Quinnipiac University

An International sQUad

By Tom Krosnowski

It’s an interesting paradox – Earth’s population is growing exponentially, currently estimated at some 7.7 billion people. Why then, does it seem like the world is only getting smaller?

Although it’s on a much smaller scale, the Quinnipiac Bobcats are an interesting example of this phenomenon.

Quinnipiac University is a small private institution in Hamden, Connecticut. Most of the students who attend the school are from the American Northeast, and approximately 97 percent of the student body comes from somewhere within the United States.

However, it’s on the athletic fields where Quinnipiac’s commitment to international recruitment really shines.

In their never-ending search for team success, the coaches of Quinnipiac’s 21 Division-I teams have reached out overseas. International recruitment is a growing part of the collegiate athletics industry, and it’s something that has become a distinct part of the Quinnipiac Bobcat identity.

How do you think an athlete gets recruited? It seems simple enough – a coach finds potential student-athletes, talks to them, watches them play and maybe offers them a scholarship.

That’s not the case for many of Quinnipiac’s international recruits.

Meet Queenie Lai. A junior from Hong Kong, Lai could almost describe her recruitment process as “reverse recruiting.” Lai was an exceptional golfer back home, but wanted a new challenge on the links at a more competitive level. After an admittedly-late start to the recruitment process, Lai took it upon herself to achieve her goal of playing U.S. collegiate golf.

“I had to play in the States for a whole summer of tournaments, state-to-state,” Lai said. “And, I had to contact at least 50 schools and the coaches and introduce myself and ask if they were interested in recruiting me. Eventually, I landed on Quinnipiac and the coach I have right now. He was one of the nicest, and that meant a lot to me.

“I had to do most of the work.”

It’s certainly a much different story than the common assumption of university-paid travel, lavish dinners and unlimited budgets. However, Lai is not the only Quinnipiac athlete with an unconventional recruitment story.

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“I had to do most of the work.”

— Queenie Lai on recruiting

Bianca Strubbe was at a crossroads. After playing field hockey in her native Poland for 14 years, Strubbe needed a break. She traveled to the United States, settling in West Hartford as an au pair. Her love of field hockey not yet entirely quelled, Strubbe went to a Quinnipiac field hockey game at the suggestion of her host family.

After liking what she saw on the field and in the state-of-the-art facilities, Strubbe decided to bring field hockey back into her life. She played and coached at a local HTC field hockey club team, but never would have found college field hockey if not for a friendly co-worker, who informed her that she’d likely be eligible to play in the NCAA.

“I didn’t know that, to be honest,” Strubbe said. “None of my friends or Polish players know that we are very welcome in the U.S. playing in college. We don’t have any agencies, we don’t have any connection with U.S. colleges, so, to be honest, we don’t know that we have the chance to earn our degree and play field hockey here.”

Now in her second year as a graduate student at Quinnipiac, Strubbe has made a seamless transition. She’s the team’s leading scorer this season, and her English has improved immensely, thanks in part to her choosing journalism for her major.

Although foreign students are often taught English, the field hockey team is careful to keep an international influence around to keep their players comfortable.

“It’s good to have someone who has the same accent as me,” Strubbe said. “We feel comfortable, we don’t feel afraid to talk. It’s good to have international students around you.”

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“We don’t know that we have the chance to earn our degree and play field hockey here.”

— Bianca Strubbe

Quinnipiac women’s ice hockey forward Sarah-Eve Coutu-Godbout didn’t quite have that same luxury. Although she was one of seven international players on the team her freshman year, all Canadians, she was the only one who predominantly spoke French. Fortunately, head coach Cassandra Turner did her best to help Coutu-Godbout adapt.

“Cass knew right off the bat that I couldn’t really speak English, so she was very patient,” Coutu-Godbout said. “She sent me recommendations and books to read to practice my English, as well as helping me with all the stuff I needed to do. For me, that’s exactly what I needed. The integration here in the U.S. was pretty smooth because of the coaches.”

Much like Strubbe, Coutu-Godbout wasn’t initially aware of the opportunity she had to play in the United States, albeit for different reasons.

“In Quebec, they want to maintain all the Quebec players in Canada. It’s kind of against them to go to the U.S.,” Coutu-Godbout said. “So a lot of the teams won’t help you get a spot on a (U.S.) team, so I was pretty much doing it by myself.

“The girls (in America) can be recruited at 13, but in Quebec, it’s another world. They want to keep it away, they don’t want you to come here.”

Even though her peers didn’t want Coutu-Godbout to play college hockey stateside, she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I really enjoy it here,” Coutu-Godbout said. “I think it’s the perfect choice for me, and I’m really happy about it. I never looked back on it.”

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“In Quebec, it’s another world. They want to keep it away, they don’t want you to come here.”

— Sarah-Eve Coutu-Godbout

How much can you learn about someone through a computer screen? According to the coaches at Quinnipiac, quite a bit.

“This generation is a little different,” men’s soccer coach Eric Da Costa said. “Unfortunately, communication is a little bit harder in terms of getting on the phone and having a phone conversation, so we do a lot of Skype, we do a lot of WhatsApp, FaceTime, just trying to get that time with the guys and figure out who they are, what they’re about, what makes them tick, and (if) that fits into what we do here.”

If Da Costa and his coaching staff have the ability to travel overseas to visit a player, they will. More often than not though, the soccer team recruits its players over the internet due to budgetary and travel restrictions.

“We have to be cautious about how we spend our money,” Da Costa said.

According to Da Costa, it’s easier to recruit international soccer players than Americans.

“Recruiting the American kids is actually a lot more difficult for us,” Da Costa said. “They want the glitz, they want the glamour. They know the differences between the institutions in terms of prestige or popularity, so they look their nose down at us.”

Once coaches have a good experience with a player from a certain area, they are more likely to revisit that region in future recruiting. Take Quinnipiac field hockey, for example. Head coach Becca Main has presided over the program for all 25 years of its existence, and has designated “pockets” of international talent. The team likes to focus its recruiting efforts in areas like South Africa, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain, where several successful players have come from before.

Field hockey is uniquely positioned for international recruiting, compared to some of Quinnipiac’s other sports. According to Main, international players are the preferred recruits for the program due to their added experience.

“(International recruits) have almost 10 years on an American student – they’ve been playing 10 years longer,” Main said. “In general, most Americans have been playing 4-6 years, max. … You get (an international) coming in, they’ve got 16 years (of experience). They’re just better at playing the sport.”

With all of the different languages and cultures on the team, Main tries to make sure that each international player has at least one other teammate who speaks their language. It could be hard to mesh all these different pieces together, but creative thinking from the coaching staff makes it all fit.

“I think the best thing about our international players is that, the ‘groupthink mentality’ – we don’t have that anymore,” Main said. “We have the ability to think outside the box.”

Athletic recruitment is one thing, but these are still “student”-athletes. The players must fit into Quinnipiac’s academic profile, and the admissions department gives very clear outlines to the coaches about what requirements each student-athlete needs to be accepted into Quinnipiac, from English language scores to academic grades.

Andrew Antone, director of international recruitment and admissions at Quinnipiac, says that once the students get to Quinnipiac, the school has several resources to help international students adapt.

“We have a global partners program where students are mentored by upperclassmen, and say, ‘OK, this is how you make the transition,’” Antone said. “We have global education, where they can be with other students. We have an international student orientation, which I think is a big help for them.”

To continue to attract international students, the university has initiated a new “Strategic Plan” that emphasizes globalization among the steps toward becoming the university of the future. Antone believes that the strategic plan will help make Quinnipiac even more appealing to international students.

“Especially with the new strategic plan, I think you’re going to see that number (of international students) grow, given what we’re offering,” Antone said. “The way that we’re looking forward … I think what the strategic plan does is force us to look within and change some of the policies and the way we do things to enhance everyone else’s experiences.”

In all, there are about 70 international student-athletes from more than 20 countries. That may not sound like a lot with Quinnipiac’s student population of over 10,000 and a core of student-athletes almost 500 deep.

To the international players though, it’s not about the numbers. It’s about the experience – an experience that has made Quinnipiac athletics more diverse, and more talented.

“I feel like I’m experiencing the same college experience as other people,” Lai said. “I wouldn’t say it’s any different than how they’re experiencing it.”

Quinnipiac isn’t as well-known as some other Division-I programs. None of the 10 international students interviewed said they knew anything about Quinnipiac before they were first recruited. Once they hear about all the school has to offer them, it’s hard to say no.

“We’ve closed those gaps with this (soccer) facility, obviously our institution, our campus,” Da Costa said. “At the end of the day, an international kid and his family want to go to a place where they’re cared about. They want to go to a place where they can study and play at two high levels. They want to go to a place where they can feel safe – and enjoy.

“And we can offer all of that.”

Making way for Quinnipiac’s new strategic plan

Vice president of admissions and financial aid to leave the university

By Rachael Durand

Judy Olian is putting her strategic plan into action by making room for a new senior cabinet.

Olian announced in a recent email to faculty and staff that three vice presidents will leave Quinnipiac University at the beginning of the 2019-20 academic year.

Greg Eichhorn, who oversees admissions and financial aid, is gone at the end of June.

Joining him in an administrative exodus — but via retirements after years of service — are Lynn Bushnell, vice president for public affairs, and Don Weinbach, who has been at the helm of the development and alumni affairs office since 1996. Executive Vice President and Provost Mark Thompson announced earlier this semester that he has taken the job of president at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. His last day at Quinnipiac, after a 21-year tenure, is May 31.

Greg Eichhorn

Lynn Bushnell

Don Weinbach

Mark Thompson

Unlike the retirements and Thompson’s departure for a higher position, Eichhorn is leaving under different circumstances — he no longer fits into Olian’s plans.

The strategic plan is designed to develop Quinnipiac into a university of the future. That future did not have room for Eichhorn.

“There is a strategic shift in this position and I accept that,” Eichhorn said. “The conversations I have had with the president and provost are about the future and the strategic plan for it.”

Eichhorn, who was accompanied during the interview by John Morgan, associate vice president for public affairs, denied he was being forced out, saying his departure was a mutual decision.

“After discussions with the president and the provost, we’ve agreed that the position is going in a different direction and this is the best thing for the institution,” Eichhorn said. “And that’s what I care about.”

Eichhorn’s tenure was short. He came to the university only three years ago after serving a 24-year tenure at Albright University in Pennsylvania.

“Candidly, I was in a great place at Albright and loved it,” Eichhorn said. “Quinnipiac recruited me for a while and it finally got to the point where we said as a family, this is a great opportunity and I’ve got to take it, and I did.”

As the vice president for admissions and financial aid, Eichhorn has been in charge of overseeing graduate and undergraduate admissions and all aspects of financial aid.

An e-mail from Olian sent to faculty, staff and students on Jan. 29 regarding the strategic plan.

The strategic plan, which Thompson first introduced to the Faculty Senate in late January, has four main points to be carried out over the next few years.

The purpose of this plan is to build an institution-wide mindset to prepare graduates for citizenship and 21st-century careers; create an inclusive, excellence-driven community; nurture and positively impact internal, local and global communities; and foster lifelong connections and success, according to the first draft of the Quinnipiac Strategic Plan.

Called “A blueprint for the future,” the plan took shape after faculty and staff worked in task forces to create original drafts. Olian then collated these drafts and is weighing feedback from town hall-style meetings.

The fourth of the four prongs addressed in the plan is “to foster lifelong success and communities,” which directly involves the office Eichhorn oversees.

“This position will move a little more from a recruiting (and the) financial aid program to what’s called enrollment management,” Eichhorn said. “So, it will be involved with those aspects as well as some retention aspects with the position, that’s the biggest change — and be more involved with the provost.”

With Eichhorn leaving and the position reshaped, the search for his successor is underway.

Eichhorn said he thinks that the right person can lead the university to greater things.

“A talented person that is supported can help raise the institution to the next level,” Eichhorn said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for the person that will come into this seat after me.”

As for Eichhorn, he will seek employment in higher education, but, he hopes, with more responsibilities.

“I want to do something similar to what I am doing now,” Eichhorn said. “Maybe for a smaller institution where I have more than just admissions and financial aid. That’s what I had at Albright — I had athletics, I had camps and conferences, so I am looking potentially for more things under the umbrella.”

Eichhorn says what’s next for him will always be a family decision.

“We are fortunate I have some options,” Eichhorn said. “We are literally weighing those and doing some travel to those locations to see what is right for my wife, my son and I.”

According to a letter to the editor published in the New Haven Register, the strategic plan has the full support of the Quinnipiac board of trustees said chairman William Weldon on behalf of the the board.

The final draft of the strategic plan will be released to faculty on May 3.

Quinnipiac University’s diversity waits its turn

The university recognizes the need to advance inclusion initiatives in strategic plan proposal.

By Caitlin Fish

Abby Marton experienced a self-described culture shock when she arrived at Quinnipiac University in 2016 and found that the school did not reflect the world she understood.

“Coming here there was a culture shock on every level,” Marton said. “I noticed a lack of diversity right away. When I first got here I worried that I wouldn’t fit in. Everyone seemed tied together from home, there are mutual friends everywhere.”

Marton, a senior marketing major from Manhattan, New York, explained that she attended a diverse high school, The Bronx High School of Science, which exposed her to many different cultures and ways of seeing the world. Quinnipiac, in Hamden, Connecticut, did not reflect that diversity.

“I wouldn’t say white was the minority at my high school but it definitely wasn’t the majority,” Marton said. “I learned a lot about different people’s families and backgrounds, whether that be food, language or religion. It was just so immersive.”

Isaiah Nieves, a senior film major from Manchester, Connecticut, likewise noticed the sharp distinction between what he experienced in a high school teeming with racial and ethnic diversity and what he saw at Quinnipiac.

Nieves explained that he grew up around racial and class diversity and that he compares his experience attending high school to attending Quinnipiac as night and day.

“Considering that this school is a private school, it’s going to attract a certain crowd of people who can afford it,” Nieves said. “There is not much diversity on campus at all.”

Marton and Nieves are not alone in describing Quinnipiac as an institution that is lacking in diversity. The school remains largely white despite efforts to shape the student body into one that reflects the changing demographics of the United States.

According to a U.S. Census Bureau report from 2018, the United States is projected to continue becoming a more racially and ethnically pluralistic society. By 2045 Non-Hispanic whites are no longer projected to make up the majority of the U.S. population.

“By 2020, fewer than one-half of children—49.8 percent—are projected to be Non-Hispanic white,” the report states.

Students find that the troubling lack of diversity extends to the people who teach them and keep the university operating.

An informal survey sent out by email to Quinnipiac students who belong to multicultural organizations on campus revealed that 70 percent noticed that lack of diversity in the faculty and staff.

“I think the professors are less racially diverse than the student body,” Issac Bauer, a junior communications major from White Plains, New York, said. “It makes me happy to see that there are a lot of women professors, but in education, it is important to have teachers of all different backgrounds.”

According to data on racial demographics cataloged on the university’s website, white students make up three-quarters of the undergraduate population, while data obtained by HQ Press from a faculty member who requested to remain anonymous reports that white faculty members make up more than three-quarters.

Pie charts outlining the racial demographics of the undergraduate population and fall 2018 full-time faculty at Quinnipiac.

Bar graph outlining the racial demographics of 2018 full-time faculty members by school.

Students have mixed opinions regarding the university’s attempts to increase diversity on campus. The informal survey of Quinnipiac students reports that 57 percent have noticed efforts by the university to increase diversity while 42 percent have not.

Quinnipiac President Judy Olian references diversity as a transformative element in her strategic plan proposal released in January to build what she described as a “university of the future.”

The plan recognizes that Quinnipiac needs to improve in that area.

“We are not yet where we need to be as an inclusively excellent institution–not in faculty or staff, not in students or alumni, not in programming,” the strategic plan states. “We aspire to be more.”

The university appointed Donald C. Sawyer III as chief diversity officer in 2018. Sawyer, a Quinnipiac sociology professor, is tasked with advancing diversity and inclusion initiatives and putting in place action steps to get there.

“My job is to create a plan that partners with other people on campus to do the work of inclusive excellence,” Sawyer said. “The role is to work as a community, that’s faculty, staff and students, to bring about a campus that is inclusive for all people. Some people assume that my job is just here for students of color. That’s not it. It’s for all people.”

According to Sawyer, one of the ways the university is planning to address this lack of representation in the faculty is by diversifying its applicant pools when hiring for a new position.

“We have to be looking at ways to diversify our applicant pools, he said. “Not necessarily telling people who to hire. But, how do we make sure that when we are hiring for a position that the pool is representative of the diversity that exists in that particular discipline.”

Sawyer explained that not every school has a chief diversity officer, but he expects the position to become more common as it is important for universities to increase diversity and inclusion in order to stay competitive.

“Universities see that diversity is not just about doing it because it’s a good thing and feels good, it is to make sure they’re going to be the universities that survive,” Sawyer said. “To prepare so that they’re not going to be behind the curve. If you look at the students that are coming, you have to prepare for that representative diversity that we’re seeing in the K-12.”

Sawyer explained that a big part of his job is educating students about the differences between the terms diversity, inclusion and equity because a lot of people use them interchangeably.

“When we talk about diversity, we’re just talking about the representative, the numbers,” he said.

Inclusion goes hand in hand, as it is the active engagement with that diversity.

“Getting people here is pointless if you don’t have anything in place to make people feel welcomed and a part of the campus community,” he said.

The equity aspect is more complicated, as it works to remove obstacles and improve access for underrepresented students, according to Sawyer.

Xi Chen, associate professor of sociology at Quinnipiac, said she believes a historical denial of education for underrepresented students and weak points in the U.S. education system both contribute to the lack of diversity at the university.

Chen explained that public schools are funded by local and property taxes, so schools in poor or urban areas do not receive as many resources or as much funding as they do from affluent neighborhoods. In order to become a college student, you have to have been prepared along the way to even be able to apply, and many under-resourced schools do not deliver in this aspect.

“Students from the under-resourced schools are competing against the students in resource schools for the same seats in colleges,” Chen said. “If you have those obstacles in the way the system is set up for some people to be more successful than others.”

Chen said that she believes even with financial aid and scholarships, the cost of tuition prevents a more diverse applicant pool.

“Tuition for this university is very expensive and is geared toward New England North-Eastern upper-middle-class,” Chen said. “There is a huge racial gap in terms of what type of family can afford it due to social inequality in class and wealth.”

Although the university lacks in representative diversity, some students believe it is beginning to make inclusion a priority.

According to the informal survey of Quinnipiac students, 73 percent of respondents said they believe the university supports an inclusive environment.

The university has 17 student-run cultural and identity groups on campus that frequently hold events, open to everyone, aimed at educating students about different cultures, religions and ways of seeing the world.

Christina Ojo, a junior biology major from Providence, Rhode Island, is involved in many of these groups, including the African Caribbean Student Union, Black Student Union, Latino Cultural society and the Asian Student Alliance. However, she said that she does not believe the greater population of Quinnipiac recognizes these organizations.

“I don’t think Quinnipiac does enough to even get at why these organizations are important,” Ojo said. “I appreciate that we are, at the very least, here. I think the responsibility of educating is left to the students of diverse realities. It’s gaslighting.”

Chidi Nwuneli, a junior political science major from the Bronx, New York, has attended many university events put on by the multicultural organizations but does not believe many students respond to the invitations.

“Quinnipiac does try (to be more inclusive) but I feel like students aren’t receptive because it’s not something they grew up around,” Nwuneli said.

Diversity on campus is not just about having students of color, according to Nwuenli. It is also about having students who have grown up around students of color because then there will be more diversity in thought.

“Accepting of change is hard, so I think it more falls upon where they’re recruiting people from,” Nwuenli said. “I heard President Olian said she wants to recruit more people from Florida, Texas and California. When you have more people from urban centers mixing with people who are from mid-sized small-sized towns, people start to become more open-minded and friend groups become more diverse.”

According to the informal survey of Quinnipiac students, 64 percent of respondents said they do not believe the general student population is interested in learning about diversity and inclusion.

Anytime Quinnipiac wants to get something done, such as the Big Event or Qthon, it uses Greek Life, according to Nwuenli. He said that he believes the multicultural organizations should belong in this partnership.

“Greek organizations should work with the multicultural organizations, it’s something that I’ve been saying since freshman year,” he said. “That’s the only way you can have exposure for both of them. If there is an event hosted by a sorority and the African Student Union, both groups will be there and you get to meet new people and create those bonds.”

Julia Miles, a junior nursing major from Oakland, New Jersey, said she believes that a majority of the students at the university do not seek out information about diversity and inclusion because it does not affect them directly.

“I think the school could integrate this type of education into the academic experience because most students who are not underrepresented won’t pay attention unless it is put in front of their faces,” Miles said.

Miles explained that in her nursing classes aspects of diversity and inclusion are incorporated into many of her projects.

“It’s clear that our program wants to create nurses that are aware of the world,” Miles said. “When doing projects, there is a component that requires us to include some cultural or religious factors that may affect treating the patient.”

There are many benefits to a diverse atmosphere and the students at Quinnipiac may be missing out on opportunities to become more aware of the world, according to Marton.

“It’s a huge way for people to connect, to diversify your school of thought even, Marton said. “It’s so unhealthy and ignorant to think that the way you grew up and what you know and what you’re familiar with is the only way to do things. You’re missing out on literally an entire world of different experiences and it’s a shame.”

Increasing diversity on campus is not just about doing something for the greater good, it is necessary for an environment to thrive, Sawyer said.

“It benefits all who are involved,” Sawyer said. “When we have diverse teams we solve more problems. We can attack more issues that are facing us as a society. So it goes beyond just something that feels good. This is important for the future of our institution.”

The university is in the process of putting numbers to the strategic plan, developing a budget and a fundraising goal, according to Sawyer.

“We’re looking at creating different types of admissions and outreach programs to get Quinnipiac on the radar in different parts of the country,” Sawyer said. “We’re looking at different types of student populations, veterans, people who have been historically underrepresented in higher education, people who transfer from community colleges. Diversifying faculty and staff in order to attract more people.”

Quinnipiac has been criticized for catering to its white population while disregarding the needs of underrepresented students. According to Sawyer, the university is on a path to changing this.

“If you want to see if something is important to an organization you look at the budget. So, the fact that inclusive excellence is in the strategic plan is one of the first markers that let you know hopefully were serious about this,” Sawyer said.

Quinnipiac Dining introduces new policies in an effort to combat student theft

Quinnipiac University dining is now implementing orange “paid” stickers in an effort to combat student stealing.

“Unfortunately, we have been noticing an increase in the number of students stealing over the past couple of years,” Morgan Watson, marketing manager for Quinnipiac Dining said. “Theft has continued to increase and become a prominent issue at our dining facilities.”

The new policy, which began on April 2, will help staff to identify drinks that have not been paid for.

“The paid stickers are part of our effort to identify who has paid for their beverage,” Watson said.

The cafeteria has experienced a 10 percent shrinkage in inventory due to theft, according to Watson. The stickers are one of a few ways Quinnipiac dining plans to address this issue.

Results out of 200 respondents from survey sent out on HQ Press Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. : (click to scroll)

The university is also considering installing new camera systems in the Mount Carmel and York Hill cafeterias to further monitor stealing, Watson said. The cameras, which are planned to arrive in the fall of 2019, will have a live feed monitored by public safety.

Some students said they believe these new additions will damage the relationship between the university and the student body.

“I feel like that really puts a disconnect between Quinnipiac and the students,” Aryn McClure, a senior at Quinnipiac University, said. “It makes it seem like they can’t trust us and like they’re watching us as we go and eat. I think that just adds more stress to the students knowing that maybe I can’t be comfortable in my own school, in my own environment.”

Some members of the Quinnipiac community suspect that inflated prices are one of the main causes of frequent stealing.

“You can buy this stuff at a store off-campus for half the price that it is here, seriously, it’s crazy,” Christina Lucas, a Chartwells cashier, said. “Every year the prices go up.”

For example, a peanut butter chocolate Gatorade Whey Protein bar at Walmart is currently priced as low as $1.50, however, it is priced at $3.59 in the cafeteria, almost three times more expensive than what it would be at market value.

Cost of peanut butter chocolate Gatorade Whey Protein bar at the Quinnipiac cafeteria versus the cost at Walmart.

Quinnipiac Dining claims that the high prices on food are no excuse for students to consistently steal.

“The majority of the students who remove unauthorized food and beverage from the dining facilities still have money on their meal plan account,” Watson said.

In addition to steeper prices, some students feel like the cafeteria needs to do a better job decreasing the amount of time that it takes to purchase their food.

“I think students steal so often in the cafeteria based off time,” Chelsea Jones, a senior Quinnipiac student, said. “If you go into the cafeteria around 12 o’clock it’s really packed in there and it’s busy, so you’re not going to wait in line to pay for a juice when you can just take it and keep going about your business.”

Jones said she believes opening more registers will allow for a quicker checkout time and keep students from skipping the lines when they are in a rush.

“They probably need to open up more registers around the times that they know they’re going to be busy,” Jones said. “Not just have one or two registers open around those busy hours, because nobody’s going to wait.”

Watson and Quinnipiac Dining understand the student’s concerns regarding the wait time and stated that they try to avoid the backlog during peak periods as much as possible.

“Our standard is to have all registers open at peak periods,” Watson said. “However, there are times when we are understaffed at the moment and a register may not be open for a period. We try to avoid closing any registers at peak time if possible.”

Jones also said that she believes providing discounts on certain items toward the end of the semester will keep students from stealing when their meal plan is running low.

“During the times of the school year where students may be lower on meal plan, I definitely think that the prices should drop on drinks,” Jones said. “Water bottles are around $3, that’s unnecessary. If anything it should be at most $2.”

Even with the new sticker policy, as well as the camera system that is on the horizon for next year, it is safe to assume that students will still steal at least in some capacity despite the efforts of the dining staff.

Student responds to the news of the orange paid stickers on Twitter.

“They just walk right out. It’s like what can you do? I can’t do anything to these people,” Lucas said.

Moving forward, the university will continue to work with the dining staff to come up with the best solution to the theft dilemma. However, some students say the answer might be easier than many would’ve thought.

“I think (the university) should just trust the students a little bit more,” McClure said. “I do understand they need to make profits, but stealing isn’t OK. They should work with the student body and create resources for them to eat in an affordable way. Just trust Quinnipiac because we are one community.”

A snapshot in time: A look inside the Quinnipiac University Poll

By Owen Meech

JAN 27 – As midnight approaches at Quinnipiac University and Sunday night turns into Monday, students on the Mount Carmel Campus are making their way to bed and readying themselves for a new work week.

Just down the street, however, the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute is wide awake, as interviewers use the last 15 minutes of their shift scrambling to get those last-minute national survey completions.

It’s a night just like any other at 60 West Woods Road in Hamden, Connecticut.

Callers sit in rows of wooden cubicles, armed with a computer, headset and manual dialer. The interviewers are a mixed bag of students and local residents, creating a steady hubbub that encompasses the two-story facility.

Tonight, interviewers are asking who American voters trust more “on issues that are important” to them: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or President Donald Trump.

Two days prior, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history had just come to a conclusion. Centered around a disagreement on border security between Republicans and Democrats, Trump sought $5.7 billion toward constructing a wall on the southern border. Democrats called the request “immoral” and a waste of taxpayer money.

The shutdown, which resulted in 380,000 federal workers being furloughed and an additional 420,000 workers being required to work without any known payment date, eventually ended when both chambers of the House approved a plan to reopen the government for a three-week period to negotiate a suitable appropriations bill.

When the survey results were released Jan. 29, the Quinnipiac Poll found that in the immediate aftermath, American voters trusted Pelosi more than Trump, 49 to 42 percent.

“The first round of many to come in the heavyweight bout goes the speaker’s way as Trump takes the hit for the shutdown and his party is suffering along with him,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll said in a statement.

In the same survey, Donald Trump’s approval rating took a hit. At 38 percent, the commander in chief dropped down from 41 percent approval just two weeks earlier.

And with each survey that comes to a close, the Quinnipiac Poll provides us with a snapshot in time. In just a matter of days, the Poll is able to capture and present an intricate picture of the nation’s political landscape.

For Quinnipiac Poll Director Dr. Doug Schwartz, the key is staying on top of the news, asking the right questions, and relying on his team of a dozen polling analysts.

Quinnipiac University Poll Director Doug Schwartz (courtesy: poll.qu.edu)

“It’s a back and forth,” Schwartz said. “There’s a lot of rewrites of a survey. Oftentimes when we’re doing a national poll, there’s a lot of breaking national news every day, that we’ll constantly need to rewrite the survey to respond to the late breaking events.”

Responding to the latest breaking news is par for the course for Schwartz, the self-proclaimed political junkie who has been the Quinnipiac Poll Director since 1994, when he was just 27 years old.

“I love watching the news,” Schwartz said.“I can watch what’s happening and then I have this great opportunity to ask questions of voters and get their reaction.”

Crafting poll questions is no easy feat, though. Schwartz – who previously worked for CBS News as an analyst for the late “60 Minutes” correspondent, Ed Bradley – describes the process as painstakingly meticulous. Wording questions clearly, concisely and neutrally is crucial to maintaining the integrity of any survey.

“Maybe a question is too vague and we need to rewrite it to make it clearer. Maybe there are certain words in a question that might push a respondent in a certain direction,” Schwartz explained. “We’re trying to write neutral, fair, balanced questions.”

Coming up with questions was an easier task back when the Quinnipiac Poll only conducted surveys in Connecticut. After New York and New Jersey were added to the mix, national polls followed in 2001. Now, with polls conducted in 12 states, polling analysts for each state are called upon to help draft each and every survey.

“We have polling analysts in all of our states and nationally talk about what are the big issues, what are the questions we should be asking, and then we will draft a survey based on what we think are the most newsworthy issues at the time,” Schwartz said. “We will vet the survey, so there will be multiple pairs of eyes that look over the survey and give feedback, and then whatever concerns are raised, we will address them.”

Mary Snow, head polling analyst for New York and New Jersey (courtesy: poll.qu.edu)

One of those pairs of eyes belongs to Mary Snow, the Quinnipiac Poll’s head polling analyst for New York and New Jersey. Snow and her team are tasked with thoroughly analyzing the data and producing press releases.

“We always get Doug’s input,” Snow said. “We ask, ‘Doug, you’ve been doing this for 20 years, what do you see? What strikes you as most significant in these polls.’ Then we craft how we’re going to present it. What are the top issues for the media? What is most newsworthy?”

The veteran journalist and former CNN correspondent began working at the Poll this past July, and calls upon her previous career to help guide her in her newest position.

“As a polling analyst, you really draw upon what you do as a journalist by staying on top of all the issues that are making news,” Snow said. “You look for developments on issues that you may be polling about.”

For Snow, one of these recent issues was the Amazon deal that was rejected by New York City.

“The polling we did about the Amazon deal in New York played an important part in the conversation,” Snow said. “We asked several questions and we saw that people were really conflicted about parts of this deal, so it wasn’t a very black and white issue, there were a lot of nuances.”

And while she says that giving a voice to ordinary people is her favorite part of the job, Snow says it’s maintaining a relationship with the media that really runs the gamut.

“After [our press release] is sent to the media, you are on tap to do interviews,” Snow said. “You are there to answer whatever questions someone may have when reporting on this poll. You can get a call from a college radio station or you can get a call from the New York Times.”

Despite Snow’s dedication to availability and transparency, she warns that journalists still don’t always get the story right.

“I think we saw this in 2016,” Snow said, referring to the last presidential election. “Polls are not perfect and that’s why they have a margin of error. Sometimes the media can jump to winners and losers. Forecasting is not what we do. We give a snapshot in time.”

Snow believes journalists have stepped back since 2016, however, and called rampant, over-eager reporting, “a collective lesson.”

Schwartz echoed Snow’s sentiment, and claimed the mistrust of polling data could be attributed to widespread misreporting and a lack of understanding.

“With Florida, when we were polling, our final poll had Hillary Clinton ahead by 1 point, and our headline and lead said this is too close to call, this is within the margin of error. It could go either way,” said Schwartz. “But the perception was still, ‘Oh Hillary Clinton is ahead in Florida,’ and that’s how it got interpreted. The polls weren’t saying that. The polls were saying Florida could go either way. It ended up that Donald Trump won by 1 point, well within the poll’s margin of error.”

Quinnipiac University Poll sign at the Whitney Avenue location

With 2016 in the rearview mirror, Schwartz and his team now look forward to an electric race in 2020, particularly with so many Democrats throwing their hats in the ring for the chance to take on President Trump.

The stakes remain high for the Quinnipiac Poll, as the Democratic National Committee (DNC) recently declared it would be using the Quinnipiac Poll as one that will determine which candidates are eligible for the upcoming primary debates.

“A candidate has to get at least 1 percent in three polls; either a national poll, or one of the early voting states, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada,” Schwartz said. “If they do that, then they make the debates.”

Schwartz said the DNC’s decision was made along the same guidelines CNN and Fox News used to select which Republican candidates were eligible for the debates in 2016. Schwartz called the polls chosen, “gold standard” polls – ones that use live interviewers and call cell phones.

The Quinnipiac Poll began calling cell phones in 2012, in a move that Schwartz calls the biggest change in methodology since he began directing the poll over two decades ago. He credits the addition as an important way to ensure each survey gets adequate representation from younger voters.

During national polls, interviewers are divided in half between landlines and cell phones. With such a large magnitude of numbers to dial each shift, Schwartz said proper scheduling is of the utmost importance.

“Going into a survey, we have a plan,” Schwartz said. “We’ll say ‘we are trying to get 1,200 registered voters,’ and we know we are going to need this many interviewers working this many nights in order to achieve it.”

Jean Amazan, survey call center operations manager, agrees, and says scheduling and managing the staff is the most difficult part of the operation.

“It would be very easy for us to poll if we could get people in their seats when we need them to be,” Amazan said. “That’s the hardest part.”

The Poll is hindered, however, in that the interviewer position is a part time job, and many of the interviewers are Quinnipiac students. Non-students can’t work more than 19.5 hours a week, and students can’t work more than 15 hours a week.

“When the students are here, we set the number of expected cancellations higher because we know students are more likely to cancel than the non-students,” Amazan said. “The meat on the bone is really getting people in their seat dialing numbers and getting those completes.”

Despite the scheduling obstacles, the Quinnipiac Poll rarely fails to meet its goal.

“We try not to let it happen,” Dorothy Donarum, manager of interviewer operations said. “We’ll extend hours if we see that we’re getting a lot of cancellations. We’ll make it a ‘B week’ so everyone will work an extra shift.”

Donarum, who began working at the poll in 1999 as an interviewer, emphasized the importance of getting enough completes to make the data viable, which is dependent upon adequate scheduling.

“If you’re going to the press, you can’t go to the press saying ‘I polled 500 people,’” Amazan added. “If you say you’re going to poll 1,000 registered people you want to have 1,000 registered people – and if you don’t have people to get that data, you don’t have the result that you’re expecting.”

Carmen Carranza, assistant manager of interviewer operations, also started working as an interviewer, and noted that the amount of completes can vary on a daily basis.

“You notice a difference when you go into the room,” Carranza said. “It all depends on the state and the day of the week too, but on a Saturday morning it’s very busy, a lot of people are answering the phone, but the Saturday second shift you walk in there and hardly anybody is on a survey.”

With the significance of workplace attendance in mind, Carranza, Amazan and Donarum still believe that working around student schedules is a must.

Polling stations located at the Quinnipiac Poll Whitney Avenue location

“We realize that the students are here to go to school and there’s a lot of meetings and whatnot at night,” Donarum said.

“If you have something at school, just let us know and we’ll work with you,” Amazan added. “We try to talk to [students] and help them because you’re not going to be in college the rest of your life. You eventually graduate and join the workforce, and if you don’t show up to work, your boss is going to tell you ‘bye.’”

While scheduling complications will always be a hurdle for the Quinnipiac Poll, there is no lack of passion from the management team.

“It’s kind of exciting on a night where it’s the last night of our survey and we’re aiming to get 1,200 registered [voters] and we’re at 1,191, you know, and it’s like quarter of nine,” Donarum said. “Everyone gets very excited and I love to see that happen when we make our goal.”

Amazan concurred, highlighting how stressful the job can be when time is of the essence. Seeing the results come to fruition, however, makes all that stress worthwhile.

“Once you get to the end of survey and you make it happen and reach the goal, I think that’s the best part of the job,” Amazan said.

Going from a single state polling facility to a nationally recognized institution has been integral in making Quinnipiac University a household name. According to former Quinnipiac President John Lahey, the university shells out about $2 million annually to keep the operation running, and students and staff alike agree that it has been money well spent.

According to Scott McLean, Chairman for the school’s Department of Philosophy and Political Science, there is no shortage of benefits to being employed by the poll.

“If they’re willing to take the effort, [students] would be able to understand the work of pollsters and survey research,” McLean said. “It really depends on the students’ interests and desires. We’ve had students that went from being interviewers all the way to being full-time staff at the Poll.”

McLean said students who are interested in learning how to use polling data have additional opportunities to engage with public opinion polling in classes, such as ‘Political Psychology and Public Opinion’ which he teaches, and a course on statistics for social sciences in the math department.

Quinnipiac student Amanda Perelli (courtesy: Kody Murphy)

On top of all that, the Poll is a great way for students to hear from a variety of voices across the country with an extensive range of political beliefs. It’s also an opportunity for college students to earn a little extra cash. In fact, the interviewer position is one of the highest paying jobs around campus.

One of those students taking advantage of all the Quinnipiac Poll has to offer is Amanda Perelli, senior journalism major.

“It’s actually an interesting job,” Perelli said. “You are participating in collecting data that will be used nationally, and that’s a big deal. People all over the country look to and rely on the data you are working towards collecting.”

Perelli admits however, that the job can be tiring, especially when you’re dialing numbers for hours at a time with little to show for it.

“It surprised me how little people want to participate,” Perelli explained. “Out of 200 calls, we only get about three real responses.”

When over 100 employees are present, those three responses are necessary pieces of the larger picture. They add up to create that invaluable snapshot in time.

But besides the paycheck, Perelli says learning to speak clearly and confidently by interviewing respondents is immensely beneficial as a rising journalist.

“I’ve learned how to be confident in what I am saying and how to articulate my words so that others can understand me,” Perelli said. “This is a great skill to have in any career.”

Senior political science major Hannah Ellis agreed, but noted observing geographical political differences as one of the most interesting aspects of the job.

“It’s been really eye opening to see how people view certain political issues, especially as a political science major,” Ellis said. “I used to intern for a political messaging firm that took polling data and used it to form campaign messaging for politicians and it’s so interesting to see how these polls are collected.”

Understanding the inner workings of data collection is not the only skill students are taking away from working at the Poll, however. Junior political science and economics major Tyler Brierley often applies information he’s gathered at work to his classes.

“The surveys we conducted gave me insight into what was going on politically on the state and federal level,” Brierley said. “This helped when I was taking my Congress and the Presidency class as well as my American Political Movements class. We would always talk about current events and their politicalside effects.”

Current events and their political side effects is truly what the whole operation is about. The Quinnipiac Poll works tirelessly to provide a snapshot in time, from data collection to analysis and presentation, and everything in between.

Schwartz and his team show no plans of slowing down as we plug along towards 2020, and the Quinnipiac Poll will surely remain the place to go for the most accurate snapshots of our ever-changing political landscape.

Quinnipiac University Polling Institute at West Woods location

Hamden´s Clubhouse Cafe for sale

by Michaela Mendygral

It has been an unusually quiet month for Clubhouse Cafe on Whitney Avenue. On Friday, March 1, a ‘For Sale’ sign was posted outside the bar and the cafe is officially on the market.

“We just put it on the market last week,” Lindsey Carnage of Colonial Properties said.

The Clubhouse, located just a little over a mile from the Quinnipiac University Mount Carmel campus, was a convenient hangout for students of both legal and underrage status.

The local bar has been closed for a little over a month after it was raided. Its doors are covered with notices regarding the cafe´s liquor license, deeming it indefinitely suspended.

“On Jan. 25, 2019, after receiving numerous complaints, Hamden Police again conducted a liquor compliance check at Clubhouse Café. Officers issued 131 infractions for ‘Simple Trespass’ to patrons that were under 21 years of age,” captain Ronald Smith of Hamden Police stated in a press release on Jan. 30. Most of the underage patrons present were Quinnipiac students, according to Hamden Police.

Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle H. Seagull also released a statement on Jan. 30, issuing a summary suspension for the establishment.

Seagull cited an inspection by Hamden Police in the statement.

“We are deeply concerned as our officers have noticed that Quinnipiac students from nearby are walking intoxicated in the road coming to and from the Clubhouse Café,” acting Police Chief John Cappiello said in a press release from the Department of Consumer Protection. “Due to the repeated offenses and risk that this establishment is causing to our young residents and area college students, any assistance in mitigating the obvious dangers posed to minors who patronize the establishment would be greatly appreciated.”

Clubhouse’s license has been suspended before, most recently within the past year.

“On April 20, 2018, approximately 100 people, under 21 years of age, were on the premises. Police seized 42 fraudulent identifications during the liquor compliance check,” Smith stated.

The compliance check in January could be the last straw for the Liquor Control Commission, who would not lift the suspension until a hearing, according to Smith.

“We don’t take the issuance of a summary suspension lightly, but feel it is warranted in this instance. Serving underage patrons is a very serious offense, and our partnerships with local police, other state agencies, and community organizations are all needed to keep this from happening in our communities,” Seagull stated in the release.

According to the New Haven Register, director of communications for the Department of Consumer Protection, Lora Rae Anderson said Clubhouse Cafe was barred from opening while under summary suspension.

“The permit remains under the summary suspension, and the matter is still pending,” Anderson said.

Permittee Anthony Danonoli could not be reached for comment.

Quinnipiac and club sports are affiliated again

by Ross Lager

Club sports are officially affiliated with Quinnipiac University after many years of students pressing for this change — and they are thrilled about the decision.

Sophomore Kaye Paddyfote, a member and coordinator for the women’s club lacrosse team, the Hamden Heroes, could not contain her excitement.

“I was in the Student Government Association (SGA) suite and I yelled really loud and jumped up and down,” she said. “I was so happy knowing that our school has heard us beg and plead for something and they finally approved of it.”

Club sports initially lost affiliation with QU after the school was sued for violating Title IX. The case started in 2009 when the women’s volleyball team felt they were treated unfairly. The 2013 consent decree mentions the violations QU committed, including not providing equal opportunities and financial support to female athletes and teams.

Quinnipiac was forced to comply with the consent decree that said women’s athletic teams will receive the same attention and support the men’s teams receive. QU had to maintain the women’s sports fields and they could not eliminate the volleyball team or any other division one team.

Part D of the terms section in the consent decree reads, “If Quinnipiac sponsors or otherwise provides support to club sports teams during the term of this Consent Decree, it must allocate those opportunities on a gender equitable basis.”

Following this, Quinnipiac sponsored no club sports in 2013-14. Since then, it has been an uphill battle for students to reacquire affiliation between QU and club sports.

Students were tasked with figuring out the logistics on their own to continue playing. The students funded the teams, they found places to practice and provided transportation themselves, all while trying to be an organized team to compete in games. Paddyfote mentioned these constant issues.

“Some of the struggles with being unaffiliated was having nowhere to practice and relying on a few girls who had cars to take us to games,” she said.

President Judy Olian made the announcement on Tuesday, March 5, via twitter.

President Judy Olian is sending our students off on spring break with some great news — about key investments and initiatives we are embarking on in the coming months. pic.twitter.com/61YjZJ9tkD

— Quinnipiac University (@QuinnipiacU) March 5, 2019

Many students, along with the SGA, have spent time and effort to bring back club sports. SGA vice president Luke Ahearn mentioned that this journey started in 2015 and really gained momentum in 2017 from the efforts of Brandon Vattima, who wrote the proposal for the return of club sports to QU.

“I followed up on his (Vattima’s) efforts and we were feeling very positive coming into this year,” he said. “President Olian is very much in support of this and so we were all excited for this.”

Ahearn noted that this process just started, so many of the details are still unknown. The applications for the teams have not been sent out yet.

Ahearn thinks the number of teams will be determined by how many women’s club teams apply because it must be equal. He explained that it is an important decision for which teams will become affiliated.

“By the end of March, every team should know if they are on campus or not,” he said. “It’s not that we don’t want every team to be on campus, its that we have to abide by Title IX.”

This is major progress for club sports, especially for the Brave Hockey Club, New Blue Rugby and Sleeping Giants lacrosse team. The hockey club started in 2013, New Blue in 2005 and the lacrosse team in 2009 they have been playing for many years and are ready to play and practice on campus.

Paddyfote is hopeful that QU will provide the correct support and attention that club sports teams deserve.

“I think they should pay for buses for away games, and provide us with space on campus to practice and actually hold home games,” she said.

Ahearn spoke to the Quinnipiac Athletics Department briefly about the plan moving forward and he believes that it will provide “some financial support” and the players will have annual dues to pay.

According to Ahearn, administrators are meeting next week to further discuss how to handle this process before the applications go out for club teams to fill out.

The Associate Athletic Director of Intramurals, Mike Medina, confirmed that more information will soon be available for everyone.

“All information pertaining to the new Club Sports Initiative will be distributed to the campus community in the coming weeks via social media platforms, including the application process,” he said.

Paddyfote can’t wait to start playing on a club team that is affiliated with the university.

“I’m looking forward to having matching uniforms with my team and an actual coach or a student-coach because we don’t have one and I think that would polish our team,” she said.

Ahearn thinks that five or six club teams will be affiliated by next fall. Since he is also a member of New Blue Rugby, he has high hopes that the team will be playing their games on the QU pitch.

“Next fall, we’d like to see New Blue Rugby play the inaugural club sport game, I would like to see that be the path we take,” he said.

Quinnipiac to be a tobacco-free school in 2019, according to President Olian

On November 15, 2018, President Judy Olian announced that Quinnipiac will become a tobacco-free university starting on Jan. 1, 2019. In an email sent to students, Olian said that tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, will be banned.

Screen Shot 2018-11-26 at 6.00.57 PM.png

Both the Mount Carmel and York Hill campuses are following suit after the North Haven campus, which became tobacco free in 2012. The Quinnipiac North Haven campus received the CEO Cancer Gold Standard accreditation from the CEO Roundtable on Cancer.

“It’s important for students to take into consideration what they are putting in their bodies (so) Quinnipiac deciding to push this to other campuses besides North Haven is great,” said Cassandra Reyes, an Occupational Therapy student. “Why not really take care of the students by making a huge health decision like this?”

This new policy prohibits the use of all tobacco products on campuses from regular cigarettes, to hookah-smoking products. Students on campus use a variety of smoke products that, according to experts, have negative effects on the body.

These negative effects can have deadly repercussions. Tobacco use is the “single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States,” according to the CDC. Nearly a half-million people die a year from smoking cigarettes and 41,000 die from secondhand smoke.

“Honestly, I hate the smell of cigarettes or any kind of smoking. I grew up watching my uncle gradually get very sick because of his smoking addiction and he lost his life to it,” said Andres Baez, sophomore. “When I see people my age walking around campus smoking so much it disgusts me and saddens me at the same time.”

According to the American Cancer Society, “Cancer-causing agents (carcinogens) in tobacco smoke damage important genes that control the growth of cells, which causes them to grow abnormally or to reproduce too rapidly. More than 70 such cancer-causing chemicals have been identified in cigarette smoke to date.

“The research is unequivocal on the deleterious health consequences of smoking and nicotine products,” Olian said in the email. “We have an obligation to all members of our community to support a healthy learning, working and social environment for our students, faculty, staff and visitors.”

The U.S Department of Health & Human Services conducted research approximating that 2.6 million high school and college students were currently tobacco users in 2017. This figure, however, is much smaller in proportion to adolescent tobacco use forty years ago. Only one in 25 teens smoked tobacco products in 2017.

But considering the smaller, yet still-living presence of college students smoking in the 21st century, not everyone is on-board with the new policy.

“President Olian made a strong decision. I vape all the time, that’s a way for me to destress myself. I know the harm it has to my body, but that’s the thing, it’s my body. I understand the betterment as a whole, but this is just a bit annoying,” said Quinnipiac freshman, Leo Thomas.

Although the decision to become a tobacco free university stirred-up different opinions from students and faculty, the main goal of implementing this new policy is to assist students, faculty and staff while quitting smoking. Ultimately, this will assist in creating a healthier community at Quinnipiac University.

The climate of sexual assault and why victims find it hard to report it

By Aaliayah French and Randy Del Valle

Quinnipiac University’s most recent annual Clery report came out in the middle of the Kavanaugh hearings. The report documented two formal reports of rape on campus and one instance of fondling. But, the report doesn’t provide the full picture of sexual harassment and violence on campus.

The numbers documented in the Clery report are low, but there’s a reason why they’re are like that.

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“More students deal with cases of sexual harassment and intimate partner violence, but don’t formally report them to the school,” according to Megan Buda, Quinnipiac’s director of student conduct.

“I think students are concerned about coming forward for sexual assault for obvious reasons,” said Buda. “Sometimes we receive complaints about intimate partner violence maybe from their friend group or from their family and they’re too concerned to come forward on their on own.”

Senior Stephanie Martinez said going through the long, formal process is one of the reasons that stop people from reporting sexual harassment.

“Sexual assault can sometimes be traumatizing so maybe somebody doesn’t want to go through that again, live through that again,” Martinez said. “Going through that long process of being asked questions, ‘What happened?’ ‘Where did it happen?’ ‘What were you wearing?’ ‘What was he wearing?’ ‘What were you doing?’ It’s just something that people don’t want to go through.”

Researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia recently reported some of the biggest barriers people face when it comes to reporting rape and sexual assault.

According to the research, “Students rated ‘shame, guilt and embarrassment,’ ‘confidentiality concerns’ and ‘fear of not being believed’ as the top three perceived barriers in reporting rape among both men and women. However, students rated shame, guilt and embarrassment as a much larger barrier for men than women.”

Barriers that impact women than men were lack of resources to get help, language barriers to obtaining help and “financial dependence on perpetrator/perpetrator interference in seeking help.”

In light of the recent Kavanaugh hearings and the latest verdict convicting Bill Cosby of sexual assault and rape charges, the “#MeToo” movement and #WhyIDidn’tReport has given women the courage to come forward and speak out on their experiences, including women college campuses.

While many Quinnipiac students have not wanted to publicly share their stories about being a victim of sexual assault, one staff member at Quinnipiac shared on Twitter why she didn’t report her experience of being sexually assaulted in high school.

Courtney McKenna, Quinnipiac’s director of student affairs, was in high school when her relationship became “increasingly violent.”

“For me, it’s hard a lot of times to separate out the difference between where were the pieces interpersonally, emotionally and sort of physically the violence were and then also some of the sexual violence that was in the relationship,” McKenna said. “I can remember sort of snapshot pieces of it, but it’s not this like chronological movie of memories of specific things, because a lot of it for me was all entangled together.”

“I think for me some of those pieces were not listening in terms of boundaries. I think then the other pieces were going along with things further in some places because of fear of the physical violence on the other side if I didn’t move forward with certain different things,” McKenna said.

Reporting her situation was never something McKenna thought to do as she was focused about her safety.

“In a partner violent relationship there’s this cycle. There is this part of the relationship where its really good and it’s happy and then the tension builds and there’s some type of episode whether its some type of violence or emotional outburst,” McKenna said.

“Once that happens there’s usually some type of ‘I’m sorry’ pieces in whatever that looks like and then its happy and then it cycles. Looking back for me I was really focused on ‘how do I stay in that like really good part’ and ‘how do I make sure that I can be as safe as possible in those bad parts.’”

Another reason why McKenna didn’t report the behavior was because she wanted to keep what happened to her quiet.

“It because of that shame of disappointing others or not being the person who knew better,” McKenna said. “It was even until probably years later that I recognized some of the sexual violence in the relationship as pieces because to me its all together. Even at the time I categorized all as dating violence.”

Kayla McQuade, an alumna of Quinnipiac, thinks reporting something so personal like being sexually harassed leads people to not want to report.

“People don’t want to relive it again. They might be embarrassed that it happened so they would rather just hold it in instead of telling people,” McQuade said. “Then there’s also the issue of sometimes when you’re a victim of an assault like that, there’s a lot more questioning going into, ‘Are you sure that really happened?’, there’s a lot of victim blaming.”

“A lot of people are afraid of what people may say about them,” Martinez said. “Especially women being told ‘oh you’re asking for it’ just because of what they’re wearing or of the way they’re acting.”

Some organizations at Quinnipiac have been trying to educate their members by holding trainings, but also by making resources available to anyone who experiences an assault.

“Every organization goes through formal training where we have speakers come in, we have presentations,” President of Alpha Sigma Phi, Robert Martinez said. “A lot of it is the day- to- day interactions with your members on a personal basis.”

“When people talk about their private matters and things of this nature, I think it’s better to shut that down right away, because if you don’t tolerate it on a private basis then it’s not going to be tolerated with anyone. I think it’s should be taken more away from the formal training and a lot more just personal you know bystander intervention, just don’t tolerate that personally.”

Senior Kappa Alpha Theta member Hannah Meyer noted that her sorority has resources available to its members if something ever happened to them.

“I know that I have resources if a friend or I were to encounter a situation in which we needed help with an assault,” said Meyer. “My sorority has a hotline and crisis text line that I can reach out to. My sorority has been through sexual assault prevention awareness education which is the first step.”

“I do believe that the Kavanaugh hearing has struck a chord for many victims at Quinnipiac and in our community,” said Meyer.

Black bears (still) roam land near Sleeping Giant

By Cullen Ronan, with reporting by Paige Meyer and Mackenzie Campbell

Quinnipiac University notified teachers and students of a bear sighting behind the human resources building around noon on Friday, Oct. 5.

This marks the second bear sighting at Quinnipiac in just the past month and the third this year. The last spotting occurred on Sept. 17 in the same location on Mount Carmel Ave.

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Before that, a black bear was seen this past May, as witnesses say it was near the Harwood Gate located on the university’s main campus.

Edmund Remillard, a human resources employee, witnessed the animal intruder in September.

“I was greeting a colleague at the HR House. Upon his arrival he pointed to the bear, which was walking on the grass along the back parking lot,” he said. “The bear walked by, stepped over the field stone wall and proceeded up Sleeping Giant.”

Despite seeing what he believed to be a “250 to 300 pound” bear in the wild, Remillard says he wasn’t phased, choosing to admire the the animal.

“It was beautiful and did not seem to notice or have any interest in us,” he said.

These frequent bear sightings haven’t only been isolated to just Quinnipiac University, however, as according to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Connecticut has tallied 7,799 reports of black bear activity across the state within just the last year.

Hamden currently has 85 reported black bear sightings since September of 2017, and the Hamden Police Department took to its Facebook page advising residents of increased local bear activity.

According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, black bear sightings are becoming increasingly common in Connecticut as the population continues to grow and expand.

Wildlife Biologist Paul Rego wasn’t shocked upon hearing about the two bear sightings at Quinnipiac, also noting the yearly rise in population.

“I was unsurprised because we have a growing bear population that is expanding its range and it wouldn’t be surprising to have a bear in the area. The Connecticut bear population is increasing from 10-15 percent each year.”

Despite Remillard’s relatively tame interaction, Rego advises that residents take some precautions around their home in order to protect themselves and their pets.

“Residents should take time and prepare in order to reduce the chance of bears coming near their homes and around residential areas. My advice would be to move human waste sources such as garbage cans, trash bags and bird feeders from your front and back yards.”

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has also issued a list of black bear do’s and don’ts in order help educate residents on black bear safety, as well as a black bear sighting report form in order to further keep track of bear activity.

This story was updated on Oct. 5, 2018