The Quinnipiac Chronicle, Volume 91, Issue 5

OCTOBER 7, 2020 • VOLUME 91 • ISSUE 5

The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929

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NEWS P.3: QU’s outlook changed to ‘stable’

Quinnipiac University’s financial operations and debt service coverage moved from a growth to a stable path.

GRAPHIC BY MICHAEL CLEMENT

OPINION P.4: Voting done right

Casting your ballot should not be a quick decision.

ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE CLEMENT

A&L P.6: Resources to check your privledge

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Films, TV shows and books can help one understand the Black Lives Matter movement.

Tours operate with COVID-19 restrictions

By EMILY FLAMME and KRYSTAL MILLER

Campus tours for prospective students at Quinnipiac University have been prevalent even amid the COVID-19 pandemic, raising some concerns about health and safety for the student body.

“I do think that the tours can potentially serve as a safety concern as people are coming from different places and have been exposed to more things than the students living on campus,” said Shannon Goria, a junior psychology major. “However, Quinnipiac seems to be taking a lot of safety precautions and our numbers have been quite low so I haven’t felt too concerned.”

One of students’ major concerns is whether or not the people attending the tours are getting tested.

“It could be beneficial to have all guests on campus show a negative COVID-19 test like we had to do,” said Amanda DiDonato, a junior in the entry-level master’s physician assistant program. “I think that would make some students feel more comfortable.”

Daryl Richard, vice president for marketing and communications, said a negative COVID-19 test is not required for people attending the tours. However, there are nu-

merous safety measures in place for the visitors on campus.

All visitors are required to fill out a survey of potential symptoms both before and after arrival on campus. On the tours, participants must wear face coverings and remain six feet apart from each other.

“We are allowing a maximum of 10 people per tour and only two guests per student and have set a limit of 60 total tour participants a day spread over six hours,” Richard said.

Tours are not allowed to enter any residence halls, and participants can only use the restroom in the admissions office. Also, to help centralize the areas participants go to, people can only drive through York Hill campus, and there are no tours on the North Haven campus this semester.

Some students felt that the tours were not distracting their transitions through classes. “(The tours) look like (they are) being safe about it and as long as the tour guides are fine with it then I think there’s no problem, no harm, it’s all outside,” said Paul Fabbri, a first-year communications major.

Some students are fine with the continuation See TOURS Page 3

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Tours give prospective students the opportunity to see the campus before deciding to attend Quinnipiac University.

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

2| News

Quinnipiac’s economic outlook changes from ‘positive’ to ‘stable’

MEET THE EDITORS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Brendan O’Sullivan MANAGING EDITORS Jared Penna Jessica Simms CREATIVE DIRECTOR Connor Lawless NEWS EDITOR Emily Flamme ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITORS Chatwan Mongkol Kalleen Rose Ozanic OPINION EDITOR Toyloy Brown III ASSOCIATE OPINION EDITOR Michael Sicoli ARTS & LIFE EDITOR Emily DiSalvo ASSOCIATE ARTS & LIFE EDITOR Ashley Pelletier

October 7, 2020

By CHATWAN MONGKOL

Quinnipiac University’s financial operations and debt service coverage moved from a growth to a stable path as Moody’s Investors Service revised the university’s outlook on Sept. 16, due to its enrollments and earnings downturns.

“After decreased enrollment and an annual revenue decline in the 6-7% range for fiscal 2020, additional revenue softening may occur into fiscal 2021 due to a possible contraction in net student revenue,” the report stated.

A stable outlook means that the credit rating is likely to remain the same over the medium term, while a positive outlook means that there is a higher likelihood of a rise in credit rating. Quinnipiac’s outlook was rated positive in the previous analysis in 2018.

Eric McAlley, finance assistant teaching professor, said the change is not alarming considering the state of the economy and general strain on higher education due to COVID-19.

He said if Moody’s was concerned, it would

have changed the outlook to negative.

“Nothing in this report indicates that the ratings are at risk for downgrade in the near term.

This downgrade was to the outlook of the rating rather than the rating itself,” McAlley said.

Quinnipiac has been given an A3 credit rating, since 2010, on about $405 million of outstanding debt. A3 rating is the seventh highest of 10 ratings.

McAlley explained that there are many factors that can lead to an upgrade of the credit rating but the most important indicators are appropriate liquidity and operating cash flow to cover debt payments.

“QU needs to continue to monitor and manage cash flow from operations to maintain its current credit rating and to help prevent deterioration of liquidity and chance of potential future rating actions,” McAlley said.

Although the report stated that the outlook is stable because of the university’s “strong financial operations, robust liquidity and effective management and governance,”

the rating may be downgraded if there are downside risks presented.

“While we expect the university to continue to take actions to adjust expenses accordingly to sustain strong financial operations, there will likely be narrowing in operating cash flow margins for fiscal 2021,” the report stated. “With a high 93% dependence on net student revenue, restoring enrollment stability is critical to the university’s ability to resume revenue growth and maintain favorable operating performance.”

The analysis predicts that the university will manage to keep operating cash flow margin above 20% through the next fiscal year.

Although there might be unexpected costs or revenue declines in the next year, the report states that the university can go through those as it has a strong liquidity that covers 623 days with cash readily available. With ongoing facilities, programs and technology initiatives, those will contribute to a longer-term stable student demand, according to the report.

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SPORTS EDITOR Riley Millette ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR Peter Piekarski DESIGN EDITOR Mike Clement PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR Morgan Tencza PODCAST PRODUCER Xavier Cullen COPY EDITOR Nicole McIsaac 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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Quinnipiac University’s financial status is categorized as A3, which is the seventh highest credit rating.

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The faces of the homeless

By WILLIAM GAVIN Staff Writer

Quinnipiac University’s Community Action Project (CAP) partnered with Hands on Hartford to host “Faces of the Homeless” on Sept. 30, to discuss homelessness in Connecticut.

Hands on Hartford is a local nonprofit dedicated to giving impoverished residents aid through food services, housing projects and community outreach — including Faces of the Homeless.

The organization allows people to meet with members of the homeless community, instead of outside advocates.

Faces of the Homeless was created to inform people about what it means to be homeless and about why people become homeless.

“I was hoping that the speakers would share their stories and show the students that homelessness can affect anyone and everyone,” said Julia Nguyen, CAP director and senior in the physician’s assistant program. “The Quinnipiac community is extremely privileged in that we have housing, access to an amazing education and access to food, water and other resources, so I was hoping that this would spread awareness of how differently other people live in the same world.”

Quinnipiac students largely come from families with wealthier backgrounds — 42% of the class of 2022 comes from families with an income over $150,000, while 20% have a family income of between $100,000-150,000, according to the profile of the student body on qu.edu.

Meanwhile, many homeless people have been excluded from the same privileges for a variety of reasons such as loss of a job or income, and the lack of services and affordable housing.

“When I became homeless in March of last year, I had been living with a family member, working parttime and temporary jobs,” said Pamela, a member of the homeless community in Hartford, who wished to keep her last name private. “I had taken an apartment because I had work and I had an income ... and then ultimately I didn’t have any income.”

Even though Pamela referred to her own experience as “glamorous,” she went through a roller-coaster of events. She began staying with a

close friend­­— until she had to leave following an incident — before moving in with a family member and was able to get new jobs working in psychiatrists’ offices.

Pamela had been able to receive money from her ex-husband’s pension and used that to keep her belongings in a storage locker. However, she was barely able to keep the locker and had to visit shelters, soup kitchens and churches for food and shelter.

She also went through a series of events that led to her helping a man who manipulated her and stole her wallet and later all of her belongings. Through months of hard work and effort, Pamela is now living in an apartment in Wethersfield, and since she has been able to receive payment on her pension, she has focused on advocacy.

“I started advocating for the homeless at city hall, my advocacy was toward the places that they are housed in,” Pamela said.

The other speaker, Joe Krystofalski, is a Meriden native who has been working his entire life. He bussed tables at 7 years old, delivered papers at 10 and worked summer jobs in high school before he went to Central Connecticut State University. After he graduated, he became a warehouse manager, a high school teacher for autistic students among other jobs. Then, he took a job in 2005 as a warehouse manager, until he was injured on the job.

“In the summer of 2010, in July, I was getting off a forklift and my belt got caught, so my body went one way and my right knee the other

way.” Krystofalski said. “I twisted and tore ligaments and my meniscus, and I basically damaged everything you could damage in my knee.”

Krystofalski went to different surgeons to try and get surgery, until on his 50th birthday when the company eliminated his position, just two weeks before he’d be eligible for a full severance package. This left him in a prolonged fight to get worker’s compensation or unemployment benefits, however neither would help.

“I contacted them and they said, ‘Well, no, they gave you a termination letter. So it’s an unemployment case.’ So I contacted unemployment and unemployment told me, ‘No, you got hurt on the job. It’s a workman’s comp case.’ So in January, neither one was paying me — I had no income coming in,” Krystofalski said.

He had recently paid for his son to go to Lincoln Technical Institute, but his lack of income eventually led to his eviction. While searching for work, he had to sell his car and put his belongings in storage, found a motel to live in and called the 211 hotline for help.

But he only received out-of-date information, leaving him without a job and hiding the truth from his children.

“I told them that something was in the works, even though something wasn’t, because at that time I didn’t want to go to them and be a burden to them and have them think that their father was a failure,” Krystofalski said.

One day, he called Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s (D-CT) office, and the workers helped him get an apartment and a case manager. He managed to receive social security disability and workman’s compensation benefits, and he now lives with his daughter and grandchildren, while working at a supermarket and advocating for the homeless.

Krystofalski says you don’t have to become a working advocate for the homeless in order to help them — simple acts go a long way.

“I would ask that if you see a homeless person or the shoveled person on the street, that, you know, you validate them because the homeless person is a person who is homeless,” Krystofalski said. “That’s all it is. There’s still a human being. And the fact that you make eye contact and validate their humanity may be the thing that they need to make it through that day.”

GRAPHIC PROVIDED BY HANDS ON HARTFORD

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

October 7, 2020

News |3

Senior class elects its first Black president

By MELINA KHAN and KALLEEN ROSE OZANIC

Olamide Gbotosho is the first Black class president in Quinnipiac University’s Student Government Association (SGA) history.

The newly-elected class of 2021 president said that while it’s an honor, her race is not what makes her role significant.

“I think the person that’s running should be responsible, ethical and things like that, so it’s definitely an honor to see that Quinnipiac has kind of changed route of who they’ve been voting for and they chose me,” Gbotosho said.

Garnering the vote and earning the position is not only important to Gbotosho, but to her peers.

“I think it is extremely telling of the demographic we have not only at school, but in the student government association,” said Ja’Vielle Foy, President of the Black Student Union and junior political science major. “Olamide is the first Black president the student government association has had.

Representation is extremely important and,

with Olamide as class president, it will include more diversity in the student government association and encourage more minority students to run.”

No stranger to SGA or the senior class, Gbotosho, a management major, served as vice president of her peers for the past three years. She has also been a resident assistant, peer catalyst and orientation leader.

Gbotosho said she is excited to bring her leadership experience to the new role.

“I just love being a student leader because I’m able to be someone that people can look up to and say, ‘I wanna be like this person,’” Gbotosho said. “And I think that when you’re able to show change, people around you can change also.”

Gbotosho is not the only student who has recognized a changing student body. “(Gbotosho’s election is) just a great step in terms of diversity and inclusion for the university,” said Lydia Jones, Vice President of the Black Student Union and junior health

sciences major. “Obviously the university is majority white, so to have representation in a high office is a big deal and that people here are willing to have her win a position of power is really great. I hope that she gets what she wants accomplished not only for the senior class but minorities at the school.”

Students being willing to change and be more aware is also important, Gbotosho said.

“I was very impressed with how the students took a stance (in response to the latest nationwide racial justice movement) and supported each other because you don’t see that all the time,” Gbotosho said. “Overall the students have been behind the minority students, which is really amazing.”

This year, Gbotosho is most excited to work on senior-specific initiatives.

“Right now, a lot of seniors are hoping to have the most normal experience of their last year of being in college,” Gbotosho said.

“I’m really excited to … see what I can do to make sure that students remember their last

Law professor reflects on her time under RBG

By MELINA KHAN Contributing Writer

Quinnipiac University Law Professor Marilyn Ford recalls her former educator, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as a champion of civil rights and a fierce woman of principle.

Ford, who joined Quinnipiac’s faculty in 1978, attended Rutgers Law School in the ’70s, where she studied under Ginsburg.

Ford said it was from her professors at Rutgers, including Ginsburg, where she learned “that you have to be bold, you have to not be afraid to challenge the status quo, to speak truth to power and to be someone who was willing to work on behalf of others.”

Studying under Ginsburg also fostered Ford’s passion for civil rights. “(Justice Ginsburg) imparted in her students that oppression is oppression,” Ford said. “Whether you’re oppressed or discriminated against on the basis of gender, on the basis of race, ethnicity — whatever it is — you should want civil liberties and equal justice under law for everybody.”

Ford also said that Ginsburg ultimately inspired her career path and decision to work on Wall Street after graduating from the law school.

“Justice Ginsburg graduated at the top of her class, (but) she had no offers from any Wall Street firms,” Ford said. “And one of the things that she said was that her students had an opportunity that she didn’t have.”

After a stint on Wall Street and working for a major civil rights organization, Ford came to Quinnipiac to teach, where she said she hopes to impact her students just like how Ginsburg made a difference in her life .

“Like Justice Ginsburg, hopefully when I leave the classroom, that’s not the end of my teaching,” Ford said.

Stephanie Adams, a third-year Quinnipiac law student, was a student in Ford’s Business Organization course last spring, and said Ford’s impact is more profound than she realizes.

“Every story (Ford) tells is embedded with a larger lesson meant to not only help students understand the concepts in the classroom, but to become more well-rounded lawyers and human beings,” Adams said. “She makes every effort to help students understand the material and extends a helping hand after the semester is over, and even years after graduation.”

year and making sure they look back on it and say, ‘I had a great senior year.’”

On her list, Gbotosho said she plans to discuss the logistics of an in-person graduation, refunds for study abroad trips cut short because of COVID-19 restrictions and developing a new allyship program “for people to better understand minorities and people in those demographics.”

As for her personal goals for SGA this year, Gbotosho said she is eager to have a successful cabinet.

“I’m hoping to have a cohesive cabinet where each member can say that ‘I’ve done this’ and ‘I’ve impacted Quinnipiac in a certain way,’ so I’m hoping that I’m able to drive that change for the cabinet,” Gbotosho said.

Gbotosho also said she hopes to support the Quinnipiac community during the COVID-19 pandemic through supporting students and upholding the rules for both the student body and professors.

DiDonato: ‘It could be beneficial to have all guests on campus show a negative COVID-19 test’ TOURS from cover

PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARILYN FORD

Marilyn Ford had Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a professor in law school in the ’70s.

Ford said society has an obligation to continue Ginsberg’s legacy in order to fight for justice and change.

“With the issues we’re dealing with as a society, if you know that it’s not correct, I think you have an obligation to speak up,” Ford said. “And I think that’s one thing that Justice Ginsburg demonstrated throughout her career, and that’s one thing that I think I would love to see young people do today. And sometimes it can cost you a position, it may cost you in a personal way. But I think it’s the thing to do.”

Despite Ginsberg no longer being on the bench, Ford said to have hope for the future of the Supreme Court.

Her loss is a devastating loss,” Ford said. “Her voice on the (Supreme) Court is a great loss. But this is a country built on certain principles. I’m going to hope that even without her voice on the court, that the nine justices will do the right thing. And I’m going to hope we’re going to be okay with whoever ends up replacing Justice Ginsburg, that that person has the same love of the constitution, and that person wants equal justice under law for all, notwithstanding political (parties) and their personal opinions.”

of the tours as long as their health and safety is not compromised.

“I think Quinnipiac should ensure that everyone wears their mask while around others on campus, and that they should continue with the weekly testing of random students, especially those off campus,” Goria said. “I also think that people should be tested before they come to campus for a campus tour and make sure they don’t spread anything.”

Goria said she did not think Quinnipiac needed to stop the tours, but would understand people’s desire for guests to be tested before arrival on campus.

There have been a total of five confirmed cases in the Quinnipiac community, which DiDonato said was a concern to her, but she also believes tours won’t impact the number.

“I do believe we’ll be able to keep that number from rising above what our campus can control,” DiDonato said. “I think it is important for everyone to keep doing their part so we don’t get sent home.”

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Tours are limited to only the Mount Carmel campus this year to comply with COVID-19 restrictions.

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4| O p i n i o n

October 7, 2020

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Opinion Voting out Trump is the morally right thing to do

By MAGALI AGUILAR Staff Writer

This year’s presidential election has the potential to be more important and more controversial than the 2016 election. With the country in the middle of a pandemic and Sen. Kamala Harris being the first woman of color chosen as a vice presidential running mate, it’s important that everyone makes their voices heard this November. This year’s election is about much more than political parties. There are thousands of lives that depend on who sits in the Oval Office.

If the past four years of Donald Trump’s presidency have taught us anything, it’s that he’s not fit to run this country. From pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement less than a year after he was elected to inappropriately responding to the COVID-19 crisis the country is facing, Trump is not the leader this country needs right now or for the next four years.

If Trump remains president, he will not do anything about climate change, an issue that we have seen worsen with the devastating wildfires occurring on the West Coast. These fires have not only caused fatalities, but they are destroying homes and causing air pollution that is further threatening the health of United States’ citizens.

Aside from the name calling and yelling that took place during the first presidential debate on Tuesday, Sept. 29, Trump was criticized for accusing former Vice President Joe Biden of taking performance enhancing drugs. In the weeks before the debate, Trump made several ridiculous accusations against Biden, including demands that Biden be drug tested. Biden has laughed off his accusations, saying that “if the president thinks his best case is made in urine, he can have at it.”

Perhaps one of the most important takeaways from the debate, however, was Trump’s refusal to publicly condemn white supremacists. During the debate, moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump to voice his condemnation of white supremacy. Instead, Trump referred to the far-right and

PHOTO FROM FLICKR

This country needs a leader who has morals — and that person is not Donald Trump.

neo-fascist group known as the Proud Boys, telling them to “stand down and stand by.”

According to Politico, members of Trump’s own party urged him to publicly condemn white supremacy after he failed to do so during the debate. With the ongoing protests surrounding police violence against Black communities, Trump’s refusal to publicly condemn white supremacy during the debate should further show voters that he is not the right person to lead this country. It wasn’t until two days after the debate that Trump condemned white supremacists, including the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boys. However, condemning white supremacy is not something Trump should’ve had to think about or be pressured into.

One crucial thing to consider in this year’s election is how each candidate will respond or continue to respond to COVID-19. Trump has consistently downplayed it and failed to take any action when the virus was spreading at a

fast rate in Europe and Asia. It wasn’t until mid-March that individual states began implementing stay-at-home orders and mask mandates. However, the virus had already made its way into the U.S.. The travel ban that Trump implemented in March preventing Europeans from entering the U.S. was not very effective. Because of Trump’s inability to appropriately respond to the pandemic, our country has now had more confirmed cases than any other country with 7.3 million cases and counting.

A very controversial topic is taxes. In past years, Trump had refused to release his tax returns, which led people to believe he was not paying anything to the government. There are numerous political figures that pride themselves on transparency, including Biden and Harris. They released their tax returns this year and, finally, Trump’s tax returns were released as well.

According to the New York Times, Trump’s tax returns revealed that in 2016 and 2017, he only paid $750 in income taxes, and in 10 of the 15 previous years, he paid no income taxes at all. This information led to some debates regarding wealth disparities in this country and how tax laws always benefit the rich. Trump is supposed to represent the American public, but he instead takes advantage of it.

This year’s election is about more than just political parties.

Despite the different beliefs citizens in this country have, it’s important to look beyond that. Trump has time and time again proven that he is not the leader that this country needs. On Friday, Oct. 2, Trump announced that he and Melania Trump tested positive for COVID-19, showing that contracting the virus can happen to anyone. With the threat of a second COVID-19 wave, it’s important to elect a president who has an actual plan to keep the number of deaths and confirmed cases low.

At this point, the election is about basic human rights.

We need a president who will represent the American public and the only way to achieve that is to make sure we all exercise our right to vote.

Discrimination against people with disabilities

Removing crowdsourced closed captioning on YouTube exemplifies normalized ableism

BY EMILY FLAMME News Editor

YouTube is removing its crowdsourced closed captioning feature, limiting accessibility for viewers.

This decision is just one example of the numerous ways ableism is prevalent in American society.

People with disabilities are forced to live in a world that was not designed for them. The best demonstration of this is the definition of the word “disability.”

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) defines a disability as “any condition of the body or mind that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities and interact with the world around them.”

Being disabled, according to how the CDC defines it, relies upon other people’s interactions with the disabled person.

For example, I am deaf in both ears, but my disability depends on how well people can interact with me. If I can’t hear someone well and I ask people to repeat themselves multiple times, the part that qualifies me as disabled is the fact that the person has to repeat themselves.

Regardless of whether or not I’m thinking about how I can’t hear that well, if I am able to have a full conversation with a person without any communication issues, I am not considered disabled.

I can struggle internally through an entire conversation, but because it didn’t outwardly affect anyone else, I would not be classified as having a disability. This exemplifies the ableism that is so deeply ingrained into society.

YouTube’s decision is a product of a society that focuses on their experiences with the disabled community, not on the community’s experiences.

Removing crowdsourced closed captioning may not sound like a huge issue, since there are still caption options available, but it severely reduces accessibility. Closed captions that community members put in were usually more helpful than the automatic captioning Google provided.

Automatic captions are about 60% accurate, which means one out of every three words can be wrong. Although the automatic captions are inaccurate, the community used to be able to put their own captions on videos, which were often how people with an auditory disability were able to understand YouTube videos.

YouTube has removed the feature since it is reportedly “underused,” with only 0.2% of videos having community-added captions.

While that may seem like a good decision on YouTube’s part, the complete removal of an accessibility feature further demonstrates how commonplace ableism is. It’s so normalized that even though the one opportunity disabled people had to fully understand videos on the platform was underused, instead of finding a way to either increase its use or offer a better solution, the feature is scrapped altogether.

This is a common theme in my and, I’m sure, many other disabled people’s lives. I’ve found that when something works for me, if it only works for me, people will stop doing it.

One time in high school, one of my teachers was playing a movie during class, and the captions were on already.

About 10 minutes into the movie, a student asked why the captions were on and if the teacher could turn them off since they were “distracting.”

My teacher, who was aware I was deaf and used closed captioning asked the class if anyone wanted it on. I raised my hand but my teacher said “I’m sorry, you’re the only

one,” and promptly turned them off.

“Majority rules” makes sense when you’re deciding where to eat, not when it comes to whether I get to understand a movie or not.

An issue that I notice often when it comes to accessibility is that it is inconvenient for able-bodied people. While I never want to be an inconvenience, I can’t help but think about how accessibility is only considered an inconvenience since society was built for able-bodied people.

If society had accurate captions on TVs, movies and videos all of the time, would anyone complain it is inconvenient? If society made all spaces wheelchair accessible, would people think it infringes on their space?

The answer is no.

As we progress forward in society, I can only hope it becomes more accessible and people stop thinking about us in terms of how we impact their day.

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October 7, 2020

Opinion|5

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Opinion

More than a number Despite the rising COVID-19 death toll, the US is not experiencing collective grief

By MATT HAWRYLUK Contributing Writer

During times of tragedy, our nation’s people have come together to remember the lives of our fellow citizens. After the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, our country’s unity grew stronger, and grief was widespread. Candlelight vigils and memorial services were commonplace, and as a nation we reflect on the devastating terror attack every Sept. 11. Although the COVID-19 death toll surpasses Sept. 11, fatalities every three days, many of us continue to live our lives without being mentally burdened by these deaths.

In just eight months, COVID-19 has become the third

highest cause of death in the United States, yet the gravity of this statistic has not made the mental impression one would expect. We are not mourning the victims on a national scale. We go through our daily lives without fully comprehending the sheer loss of life that is occurring by the minute.

The way we receive information from the media about the virus plays a factor. After Sept. 11, TV channels were dominated by heart-wrenching images of the attack and its aftermath. The nature of COVID-19 prevents us from visually confronting the pandemic deaths in the same way.

Instead, many die alone in a hospital bed, where visiting families are restricted or not allowed at all. In addi-

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tion to a lack of in-person witnesses, images of patients within hospitals have been few and far between because of hospital guidelines. Instead, we only see the number of COVID-19 deaths displayed in the corner of our TV screens or as a small spike on an online chart.

Another reason for our lack of collective grief is the fact that much of our energy has been diverted toward keeping ourselves safe, sane and informed. We’ve had to learn new ways to attend college with social distancing and hybrid learning. We spend time each day adjusting to these changes and learn how to implement them into our lives. We’ve had to develop new habits such as remembering to wear a mask when we leave the dorm, recalling which cohort meets for in-person class each day and to avoid shaking someone’s hand upon seeing them. Even if you don’t know a victim of the virus, you are certainly coping with the loss of something in your own life, such as canceled study abroad programs or the loss of ways to spend your precious free time. These are reasons why the deaths of others may not be at the front of our minds, but they shouldn’t be reasons to begin with.

The COVID-19 victims were ordinary people. Many clocked into work each day in an effort to provide a better future for their children. Or perhaps they were retired and finally about to take that cruise to Europe that they had always dreamed about. Maybe, they had that song they used to always sing along to or a favorite meal they’d never miss a chance to enjoy. Many of them smiled on their wedding days or tossed and turned at night when the pandemic threw our country into a state of uncertainty.

During the course of their lives, victims of COVID-19 laughed, cried and felt every emotion in between. They were human, and we are losing them, every single day.

Life has changed dramatically for all of us. But at least we still have lives to live, which is more than we can say for the 210,000 Americans and counting.

Casting your ballot shouldn’t be a quick decision

BY STEPHANIE SUAREZ Contributing Writer

In elementary school, we’re introduced to our country’s history but as we progress through our education, we go into greater detail. Its founding, our first president George Washington, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Watergate and all the ups and downs that led to the land we call the United States.

One of the things conveniently left out of most high schoolers social studies and history classes is how to vote. But when one of the biggest milestones of a person’s life comes around and while Nov. 3, is right around the corner, there are many people who are both terrified and excited to vote. We know all about the judicial system and how votes are counted, but learning how to pick a candidate, what political party we’re supposed to align with and how to actually vote is not emphasized enough.

According to Smartvoter.org, there’s a guide to help voters select a candidate to vote for in elections: 1. Decide what you are looking for in a candidate.

2. Find out about the candidates 3. Gather materials about the candidates 4. Evaluate candidates’ stances on issues 5. Learn about the candidates’ leadership abilities 6. Learn how other people view the candidate 7. Sorting it all out For what to expect on Election Day, a good idea is to check out sample ballots from past elections and memorize choices. Make sure to find out what elections are happening locally in the community because it may be an election year where we’re selecting state representatives as well as Senate and House of Representative members.

But how are we supposed to know which party aligns with our views? Fortunately, there are many political party quizzes, such as IDEAlog.com, that help guide voters in the direction of what political party could be the right fit. It’s also a good idea to choose a political party that aligns with your views, but it’s OK if it’s difficult to find the candidate who is the best match for you.

Influencing family and friends to vote is another crucial factor that isn’t stressed enough. For some people, Election Day is just another day in the calendar that people are casually reminded of.

The process of making a voting plan is critical now more than ever as one of the biggest elections in our lifetime is happening during a pandemic. It’s important that in our plan of action we

decide how to vote: via absentee ballot, in-person or early voting.

Depending on which style, we need to check out deadlines for registering and mailing ballots. If we’re going to vote in-person, we have to make sure we wear masks, socially distance and use hand sanitizer. Regardless, it’s essential to use our voice to create change in our country.

People’s voices are powerful. It comes together as one.

Many speak of change, but the numbers and barriers put into place represent a different picture. People feel as if they couldn’t vote because they had to work, couldn’t find transportation to voting places or simply had no time to possibly go out and express their beliefs. But in a time of historic lows, this is the time for people to educate themselves on the process of voting so that this can lead to the change we

long for. In 2016, 58.1% of eligible voters turned out for the election, which are some of the lowest numbers reported in comparison to 61.6% in 2008 and 58.6% in 2012.

The expected voter turnout for young voters is record-breaking. According to the National Q-poll released on Sept. 23, 63% of voters between the ages of 18-34 are planning to vote for Joe Biden. White males are 55% more likely to vote for Donald Trump versus 39% for Biden. These numbers help people predict who has a higher outcome of winning and help campaigns create strategies to influence people to vote for them.

The year 2020 will go down in history for many things, and this election is no exception. Mark those calendars for Nov. 3, make sure you’re registered to vote, decide the best option for voting in COVID-19 times and make your first time count.

Voting stations are constantly sanitized to keep voters safe amid COVID-19.

PHOTO FROM FLICKR

6|Arts and Life

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

October 7, 2020

Arts & Life

QUCHRONICLE.COM/ARTS-AND-LIFE ARTSLIFE@QUCHRONICLE.COM DESIGN BY MICHAEL CLEMENT

Resources to check your privilege

Here are some films and books fundamental to understanding the Black Lives Matter movement

By KELSEY PAUL Staff Writer

The Black Lives Matter movement has existed since 2013, but today, it is as important as ever.

Even amid alarmingly high rates of police brutality against Black individuals and the COVID-19 pandemic, the movement has not lost its momentum. According to its website, Black Lives Matter aims to “eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes,” with global support and organizations based in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.

However, there has been a considerable dispute surrounding the mission and objectives of the movement.

Many white people are confused about its importance, while others are angry, claiming it is exclusionary and socially incorrect. The many misconceptions about the movement prove that it is crucial to take the time to educate ourselves about its purpose and more importantly, to listen to and amplify Black voices.

In June 2020, Netflix dedicated a part of its platform to do just that. There is a collection titled “Black Lives Matter,” under which you can find films, TV shows and documentaries to “learn more about racial injustice and the Black experience in America,” according to its website.

Dr. Christina Dickerson, assistant professor of history at Quinnipiac University, urges people to educate themselves of African American history in order to have a firmer grasp of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“In particular, I recommend that interested persons learn about Reconstruction — 1865 to 1877 — a period that established many of the dynamics that still affect African Americans today,” Dickerson said. “Toward that end, I suggest viewing the PBS documentary ‘Reconstruction: America After the Civil War.’” According to PBS’ website, the documentary series “explores the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself in the face of profound loss, massive destruction, and revolutionary social change.” It also recognizes Reconstruction as a consequential period of time that is largely overlooked, yet paramount to our understanding of democracy today.

It’s equally as important to make time outside of classes

JESSICA SIMMS/CHRONICLE

Tri Delta at Quinnipiac is reading, 'The Hate U Give' to better understand issues of racism and police violence.

to build upon our knowledge of the movement and its history and to engage in conversation with one another about it. Tri Delta, a sorority at Quinnipiac, is excelling in that department.

Within the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of the organization, Vice President of Chapter Programming and Development Jessica Brown started a book club.

“We are reading ‘The Hate U Give,’” Brown said. “I chose this book because I’ve heard that it is really impactful and gives people a new perspective on life.”

“The Hate U Give,” by Angie Thomas, made its way onto banned books lists for “inappropriate language.” Directly inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, the novel “addresses issues of racism and police violence as witnessed

by Starr, a 16-year-old girl who navigates between her poverty-stricken neighborhood and the wealthy suburban prep school she attends,” according to Banned Books Week.

Jailynn Caraballo, senior journalism and political science double major and vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists at Quinnipiac, recommended watching the documentary series “Time: The Kalief Browder Story.”

“It explains his trials and tribulations while incarcerated in New York’s Rikers Island jail,” said Caraballo. “It shows just how awful the justice system is in thee United States and how unfair many incarcerations are.”

Caraballo also suggested reading “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir,” a novel by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele. In remembrance of incidents that galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement, this memoir recounts the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, and how many mobilized to combat systemic racism in response.

“It shows just how scary and unfair the treatment of minorities in this country is,” Caraballo said.

As for my own favorites, I highly recommend watching Ava DuVernay’s 2016 documentary, “13th,” which analyzes racial inequality in the U.S. It focuses on the 13th amendment, which “abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction,” according to the U.S. Constitutional Amendments website. It also highlights the disproportionate incarceration rate of African Americans. As a white person in America who will never fully understand the Black experience, this documentary was incredibly enlightening and made me more aware of the severity of mass incarceration of African Americans.

If you’d rather read, I recommend, “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race,” by Reni Eddo-Lodge.

This novel deepened my understanding of white privilege and helped me recognize how conditioned white people, like myself, are blind to casual manifestations of structural racism in our everyday lives. If you’re looking for a resource that leaves you with an entirely new perspective on systemic racism in the past and present, this is for you.

Whatever you choose to view, read or study in order to educate yourself, choose wisely. It’s dangerously easy to get caught up in misinformation when our lives revolve around the media. As you’re expanding your knowledge of Black Lives Matter and its roots, realize that the occurrences today are not too different from those many years ago. Keep philosopher George Santayana’s acclaimed warning in mind: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

PHOTO FROM MCGEE MEDIA/PBS

Professor Christina Dickerson recommended watching 'Reconstruction: America After the Civil War' to learn more about African American history, which led to the Black Lives Matter movement.

October 7, 2020

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Arts and Life|7

Being a professor with a pre-existing commitment during a pandemic

PHOTO FROM HILLARY FUSSELL SISCO

Professor Hillary Fussell Sisco's daughter, Hallie Sisco, is 9. Helping her kids with virtual school and teaching her own classes at the same time has blurred the separation between her home and her work, Fussell Sisco said.

By EMILY DISALVO Arts & Life Editor

Some Quinnipiac University professors used to have time for physical therapy, photo excursions and long walks, but when COVID-19 hit, they watched their free time become consumed by larger course loads and more challenging lesson plans on top of their existing commitments like kids and research.

“I am hoping the pandemic will only be one year because it is going to age me 10 years,” said Professor Jennifer Sacco, chair of the philosophy and political science department.

Sacco opted to teach only virtual classes this semester due to her two school-aged children needing support with online learning. Sacco said she has no time for herself.

“In the U.S., we have a tendency to think that everything can get better if we are being mindful or we are being positive and a solution to stress is yoga,” Sacco said. “For a problem that is structural in nature, the only solution is structural. It has to be to reduce the work. You can’t solve this by being mindful of your breathing.”

Most full-time professors at Quinnipiac are teaching an extra course this semester, meaning four classes instead of three. This was a result of layoffs that occurred this summer.

Rebecca Bamford, professor of philosophy, said she has had to forgo important physical therapy exercises because of her workload. While she does not have kids, she has a research commitment that she started long before the pandemic, on top of the courses she teaches.

“I am just in a time crunch constantly,” Bamford said. “I

am finding I am more tired. There is more to do. I am trying to get into a good routine and try to build exercise into it.”

Bamford tore her ACL a few years ago so she said it is especially important that she finds time for exercises to keep her knee strong.

“The clinic has not been able to open for chronic patients, so I have been trying to do things at home and go for walks, but it is hard,” Bamford said. “I am probably not doing as good of a job with that as I should be because I am trying to get all my work done and meet my obligations.”

When everything came to a halt in March due to the pandemic, Bamford’s research did not.

“I have contractual commitments to write and submit journal articles, book chapters, I have a book collection that really needs to go to the press by December as well as multiple other commitments,” Bamford said.

Research is an expectation and an equal responsibility for her job just the same as teaching classes, according to Bamford.

“I know I have research commitments and they are an essential part of what I do, but the issue is how much support I will be getting,” Bamford said. “At this point, it is really not clear. We used to have support in the form of money … that money is no longer available, and we don’t know what is happening for next year yet.”

Bamford, like Sacco, does not see a break in sight, and they are not alone. Professor Hillary Fussell Sisco, chair of the Department of Strategic Communication, has two children, ages 6 and 9. In hopes of avoiding outside childcare and bringing germs into her

home, Fussell Sisco has been helping her kids with online learning at the same time as teaching virtual classes from home.

“I am not used to having no separation from my home and my work,” Fussell Sisco said. “I always tried to be a good professor and a good parent and try to set up boundaries.

Those boundaries are blurred.”

Fussell Sisco said she tries to spend as much time on everything that she can, except there are a lot more things to focus on now. Her kids did virtual learning only for the first five weeks of the school year and then transitioned to going into school two days a week. She, like Bamford, knew she would have to help her kids with virtual learning, so she applied to be a virtual-only professor, an exemption Quinnipiac allowed this semester.

“The 6-year-old needs facilitation, he needs encouragement to learn to become a strong learner,” Fussell Sisco said. “We spend a lot of time sitting together.”

In order to get some relaxation, Fussell Sisco gets up before the sunrise and heads out for a walk.

“That has been a routine that I didn’t have last spring before all of this,” Fussell Sisco said. “I try to carve out a time and a space. By the time I get home, the kids are getting up.”

Wasim Ahmad, assistant teaching professor of journalism, said he is lucky enough to have family in the area to watch his kids while he is working. Nonetheless, he said he is doing significantly more work than he did last year because of the pandemic without any extra preparation time or money.

“You are teaching classes in a hybrid format, some geared for people on campus, some for people at home, some for people in both places,” Ahmad said. “In some ways, it’s preparing the classes (that) I have always run in three different ways and reinvent them for online teaching.

It is difficult to say the least. It’s three times what I was doing before, and I was already almost at capacity.”

Because he is stretched so thin, Ahmad said that he’s not able to teach the classes at the same level and quality he used to in previous semesters.

“I have always prided myself at being pretty good at teaching,” Ahmad said. “People come out of my classes producing great stuff. I have always felt like I know what I am doing, but this semester I feel like I don’t even know how to teach what I have always done.”

The stress and workload has cut down on the time he can spend with his kids doing the things he loves, Ahmad said.

The time he does spend with his kids is often helping with virtual school.

“I don’t have the opportunity to go on photo excursions, take the kids on hikes, but a lot of it is I just need to get by and get the stuff I need to do, done,” Ahmad said. “I need to get these classes taught, I need to get this stuff graded, I need to make changes to make the class better.”

Professors like Sacco, Bamford, Fussell Sisco and Ahmad are unsure what the upcoming spring semester will bring, but they all agree that they need a break. Professors worked through the summer preparing for the new Q-Flex format and some haven’t had time away since last winter break.

“If we lived in a society with better support for people working full time or have kids or just had a baby, so much of the stress would be decreased because we wouldn’t have to worry about feeding our families for a period of nonwork,” Sacco said. “Other societies have better unemployment or better childcare leave policies. They may worry about (COVID-19) or their child’s learning, but they are not also worrying about their finances and paying their bills. In the U.S. we act like it’s everyone’s individual problem.”

PHOTOS FROM REBECCA BAMFORD AND WASIM AHMAD

Professor Rebecca Bamford (left) has been unable to find any time for herself since the pandemic hit due to her research and extra course load. Professor Wasim Ahmad set up an at-home office from a converted storage room (right) for his Zoom classes.

8|Arts and Life

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

October 7, 2020

'A story of resiliency'

How COVID-19 changed the way the Quinnipiac community uses social media

By ASHLEY PELLETIER Associate Arts & Life Editor

Twenty years ago, social media was a small-scale concept surrounding individual communication. Now, it is a billion-dollar industry focused on content creation, advertising and public image.

These changes have altered the way society works. The world is more connected, more vocal and more informed.

Social media and the way it is used are constantly developing. Especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, social media is more important than it has ever been before.

For universities, social media had to encompass all a school has to offer in lieu of in-person open houses and other similar events. For student organizations, social media campaigns became a way of spreading more information about their messages. For individual students, social media became a place of connection, escape and education.

Quinnipiac University According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 90% of young adults between the ages 18-29 use some form of social media. Social media has become the primary source of advertising revenue from that age group.

Director of live channels for the department of integrated marketing and communications at Quinnipiac University, Jamie DeLoma, emphasized the importance of universities

having a strong social media presence.

“I think it’s more than important. I think it’s critical,” DeLoma said. “I think a university that doesn’t have a social media presence doesn’t have a voice. I think social media is the platform that the vast majority of our society uses to communicate and to digest information.”

Quinnipiac already had a strong social media foundation prior to the pandemic, but its presence has become even more important. After students were sent home in March, the university’s social media pages featured inspirational messages from professors and faculty, encouraging students as they faced unprecedented times.

According to DeLoma, the social media campaigns were used to tell “the story of resiliency” of the Quinnipiac community, whether in-person or far apart. DeLoma credits the success of these strategies to Kimberly Shepherd, the university’s social media manager.

Student Organizations As the pandemic has progressed, co-curricular groups have relied on social media to spread information regarding both the club itself and other educational information.

For the Student Government Association (SGA), it was important to keep the student body updated through online events like town halls and Ask Away, an open forum to discuss controversial topics such as abortion and gun control.

SGA also held Bobcat Fridays as a way of boosting morale and school spirit.

“I think, especially during this time we’re in, personal interaction is so limited that our presence on social media is super imperative,” said Jamien Jean-Baptiste, vice president for public relations and marketing for SGA. “I think there are students that, obviously aren’t on campus at all times, and they want to be as much in the loop as they possibly can.”

Groups like the Student Programming Board (SPB) held events such as bingo and trivia nights over Zoom to maintain some normalcy as students continued the semester from home.

QTHON, a 10-hour dance marathon to raise money for Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and Quinnipiac’s largest fundraising event, was also held online through prerecorded videos of student participants

GRAPHIC BY MICHAEL CLEMENT

and sponsored families.

Student organizations that already had an active following both on campus and online had a different experience from those that had to get their footing in the midst of the pandemic.

Bobcats for Justice (@qubobcatsforjustice on Instagram), a group dedicated to giving students a voice to discuss their experiences with racism at Quinnipiac, came to existence.

“The Instagram has allowed us to reach an audience of alumni, faculty, students, families of students and many more which was vital in spreading awareness and amplifying the voices of those who have faced racial discrimination at Quinnipiac,” said Mary Gerdenich, one of the founders of Bobcats for Justice.

Gerdenich, a senior political science major, explained that getting engagement is much easier for online meetings in comparison to ones held in person after classes have ended for the day. She also emphasized that it is easier than ever for a group to stand out on social media.

“I see social media as such a powerful way to create connections and network, even with similar clubs or groups outside our university,” Gerdenich said. “There are many different social media design platforms that can create a unique and effective platform for your group, and I encourage groups and clubs to explore different tools that exist.”

The Student Body When Quinnipiac announced that the rest of the spring 2020 semester would be online only, students were unexpectedly separated from roommates and other peers.

To combat this social isolation, several challenges took form on Instagram. One of these trends include themed “Bingo” cards that let students share what they were doing over quarantine or things they had done on campus at Quinnipiac. Another trend involved tagging friends, challenging them to draw vegetables or even Boomer the Bobcat through Instagram stories.

“I think for a while, social media just became a big friend group rather than a platform where you paraded this life that you want others to see,” said Gabriella Colello, a junior political science and law in society double major.

On the video-sharing app TikTok, young people shared videos showing the positives of the tough circumstances, sharing their tips on how they were dealing with isolation and educating each other on several topics, including COVID-19.

“I think the pandemic humanized social media and made it more real because we were all suffering through this group pandemic where everybody was lonely and stuck in their house,” Colello said. “I think it was a very human experience to go on social media and interact in the most raw, organic way.”

GRAPHIC BY KARA KACHMAR

October 7, 2020

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Arts and Life|9 DESIGN BY MICHAEL CLEMENT

A funky fall season How to make fall 2020 fun despite the circumstances

By LEXI PEPE

Contributing Writer

October has finally begun, which means it’s time to get in the fall spirit. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, fall festivities have come to a halt as many fairs across Connecticut have been canceled. However, there are many fun activities to attend on and off campus such as apple picking, pumpkin carving and a few Quinnipiac-hosted events.

Fair Cancellations You may be disappointed to find out the Southington Apple Harvest festival will not be returning until fall 2021. It is famous for its delicious apple fritters made by Zion Lutheran Church, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and concerts on the green. Alex’s Lemonade Stand, an important and rewarding foundation, partners with DePaolo Middle School and allows students to raise donations for cancer research.

“Maintaining the health and safety of our community members, vendors, sponsors, volunteers and staff is our top priority,” the Southington Apple Harvest Festival stated on its website. “There is concern regarding the coronavirus pandemic and its projected resurgence in the fall, and the CDC and state guidelines for outdoor group gatherings and social distancing are not logistically viable based on our Festival’s size and location.”

The Durham Fair has also been canceled this year, which is only the fourth time since the fair began in 1916. Each year it draws crowds for the Demolition Derby and the Figure 8.

Both performances are wild and full of excitement with a lot of destruction, but luckily everyone will have something to look forward to next year.

Student Engagement Despite the cancellation of formal events, many Quinnipiac University students are still coming up with ideas to celebrate the autumn weather.

“I’m going to decorate my suite with my roommates by painting pumpkins, hanging lights and putting out Halloween-y decorations.” said Morgan Bloom, a first-year political science major.

Students can immerse themselves in the new season by heading down to Starbucks, purchasing a pumpkin spice latte, relaxing on the quad and gazing at the color-changing leaves.

Here are some of my favorite fall activities:

1. Apple Picking: For a fun social-distancing activity, students can head to Rogers Orchard in Southington, Connecticut on 336 Long Bottom Road to pick apples.

2. Pumpkin Picking: Students can drive over to Hindinger Farm in Hamden, Connecticut, on 835 Dunbar Hill Road and pick out some pumpkins to decorate in your dorm using paint or stencils.

3. Go for a fall hike: Hike Sleeping Giant and photograph the changing leaves. The Farmington Canal trail is also a great option.

4. Watch Halloween movies with your roommates: A few of my favorites are "Hocus Pocus," "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "The Haunting of Connecticut."

5. Bake a fall dessert: One of my favorite activities to do in the fall and winter is bake. Some would say they crave pumpkin pie or even apple pie, but my favorite fall treat is snickerdoodles. This recipe is from “Cookies & Cups” by Shelly Jaronsky for the “PERFECT” Snickerdoodle.

Ingredients: 1 cup butter, room temperature ¾ cup granulated sugar ½ cup light brown sugar 1 egg, plus 1 yolk 1 tablespoon vanilla 1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar ½ teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 ¾ cup flour Cinnamon Sugar Mixture: ¼ cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon Jaronsky said to preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and in a bowl, mix the butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar together.

After mixing, add the egg, the yolk, vanilla, baking soda, cream of tartar and cinnamon into your butter and sugar mixture.

Once all is combined, gradually add flour.

In a separate bowl, create your cinnamon sugar coating.

Roll each ball of dough into a desired amount of your liking. Place them on a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes and voila! Amazing, soft and buttery cookies to get you in the fall mood.

6. Another event to be excited about is Halloweek which will take place on Oct. 26 to Oct. 31. The week will consist of virtual psychic readings, a movie night and much more.

“We believe holding a week of events will help students during this odd time at QU and boost morale,” said Brianna Hasso, a senior international business major, and director of social events at SPB.

The show goes on The Quinnipiac Theater Department to showcase 'Love and Information' this fall

By AVERY SIMONDS Contributing Writer

The Quinnipiac theater department is putting on “Love and Information” by Caryl Churchill from Nov. 12–15. It’s not just your average play.

The show is made up of 49 self-contained scenes, each addressing issues about knowledge, technology and most importantly, love, all modified for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cast member Christina Stoeffler, a freshman majoring in behavioral neuroscience, said she is in scenes called “Manic,” “Stone,” “Grass,” “Children,” “Fan,” “Spies,” “Mother,” “Climate” and is even directing one called “Affair.”

“We hadn’t been casted, so everyone moved fluidly through scenes and roles, seeing what worked, what didn’t,” Stoeffler said. “Now we have our casted roles, and will work on projects like short films and general rehearsing throughout the month of October.”

With new COVID-19 guidelines, director of the program and associate professor of theater, Kevin Daly, was forced to think outside the box. Daly said the show will be hybrid.

Some scenes will be live with socially distanced actors, while other scenes occur in a classroom, all actors are socially distanced and with masks on.

“There's going to be scenes that happen down the hall in the

PHOTO FROM BROADWAY WORLD

'Love and Information' will be part virtual and part inperson, but admission is free regardless of how you attend.

classroom, and there can be like one or two audience members in there,” Daly said. “I think it's really cool that there's going to be some like aspect of live theater happening.”

The Quinnipiac film, television and media arts program will help to pre-film some scenes. Remote students will also be featured, with their scenes being filmed at home to ensure everyone is included. Audience members that come and view in person will have access to a screen to be able to enjoy all of the scenes that there are to offer.

Daly said he was unsure if a production was even going to happen this year due to the pandemic, and now that there is going to be a show, the club is excited.

A recent graduate of the Yale School of Dramas, Rory Telsey, is directing the play this year.

“Our general process is to reach out to directors that we really admire,” Daly said.

As for rehearsals, they are currently being held virtually.

In-person rehearsals are likely to start in November.

Daly said that should you choose to attend the play, be prepared for a unique theatre experience. If you are an on campus student, you can attend in person for free, and if you want to tune in from home, the virtual experience is also free.

“The theater is alive and well at Quinnipiac,” Daly said.

10|Sports

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

October 7, 2020

Gyorda: ‘It’s just great to be in the same space as people who all have the same interests as me’ DANCE from Page 12 Between university-sanctioned club teams that perform at regional competitions and other on-campus clubs, there’s more than plenty to choose from. In total, there are seven teams: Ballroom Society, Club Dance, Dance Company, Dance Fusion, Irish Dance, Kickline and Tap Company.

That’s what makes dancing during the COVID-19 pandemic so difficult.

There are opportunities aplenty to itch that scratch. But now that we’re living during a time that has seen almost every recreational activity suffer, it seems like even those opportunities are in jeopardy.

The team can’t even practice all at once. Several teams are composed of a roster that is larger than the max capacity that is allowed to be in the practice room at one time. Sophomore advertising and integrated communications major Haley Gyorda, a member of the Dance Fusion team, knows what it takes from the team managers to set up these practices.

“As of right now, we are gonna be able to (practice),” Gyorda said. “We’re gonna be split into two groups. They’re gonna happen for about 50 minutes, with 10 minutes in between each group for practices. Our executive board is working really hard to figure this out with the school to comply with school guidelines and state guidelines.”

Similarly to the Dance Fusion team, the Club Dance team practices on Monday and Tuesday nights, but now each “pod” is forced to share each practice day, splitting the team in half.

The two pods consist of nine and 10 dancers.

For the Club Dance team, it’s easy to focus on the negatives. Even though they can’t all be in the same space at the same time, they still have lots to build on from last year.

In February, the team competed at Westfield State University, its first competition as a team since its creation at the beginning of the fall 2019 semester. To everyone’s surprise, they secured second place.

Not many people were expecting the team to pull this off, especially not sophomore English major Camryn Bernstein, who was on the team during its runner-up success.

“We didn’t really know how the judges were gonna see us, if they were gonna be able to see the chemistry that we all had together,” Bernstein said. “Afterwards, it felt like we all really accomplished something so big, because we weren’t expecting a second-place finish at all. We were all really happy and humbled by it.”

The creators of the club, senior nursing major Miranda Matuszewski and physical therapy graduate student Gianna Brusca, pursued this because they wanted something more.

They had a competitive spirit that made them want to dance on a bigger stage.

“We started it up mainly because we wanted it to be run by a coach who wanted to compete,” Matuszewski said. “We wanted to have a good relationship with the basketball team and go to all their games.”

And then of course, that pesky pandemic hit. The Club Dance team certainly felt the force of the virus, as it slammed the door on nearly every one of its organized activities.

“We’ve been trying to do tryouts since April,” Brusca said.

“We talked about maybe doing a virtual tryout and then with the uncertainty of everything, that got pushed back. We talked about doing a summer tryout, and that got pushed back.”

PHOTO FROM DANCE FUSION FACEBOOK

The Dance Fusion team is ready to begin practices again this semester for the first time since the pandemic began.

Predictably, this was not an isolated issue for the Club Dance team. The Tap Company experienced its fair share of setbacks amid trying to set dates for tryouts.

“I’ve been working on it since the summer, going to the training and talking with Campus Life, trying to figure it out,” said Alyssa LaMagna, a senior occupational therapy major and president of the Tap Company. “I think we finally got a good hold on it, so we’re starting up again.”

Having mentorship from upperclassmen when LaMagna was starting out was important for her. Knowing that eventually she would have the opportunity to take over the club, she learned the position while serving as a general member, and she’s been excelling ever since.

The Tap Company club is hoping to have peformances this year over Zoom.

PHOTO FROM TAP COMPANY FACEBOOK

“Obviously I’ve always wanted to take on more of a leadership role, but this is a fairly new club,” LaMagna said.

“I saw that last year was the year that the people who started the club were leaving, so I just wanted to be that person that could help keep it going. I took a lot from the past president, and I just decided to step up.”

Gyorda was a bit overwhelmed by the number of dance teams on campus. Since she danced throughout high school, she had an idea of what she wanted to do, but she ultimately did something out of her comfort zone and danced hip-hop.

Even though it was something she was relatively unfamiliar with, she still enjoyed it for one reason: the people she was with.

“Being passionate about something, it’s just great to be in the same space as people who all have the same interests as me,” Gyorda said. “Even people who are a little different, you get to learn more about people, and maybe you’ll get interested in something else, maybe go out and do different bonding events, we wanna make everyone feel comfortable. Of course it’s a commitment, but we’re all a great group of friends.”

The dance teams on campus bring these students together.

Sure, you can make the argument that every club does that, and very few would be willing to disagree.

But these dancers have been involved with the sport for as long as they can remember. LaMagna has been dancing “since she was little.” Gyorda has been dancing for 16 years. Bernstein has been dancing since she was 2 years old.

Interdisciplinary studies major Erica Jonas, nursing major Lily Heslin and journalism major Manny Galicki of Kickline, all juniors, have all been dancing since they were young. They all sat together on the couch on Zoom in their suite with a Gamma Phi Beta tapestry in the background. They reminisced on their history with the team and each other.

But it wasn’t the sorority that brought them together and led to them being roommates.

It was the pastime they’ve all been keeping up with since they were in elementary school. The dance teams at Quinnipiac offer a connection between your childhood and your future that forms lifelong bonds.

And that’s exactly the situation that these three dancers find themselves in. As the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging, some may find it difficult to join new clubs and make new friends.

But the various dance teams on campus foster an atmosphere that is more than welcoming for any who decides to pick up their pointe shoes.

“I really liked the opportunity that it presented socially as well,” Galicki said. “It was kind of a smaller team, so you got the same feeling because it’s so small and tight-knit.”

October 7, 2020

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

Sports|11

Main: ‘She definitely left a legacy that I’m not even sure she’s completely aware of ’ STRUBBE from Page 12 ally learning to embrace rest … and balancing that intensity just to make sure she doesn’t burn herself out.”

The aforementioned directness translates into Strubbe’s communication as well. Main said she was always the most honest and straightforward player on the roster. When Strubbe didn’t like a drill, she would say it because she believed things should be as efficient as possible.

Strubbe’s struggles don’t lie on the field, nor in her ability to be a leader. Rather, she’s on a team and in an area that primarily speaks French, but she speaks English and Polish. She started taking French classes recently but is able to speak English with Murray.

“In Poland, we speak Polish and in the U.S., we speak English, and it’s totally fine,” Strubbe said. “But here, with the girls, it’s OK. There’s a couple of them who understand English. If the rest don’t understand what me and coach say, they just ask the girls so they can translate.”

This challenge is visible and audible when Strubbe coaches the Arlon Hockey Club U14 boys team. She said that the boys don’t know English well which is frustrating, but she manages by drawing out plays and showing techniques on the field rather than through verbal communication.

The language barrier would not be an issue if Strubbe traveled back to the United States, where she wants to coach field hockey. She said she would love to return to the NCAA as a graduate assistant or a full-time assistant position as early as next season. Strubbe also said a return to Quinnipiac as a coach would be “amazing,” and Main didn’t rule it out.

“Right now, Quinnipiac doesn’t sponsor visas,” Main said.

“I’d take her back in a second. But she’d have to find (a school that would sponsor her. Ivy League schools) are big on that.

There’s some (Division III) schools that might sponsor her. …

I’d love to have her with me, but I don’t know if that’ll ever happen. But don’t put it by me, I’ll try.”

Despite Strubbe’s passion for coaching and on-field bril-

Bianca Strubbe continued her field hockey career after Quinnipiac in Arlon, Belgium. liance, she expects to be looking for a “real job” in her 30s. She wants to become a sports journalist and follow in the footsteps of her father, Kurt Strubbe, who is a producer for Sportgame which is a channel covering sports in Wroclaw, Poland.

“I grew up watching him make interviews with young athletes or teams and coaches, and I just really enjoyed that,” Strubbe said. “I think with my coaching and playing experience, I think I could have a good way, good look to interview athletes just because I was there years ago.”

It’s clear that Strubbe will become a sports journalist. The question is when will she make the transition. Main said back in October 2019 — and doubled down at the end of September 2020 — that Strubbe could play international field hockey for the next 10 to 15 years.

Murray, who played field hockey in university until

COURTESY OF BIANCA STRUBBE

a knee injury ruined his career, had similar thoughts and said his best advice to Strubbe was to play as long as she’s “physically and technically able.”

“I think in Europe, there’s a lot of ways that you can balance both playing and coaching at the same time,” Murray said.

If Strubbe plays for 10 more years, returns to the U.S. to coach in the NCAA or joins her dad in the sports journalism industry, she said field hockey would always have a place in her life.

“So, probably my next five years will be around field hockey, like very intense playing or coaching,” Strubbe said. “After that, I think I have to get my stuff together (and) find real jobs or something. … but field hockey will be my thing to do, and if I can manage both, like having an adult responsible life and can coach or play, that’s what I definitely want to do.”

Senior spotlight: Hannah Reiter

Sports editor Riley Millette features one of the mainstays of the women’s soccer lineup Since 1980, two defensive players have won the Ballon D’or award, given to the best soccer player in the world of that year. In 1990, Inter Milan’s Lothar Matthaus took home the award, and Juventus’ Fabio Cannavaro was honored in 2006.

In the last decade, this trend has especially been true, as either Barcelona’s Lionel Messi or Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo have won the Ballon D’or every year since 2008, with the exception of 2018. Of course, they’re both attackers.

Defensive players in today’s soccer climate are heavily underappreciated, both at the professional and collegiate level. Quinnipiac University’s senior defender Hannah Reiter is the epitome of an overlooked player who makes their team significantly better.

Her bio won’t show you much. Through her first two years as a Bobcat in 2017 and 2018, she recorded 11 points (three goals and five assists).

That wouldn’t be remotely flashy enough to please a Ballon D’or voter.

But where her team needs her, she steps up. Recently selected as one of four players on 2020’s Leadership team, Reiter has been a presence that the young team around her massively benefits from.

Sophomore goalkeeper Meaghan Phillips impressed in her first season between the sticks but having a seasoned veteran in front of her made her job quite a bit easier. The team conceded less than one goal per game (18 goals through 19 games).

“Hannah’s an integral part of how we play and how we defend,” Quinnipiac women’s soccer head coach Dave Clarke said.

“Having her in front of or alongside a freshman or sophomore will give us a little bit more leadership.”

Clarke then described how COVID-19 has thrown a wrench into his team’s training sessions. Since protocols limit the amount of athletes that can practice at once, the team has to split into two groups. Because the team as a whole is so young, one of the groups is made up entirely of freshmen and sophomores.

“That just stands to the importance of having someone like Hannah at the back that can provide that leadership,” Clarke said.

Having someone with an athlete’s mindset is important to Clarke. Luckily for those around her, Reiter has just that.

“I always try to differentiate between being a Division I player, which means you’re on the roster and you have the tag, and then a Division I athlete is a whole other level of commitment and attitude, training, preparation,” Clarke

said. “Hannah’s a Division I athlete, not just a player.”

One of Reiter’s biggest attributes that makes her a mainstay in the Bobcats’ lineup is her work ethic. She sets the example by making sure that even though she’s slated to miss a couple practices each week because of her busy academic schedule, she’ll make it right.

“She stays and does extra running, she’s not a player where practice ends and she goes home,” Clarke said. “If she misses a day, she’ll make it up.”

Reiter knows how important it is to be there for her teammates during practice.

“You don’t wanna be left behind,” Reiter said. “If you’re not putting in that extra work, when it comes time to play, you’re just not gonna have that drive and the energy to get that starting spot or get the minutes you want.”

As the team’s impending season looms this spring, Reiter reflects on what is best for the young core. Now that there’s a shred of clarity, she said it’ll be important for the team to soak up what it can before the 2020 slate rolls around.

“This year will be good for them,” Reiter said. “They’ll have one more year under their belt, and I think they’ll be good after that.”

Hannah Reiter has scored three goals on her 12 career shots, seven of which were shots on goal.

BRENDAN O’SULLIVAN/CHRONICLE

12|Sports

The Quinnipiac Chronicle

October 7, 2020

Sports

@QUCHRONSPORTS

Success travels CONNOR LAWLESS/CHRONICLE

Bianca Strubbe continues to thrive as a field hockey player while taking on a new role in Belgium

By BRENDAN O’SULLIVAN Editor-in-Chief

Following the fall 2019 season, the Quinnipiac field hockey team lost its “most highly skilled world-class athlete,” according to Quinnipiac field hockey head coach Becca Main in the 25 years she’s coached the team.

Bianca Strubbe, a 24-year-old midfielder born in Tourhout, Belgium, graduated from Quinnipiac in December 2019 with a Master’s of Science in sports journalism.

That moment marked the beginning of a new era for both the Bobcats and Strubbe.

“She brought an unbelievable work ethic,” Main said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever see it again, but I do see people try to emulate it and try to go ‘Oh, that’s what Bianca would’ve done.’ She definitely left a legacy that I’m not even sure she’s completely aware of.”

Ensuing graduation, Strubbe moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to live with her boyfriend, Chris Mills, and in March, she found a job as a “voluntary” field hockey coach at Merrimack College. Her role as an assistant coach was supposed to start in

August, but was cut from a full-time position to a part-time one because of COVID-19.

So, she flew back to Belgium and began playing field hockey for Arlon Hockey Club, a professional team in Arlon, Belgium.

“Because of COVID, a lot of clubs lost South American and American players because of the visas to Europe,” Strubbe said. “So, I knew that Arlon (was) looking for extra players because they lost a lot. So, I just reached out to the coach and basically after a couple days, we found out the way that I can come to play.”

Not only has she “come to play,” but she’s been dominant thus far. Strubbe had a five-goal game and is touted as “one of the best players” in Belgium’s second division, according to Will Murray, Arlon Hockey Club head coach and technical director.

Strubbe has even earned herself a sponsorship with HockeyFit, a fitness organization represented by international field hockey athletes and coaches.

Arlon Hockey Club sits in second place in the division as of Oct. 5. A top-two finish would result in a promotion to the first division.

Similarly to the dynamic at Quinnipiac, Strubbe is once again looked upon as a leader. She’s the second-oldest player on the team, but the difference is that the 24-year-old is no longer one of the oldest players in the league.

The league consists of players ranging from ages 16 to late 30s, according to Murray.

“She’s a really good player, playing very well as well at the moment,” Murray said. “She’s embraced the team and integrated really well with it in the right way. And (she) is producing effective performances at the level for the team and herself individually.”

As Main said, her work ethic is “unbelievable,” and Murray noticed that immediately. Additionally, he noted her offensive prowess that’s imposed on opposing defenses.

“She’s very, very threatening and very direct when she has the ball,” Murray said. “It’s that assertion and the drive and the power and the hunger to really want to do the best for the team. … One thing we’ve been talking with her about is actuSee STRUBBE Page 10

Lose yourself in dance

COVID-19 can cancel dancers’ performances, but not their spirits

By RILEY MILLETTE Sports Editor

A lot of people have been to a dance recital for young kids. Maybe “recital” isn’t the right word. It’s more like entertainment for the spectators than it is a serious event for the dancers.

If you haven’t been to one in person, you must’ve seen the videos on social media. Maybe a kid does a twist here and there, sometimes they fall over, and it’s funny.

But eventually those kids are going to grow up. The sport that their parents put them in when they were 2 years old grows close to their heart. And as you’d imagine, they won’t exactly want to leave.

And can you blame them? Not many people would be willing to give up something they’ve been doing their whole life, especially when that sport is abundantly available at Quinnipiac University.

CONNOR LAWLESS/CHRONICLE

The Quinnipiac Club Dance team had to cancel almost every organized activity it had planned because of COVID-19.

See DANCE Page 10