Protesters left the streets of Hamden on Monday and marched into Mayor Curt Balzano Leng’s, office demanding that Hamden’s police commission conduct an independent investigation of a police-involved shooting that happened two weeks prior.
Demonstrators are still requesting that Devin Eaton, the Hamden Police Department officer involved in the shooting of an unarmed couple, be fired immediately.
Mayor Leng said that he does not have the power to fire Eaton although he agrees with what the protestors are requesting.
“I have seen enough to say that I don’t think that Officer Eaton should be a Hamden police officer any longer,” Leng said.
Although Hamden PD cannot head the criminal investigation, the department’s ethics and integrity unit will also conduct its own local investigation, according to Mayor Leng.
The two officers involved are on paid leave while the investigation remains underway.
Kiesha Greene, the mother of the unarmed driver involved in the shooting, Paul Witherspoon III, addressed the media Monday and said she agrees that the officers should be fired.
Greene said that she believes the shooting does not only concern her son and Stephanie Washington, the woman who was shot, but that it’s about the community and its entirety.
“Next week it could be somebody else’s child, and I don’t want to see this happen to anyone’s kid,” Greene said.
She voiced her disappointment in not being contacted by the ministers who held the prayer service Sunday in New Haven at the Varick Memorial Church in wake of the shooting.
“How do you have that type of meeting and not have the victims there or the victim’s parents there, because aren’t you talking about the situation that happened,” she said. “Wouldn’t you want to be able to speak to us and have our voices be heard?”
The service was called Hope for Healing and community leaders joined law enforcement officials to focus on finding healing and helping to build trust between the community and law enforcement.
Jacob Schmidt, a 22-year-old Yale student from Richmond, Michigan, decided to go to the service after participating in two of the protests that happened near his school.
“It was so powerful to see everyone come together, leave their apprehensions at the door and commit to a peaceful service,” Schmidt said. “I think this is something that the community should continue to aspire to.”
Pastor of the service, Kelcy G.I Steele, said he believes religious leaders must play a part in improving the community’s policing.
“We are committed to building bridges between police and community and we understand that policing in America is facing a crisis of legitimacy and purpose,” Steele said, according to WFSB.
Connecticut State Police have yet to come to a conclusion on the investigation. During a press conference last Tuesday, the latest information on the investigation and Officer Eaton’s body cam footage from the incident were released.
The state’s public safety commissioner, James Rovella, conducted the press conference. He noted that the release of the footage marked a difference in operation procedures.
“Before we used to not show any of this until the conclusion of the investigation,” Rovella said.
Rovella said that state police do not have footage from the Yale officer Terrence Pollock because his body cam was not turned on during the time of the incident.
“In a perfect world, he would have turned on his camera sooner, but the officer was facing many stressors at the time,” he said.
Rovella revealed that the communication between Hamden PD and New Haven during the night of the shooting may have contributed to how the incident played out.
“Hamden tells New Haven that, in fact, they’ve had an armed robbery involving a firearm. They did not tell New Haven that Hamden was actually entering their city,” Rovella said.
He stated that the officers involved will not be charged until the investigation is completed. Information from officers about what was going on in their heads during the shooting is still lacking because the officers have been on leave, according to the commissioner.
“I have concerns about many different aspects of how this case was handled.”
“I’ve lived here since I was in the third grade. My mom was in the food business; she had a sushi restaurant in Texas. She also owned a couple nail salons and she wanted to open up a restaurant [the OZ Korean Kitchen]. It’s pretty steady. It used to be better but it’s kind of slowing down I’d say. I used to hang out at the plaza in middle school with all of my friends. I was in seventh or eighth grade just walking around the plaza, walking the trail. There are new businesses opening up everywhere. Everything is changing, definitely.”
Linda Greenhouse, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Greenhouse, who grew up in Hamden, covered the Supreme Court for the New York Times from 1978 to 2007. She has written 2,100 articles for the Times since 1981. In 1988 she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for her coverage of the Supreme Court. She currently works at Yale Law School as the Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law and Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence.
Dunbar Hill Elementary School is one of eight Hamden schools that is considering implementing the employment of security resource officers.
In just a few weeks the Hamden Legislative Council will vote on a school budget that may include money to place armed school resource officers (SROs) in Hamden’s eight elementary schools.
However, that proposal is stirring controversy in Hamden where its opponents, mainly parents, argue that the presence of armed officers is unnecessary, and will have an overwhelming negative effect on the young students.
“It’s not a good idea to make the age younger and younger when kids are interacting with the police when it’s not needed,” Hamden elementary school parent Jennifer Pope said.
SROs have been fixtures in Hamden’s middle and high schools for years, and their presence as an additional safety measure has been widely accepted by parents, teachers and students alike. The success of these programs have led many community leaders, including Mayor Curt Leng to supporting expanding them to Hamden’s elementary schools. Pending approval from the legislative council, Mayor Leng’s proposal would bring in two Hamden police officers as SROs, who would serve in each school on a rotating basis.
Pope, founder of the Hamden Progressive Action Network (HamPAN), is an outspoken critic of the mayor’s motion. She began HamPAN after the results of the 2016 presidential election inspired her to take on a more active role in politics. During the past three years, HamPAN has focused primarily on issues at the municipal and state levels. Now, its turned its attention to keeping SROs out of elementary schools.
In March, HamPAN created a petition to halt Mayor Leng’s proposal. Citing a report from Connecticut Voices for Children, Pope voiced concern about the effect SROs have on minority students, namely students of color and those with disabilities. The results of the study, which analyzed the effect of SROs on 1000 students across the state in grades K-12, were published earlier this month.
“There are some troubling things in that report…minorities have more contact with the SROs than their white counterparts,” Pope said. “Overwhelmingly the research shows that having SROs in schools doesn’t make them safer.”
Numerous leaders in the school district would disagree. Daniel Levy has been the principal of West Woods Elementary School for the last five years. He argues that, in his experience, SROs serve a crucial role in the school district.
“I worked very closely, for a long time, with Hamden SROs, and really the SRO program is the physical manifestation of the close partnership between the police department and the school system,” Levy said. “What we had always done by working together was promote a safe and welcoming school climate conducive to learning.”
Prior to working West Woods, Levy served as the principal of Hamden Middle School for several years. During that time, he said he witnessed firsthand the positive impact that SROs had on students.
“SROs repeatedly built trusting relationships with students. I had one SRO [at Hamden Middle School], Officer [Andrea] Vay…she used to play violin in our school orchestra with the kids,” Levy said. “Having strong relationships with adults who care for them, who can assist them, is so important.”
Jody Goeler, superintendent for the Hamden school district, echoes Levy’s sentiment, adding that the presence of SROs facilitates a safe learning environment.
“Because there’s so many of them and so few of us, it’s very important that if our students see something or are involved with something that presents a safety concern to them that they have immediate access to and a trusting relationship with a police officer so they can get the help they need,” Goeler said. “They work effectively with our security guards as well, and they also work effectively with our administration.”
Goeler went on to say that should a crisis occur, having officers in the school would be hugely beneficial in minimizing the threat and protecting students.
“[SROs] are effective on a variety of levels. If there are issues relating to say a bomb scare or other kind of safety concern, we have people in those schools who are immediately accessible to help us address those concerns and maintain the safety of our students,” Goeler said.
Not only would these officers be a familiar face to students during an emergency, but Principal Levy also pointed out that having SROs cycle through schools would give them a chance to get familiar with the physical layout of the buildings, allowing them to act more quickly in a crisis.
“God forbid if they needed to respond to a school, they’d be familiar with the layout,” Levy said. “We don’t want to be experiencing a response for the first time in an actual emergency.”
As superintendent, Goeler also created a budget proposal for the upcoming school year, and it does not include funds for bringing officers into Hamden’s elementary schools. Despite understanding the benefits, he believes there are better ways to use the money to meet the needs of the community. Of the issues students in Hamden are facing, Goeler believes that a lack of mental health resources is the most pressing. His proposal features funds set aside for the purpose of bringing mental health professionals into the schools.
Goeler explained that, in an ideal scenario, there would be enough money in the town’s budget to finance both an SRO program at the elementary school level in addition to mental health resources. Given the limited budget however, Goeler stands behind his proposal to use the funds to promote the mental health of students.
“If I had my druthers and money wasn’t an issue, I wouldn’t be opposed to having SROs in all of our buildings because I’ve seen that work in other districts,” Goeler said. “In an environment where we have only a finite amount of dollars, I want to put them towards the kind of support that our students need to access their education. Right now, those needs center around mental health support.”
Protestors gather in front of the Hamden Stop & Shop at 2335 Dixwell Avenue as the strike continues for the eighth day.
Stop & Shop employees across New England began their eighth day of strikes today against the billion dollar corporation whose new contract proposal would significantly decrease their healthcare and retirement benefits as well as their take-home pay.
“They’re trying to double and triple what we pay every week,” Joe Renaldi, assistant grocery manager at the Hamden Stop & Shop, said. “They’re trying to double and triple our deductibles that you have to hit before they’ll cover it (medical expenses). They want to make Sunday a regular payday (as opposed to paid overtime).We can’t stand for it.”
Over 31,000 workers across 249 stores in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts took part in the strike.
Jorge Cabrera, The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) representative for the striking workers said, “This strike is about basic dignity and respect. This is a multi-billion dollar company that made $2 billion in profits last year, and got a huge over $300 million tax cut,” Cabrera said. “All we’re asking is to make sure that they keep these workers with good health insurance, a decent pension so they can retire, and good wages so they can provide food for their families.”
Jorge Cabrera (Left) and Joe Renaldi (Right) pose for a picture in front of the Hamden Stop & Shop location.
Other labor Unions such as The American Federation of teachers (AFT Connecticut) and The American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees (Council 4 AFSCME) came out on Monday, April 15, and donated $2,500 each to a fund supporting the striking workers. Others have also brought food, drinks and other supplies to help those on the picket lines.
Jan Hochadel, the president of AFT Connecticut said, “We are proud to stand with the 31,000 members of UFCW on strike across New England. They deserve to maintain what they’ve worked so hard to achieve — a middle-class life for their families,” Hochadel said. “When a profitable corporation like Stop & Shop tries to rob its employees of their shot at the American Dream, our members will rise up in solidarity. That’s what the ‘U & I in Union’ is all about.”
Hochadel and Jody Barr, the executive director of AFSCME, both have said that their respective organizations will donate $500 per week to the strike fund. They will also reach out to other labor unions to solicit donations for the striking Stop & Shop workers.
“These union members are taking a bold and courageous stand for workers everywhere,” Barr said. “Their fight for a fair contract and for dignity on the job is our fight. Our union members stand behind them because we recognize that we are in this together.”
AFT Connecticut and AFSCME both donated $2,500 each to the strike fund in support of the protesting Stop & Shop employees.
The support from the unions collectively has been overwhelmingly positive and their contributions up to this point have not gone unnoticed, said Jessica Petronella, UFCW Local 371 organizing director.
“We are incredibly grateful to Council 4 and AFT Connecticut for their generous contribution to the joint strike fund,” Petronella said. “This flood of support shows New England is a place that values hard-working union families and believes workers have earned the right to build a better life and community.”
Despite the efforts of the unions to support the picket lines, the workers are hoping that the strike will end soon so that they can get back to doing their jobs.
Renaldi said, “We want to go back to work. Everybody wants to work. But we can’t afford to take the cuts and everything that they want to do. We just want a fair contract.”
The general public might not understand why these workers are protesting instead of working. But for many of these employees, the proposed changes will change the course of their lives for the foreseeable future.
Renaldi said, “It’s all the health care and the retirement and all that. They just want to kill it. I mean I’m going to be retired in like four years, five years. Its big for me. It’s big for a lot of people here.”
Stop & Shop released a statement on its website acknowledging the strike and admitted that it’s not “business as usual”. The grocery store chain went on to say that it is hopeful that the two sides can come to an agreement in the near future.
“Stop & Shop recognizes the valuable role our associates play in creating a great experience for you, our customers. They are a part of your lives, a part of our community, and key to our success. That’s why it is so important to us to provide a fair contract to our employees who are members of the UFCW unions currently on strike,” the statement said. “We are committed to resolving our labor negotiations as quickly as possible so that our employees can return to their jobs and we can get back to serving you and the community.”
Asked how long the workers would continue to fight for a new and improved contract, Cabrera said, “As long as it takes.”
A Hamden PD officer speaks with an individual in violation of distracted driving.
(Photo: Sam Bashaw)
“Black Honda Pilot, AL, white male, texting, right hand, right lane.”
This is the call Captain Ronald Smith makes to four police officers a block away from his undercover position in front of the Hamden Plaza. Sergeant Gregg Curran, of the Hamden Police Department Traffic Division, slows down the traffic on Dixwell Avenue, pulls over the Honda Pilot driver and writes him a $150 ticket for texting while driving.
During the month of April the Hamden PD and the Connecticut Department of Transportation Highway Safety Office are partnering with the United States Department of Transportation for their national “U Drive — U Text — U Pay” campaign, according to a press release sent out by Hamden PD.
This means that a heavier police squad presence around town, namely at the intersection of Sherman and Whitney Avenues, in front of Hamden Plaza and the intersection of Whitney and Mount Carmel Avenues, will be watching and ticketing drivers utilizing their phones.
“(The campaign) is all throughout the state,” Smith said. “We regularly participate because our numbers and the amount of tickets we’ve given out have been enormous.”
The Hamden PD has been participating in the “U Drive — U Text — U Pay” campaign for several years and its most recent venture in August of 2018, produced more than 600 issued tickets in less than a month’s time.
“It’s been a constant flow,” Smith said of the number of cars his officers have pulled over in the first two hours of their four-hour shift. “(The no texting while driving law) has been on the books for several years and people just don’t abide by it and think it’s not a big problem.”
During the campaign, Hamden PD rotates two, four-hour shifts every day from Monday through Friday. One officer will dress in plain clothes as the ‘spotter,’ who inconspicuously radios a violation to a team of three to four officers in uniforms and police cars about a block or two down from the spotter’s location.
Each officer helping in the campaign is compensated in the form of overtime that comes from a grant provided by Connecticut Department of Transportation.
“The sad thing is that when we don’t have the grant we don’t have the manpower to enforce this specific law,” Smith said. “Officers on the street here have so many other things to do and they don’t have a lot of time to look for distracted driving, they’re going to calls and other things, accidents, etc…. Unfortunately, budgetary constraints and things like that make it difficult. (The grant) is nice because it doesn’t really affect the taxpayers in town.”
Andrew Tran, a 29-year-old from West Haven, was pulled over on April 15 while Smith and his team were doing checks.
“It sucks, but I wasn’t texting,” Tran said. “I was holding it, but I wasn’t using it, but I get why I was pulled over.”
Tran was unaware of the $150 ticket he would receive after getting caught. Under Connecticut’s cell phone and texting law, a second violation doubles to $300 and then to $500 for each subsequent offense, according to the Department of Transportation.
“I think a warning would’ve been nice,” Tran said. “I’ve never gotten stopped before so now I’m aware of it.”
However, Smith thinks that issuing warnings or reducing the fines would not be a smart decision.
“Obviously, the $150 ticket isn’t a deterrent enough,” Smith said. “(For example), if lawmakers decided that if you were to utilize the cellphone while driving, then your license would be suspended for three months or a short period of time.”
This solution wouldn’t solve all their problems, but Smith thinks it is one way to prohibit drivers from breaking the law repeatedly.
Marlo Wehrer, a 21-year-old Quinnipiac University athletic training major from Pequannock, New Jersey was pulled over on April 10 for texting while driving. She was stopped on the corner of Whitney and Mount Carmel Avenues, having no idea why she was getting pulled over.
“Literally between the time of me pulling out of North Lot and getting to the stop sign at New Road, supposedly there was someone there who had seen me on my phone,” Wehrer said. “When I kept driving toward the light, I thought there was an accident because so many cars were pulled over to the side, there were at least four or five cars already.”
Although she disagrees with her ticket, Wehrer will not go to court to petition it because she is from out of state and does not think the fine amount was unreasonable. “I was OK with it because it’s not a crazy amount of money,” Wehrer said. “I’ve heard people getting tickets that are much more expensive and as well, sometimes an event like this you would get points off your license, so I’m super thankful I didn’t get points off.”
Wehrer’s biggest quarrel with the “U Drive — U Text — U Pay” campaign is the location Hamden PD is choosing.
“I wouldn’t say that I am against (the campaign), but the fact that they’re sitting (near) a college campus; I feel like that’s kind of dumb,” Wehrer said. “Why are you attacking these kids who are paying so much money to go to that school anyway? We’re not just people who are working who have money to throw around like it’s nothing. So I think that’s messed up and I know a lot of people were upset by that and seeing how many people they had pulled over, they must have made so much money. It was crazy.”
However, Smith sees Quinnipiac students as a large demographic of distracted drivers in Hamden and pulling them over is keeping the public safer.
“For Quinnipiac students, a lot of them are on their phone,” Smith said. “I don’t know what their state laws are but I believe they’re the same, I’m certain. It’s quite a problem with Quinnipiac students and in the past there have been accidents and fatals; people crossing Whitney Avenue, not paying attention.”
Graphics: Aliza Gray
In 2007, Jennifer Herschkowitz, a Quinnipiac University freshman, was walking across Whitney Avenue and was fatally hit by a car while she was on her cell phone. For Smith, it’s not just about making sure the drivers are safe, but the pedestrians are too.
“We’ve been very vigilant about the campaign because it has affected our community,” Smith said. “I consistently read reports where distracted driving was the cause of an accident. A woman was crossing the street at one of our summer concerts last July and a distracted driver killed her. She had a family and kids.”
For Wehrer, getting a ticket has made her more aware of not touching her phone while driving.
“It definitely made a mark on me,” Wehrer said. “It’s a huge problem that people are texting and driving and you see awful things that occur with people being on their phone and getting in these crazy accidents. This definitely showed that to me, and I think other people would be the same way.”
Although the “U Drive — U Text — U Pay” campaign ends April 18, it will start up again at the beginning of August and continue for years to come, according to Smith. Smith’s advice for drivers is to simply obey the law and pull into a parking lot or off to the side of the road if they want to send a text, or even better, put their phone in the back seat of the car.
“There have been people who have been seriously injured and killed, families who have lost loved ones over something as stupid as responding to a text, and that’s very sad,” Smith said. “Our officers respond to scenes like that and it’s something you’ll never forget and it’s for what? To text someone that you’ll be there soon? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
The biggest meeting space on Quinnipiac University’s campus in Hamden is nearly empty save for three students, dressed in business attire and brimming with excitement.
The hollowness of the Mount Carmel Auditorium on that cold October evening did not affect three members of race-based Greek organizations as they prepared for their much-anticipated event centered on bridging the gap between white and minority students at their predominantly white institution.
The three students — a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., a black fraternity, as well as two Hispanic students representing Latin Greek organizations — spent weeks organizing the event and days promoting it with fliers on social media. They prepared a PowerPoint with statistics, composed discussion questions and broached ways to discuss the racial tension at a university that recently suspended another fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, after a racist incident earlier in 2018.
Finally, everything is in place.
But, 30 minutes after the event is scheduled to begin, only five students are in attendance.
The disappointment sets in.
As the few students that decided to make the trek across Quinnipiac’s quad settle into their seats, the realization hit that there would be a lot more vacant seats in the auditorium than filled ones.
Despite the dedication and efforts of the members of many of the multicultural Greek organizations, the reality is, these organizations receive little administrative support, and even less general visibility at predominantly white institutions, PWIs, across America.
“I can definitely say it is kind of discouraging. And it makes you think twice if you want to hold another event or if you want to do something like this again because it’s like, your afraid to get the same outcome,” said Bernard Grant, vice president of the National Society for Black Engineers at the University of New Haven. “You don’t want to feel like your time was wasted, like you put in all this effort, and only like three or four people showed up to it.”
Despite the struggles that multicultural greek organizations face at PWIs, things were far worse in the early 1900s when many of these organizations did not exist. African American students searched for something to be a part of in order to give them a sense of belonging at universities.
Fraternities at Cornell University prohibited black members, but African American students wanting to join a brotherhood got creative.
Henry Arthur Callis, for example, worked as a server at Sigma Alpha Epsilon events. George Biddle Kelley did the same for Beta Theta Pi. Others served as tutors — anything to experience fraternity life and see the inner workings of a successful organization.
Callis and Kelley used their experiences and knowledge of the institutional framework to help found Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. at Cornell in 1906 — the first ever historically black intercollegiate fraternity at the undergraduate level.
Over the next 60 years, eight more organizations launched across America. Seven were founded before 1925, with Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. being the latest, which was founded in 1963 at Morgan State University, a historically black university in Baltimore.
These organizations make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council, which is the collective governing body for these organizations, with the goal of “Unanimity of thought and action as far as possible in the conduct of greek letter collegiate fraternities and sororities, and to consider problems of mutual interest to its member organizations” as stated on the NPHC website. Ever since Iota Phi Theta officially became a member of the council in 1997, it has been commonly referred to as the “Divine Nine”(D9).
Jaylan Leon is the chief communications director of students of the diaspora at Yale in New Haven.
“My image of the D9 is black excellence. Black people that are trying to move forward and come together to make an impact in their community. People who are really motivated towards a like goal. It has an impact to really change communities and impact youth, especially,” Leon said.
Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha
Kappa Alpha PsiDelta Sigma Theta
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Zeta Phi Beta
Members of the Divine Nine across the country in the mid to late 20th Century. Photos Courtesy of Creative Commons/ Flickr.
Three of these D9 organizations were founded at PWIs, with two sprouting up in the midwest when Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. launched at Indiana University in Bloomington in 1911, and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. began at Indianapolis’ Butler University in 1922.
Stephanie McClure, a sociology professor at Georgia College, and author of the book “Voluntary Association Membership: Black Greek Men on a Predominantly White Campus” says students founded the black fraternities as social support and political action organizations.
“I guess I’ve always felt like that was their role,” she said.
In 2019, these organizations look much different now, since they have grown immensely and expanded their outreach.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., chartered at Howard University in 1908, has now initiated upwards of 300,000 members. Alpha Phi Alpha has over 200,00 initiated members at more than 700 chapters across the world.
All of the D9 organizations have established chapters outside of the United States in places such as the Virgin Islands, England, Canada, South Korea, Germany and Jamaica.
Despite the growth of the D9 over the last century, the representation at Quinnipiac is scarce with just one D9 organization on campus. The Sigma Beta chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho has just one active member and has not welcomed any new initiates since Spring 2017.
Sevina Jackson is that lone member.
“I would say that my membership journey is different than other individuals that are in sororities on this campus,” she said. “I know my chapter does struggle to recruit members and maintain a size of five or more. As far as having events and stuff we do struggle to get an attendance.”
Though the chapter struggles to maintain membership, Quinnipiac administrators are committed to the sorority.
“We need to continue to provide support to the sorority that’s here. And we need to be honest with national organizations that want to come here,” said Katherine Pezzella, director of campus life for fraternity and sorority life.
“We need to get to a point where we’re also OK not only accepting the city-wide model but we also need to be OK with groups coming and going on our campus. We need to be OK that we can recognize the AKAs, while the AKAs are kind of in and then maybe they die out but we welcome them back whenever there is interest.”
The city-wide model is a model that is commonly adopted at PWIs in an effort to provide a chapter that can sustain on a campus where there aren’t many black students.
For example Alpha Phi Alpha and Alpha Kappa Alpha are two city-wide chapters that exist in the greater New Haven area and consist of members from Yale, University of New Haven, Southern Connecticut State University and Quinnipiac.
This fusion of universities provides membership numbers to be able to sustain over a long period of time.
The problem is, many universities don’t recognize city-wide chapters due to insurance issues.
Colleen Kazar, assistant director for Greek life and programming at the University of New Haven said, “We cannot monitor or manage what is happening in city-wide chapters, which creates a liability on the university should something happen to one of our students.”
This creates a high hurdle for involved students and handicaps the organizations greatly by creating situations in which members can’t host events or receive financial assistance from the university.
“We had to get a paper signed by our Greek advisor on campus just saying that we meet the requirements — saying that we had a 2.5 (grade point average), we’re in good standing with the school and we’re actually a student there,” said Bernard Grant, a recently initiated member of Alpha Phi Alpha at the University of New Haven. “But the reason they wouldn’t sign it was because we’re not recognized on campus.”
Quinnipiac holds the same policy regarding city-wide chapters, thus limiting options for African American students.
Since Quinnipiac does not allocate any funding directly to Greek organizations on campus, funds are raised strictly via chapter dues, meaning the members determine the budget for the chapter. For Jackson and Sigma Beta, that means just one person is contributing monetarily, deeming it nearly impossible to finance the chapter.
“It’s definitely something that we’re talking about. I think it’s something that we’ll revisit again this summer and just try to think through,” Pezzella said.
Sigma Beta
Sigma BetaSigma BetaSigma Beta
Jackson and other members of Sigma Gamma Rho in Connecticut at various events in the community. Photos courtesy of Sevina Jackson.
Another potential solution to the recruitment issue could be revisiting how these organizations appeal to non-African American students.
“…at top-tier universities, black undergraduate populations average 6 percent, a statistic that has remained largely flat for 20 years.” according to a 2015 article that was published by The Atlantic.
Therefore, if on average 94% of the student body is not African American, the D9 organizations need to find other ways to recruit members.
“Diversify the membership. Don’t simply focus on the color of folks’ skin. Focus on whether or not they hold the fraternity’s ideals,” said Gregory Parks, associate dean of research, public engagement and faculty development at Wake Forest.
“Do they care about racial equality? Do they care about high academic performance? Do they care about community engagement? Do they care about collegiality? Getting along with others or brotherhood. You might imagine some progressive-minded White, Latino, Asian American, Native American students on campus who’d be interested in Alpha — they just need to know more about it.” he said.
PWIs have not met the standard that the founders of these organizations envisioned more than a century ago.
“I think we can always do better. The work our fraternities and sororities do should be celebrated on a constant basis,” said Eric Lacharity, associate director of the Office of Student Involvement at Southern Connecticut State. “It’s our job to be advocates for our Greek Life community and create that visibility for them and educate others on their importance.”
Educate — just like the three students in the near-empty assembly room on Quinnipiac’s campus last October were doing. University administrators at PWIs must also bridge the gap to the D9 organizations on their campuses.
“I feel like their presence is getting more and more known by the day as we add more, and I really feel like it’s becoming a really good staple of this community,” said Kyle Lopez, Quinnipiac’s Interfraternity Council president.
“We’re all working together and we’re building this community that’s awesome,” Lopez said. “So, I think if we keep going in the direction that we’re going in now in terms of membership intake, in terms of organizations being added, that we’ll be in a really good place in a few years.”
Dodging, weaving, and swerving left and right. This isn’t the description of race car drivers approaching their final lap on the track– it’s one of Quinnipiac students driving along Mount Carmel Avenue trying to make it to class in one piece. The obstacle in their way? Potholes, which only seem to grow in size and number at the end of every winter.
Superintendent of Streets for Hamden’s Public Works Department Joseph Longobardi said that while potholes are a year-long problem, they occur more frequently during the late winter into spring, due to the change in weather.
“During the winter you have the rain and then it freezes, and it tends to pop the asphalt. That’s when the potholes occur and the complaints start coming in,” Longobardi said. “We’re filling them (the potholes) from then all the way to the fall.”
There are two trucks that maintain approximately 228 miles of road, one in the north end of town and one in the south. With these two vehicles, the public works department has filled 322 potholes from Jan. 3 to April 4 of this year.
The process of filling and refilling these road hazards is a long one and it depends on weather conditions as well as the availability of materials.
While the pothole is preferably filled with hot asphalt mix, which has long-lasting properties, it is often not available in the colder months. If this is the case, as it is in Hamden, repairs are made with other materials like cold patch, a mixture of stone and oil, and then revisited in warmer months.
Longobardi said the department uses the cold patch to maintain the roads for the winter while the asphalt plants are closed. When the plants reopen at the end of May, they can begin using the hot asphalt as a more permanent patch.
Constant maintenance of the roads is not enough to keep the complaints at bay. In fact, they’re a daily occurrence. There are currently 136 pothole reports on SeeClickFix. Yesterday, that number was 122.
Potholes off of Sherman Avenue
Photos by Kristina Mendoza-Cabrera
“I normally drive pretty fast, but that’s all changed since coming to school here,” Quinnipiac junior Jaysa Quinlivan said. “I feel like I have to be so careful to avoid the huge potholes.”
Sometimes, the consequences are more than a little jostling.
“I’ve messed up my car severely– my bumper was all scratched up,” Quinnipiac senior and New Road resident Sarah Foley said. “There are times when I’ve considered walking to school.”
And while the list of complaints is never-ending, the current resources for attending to the issue only go so far.
“There are many roads that we do need to pave, but it’s the budget,” Longobardi said. “The budget and money is the concern.”
Records of the Town of Hamden show the budget for the entire public works department– not just the sector that works on pothole repair– is approximately $10.4 million, or 4.9 percent of the overall budget. For comparison, the Board of Education receives $82.7 million and makes up 39 percent of the budget. Debt services which make-up 9.3 percent of the budget, get $19.7 million, according to the Town of Hamden’s “Citizen’s Guide to the Budget.”
A breakdown of Hamden’s budget
Photo via Town of Hamden
Still, the public works department works with what it has. Along with roads like Todd Street, Shepard Street and Sherman Avenue, the department has been filling potholes along Mount Carmel Avenue since March. The back roads from Quinnipiac’s main campus to the North Haven campus are especially ravaged.
“The back roads leading from Mount Carmel to Hartford Turnpike? We were on that for a week and a half,” Longobardi said. “We laid 20 tons of asphalt on that and it didn’t even make a dent.”
This is particularly bad news for students like Quinnipiac senior Erin Redding, who has classes in North Haven twice a week. The 15-minute commute is one she dreads.
“It’s a horrible road. The potholes are just unavoidable because there’s so many,” Redding said. “I feel like I’m ruining my car every time I drive there, but I don’t have a choice.”
And it’s not only students who are exasperated. Hamden resident James Wise, a mechanic at Firestone Complete Auto Care, says he can’t even count the number of cars he’s seen this month that have tire damage due to potholes.
“A lot of people have been coming in with their tires busted,” Wise said. “We’ve had quite a few people coming in and complaining about potholes here.”
One of those people was his aunt, Valerie Harold, who lives on West Side Drive and busted her tire after hitting a pothole.
“It was crazy,” Wise said. “I had to replace her lower control arm and everything underneath after the whole wheel fell out.”
Nick Froso, another mechanic at Firestone Complete Auto Care, spoke to the cost of repair for tire damage.
“Immediately it’s like $175 just for a mechanic to look at it. A new rim costs an average of $400 to $500 apiece,” Froso said. “Depending on the car, it’s anywhere from that price and the sky’s the limit.”
The same cannot be said for what’s to be done about Hamden’s potholes. With an insufficient budget, there is only so much the department can do for road repair. Most of the efforts seem to go toward preventing the damage from growing worse.
For those like Longobardi, the constant filling and refilling of potholes using cold and hot patch feels like an ongoing battle.
“It doesn’t seem like a lot, but we do what we can for now and hope it holds over,” Longobardi said.
A photographer. An eclectic group of artists. An organization composed almost entirely of volunteers. All different, but with a common goal: to educate Connecticut residents about the Quinnipiac River, the threats it faces and how it can be used for good.
David James, president of the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association (QRWA), believes it is now more important than ever to get local communities involved with the Quinnipiac River.
“We really think that it’s important for people to have a hands-on relationship with their physical environment,” he said. “In a highly technological age like we have, it’s all the more important to get people relating to their world.”
The Quinnipiac is a river with a long history of pollution. The battle against corporations and industries that have polluted it has seen progress and setbacks. But regardless, locals are coming together through art, education, and activism to inform the public about the importance of their local river.
The Quinnipiac River has been an integral part of Connecticut history for 20,000 years. According to the Quinnipiac River Fund, it begins in New Britain and travels 38 miles south, ending in the New Haven Harbor and Long Island Sound. It travels through 14 towns, including Cheshire, Meriden, Wallingford and New Haven.
The Quinnipiac River, which begins in New Britain and ends in New Haven, is 38 miles long and travels through 14 municipalities.
As industrialization spread throughout the country in the mid-1800s, industries and businesses populated the banks of the Quinnipiac River because of advancements in hydro powered manufacturing. According to the Quinnipiac River Fund, “on the upper river, Meriden and Wallingford became (world-renowned) producers of (silver-plating) and (metalware), and their populations rapidly expanded.” As these populations increased, more industrial discharge and sewage were dumped into the river, causing the Quinnipiac to become severely polluted over the years.
In 1972, what had been previously known as the Water Pollution Control Act was amended and renamed the Clean Water Act (CWA). Under the amendment, the EPA gained the right “to implement pollution control programs” and “made it unlawful for any person to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters, unless a permit was obtained under its provisions.” Under this new legislation, industries and companies were limited to the amount of pollutants they could release into bodies of water. Following the adoption of this amendment, rivers across the country, including the Quinnipiac, began to see improvements in water quality.
Even with the CWA, the Quinnipiac still sees its fair share of problems. There are two categories of pollution that affect it today: point source and nonpoint source pollution. Point source pollution was the target of the CWA. According to the Quinnipiac River Fund, “point source pollution can be traced directly back to a specific origin. Typical sources are the discharge pipes from factories and municipal sewage treatment facilities.” Although the CWA allows specific amounts of these chemicals to be released into the river, companies still manage to find loopholes.
The banks of the Quinnipiac River were a popular location for industries and businesses in the mid-1800s because of advancements in hydro powered manufacturing. As these businesses flocked to Connecticut, increased amounts of discharge were dumped into the river.
Matthew Higbee, research and communications officer for the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, explained that in order to identify a chemical that pollutes the Quinnipiac, scientists have to specifically test for that chemical.
“The problem now is the chemical industry can come up with a new chemical and we don’t even know to test for it,” Higbee said.
Without knowledge of these new chemicals, it becomes incredibly difficult to identify them as pollutants in the river. In situations like this, point-source pollutants can be dangerous and unpredictable.
Nonpoint source pollution, on the other hand, usually takes the form of runoff. These pollutants and substances are carried by water across fields, lawns, parking lots and roads. Nonpoint source pollutants can include fertilizers, pesticides, road salt, animal droppings, litter, car fluids and dissolved metals. According to Higbee, these pollutants are the current major threat to the Quinnipiac due to the close proximity of the Merritt Parkway, numerous housing developments and the plentiful lawns and fields of Connecticut.
Quinnipiac Associate Professor of Biology Courtney McGinnis has been conducting research on the Quinnipiac River since 2015. While she acknowledges that industries do release chemicals into the river in the form of point-source pollution, her concerns focus more on nonpoint source pollution.
“(We need to) reduce nonpoint pollution sources,” McGinnis said. “While there are discharge permits to dump industrial waste into the river, we also need to improve the barriers to divert nonpoint pollution sources, like runoff.”
Because the exact source of nonpoint source pollution is usually unknown, it is nearly impossible to regulate. Therefore, nonpoint source pollution is one of the largest threats facing the Quinnipiac today.
Nonpoint source pollution can take the form of runoff. With the Merritt Parkway’s close proximity to the Quinnipiac, pollutants from the road can often be carried straight to the river.
These two forms of pollution have degraded water quality in the Quinnipiac and citizens are starting to see consequences. Although for years the pollution problem has seemed hopeless, locals are fighting back.
One of the most active and successful local organizations in the fight against pollution is QRWA. It has one clear goal in mind: to advance the conservation of the Quinnipiac River and its watershed. The group, which was created by a concerned group of citizens from Meriden, Southington and Wallingford, was officially registered as a non-profit organization by the state of Connecticut in 1979.
QRWA is made up almost entirely of volunteers. Although it does collaborate occasionally with scientists and politicians, according to James, the organization relies on volunteers.
“It’s a good thing, because part of our mission actually is to try and connect residents of this area with the resource which is the Quinnipiac River,” he said. “So it actually provides a vehicle for us to get people involved with the resource.”
The organization has three major programs through which it promotes improvement of the river. Twice a year, it holds an event called Source to Sound Cleanup. This cleanup can vary in size from year to year and depends on the amount of time that has gone into organization and the volunteer base. Some years, it includes as few as two municipalities and some years it may include as many as nine. The cleanup focuses on the towns of Cheshire, Meriden, Wallingford and occasionally North Haven.
QRWA’s environmental education programs are a way for younger generations to become familiar with the Quinnipiac River. QRWA works with local high schools and middle schools from Meriden, Wallingford and New Haven to categorize small aquatic life based on the species’ tolerance or intolerance of degraded water quality. At the QRWA headquarters in Meriden, students are able to use the organization’s classroom and science equipment to analyze the water samples.
Riffle Bio Assessment by Volunteers (RBV) is a QRWA program implemented by the state. In the RBV program, a small group of volunteers catalog macro and micro invertebrates in rivers across the state in order to judge water quality. However, two years ago, due to a lack of funds, the state stopped testing polluted bodies of water, like the Quinnipiac.
“Our hope is that they begin to save that data again because the Clean Water Act that was passed in the ‘70s and the state mandate that comes from that says that we’re supposed to be collecting data from all water bodies, not just from clean water bodies,” James said. “So we’re hoping that we can correct that and get that data flowing again.”
With more knowledge about the Quinnipiac’s water quality, organizations like QRWA are able to strengthen efforts to improve the river. And that improvement is critical if the Quinnipiac River is to be a usable resource for local residents in more urbanized areas of central Connecticut. James and QRWA understand how important the Quinnipiac can be for local communities.
“A lot of times people who live in urban areas have less ability to access cleaner areas and more rustic areas,” he said. “Just because they’re in an urban area doesn’t make them any less needful of natural resources or less deserving of having access to natural resources.”
Access to natural resources goes beyond a clean river. It extends as well to clean recreational areas surrounding the river. Another local group has attempted to tackle this problem in an entirely different way.
Pick-Up Artists is a group of artists who come together to rid local parks and recreational areas of trash and garbage. After cleaning up the garbage, the group settles down and creates art inspired by the environment. In October of 2018, the group gathered at Quinnipiac River Park in New Haven to tackle the litter that covered the area.
The organization is small, as it was formed in the fall of 2018, and was founded by environmental and political artist Zoe Matthiessen. Matthiessen vividly remembers the moment that drove her to action.
“I had been on a (bike) ride and I was sketching and on my ride home, right in front of me, like literally 2 or 3 feet in front of me, a seagull was hit by a car as it was picking through trash on the street,” she said. “I cried all the way home and I was like, ‘that’s it, I have to try to do something.’”
Matthiessen immediately began creating fliers and distributing them around New Haven. Shortly after her initial efforts, the New Haven Parks and Recreation Department began to help Matthiessen organize her idea and gather supplies.
The first two events, held at Edgewood Park and Quinnipiac River Park, were attended by 10-12 people. Matthiessen felt that the second event stood out over the first.
“I think the second cleanup was even more of a success, we got every little bit of trash out of there, I think we got about 12 bags full of trash,” she said.
Following pickups, members create art of varying subjects, from tree stumps to ducks, tugboats to lamp posts. However, Matthiessen hopes the cleanup events will help Pick-Up Artist members become more aware of how they are using plastic and garbage.
“You think about where the garbage is coming from and the short shelf life it has and how unimportant the function of it was, and it’s very frustrating because the lifespan of the garbage is quite long and the function that it serves is just so brief,” she said. “So I think that it makes you more aware of what you’re doing on a day-to-day.”
Matthiessen plans to schedule more events for the upcoming spring season. She stresses that the events are open to everyone, not just artists. And the end result is worth it.
“It is really satisfying to walk away from a place, seeing all the bags of trash lined up, thinking about how you’re leaving it compared with how it was when you first arrived,” Matthiessen said.
But Matthiessen has not been the only local trying to use art as a form of activism. New Haven photographer Ian Christmann uses photos as a way to illustrate how pollution has affected the Quinnipiac River. He received a grant to photograph the river over the course of two years, highlighting the beauty and abuses.
Although Christmann’s initial goal was to show towns along the river what the conditions looked like upstream and downstream from their corridors, he also made some unsettling discoveries. According to Christmann, he learned that in the ‘80s, the river was the second most carcinogenic river in the country and that to this day, companies continue to dump waste directly into the water. However, one discovery hit a little too close to home.
“One of the most upsetting sights I saw was the size of the discharge pipe pouring into the river behind Cytec Chemicals (now Allnex) in Wallingford, knowing that the water was flowing down into my neighborhood after that point,” he said.
After two years of shooting and exploring every inch of the Quinnipiac River and its watershed, Christmann was able to narrow his final project down to 150 photos that truly highlighted the various conditions of the river.
The final exhibit was displayed in the city hall or library of each town in the Quinnipiac River Watershed. After remaining in each of those locations for a month, the exhibit was moved to the state capital building for one last display. After the completion of the exhibit, the photos were donated to QRWA for educational and advocacy use.
Overall, Christmann was happy that he could fight the battle against pollution in a way he knew so well.
“It was great using my abilities as a photographer to highlight and engage people around the conditions of the Quinnipiac River, in order to amplify the beauty and abuses along the river,” he said.
As the Quinnipiac’s water quality improves, it has the potential to become a beautiful resource for recreational activities.
Overall, it’s important to remember why clean rivers benefit local communities. The Quinnipiac River has been a pivotal resource throughout Connecticut’s history. It can be a home to aquatic life, a resource for recreation, and subject of art. But as James claims, communities should rely on the Quinnipiac for their prosperity.
“I think we have a deep held belief that human health is tied directly to environmental health,” he said. “It’s not really possible to have a healthy community without healthy resources.”
A shooting incident in a Hamden parking lot has residents worrying once again about crime in their town.
A shooting incident on March 17 outside the Off The Hook Restaurant shortly after closing left two bullet holes in the passenger side of a parked car and one shell casing on the ground.
Though no one was injured in the incident, it nevertheless left some residents worried.
Guiseppe Pellino Jr., a Hamden resident and employee at the Wood-n-Tap restaurant, said he was upset to hear about the shooting on Dixwell Avenue.
“It’s scary to hear that, especially when it is so close to home,” he said. “That’s literally around the corner from me.”
This is one of several crimes involving firearms that happened in Hamden recently. Last month, in a two-week span, there were two armedrobberies and a woman was shot in her home
Pellino said he loves Hamden and is worried about the increase in crime.
“Growing up, this was a great town, and it still is… I don’t know what really has changed over the years,” he said. “I worry because I love being in Hamden and I don’t remember this being an issue before.”
The recent shooting in the Off The Hook parking lot is not the first shooting there. In September, a man shot another man in his ankle and a woman in her thigh.
Michael Cheng, the manager at Green Laundry, which is two stores over from Off The Hook, says he thinks the police should have a larger presence in this part of Hamden.
“I don’t think this neighborhood is that safe compared to others, especially at night,” he said. “I think there should be more police patrols in front of this parking lot because of the restaurant [Off The Hook].”
Cheng has managed Green Laundry for three years and says he feels crime has risen since Off the Hook moved into the neighborhood in 2017.
“Before they moved here, there was a crime or incident maybe every few months,” he said. “When they came, it was more and I heard about a lot of fights.”
Operators of Off The Hook could not be reached for comment.
Cheng said he believes that dangerous events like these have a negative effect on his business and customers.
Despite the feeling of people like Cheng, patrol officer Angela Vey said she thinks crime fears are overblown.
“I really do think people feel safe,” she said. “Especially when they see officers in the community and interacting with people.”
Vey said she was unable to comment on the March 17 shooting because the investigation is ongoing.
“We do a lot to ensure safety,” Vey said. “We have a lot of proactive patrols, officers are out stopping cars or suspicious people, we have bicycle and motorcycle patrols and in the summer we have walking beat patrols on certain days.”
Yet, despite Vey’s assertion of Hamden’s general safety, a website that ranks safety of cities and towns,neighborhoodscout.com ranks it in the bottom third of towns and cities in the U.S. when it comes to safety.
Unlike Cheng, Pellino says he has noticed stepped-up police patrols.
“Now, you definitely notice more of a presence,” Pellino said. “Hamden is pretty safe. I feel safe and it makes me feel good knowing there is always patrols on the street and in the neighborhoods, Honestly, they do a great job in the town.”
