students – HQ Press

Forced home: Observations from study abroad students coming back from Italy

Sydney Reynolds. Quinnipiac Junior, FCO → JFK (3/2/2020)

Sydney Reynolds Quinnipiac University, Junior

“I did not face any screenings or questions when I flew home, or when I landed. Neither airport had any type of temperature check and they didn’t ask what part of Italy I was in or what countries I’ve visited. It’s so weird because multiple Americans told me Trump and Pence were saying that there would be security at the borders. I didn’t face any. Pence then said it would be rolled out within 12 hours. So I texted my friends who flew home later than me… they faced nothing either. …right now, the promises given by our administration to contain the virus are empty.”

“My friend who flew home yesterday had health screening done only in the Roman airports. So there are still no changes, to my knowledge, to precautions in US airports”

Olivia Giusti, Junior at UMass Amherst, FCO → GVA → BOS (3/1/2020)

“I had to be checked for coronavirus before in and out of security in Italy. They check our temperature. This has happened to me every flight in and out of Italy I have taken since I started this experience. In Italy, since the very beginning, they checked my temperature every time I went in and out of the country. You walk up to a thing of a bunch of people sitting in a row, looking at you and you have to stop in front of them. They have a little screen and they look down at it and it has a camera and heat map for your face. So, they shine the camera at you and can tell if you have a temperature that way.

“ …When I got to Switzerland, they only asked me if I had been to China in the last 14 days. I obviously said no. When I landed in Boston though it was nothing. The woman in customs asked where I was coming from I said Rome, and she gave me back my passport and told me to have a nice day. She literally asked me nothing.”

Emma Dombrowski, University of New Haven, Sophomore, FLR→ JFK (3/3/2020)

“I flew home with some of the other students and nothing was done as far as seeing if we were sick when we landed.”

“There’s less of a focus on people who aren’t coming from China.”

“My temperature was taken at the airport before getting on the plane but nothing was done after that. We were just free to go basically.”

“There weren’t any changes that I saw within the airport…you couldn’t tell that there was a virus spreading or anything…it was very odd to me.”

Key of Airport Codes

BOS = Boston, Massachusetts

FCO = Rome, Italy

FLR = Florence, Italy

GVA = Geneva, Switzerland

JFK = New York City

Quinnipiac students push for living off-campus: the reasons why

HAMDEN, Conn. – With only about three months left, first, second and third-year students at Quinnipiac University are nearing the end of their living situations this school year. Many questions will appear in the coming months, but the most important one on everyone’s mind seems to be centered around differing living experiences.

Many Quinnipiac students trek off-campus for housing in their collegiate career. Quinnipiac offers several housing options, and two for their second-year students located on the Mount Carmel and York Hill campuses.

“Then there’s a bunch of them [student houses] in the neighborhood which could bring up some negativity with families,” local property manager Ari Gorfain said. “The Washington Avenue, School Street, and Whitney Avenue areas are [student] populated, and those are the better places for them.”

Students that choose to remain on campus are entered into a lottery system hosted by the school. This lottery system randomly assigns a number that leads to priority choosing when housing is made available. Students who receive a higher lottery number may be added to another student’s room who holds a lower one.

Quinnipiac recently sent out housing contracts that need to be completed by March 6, 2020. The Quinnipiac lottery for housing opens March 27, 2020, which although an early date, doesn’t deter landlords from acting sooner than the school.

Gorfain was able to touch upon his process of filling up off-campus houses.

“Most of the time it’s friends of friends, and if friends have been at the house and like it, they reach out the sooner the better,” Gorfain said. “It starts all the way from day one of school.”

Some students are reached out to well before the second semester even begins. First year student Matteo Naclerio remembers when he was first approached about off-campus housing.

“I remember seeing a group chat notification about housing,” Naclerio said. “An upperclassmen I met in early September was reaching out to fill houses in the beginning of October. It put me in a weird spot because I was just taking my first exams and didn’t know anything about housing at that point.”

Current third-year Student Justin Arrichiello was extremely opposed to living on main campus. His situation differed from most, as he transferred to Quinnipiac University in the Spring semester of his first year. Arrichiello took shelter at Aspen Glen Apartments with some friends who were renting.

“When housing selections came, they came pretty quick, and that was before I made a bunch of connections with people that lived on my floor,” Arrichiello said. “I would much rather take living with people that I know over having a good housing situation.

*A look at the “Hill” living option on Quinnipiac’s Mount Carmel Campus | Photo by John Morgan*

“I slept on his couch instead of sleeping in my dorm room. I brought all of my clothes to Aspen, parked my car at Aspen, kept my toothbrush in his bathroom. I did everything there.”

Gorfain had this to say regarding the benefits of off-campus housing, “I feel like they like their independence more. Kids are growing up a lot faster when they hit their sophomore or junior years, and they want to be in a house with their friends.”

Students that live off campus seem to share similar concerns about transportation. Cars seem to be the main concern, and students seem to rarely be in favor of testing the shuttle system. Third-year students Michael Trezza and Stephen Brisman had several comments regarding the convenience.

“We really wanted to be on our time with driving to campus. We didn’t want to have to wait for shuttles,” Michael Trezza said.

*A look at the “Village” living option on Quinnipiac’s Mount Carmel Campus | Photo by John Morgan*

“I had five of us on York, and thirty of us on the main campus. We just didn’t want to take the shuttles,” Stephen Brisman said. “I didn’t want to hike to the garage [to get my car], when I can just get an apartment and park right next to my door.”
Many off campus houses run through a funnel of students. Those who graduate in the upcoming year and/or are moving on from their residence work with their landlords to find possible replacement tenants.

The previous students living in that house attempt to build a level of trust with their landlord, and their landlord a level of trust with those who follow.

Many students are pulled from social media groups, athletic teams, and on campus organizations. The commonality of these demographics revolves around numbers. Landlords have the opportunity to take common interests and put them under one roof.

Whether regarding early activity, random roommates, or transportation and convenience issues, some Quinnipiac students are pushing to get off campus. To them, this appears to be the safest bet when it comes to playing the lottery.

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.

Interactive map: View the lack of sidewalks surrounding Quinnipiac’s main campus

By Amanda Perelli

The roads leading up to and surrounding Quinnipiac University’s main campus are lacking sidewalks. On Sept. 18 a Quinnipiac student was injured in a hit-and-run on Whitney Ave., which prompted HQ Press to investigate the safety of walking along these roads.

With a variety of bars and places for students to go, like Andale Mexican Restaurant, Odie’s Place, and Side Street Bar & Grill, there is an inconsistency of safe walking paths around them.

Click the interactive map below to watch GOPRO clips taken along the streets surrounding main campus.

What do you want HQ Press to cover?

A new batch of student reporters are starting in the HQ Press newsroom. Before reporting, we went around Quinnipiac and asked members in our community what they want to see in our coverage. Check us out on social media @hq_press on Instagram and Twitter. Send tips to hqpress.org@gmail.com.