The Quinnipiac Chronicle, Issue 23 Volume 88

APRIL 11, 2018 | VOLUME 88, ISSUE 23

The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929

OPINION: IGNORANCE IS BLISS P. 7

ARTS & LIFE: A QUIET PLACE REVIEW P. 9

SPORTS: ABBY ZISER P. 13

Ryan Hicks appointed SGA President

By STEPHEN MACLEOD

sition you hold. Once that grace period ends of thinking about why you ran we can start to come together as one team.”

One issue Hicks wants to tackle is the financing of student organizations. A cause he has long fought for as Vice President (VP) for Finance.

The funding SGA gets for student organizations was sharply cut this year, going from $750,000 to $600,000. Many student organizations were unable to attend conferences or competitions and those that did get to attend had to go through a special appeal process. Hicks said that the huge cuts have stunted the student experience and stopped club growth at a time Quinnipiac is trying to tout its growth.

“I hope that we can show the administration that we need more money,” Hicks said. “By not giving us more money you’re restricting the student experience. You’re preventing our students from having learning outside the classroom which I think is incredibly important. Without allowing our students to travel and without allowing our students to compete we’re restricting that learning from outside the classroom?”

Hicks has been a long time advocate of increasing student organization funding. During his campaign for VP for Finance, he stated his displeasure with budget cuts. Hicks said that the huge cuts left SGA with a shortage of nearly $75,000 when they drew up their budgets this year. While they are preparing for another tight

Staff Writer

MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICLE

Ryan Hicks will begin his tenure as the Student Government Association President on Wednesday, April 18.

SGA election results releases after five days of deliberation

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Two grievances were filed on Student Government Association election day, April 4, in regards to a Facebook post by Class of 2019 President-elect Matt Corso calling for members to vote for certain Executive Board candidates.

Corso’s post was in the “Spring Break 2019!” Facebook group and supported the campaigns of juniors Ryan Hicks, Luke Ahearn and John Khillah. They ran and eventually won in contested elections for SGA President, Vice President of SGA and Vice President for Finance, respectively.

Junior higher education leadership major Joe Iasso, who eventually lost the election for SGA President to Hicks, revealed that he filed one of the grievances targeting Hicks, Khillah, Ahearn and Corso. SGA Vice President Jacqueline Schmedel declined to confirm who filed the second grievance.

The Facebook post endorsing these candidates closely followed a different post that advertised a chance to win a “booze cruise” in Punta Cana. Members of the group were allegedly misled by the post made by Corso, who is an administrator of the group. They allegedly thought if they voted for the endorsed candidates, they would be admitted to the sweepstakes, as stated

in Iasso’s grievance. Several post comments were promptly deleted by group administrators after they asked if voting would result in admittance to the sweepstakes.

“By using a Facebook group dedicated to getting Quinnipiac students to spend a week in Punta Cana partying and drinking, I believe that the Election Policy was clearly violated by Matt Corso, a supporter of Ryan Hicks, Luke Ahearn and John Khillah,” Iasso said in his grievance.

These two grievances delayed the release of election results for what is believed to be the first time in known history at Quinnipiac, according to SGA Vice President of Public Relations Victoria Johnson. Grievances must be filed within 24 hours of the violation of the election policy and may be filed for a number of reasons. As long as a violation of SGA bylaws has occurred. Violations include but are not limited to spending over the $250 limit for a campaign or sabotaging another candidates campaign materials, according to SGA bylaws.

While Ahearn and Khillah won their respective elections by significant margins (Ahearn by 317 votes and Khillah by 422 votes) the presidential race was decided by a mere 125 votes.

Iasso’s grievance challenged the merit of Hicks’ voter tally. The issue Iasso brings up is the violation of Article II of the SGA Constitu-

Staff Meetings on Tuesdays at 9:15 p.m. in SB123

CONNECT

By NICHOLAS SLATER AND STEPHEN MACLEOD

tion, which states that candidate conduct during elections must reflect SGA’s values.

After Iasso’s grievance was received by the Election Committee, investigation was underway. The Election Committee recognized that the three candidates, along with Corso, were in fact in violation of the aforementioned bylaw. In response to Iasso’s grievance, the committee issued the following: “A post was written in the Spring Break 2019! Facebook group. In the group previously, posts where Matt Corso, the admin, asked for a comment to be made upon completion of a task were coupled with prizes being awarded for a booze cruise. The post in question followed a similar format; from this, we have determined that students felt that if they voted in accordance with the post they had potential to win a booze cruise.”

The Election Committee then told the candidates that there would be sanction to revote on Friday, April 6 for their then-pending positions. Iasso appealed this decision. Hicks, Ahearn and Khillah filed a joint appeal while Corso filed his own.

“I do not think it is fair to me, or to anyone,

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

See RESULTS Page 2

@quchronicle

See PRESIDENT Page 2

ILLUSTRATED BY: DEV SONI

Executive Board

President: Ryan Hicks Vice President: John Khillah VP for Student Experience: Austin Calvo VP for Public Relations: Victoria Johnson

Class Boards Class of 2019 President: Matt Corso Vice President: Allison Kuhn Class of 2020 President: Anna Nardelli Vice President: Andy Stafa Class of 2021 President: Sophia Marshall Vice President: Olamide Gbotosho

@qu_chronicle

INDEX

After five days of delay, the Quinnipiac Student Government Association (SGA) announced the Executive Board in its entirety on Monday, April 9.

Ryan Hicks, a junior physical therapy major from Dedham, Massachusetts will be the next to handle the gavel and serve as the SGA president.

A total of 2,255 students voted in this election, a sharp decline from the 3,119 that voted in the last election. Only about 32 percent of the student population voted in this year’s election.

Hicks also praised his opponent and friend Joe Iasso for the way he handled himself both on the campaign and during the appeal process.

“I am proud of what (Iasso) did,” Hicks said.

“He is an incredible candidate and a great friend of mine and I look forward to working close with him in the future.”

The president-elect wants to focus on uniting SGA and having more clear agendas and initiatives. He decried “personal agendas” and called for uniting to help solve student concerns on campus. He wants to take a management approach to leadership and help transform SGA into a team that can serve the student body.

“I think it’s about recentering,” Hicks said.

“Everyone ran with the same intentions: to benefit Quinnipiac, to benefit the student body, and to make the student body’s voices heard. For a brief period of time its thinking of why you ran and what you wanted to accomplish and then keeping those goals in mind no matter what po-

Interactive: 5 Opinion: 6 Arts and Life: 8 Sports: 13

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The Quinnipiac Chronicle

MEET THE EDITORS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF David Friedlander MANAGING EDITOR Hannah Feakes CREATIVE DIRECTOR Christina Popik WEB DIRECTOR Justin Cait NEWS EDITOR Victoria Simpri ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS Jeremy Troetti & Nicholas Slater OPINION EDITOR Peter Dewey ARTS & LIFE EDITOR Madison Fraitag ASSOCIATE ARTS & LIFE EDITORS Charlotte Gardner & Lindsay Pytel SPORTS EDITOR Logan Reardon ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITORS Conor Roche & Jordan Wolff DESIGN EDITOR Janna Marnell PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Erin Kane ASSOCIATE PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Morgan Tencza ADVISOR David McGraw THE QUINNIPIAC CHRONICLE is the proud recipient of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors’ award for College Newspaper of the Year in New England for 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2015-16.

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April 11, 2018

Hicks looks to continue work that Lynch started

PRESIDENT from cover

displeasure with budget cuts. Hicks said that the huge cuts left SGA with a shortage of nearly $75,000 when they drew up their budgets this year. While they are preparing for another tight year, Hicks hopes to pitch to administration the importance of funding SGA and said that his “ideal” budget would stand at around $725,000.

“SGA has to represent every single organization,” Hicks said during his 2017 campaign.

“I’m ready to go to the administrators and rattle the cage.”

Hicks did not serve in his high school’s student government. He originally joined SGA as a way to meet people and make friends but quickly found a passion for the work.

“I fell in love with it immediately,” Hicks said. “I fell in love with the ability to work with people and to communicate what they need to administration and to be able to be that liaison.”

During his four years at Quinnipiac, Hicks has served in SGA in various roles. He served as a class representative his freshman year, then the President of the Class of 2019 in his sophomore year and this year he served as the Vice President for Finance.

Hicks will close out his role as VP for Finance at this week’s budget meeting for SGA and

voting to revamp SGA’s impeachment process.

Hicks stated his admiration for current SGA President Ryan Lynch. He stated that he hopes to run the government in the same way he saw Lynch run it. This includes forging personal relationships with all representatives, having an open-door policy with students and always being ready to address concerns and working together to make sure current initiatives do not get dropped during the transition in order to make sure student concerns are met.

In building off Lynch’s legacy, Hicks hopes to be able to have a lot of momentum when he gets the opportunity to meet with University President-elect Judy Olian. He feels a restart and change in direction would not only go against all the success SGA has had with initiatives this year, but would slow the process of making sure the new administration is meeting student priorities.

While Director of Campus Life for Student Center and Student Involvement, Erin Twomey has seen a number of presidents, executive boards and general board at this point, she has high hopes for Hicks.

“For him my hope is finding this place where the members of student government feel comfortable and confident to do the work they want to do, but also equipped to be the best representatives that they can for the student body,”

Twomey said. “I believe (Hicks) wants that. To be honest (Iasso) would have wanted that too.

They both kind of really spoke about that.”

Student government is in an interesting place where the model that was student government and the model of what student government is going to look like is changing, according to Twomey.

“I think it’s about carving what the future’s going to look like,” Twomey said. “Ryan Lynch and his group did some of the work this year and I think Ryan Hicks and his groups will continue that work and I think it’s going to be work that’s going to continue for the next couple of years.”

Hicks had some basic ideas of what he wanted to bring up to Olian. He hopes meet with her at either at a Board of Trustee Meeting over the summer or as soon as students return to campus.

His main concerns he hopes to talk to her about include a focus on gender-inclusive housing, striving to make Quinnipiac more diverse and inclusive, and of course, budget concerns.

“This past student government did a lot of work,” Hicks said. “By continuing off of that there is no restart or stop but we’re building off that and going full steam ahead and by building off of what the past student government has done it allows us to get a lot of work done much faster.”

Khillah: ‘We were comforted to know the student body would have been assured a clean and fair election’ RESULTS from cover

that a revote be conducted.” Iasso said in his appeal of the initial sanction. “Giving students the impression that they will win free alcohol if they vote for a candidate should not be tolerated.”

The Election Committee then granted the appeal and revoked its initial statement that a revote would take place, and instead cross-referenced voters with the members of the “Spring Break 2019!” Facebook group. In the end, it was Director of Campus Life for Student Centers and Student Involvement Erin Twomey and Election Committee member, senior Velvet Chestnut, who conducted the research.

“After reviewing all information provided during the appeal process, Velvet and I have decided to overturn the initial sanction put in place by the election committee (the revote),” Twomey said Monday morning in an email addressed to Iasso.

Even though the Election Committee told Iasso that the votes were swayed by the Facebook post, the committee determined that only 65 votes could have been influenced by Corso’s post. This was concluded after cross-referencing names of the members of the Facebook group and students who voted. The only names that were cross-referenced were those who voted between the time that the post was published and deleted.

Those 65 votes were deemed insignificant to the result of the election because Hicks won by a wider margin, according to Schmedel. She stated that the cross-referencing was focused on the voters, rather than placing blame on candidates.

“The election results were reviewed, cross referenced with the members of the Spring Break Facebook group, and it was determined

that while the post may have influenced some students there was no way that it mathematically impact the results,” Twomey said in her email to Iasso.

Although all four men were found to be in violation of the SGA bylaws, no further action is being taken. She stated that this was because Hicks, Ahearn and Khillah were not the ones that made the post. Also, since Corso was running unopposed, it was deemed that his post did not interfere with the results of a fair and equitable election, according to Schmedel.

There have been other instances of election policy violations during this election in which people had sanctions applied to them, according to Schmedel. She did not reveal any specific instances.

Ahearn, while standing by the Election Committee’s decision, said he believes the process could have better.

“Every time a problem comes up, we learn how to handle them better,” Ahearn said. “This definitely was not the best process and definitely going forward (the process) is something that I am going to be committed to fixing.”

Corso, on the other hand, doubts the merit of the grievance.

“I don’t think it should have been filed.” Corso said. “(The Election Committee) did make a mistake in accepting that grievance.”

Corso explained how, once a grievance is accepted and heard, the grievance becomes a part of the Committee’s decision, which is able to be appealed.

Despite Iasso’s allegations, Corso holds firmly that no violations were made.

“I still maintain to this day that I did nothing wrong,” Corso said. “(The post) was to garner attention of students who wouldn’t normally vote, as there is a low turnout for

voting at this school.”

Corso also clarified in the comments of the controversial post that there was no connection between the election and any giveaways that the “Spring Break 2019!” group previously endorsed.

Khillah also gave his take on the grievances.

“Even though the grievances slowed down the process of finding the results, I was still assured that the election committee was doing the best they can to ensure a clean and fair election,” Khillah said over email. “Though it was aggravating to wait for the results to come out, we were comforted to know that the student body would have been assured a clean and fair election.”

President-elect, Ryan Hicks stated that he believes in the process the Election Committee followed and that the Committee would have acted if something was truly unfair.

Similarly, there were other candidates in the election that experienced issues with the process.

Freshman Representative Jamien Jean-Baptiste was not on the ballot for sophomore vice president for approximately 21 minutes due to a computer error.

Jean-Baptiste considered filing a grievance for the error but ultimately decided against it out of courtesy for Olamide Gbotosho, who was elected vice president of the class of 2021. SGA offered Jean-Baptiste the opportunity to file a grievance which would require that he rerun for the position, according to Jean-Baptiste.

Jean-Baptiste said he appreciates SGA’s offer and does not fault the organization for the error.

Go to QUChronicle.com to see the original posts and comments from the “Spring Break 2019!” Facebook group.

Grievance (grēvəns) n.

I. An alleged violation of Section 4 of the Election Policy. This could include spending more than $250 for an Executive Board candidate’s campaign, hanging more than the specified amount of posters in the student center, hanging campaign materials on the outside of a building, defacing another candidate’s campaign materials or attacking or exploiting another candidate. *according to the Quinnipiac Student Government Association Bylaws

DESIGN BY: JANNA MARNELL

April 11, 2018

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

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Schuyler Bailar, first openly transgender NCAA athlete, visits QU

By MARIA SPANO Staff Writer

The Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) and the Student Government Association (SGA) cosponsored an event to bring Schuyler Bailar, the first openly transgender NCAA Division 1 swimmer, to Quinnipiac on Sunday, April 8.

The Echlin Center was filled with people wanting to hear Bailar’s story of coming to peace with being transgender and how that defines how he lives today.

GSA opened up the event by introducing Bailar and giving a brief background of his life.

He graduated from Georgetown Day School in 2014 and is currently attending Harvard University on a swimming scholarship.

The purpose of the event was to have the topic of being transgender explained by someone who college students can relate to, since he is a college student experiencing much of the same emotions and issues as everyone else.

“I think that Quinnipiac is very sheltered from diversity because let’s be honest most of the students are white and heterosexual, so this event is extremely important for people to know the struggles and what life is like as a transgender,” Jack Dickinson, a sophomore film major, said.

Bailar began by telling everyone in attendance about his life from his birth to today. He particularly focused on his love for swimming from the mere age of one. He was biologically born a female but has since transitioned and identifies himself as a male.

“I’ve been a water baby my entire life,” Bailar emphasized. “It has been the most comfortable place for me that I’ve ever had.”

As a result, Bailar focused most of the event on a question and answer session with the audience. He wanted those who attended to feel comfortable to ask questions in order to provide more insight on the topic of being transgender, which

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY IAN ZEITLIN

From left to right: Meghan Rocha, Schuyler Bailar and Shelby Petrie at GSA and SGA ‘s event on Sunday, April 8. many people may not know much about.

“When I got to high school a lot of things for me changed,” he explained. “During my growing up years specifically in middle school, I just expressed myself the way I felt most comfortable. For all intents and purposes, I looked like a boy, but I was supposed to be a girl. So, I went through my life telling people I was a girl.”

Bailar went on to explain how throughout most of high school, he was miserable. But he could not understand why. Upon graduation, Bailar told his new coaches at Harvard that he needed to take a gap year to take care of his mental health.

He stayed at Oliver-Pyatt Center in Miami for five months.

“It was there that I was able to say to myself: I’m transgender,” he said.

This posed a problem for Bailar because he

was recruited to swim for the women’s team at Harvard. He later explained to the women’s coach that he was transgender. She assured him that he would have a spot on the team regardless of whether he swam for the women’s or men’s team. Ultimately, after much deliberation, Bailar decided to swim for the men’s team.

He wanted to share this story with those in attendance in order to relate to everyone not just about being transgender, but about fitting in and accepting yourself for who you are. He then opened it up for the audience to ask questions.

His goal was to make everyone in the audience comfortable to ask questions about what his transition meant for him.

Questions ranged across a various amount of topics such as the hardest person he had to come out to, familial acceptance, adjustments to acting like a man or the different feelings of wearing a

men’s swimsuit versus a female suit.

Bailar wanted to be honest with everyone in the room and did not leave any questions unanswered. He answered each question that was either asked anonymously or in person.

“It’s one thing to be able to break barriers in a community by yourself, but to share it with others is really inspirational,” Alexzandra Bradley, a sophomore who attended the event, said. “It gives a bigger meaning then ‘doing it for yourself.’ Bailar’s decision to come to Quinnipiac not only puts a platform on acceptance and the strength of transgender people in the community but their hardships too.”

GSA is planning to host more events similar to this so students can be more aware and understand what it means to be transgender or a part of the LGBTQ community.

“I think the benefit of having speakers like Schuyler come is having people become more culturally aware and more socially competent,” Shelby Petrie, Vice President of GSA, said. “A lot of the time people don’t take the time to learn about things that don’t immediately pertain to themselves. Having people become more educated on things that they don’t really know about is good for society in general.”

By sponsoring this event, GSA and SGA hope that this will serve as a sign of forward progress for the LGBTQ community. Schuyler Baliar’s story of acceptance has led him to appear on 60 Minutes and Ellen so that people would be aware of his story and encourage others to accept themselves.

“I think it will do this. The more we expose people to stories like Schuyler’s or people who have unique stories, the less taboo things like this will be in society,” Petrie said. “It can be uncomfortable to talk about, but it can be a catalyst for progress.”

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April 11, 2018

Faculty members discuss benefits of tenure

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Thursday, April 12 Irish Republicans and Americans Patriots

Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum will host a presentation by Michael Foley professor Emeritus at the School of Media Dublin Institute of Technology. Foley will speak at the event Irish Republicans and American Patriots: Irish journalists and the American Civil War on Thursday, April 12 at Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum’s lower gallery at 5 p.m.

Saturday, April 14 Special Athletics

Physical Therapy Club’s Annual Special Athletics Event is a day for members of the physical therapy club and other volunteers to buddy up with a person who has a disability.

Buddies get to choose what to do for an afternoon: play games, dance, sit and enjoy some food, claim prizes, or just shoot some hoops.This year’s special athletics will take place on Saturday, April 14 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Burt Kahn Court.

Computer programming competition

Area high schools are invited to participate in Quinnipiac’s 12th Computer Programming Competition.

The competition will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 14 in Tator hall room 107 and will move to other campus locations throughout the day. Students will work together to solve a wide range of problems.The team that solves the most problems will win and prizes will be awarded to the top three teams.

Tap Company Spring Showcase

Quinnipiac’s Tap Company will be having their annual Spring Showcase to perform their newest dance routines. The showcase will take place on Saturday, April 14 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Buckman Theater. All are welcome to show their support for the bobcats as they dance the night away.

Wake the Giant

President Lahey and the Student Programming Board present Wake the Giant 2018. The live concert will feature five-time Grammy nominated artist Khalid with special guest Daya. The annual concert will start at 7:30 p.m. in TD Bank Sports Center on the York Hill campus

Tuesday, April 17 Victims No More

This conference, hosted by Connecticut Women’s Consortium, will immerse you in an in-depth look at the traumas of sexual assault and domestic violence and the ways in which society can begin to work towards healing from and ending these types of violence through community resources, advocacy and policy change. Keynote speaker, Beverly Gooden, advocate and founder of the movement #WhyIStayed, in addition to clinicians, rape crisis counselors, lawyers, first responders and survivors through lecture and panel presentations. The conference will take place from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the MHN 100 Lobby on the North Haven campus.

MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICE

PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY COURTNEY MARCHESE AND JULIA FULICK-JAGIELA

From left to right: Don Sawyer, Christian Dunan, Courtney Marchese and Julia Fulick-Jagiela are four out of 20 professors to receive tenure for the upcoming academic year.

By JENNIE TORRES Staff Writer

Several faculty members were granted tenure for presenting their skills in various areas regarding their work ethic. There was a total of 20 faculty members who were granted tenure for the 2018-2019 academic year.

The faculty members have completed an extensive evaluation process that included each of their teaching, research and service activities within the university.

All faculty members have a single opportunity to apply for tenure, and in the case of any negative tenure decision, the faculty member will receive a terminal oneyear contract.

“A faculty member may be eligible to be evaluated for tenure when he/she has completed at least three consecutive years of full-time employment at Quinnipiac University, and meets the requirements for the rank of associate professor,” according to the handbook.

Assistant professor of interactive media and design Courtney Mar-

chese said it was a relief to be one of the 20 faculty members who received tenure.

“For us, all it really means is that we have a permanent job contract.

We are less likely to lose our jobs,” Marchese said. “Once you’re tenured, you’re eligible to serve on different committees and are expected to serve on other university wide committees as part of the governing of the faculty.”

Gaining recognition for the hard work done throughout the evaluation process is what associate professor of computer science Christian Duncan looked forward to upon earning tenure.

Duncan said that it is an advantage to earn tenure at a university that allows faculty members to teach and support scholarly work.

“I’ve worked at multiple universities before this, but they were all research universities. When it comes to tenure, they evaluate research, service, and teaching where 90 percent of the weight is based on research,” Duncan said. “There’s other places I went to where I did [scholarly work] anyways,

but it was looked down upon.”

Assistant professor of management Julia Fullick-Jagiela said earning tenure allows faculty members to have more academic freedom and being able to research areas that they want.

“If you’re dealing with a particularly contentious topic, having tenure helps protect you so that you have that academic freedom to do that,” FullickJagiela said.

As a tenured professor, there is a duty and an obligation to become an advocate for students, junior faculty or any faculty who do not currently have tenure, according to Fullick-Jagiela.

“It’s so important to get more women to tenured positions or higher level positions in the university that for those of us who have achieved that status, your work isn’t done. Your work has just started.”

Fullick-Jagiela said.

Some people will feel that when they receive tenure that means they can say whatever they want, but that’s not how Interim Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, Chief Diversity Officer and sociology profes-

sor Don Sawyer approached things during his evaluation process.

“I said things even before I had tenure, if I felt that it was something that was truthful and for the betterment of the institution. If that’s something that’s not going to get me tenure, then I have to ask myself if this is the place where I want to get tenure anyway,” Sawyer said.

Being granted tenure was exciting, according to Sawyer. He said it was an honor that people thought his work was at the level that they would want to hire him permanently as a faculty member. Being a faculty member is beneficial to Sawyer because he said it allows him to help students become more engage with their community and motivate them to think critically.

“Being a professor is an amazing job,” Sawyer said. “One, you get paid to think. Two, you get paid to work with students. Three, you have an unbelievable ability to shape how the world is going to look in the future.”

Fire on York Hill campus causes power outage

By VICTORIA SIMPRI News Editor

The Hamden Fire Department received a call at 12:29 p.m. on Thursday, April 5 with the report of a structure fire. The fire department arrived to the scene at 12:34 p.m. to assess the situation. “(The call) came in as a structure fire call on the York Hill campus,” Hamden Fire Department Chief David Berardesca said.

“When they arrived they found that there was a brush fire near the York Hill access road and it was caused by a downed line. There were no structures involved there were no exposures, it wasn’t close to any of the buildings.”

Quinnipiac released a statement at 1:39 p.m. stating that all buildings on the York Hill campus were operating on generator power due to a tree falling onto a transformer causing a power outage.

“United Illuminating is on the scene. We will keep you posted as more information becomes available.

Thank you for your patience and understanding,” the statement said.

Since the power line was still energized the firefighters on site could not extinguish the fire.

While waiting on United Illumi-

nating (UI) electric company to arrive and de-energize the power line the Hamden Fire Department contained the fire.

“That’s why they were on the scene for so long,” Berardesca said. “It most likely would have taken them 10-15 minutes to put the fire out depending on how big the brush fire was, but not long at all. They were just there basically for safety’s sake to make sure it didn’t spread and make sure to isolate the area to keep people from coming in and waiting for the scene to be safe.”

While Berardesca is unsure of where the first call came from, he said with York Hill being at a higher elevation smoke can be seen from further away.

“I can understand it being (called in as) a building fire,” Berardesca said. “But that’s okay better safe than sorry. We had a full response, a full structure fire response, heading up there. That’s three engines, a tower truck and a Battalion Chief and a rescue vehicle. As soon as (the response) got there and the Battalion Chief got there he cancelled the rest of the assignment and they went back to their regular duties.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF HAMDEN FIRE DEPARTMENT TWITTER

A fallen tree on a transformer caused a fire and power outage causing the York Hill campus to run on generators from noon to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 5.

The Fire Department left the scene at six minutes past three, according to Berardesca.

“They were there for quite a while but the reason that they were there for so long was because they were waiting for UI the electric company to get there to de-energize the line,” Berardesca said. “They would have contained any spread of the fire if it got near a building, but in order to completely extinguish it they had to wait a while.”

At 4:09 p.m. the university release a statement declaring that the tree that fell onto the transformer knocking out

the power has been removed.

“We are hoping that power will be fully restored later this afternoon,” the statement said. “We will keep you posted as more information becomes available.”

The York Hill campus regained full commercial power at 6:28 p.m.

Events like this are more of a rarity, according to Berardesca.

“I know Quinnipiac is very good about keeping their grounds clean and safe so we don’t have many issues at all at Quinnipiac and we appreciate that,” Berardesca said.

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The Quinnipiac Chronicle started a weekly text conversation with students. Each Wednesday, look for our flyers with a different question. We will ask about emotions, QU, the Hamden community and current events.

All you have to do is text the keyword of the week to the number (203) 349-9741 to join the conversation! See answers to last weeks question below.

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Psychotherapy

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Q: If you could ask President 203-507-2604 Lahey anything, what would you Available www.BrownPsychotherapy.com ask? Convenient Appointments

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Above Talbots in the Westwoods Corner Plaza

A: Is there anything you wanted to as President of QU that you didn’t get to do?

A: If you could’ve had any other job, what would it have been?

A: Why is it so hard to become an affiliated club sport at QU? A: Do you like taking selfies with students?

A: What do you use your $50,000,000 salary for?

A: What do you plan on doing during your retirement?

A: Why do chicken tenders in the dining hall cost $8?

A: What is your biggest accomplishment in your tenure as president?

A: Are you going to come back to campus and teach?

A: Why do you go to all of the men’s basketball games? Are they your favorite team on campus?

Above Talbots in the Westwoods Corner Plaza

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A: What will you miss the most about QU? A: Is there anything you would’ve done diferently?

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A: Do you have any advice on how to handle a situation where you were taking a class and truly want to learn the material but the teacher does not teach, just shows a PowerPoint?

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A: Will you pay off my student debt?

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The Quinnipiac Chronicle

6 |Opinion

April 11, 2018

Opinion

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The NFL needs to take action on Houston Texans owner Bob McNair McNair regrets apologizing for ‘inmates running the prison’ comment Peter Dewey Opinion Editor

The ongoing battle between the National Football League and its players has been well documented.

From the issue over whether or not players should stand for the national anthem, to high profile players such as Richard Sherman calling out the league for not caring about player safety by scheduling Thursday night games, the relationship between the NFL, the players and the owners has been strained.

Just this past season, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones threatened to sue the league over the extension of commissioner Roger Goodell’s contract.

To say that the past few years have been less than ideal for the NFL is an understatement.

And now, after Houston Texans owner Bob McNair doubled down on some comments he made this past season, the league may be looking at another crisis that it will have to handle.

Last year, among the controversy over the national anthem protests, McNair said that the league couldn’t, “have the inmates running the prison,” according to Yahoo Sports.

This led to star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins boycotting the team’s facility the Friday before their next game, and left many other players upset.

McNair apologized for his comments, and the whole issue eventually went way.

Until this past Thursday.

McNair backtracked on his apology, opening himself up to even more scrutiny.

“[The NFL can’t] have the inmates running the prison.”

– BOB MCNAIR

HOUSTON TEXANS OWNER “The main thing I regret is apologizing,” McNair told the Wall Street Journal. “I really didn’t have anything to apologize for.”

Now, McNair did say that he was referring to the executives, not the players when he made those comments, but it simply doesn’t make sense.

The owners have their own say it what goes on in the league, and 31 of the 32 (Jones was the only one who did not) approved Roger Goodell’s contract extension this past year.

Considering the fact that McNair was one of the owners who did not agree with the protests, it still seems more likely that his comments at the time were directed at the players, who have very little say as to what goes on in the league.

Either way, this isn’t the first time McNair has put himself in this position.

This offseason, Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson was said to have allegedly sexually harassed employees and had to eventually sell the team. McNair was one of the first people to come to bat for him.

“Some of the comments could have been made jokingly,” McNair told USA Today. “I’m sure he didn’t mean to offend anybody.”

In addition to these comments, McNair voiced his opinion against the 2008 election of Barack Obama to his team according to former Texans and current Seattle Seahawks tackle Duane Brown.

“He came to talk to the team,” Brown said to ProFootball-

Talk. “He was visibly upset about it. He said, ‘I know a lot of y’all are happy right now, but it’s not the outcome that some of us were looking for.’ That was very shocking to me.”

Former Texans tight end Owen Daniels confirmed Brown’s statement on ESPN 97.5 in Houston. Daniels felt that the comments at the time were “weird” that he would feel a need to say that to the team, according to Yahoo Sports.

Brown also said that McNair addressed his team after former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling was removed from his ownership due to racist comments and behavior.

“The message was more to be careful who you have private conversations with, because things that you think are confidential can spread like wildfire,” Brown said to ProFootballTalk. “In my mind, it would probably have been better if he said, ‘don’t be a racist,’ instead of, ‘be a racist in private and make sure it doesn’t get out.’”

Sterling made comments to his girlfriend about hanging out with African Americans and bringing them to Clippers games.

“It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people,” Sterling said, according to Vox. “I’m just saying, in your lousy f******* Instagrams, you don’t have to have yourself with, walking with black people. You can sleep with [black people]. You can bring them in, you can do whatever you want. The little I ask you is not to promote it on that ... and not to bring them to my games.”

The National Basketball Association banned Sterling from the league for life and eventually the other owners voted to force him to sell the team.

While McNair hasn’t been as blatant as Sterling, his actions should have put up some red flags for the NFL. The NBA was smart enough to make sure that Sterling was immediately removed from its image once he made his comments.

As for the NFL, McNair is coming close to crossing the line. McNair’s referring to players as prison inmates along with the fact that former players have came forward saying that he has exhibited this behavior for years, tension between players and the NFL is growing.

The NFL has been too lenient and too slow to act on issues before, such as the Ray Rice domestic violence case.

Maybe it’s time they take a page out of the NBA’s book on how to handle these issues, because at the end of the day, fans aren’t coming to the NFL for the owners, but for the players.

It’s about time the league realizes that.

Kevin Williamson and the limits of acceptable opinion The Atlantic fires the conservative opinion writer for his views on abortion

It must be said that, whatever else you may think of him, conservative writer Kevin Williamson has never been afraid of offending anyone. Whether it was saying that the poor, working class communities in Appalachia that supported Donald Trump in 2016 “deserve to Staff Writer die,” or saying that women who had abortions ought to face all the same legal consequences as murderers, Williamson will voice his opinion.

The difference is, the second view was enough to have him ousted from The Atlantic, only two weeks after being hired away from the conservative magazine National Review.

Complaints to The Atlantic began after a tweet of his with this view from 2014 was uncovered. The editor-atlarge, Jeffrey Goldberg, responded with a statement that he felt it would be untoward to fire an employee over a tweet.

Goldberg said he did not want to judge people for their, “worst tweets or assertions, in isolations,” according to the New York Times.

Only a few days later, was it found that Williamson had further explained his position in episode 71 of a podcast “Mad Dogs and Englishmen.” When it was clear that said position was not just a wayward tweet, he was fired.

Stephan Kaputska

It is unclear to me, having listened to the podcast myself in its entirety, if Williamson meant such a punishment going forward, or if he also wanted it applied retrospectively.

The former would be much more defensible than the latter, which would require going back and charging people, post facto, with the most serious of crimes for something that was not a crime when it happened. I am not sure how any person who called themselves dedicated to the rule of law could defend that position.

But Williamson is more than capable of defending his own positions He is, if nothing else, an extremely talented writer.

Various questions arrive from this affair.

The first being, how did this happen?

Williamson’s views were public knowledge before any of this went down. The podcast referenced has been publicly available for years. The answer is that Williamson was a very strong critic of President Trump, and continues to be so. When reading his attacks on Trump, it can be very easy to forget that he holds other convictions.

Thus, it can be very easy to be caught off guard by one of his opinions. They don’t fit very well into the partisan categories we tend to expect.

But is discussion of controversial and unusual ideas not the point of public debate? It depends.

This brings us to the second question.

If Williamson’s views are outside of what should be considered in public discourse, where is that line?

Regardless of if he wants murder charges for abortions

to be applied post facto or not, it should be clear that Williamson holds a view that would be considered on the fringe of what is considered normal.

But is he the only one?

The Atlantic employs plenty of people who fit into that category. Feminist writer and journalist Jessica Valenti, for example, wants no restrictions on abortion at all, ever. By opinion polls, this position is just as radical as anything Williamson as said. But Valenti, by contrast, enjoys columns in The Atlantic, The Washington Post and The Guardian, among others.

This is the problem; radical views from one end of the spectrum are promoted in the largest national newspapers, whereas radical views from the other are relegated to openly partisan opinion journals.

Nobody, not even someone as vociferously anti-Trump as Williamson, to the right of Bari Weiss or Bret Stephens need apply.

Shouldn’t we be concerned with that?

Well for one, such an omission would be paramount to admitting that national newspapers are in fact partisan outlets. One thing we can be certain of is that the minority, but still not negligible, group of people who agree with Williamson are probably a lot less likely to read those newspapers now than before.

And even if you can brute force an opinion out of polite society, you don’t kill it.

You just cause all of the people to have it to go underground. It makes it even harder to change their mind.

April 11, 2018

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Opinion|7

Ignorance is bliss

As a society, we gossip too much about everything, including the fluff of politics Jersey Shore is back on television, everyone is excited about Channing Tatum’s break up with Jenna Dewan because his fans now have a “chance” and of course we cannot forget the yodeling kid in Walmart.

All we really see on social media and online news outlets are pop culture and Design Editor overly exaggerated posts about the current political policy issues.

Since the Presidential campaign in 2015, news outlets have changed their style of writing to more of a gossip-based read rather than hard news. Donald Trump has encouraged this writing style by his outrageous tweets and the trending fight between what is real news and fake news.

President Trump took advantage of the societal change he has caused. During his political speeches he refers back to his previous tweets and actions, frustrating those at the other end of the political spectrum.

This can even be a strategy to keep the public in the dark about what he is actually doing within the country. News outlets are distracted by the drama in the White House and the Capitol Building rather than what is actually important. Whether because people feel like the news is too sad and frustrating or because they simply do not care. Journalism is a business and it will adapt to what the readers want.

The U.S. is considered a laughingstock of the global community, we would rather pretend nothing is happening than look at the real issues.

Just ask former head of the Office of Government Ethics, Walter M. Schaub.

After resigning from his position as the top overseer of the federal government, Schaub had some critical words for the Trump administration.

Janna Marnell

“It’s hard for the United States to pursue international anticorruption and ethics initiatives when we’re not even keeping our own side of the street clean. It affects our credibility,” Schaub said.

“I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point.”

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has even adopted this trend. BBC used to be the place where people could get global and unbiased news, but since 2015 they have been obsessed with the same things this country has with the Trump administration.

Why is it that we feel the need to know that there was the first U.S. senator to give birth, rather than what is going on in the third world countries? Or even the over-hyped and contradicting dispute between Russia and the United States?

Most social media account holders do not know the full truth, but get wrapped in the drama from President Trump’s tweeting and online news outlets rebuttal against or for the president’s administration.

“We are a nation hopelessly distracted by a 71-year-old, narcissistic media addict in the White House and a cable news industry that can’t get enough of him,” David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun writes.

Ranting posts on Twitter and Facebook regarding President Trump’s fake news accusation this week is a common occurrence.

Fact checking is important, especially reading the ranting posts on a fictitious rumor that was posted on social media. Yes, fake news exists, that is why your uncle rants about the fake impending gun law even though no such policy exists. Or your gay best friend rants about how Vice President Pence is starting to change LGBTQ+ laws.

We get sucked into anything that is outrageous.

The world is obsessed with gossip, “It [gossip] can actually be good for our emotional health…” Northeastern University professor Dr. Jack Levin, author of “Gossip: The Inside Scoop” said. “In general, he who believes, gossip is a force that ties together social and business networks. Others identify it as a way to see behind the curtain of employer pronouncements.”

As much as we want to know what is going on behind the closed doors of administration we only know the surface to

distract us from what is really going on.

Has the country forgotten about the miscommunication and conflicting views in congress causing laws and budgets to not be passed? It seems that they can only agree on increasing their yearly salary rather than how to fix mental health care, the current gun law disputes and the unfair immigration procedures.

Instead it feels like we only care about the love/hate relationship President Trump has with Russia.

Trump’s administration has caused extremists to come out of hiding, which causes an increase in people’s sensitivity, so they shy away from any political conversation. This is causing us to only know our point-of-view with facts we have only seen. Not that it matters anyway, most people do not listen to other’s full opinion before interrupting saying their opinion is not true.

As a society, we have been known to listen to respond, without actually listening to their opinions. We are so stuck on our own beliefs and do not want to realize that the other point-of-view has good ideas as well.

Political intolerance has been around since our democracy started because no one wanted to listen to George Washington about not having political parties, but with any government, political parties are inevitable.

I can see an increase of political intolerance, the willingness to extend basic rights and civil liberties to persons and groups whose viewpoints differ from one’s own, with the Trump administration in place. This causes people to become more sensitive when people argue against their views.

To keep readers happy and not be labeled as fake news, online news outlets, including social media, have dumbed down and filled showtimes with gossip to keep audiences happy. Even if people believe that the news is too violent we should know what is happening in the world.

I guess too much knowledge can cause trust issues with the government or the world, or initiate fear that the world does not really need. There should be a happy medium between gossip news and real news, but we have not quite figured it out.

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8|Arts & Life

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Arts & Life

April 11, 2018

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ONE BIG WEEKEND Approximately 1,600 Quinnipiac students, faculty and alumni gather for the ninth annual Big Event

By JESSICA SIMMS Staff Writer

Quinnipiac held its ninth annual Big Event on Saturday, April 7. As one of the largest on-campus events held at Quinnipiac, hundreds of members of the university community come together, including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and alumni, to give back to the surrounding communities through participating in a variety of different service-oriented projects.

The Big Event began 36 years ago at Texas A&M University, and has grown to be the largest one-day, student-run service project held throughout the nation.

Quinnipiac’s version of the Big Event was founded in 2010 by Jen Walts, the Vice President of Public Relations for the QU Student Government Association. Now, eight years later, the Big Event is extremely successful and continues to increase in size each year.

In order for the Big Event to take place, the Quinnipiac community had to become involved and had to be willing to help out

MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICLE

Students pose at the polaroid photo booth at the Big Event.

their surrounding communities. “[The Big Event team] breaks everything down from reaching out to the Quinnipiac community to encourage them to volunteer, to reaching out to all of the non-profit sites across Connecticut to see if they are in need of a helping hand,” Co-director of the Big Event and Senior, Katharine Wilcox-Smith said.

The opening ceremony began at 9 a.m., which consisted of a variety of different speeches, one given by Quinnipiac University’s own President John Lahey and another by the co-directors of the event. All teams left for their sites at approximately 9:30 a.m. Around 1:30 p.m., teams should have already departed their site locations to come back to Quinnipiac University, allowing for them to have spent around three hours at their site doing a variety of service oriented activities.

“I thought [the Big Event] went okay,” freshman participant Alyssa Lamagna said. “I liked everyone’s energy and how everyone came together to have a good time and help some people no matter what it was.

Everyone was really nice and I thought it was well organized.”

To increase participation for the Big Event, student organizations are encouraged to have a few teams of their members register. For Greek organizations, the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life has implemented Big Event as one of its Greek Week activities. Even though it is not one of the bigger events within Greek Week, it is a popular one that gets a lot of participants from the Greek community.

“The Big Event was a really great day,” sophomore and Gamma Phi Beta member Erika Givre said. “[Gamma Phi Beta] got to go to a park and clear land so that they could do something new with the land. Overall it was a great way to learn more about the surrounding community and give back.”

Not only do Greek organizations participate, but other groups do as well, and even get to utilize skills that make their organization unique on campus at their sites for the Big Event.

“I’m in the Note-Able singing group and we went to a nursing home to sing to the patients,” freshman Joey Germain said. “The patients and staff both really appreciated having us, and being able to make everyone’s day that much better felt awesome.”

MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICLE

Participants sign the Big Event banner before departing to their service locations.

With the help of student organizations, this year the Big Event got approximately 1,600 undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and alumni to participate.

However, to get this much participation it takes a lot of work from the Big Event team.

The process of planning the Big Event takes a full year, beginning immediately after the event occurs, by an executive board that consists of 16 people. This year the Big Event was co-directed

by Katharine Wilcox-Smith and Rebecca Fuchs, who oversee the 14 other co-chairs. Underneath the executive board, there are two committees to continue the help of planning and running the event. These committees are made up of seven people, adding an additional 14 students to the group that puts on the event.

For example, Erika Conaci, who was the Alumni/Faculty Co-Chair, was in charge of contacting the participants who were not current Quinnipiac students.

“My co-chair Nicole and I are in charge of recruiting alumni, faculty and staff, so we handed out flyers, emailed them and on the day of we were in charge of their tools and other materials,” Conaci said. “We also stepped in whenever other e-board or committee members needed help.”

When it comes down to the few weeks leading up to the Big Event, the event staff has to start focusing on the logistics of the event

itself.

“The last couple weeks leading up to the Big Event is just one big puzzle,” Wilcox-Smith said. “We have to place people at sites based on the number of people on their team, whether they can drive or they need transportation, and what project the site needs to be done.”

Based off of where the team is going for their site, the Big Event staff assigns them to a color section for sitting during the ceremony and provides them with the tools necessary to complete their project. Throughout the time at the site, the staff stays in contact with the team captains and the sites to ensure that all students get to their site locations safely and complete their projects.

With the amount of participation and hard work that the Big Event Team put in, this year’s Big Event was one of the most successful yet.

“This year our Big Event was really successful,” Conaci said. “[The Big Event] co-directors and e-board members got many compliments for our organization for the morning of the event and that most of the sites were fun and enjoyable...[The Big Event staff] also wants to say thank you to everyone who came out and helped us make this one big day possible.”

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

April 11, 2018

Arts & Life|9

CURRENT CRAZE

'Jersey Shore: Family Vacation' takes viewers on a trip down memory lane

By MATTHEW FORTIN Staff Writer

"Jersey Shore."

A phrase comprised of two fairly innocuous words (well, the word ‘Jersey’s’ innocuity is debatable)-- but when combined, are able to elicit a strong reaction out of just about anyone you ask.

So when MTV announced that the original cast of the hit reality show was getting back together for a reunion season, it got people talking, to say the least.

The original show premiered in December 2009 as a lowbudget reality program focusing on "guido lifestyle," to a limited fanfare. The series grew in popularity gradually, and soon would become the cultural phenomenon it is now known as.

And after a six year hiatus, “Jersey Shore” returns in what is being hailed as a glorious comeback.

The premiere of “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” (which initially aired on April 5) establishes the now domesticated lives of its subjects, Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi, Jenny ‘JWoww’ Farley, Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino, Paul ‘DJ Pauly D’ DelVecchio, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Vinny Guadagnino and Deena Cortese- a notable departure from their previous lifestyle depicted in the original series.

Taking place in Miami, there were plenty of classic “Jersey Shore” hijinks to be had, including but not limited to fistpumping, drunken arguments and a very messy Snooki. Even so, there was a definite change of tone compared to “Vacation’s” parent series.

This is no longer a group of eight 20-something year olds staying in a trashy house on the Atlantic coast of New Jersey. It’s a relatively-matured group of 30-something year olds with grown up issues, grown up lives and a lot more money.

And that inescapable reality- “Jersey Shore” ‘growing up’ completely changed the dynamic of the show- no matter how many times Snooki had to be peeled off the floor.

Gone are the days of trashy nights at Karma or The Bamboo Bar. The gang now prefers (and is able to afford) carousing the exclusive

cocktail bars of Miami and are enjoying living accommodations that look better suited for Hollywood socialites than a band of "guidos" and "guidettes" made famous by a lack of composure.

Those bank accounts haven’t come without a little headache, though. Especially for Mike, "The Situation," who is currently embroiled in a court case regarding charges for tax evasion.

There was a point in the premiere where it was unclear if ‘The Situation’ would even be able to attend the reunion due to his own legal situation. Luckily, he caught a bit of a break and was able to join his companions, making a nearly complete reunion (Sammi was not present, although a sex doll who closely resembled her appearance and mannerisms was.)

Although these new problems do allow for a different appeal, there is a surprisingly level of authenticity that radiates from all this. MTV is essentially documenting a character arc of these lovable Garden Staters, now approaching midlife and the woes that come along with it. And it makes for a curiously thought provoking take on old favorites.

We are seeing Snooki and JWoww grapple with how to be good mothers and still be fun, ‘The Situation’ staying sober after developing alcoholism and Vinny trying to lose weight and stay in shape.

All of which would have been unimaginable six years ago.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the show was the simple fact that despite the superficial changes, this was a group of seven people who genuinely love each other and love to have fun- and aren’t letting life interfere with either one of those. The money, kids, paparazzi and legal troubles all seem to fade to the background as the gang gets faded themselves. And you know what, it’s nice to know that some things stay the same.

I guess what I’m getting at is that while the show’s production budgets and expectations are at their highest, so is its humility and humanity-- mixed in with the same madness that got us watching in the first place.

Beauty Blunde rs

By CHARLOTTE GARDNER Associate Arts & Life Editor

Everyone needs to pamper and spoil themselves. Splurging on expensive products and raved-about beauty staples may sound relaxing and rejuvenating. However, some of these products have hidden chemicals that can do damage to your skin, hair and body by using them.

Because we live in a world full of advertisements, sponsorships and endorsements, it’s so easy to overlook important factors when choosing what beauty products to invest in. But it’s easier to avoid using these harmful products if you do some quick research before buying a product that you are putting directly onto the skin.

Mario Badescu Rose Water Spray

The Mario Badescu skin care brand has been around since 1967 and has become popular after celebrities like the Kardashians and beauty YouTubers have been promoting the brand. One of the most popular products used by these influencers is the Mario Badescu facial spray with aloe, herbs and rosewater. The product is said to “revitalize” skin with “dewy radiance” to “boost moisture and glow,” according to the Mario Badescu website. Although advertised as a natural spray, this spray includes many chemicals such as propylene glycol, phenoxyethanol and sodium chloride. The spray also includes the use of fragrances. Propylene glycol is a byproduct of fossil fuel and can be used as food additive. Phenoxyethanol is used as a preservative in most cosmetic products but has been linked to eczema and allergic reactions. If you need a boost of moisture with the benefits of rosewater, get a spray that is purely that. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s offer many pure and natural rosewater sprays that can be used to tone and hydrate the face and body. Make sure that the only ingredients on the label are water and rose.

Carmex Lip Balm

Carmex lip balm has become a necessity for many people looking to heal their dry lips. Carmex is a medicated lip balm that contains menthol. This product contains carbolic acid and phenol which can dry out the lips, causing consumers to continually buy more of the product since their lips keep getting dry. The inclusion of menthol is actually attributed to cases of people becoming addicted to applying Carmex. If your lips are that cracked that you need to use a medicated lip balm, use creams and ointments that focus on healing and moisturizing. If you have cracked lips that could present a danger of becoming infected, use Neosporin or bacitracin in those areas to safely heal them. To achieve supple, soft and hydrated lips, try Aquaphor. Aquaphor is a product designed to hydrate and also treat dry skin. This cream works wonders in a short time span and stays on for up to two hours. To apply this product, first exfoliate the dry skin off of your lips with a sugar/olive oil scrub that is washed off with warm water. After, apply a generous amount of Aquaphor and go to sleep. When you wake up, you will have baby pink lips that feel brand new.

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil has been used for centuries to hydrate the skin and can be helpful to use on your body if it is not acne prone. It can also help condition damaged hair if incorporated into a natural hair mask with the addition of ingredients like honey, greek yogurt and avocado.

However, using coconut oil on your face in not a good idea unless your skin is not acne prone. Coconut oil is severely comedogenic.

This means that it has the highest probability to clog your pores, causing severe breakouts and irritations. A comedogenic scale measures how likely a product is to clog pores on a scale of one to four, one being no chance of clogged pores and four being the highest change of clogged pores. And coconut oil has… you guessed it… a four, according to holistichealthherbalist.com. Companies that range from drugstore brands to luxury brands still include this ingredient because coconut oil has an amazing reputation to repair and condition the skin for those whose skin has a high acne defense naturally. But for people with acne prone skin, coconut oil will only make acne worse.

If you are having breakouts that aren’t caused by genetics or hormones, check the ingredients of your face products like foundations, moisturizers and sprays because most likely coconut oil could be the cause. Natural oils that are the lowest on the comedogenic scale are jojoba oil, carrot seed oil and rosehip oil, all of which offer amazing benefits to the skin to help it glow from the inside out. If you have dry or irritated skin, make sure to lightly exfoliate weekly and moisturize with a dermatologist recommended moisturizer after toning.

A rundown on this week’s top entertainment news By: Charlotte Gardner YODEL BOY OWNS THE MEME WORLD A video shared early last week of a young boy, Mason Ramsey, singing “Lovesick Blues” by Hank Williams has gone viral. Ramsey, 11, was encouraged to perform in his local Walmart in Harrisburg, Illinois by his grandparents who then posted the video to YouTube where it has attained over 600,000 views.

The clip has been shared hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter and has been used to make countless memes. One user, @lowercase464, created a remix of Ramsey’s clip which has been shared over 420,000 times and has become a popular reference to Ramsey’s original video. Ramsey has his own Twitter account, @theMasonRamsey, run by his parents to connect with his fans.

NO PRIVACY FOR CARDI B Cardi B has released her first album since her hit “Bodak Yellow” entitled “Invasion of privacy” The album was dropped on April 7 and has already become certified Gold on the Billboard charts.

The album has sold over 500,000 copies and has accumulated millions of streams on Spotify with the highest amount of plays on the infamous track “Bodak Yellow.” The album explores trap, Latin and R&B sounds, letting listeners taste many different flavors of the rapper’s music style. The album features many artists including SZA, Kehlani, Migos and J Balvin. Cardi B also revealed her pregnancy on Saturday Night Live on April 7.

‘BUTTERFLY CHILD’ DIES AT AGE 17 Jonathan Pitre, known as the ‘Butterfly Child,’ has died at 17 years old on April 6. Pitre suffered from a rare skin disease called epidermolysis bullosa (EB) which causes the skin to be excessively fragile and prone to injury and blistering. He was dubbed the ‘Butterfly Child’ since his skin was as delicate as a butterfly’s wings. Presently, there is no cure for EB which has a mortality rate of 87 percent during infancy. Pitre shared his fight with EB with the public and encouraged those with EB to stay positive throughout their treatments and daily life. Pitre died from complications due to septic shock. “Thank you for your outpouring of love and support for Jonathan and myself in these sad times,” Tina Bolleau, Pitre’s mother, wrote in a Facebook post April 6.

TRUMP GOES OFF SCRIPT During a speech in West Virginia on Thursday April 5, President Trump threw away his prepared speech on the topic of tax reform and spoke instead on immigration issues. The President made claims in his impromptu speech that people who were illegally crossing into the U.S. border could be dangerous and partake in criminal activities. “We don’t know if they’re murderers, if they’re killers,” he said. Trump then discussed that women who were crossing over the border were in danger of being raped while entering the U.S. These claims have since been falsified, according to NBC News, since there have been no cases of rape reported by caravan leaders.

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

10|Arts & Life

April 11, 2018

The ins and outs of Greek Week

By ERIN LEDREW Contributing Writer

After a semester of hard work and planning, Greek Week has come and gone. It’s easy to overlook, especially when you are not in the thick of it all. The amount of time, dedication and organization that putting together a week of this magnitude entails.

It is one week of the year set aside to build a greater community and celebrate the network that Greek life has to offer through a series of events that are fun for everyone. This year, the fraternity and sorority duo of Alpha Delta Pi (ADPi) and Beta Theta Pi (Beta) won the week-long competition.

James Burnham, president of Beta, reflected on his fraternity's win, noting the pair's diligent preparation.

"It's such an amazing accomplishment to see all the hard work we put in with ADPi over the past few weeks," Burnham said.

"All the long nights of rehearsals, laughs and yelling culminate[d] into one big success for all of us to share collectively."

Meghan Messier, president of ADPi, was proud of not only her sorority for placing first, but of all of Greek life who joined in on Greek Week.

"I want to commend every organization who participated," Messier said. "Everyone puts an immense amount of time and energy into the events of the week. [Betas] are amazing guys and we were thrilled to have the chance to work with them."

Greek Week has made changes to become more studentrun this year as opposed to being spearheaded by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, as it had been in the past. This is largely through the creation of a new position of vice president of Greek Week on the Panhellenic Council. This responsibility used to be filled by a graduate intern. However, senior physical therapy major and sister of ADPi, Nicole LaBrecque, is now the first undergraduate to take on this role at Quinnipiac.

“The most rewarding part of this position is seeing all the hard work pay off. [For example] on Tuesday [at Greek God and Goddess], looking out and seeing everyone there and thinking, ‘Wow, I did this.’” LaBrecque said.

These are not the only changes in the works for the organizations. The title of vice president of Greek Week is planned to be changed to vice president of Greek Unity, in an effort to give the student who holds the position more power to hold events that are beneficial to both sororities and fraternities at all times of the year. Greek Week itself embodies unity of sororities and fraternities, but this effort is a push to involve this element of unity throughout the entire year. LaBrecque hopes to organize speakers and events in the Fall semester that will promote Greek Unity and be relevant to both sororities and fraternities.

The week also offers a variety of events that serve to include different interests and bring together as many members of the Quinnipiac University community as possible.

The schedule of the week included the Greek God and Goddess event on Tuesday, a Food Truck Festival on Wednesday, a t-shirt sale and Community Volleyball Tournament on Thursday and Lip Sync on Friday.

The process of organizing the events takes a team effort, and with the week being primarily student-run this time around, student organizers have had to dedicate incredible amounts of time and effort to making sure each event runs smoothly. Communication has to be efficient through leaders but also has to spread effectively and efficiently to participants. It also pushes for organizations to pair up and work together. Being sure that all of the event’s moving parts are where they are supposed to be, when they are supposed to be there, is a main task in planning.

Emma Horn is a sophomore psychology major and president

MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICLE

of the Panhellenic Council who has been assisting LaBrecque throughout this process.

“When the night of the event comes, it’s all hands on deck,” Horn said. “[It’s great because] we see the fun, healthy competition but we also have the opportunity to have two pairings who might not always hang out come together and have a really good time.”

First and foremost, Greek Week is about the Greek community.

However, organizers are taking steps to include more groups every year. This year, two multicultural sororities and one non-profit social fraternity, Lambda Theta Phi, have been given the option to participate in the week’s activities. Organizers hope that opening this door will lead to more future possibilities to collaborate as the organizations grow.

A final note to remember is that Greek Week is not only open to members of Greek life.

“We encourage anyone to come to events throughout the week,” LaBrecque said. “I hope people start to know that they can come to anything.”

Horn elaborated on the benefits of individuals outside Greek life participating in the week’s activities.

“Maybe they’ll decide to go Greek, or they’ll decide it’s not for them but hey, they had a great time.” Horn said. “Clubs and organizations can team up for events in the future. I’d be excited to see more people take advantage of how this is the one time our group really is out here and together.”

Attendance and awareness for Greek life is key, especially for philanthropy events throughout the semester. Greek Week does a great job of gathering support from both students and faculty to recognize the positive impacts that sororities and fraternities have on our campus and in the greater community, while also providing a time to come together and have a good time.

SPOILER A LERT Silence Means Survival FILM REVIEW

'A Quiet Place' leaves theaters speechless like no other film

By ALEXIS GUERRA Staff Writer

“A Quiet Place” takes horror in an ambitious direction with its anticipated debut on April 6. Starring real-life couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, this film is gutwrenching, fast paced and heartfelt all in one.

The film opens to a title card announcing Day 89 of a post-apocalyptic world set not too far into the future. “A Quiet Place” lets the audience piece together the terrible events that occurred through old newspaper clippings and posters of missing people stapled to storefronts. At a time before the present plot, vicious alien-like creatures invaded Earth. The creatures are violent but are blind, so they rely on their enhanced hearing to attack their prey, which is anyone that makes a sound.

The Abbott family, who are presumed to be the only people to have survived, are seen scavenging an abandoned supermarket.

Lee and Evelyn (Krasinski and Blunt) and their three children communicate in sign language. The youngest child shows interest in a battery-operated toy rocket ship that the parents leave behind out of fear that the toy can produce unnecessary noise.

Regan, their daughter who is played by deaf actress Millicent Simmonds, sneaks

her brother the rocket ship as an innocent gesture. This has tragic consequences not long after they leave the store.

As the family is walking back to their home, the toy turns on and immediately alerts the creatures. In a smoothly executed attack, the boy is brutally killed by the aliens, which proves to the audience just how high the stakes are. The plot leaps forward about a year later where we see that Evelyn is now pregnant, Lee and his other son (Noah Jupe) forage the surrounding area as a source of survival and Regan is still mourning with guilt over her brother’s death.

This opening sequence makes the slightest word said or footstep taken in the film dreadful for the entire theater. Unlike many horror movies, “A Quiet Place” plays on the viewer’s love for the small cast. Krasinski and Blunt’s chemistry on screen makes any attack on the family seem outright personal. Simmonds, who has no verbal dialogue throughout the film, convincingly conveys guilt and sadness purely through facial expressions. Jupe’s wide-eyed fear evokes earned sympathy from those watching, making him integral to the movie’s conflict.

Along with being the star of the cast, Krasinski also directed the film. His direction

forces the audience to pay attention to detail, such as slight facial expressions, sounds and hints hidden throughout the film’s rural set.

The film’s threatening tone and grim images will stick with viewers long after leaving the theater. This was the exact atmosphere for the film that Krasinski wanted to set.

“We live in a world now where you see all these movies and there’s so much sound going on, so many explosions,” Krasinski said in an interview with the New York Times. “I love these movies, but there's something about all that noise that assaults you, in a way. We thought, what if you pulled all that back?

Would that make it feel just as disconcerting and just as uncomfortable and tense?”

Krasinski worked with sound editors Ethan Van Der Ryan and Erik Aadahl to create what they coined as, “sound envelopes.” This puts the audience in a characters shoes to hear what they hear. This is especially interesting when being placed in Regan’s shoes, for she wears a cochlear implant that gives her minimal hearing. All that the audience hears in those moments are the gentle pulses of her heart and unsteady breathing.

These experimental features of the film pleased critics, and it currently holds an approval rating of 97 percent based on 126 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Deadline

Hollywood reported on March 15 that the film was projected to gross around $20 million in its opening weekend. However, the film smashed expectations, grossing over $50 million in ticket sales in its first weekend, according to Time Magazine.

Among those hoping to see “A Quiet Place” this weekend is freshman film major Taylor Sniffen.

“I definitely want to see this movie. I’ve heard it’s both heartbreaking and horrifying at the same time and that’s right up my ally.”

Sniffen said. “Plus it’s John Krasinski and Emily Blunt acting together. What could be better?”

Putting the horror aspects aside, the real meaning of the film is hidden within the parental themes found throughout the movie.

The core conflict of the film is keeping the family together and preparing for the presumably bleak, silent future ahead.

“Who are we if we can’t protect them?”

Evelyn says to her husband after giving birth.

It can be puzzling to anyone watching how one could bring a child into such a dark world, but the fight for their children’s survival ultimately pays tribute to any parent navigating obstacles. While the silence in “A Quiet Place” can be torturous, the refreshing take on horror does the speaking for it.

April 11, 2018

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Arts & Life| 11

A night to speak up Take Back the Night provides a safe and supportive environment for students to share their experiences with sexual assault

By MADELEINE PAGANO Contributing Writer

Take Back the Night, the annual event hosted by Women in Support of Humanity (WISH), was held on Monday, April 9 to give students an opportunity to be able to have a space to heal in a caring environment.

WISH actively fights against the mistreatment and sexual assault of women through advocating equality between genders.

Speakers from the organization Jane Doe No More began the open-mic style event in which students have the opportunity to openly share their own experiences. This organization is dedicated to educating people about sexual assault of all ages. Jane Doe No More got its name after a victim refused to be referred to as “Jane Doe” as many sexual assault victims are referred to as in the legal system. The speakers from the organization at Take Back the Night want to reassure students that they aren't alone.

The main purpose of the event is for students’ who have experienced sexual assault or domestic violence to come up and share their stories with their peers. Speakers were limited to 45 minutes to share their experience and then the floor is open for whoever wants to come up from the crowd and share their stories.

“We want students to be able to openly talk about what they went through which is why we make it so the event goes on as long as people want to speak and until no more people take the stage,” WISH President Ian Zeitlin said.

WISH’s goal in encouraging women to

speak up against sexual abuse is to provide them with a safe community and space to express what they went through.

“The goal of the event is to provide a space for survivors to come and see that there is a community on campus for something that is so often pushed into silence,” Zeitlin said. “It is an opportunity for their voices to be heard so that they feel they matter as well as there being people that care and support to fight against sexual assault which is such a huge issue in our country and across the world.”

Sexual assault counselors attended the event to help ease students about coming forward with their sexual assault stories. WISH recognizes that it can be highly traumatic for women to openly talk about what they went through in a crowd of people they may not know.

“All of the brave people that did speak were very inspirational, but one of the biggest impacts for me is seeing all the girls and boys who came and didn't have to speak,” Katie Flynn said. “They were just here to support us, the people who needed to speak. That settled even deeper than the stories themselves which were so brave. Knowing that people want to hear your story is more impactful than hearing other people's’ stories.”

The silence and patience between each speaker lead to more and more people having the courage to share their stories at the podium.

Each silence was met with a voice.

“What is really important that we sit in the silence if no one is going up to the

microphone to really let people know that the space is there to take no matter how much or how little they want to take of it,” Zeitlin said.” I think what is really great about giving that space of silence is that it gives any survivor who wants to share their stories complete agency and control over it.”

A brave student speaker expressed the feeling of freedom and peace after sharing her personal experience of domestic violence and sexual assault with the crowd of other survivors.

“I feel like I let go of something that I’ve been holding onto for a really long time,” Another participant said. “It’s not gone, but its nice to have the weight spread out and now I feel like I can let more in as it has been released and I can move on.”

Both speakers from Jane Doe No More and students who participated, said they were surprised at how many accused perpetrators still walk around campus. Take Back the Night served in spreading awareness of assaults while providing vistoms with the courage to fight back in whichever way they choose to.

Zeitlin is dedicated to spreading this awareness on campus. He advocates for women’s rights and the equality of human beings in general. As president of WISH, he is able to work against problems in our society such as sexual assault, sexism, and racism.

“I’m really passionate about the equality in general, and it makes no sense to me to be living in a society so entrenched in

structural sexism and racism,” Zeitlin said.

“I really have had plans since my senior year in high school to make my life about working against these issues.”

Zeitlin believes it is vital for men to actively participate in combating societal stereotypes of feminism. He tries to spread the message that men can partake in fighting for equality and against the mistreatment of women.

“I think it is just as important for men to be a part of feminist movements because when it comes down to it, we are 50 percent of the population,” Zeitlin said. “If we don’t take part in working to get rid of our privilege as men, it makes it a lot harder for it to happen on its own. I think in general, feminism is working towards equality of the sexes and men should want that just as much as women.”

Zeitlin discussed what must be done in order to initiate a change in our society.

“In order to address a problem, you must first talk about it,” Zeitlin said. “I think for a lot of people this is a potential first step in becoming more involved in actively fighting against an ongoing problem in our society.”

If you or anyone you know may be a victim of sexual violence, the Women’s and Family Center has a 24-hour hotline that can be reached by (888)-999-5545. The National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline can be reached by calling (800).656.HOPE (4673) which will connect you with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area who will ensure confidentiality.

SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH 2018

FROM CATCALLING TO SEXUAL ASSAULT

HOW WE CAN ALL WORK TO END GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

Zerlina Maxwell is the Director of Progressive Programming at SiriusXM and a Political Analyst for MSNBC. In 2016, Zerlina joined pop superstar Lady Gaga on stage at the 88th annual Academy Awards as part of a special performance of her nominated smash, Til’ It Happens to You from the film The Hunting Ground. Zerlina was recently named as a member of the Biden Foundation’s Advisory Council for Ending Violence Against Women.

April 16 · 7:30pm ZERLINA MAXWELL Burt Kahn In her presentation, Zerlina will walk her audience through the definition and elements of rape culture that are perpetuated in our everyday experiences, in the media, and in popular culture. By the end of the presentation, students will understand what rape culture is and how they can become a part of the movement to end it. (Note: All program attendees will receive an It’s On Us t-shirt as part of this year’s campaign.)

Cosponsored by the Department of Athletics, Offices of Campus Life, Community Service, Dean of Students, Fraternity & Sorority Life, Residential Life and Student Conduct; and Center for Religion

12|Arts & Life

RAP IS BACK The Quinnipiac Chronicle

April 11, 2018

WQAQ hosts annual Spring Fest featuring first hip-hop group in years

BRENDAN DILLON/CHRONICLE

By ADRIANNA LOVEGROVE Staff Writer

Eager fans filled Burt Kahn Court awaiting to hear their favorite artists during this year’s annual Spring Fest. WQAQ, the university's student-run radio station, hosted the yearly concert on April 7 at 7:30 p.m.

“We do two concerts and Spring Fest was supposed to be the bigger concert to bring in like names and kind of what we thought the school wanted to listen to,” WQAQ music manager, senior Christopher Brachlow said. “It was just another way that we could bring people in, to come to our school and bring in good artists and give them attention.”

In previous years, WQAQ had performers such as Balance and Composure, Superheaven, Pile, Alex G and Pine Grove perform at Spring Fest.

“Typically we used to do punk and we just switched to rap,” Brachlow said.

This year’s performers were The Underachievers, a hiphop duo based out of Brooklyn. The duo consists of the two rappers, AK and Issa Gold, who were signed to the record label Brainfeeder by record producer Flying Lotus in 2012. Their debut album “Cellar Door: Terminus Ut Exordium,” which translates to “the border of the beginning,” was released in 2014.

The Underachievers are now on a world tour after the release of their latest album, “Renaissance,” in May 2017.

Their newest album features songs such as “Eyes Wide openers were really good too. It was better than I was expecting.”

Open,” “Saint Paul” and “In My Zone.”

WQAQ started preparing for the annual concert about The hip-hop duo has a dedicated following, as many of those six months ahead of time. They spend their time working on in attendance at Spring Fest had traveled to see the band perform. promotions and contracts with the talent to make sure that the “I just like their vibe,” 21-year-old Naugatuck Valley concert comes together as smoothly as possible.

Community College student Grant Johnson said. “I like a lot of “Leading up to it, we created an ad, which you can see around the music that is coming out of the east coast and they're part of campus,” Brachlow said. “[We] post radio ads, go flyering, post that group, so you know that’s really cool.” it on Facebook groups that have fan bases on that type of music, Amanda Pitta, 22, from New Hampshire traveled three hours promote the crap out of it and hope it goes well the day of.” to come see the band perform.

Quinnipiac students get in for free while visitors have to “I have been to pretty much every show of theirs since their pay 10 dollars at the door. All the visitors who paid to attend the first tour back in 2014,” Pitta said. “It’s not about their sound concert helped the WQAQ station make money. With 150 people always, it’s more about the message they bring. The message of in attendance, the concert earned $750 in sales. consciousness, spirituality, obtaining all your goals, being Godly.

“Overall we would say the show was a success. It was our They’re amazing.” first rap show in years. The music was great and everyone Word of the band’s performance may have attracted their seemed to have a great time.” fans to come, but a few of those in attendance hadn’t heard of Spring Fest has attracted quite a large crowd in past years, the band prior to the concert. sometimes up to 500 people. This year, Spring Fest attracted many “I came because my friend wanted to come,” freshman outsiders who came to enjoy The Underachievers music. accounting major Chris Cohen, said. “We looked up the guy and “We weren’t surprised about the amount of external people,” he was good so you know, like we’ll just come.”

Brachlow said. “We actually love when people outside of Finance major Zachary Cyran had spent his day at the Big Quinnipiac come. It’s great that we have presence not only in Event and decided to stay on campus and go to Spring Fest.

Quinnipiac but outside of the school as well. We had people come “It was better than I thought,” Cyran said. “I didn't think these from Long Island, Massachusetts and New Jersey all because of Small Talk Salon would like to welcome back guys would be lit. They actually had some cool songs. Their The Underachievers' committed fanbase.”

Quinnipiac Students with a special offer through Nov 1st

FREE HAIRCUT with any color service.

SmallTalkSalon.com 203-821-7584 2983 Whitney Ave, Hamden, CT *Excludes face frame highlight. Must mention ad when booking.

Can not be combined with any other offers. New clients only.

April 11, 2018

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Tumbling to the top

Sports|13

Abby Ziser has evolved from a quiet freshman to a senior leader for acrobatics and tumbling

MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICLE

Abby Ziser was named ECAC Acrobatics and Tumbling Athlete of the Week in March after the Bobcats defeated No. 2 University of Oregon on March 11 in Eugene, Oregon.

By SEAN RAGGIO Staff Writer

Leadership comes in many shapes, sizes and backgrounds. For the Quinnipiac’s acrobatics and tumbling team, it comes from senior top and co-captain Abby Ziser.

Ziser is helping lead the Bobcats back to the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA) National Championships with both solid play and the right attitude both on and off the mat.

Ziser is a four-year starter for the Bobcats and has claimed several awards in her time at Quinnipiac. Most recently, she won ECAC Acrobatics and Tumbling Athlete of the Week award for her role in the Bobcats’ first-ever win over the Oregon Ducks.

“Her growth has been steady, it’s not like she’s satisfied,” Quinnipiac head coach Mary Ann Powers said. “When you have somebody like that, who continuously climbs up a ladder, you just know they’re going to be successful in life. I remember saying to her father her very first year as a freshman, ‘Her maturity was there and so was her hunger,’ your daughter is going to be a rockstar in this sport.”

Ziser started her path to the acro mat when she was eight years old as a gymnast. After doing gymnastics for a little while, she took a break and picked up cheerleading. However, she soon realized that she couldn’t stay away from the mat.

“It was just the timing for me, but obviously I missed it a lot so I couldn’t stay away,” Ziser said. “I went back and I’m so glad that I did because I couldn’t imagine not doing acro.”

For Ziser, her path to Hamden started her senior year of high school when her coach at North Stars Gymnastics in Boonton, New Jersey recommended her to Powers. Right away, Powers knew she wanted to see Ziser as a Bobcat.

“She was strong, you have to be strong in order to tumble well, in order to do the things that we do aerially,” Powers said. “Her attitude was always about gaining new skills. You could just see the hunger from her, she always wanted to take on more, she’s been like that since she arrived.”

Another Bobcat who is showing a similar attitude and drive to learn new skills is sophomore top Melanie Mancini. While Mancini comes from more of a cheerleading background, she has still found success having been named NCATA Specialist of the Week after winning all five heats she was featured in against King University.

Being two years older and coming from a different background doesn’t hinder the influence that Ziser has on Mancini. As Ziser is a senior and graduating, her impact on Mancini is helping keep the future bright for the Bobcats.

“Everything I did I always strived to be like Abby, she was what I wanted to be,” Mancini said. “My technique when it came to acro, whether it was tumbling or actually acro itself, I

really just strived to do everything she did.”

This was made easy for Mancini as Ziser led by example while on the mat even when it wasn’t gameday, according to Powers.

“For Abby, she is the epitome of leadership,” Powers said. “On the mat at practice she is always working, even if she’s not in something she’s off to the side working to get better. She just always goes for it.”

But for a leader of any sort, especially a captain, there’s more to leading than just what you do on game day. People value athletes whose leadership qualities are present beyond the box score, according to Bleacher Report’s James Morisette’s.

“She’s so, so nice, she’s so caring,” Mancini said. “She’s the type of person that’ll do anything for anyone on our team. She’ll help us with schoolwork if we need it in a certain subject that she’s taking, or a certain class. I live in New Village and we’ve had a lot of power (outage) issues this semester and she’s offered for us to come stay at her house if we needed someplace to stay and shower and sleep.”

It was qualities like these that resulted in her teammates voting her as one of the four team captains going into this season. While the coaches had some input, this was mostly a result of her peers and the impact she has had on them.

“It felt great because when I was a freshman I was really, really quiet and I didn’t talk

that much,” Ziser said. “Now being a captain it’s just a great feeling because it shows that all my hard work really paid off and that people notice that I work hard and they look up to me which is such a great feeling.”

As she’s grown from the quiet freshman to a leader, the acrobatics and tumbling team has grown along with her. Not only are more schools adding acrobatics and tumbling teams to their athletic programs, but it’s looking to make its way to becoming a certified NCAA sport.

Over her time as a Bobcat, the fan attendance has grown as well. The larger crowds helps to add to the excitement of the sport, according to Ziser.

“I love the fans’ attendance because that’s when they really bring the energy and excitement to the sport,” Ziser said. “I think it’s great to see everyone supporting you and cheering you on.”

The Bobcat faithful should have a lot to cheer for in the coming years, as it appears that Mancini is set to fill Ziser’s shoes after she graduates and moves on with her education, planning to go to chiropractic school.

While they’re both unique individually, both Ziser and Mancini both have similar work ethics, according to Powers.

“That would be a really big compliment (to be compared to Ziser),” Mancini said. “The things Abby does are kind of amazing, so if I could be the one to come in and fill her shoes that would be such an honor for me.”

Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse defeats Manhattan, stays unbeaten in the MAAC

By CONOR ROCHE

Associate Sports Editor

The Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse team (6-5, 3-0 MAAC) only needed one quarter to defeat the Manhattan Jaspers (4-7, 0-3 MAAC), 9-5, on Saturday afternoon in Hamden.

A seven-goal opening quarter gave the Bobcats a 7-2 lead just 15 minutes in. Quinnipiac head coach Eric Fekete credited the team’s ability to score through several players rather than just a couple for the team’s hot start.

“I think a lot of it is we’re feeling good on a certain day, where the matchup works on a certain day,” Fekete said. “But again it’s nice moving in that you’re more multifaced. I think it makes it a little more challenging to prepare for us because you’re not sure where it’s coming from.”

Quinnipiac freshman attacker Jake Tomsik opened up the scoring with a goal in the game’s first minute. However, Manhattan’s Luke Hanson tied the game backup less than two minutes later.

Two and half minutes after Manhattan tied it up, senior midfielder Brian Feldman netted his 18th goal of the season with an assist from junior attacker Mike Fletcher from behind the net. Feldman’s goal sparked a four-goal streak for the Bobcats over a five minute span in the first quarter.

Fletcher scored the team’s next two goals, unassisted, to put Quinnipiac up 4-1

midway through the first quarter. Fletcher played a role in the next goal as he assisted senior midfielder Ryan Corcoran to put the Bobcats up 5-1.

After a goal from Manhattan’s Andrew Gresham, Fletcher recorded a hat trick by scoring his third goal, and fourth point, in less than five minutes.

“I’m just loose,” Fletcher said on his sixpoint game. “Honestly, any day I’m out there with these guys, like it’s just kinda fun and you go out there and you don’t really think about it. It’s just another day.”

Senior defender Riley Palmer scored the final goal of the first quarter with an assist from Tomsik. The goal was just Palmer’s second of the season.

Both teams scored twice in the second quarter as junior attacker Foster Cuomo scored both Quinnipiac goals in the quarter.

Cuomo’s second goal was the last goal of the day for Bobcats as they did not score at all in the second half.

“Sometimes we don’t stay hungry for as long as we need to,” Fekete said. “I love my team, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes we lack that killer instinct to keep it pumping. I guess it was a late start today, we got a little behind, but there’s no excuses. We’ve got to have a more consistent effort.”

But that did not matter as sophomore goalie Joe Zukauskas made eight saves in the second half and only allowed the Jaspers

BRENDAN DILLON/CHRONICLE

The Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse team is 3-0 in the MAAC with three games still to play before the MAAC Tournament begins in early May.

to score two goals, both of which came in the fourth quarter.

Fekete had praise for his goalie, as well as the defense, in the team’s victory. “[Zukauskas] has been steady,” Fekete said,. “We’re pretty deep at [goalie]. I think having the guys around him, Adam Bellamy, Riley Palmer, Mike Ruane, Bryce Nalls and Ryan Trzcinski a little bit, that group has really locked itself down. I thought they had a really good effort.”

With the win, Quinnipiac will go into its home-finale against Canisius on Saturday undefeated in MAAC-play.

FINAL QUINNIPIAC MANHATTAN

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The Quinnipiac Chronicle

14|Sports

RUNDOWN BASEBALL Hartford 12, QU 11 - Thursday Julius Saporito: 2 H, 4 RBI, 1 HR QU 8, Monmouth 3 - Saturday Liam Scafariello: 1 HR, 3 RBI QU 4, Monmouth 3 - Sunday Scafariello: 2 H, 4 RBI, 1 HR QU 4, Monmouth 3 (F/11) - Sunday Brian Moskey: 4 H, 2 RBI, 1 2B SOFTBALL QU 5, Sacred Heart 3 - Thursday Erin Larsen: 1 HR, 1 RBI QU 10, Canisius 2 - Saturday Casey Herzog: 3 H, 2 RBI, 1 HR Keilani Finley: 1 H, 3 RBI, 1 3B QU 6, Canisius 2 - Saturday Miranda Magana: 2 H, 2 RBI, 1 2B QU 5, Niagara 1- Sunday Finley: 1 H, 2 RBI, 1 HR QU 9, Niagara 0 - Sunday Finley: 3 H, 5 RBI, 2 3B MEN’S LACROSSE QU 9, Manhattan 5 - Saturday Mike Fletcher: 3 goals, 2 assists WOMEN’S LACROSSE Iona 9, QU 7 - Wednesday Avery Drouin: 2 goals Marist 8, QU 7 - Saturday Allison Kuhn: 3 goals ACROBATICS AND TUMBLING QU 278.015, Gannon 276.335Sunday MEN’S TENNIS Bryant 7, QU 0- Sunday WOMEN’S TENNIS Monmouth 6, QU 1- Wednesday

GAMES TO WATCH BASEBALL QU at Boston College - Wednesday, 4 p.m.

QU vs. Siena (DH) - Saturday, 12 p.m. 3 p.m.

QU vs. Siena - Sunday, 12 p.m.

SOFTBALL QU vs. Yale - Wednesday, 3 p.m.

QU at Marist (DH) - Saturday, 12 p.m.

QU vs. Iona (DH) - Sunday, 12 p.m.

MEN’S LACROSSE QU vs. Canisius - Saturday, 2 p.m.

WOMEN’S LACROSSE QU at Fairfield - Wednesday, 3 p.m.

QU vs. Canisius - Saturday, 11 a.m.

WOMEN’S TENNIS QU at Providence - Thursday, 3 p.m.

QU at Siena - Friday, 1 p.m.

QU vs. Marist - Sunday, 1 p.m.

WOMEN’S OUTDOOR TRACK AND FIELD QU at Tiger Track Classic - Friday, Saturday QU at Rider Invitational - Saturday MEN’S TENNIS QU at Siena - Friday, 1 p.m.

April 11, 2018

GAME OF THE WEEK

Quinnipiac baseball sweeps weekend series with Monmouth

The Bobcats get two walk off victories on Sunday to complete the three-game sweep to Scafariello gave Gibson the opportunity to get the victory for his team, and he made no mistake, lacing a line drive into left field.

“I probably went 0-for-4 the whole day,” Gibson said. “But one thing our coach says is your next atbat is always your most important at-bat. My approach was that I was going to be aggressive from the start.

[I] saw a curveball, reached out, and just hit it hard.”

By BRYAN MURPHY Staff Writer

The Quinnipiac baseball team (14-15 overall, 6-0 MAAC) enjoyed back-to-back walk off victories on Sunday afternoon, as it defeated the Monmouth Hawks (8-18 overall, 3-6 MAAC) by an identical score of 4-3 in the doubleheader.

With the wins, the Bobcats completed the three-game weekend sweep of the Hawks and maintained their undefeated record in MAAC play.

“When you fight until the end and you have one run games, and then you have two walk offs, those are the ones that build character,” Quinnipiac head coach John Delaney said. “They also build the fight in your team for late in the season. So give credit to the guys, they never gave up.”

In game one, it was junior outfielder Liam Scafariello who guided the offense for Quinnipiac. After falling behind 2-0, Scafariello hit a three-run home run in the fourth inning to give Quinnipiac the 3-2 lead, his team-leading sixth on the season.

In the final inning, Monmouth jumped on graduate student pitcher Brandon Shileikis and got two singles to put the tying runner in scoring position. Senior pitcher Mike Davis entered the game, but immediately hit a batter to load the bases. Monmouth was then able to tie the game when senior infielder Shaine Hughes grounded

MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICLE

After starting the season 8-14, the Quinnipiac baseball team has won six of its last seven games, outscoring opponents 69-23 over that span.

into a fielder’s choice, but scored sophomore infielder Dan Abate on the play.

With the game tied in bottom of the seventh, junior outfielder Andre Marrero singled and represented the winning run. After sophomore infielder Dylan Lutz walked and junior outfielder Brian Moskey flew out, Scafariello ripped a hit into right field and Marrero came around and crossed the plate, giving Quinnipiac the 4-3 victory.

“It was amazing,” Scafariello said. “Without [Lutz] and Moskey, I don’t think I would have had a chance to win the game.”

GAME ONE (F/7) QUINNIPIAC 4 3 MONMOUTH

Game two was a pitcher’s duel between Quinnipiac junior Tyler Poulin and Monmouth freshman Dan Klepchick. Poulin went 6.1 innings, giving up only three runs, with none of them being earned, while Klepchick went seven innings, surrendering one earned run on five hits.

“We didn’t help Poulin much,” Delaney said. “The kid put up zero earned runs, we made some mistakes behind him. Our defense needs to pick it up and be a bit better.”

After giving up the lead in the seventh, the Bobcats were able to tie the game at three in the eighth, when Moskey lined a double that scored Marrero. The game remained tied at that score until the 11th inning when senior infielder Ben Gibson smacked in the winning run. A leadoff single

by Moskey and an intentional walk

GAME TWO (F/11) QUINNIPIAC MONMOUTH

4 3

With the two wins, Quinnipiac maintained the top spot in the MAAC, holding a 6-0 record. While the season may already be halfway over, MAAC play has only just begun.

“We have to take it one game at a time,” Delaney said. “So I mean, as much as winning two weekends, being 6-0, is a huge accomplishment, it also hasn’t done anything for us. We haven’t won anything, it’s just a record in my eyes. We still have a lot to prove.

There’s still a lot of teams out there who don’t believe who we really are.”

Quinnipiac will be back at home this weekend, hosting Siena for a three-game series.

Bottari: ‘Being on Team USA [for jump rope] was a crazy feeling’ BOTTARI from Page 16 freestyle and double dutch freestyle, where two teammates each hold one end of the rope with a jumper in the middle. Bottari’s double dutch group scored a remarkable third place finish at Grand Nationals in 2015.

“We really didn’t expect that,” Bottari says. “It was mind-blowing.”

One of Bottari’s most treasured jump rope memories came almost 4,000 miles away in Malmo, Sweden, where she competed in the World Rope Skipping Championships in 2016.

“That was really cool,” Bottari said. “Being on Team USA was a crazy feeling, just getting to see how much farther jump rope goes from our community. It’s such an amazing sport because it connects so many people from all over the world.”

Back in Western civilization, Bottari struggles to prepare for this summer’s Nationals tournament

while balancing college life at Quinnipiac. Aside from attending a workshop in Tennessee with the USA AllStar team last month, there hasn’t been much time to pull out the rope and work on her craft.

Maybe she can squeeze some time in here and there, but in Hamden, it doesn’t feel the same. For Bottari, it gets lonely.

“I miss being able to make things up and try them out with my team,” Bottari admits.”It’s a struggle just to get to the gym. Practicing alone is actually really difficult. Just playing around with my rope, I don’t know what to do with myself.”

Navin would concur, as she struggles to find the motivation to train while at school in South Carolina.

“Jumping by yourself is kind of boring when you’ve been doing it with other people for so long.” Navin says.

Fortunately for Bottari and Navin, they won’t have much longer to wait

MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICLE

Bottari has been balancing her first year of college as a film major while trying to stay at the top of her jump rope game. before they are reunited. After the semester concludes in May, Bottari will take the hour drive back to Torrington to begin her daily training for Nationals and revitalize herself in the sport that she believes is unparalleled and criminally underappreciated.

“The close bonds you make with your team and just making up a routine is something so creative,” Bottari

said. “Just going to practice with my friends and making up routines, its something I think no other sport has.”

Here in Hamden, competitive jump rope is considered trivial to almost everyone but Bottari.

Who would have known that just a hop, skip and a jump away in Torrington lies the center of the jump rope universe?

McKernan: ‘So far, the biggest difference is the style of play’ @QUChronSports Logan Reardon

@LoganReardon20 Conor Roche

@ConorRoche27 Jordan Wolff

@JordanWolff11 Peter Dewey

@PeterDewey2 Ryan Chichester

@RyanChichester1

PHOTO COURTESY OF JASON GALES

Senior Kevin McKernan (left) has played in nine games for the Fort Wayne Komets since Quinnipiac’s season ended in March.

Sean Raggio

HOCKEY from Page 16

Bryan Murphy

“So far, the biggest difference is the style of play,” McKernan said. “There is a lot more freedom and a lot less systems. It’s a fun style of play and the

@Raggio9124 @Bryan_Murphy10 Justin Cait

@Justin_Cait

game, for both sides, is full of chances.”

While there has been an apparent swift shift of playing over 700 miles away from New England, McKernan had the ability to skate in front of family and friends in his

first professional game.

He joined the Komets on the road for their game at the DCU Center against the New York Islanders’ affiliate Worcester Railers, a building just six miles away from McKernan’s hometown of Millbury, Massachusetts.

“The timing was perfect with the team playing in Worcester for [my] first game,” McKernan added. “It made it that much cooler to have friends and family be able to drive right down the street to watch my first pro game.”

The three other senior Bobcats, forwards Bo Pieper, Kevin Duane and Landon Smith, are currently unsigned free agents.

Pieper had a brief crack at professional hockey this season when he signed an ATO with the New Jer-

sey Devils’ ECHL affiliate Adirondack Thunder on March 21, but was released on April 1.

Both Duane and Smith have remained in Hamden so far, as they finish taking classes like their professional peers.

While MacMaster, a business major, continues to balance school and hockey through online courses, McKernan does the same by working on the completion of his masters.

“I am still taking a couple MBA classes,” McKernan, a marketing major, added. “For the classes I do still have left, the teachers worked out a plan for the rest of the semester for me and they’ve been very supportive of me taking this opportunity.”

April 11, 2018

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

WEEKEND WINS

Sports|15

Clockwise from top left: Quinnipiac softball senior first baseman Keala Cordeiro smiles as she rounds third base; junior pitcher Kendall Brundrett pitches during Sunday’s 9-0 win over Niagara; Cordeiro catches a throw from freshman second baseman Brighid Douglas; redshirt senior outfielder Keilani Finley smashes a two-run home run in the fourth inning.

MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICLE

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The Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse team won its first three MAAC games for the second time in program history after defeating Manhattan on Saturday.

Senior first baseman Liam Scafariello knocked in seven of the baseball team’s 16 runs in its three-game sweep over Monmouth last weekend.

Junior attacker Allison Kuhn scored eight goals in the women’s lacrosse team’s last eight games.

Keilani Finley

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

BY THE NUMBERS

CJ YOPP/CHRONICLE

Redshirt senior outfielder Keilani Finley hit two home runs and drove in 10 runs in the softball team’s four games over the weekend. Finley had six hits in four games as the softball team swept Canisius and Niagara.

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Jump around!

PHOTO BY MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICLE

Meet freshman Ali Bottari, Quinnipiac’s only competitive jump roper

By RYAN CHICHESTER Staff Writer

The average height of a vertical jump is anywhere between 12 to 20 inches, according to TheExercisers.com. That’s good for a hang time of just over half a second, equal to the amount of time it takes for a windshield wiper to shrug away a layer of rain before returning to its original position.

It may seem like a narrow window of time, but for Quinnipiac freshman Ali Bottari, a lot can happen in half a second. Just give her a jump rope and watch.

Armed with her red, white and blue beaded cord, Bottari has made a habit of dropping jaws with her ability to create and amaze through her split-second hops. She has taken her jump rope everywhere from her elementary school in Torrington, Connecticut, to the World Jump Rope Championships in Sweden, with a pit stop at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

Of course, Bottari doesn’t travel around

the country (and sometimes the world) to simply jump rope in place. Her freestyle routine consists of acrobatic handstands, full front flips and between-the-legs crosses that seem to defy every sense of physics, all while keeping the rope steadily rotating over her short brown hair and beneath her feet.

“You kind of have to see it to believe it.”

Bottari said.

She’s not wrong. In fact, “see it to believe it” is the headline slogan of USA Jump Rope.

Competitive jump roping takes a mundane exercise routine and turns it on its head (sometimes literally). Bottari, a film, television and media major, laughs when the comparison of her sport and the movie ‘Jump In’ with Corbin Bleu is brought up, as her routines rely much more on tricks, speed and endurance rather than a jumping dance.

So how did a Connecticut girl like Bottari find her way into the world of competitive jump rope? For the people of Torrington, the sport is embraced as the local holy grail, a slightly lesser version of high school football in Odessa,

Texas. The sport is a foreign language to most, but in Torrington, home of the Forbes Flyers jump rope team, it’s everything.

“When you say you’re on the Forbes Flyers, people know,” Bottari said of her elementary school team at Forbes School, where she began competing in the third grade. “I guess it’s because we’re so involved in our communities. We do Memorial Day parades and shows at different schools. Just the fact that we’re out there and everyone knows who we are. We’re something unique in the community and people gravitate towards that.”

At Forbes School in Torrington, kids are eligible to join the Flyers once they reach third grade, and can remain part of the team as long as they wish, which some take full advantage of. Bottari remembers a parent of one of her classmates who still competed with the Flyers at the ripe age of 50.

“In Torrington, it’s a really big thing,” Bottari’s best friend and freestyle pairs partner Abby Navin said. “It’s my whole life. My whole family does it. It’s crazy that it’s so well known here, but then (elsewhere) it’s not known at all.”

Navin isn’t alone. Jumping dominates the lives of many in Torrington, who practice for two and a half hours every day after school, with two morning practices a week also thrown into the mix, before the sun has risen above Forbes’ red brick building.

Bottari, Navin and the Flyers compete annually in the USA Jump Rope regional tournaments held across the country, which culminate in the Nationals tournaments every summer. Bottari and Navin have enjoyed plenty of success on the biggest stages, including a first place finish in the 2016 Nationals tournament, resulting in a Grand Nationals Tournament appearance.

“It was an honor to get there, and it was one of my favorite moments ever in jump rope.”

Bottari remembered.

The duo’s impressive 2016 finish was another addition to Bottari’s crowded list of accomplishments, which includes a Grand Nationals qualifying performance in both singles See BOTTARI Page 14

Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey: A quick transition from college to the pros

By JUSTIN CAIT Web Director

Exactly one month ago, the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team sorely skated off Cornell’s Lynah Rink following elimination in the ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals.

For most of the Bobcats, the loss meant the end of another season, but for five seniors, it marked the end of their college hockey careers.

“Brutal way to go out, the whole season in general,” senior defenseman Kevin McKernan said following the series sweep. “But we accomplished a lot in our four years.”

However, that was about all the time McKernan and the rest of the senior class had to reminisce on their collegiate careers.

Just one week after that disappointing night in Ithaca, New York, both McKernan and senior forward Tanner MacMaster made their professional hockey debuts.

MacMaster, a skilled two-way center that finished his collegiate career on Quinnipiac’s top offensive line, signed an amateur tryout offer (ATO) with the Vancouver Canucks’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate Utica Com-

ets, while McKernan, a dependable defensive defenseman signed a contract with the Arizona Coyotes’ ECHL affiliate Fort Wayne Komets.

“Since I’ve started playing hockey I’ve always had aspirations of playing professional hockey,” MacMaster said. “So when I was able to sign and get into some games it was awesome.”

It hasn’t been a cup of coffee in the ‘A’ either.

Despite an evident adjustment from ECAC Hockey play, MacMaster has quickly produced and earned a spot among Utica’s top-six forwards as the recent-playoff-bound Comets make a push for the AHL’s Calder Cup. “I’d say the biggest adjustment is the guys are bigger and stronger. Things also are just faster,” MacMaster said. “It took a couple shifts to figure it out that you have to make plays just a couple seconds quicker.”

In just his second professional game, MacMaster beat Toronto Marlies goalie Calvin Pickard for his first professional goal and point, a memory he won’t soon forget.

“After my first goal I kinda was in shock,” MacMaster added. “Sitting on the bench after with the guys congratulating you

LINDSAY MOGLE/UTICA COMETS

Senior Tanner MacMaster has racked up seven points in his first 11 AHL games for the Vancouver Canucks’ affiliate Utica Comets. was a pretty cool experience.”

Since then, MacMaster has racked up seven points (two goals and five assists) and 15 shots on goal in 11 games with Utica, including a two-point game against the Marlies (the AHL’s No. 1 team), in which he showcased his patience and vision in the offensive zone.

Meanwhile in Indiana, McKernan is still

adjusting to the pace of professional hockey with a separate Komets team in Fort Wayne.

Through seven games played in the ECHL, McKernan has no points and a -4 rating, but has contributed 12 shots on goal and has taken no penalties.

See HOCKEY Page 14