second period. Yale’s Christian Bourbonais scored with four seconds left in the period to make it a 1-0 game. Yale scored three unanswered goals to win by a final score of 4-0.
The women’s basketball program has won 52 straight conference games and had a memorable run in 2017. They advanced to its first NCAA tournament, where they upset the #5 Marquette 68-65 in the first round. They faced #4 Miami in the round of 32, and won 85-78 to make it to the Sweet 16.
The Quinnipiac baseball team had a historic 2019 season. They faced Fairfield in the MAAC championships and it went to extra innings tied at five. In the bottom of the 13th, junior infielder Evan Vulgamore scored on a wild pitch to send Quinnipiac to its second ever NCAA tournament.
The Bobcats traveled to Greenville, North Carolina to face the #10 East Carolina Pirates. Quinnipiac got out to a 2-0 lead with a homerun from Vulgamore. East Carolina stormed back to make it a 3-3 game, but the Bobcats senior outfielder Liam Scafariello hit a go-ahead two-run homerun to make it a 5-3 game. Quinnipiac held on to win its first ever NCAA tournament game.
The numbers show that success has come with athletic expansion, McDonald still wants athletics to continue its aggressive nature.
“One of my mottos is even if you’re on the right track, if you just stand there you’ll get run over,” McDonald said. “Whenever you’re winning games or having success, you never stop thinking ahead. You can never stop advancing yourself in any phase of life, not just athletics. It’s important to keep moving forward.”
At a university that bears an indigenous name, you would expect a campus celebration for Indigenous People’s Day. At Quinnipiac University, this was not the case. There was nothing on or around campus that acknowledged the day according to Mohegan tribe member and Quinnipiac University student, Kiara Tanta-Quidgeon.
For the small population of indigenous students who attend the university, the lack of Native voices on campus is enough to feel excluded.
“At home, we are all united by our history and our passion for our people,” Tanta-Quidgeon said. “We are all intertwined by not only our ancestry and our blood, but by the love of our land and our culture. This is not something that I have at Quinnipiac, but it is something that I want for current and future indigenous students and will fight for until it is achieved.”
“I always felt that by coming here I was losing a huge part of myself.” — Kiara Tanta-Quidgeon
Tanta-Quidgeon, a sophomore biology major, was raised in Connecticut by a single mother and her indigenous heritage played a huge role in her life. Growing up, she lived near the Mohegan reservation in Montville, Connecticut and would attend the celebrations called powwows and sometimes even danced in them. When she decided on where to go to college, it was a tough decision for her.
“I came here because I wanted to be close to home but I always felt that by coming here I was losing a huge part of myself,” Tanta-Quidgeon said. “I wanted QU to be a place I could call home, but a huge part of what I’ve always known as home was missing. There was a significant lack of inclusion for indigenous students and an absence of indigenous voice in the Quinnipiac community.”
This year, Quinnipiac University was ranked the Princeton Review’s No. 1 university forlittle race/class interaction.
Quinnipiac University, with a 73 percent white student demographic, has a low enrollment of Native American students and other minority groups despite its indigenous name. According to the2016 IPEDS Data Feedback Report, 0.1 percent of students enrolled in the university identified as Native American.This number translates to 14 Native American students enrolled in a university of about 10,000 students.
The low number of enrolled indigenous students has led students to start questioning the lack of diversity on campus.
“We are predominantly a white, settler-colonists institute that uses a name with little to no credit given to the people and the history of this place,” Tanta-Quidgeon said. “If they didn’t care about the history of their own how were they to care about mine?”
Tanta-Quidgeon explained that a lack of inclusion looks like it does now: an overwhelming majority of the population being Caucasian.
“A lack of inclusion is a lack of diversity and a lack of celebration of differences,” she said. “Our groups and organizations do an amazing job of implementing minority voices in the community and celebrating their cultures and differences, and that is what I want for indigenous students.”
Before this year, Tanta-Quidgeon said she only knew two other indigenous students on campus. And both of them were her cousins. She said that she only met a few more Native students this year so the number is still small.
Despite the low number of indigenous students enrolled, there is no place for these students to gather and celebrate their heritage.
“There is no place I felt totally comfortable sharing the most important parts of myself and no place where I could find students to bond to and unite with like I did with the tribal members back home,” she said. “I mean there wasn’t even a place on the QU website where you could even learn or see that Quinnipiac University is on the land of a Native American tribe and uses their name.”
While the university has added a more extensive about page to its website, there is no mention of the Quinnipiac tribe and that the university resides on Native land.
Students gather in the student center for the Teach-In on Indigeneity and Quinnipiac to listen to professor of philosophy, Anat Biletzki, speak about colonization in the Middle East. Photo by Hannah Tebo.
This lack of education about the land the university resides on and the name it holds has been a growing issue in the community which has led to new inclusivity programs like the Teach-In on Indigeneity to start taking place.
This Teach-In took place in the student center on Nov. 19 and addressed a wide range of issues. Professors from areas of history, philosophy and law lectured about indigeneity throughout history to educate those who attended about the history before settlers came and to show the detrimental impact of colonialism on the Native people. Around 77 students swiped in at the Teach-In according to Executive Director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute, Sean Duffy.
Of the multiple professors and lecturers that spoke, two indigenous students stood in front of peers and faculty to discuss what it was like to be an indigenous student at Quinnipiac. Tanta-Quidgeon was one of them.
Tanta-Quidgeon discussed her heritage and upbringing, but described one of the most difficult parts of being a indigenous student on campus was the lack of clubs and organizations that brought Native students together. She said that through these new initiatives at Quinnipiac University there’s more awareness and they are starting to create student-led groups for indigenous students.
“I do have a good number of friends at school however, I am always excited when I come across another student who is Native American,” senior psychology major and Mohegan tribe member, Kristina Jacobs said. “It is a really good feeling to have people who understand your culture and way of life and to share something with someone that is so close to your heart.”
Tanta-Quidgeon speaking at the Teach-In to students and faculty about what it’s like to be an indigenous student at a predominantly white university. Photo by Hannah Tebo.
Lala Forrest, a first year medical student at Quinnipiac University, was the second indigenous student to stand in front of students and faculty to discuss the barriers of being a Native American student.
Originally from the Pit River tribe in California, Forrest spent the first year of her life on the reservation with her single mother. She moved off the reservation as a toddler because her mother wanted to provide her with opportunities and resources that weren’t available on the reservation.
For her, college was only ever an option, not something she had to do.
In high school, she found a program that helped first-generation Native American students apply to college. She spent four years at University of California San Diego before applying to medical school. She discussed at the Teach-In the low enrollment of Native students to medical schools and revealed that in 2018 out of 30,000 Native college students, four applied to medical school and zero got in.
“This is a call for medical schools to increase their representation of Native Americans in medicine,” Forrest said. “And this is important because Native students want to go back and help their communities, they want to help people who are suffering disproportionately in nearly every health category.”
Forrest then discussed a “pipeline project” the University of Minnesota has for indigenous students to help them prepare for medical school. They start preparing these students in middle school and provide support for these students all the way until they get to medical school. She explained that Minnesota showed support of Native students with 13 percent of the faculty at the school being indigenous and having Native faculty members on the admissions committee.
She wrapped it all back around to being an indigenous student at Quinnipiac and the purpose of the new events being introduced to the community.
“Our purpose is to foster a campus-wide conversation on indigenous identities, histories and culture,” Forrest said. “The goal I think of this initiative is to work towards social justice, equity and inclusivity for indigenous people and how we need to be bearing an indigenous name and residing on indigenous lands be culturally responsiveness but also responsible with that.”
The school is also working with an organization called the Akomawt Educational Initiative, a group that travels around east coast schools, connecting colleges with indigenous communities.
“These are the types of things we would like to change, the structure at the university,” Chris Newell, Passamaquoddy tribe member and one of the leaders of the Akomawt Educational Initiative said. “One that is welcoming to all people.”
Three members circulated through speaking at the podium. They talked about indigenous people today and how they are still fighting for rights. They discussed the Standing Rock protests, the importance of accepting different forms of knowledge as credible and what Quinnipiac can do to keep this type of inclusive conversation alive on campus.
They also visited campus on Dec. 2 and professors at the university were able to individually meet with the team to discuss how to create curricula that is more inclusive of Native histories, culture and knowledge.
“Being a native student at a predominately white school can be difficult, especially when some of our experiences are so different,” senior psychology major and Mohegan tribe member Lauren Jacobs said. “I think that Quinnipiac should advocate and try to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day and just create more awareness and more information regarding native culture. Further, I think that Quinnipiac should make it more known that Quinnipiac is named after a tribe.”
So why has the university waited until 2019 to start this type of conversation?
According to Duffy, past presidents prioritized establishing the university.
1950 Chronicle article reporting on the changing of JCC to “Quinnipiac College.” Courtsey of Bob Young, QU Libraries.
“There were bits and drabs [of events] over the years,” Duffy said. “The focus was really on bringing on what had been the Junior College of Commerce and limp through the ‘70s and ‘80s that way to its next level. Since then the student population has almost doubled in size and there had been a lot of programmatic growth and development that we were really focusing on as an institution.”
And the university has grown a lot since it first opened its doors in 1929.
Quinnipiac University was originally founded in 1929 under the name “The Connecticut College of Commerce” according to Duffy. At the time, the college only offered two year degrees but in 1950 the institution admitted the first four-year class.
Then in January of 1950, the college changed its name to “Quinnipiac College” after the students and faculty voted between four different names which were Nathan Hale, Ronan, Quinnipiac College and the College of Arts and Commerce, according to Duffy.
According to the 1951 Quinnipiac General Catalogue, the school’s comprehensive source of departamental, college and university-wide information, the school was originally named after the Quinnipiac plantations but according to Duffy the university was named after the Algonquin tribe that were named “Quinnipiac” which translates to “long water people.” When the tribe sold the land to white colonists, the settlers named the land Quinnipiac before changing it to New Haven according to honorary story teller for the Quinnipiac and adjunct professor at the university, Dorothy Howell.
But it is still unclear who the Quinnipiac were.
According to Howell, there isn’t much known about the tribe before white settlers came to the New Haven area. The tribe was small and in 1668 when settlers came to the land, the tribe sold the land to colonists who reserved a small piece for the Natives which is now looked at as one of the first Native American reservations in the United States according to Howell.
The tribe today is fragmented. According to Howell, many of the members have been adopted into the tribe just as she was. Howell believes current members have much to add to the university that could begin to establish new traditions just like Quinnipiac Weekend was once an integral part of the community.
In the early 1950s, the university celebrated its first ever ‘Quinnipiac Weekend’ during the first weekend of May. According to the General Catalogue, this was a celebration of the founding of the university.
“The weekend was originally meant to celebrate Quinnipiac’s heritage and give the students a few days to celebrate being part of this community,” Duffy said.
The university held a variety of events for students including shows, a picnic at Holiday Hill in Cheshire and a prom at night according to one 1967 issue of the Chronicle. However, there was no celebration or mention of the indigenous people and land the school is named after. The weekend was more focused on celebrating the founding of the university rather than the name.
The university officially stopped sponsoring Quinnipiac weekend festivities after a student was killed in 2007 walking across Whitney Avenue according to a2016 Chronicle article.
In that same year, the famous ‘Legend of the Bobcat’ was integrated into the community to connect the university’s mascot, name and students to the school and keep the sense of community alive. But it’s a story created by students at the school rather than a legend from the Quinnipiac tribe.
“For one thing, we really ought to replace the bogus legends with stories from the actual Quinnipiac history we can discover,” Howell said.
According to Newell there is a legend behind the Sleeping Giant that is told by the tribe and the community should adopt that version instead.
“Indigenizing Quinnipiac means tying it to the land,” he said. “Maybe not tying it to a student-created legend because with what we’ve seen with legends that were created and the way the internet is, they become fact to some people.”
In 2001, the university decided to change the mascot of the school from the Braves to the Bobcats. After a recommendation by former university president, John Lahey, the institution abandoned the usage of a stereotypical Native American chief and transitioned to a more culturally appropriate mascot.
The university still has work to do according to Howell, but she thinks these new programs are a good start.
“In brief, the one thing we owe the land we occupy, whether in honor of the Quinnipiacs or as an obligation we should all be accepting, is respect,” Howell said. “How we express that respect will be up to the QU community. The decisions are beyond you and me, but one day of lectures, one month dedicated to Native Americans, one pow-wow, one year of indigenous programs are no more than a start.”
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