The Quinnipiac Chronicle, Volume 94, Issue 2

QU addresses classroom, campus accessibility p.

By CAT MURPHY News Editor

Accessibility barriers — ranging in severity from broken Braille signage to inaccessible construction sites — consistently raised questions during Quinnipiac University’s 2022-23 academic year.

But a year later, Quinnipiac kicked off the fall 2023 semester with a new accommodation portal, an increased number of accessible campus shuttle options and updated Braille signage in the Ledges residence hall.

NEW ACCOMMODATION PORTAL

In an Aug. 23 university update, Provost Debra Liebowitz announced the implementation of an integrated accommodation management system.

The streamlined accommodation portal, known as Accommodate, enables students to request and renew accommodations, forward approved accommodation letters to faculty and schedule proctored exams with the Office of Student Accessibility.

“There are less hoops for students to jump through to gain access to QU programs and services,” wrote Kate Palumbo, director of OSA, in a Sept. 10 email statement to The Chronicle. “Students are able to notify their professors earlier in the semester as our staff no longer need to manually write every accommodation letter.”

Accommodate then notifies faculty members via email whenever a student in their class receives an accommodation letter from OSA or books an exam appointment in the Learning Commons. From there, faculty members can use the Accommodate platform to upload testing materials and share exam administration information with OSA staff.

And the platform — which now allows faculty

See ACCESSIBILITY Page 2

Bobcat Den faces technical issues, long checkout lines

By ALEX MARTINAKOVA Copy Editor

Quinnipiac University dining recently implemented a swipe checkout system in several dining locations on the Mount Carmel Campus, replacing the tap system and wreaking havoc on checkout lines and student wait times.

Technical issues forced two dining locations on the university’s main campus — the on-campus Starbucks in the Carl Hansen Student Center and the Bobcat Den — to ditch tapping to checkout over the summer. The temporary swipe system requires staff members to swipe a student’s QCard at the checkout register for the payment to go through.

University officials attributed the system change to a recent register hardware update and the implementation of new tablet interfaces.

“We updated the register hardware which needed configuration to the tap-system,” wrote Emily Gardiner, a senior Quinnipiac dining official, in an email to The Chronicle. “The system required this change, so for a temporary replacement we did the swipe system.”

Gardiner said the university’s dining staff uses the swipe system whenever the tap system is experiencing issues, but noted it has experienced “some hiccups” that staff are still working to resolve. One solution, she said, could mean another checkout line in the Bobcat Den’s main store area.

“We have identified the line issue,” Gardiner wrote. “We are currently working with the university on adding an additional register on the second floor of the Bobcat Den.”

The prospect of a second register in the Mount Carmel Campus’ late-night dining lo-

cation “would be great,” a staff member said.

“The lines wouldn’t be so long, but let’s talk about the heat,” she said, lamenting the excessive heat that separately forced university officials to close the Bobcat Den for nearly three consecutive days earlier in the month.

“It’s too hot in here.”

However, Gardiner said university officials do not currently have a date planned to add a second register.

“As of right now the systems have been configured,” Gardiner wrote, explaining that university officials should have reinstalled the tap system in all on-campus dining halls.

It is unclear why university officials did not update certain registers.

As of Sept. 9, staff members no longer need to swipe students’ QCards in Café Q, Sushi Do, the York Hill Café and the Bobcat Den. However, students are still unable to tap their QCards

at the on-campus Starbucks location because the tap monitor resides behind the register. However, staff members in the Bobcat Den told The Chronicle that the swipe system remains on standby in the event the tap system fails again.

Neither Quinnipiac officials nor the Chartwells dining staff notified students about the system changes, leaving them to speculate about the inconvenient shift away from the tap system.

“I just think it’s annoying,” said Maisa Khan, a first-year biomedical sciences major. “I don’t really see the difference between the two, so I don’t see why they had to change it. I definitely like the tap system better.”

The unannounced changes significantly increased student wait times, particularly during the lunch and dinner rushes. The changes have been especially catastrophic at the Bobcat Den, where checkout lines now routinely stretch outside of the building from around 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“I came to get something from (the Bobcat Den) and pretty much waited for like 30 minutes,” said Kathryn Allegra, a first-year interdisciplinary studies major. “It was so hot and definitely not worth the wait.”

The checkout system was not even the only reason students experienced recent delays in the on-campus dining halls.

Quinnipiac Dining also shared a post to its Instagram story on Sept. 11 informing students that the Transact mobile ordering app was experiencing delays. On Sept. 9, the app was not working at all in certain locations, including the Bobcat Den and the Grill at Café Q.

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PEYTON MCKENZIE/CHRONICLE

JACK MUSCATELLO/CHRONICLE

Students stand in line to checkout at the upper Bobcat Den on Sept. 11. Delays caused by the temporary swipe system have at times generated checkout lines stretching outside the building.

MEET THE EDITORS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Katie Langley

MANAGING EDITOR

Benjamin Yeargin

DIGITAL MANAGING EDITOR

Jack Muscatello

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Peyton McKenzie

NEWS EDITOR

Cat Murphy

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR

Krystal Miller

OPINION EDITORS

Michael LaRocca A.J. Newth

ARTS & LIFE EDITOR

Zoe Leone

ASSOCIATE ARTS & LIFE EDITOR

Jacklyn Pellegrino

SPORTS EDITORS

Ethan Hurwitz

Cameron Levasseur

ASSOCIATE SPORTS EDITOR

Colin Kennedy

DESIGN EDITOR

Amanda Riha

ASSOCIATE DESIGN EDITOR

Lindsey Komson

PHOTOGRAPHY EDITORS

Aidan Sheedy

Casey Wiederhold

ASSOCIATE MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

Connor Youngberg

COPY EDITORS

Carleigh Beck

Alex Martinakova

The views expressed in the Chronicle’s opinion section are those of the respective authors. They do not reflect the views of the Chronicle as an organization.

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ACCESSIBILITY from cover

members to access a consolidated list of their students’ accommodation letters — requires professors to sign each letter to ensure they individually review their students’ accommodations.

University officials implemented the new Accommodate system to replace the disjointed Microsoft OneDrive-based portal process OSA used in past years to meet federally mandated accessibility requirements.

Noting that Quinnipiac’s accessibility office supports approximately one-fifth of the university’s students, Palumbo said administrators began looking in the summer of 2022 to implement a centralized accommodation system after recognizing that “the previous systems in place were not sustainable.”

“We are very pleased to now utilize a robust system built to meet the demands of accessibility offices in higher education,” Palumbo wrote. “We are now working more efficiently and able to expediently process students’ accommodations and communicate with our colleagues across the institution.”

University officials have collaborated over the last eight months with Symplicity, the parent company that oversees and administers the Accommodate platform, to structure the accommodation system around Quinnipiac’s specific needs.

“It really came down to ease of use and seamless communication for all parties,” Palumbo wrote in a Sept. 10 email statement to The Chronicle. “I have always felt that, as a student with a disability who may face challenges different from their peers, we need to streamline the process in an effort to remove barriers for students.”

Historically, OSA’s accommodation policies and procedures have relied heavily on student advocacy. The university’s previous accommodation system required students with disabilities to forward their approved accommodation letters to each of their professors.

OSA staff has always encouraged students to discuss their accommodations with their professors prior to or just after the start of the semester. But Lisa Burns, professor of media studies, noted that this honor system-dependent process was rarely perfect in practice.

“Some students weren’t always good about forwarding their letters until right before they needed accommodations,” Burns wrote in a

Sept. 10 email statement. “This new system resolves that issue.”

Burns, acknowledging how overwhelmed OSA has been in recent years, said she expects the new platform to “greatly help in managing the paperwork.”

However, she also pointed out that “students are no longer responsible for acting as their own advocate” under the new accommodation system.

Although faculty received an email that listed the final step in the accommodations process as a meeting between the student and the professor “to discuss the implementation of their approved accommodations,” Burns said only two of her students have emailed her directly about their accommodations.

“Instead, when I receive a letter, I follow up with the student via email to detail how their accommodations will be addressed in my class and note they can contact me if they have any questions,” Burns wrote. “And there’s no guarantee that faculty members will be as diligent as I am in following up with their students.”

ACCESSIBLE CAMPUS SHUTTLE OPTIONS

Quinnipiac also partnered with transportation company Valet Park of America over the summer to overhaul its campus shuttle system. Unlike the university’s previous shuttle operator, which offered only two accessible shuttles, six of VPA’s eight intercampus shuttles are accessible to individuals who use mobility aids like wheelchairs.

VPA also operates an accessible seven-passenger van on the Mount Carmel Campus to transport students between buildings amid ongoing South Quad construction.

“I have heard positive feedback regarding

the new shuttle system — reliability, increase in ADA compliant shuttles, the list goes on,” Palumbo wrote.

UPDATED BRAILLE SIGNAGE

A Chronicle investigation revealed in September 2022 that more than 100 signs identifying rooms, stairwells and exits in the Ledges residence hall lacked accessible Braille text as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In one instance, the sign identifying a fourthfloor closet denoted the room number in permanent marker and featured damaged Braille text that spelled “into have” instead of “storage.” In another, each of the 75 Braille dots on two signs identifying a stairwell not only as a stair exit but also as an area of rescue assistance was broken.

However, university officials subsequently updated the inaccessible signage in the first-year residence hall over the summer.

“We should always be striving to make sure everyone feels welcomed by our campus, whether that’s students, faculty, staff, or visitors,” wrote Jamie Setzler, Student Government Association vice president for inclusion, in a Sept. 10 email statement to The Chronicle. “Ensuring that our Braille signage is up to par with ADA requirements is just one small aspect of that, but it’s an incredibly vital one.”

Amid concerns last fall about campus accessibility, SGA issued an October 2022 resolution calling on the Quinnipiac administration to audit OSA’s compliance with the ADA. Setzler praised university officials for listening when “students noticed a problem and advocated for a change.”

“When we’re vocal about an issue, we’re much more likely to see improvements,” Setzler wrote. “I’m honored to be on a campus with so many students who are willing to help our university become the best it can be.”

QU introduces new academic planning tool to replace Self Service’s ‘My Progress’ tab

By CARLEIGH BECK Copy Editor

Quinnipiac University is introducing a new student planning tool called Stellic, allowing undergraduate and graduate students to track their progress towards their degree.

Stellic will not be taking the place of Self Service as a whole. Rather, it will be used in place of the “My Progress” portion of Self Service. Although students will use Stellic for academic planning, they will still register for classes on Self Service.

“Stellic allows students to visualize and chart their path towards graduation and will help advisors and administrators get a clearer picture of students and how to best support their goal,” Provost Debra Liebowitz wrote in an Aug. 31 email to students.

communication between students and advisors,” Liebowitz said.

Amy Terry, university registrar, noted that students can explore new features on Stellic.

“In Stellic, students can plan all four years of their program. In Self Service, students are only able to plan one term at a time,” Terry wrote in a statement to The Chronicle. “It also will help students plan the graduate work as undergraduate students if they are in a dual degree program.”

Students who are in a dual degree program will be able to plan their classes out into their graduate year, unlike in Self Service.

think that’s great.”

This, Liebowitz said, will not only help students in dual-degree programs but also students participating in study abroad programs and those planning out how to meet graduation requirements.

Although some faculty are promoting the benefits of Stellic, some students expressed frustration with the mounting number of websites and services Quinnipiac students must use.

“At least (Self Service) was all connected, even though it was a little difficult (to navigate),” said Arianna Panzera, a first-year behavioral neuroscience major. “It’s hard to keep track of when they keep throwing new websites at you.”

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The university previously used Self Service’s student planning tool to track academic progress. Self Service allows students to plan their degree path and register for classes. But Liebowitz pointed out that she saw flaws with Self Service and believed there was a better tool out there.

“There were other systems out there that I knew could really facilitate better

Liebowitz said Stellic is more interactive than Self Service. In a more streamlined process, students, advisors and the registrar will be able to remedy any issues with the student’s progress tracking on the website.

Instead of emailing their advisor and the registrar, students can flag any needed change in their degree progress on the website. From there, the change will go through a series of approvals.

“It allows for student-directed communication and for you to see where things are in that pathway,” Liebowitz said. “And I

Andrew Melnick, a first-year behavioral neuroscience major, echoed Panzera’s point about the lack of integration,

“It was just convenient to have everything in one website … it just reduces clutter,” Melnick said. “I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like having 15 websites bookmarked.”

Stellic is now available to students through a link in the email sent by Liebowitz on Aug. 31.

“We need to streamline the process in an effort to remove barriers for students.”

– Kate Palumbo DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF STUDENT ACCESSIBILITY

Professors design healthcare-inspired digital escape room

By KRYSTAL MILLER Associate News Editor

Emily McCave, professor of social work, joined Jonah Warren, professor of game design and development, to create a digital escape room for students to learn more about the healthcare profession.

McCave is one of the 10 Quinnipiac University faculty members awarded a grant from the Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works Impact Fund. The fund, administered by the Office of the Provost, strives to support faculty looking to publish their research.

After receiving the grant this summer, McCave requested $4,000 in total. The three students who contributed to the digital escape room — all of whom started the project in class during the spring semester and are no longer receiving school credit for it — will receive the majority of the funding.

McCave began the interprofessional educational escape room in 2019 when she received a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning grant.

In order to escape the room, students have to solve a series of clues to identify the mannequin “patients” and assist them. The team must collaborate to complete seven clues in 45 minutes to succeed. At the end of the game, McCave said, the team holds a discussion to compare the game to realworld healthcare scenarios.

“So, the clues and the puzzles allow them to gain some knowledge around specific roles and responsibilities that they might not have had, but mostly practice teamwork and effective communication, because they are under a time constraint,” McCave said.

McCave hosts the game in person once a month in the North Haven Campus’ Center for Interprofessional Healthcare Education.

However, McCave is currently expanding

it to a digital platform with Warren. McCave said she wanted students to have the option to play the escape room online because the in-person version had become popular.

An online version, she explained, would enable her to offer the game more frequently and would no longer require students to travel to North Haven to play it.

“So, it’s really just to meet student demand,” McCave said. “I would still continue to offer the in-person version, but it’d be great if we could offer a digital version as well that students ideally could do from their own homes.”

McCave said gaming engages students in active learning in a fun way.

“I’m a strategy gamer myself,” she said. “And so I’m really interested in gaming as an effective teaching tool.”

In the spring semester of 2023, McCave said she approached Warren to see if his computer science or video game design students would be interested in creating a digital escape room for a class project.

Warren teaches the Game Lab IV: Team Projects course that the three students involved in the project took during the spring 2023 semester. He said he helped the students translate the in-person game to a digital platform and navigate any problems they encountered. He also helped McCave apply for the grant.

He said he became interested in educational games because it gives him the chance to try actions out without having to worry about making mistakes.

“You get to practice this real world situation, without any consequences,” Warren said.

Warren said the digital game is around halfway completed because multiplayer

games require a lot of technical knowledge. He added that the students have been doing a fantastic job.

Nathaniel Pippin, a senior game design major, first became involved when real clients came into his game design class and offered game ideas. He selected the digital escape room as his top choice.

“I thought that’d be a fun challenge,” Pippin said. “Also, if it could be used at Quinnipiac, I feel like that would also be really cool to leave my mark.”

Where the in-person escape room requires the students to call McCave on her cell phone to describe the details of the patient, Pippin said having an online version would enable students to play without McCave being physically present.

Pippin then visited the in-person escape room on April 19 to take pictures of the project to recreate digitally with a program called Blender.

“I wasn’t so sure about it until Professor McCave actually let me come into the physical escape room and look around,” Pippin said.

Although he said he had used Blender to create a game before, he noted that it was not as serious as the digital escape room.

Pippin said he never expected to get paid for his work, and was surprised when he received an email about the grant money.

“I’m still in school, and I’ve never done game design that actually gets paid,” Pippin said. “So, it’s just a big step forward.”

McCave said she aims to finish the digital escape room sometime this academic year. She said the project’s completion date will depend on if the students can complete it with the current funding alone. And if not, it will depend on whether they can find an -

other funding source.

“So, the idea is that hopefully sometime in November, we might have something to test — like a beta version — to test with students to get feedback,” McCave said.

McCave will be presenting the interprofessional escape room at the Thomas Jefferson University Interpersonal Care conference in November to try to collaborate with other industry professionals working on similar projects.

Brothers Matthew and Michael Merritt, both senior computer science and game design and development double majors, contributed to the coding aspect of the game.

Matthew Merritt started alongside Pippin in the spring of 2023, while his brother joined during the fall 2023 semester.

Matthew Merritt said it was important that a player have enough space to easily move in the room, pick up objects and find clues.

“We spent a lot of time really thinking about how to translate puzzles from the real world into the virtual world and how to ensure that they were still just as interactive and complete as they were in the real environment,” he said.

The brothers said the grant money allows them to pay for the costs associated with online multiplayer games. The game will be available to play on different WiFi servers, which is one of their goals this semester.

“It was a kind of win-win (situation) for everyone,” Michael Merritt said. “We were able to help the school get a resource that they needed, as well as get experience that we needed ourselves because I know that my brother and I really wanted to make multiplayer games so this was a great opportunity to do so.”

Quinnipiac launches new sustainable dining initiative in Café Q

By JACK CROWLEY Contributing Writer

Café Q is taking a step towards sustainability by offering reusable food storage containers, according to a Sept. 7 email from Quinnipiac Dining sent to the Quinnipiac University community.

As of Sept. 3, students can purchase OZZI Brand O2GO containers for $5.99 at the cash registers.

The new reusable container program is part of the university administration’s broader effort to minimize Quinnipiac’s environmental footprint.

The program is designed to allow students who purchase the containers to return them to Café Q for cleaning after each use. Students who bring their reusable containers to the dining hall’s designated return bins will then receive a clean container at checkout.

The 7-by-7-inch green plastic containers are approximately two inches deep and feature a snap closure. The one-piece hinged containers are microwave-safe and made in the United States.

However, Matthew Pisani, a first-year civil engineering major, noted that university officials had not included any details about the containers in the original email.

“There are some questions I have,” Pisani said. “Like, is it microwave friendly? How

big is it? It doesn’t say in the email.”

Some students questioned the necessity of the new containers, arguing that students rarely have leftover food to store.

“Down here (on the Mount Carmel Campus), it’s first-year students who don’t have a

full kitchen, so using the containers, they’re able to keep their food better stored,” said Anna Kaplan, a junior health science studies major in the occupational therapy program.

“But I don’t know about purchasing since I don’t really take leftovers. I don’t see a big

necessity for them.”

Michael Guillen, a first-year film, television and media arts major, said the price of the containers is his main concern.

“I feel like more people would take advantage of it if you didn’t have that six dollar price tag,” Guillen said. “Six dollars isn’t that bad, but I can just go to Walmart and buy one for two bucks.”

According to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, “Data published in March 2022 identified deficiencies in Quinnipiac University’s approach to sustainability.”

Despite this, some students commended the university’s efforts to make the OZZI containers available in the Mount Carmel Campus’ dining hall.

“I mean, it would probably discourage people from throwing out food if they don’t want to finish it,” first-year computer science major Shane Montanez said. “Especially if it’s on a plate, you could just take it to your dorm.”

Even Pisani, who said he still has questions about new containers, praised the initiative.

“I would say it’s helpful for people who don’t have access to store something longterm,” Pisani said. “(As well as) for those people who actually want containers and can’t go off campus and go buy some.”

PEYTON MCKENZIE/CHRONICLE

Quinnipiac University students can now purchase reusable food storage containers for $5.99 in the Mount Carmel Campus’ dining hall. The sustainable dining initiative enables participating students to exchange used containers for clean ones after each use.

Opinion

‘X’ will always be Twitter to me

By JASON BUPP Contributing Writer

X, formerly known as Twitter, is one of the most popular social media apps of our generation. People go to X for outrageous opinions, poorly delivered and biased news, questionable content or if you’re me, cool pictures of cars.

Whichever way you look at it, X is one of the most used social media applications, boasting an immense 368 million active monthly users as of December 2022, according to Statista. That’s more users than there are U.S. residents.

Whether you like him or not, Elon Musk, owner of X, is one of the most prolific mind of our generation. He is an innovative genius. Musk’s company engineered the leading electric vehicle manufacturer in the world, Tesla. He also is in control of what is quite possibly the most innovative and prominent space program in the world with the introduction of self landing rockets, SpaceX.

Despite the success of his other businesses, X is a sinking ship. When Musk bought the platform last year, most people thought he was making a huge mistake. Turns out, he was.

After Musk acquired X in October 2022, it lost 50% of its advertising revenue, Musk announced on the platform over the summer. We can only speculate as to why advertisers are pulling out of X.

Musk does not have the greatest public image, from smoking marijuana on the Joe Rogan Experience to his association with Kanye West. This is a huge loss. Musk probably assumed he could recover by completely rebranding the whole company to what is now X.

This might be the worst rebrand and recov-

ery idea ever made by a business. This is worse than X’s prior endeavor, Twitter Blue, which allowed users to pay for the blue check mark, a signal of verification for the app.

One of the biggest issues is name association within the app. There are a lot of sayings that came from the name Twitter. Phrases like “tweets” and “retweets” helped turn the name of the application into its whole brand. These words became a part of daily vocabulary for some users. When you think of the word “tweet,” odds are that you think of Twitter and not the sound a bird makes.

Now, the expectation is to call Twitter postings generic “posts” and “reposts.” This completely removes the personality that Twitter had developed for its users.

ILLUSTRATION BY KLARA

On top of all the linguistic issues, X has a bot problem. There’s a high chance that many users are bots or artificial intelligence accounts that post methodically.

Research done by the University of Southern California and Indiana University put the amount of bots on the platform between a whopping 9% to 15%. This leads to an issue with ad revenue. Because a significant amount of users on X are bots or AI-generated accounts, the advertisements that companies pay to be posted on X go mostly unnoticed. Audience reach is limited on the platform, causing investors and advertisers to be reluctant about spending money on the site.

Issues with the platform in addition to the strong opinions against Elon Musk create a moral dilemma of “should we support a plat-

form run by a man that some people hate?” Moreover, Musk does not seem to know how to actually run a social media company, as he laid off 80% of the workforce to save money early on, per CNN. This was a really poor public relations move.

Musk seems compulsive when he needs to be calculated and struggles to make logical business decisions. He seems to gravitate towards the letter X. The Model X, SpaceX, X, and even his son’s name, X AE A-XII. Could it be part of a bigger conspiracy? Probably not. But there is definitely an argument that can be made that Musk doesn’t make decisions based on rationale, but more based on whatever he wants to do.

So that brings to light another question; is Musk truly a genius? He must be smart enough to run all of these businesses and have them not completely fail and sink into the ground.

He owns several that are the leaders in their industries: Tesla, SpaceX and now X.

The company itself has seen consistent profit loss and a repetition of poor PR moves that continue to tarnish Musk’s reputation. However, because of the popularity of Twitter prior to Musk’s rebranding, X still maintains its notoriety in the social media industry. Though with the direction Musk has taken it, who knows how much longer that will last.

At the end of the day, Musk seems to make a lot of bad business decisions and behaves as if he is a kid with a lot of money. He made a terrible choice to rebrand Twitter. It is a bad business decision and no one will refer to Twitter as X. It will always be Twitter.

Contraceptive side effects are out of control

By SANIYA POWELL Contributing Writer

If you know someone who takes a form of birth control, you’ve probably heard different stories about it such as, “I can’t control my emotions while taking birth control,” or “I feel different taking this medication.” It is not uncommon for people to feel this way while taking hormonal birth control.

People shouldn’t have to worry about the way medication makes their bodies or minds feel. I don’t want to be just a side effect of birth control. I wish birth control didn’t come with problems.

While there are different types of birth control pills, there are also different methods of birth control, like the intrauterine device (or IUD), patches and shots.

The contraceptive pill has been around since the 1960s, and not much has changed to make the recipes gentler on peoples’ bodies. All individuals who take birth control take it for different reasons. Some take it for heavy period pains and cramping, while some use it as a second layer of protection against pregnancy.

I use birth control to manage a hereditary hormonal imbalance. I take the medication because it’s a necessary health requirement, but

once I started it, things started changing.

Birth control made me feel like my problems were bigger than they were. My anxiety and depression skyrocketed, becoming worse than they have ever been. The people around me saw a huge decline in my mental health. Some days I just couldn’t get out of bed. Other days it felt like I was on cloud nine.

If you or someone you know is experiencing serious changes from the pill like I am, you’re not alone.

Sarah E. Hill, a professor of women, health and sexual psychology at Texas Christian University, covered issues with birth control in an article for TED.

“Almost half of all women who go on the pill stop using it within the first year because of the intolerable side effects, and the one frequently cited is unpleasant mood changes,” Hill said.

There’s a very obvious need for improvement with birth control, but investments for contraceptive research are hard to come by. In 2020, there were only 23 industry-funded clinical trials into contraceptives, compared to 600 for cardiovascular drugs and 140 for treatment for optic disorders, per The Conversation. How long will people have to wait for change?

The connection between birth control and mental health concerns more than the everyday person. Celebrities are not exempt either. Actress Natalie Portman openly discussed her time taking birth control in her 2015 Harvard commencement speech.

“There were several occasions I started crying in meetings with pro-

fessors, overwhelmed with what I was supposed to pull off when I could barely get myself out of bed in the morning,” Portman said.

According to an article written by Dr. Laurie Ray for cycle tracking company Clue, a Danish study recognized that “current users of (combined oral contraceptives) were more likely to be diagnosed with depression and prescribed antidepressants for the first time than people who weren’t currently using them.”

Doctors perscribe birth control in an effort to help patients, ease pain or protect them. Knowing that it’s ailing them instead of aiding them is sickening. If we were talking about a more common medication instead, people would be much more receptive. Contraceptive health isn’t acknowledged by a larger audience, this is a huge part of why these issues haven’t been addressed.

As if extreme side effects weren’t enough, the pill itself comes with a plethora of warnings. Patients on birth control have likely seen the gigantic pamphlet that comes with the pill pack.

These risks tend to occur in many users, as some social media influencers speak a lot about the effects of birth control. Influencer Lucie Fink spoke about the effects of taking birth control for 11 years. Fink experienced side effects like aura migraines, which cause symptoms like flashes of lights, blind spots, tingling in the face and/or hands according to the National Library of Medicine.

“It hits home for me, it’s that you never think you are going to be a rare instance until you are,” Fink said.

Fink also discussed needing a cholecystectomy, due to a gallstone caused by the birth control pill she was taking. She decided

to read the pamphlet in her prescribed pack and said, “Boom, there it was; ‘may cause gallbladder diseases.’”

It’s clear that birth control does much more harm than good and it’s not selective when it comes to side effects. It hurts everyone. We need new research and new developments to create a contraceptive that works efficiently without damaging those who take it.

The contraceptive industry needs to be changed. Pharmaceutical companies should also consider who the medication is for and focus on patient needs.

Nobody expects to become mentally and physically sick when taking a simple medication. Contraceptive health is incredibly important, even if it doesn’t receive as much attention as other medical sectors. Something needs to change, so that those who take the medication can feel safe and maintain good mental health while still taking care of our personal needs.

DHANDILI

Family vloggers need to turn the camera off

By LILLIAN CURTIN Contributing Writer

With the popularity of certain social media outlets throughout the past decade or two, especially YouTube and TikTok, aspiring influencers have grasped on to whatever they can to have a chance at fame.

This includes parents who use their children to reach that goal.

There are children who have been in the spotlight since birth. Literally — their parents filmed them being born. Posie, Sunday and Zealand LaBrant, from the channel The LaBrant Fam, were all born on video. They don’t know what it’s like not to have a camera in their face throughout the day.

Even when they’re not physically in front of the camera, their parents are talking about their child’s business with all of the personal details.

I know how upset I get when my mom tells my family stuff about my personal life that I told her in confidence. It’s annoying. So I can’t imagine all of my business being told to thousands of viewers every day.

Recently, Ruby Franke, a mom and former family vlogger on YouTube was arrested and charged with six counts of felony child abuse.

Law enforcement reportedly found Franke’s 12-year-old son emaciated and with open wounds and duct tape on his wrists and ankles, after he had climbed out of a window and fled to a neighbor for help. Upon visting the home, Franke’s 10-year-old daughter was found in similar malnourished condition, according to NBC News.

For years, she filmed the ins and outs of her family on a channel called 8Passengers. She shared the most intimate moments of her children’s lives. She even blamed her daughter for her eating disorder and then claimed she was lying about having one.

The worst is that she and another mom, Jodi Hildebrandt, who held the same values, created a program for mental health counseling, titled “Connexions,” that also offers parenting advice. They preached cutting off those who don’t share your values and shame-based learning.

The LaBrant Fam were accused of having more kids to get more viewers. Together, the LaBrants have four biological children, and mother Savannah LaBrant has an additional child from a previous relationship.

The LaBrants titled a video in 2021, “She got diagnosed with cancer. (documentary.)” No one had cancer, their daughter had an asthma attack. In the description of the video, they even wrote, “This documentary explains the health scare we had with our little Posie.”

On TikTok, Jacquelyn Paul, the mother of 3-year-old Wren Eleanor, showed her

daughter in clothes you would most likely see a teenager or young adult wear. The daughter was a toddler but was being sexualized by hundreds of older men on the app.

Users on TikTok, such as Bahbs Kirkpatrick, posted evidence in July 2022 of the comments that were sexualizing the child who was three years old at the time. Paul was aware of it, but made the same videos anyway because it was making her money. Her toddler daughter was being targeted by pedophiles, and she let it happen.

TikTok user STACEYCAKES even compiled evidence of men saying sexual things about the 3-year-old. These things included “She hot,” “Hear me out” and “can i be her daddy.” These comments were written about a toddler, with her mother aware.

Families like these make money off their kids. Viewers don’t watch for the parents, they watch for the kids. The more eventful

their childrens’ lives, the more viewers they get. The more views, the more money.

So, they resort to dramatizing or even making up titles and stories to get more clicks. Kids can read comments. With internet fame comes internet bullies, harassment and even pedophiles.

It’s awful to watch children be targeted because their parents are more concerned with making money than their childs’ safety and security. They have no privacy and they are going to grow up never knowing anything else.

Let’s be honest, it’s abuse. Their kids are a commodity in their eyes, so a lot of them choose to have more and more so that they can get more money. The LaBrants aren’t alone in this tactic. This method to grab views is used by other family vloggers such as the ACE Family and the Ballingers. Social media parents don’t look at their kids as kids, they view them as investments.

Parents calculate the titles and thumbnails of their videos so they can optimize their chance at views. What gets the most views? Births, pregnancy announcements, gender reveals and sad news. So they have more kids, use clickbait to make it look like something is wrong with them and alter the lives of everyone involved to get the most views possible.

ILLUSTRATION BY PEYTON MCKENZIE

In the summer of 2020, I got my first job as a maintenance worker at the local pool in my hometown. I was taking out trash, sorting recycling and checking chlorine levels every other hour.

It was my first experience seeing real money coming into my pockets, money that I worked hard for.

I have returned to that job every year since, working about 30 shifts over the course of a summer to earn the means to support my spending needs. What I didn’t realize was how outrageous those needs were.

This piece is strictly based on the opinions and experiences of the writer and should not be viewed as a substitute for professional financial advice.

When I got to college, I found myself in a bubble, independent of any parental supervision for the first time in my life. I went out to eat constantly, spent lavishly at the campus bookstore and neglected any kind of financial constraint.

It wasn’t until early in my sophomore year that I broke out of that mindset. My mom, of all people, called me up one day and reprimanded me. She made

me realize that the money I earned each summer grew thinner and thinner until I spent most — if not all — of it, restarting with the same number from the previous year every summer.

According to a 2016 Financial Advisor Magazine study, 52% of freshman students reported finding themselves running out of money during their first years in college. Sophomores (69%), juniors (67%) and seniors (77%) all had the same issue.

To combat this, I implemented a system to save my money — one that you can hopefully learn from to keep yourself out of the same trouble that I was.

It’s simple, really.

I started by looking into a savings account. Up to this point, all the money that I accrued went right into my checking, where it stayed stagnant, waiting to be spent. By opening up a savings account, I could hold my money in a safer space where it could simultaneously gather interest.

I also opted for a self-imposed spend-

What these parents should do is exactly what TikToker Maia Knight did. She originally showed her twin daughters’ faces until they were a little over a year old. She saw the dangerous people that were watching her videos and the creepy comments they were making. So, even though her views went down, she still doesn’t show her kids’ faces. She is a mom that is more concerned about her childrens’ safety than the views. That is the kind of parent all of these kids deserve.

ing limit. I began to ask myself questions like: Do I really need this? Is it responsible to spend this much money? If I found myself spending too much in a condensed period of time, I might take a hiatus until I felt it was acceptable to start again. It is not a very regimented system, but it works.

It is always smart to keep a steady flow of income streaming in. Finding a job on or around campus is the easiest way to keep money available and avoid going broke. If it doesn’t fit with your schedule one semester, a common problem that I ran into multiple times, consider leaving space open in your schedule another semester to allot time for work.

But if you’re breaking your back in the blistering sun every summer at some pool like I am, you realize what your money is worth — and I assure you, it isn’t worth burning through.

Because one day, it just might catch up to you.

Arts & Life

games that unifies people’: Black Student Union hosts annual block party

By CHARLISE LEBRON Contributing Writer

The Quinnipiac University Black Student Union hosted a block party on Sept. 9 on the Quad to promote unity on campus and highlight the importance of Black culture in the ‘90s.

BSU hosted its annual kick-off event as an introduction to the 2023-24 academic year. This year's event was ‘90s inspired and featured a mix of music, lawn games and soul food to welcome students back to Quinnipiac. Choosing a block party as this year's theme encouraged students to attend and get to know the organization's members and executive board to build community, the organization’s president said.

“It's a block party, it's a cookout, and that is integral to Black culture,” said Yealie Ulaba-Samura, a junior psychology major and BSU president. “So we do this every year, to kind of join people together, celebrate the new year and get fresh faces and old faces to mingle in a less formal setting.”

The BSU members hope to share the message that every student has a safe space

within the organization.

The group aims to prioritize the community it has created on campus by welcoming everyone to express themselves and their cultures.

“I hope that they feel like BSU is going to be a home for them,” Ulaba-Samura said. “I hope that they feel comfortable and welcomed … like they're going to have fun, that they're going to have a space to be themselves and embrace their culture in a way that you don't see other places on campus because it's a (primarily white institution).”

The BSU e-board planned the event for several months and faced some challenges.

“It took a lot of work,” said Shamara Wethington Mizell, a junior interdisciplinary studies major and BSU’s event coordinator. “Some vendors canceled on us. We’ve been planning since summer … but luckily we have a very good president, Yealie. So we were able to pull it together."

Emphasizing inclusivity within the club, BSU chose to present the event on the quad so it would be accessible to all students.

“Over the last couple of weeks, you've seen things like Greek week happening out here, you've seen the engagement fair out here, and then the next week, it's BSU,” said Claude Mayo, Quinnipiac’s director of academic integrity. “So you know, it's sort of welcoming the community in a very prominent place.”

The organization welcomes students of all cultures and backgrounds to partake in their club and future events.

“I feel like they do a very good job of not only including people of color, (but) anyone is always welcome,” said Samuel Dorielan, a senior film, television and media arts major who attended the event.

Sharing Black culture within the block party, BSU implemented a ‘90s theme by encouraging students to dress in their favorite apparel from the decade. This era was heavily influenced by Black culture, specifically its fashion. Different ‘90s icons changed the style by incorporating Black culture into pop culture through big gold hoops, flannels and the mix and match of different types of clothing.

According to unpublished magazine, “90s icons like Salt-N-Pepa, Will Smith, and Queen Latifah would wear Afrocentric clothing such as Kufi hats, head wraps, wax prints, and symbolic African colors such as red, gold, green and black, bringing African culture to Hollywood and our TV screens.”

Throughout the day, attendees played a variety games to get the crowd talking and get to know one another. They also played a finish-the-lyric game centered around the ‘90s and early 2000s.

“It's food, music, and games that unifies people,” said Clea Mayo, a sophomore industrial engineering major.

BSU often promotes the club and events on Instagram and members encouraged anyone interested in being part of the organization to follow them on the platform.

“Grab any of us, we like to think that our population extends to all the students of color on campus and beyond and we really try to make that effort… so anybody can get connected and we all try to bring somebody to the next meeting,” Claude Mayo said.

“From there it takes off.”

From left, Tahira Jilu, Jasmin Williams and Timo Oguntolu pose for a photo outside of Tator Hall during the Quinnipiac Black Student Union Block Party on Saturday, Sept. 9.

Students and families gathered on the Quad outside of Tator Hall during the Quinnipiac Black Student Union Block Party.

‘It's food, music and

By KATIE LANGLEY Editor-in-Chief

I knew “Bottoms” was going to be a great movie when teenage lesbian Josie — played by Ayo Edebri — went on an improvised, minute-long monologue about being forced to marry a closeted evangelical man because she can’t find a girlfriend just minutes into the film.

“Then I’m gonna get pregnant, we’re gonna have to join a church, he’ll be the gay pastor … and yea, sure, his sermons are good, but everybody knows he’s fruity,” Josie rants, slamming the steering wheel in her car. “And by the way, our son, Hezekiah, hates us because he knows we’re closeted, and we try to make it work for him but he's not happy. And guess what? The deacon’s fucking the evangelist!”

And so began the cinematic experience that is “Bottoms”: an irreverent, unhinged movie about two best friends who lie their way into running a female fight club at their high school and make plenty of enemies along the way. Seriously, it would put a bad name on the entire queer community if it wasn’t so darn funny.

The crux of the film is that high school seniors PJ — played by filmmaker Rachel Sennott — and Josie, can’t seem to find a date. It’s not just because they’re gay — rather, in their words — they’re “gay and untalented.”

When the girls hit small-town celebrity

‘Bottoms’ is on top

quarterback, Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), with their car (following the TikTok-famous line, “I’m sorry I looked at Mrs. Riley and lightly grazed her left tit”), they’re forced to explain themselves to the school principal.

They were simply practicing for their female empowerment self defense club, they argue.

What follows is a deranged scheme to get girls by forming an actual fight club and throwing them in the ring to beat the daylights out of one another.

PJ and Josie claim they’ve been to juvie and the lie spreads like wildfire, making them instantly cool and popular in the eyes of teen girls who just want to defend themselves against predatory men. But what masquerades as a club for women to come together and punch out their trauma is actually a devious attempt to get close to the hot girls, Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Jordan Gerber).

Then come the bloody fight scenes set to Charli XCX tracks and the eventual friendship between the fight club members.

One of the best things about “Bottoms” is that the entire thing is a caricature of American high school culture. Jeff the football player is universally worshiped and is simultaneously a big wuss. The school walls are plastered with his shirtless pictures. The “big game” is like a religious event.

The whole film is just so inexplicably

and wonderfully weird. There’s a kid who is always in a metal cage in the back of the classroom. The football team mimics the Last Supper at lunch.

But one of the best performances is that of Marshawn Lynch, who plays Mr. G, the fight club’s advisor and uninterested teacher of some unnamed subject.

Mr. G is the deliverer of fabulous lines such as: “I’m confused right now on how you created a fucking fight club to get some cooch. And for what? Y’all don’t even know how to work that thing,” and “I knew women were evil.”

Without giving away too much of the plot, I will say that the final fight scene is

ILLUSTRATION BY AMANDA RIHA

some of the most hilariously gruesome content I’ve ever seen. The club comes together for a final face-off against a rival football team, and there’s bombs, blood and dead football players.

Sometimes I come across queer media and think, “Wow, this movie would be great for young gay kids trying to figure out their identity.” This is not one of those pieces of media.

It serves its own purpose: finally giving the queer, non-male-identifying community a blasphemous, dirty and silly movie where most of the characters are complete assholes. And shouldn’t we let queer girls be assholes every once in a while?

Take a bite out of ‘Interview with the Vampire’

By ZOE LEONE Arts & Life Editor

I grew up in the age of vampires.

If you didn’t pay attention to the neardecade-long hold “Twilight” had on society, you’re either a liar or boring. So when “Interview with the Vampire” became a repeated viewing suggestion, I decided to blindly dive in.

But be warned: “Interview with the Vampire” is not the corny supernatural love story of your middle school years.

It is the second media adaption of the famed novel of the same name, written by Anne Rice. The first on-screen version was a 1994 film that starred three young actors just starting to generate the attention of audiences: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and an eleven-year-old Kirsten Dunst.

The series, however, premiered in 2022 to acclaim from viewers and critics alike. While it was originally created by AMC+, the show came to Max on Sept. 1, where it will be available for streaming until Oct. 31. As of publication, it’s ranked as the seventhmost streamed series on the platform, and for good reason.

Split between a second-chance interview based in Dubai in 2022 and 20th century New Orleans, the show follows the lives of Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) and Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) as they become intertwined, obsessed and terrifyingly devoted to one another.

While the show generally follows the same storyline as the original source material, two major changes only served to strengthen the story and fit a 21st-century audience.

The first is the rewriting of de Pointe du Lac, from a white slave owner who runs indigo plantations to a Black man who boasts local New Orleans societal fame due

to his family businesses. Anderson, who gained global recognition as Grey Worm in “Game of Thrones,” plays de Pointe du Lac with a ferocity and power rarely seen in modern day TV. It’s impossible not to be mesmerized by him, as he portrays his character’s intense and abundant emotions with a stunning depth.

The second change is in the relationship between de Lioncourt and de Pointe du Lac. While the queer undertones between the two has been agreed upon by both Rice and audiences for decades now, “Interview with the Vampire” is the first adaption to have the characters be explicitly queer and portray their relationship as a love story.

The change from subtext to canon is one of the most brilliant deviations the show’s creative team could’ve possibly taken with the story. Anderson and Reid are dynamic, with the kind of chemistry that graces the silver screen once in a blue moon. There are scenes that feel less like you’re watching a show and more like you’re observing someone’s life through a window. As their relationship evolves through the sevenepisode season, its palpability and intensity only grows.

While it sounds idyllic, this is not the perfect love story it seems to be. It’s macabre and raw, taking the grit of human emotions and elevating them to catastrophic levels that would pulverize characters that were anything less than supernatural. From the moment de Lioncourt decides his love for de Pointe du Lac is strong enough he wishes for him to spend eternity as his companion, the rational behaviors we call human quickly evaporate.

The all-consuming relationship between de Lioncourt and de Pointe du Lac only serves to grow more complicated when they add a fledgling vampire/daughter, Claudia, into their already chaotic family dynamics. Found family trope gone wrong is truly the only way to describe the trio's tumultuous descent into blood, betrayal and pain.

While the series is brilliantly executed, new viewers should be encouraged to pay attention to the content warnings featured at the beginning of certain episodes.

“Interview with the Vampire” is a case study on what it means when the worst in you loves the worst in someone else. And with the filming of season two resuming in October after AMC’s deal with SAGAFTRA, you have plenty of time to fall in love with the worst of it too.

ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX KENDALL

Concert culture is going through its eras

By CASEY WIEDERHOLD Photography Editor

After I get tickets for a concert, my first thought is always, “What am I going to wear?”

I go through the entirety of my closet and can never find anything until the week before. Other than the stress of finding the perfect outfit, my thoughts are occupied by the excitement of seeing my favorite artist.

Concerts are fun environments created by the

artists and their fans. When the fans and artists take inspiration from each other, it makes them even more entertaining. They change and add their own little details to other concerts. Concert culture, or certain aspects of fan culture such as dressing up or sharing little trinkets is always growing and changing.

For example, The Jonas Brothers, who are currently on tour for their new album, “The Album,” have taken inspiration from Taylor

Swift. In 2015, during The 1989 Tour, Swift introduced ‘Swiftbands,’ light up bracelets that sync up to the set list of the concert. These were also a part of Swift’s Reputation and Eras Tours.

Much to my surprise, I found that Swift was not the first one to start the light up bracelets aspect of concerts. This was originally started by the band Coldplay in 2011.

Harry Styles has inspired his fans to dress up and his events are known for changing how fans dress for concerts. In 2021, when Styles began touring for “Fine Line,” his second studio album, fans would show up in feather boas and extravagant outfits. This very quickly became a trend at other concerts.

Swift’s concerts are one of them. At The Eras Tour, concert-goers dress up in fancy outfits from the 10 different albums, or “eras” as Swift refers to them. An example of this is wearing pink for the “Lover” era and a white dress with cowboy boots and hat for the “Debut” era.

Fans of other artists, such as Beyoncé and the Jonas Brothers, have also taken note of this. Individuals dress up as the Jonas Brothers when they competed in the Disney Channel Games back in 2008. For Beyoncé, her fans have taken the liberty to dress in sparkling outfits that represent her most recent album “Renaissance.”

Even when I attended a Hippo Campus concert in June 2023, I decorated a cowboy hat because their EP “Wasteland,” had underlying country themes.

Another concert trend Swift introduced is friendship bracelets. In her 10th studio album, “Midnights,” a song titled “You’re On Your Own Kid” entered the scene. In the song, Swift mentions, “So make the friendship bracelets/ Take the moment and taste it.” This is exactly what fans did. Fans started to make and trade bracelets at The Eras Tour, and as a result, it spilled over into other artists' concerts. There were people trading friendship bracelets at the Jonas Brothers concert on Aug.12.

On Sept. 9, I had the privilege of attending an Arctic Monkeys concert. Alex Turner, the lead singer of the band, dresses in suits when he performs. Naturally, the fans follow. I wore a black skirt with a white top. I would look around and see girls in combat boots and skater skirts. As for the men who attended the concert, they all wore nicer shirts and khaki pants. I did, however, see one person in a suit.

The mentality of preparing for the Arctic Monkeys concert was different. I didn’t feel like I had to present myself as a different era of the band. I took inspiration from the song “Arabella” to put my outfit together.

Concert culture, as a whole, has had tons of influence on how people dress. The environment around concerts has also changed, in a good way. The younger crowds are having more fun and bringing other aspects of concerts around.

Concert culture should stay this way.

Dream’s debut EP is ‘All about the Love’

By ALEX MARTINAKOVA Copy Editor

It’s 2020 and I am sitting in my room, locked inside by the raging worldwide pandemic. Browsing YouTube, I stumble upon a faceless Minecraft YouTuber nicknamed “Dream”, whose Minecraft manhunting series quickly became my favorite.

It’s 2023 and I am sitting in my dorm room, bobbing my head and singing under my breath to the no longer faceless YouTuber’s first EP, “to whoever wants to hear.”

Though the album was released on Sept. 1, I haven’t been able to stop listening since my first playthrough. While it can be argued the EP sounds like any other pop album, it’s the power behind Dream’s lyrics that make me unable to tear myself away.

And listen, do not expect Shakespearean ballads to come out from under this man’s pen. He’s still a guy who makes his living by playing a blocky video game. It’s about the message Dream tries to get across, the message that is so painfully clear and strong it takes you aback.

“The overall theme of the EP is love, but not in a traditional sense that you would think,” Dream said in an interview with the Associated Press on Aug. 31. “Every song is about love, whether it’s about loving my family, or loving my life, or loving somebody.”

The opening track, “Slow Down,” is, an appropriate way to start off this EP. It's upbeat, yet gentle melody almost creates an illusion of a comfort blanket over the slightly melancholic lyrics.

Dream noted that the song is “less about worrying about the future and more about understanding where you are and appreciating everything you have”.

I don’t like to think about the passage of time. I don’t like to dwell on the little

moments that I didn’t enjoy enough, that have slipped through my fingers. That’s why I often steer clear of songs that focus on this sort of message. And yet I can’t stop listening to this track.

“I lay awake at night, feelin’ like I’m behind / I’ll blink a couple times and I’ll be twenty-five,” has to be the most relatable lyric I have heard in the past year. Who hasn’t felt like this at least once in their life?

“Kind of Love” is easily my favorite song from this EP. Released alongside an emotional music video featuring footage from Dream’s childhood, this song has made an impressive impact amongst his fans.

“I like making songs that can apply to more than one specific situation,” Dream explained to the AP against speculations from his fans about this track being a love song. “No one will understand your relationships, regardless if it’s with your family or your significant other. Everyone has a unique kind of love.”

I believed this to be a love song as well, and it indeed is one. Though just like Dream has said, it’s a different kind of love.

“To whoever wants to hear / Losing you is my biggest fear / Not sure how to speak about it” and “Even when you’re far away / Next to me is where you’ll stay / We have, we have a different kind of love” almost brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard them.

I am an only child and moving away from my family was a tough decision. Dream unknowingly captured the fear of losing a loved one that you barely see, in a beautiful love letter to his family.

That’s the main reason why I truly love this song. Love songs are so common and overplayed nowadays. Hearing a song that spills unconditional love from every lyric dedicated to family is like a breath of fresh air. A much needed breath.

Completely switching the tone, track

three, and my second favorite — titled “Paranoid” — is an upbeat bop, once again camouflaging some heavier lyrics here and there.

“Drafted at 2 a.m., those texts I’ve never sent / ‘Cause now I kinda doubt it, that you’re my friend again / You’re not my friend again? / Oh wait, you’ve never been / They don’t need evidence, isn’t it evident?”

At first glance, this song seems to be talking about friendship, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

As Dream revealed, the word friend is used rather sarcastically in this scenario. I would dive into how deeply I connected with these lyrics and how hardly they resonated, but I think I’m going to let Dream do the talking.

“For me, ever since my past relationships, anytime I talk to somebody where I could start falling for them, I’m overwhelmed with this sense of paranoia,” Dream told the AP. “I’ve had the problem of distancing myself because ‘Oh god, what’s gonna happen?’ I’m giving my heart to somebody and you

don’t know what they’re gonna do with it.”

I could go systematically word by word through every song and break down the meaning behind it along with every emotion it stirred up in me, but we would be here for a month at least.

So let me just quickly skip over “Spotlight,” “Everest” and “Invincible” — which feels short of a crime to me — to give “Until I End up Dead” an honorary mention.

The first track to be released came with a music video dedicated to Dream’s fellow content creator — Technoblade — who sadly passed away from cancer last year. This song tore open the hearts of everyone who ever watched the two of them.

“It’s a very positive spin on death,” Dream said. “Technoblade was very, very sarcastic, so I took that sarcasm and ran with it.”

I don’t think Dream could’ve chosen a better way to fully start his music career than this EP. It’s authentic, raw and simple. It’s a heart laid out bare, and isn’t that the most beautiful thing?

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY CASEY WIEDERHOLD

Casey Wiederhold and her family dressed as some of Taylor Swift's different 'eras' at The Eras Tour at MetLife Stadium.

Two years later, QU alum Neil Breen finds clarity in recovery from hockey’s lasting impact on the brain

No alarm sounds as Neil Breen climbs out of bed at 4:30 a.m. He set his alarm for six, but his body clock woke him up earlier, as it has nearly every day for the last 11 months.

As soon as the sun comes up, he heads outside and laces up a pair of rollerblades for a three-mile fartlek sprint around a loop by his house in Florida (he’s since moved to Nebraska). That’s followed by a hard 40-minute punching bag session and then weight training on alternating days.

It’s a drastic contrast from the first time The Chronicle spoke to Breen nearly two years ago. The former Quinnipiac men’s hockey bruiser is almost 100 pounds lighter than he was then, and more significantly, has shed much of the crushing weight that years of brain-rattling head injuries had burdened him with.

Traumatic brain injuries, or “TBIs,” are caused by repeated violent blows to the head, and are common in collision sports such as ice hockey. Such injuries have proven to serve as precursors to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or “CTE,” a progressive and fatal brain disease that can only be diagnosed after death.

“(It’s) night and day,” Neil said. “I was a mess, a big time mess. I would just lose track of what I was thinking and saying … I would say drastic improvement, and if you talk to any of my family members, they would say the same thing.”

And they did.

“He’s done really well,” Heather Breen, Neil’s wife, said. “Do I think he’s cured? No, I don’t really think there is a cure. But have I seen a huge difference? Absolutely.”

After years of mounting symptoms that almost tore them apart, the Breen family: Neil, Heather and their two children, is stronger than ever, as evidenced by Heather’s latest tattoos, of bees.

“We’re the killer bees,” Heather said. “Because our last name is Breen. Together we’re united, or whatever.”

Neil has his own tattoos, all of which are equally meaningful, except for one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers logo, which Heather calls “horrendous.” She also wishes he’d clean up around the kitchen more. But those shortcomings are nothing compared to what the pair dealt with before

Neil embarked on his current healing path.

Angry outbursts were common for him. Drinking exacerbated the problem. The tension rose and rose, culminating in an ill-fated move from Connecticut to Florida.

“There’s four of us and our dog and he’s pulling this huge 30,000-pound (trailer) and he was just screaming and freaking out,” Heather said. “I thought it was going to be the end of us. Like not divorce, I thought we were just going to die.”

But today there exists a much more mellow Neil. One who meditates when he wakes up in the morning and embraces conversations with his children about mental health.

“I’ve made a lot of realizations and taken a lot of steps to improve my health,” Neil said. “I was a miserable shell of my former self. And now I feel like I’m back, but there’s still a lot of unanswered questions.”

THE SCIENCE OF RECOVERY

In his recovery, Neil took it upon himself to find the solutions that he had too long sought in medications.

“I was taking every medication under the sun to treat the symptoms that come along with CTE,” Neil said. “Depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, all these things I was experiencing and I was just getting prescribed drug after drug and none of them worked.”

Seeking alternatives to clear the fog and get his life back, he tried a one-time controlled

use of the psychedelic drug ketamine.

“There was other stuff like shrooms and Ayahuasca. I’m not doing that crazy shit,” Neil said. “Ketamine has at least been out on the market, it has a little bit more proven science behind it, so I went for it, and it worked.”

Ketamine is a non-competitive Nmethyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, and considered a psychedelic under the broad definition of the term. Used medically as a form of anesthesia for decades, the FDA approved the use of ketamine as an antidepressant in 2019.

Research in recent years suggests that ketamine promotes neurogenesis, cell proliferation, synaptogenesis and an increase in white matter in the brain –all of which aid in the regrowth of synaptic connections that have been severed as a result of unrelenting stress linked to depression and PTSD, according to John Krystal, professor of translational research, psychiatry, neuroscience and psychology at Yale.

Krystal co-authored a study in June 2023 that reported beneficial neural changes in patients suffering from PTSD following a single infusion of ketamine. He wrote in an Aug. 7 email to The Chronicle that the lack of research on the drug as a treatment with those suffering from conditions like Neil’s make it difficult to conclusively

determine its efficacy.

“It is possible, but there has been very little study of ketamine effectiveness in TBI patients,” Krystal wrote. “An intriguing idea is that the neurotrophic (“nerve growth”) consequences of ketamine treatment might be helpful for TBI.”

Neil used the telehealth service Mindbloom to administer the treatment at home. He recalls seeing a strong female warrior figure lead him through the experience.

“It’s going to sound crazy, but some weird shit happened to me when I was tripping,” Neil said. “I couldn’t really put it into words, but they just sort of showed me which way to walk and there were some symbols in there, stuff that I had to break down with a therapist afterwards.”

Neil and his therapist concluded that the warrior represented the “warrior lifestyle” he lived both as a hockey player and fighter, and that he could harness that to help others along the same path.

“I think the drug took me to places that I’d never been before subconsciously,” Neil said. “And then the teaching and the work you do around it, like to learn how to meditate and stuff, just takes it even further.

“I learned how to control some of the behaviors I was experiencing and address setting intentions. Things you’ve heard your whole life are good to do … those are actually things that became lifesavers for me.”

‘I feel like I’m back’

By CAMERON LEVASSEUR and ETHAN HURWITZ

“We’re the killer bees, because our name is Breen. Together we’re united, or whatever.”

– Heather Breen

He began to simplify. Working out and training became a big part of his life again. Fasting made him feel strong and the switch to a carnivore keto diet heightened those feelings.

“I only eat animal products because I feel amazing,” Neil said. “I feel like I’m 20 again.”

But is such a diet sustainable?

“Having a diet that is that strict, there are potential repercussions,” said Dana White, Quinnipiac sports dietitian and associate clinical professor of athletic training and sports medicine. “Carbohydrates are your primary source of energy. Your brain only runs on glucose … If no glucose is coming in, then it needs to be converted to something else and that’s not super efficient, just in terms of metabolism.”

NOT A ONE-SPORT ISSUE

Neil may feel 20, but in reality, he’s a 45-year-old who can’t be clinically diagnosed with CTE until after he dies. It’s one of the many things with the condition that makes it so hard to pinpoint.

“He’s done a lot better. It’s still hard. People don’t believe him, they think it’s an excuse,” Heather said. “If you’re not diagnosed as it because you can’t be diagnosed as it until you’re gone, then they think it’s just something you’re saying. And then as a spouse, you’re like both sides. You’re supportive, but also like, ‘Okay, are they pushing it a little,’ and then you feel guilty that you would ever leave someone that would be in this situation.”

The lasting impact of head injuries is not limited to former hockey players like Neil. Other athletes — predominantly football players — have gone through their own battles with CTE diagnosis. While he’s a lucky one, former NFL defensive end and Super Bowl champion Zach Moore knows how dangerous these injuries can be.

“Documented concussions, I definitely had several in college and in the league,” Moore said. “I’ve had a plethora of head injuries … I’ve read that if you’ve played football for an extended period of time, there’s a 99% chance that you’ll have CTE upon death.”

It sounds crazy, but he’s right. According to a 2017 Journal of the American Medical Association study, 99% of donated brains from former NFL players were diagnosed with CTE. The longer athletes played football, the worse the brain damage was.

Moore, who’s an International Sports Science Association certified personal trainer and licensed nutritionist, played five seasons in the NFL. Throughout his career — including stops in six different cities — he felt the collective weight

that professional athletes feel, physically and mentally.

“Back when I was playing, it wasn’t really talked about,” Moore said. “We’re taught to be super aggressive, violent dudes … a lot of those spill into real life. It all correlates with our mental health.”

Moore doesn’t know Neil. He didn’t know his story. Yet, as athletes in a physical game, the former NFL draft pick felt for the former hockey star.

“It doesn’t matter how much money you make or what status your life is in, you’re not immune to what life can throw at you,” Moore said. “Definitely love yourself, take care of yourself and don’t be afraid to ask for help.”

There’s somewhat of a collective bond formed between athletes in high-contact sports. It’s what drew Breen to former USA Olympic bobsledder William Person, who he reached out to after reading an article in The New York Times about Person’s lawsuit against USA Bobsled for its alleged nondisclosure of head injury risk in the sport.

“William saved my life,” Neil said. “I’m going to the bank, and I couldn’t get out of the car to go in and I’d call William and be like, ‘Dude, I can’t get out of the car, has this ever happened to you?’ And he’d be like, ‘Yeah, dude it happens all the time, it’s this social anxiety thing.’ So I’m just sitting in there and he’s talking me off the ledge just to get me to go into the bank and get some cash.”

Neil has not fully overcome his symptoms, and likely never will. Both he and Heather acknowledge the incurable nature of traumatic brain injuries. But he has

turned a corner in his recovery, and wants to help others do the same.

“I think it’s important that people know that CTE or suspected CTE doesn’t have to be like this crazy, terminal thing,” Neil said. “If you do the right things, eat right, exercise, learn how to meditate … you’re going to have a great life, and you can put a lot of side effects to the wayside.”

“I’M SUPER STOKED THAT I PLAYED THE SPORT, AND I ALWAYS WILL BE.”

Where hockey is concerned, Neil doesn’t want to tear down or radically change the sport. And he certainly doesn’t want people to think that he blames his alma mater for his ailments. His love for Quinnipiac remains strong. The national championship trophy is front and center in his LinkedIn Banner.

“I almost think I needed to cycle back and make sure that people knew I wasn’t trying to bring down the program or bring down hockey, I guess I was just looking for ways to get help,” Neil said. “I even talked to (head coach) Rand (Pecknold), we had a good cry. Well I did, I don’t think he cried.

“Super proud of him and what he’s accomplished. Nothing I’ve said I hope ever hurts him. He’s a big influence and I’m happy the boys did it and I’m so proud to be a Bobcat.”

But that doesn’t mean Neil doesn’t want the game to progress. He preaches smarter hitting strategies to his players.

“I tell guys, the best way to hit effectively is to separate the man from the puck, not to blow him up,” Neil said. “If you

can’t make contact with a guy by putting stick on puck, hands on hands, body on body, if you can’t do that with control, you shouldn’t really be hitting. You’re putting yourself at risk.”

After spending much of his adult life as a coach in nearly every junior league in the U.S., there are aspects of the culture that irk him – and the new Neil has no problem saying as much.

“There are owners out there that don’t care, they just want you to sign the kid and take the money, and I just can’t do that,” Neil said. “And when that happens, when I’m put in a position to make that choice or that decision, it’s fight or flight. It’s like, ‘if you make me do that, I’m out of here.’”

That idea of putting the individual second is why Neil says “hockey guys don’t tell the truth,” a sentiment amplified as the game’s biggest voices undermine the struggle of countless athletes like him by preaching a sermon of denial again and again in regard to the dangers of the sport.

“(Neil) did his thing for the Lancers and Quinnipiac and all the other people.” Heather said. “And now if you bring it up, it’s like ‘How dare you even say that CTE word around hockey that gave you this wonderful life,’ … It’s not right.”

Dozens of former hockey players have been posthumously diagnosed with CTE, including NHL legends Stan Mikita, Henri Richard and Bob Probert. A 2022 Boston University preliminary study found that each additional year of playing the sport may increase the risk of CTE by 23%.

Hockey’s physical nature cannot simply be removed from the game. It’s too interwoven in its fabric. But what Neil and many others are seeking is for the sport’s leaders to accept its consequences and adapt in response, promoting a smarter game and providing resources to prevent more lives from being derailed by the longterm impacts of head trauma.

The spiral that trauma sent Neil down pitted him against the game itself in his last interview with The Chronicle — a mental war against the sport that shaped a lot of who he is, the good and the bad. Today, he sings a different tone, adamant in what hockey has done for him … for the most part.

“I think my mindset back then was if I never played hockey, I would have never been feeling this way,” Neil said. “But I’m in a place now where I’m super stoked that I played the sport, and I always will be. But there will always be times too where I’m like ‘Damn, why didn’t I choose basket weaving.’”

INFOGRAPHIC BY PEYTON MCKENZIE

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY NEIL BREEN

Neil Breen played for Quinnipiac from 1998-2002, recording more than 100 points and captaining the Bobcats as a senior

By ETHAN HURWITZ Sports Editor

The two programs that are headed by Carolyn Martin at Quinnipiac — women’s cross country and track and field — are some of the most successful teams on campus in the past decade.

But who is Martin? For starters, a proud Quinnipiac alum.

“Being a (former) student-athlete here makes my passion run a little bit deeper,” Martin said. “(I’m) really passionate about Quinnipiac … I knew this is what I wanted to pursue full-time. I was a captain, I was an assistant and I was a head coach, I’ve seen every aspect.”

Now as the leader of the same Bobcats she used to run for, Martin has tried to pass down some of her own wisdom from her collegiate days.

“Just trying to get some light (to) come to the sport,” senior Liv DeStefano said. “She’s tried a lot to (implement a) ‘Let’s just have fun, we get to do this’ type of vibe, so I think that’s really helped us.”

Martin’s strategy has worked well historically, as both the cross country and track and field programs had record-setting seasons a year ago. Women’s cross country dominated its way to the MAAC title, and the indoor track team finished second in the conference meet.

“She’s honestly like the team mom,” DeStefano said. “She’s been able to connect with us individually … When I first got here, it wasn’t as easy to connect with her. She’s been prioritizing meeting people one-on-one.”

Whether it’s meeting with her runners individually, running with them during practice or just standing off to the side, everyone around her has felt her impact.

Sports

“She’s a really good coach and a really good person,” sophomore Rachel St. Germain said. “It means a lot to me that I can be coached by her, she reminds me a lot of my high school coach and I was very close with him.”

St. Germain may seem glimpses of her previous coach in her new coach, but Martin said she tries to resemble her own high school teacher, Eunice Hindley.

“She was my history teacher in high school and she hounded me,” Martin said. “(She) was hugely instrumental in helping me find my passion.”

Hindley — a Ponaganset Athletic Hall of Famer, along with Martin — led the running programs at Ponaganset High School in Rhode Island from 1978 to 2004. By her side was her daughter Jill Lawrence, a science teacher that took an appreciation for her own student.

“Carolyn was super bright, a high achieving student,” Lawrence said. “Just someone who smiles all the time. She would be smiling … She was a great student (as well). She had such a tight relationship with my mom.”

Whether it was in the classroom or running alongside Martin after school, Lawrence was always by her side. Both teacher and pupil still stay in contact — Martin talked to her old science teacher over the winter – and they have glowing words for each other, even 30 years later. Hindley still has old newspaper clippings of Martin hanging in her house.

“I remember my mom talked about Carolyn more than anybody else,” Lawrence said. “She had a really good amount of talent, but she also had this incredible work ethic. The combination of those two is always a recipe for great success.”

That success in high school, which saw Martin rack up all-state award after all-state

award after all-state award, carried over to Quinnipiac. During her time as a Bobcat, she was the NEC Champion in the 10,000 meters. That came right after she won two individual conference titles in the indoor season, and was named to the All-Conference and All-New England teams.

Those seasons, the last two as captain, set the groundwork for Martin’s coaching career. Whether it’s in recruiting, daily workouts or just trying to get the team to mesh, it all stems from her love of teaching.

“I taught anatomy and physiology, (and) taught science (at Hamden High School in) my early years,” Martin said. “I can kinda implement my science background, that’s what our training is. I think that helped me to be a good coach.”

For education majors, the distinction between teaching and coaching runs deep. At the high school level, it’s uncommon to see sports teams have coaches who aren’t teachers in some capacity. Just like Hindley, Lawrence and Martin.

“For me, I think teaching is very similar to coaching,” Martin said. “You get to work a little closer with individual relationships, but you’re essentially doing the same thing. You’re teaching them more life skills, you’re teaching them more about how to be a team player … I think it’s helpful to be a teacher first.”

The leadership torch has been passed down from Hindley to Lawrence to Martin, now to DiStefano and current graduate student Emily Young. Those two captains are now tasked with leading this current group of Bobcats, but have a model leader in their corner.

“She’s always been more mature, ahead of her peers,” Lawrence said. “That’s how she

was in high school as well.”

Similar to herself, Martin looks for passionate kids. The ones who put the team first and those who are willing to push themselves. It doesn’t hurt to be fast too.

“Yeah, you are looking for the most talented kids,” Martin said. “But especially in our sport … you can get better, so kids who have that drive and have that willingness usually go farther.”

It was Martin’s own drive that saw her shine in Hamden years ago, the same drive that’s propelling today’s Bobcats toward new heights.