OCTOBER 30, 2019 • VOLUME 90 • ISSUE 10
The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929
OPINION: ENVIRONMENTALISM P. 4
SPORTS: FIELD HOCKEY REFLECTIONS P. 12
ARTS & LIFE: TRAIL OF TERROR P. 6
Sit-down to fix town-gown
President Olian’s chief of staff starts a task force to improve the relationship between Hamden and students living off-campus By EMILY DISALVO News Editor
Vice President and Chief of Staff Bethany Zemba developed a task force of Quinnipiac administrators and Hamden town officials to address concerns related to students living offcampus in Hamden neighborhoods, such as noise and parking violations. The Quinnipiac/Hamden Off-Campus Housing Task Force, which met for the first time on Oct. 3, will help to create an open line of communication between the town and the university with regards to students living in the community, according to Zemba. “Everyone in the room felt like it was going to be something they wanted to engage in, something they wanted to spend time doing,” Zemba said, of the first meeting. Acting Hamden Police Chief John Cappiello, who is a member of the task force, agreed that the atmosphere in the room was ripe for positive change. “Everyone was getting along, everyone was talking,” Cappiello said. “It was really professional.” The task force includes members of the Hamden Police Department, a representative from Hamden Planning and Zoning, a Hamden tax assessor, the Hamden director of arts and culture, the Hamden council president, a Hamden building inspector and the Quinnipiac Valley Health district deputy director. Cappiello said the police department has interacted with Quinnipiac in the past, but sitting
down as a group makes communication easier. “For a while there it was always the town against the university,” Cappiello said. “I’ve always been a big believer that we need to communicate and do it as a team effort which is what we are doing now.” Public Safety Chief Eddie Rodriguez, Dean of Students Monique Drucker and Zemba represent Quinnipiac at the table. While Zemba emphasized that most student involvement in the community is positive, she said Hamden residents have expressed concerns about parking, trash and noise. She said one of the biggest complaints is students parking in the grass instead of on the side of the road. “Those are the issues that we can work together to fix because, again, our students want to do right by Quinnipiac and the town of Hamden and be good citizens,” Zemba said. “It might just be a process of reminding them that these are some of the things that we have heard that are concerns from the town’s perspectives.” Members of the community can now call a hotline 24 hours a day to report a complaint regarding students living off campus, according to Zemba. The caller will be connected to a dispatcher who will help to address the complaint. Residents with a complaints can either call the hotline at 203-582-3770 or email communityconcerns@qu.edu. Students living off-campus also violate Hamden’s policy stating that only four students can live in one home. Zemba said many people
GRAPHIC JANNA MARNELL
Quinnipiac University ranking compared to peer institutions.
JANNA MARNELL/CHRONICLE
A new task force, spearheaded by Vice President and Chief of Staff Bethany Zemba, seeks to encourage communication between Hamden and Quinnipiac. aren’t aware of the regulation, so they aren’t following it. “I don’t know how carefully we pay attention to that zoning regulation so I want to draw attention to that and ask students to respect that so there isn’t eight students living in a house,” Zemba said. Zemba said she is hoping to find a student representative and a landlord to complete the group. Cappiello said having a student on the panel
is crucial, because it will help one side understand the perspective of the other. He said that when he and Public Safety were communicating separately, a lot of people got left out. “It’s regarding (the students’) four years there, their life,” Cappiello said. “It’s a great idea to get them involved.” Zemba meets with Hamden Mayor Curt Leng regularly to discuss Quinnipiac’s See TOWN-GOWN Page 3
Getting things done
Student Government Association passes a slew of initiatives Associate News Editor
Our award-winning website since 2009
STEPHEN MACLEOD/CHRONICLE
SGA Vice President Sophia Marshall (left) and Dean of Students Monique Drucker (right) celebrate the free laundry initiative.
Staff Meetings on Tuesdays at 9:15 p.m. in SB123
CONNECT
SEE WHAT’S HAPPENING ON
QUCHRONICLE.COM
JOIN US
The Quinnipiac Student Government Association (SGA) has passed and implemented a wide range of high-profile initiatives. Among these plans are free laundry for all on-campus students starting in the fall of 2020, open parking for juniors and seniors and an open forum town hall with President Judy Olian. SGA President Austin Calvo credits the Olian administration’s new attitude toward student concerns as a big help. “I think with President Lahey there was a little bit of a struggle of how to get student input,” Calvo said. “They weren’t really interested in what students had to say a lot of the time.” Calvo compared the presidential transition from Lahey to Olian to a ship being steered in a new direction. He said that last year, students and SGA did not feel the difference, but now the changes are obvious. Calvo also spoke about a book full of student concerns that he collected while he was campaigning. Olian was very receptive to the book according to Calvo and has been open to students voicing their concerns directly to the highest levels of the university. For example, Head of the Board of Trustees William Weldon came and talked with SGA in a closed door meeting on Oct. 11,
addressing student concerns. Calvo says that he spent nearly seven hours at a Board of Trustees meeting expressing student concerns. Calvo says that previous SGA President Ryan Hicks told him that Calvo would be kicked out in about 20 minutes. “If someone asked me a question, I was not going to hold back because I’m sitting around a table with people that are worth billions of dollars collectively,” Calvo said. “I’m going to say exactly what I think (the student body) would want me to say and not just be like, ‘Oh yeah. I think what the university’s doing, it’s fine.’” Executive board members have all taken different approaches to their jobs this year. Calvo has worked to try and pull SGA out of years of internal reform and strife and turn instead to a platform of student advocacy and transparency. Vice President Sophia Marshall, an advocate of the free laundry initiative since her freshman year, has transformed the vice presidency into a way to communicate with external communities such as the town of Hamden and QU Dining. She’s currently working to increase student voter registration and helped in hosting a District 9 debate on York Hill on Tues-
The Quinnipiac Chronicle
@quchronicle
day, Oct. 29. She is also trying to have SGA members attend Hamden legislative meetings. All of this is an attempt to help build a relationship between students and Hamden. “Next semester we’re hoping to have a Q&A with the mayor, so he’ll come here,” Marshall said. “Basically President Olian would ideally be there and like, it’d be some sort of Q&A with him so we could kind of voice our concerns as Quinnipiac students to him. The dialogue (between Quinnipiac and Hamden) is kind of there with administration, but not really with the students right now.” Vice President for Student Experience Esau Greene, who has fought for public town halls with President Olian, is using his position to encourage students to hold discussions with each other. Greene is also looking to expand the Ask Away program, and encourage events that create dialogues across different communities. “When I think of higher education, I think of people openly going out to access new information,” Greene said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean learning through textbooks. I think the greatest way to learn is to learn from one another. I think my university of the future is a cross campus effort to go out of our ways to increase our own See SGA Page 2
@quchronicle
INDEX
By STEPHEN MACLEOD
Opinion: 4
Arts and Life: 6
Sports: 10