Two months in, students disheartened with The Grove
Quinnipiac University opened up its newest residence hall on Mount Carmel Campus, The Grove, this past August as part of the South Quad project.
The Grove houses first-years alongside up-
perclassmen — that serve as “mentors” in the building for their handful of first-year students.
And since the start of the project, returning students weren’t thrilled about the new building.
When the residence hall finally got its name, after the Pine Grove that used to stand in that exact
area, students took to Instagram comments to express their distaste.
“‘embody the legacy’ of 65 massive trees, by replacing them with concrete and plumbing and
By CARLEIGH BECK
Quinnipiac University President Judy Olian suffered a back injury from a biking accident while visiting Arizona, according to an Oct. 8 university-wide email.
“I am sharing some personal news in the interest of transparency,” Olian wrote. “Last week, I was cycling and was struck from behind by a pickup truck.”
Olian purchased a house in Scottsdale, Arizona in October 2022.
The accident occurred around 10:50 a.m. on Oct. 1 on her private property, according to New Haven Register.
President Olian was hospitalized for injuries to her back. She was wearing a helmet at the time of the crash, according to the email.
Her path to recovery will extend over the following months despite avoiding any life-threatening injuries. She will participate in ongoing treatments to aid the healing process. Per the email, Olian plans to continue her dedicated role at Quinnipiac while taking the necessary steps to recover from her accident.
“The only information we’re releasing is the statement you received from President Olian,” wrote John Morgan, associate vice president for public relations, in a statement to The Chronicle. Hannah DiMauro contributed to this report.
Quinnipiac shuttle service adds new stops to support international commuter students
By AVA HIGHLAND Staff Writer
Quinnipiac University shuttle service is running a new service to support the increasing number of international graduate students who live off-campus in the local community.
Most international students do not have access to a car, due to the costs as well as the lengthy time it can take to get a license.
“It can take several months to obtain a CT driver’s license,” wrote Sarah Driscoll, director of international student services, in an email to The Chronicle. “Additionally, some students don’t intend to drive in the U.S. because it can be costprohibitive. The CT transit public bus routes and schedules are limited and it can be intimidating to learn the system.”
This new service not only provides transportation to class, but helps avoid the expenses of other transportation. Students often use alternative services, like Uber, however this quickly becomes a costly option.
“As an international student without a car, transportation to and from campus has been one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced,” second year MBA major, Kike Adetula wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “While there are public buses, they aren’t always the most convenient or timely option, especially when balancing classes and other responsibilities. The alternative — using Uber or other ride-sharing services — can become quite expensive, especially over time
Some students have been walking over three miles a day from off-campus housing near Hamden Center or to and from the Whitney Village shuttle stop. Now moving into the colder weather, this new service ishas become even more crucial.
“The creation of a shuttle supporting students living off-campus has been an initiative that the Office of International Students & Scholars has been advocating for for about a
year,” Driscoll wrote “We have been working in partnership with the Department of Public Safety to explore the options. This conversation is ongoing as we will now track the ridership of this new route and seek feedback from offcampus students on continued improvements.”
The new service has a morning and evening shuttle from Hamden Center and Whitney Ave./ Dickerman Street to the Mount Carmel Campus on weekdays. While the initiative is aimed for international students living off-campus locally, the service is available to all Quinnipiac students.
The shuttle route has now been in service for over a week, students have benefited from this new option.
“I’ve had the chance to use the new shuttle service, and it’s been helpful to have it available so close to my house,” wrote Adetula. “It’s a relief to have an option that eliminates the need for expensive Uber rides or waiting for the bus.”
While the service only runs two times a day, but those times do not align well with some students’ schedules.
“I think the service could be even more beneficial if it had more flexible running hours,” Adetula wrote. “Many graduate students, including myself, have classes in the afternoon or evening, so being on campus from 9 a.m. isn’t always practical. Having shuttle times that align more closely with our class schedules would make it much easier for us to attend classes and other campus activities without long gaps in our day.”
The service also allows for easier access to oncampus activities, making students feel closer to their community.more a part of the community.
“This QU shuttle expansion provides a reliable, free and convenient solution with a commuter service to Mount Carmel Campus throughout the week for students to attend class, work on-campus jobs, and access Quinnipiac
services like the RecWell, library and so much more,” Driscoll wrote.
The benefits of this service expand to all Quinnipiac students as well.
“Even students that have a car may find that by taking this shuttle they can save money and not need to worry about finding a parking spot on campus,” Driscoll wrote.
Students will also have easier access to support local businesses. This includes the stop at Dickerman Street /Whitney Ave., which brings students to the shopping center where Fresh Greens and Proteins and Latte Soul are located.
Since this service has been in the planning stages for a year, there were several steps and research involved before it was officially launched.
“We looked at qualitative and quantitative survey data and gathered that a shuttle service for off-campus students would dramatically improve their experience,” Driscoll wrote.
Driscoll and her team mapped out the addresses of where said international students live, as the university-offered graduate housing fills up quickly and doesn’t gets filled out fast and doesn’t offer many spots. They found that approximately 40 students live within close walking distance of Hamden Center and Whitney Ave.
After gathering this information, they proposed that an existing shuttle divert from its schedule for 30 minutes, and add the two stops at Hamden Center and Dickerman St./Whitney Ave in the morning and evening.
“This plan would allow us to pilot this offcampus housing shuttle service and track ridership during the semester with minimal interruption to normal operations and without the significant investment in a separate shuttle,” Driscoll wrote.
Driscoll and her team partnered with Public Safety to push forth with their initiative.
“Public Safety were amazing partners and
they were very open to our ideas,” Driscoll wrote.
“They quickly worked with Valet Park to make this vision a reality and we were thrilled to be able to launch it.”
The new shuttle service provides support to over 20% of the international population, who live near the new stops.
“I think the new shuttle service aimed at international students will make a big difference, especially in helping us feel more connected to the campus and the community,” Adeutla wrote. “It would be a huge relief to have a consistent, safe and cost-effective option.”
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Public Safety opens its doors to students
By TYLER MIGNAULT Staff Photographer
On Wednesday, Oct. 9, the Department of Public Safety opened its doors to the Quinnipiac University community. The goal of the Open House was to showcase the abundant support the department has to offer Quinnipiac students. Upon arrival, visitors were greeted by officers
and staff who contribute to the 24/7 operation of the public safety building.
“(Public Safety) is part of your educational journey, just knowing that there’s a resource here for students if they ever want to report anything that happened,” said Tony Reyes, chief of public safety.
Executive Assistant Patti Pragano took visiting students and faculty on
a tour of the space, which included the surveillance room, training room, offices and the communal kitchenette equipped with freshly baked goods.
“I want the students to feel that public safety is an area that is approachable, and it’s a resource program,” Reyes said.
Staff Meetings on Tuesdays in SB 123 at 9:15 p.m.
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TYLER MIGNAULT/CHRONICLE
Chief of Public Safety Tony Reyes (right) talking to Director of Recreation David Hall (middle) during the Open House on Oct. 9, 2024.
TYLER MIGNAULT/CHRONICLE
Students exploring the surveillance room during the Public Safety Open House
TYLER MIGNAULT/CHRONICLE
Patti Pragano, executive assistant, shows students around.
TYLER MIGNAULT/CHRONICLE Police department badges on display at the Public Safety building.
TYLER MIGNAULT/CHRONICLE
Men’s hockey national champions banner decorates the office in the Public Safety building.
TYLER MIGNAULT/CHRONICLE
A meeting room in the Public Safety building during the Open House.
Quinnipiac student-athletes take a shot at mental health
By CLAIRE FRANKLAND Contributing Writer
Mental health is a topic that has often been pushed to the side, and is given little thought in the case of student-athletes. People typically put emphasis and care on the physical health of athletes, overlooking the struggles they may be facing mentally.
As Quinnipiac University’s Division I and club athletes gear up for the 2024-25 seasons, the community strives to bring awareness to student-athletes’ mental health as a part of Morgan’s Message.
Morgan’s Message is a non-profit organization created in remembrance of Morgan Rodgers, a Division I lacrosse player at Duke University.
In January of 2017, Rodgers was sidelined by a knee injury that required several surgeries and months of recovery. Two summers later, she died by suicide at the age of 22.
“It’s important that people feel they’re supported, and regardless if you know they’re injured or if they may seem perfectly fine,” sophomore field hockey defender Katie Shanahan said. “It’s important that people are checked on, and mental health awareness is something that should not be taken lightly.”
Morgan’s Message was created to bring awareness to the mental health of student-athletes at the high school and collegiate levels, encouraging peer conversations around mental health, a topic that has been pushed to the side for athletes. The organization further strives to empower athletes who suffer in silence and support those who feel alone.
Sophomore track and field sprinter Elise Barricelli is this year’s president of the Quinnipiac Morgan’s Message chapter, holding meetings, organizing events and creating workshops for students.
“I’ve always been an advocate for mental health awareness since high school, and it’s something that’s really important to me, and
to be a part of a cause that is for mental health for student athletes, specifically means a lot to me,” Barricelli said.
Barricelli got the role as president this year and has been thrilled to lead a great initiative and spread it across campus to all athletes,
steel,” one user wrote.
“Cool but you guys still cut down an entire ecosystem for your profit,” another wrote.
When the 417-bed hall finally opened at the start of the Fall 2024 semester, all seemed well. The Grove boasts rooms full of new furniture, private bathrooms for its occupants and massage chairs — features that one would not find in the other first-year residence halls.
However, a month and a half into the semester, all that seemed well no longer does.
Firstly, first-year students had to apply to live in The Grove. The application laid out requirements for living in the new building, including a community service project which students would work on throughout their first year. This is the focus of the QU 100: The Grove Living Learning Experience course. This course counts for no credit.
“We did, over the summer, (an) application, which (had) questions like, ‘if you’re in The Grove, what kind of project would you do?’” said Jake Marino, a first-year finance major.
Some first-year students found out about another factor of living in The Grove during their move-in: the mentoring program.
“So I did know about the project, although I didn’t know what I was going to be doing yet. I just knew that there was going to be one,” said Catherine Carl, a first-year marketing major. “I didn’t know about the mentor program. I found out move-in day that I had a mentor. She introduced herself to me.”
The mentor’s role is, in part, to help first-years with their projects. Mentors are sophomores, juniors and seniors who chose to live in the building to guide the students. Students like Carl knew about the project, but were unsure of the details.
Residents of the building take a “first year seminar class” related to one of four topics: the environmental sustainability, health and education, community engagement and equity and in-
with the proper tools and help to get started on their campuses and spread the message, through their education department.
“We help them get started, and then we ask them to attend an onboarding Zoom, which goes through their role as an ambassador, how we sup-
whether they play at the Division I or club level,” Baricelli said.
Baricelli is also in charge of the events.
“There was a speaker that I organized to come,” Barricelli said. “That was really impactful, to just hear someone else’s story about how they dealt with mental health and kind of what they’ve been through through their life.”
While student-athlete mental health had been previously neglected, through Morgan’s Message, communities are able to normalize conversations surrounding mental health for athletes. Morgan’s Message further provides student ambassadors
clusion. These classes are supposed to “Tie their big idea with their academic journey,” according to Quinnipiac’s webpage on The Grove.
The FYS class, which all first-years take a variation of, counts for three credits. There are specific sections of the class that go hand-in-hand with the QU 100 course.
First-year students have support of their mentors and the professors of the FYS classes for their project. However, the parameters for it have been unclear to the professors as well.
“There seems to be no template, so professors are doing different things, and that’s creating anxiety with the students,” said Professor Wayne Lavender, a professor for one of The Grove FYS classes. “And having no template is a good and bad thing, because it allows creativity, allows us to do things, but the (creation of) anxiety is a bad thing.”
Professors have begun improvising the guidelines on the project in hopes that it would meet the unknown requirements.
“My (professor) even said ‘I don’t know what to tell you.’ He’s getting nothing about the project,” Marino said. “At this point, my (professor), a couple classes ago, put markers in front of us and was like, ‘instead of waiting for something be said, come up with your own project, and we’ll kind of push that, and we’ll look forward and see what happens.’”
Lavender has taken a different approach with his faculty affiliate for their theme, the environment. They have been working together to create an approach.
“I’m lucky just to be working with someone who’s organized, and we’re meeting and we’re getting it done, because we didn’t think we should wait much longer,” Lavender said. “It’s already halfway through the semester, so we so she and I really wanted to be on it, and I think the other ones are just waiting for instructions from above.”
Lavender has spoken to his students on how to approach the situation. Many of his students were anxious about the project.
port them and kind of the commitments that we’re looking for from them,” said Haley Thomas, the education coordinator for Morgan’s Message.
Shanahan, the Quinnipiac student-athlete ambassador chair, and has been involved with Morgan’s Message since her freshman year. She is one of 2,515 college ambassadors volunteering to promote student-athlete mental health and Morgan’s Message across their respective campuses.
“I know that mental health is super important as a student athlete and a college student in general,” Shanahan said. “It’s important to prioritize mental health and making sure that you’re do-
ing everything in your power to put yourself in the best mindset every day is important to me. I wanted to help spread awareness to the Quinnipiac campus as well as my teammates and other athletes on campus.”
Student ambassadors further organize and host events to spread the word and organization.
“It’s all by word of mouth and our social media presence,” Thomas said. “A lot of it comes from ‘I heard about this organization from a dedication game.’ It’s one of our most popular events that our campus ambassadors host, and then kind of breaks out.”
As of September 2024, Quinnipiac is one of 622 college campuses that Morgan’s Message has reached. Quinnipiac has 11 student ambassadors on various teams including; men’s club rugby, women’s rugby, field hockey, softball, track and field, women’s club volleyball and men’s basketball.
As a part of Morgan’s Message, Quinnipiac student ambassadors host various dedication games and events to spread awareness of studentathlete mental health.
“We had stickers and bracelets that we wore on our equipment to represent her and the butterfly and the logo that kind of represents Morgan’s Message,” Shanahan said of a recent field hockey dedication game on Sept. 20.
Morgan’s Message has reached 1,918 high schools and college campuses across the United States, as well as Canada, England, Germany and Norway with 5,970 student ambassadors.
Any student athlete in high school or college playing at any level can apply to be a student ambassador through the Morgan Message website.
“It’s important that people feel they’re supported, and regardless if you know they’re injured or if they may seem perfectly fine … it’s important that people are checked on, and mental health awareness is something that should not be taken lightly,” Shanahan said.
“My impression (was) students were very upset back at the beginning of September because they had this project. They had no idea what it was,” Lavender said. “I think the first thing that we did in our theme was to have meetings with students and kind of calm them down and say, ‘Listen, you’ve got all these advantages of new dorm.’ We came up with listed 10 advantages to the new dorm.”
The students felt more comfortable about the project after Lavender spoke to them about this.
For students who have no direction about the project, it still sits at the back of their mind.
“The idea crossed my mind where we have nothing about the project now,” Marino said. “But what if they come up with it later, and then they push us to do it, and they expect us to do this whole project in the latter part of the year, when we didn’t get anything for the first half.”
Even though The Grove is the newest building on campus, a month and a half in problems already arose — from a broken AC a few weeks in, to broken bathrooms.
“We have a communal bathroom right outside of our door,” said Katarina DeWitt, a first-
year journalism and media studies major. “One of the showers doesn’t have a drain in the room. And so the whole bathroom floods and, like, leaks into the hallway, but they closed it permanently in it, you can’t open it. So hopefully that’s not a problem anymore.”
Even though students have moved and lived in The Grove since August, the building didn’t get its official opening until Sept. 8, three weeks into students already living there.
“I think, like, because no one’s lived there yet, there’s minor details, like no drains, there’s nowhere to hang up your clothes in the shower stalls,” DeWitt said. “There’s little stuff that’s missing because no one’s been there (to) tested out. I see people, like, doing construction, patching up the wall and stuff like this already.”
The Chronicle reached out with questions to Sal Filardi, Quinnipiac’s vice president for facilities and capital planning, and has yet to receive a response.
“I can’t complain too much, because I know the other buildings have it so much worse,” DeWitt said.
TYLER RINKO/CHRONICLE
The new washing machines on the second floor of The Grove are ‘Out of Order’ two months after being newly installed.
ILLUSTRATION
You can’t choose your favorite sports teams
By COLIN KENNEDY Managing Editor
Maybe it’s because I’m spoiled.
Growing up a sports fan in Boston, I have seen 12 world championships across the four major sports. I’ve spent my Sundays in the fall watching the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady. The Red Sox reversed the curse and have won four titles since ‘04. The Bruins lifted the Stanley Cup in ‘11, and the Celtics have raised two banners to the rafters of TD Garden.
I’ve probably lived the greatest existence you can ask for as a sports fan, so maybe I just don’t get it. But there has been one problem among sports fans that I just don’t understand. When I see someone that’s a fan of multiple teams across multiple cities, it just doesn’t make sense to me — it actually pisses me off.
It’s just not how it should work, you don’t get to pick your favorite sports teams based on how cool their jerseys look or if they have an awesome player at the time. If that was the case, the whole world should be New England Patriots fans, but they’re not.
Sports fandom means so much more than just cheering for a team on game day or buying your favorite athlete’s jersey. It’s a connection with the city you’re from — an identity. Grow-
ing up in Boston, I had an attachment to the city because of the teams that played in it. My life is filled with memories of going to Red Sox games and getting a Fenway Frank or a Celtics game to see the historic parquet floor. It’s all part of being a fan of the city I’m from.
You form a connection with the city and the people within it. When you go to a game, you don’t know 99% of the people around you. But when I go to a game in Boston it’s like I know everyone near me, high-fiving after a big play, or hugging some random person after the Sox hit a walk-off home run in a playoff game. I’m a part of something bigger than me.
So it just doesn’t make sense to me when I see someone from Manchester, New Hampshire is a fan of the Minnesota Vikings, Florida Panthers, New York Knicks and San Francisco Giants. Get it together buddy, just because Carmelo Anthony popped up on SportsCenter one night when you were seven doesn’t mean you should ruin your sports fandom by being a fan of the Knicks from New Hampshire. By being a fan of a random collection of teams you lose the meaning of what being a sports fan is all about. Those memories of cheering on your team with thousands of fans don’t exist. The best you can get is seeing them when they come to the closest city as an
away fan and it is just not the same.
I’m sorry, you just don’t get to pick your sports teams, it’s just not how it works. I’m sorry you are from North Carolina and have only seen a handful of good teams. That’s just a tough draw, and if one day the Carolina Panthers win a Super Bowl, just think how special it would be because you toughed it out watching a bad football team your whole life.
And so what if your team is bad? It’s just part of being a sports fan, and when it does turn around it becomes that much more special. Just look at this year’s New York Mets. The team hasn’t won a title since 1986 and ever since has been largely mediocre, if not straight-up bad. But this year they are going on this magical run. Being a fan when they are bad makes being a fan when they are good all the more sweeter.
The only exception I’ll understand is if one of your parents is from a different state and made you become a fan of their teams. You still have some form of connection with the city, and cheering on the same sports teams as your parents will always lead to some special memories.
So put away the LeBron James jersey, Timmy from Maine, and pick up a Celtics jersey. I don’t care that LeBron has a sick You-
Tube highlight reel — let me introduce you to Al Horford.
Being a sports fan is bigger than highlights and cool uniforms. It’s about the connection to the city, the grind of seeing a team rebuild and the triumphant feeling when they finally win a championship — even if it takes 30 years. It’s all worth it, trust me.
New MLB rules hold up two years later
By BEN BUSILLO Associate Opinion Editor
Major League Baseball had a problem. Fans were tuning out.
To combat the growing narrative that baseball was dying, the MLB added a series of new rules to make the game easier to watch.
When these rules were implemented, I was skeptical. Long games are my cup of tea. I love sitting down on a Sunday afternoon and watching a three-and-a-halfhour-long baseball game. It never occurred to me that the length of the game is the reason why people were turned off to baseball. I just thought it was because they didn’t like the sport itself.
But as I watched these rule changes in effect, the impact they had on the sport and its viewership became impossible to ignore. The game was not just faster; it was more engaging, more accessible and more fun to watch.
PITCH CLOCK
The pitch clock acts as baseball’s equivalent to basketball’s shot clock. After receiving the ball back from the catcher, the pitcher must begin their motion within 15 seconds with the bases empty, and within 20 seconds with runners on base. On the offensive end, the batter must be in the box and alert to the pitcher with eight seconds to go.
When the pitch clock was first brought up, I hated it. Some of my favorite moments in baseball games were the long dramatic pauses between pitches in a World Series game. With the crowd’s roar in the background, you can feel the magnitude of the situation.
Despite feeling rushed at times, the pitch clock’s positives outweigh the negatives. It is proven to kill dead time in baseball games.
Before the pitch clock was introduced, baseball games were getting longer and longer. In 2021, games were at a whopping average of 3 hours and 10 minutes long, which
is the longest ever. In 2023, the first year of the new rules, games were decreased to 2 hours and 39 minutes, the shortest they’ve been since 1985.
Since games are shorter they’ve become a lot easier to watch, as shown in the average viewership increasing by 7% and the average ballpark attendance increasing by 8.3% from 2022 to 2023.
PICKOFFS
When there is a runner on base, pitchers are now limited to two disengagements from the pitching rubber (pickoff attempt or stepping off) per plate appearance. If a pitcher attempts a third disengagement and is unsuccessful (the runner is not picked off), it is considered a balk, allowing the runner to advance a base.
This rule change has significantly increased bag swiping. Teams stole nearly 3,617 bases this season (the most since 1915), continuing a surge that started in 2023 when runners stole 3,503 bases. Many speedsters who were more conservative on
the base paths, turned into juggernauts. With pictures not being able to keep the runners in check, the latter took advantage.
We’ve seen Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. win the 2023 National League Most Valuable Player award while leading the league with 71 stolen bases (36 more stolen bases than his previous best), while this season we saw Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani swipe 59 bags while also hitting 54 home runs, being the first to enter the 50-home-run 50-stolen-base club.
AN ATTACK ON STRATEGY
One thing that baseball lacks compared to the other core sports (basketball, hockey and football) is the X’s and O’s element, where you can pick out a “play” and run it — like when a head coach calls a run play, when the point guard calls for a pick or when the center handling the puck wants a give and go.
The strategy element in baseball is different because it’s an organized sport, and not free flowing. Strategies are incorporated not in X’s and O’s, but for elements like pitch se-
lection, when to bunt or what relievers you should bring in. The one baseball strategy that is purely X’s and O’s is the shift.
Big pull heavy lefty up at the plate?
Managers would throw three infielders on the right side of second base, almost guaranteeing any ball, hard hit or not, in that direction to be an out.
However, this thinking has gone extinct, as the MLB enacted a rule that basically banned the shift. Now, four infielders must have both feet within the outer boundary of the infield, with two infielders on each side of second base when a pitch is delivered.
Changes like these handicap the manager’s ability to manage his team, which then ruins that ‘set play’ strategy in baseball.
It’s not just the shift restrictions where we have seen an exit of strategy from baseball. The three-batter bullpen rule states that a pitcher must face at least three hitters before being taken out.
Managers now can’t take the opposing at-bats hitter by hitter. It also has proven to handicap the careers of lefty/righty specialists, who used to make a living of only coming into the game to face left-handed or right-handed hitters.
WHAT’S NEXT?
These changes have revitalized the game, grabbing the attention of die-hard and casual fans alike. There seems to be an energy around baseball that we haven’t seen since the Home Run Race of 1998 between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.
But where does baseball go from here? Should the MLB ditch umpires? Having the game being called by artificial intelligence will surely crack down on the flawed human aspect, but it takes away more of the elements that make baseball unique.
Sure this will probably make the game better, but when does it stop becoming baseball?
ILLUSTRATION BY KATERINA PARIZKOVA
ILLUSTRATION BY TYLER MIGNAULT
By LILLIAN CURTIN Opinion Editor
Opinion Clash of the Campaigns
Former President Donald Trump was first elected in 2016 — the same year that Musical.ly became TikTok. This means that during the vast majority of his campaign, the app that the candidates now use for funny campaigns, some of us were using to lip-sync Flighthouse audios and embarrass ourselves.
The 2016 and even the 2020 presidential election was nothing like this election year. It’s become a media race, not just a presidential race. And Vice President Kamala Harris is winning.
This summer, President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, and Harris was nominated as the Democratic nominee at the Democratic National Convention. Before she could even rein in the chaos, TikTok users created a storm of memes and soundbites.
She wasn’t even the official nominee when users and supporters were practically campaigning for her. Her laugh alone took over the internet.
While some candidates get offended with how the media treats them, and what types of memes are made, her team leaned into it. And that was exactly what they needed to do.
Some may say it was her work as vice president that gave her a leg up, but I remember when Democrats were upset that she was going to be the nominee. Once she hit the spotlight, her team didn’t hold back. They are now as “TikTok famous” as “KamalaHQ.”
Now and then, as I’m scrolling on the app, I’ll laugh at a TikTok and then realize it’s Harris’ campaign team. It wasn’t normal until this year to actually enjoy a presidential advertisement, but she’s made a name for herself on social media.
She wasn’t even running until July, but with the help of social media stardom, she’s now a strong contender.
The media race of 2024
She knew going into this race who’s vote she had, and who she needed. Biden didn’t have the favor of younger voters, so she saw what she had to do, and boy, did she do it.
A month before Biden dropped out, he was polling behind Trump with voters between 18 and 26. Now, Harris is polling with a 31-point-lead over Trump with younger voters.
It’s not just TikTok that she’s taking over. Harris faced backlash for not doing interviews until recently. Well, she decided to surprise everyone with a very unique todo list when it came to how she approached this. While she’s on talk shows, she’s also appearing on influencer’s podcasts.
She went on podcasts and shows including “The Howard Stern Show,” “60 Minutes” and “Call Her Daddy” hosted by Alex Cooper.
This lineup was genius. Howard Stern has received backlash for his vulgar sexist comments, and for making his female guests uncomfortable over the years. Harris going on the show was a show of strength, but also a chance to speak to another demographic.
We hear a lot about the “youth” vote, and the “older” vote. But what about the in-between? She’s stood on the soapbox for women and youth, but she struggles with grabbing other age groups’ attention.
“The Howard Stern Show” promotes advertisement by claiming its audience is “upscale professionals, married, 35–44 years old with a household income of approx. $100,000.” This honestly sounds more like the demographic of Trump voters.
Even if she hates Stern, and even if he hates her, this interview was a great idea.
Harris did a more formal interview with “60 Minutes.” This interview opened up with the Oct. 7th attacks on Israel last year. This was a tough question for this democratic ticket in general. One of their biggest
struggles to gain voters comes from our relationship with Israel.
And, of course, she went on “Call Her Daddy”. Everyone was holding their breath with this one, especially her supporters. “Call Her Daddy” is a podcast where Cooper essentially dishes it out with celebrities and discusses sex, so, when this interview was announced, no one knew what to expect.
If Harris went on the podcast and preached about her sex life, it would’ve been campaign suicide. However, she did flip the script, and focused primarily on reproductive rights. Doing this on Cooper’s podcast was a unique out-of-the-box idea.
These interviews serve as an attempt of balancing. It wasn’t just one platform or one type. It was strategic.
Fox News published an article titled “Trump-Vance ticket has done a combined 75 interviews since August compared to 40 for Harris-Walz.” While the numbers look good, how truly effective is it to stick to one audience? It’s not.
Trump has been busy himself. But there are reasons he’s not showing the same “star quality” on social media.
The pretty obvious reason would be his reputation online, especially on Twitter, now known as X. Trump was banned on X and Facebook after the Jan. 6 insurrection. It’s hard to campaign on social media when you’re kicked off of it.
With that being said, Trump did the most genius thing he could’ve done: created his own social media platform where he can’t be censored.
It was a smart business move but did little for his political platform.
Truth Social is not a battleground like other sites. It leans towards MAGA republicans, and relentless followers of Trump who don’t want to listen to anyone but him. You can’t campaign to people already following
you blindly. In fact, he should be trying to sway voters with how close this election is. Yet, he may be pushing them away.
However, with new X CEO and Trump surrogate, Elon Musk, unbanning the former president’s account, we can expect to see his reach expand.
Trump has created the idea that all other media is biased, persuading his supporters that he is an educated and reliable source. He’s not. He’s made up countless stories and spread an abundance of disinformation and misinformation. Potential supporters see this, and how blindly MAGA republicans follow it. Making the group itself something people don’t want to join out of potentially pure embarrassment.
Campaigning on social media is a prime example of all of the different ways candidates reach out and communicate with voters. It emphasizes the unpredictability of race, especially this one.
If you’re not on a digital medium, it may be harder to distinguish who’s winning. You shouldn’t underestimate the power of a TikTok or an Instagram Reel purely because you alone don’t see them.
Social media is powerful, and now, it’s creating a whole new type of presidential race. It’s extremely important to have a strong presence. Harris is doing that, appealing to a broader audience, targeting exactly who’s votes she needs. Trump is losing this media race, only focusing on his own supporters.
It’s something historians will look to, to show the power new technology has, exactly as they did with the Kennedy v. Nixon debate in 1960.
Just as we’ve seen those black-andwhite photos, I can’t wait to see pictures of coconuts in the history books.
Arts & Life
'Living in the moment': The 502s rock the stage at Fall Fest
By AMANDA MADERA Arts & Life Editor
There’s no better way to spend a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon than with good friends, fun fall activities and lively music. Quinnipiac University’s Student Programming Board and WQAQ 98.1 FM hosted the annual Fall Fest concert on the Quad on Oct. 12.
Students were greeted with merchandise, snacks and drinks, food trucks, inflatable activities, a pumpkin patch and a free concert by The 502s.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Emma Dinnan, a senior journalism major
and mainstage chair for SPB, explained that planning started in the summer and picked up steam once the semester started.
“Once you hit July we started getting ‘Okay let’s lockdown merch, let’s lockdown vendors that we have and everything,’” Dinnan said. “The past month has just been planning the activities and smaller stuff.”
Similar to last year’s Fall Fest, Nicole Healy, assistant director for student engagement, said that they wanted to keep the music happy and upbeat.
“Because it’s an outdoor event and people could be walking by, we stay away a little bit from heavy rap. Stuff you’d hear on casual radio is kind of the energy,” Healy said. “(The 502s) are good
“...So the most important thing is to experience everything to the fullest and get all that you can out of it.”
– The 502s
and interactive with students, they’re respectful and they enjoy the college environment.”
Even though Fall Fest usually hosts a lesser-known band, that doesn’t stop students from enjoying the music.
“I saw them live last year at Toad’s in New Haven and I love their music so I was really happy,” Dinnan said. “(The band) has been nothing but nice to all of us so we’re super happy with the vibe of everything.”
And the vibe of everything screamed “fall.” From exclusive quarter-zips and long sleeve shirts with pumpkins on them, to a pumpkin patch, pumpkin painting and a mechanical pumpkin inflatable, SPB and WQAQ truly put the “fall” in Fall Fest.
This year, the announcement of the artist came only a few days before the festival, released on Oct. 9. Healy said it was a mixture of how many departments at Quinnipiac have to process the contract and the band’s legal team.
“That was hard to navigate the last couple of weeks but we wanted to get it out as soon as we could,” Healy said.
That’s also why SPB heavily advertised the other aspects of the event.
“We know not everyone comes because they love The 502s, but they may really want the food and the photos and the environment by the music,” Healy said. “There’s something here for everybody.”
SPB and WQAQ had to keep in mind the issues that may arise when hosting the festival on a long holiday weekend.
“We were kind of downplaying it because people went home this weekend because of the long weekend, so we were like ‘Maybe not a lot of people will show up’ but honestly there’s so many people here which is super cool,” Riley Moger, a sophomore advertising major, social media manager of WQAQ and co-director of activities for Fall Fest said.
GETTING TO KNOW ‘THE HAPPIEST BAND ON EARTH’
Originally from Florida, The 502s have garnered over 1.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The band consists of six members: Ed Isola, Matthew Tonner, Graci Phillips, Nicholas Dallas, Joe Capati and Sean Froelich.
The band's name comes from a success story.
“Our lead singer Ed started the band with his cousin back in 2016,” the band wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “Growing up they lived on the same street and 502 was Ed’s house number. They quickly had to choose a name for an upcoming battle of the band contest to play a major music festival, which they won and so the name stuck.”
Their most popular song, “Just A Little While,” has over 100 million streams. Much of that was due to the song blowing up on TikTok, which is where a lot of students heard of the band.
“The experience of ‘Just A Little While’ becoming a TikTok trend was a totally surreal whirlwind of excitement that has ultimately changed all of our lives (for the better),” the band wrote. “Social media has always been a huge part of our life as a band.”
Long before TikTok success, The 502s first spark of internet fame was six years ago.
“Our very first tour back in 2018 got booked off of a viral Facebook video of us playing in a laundry room at Ed’s grandpa’s house,” the band wrote.
Amid their international tour, “The 502s Great Road Trip,” they still love performing for colleges and universities.
“It is definitely a bit of a different vibe than our typical concerts,” the band wrote. “When we’re playing at a school it’s typical to have a lot of people there who don’t know who we are or know our songs well, but there’s a sort of fun challenge to us in that environment to make sure we are providing a show that everybody can get into, not just The 502s diehards.”
While The 502s have a wide discography, there is one song that the band considers their anthem.
“One that stands out from the early days is ‘Enjoy the Ride’ off of our first album,” the band wrote. “It’s a story song about a group of friends on a road tripping adventure, which is what we were dreaming of at the start of the band and it sounds a lot like our lives now.”
But the song also has a deeper connection with fans.
“The song is really about how every day has its good and bad moments and nothing is going to turn out exactly how you planned, so the most important thing is to experience everything to the fullest and get all that you can out of it,” the band wrote.
‘STORIES
TO TELL’
Many students were impressed with the event, whether they’ve attended Fall Fest before or not.
“I’m enjoying it more than I did last year,” Ali Sargent, a sophomore nursing major said. “I just think that there’s a lot more energy and more things to do.”
“I didn’t think it would be as organized and interactive as it is,” Noah Sussal, a first-year finance and accounting major said. “I think it’s great, the punch cards, the food, it’s very cool.”
Despite most students not knowing of The 502s before Fall Fest, many came for the festivities and ended up staying because of the music.
“I love live music of any kind, so I’m really enjoying (The 502s),” Sargent said. “I don’t know them but their music is good. It’s a little bit more upbeat than what I usually listen to but I think that’s good for Fall Fest. You want something really exciting and fun like this.”
However, some students were familiar with The 502s and their music.
“Well, we had actually been talking about Fall Fest and I was like, ‘Oh it’s probably going to be like The 502s or something similar to them’ a couple of weeks ago,” Sussal said. And then I saw it was The 502s and thought that’s cool.”
Sussal had the opportunity to engage in various activities with his friends and enjoy the warm weather.
“After we checked in, we got pumpkins, we painted pumpkins, went to the tea light, got food and we’re going to do more activities later,” Sussal said. “It’s just a beautiful day. We wanted to spend some time together and have fun and this seemed like a really good opportunity.”
Many students just stumbled upon the event but decided to stay and enjoy the festivities.
“I like the open flow and how you can do what you want, you can just walk around and enjoy the day,” Richard Lebrun, a junior law and society major said.
Students also like the idea of being given options and the opportunity to vote for who they’d like to see perform at Fall Fest.
“Oh I think that would be awesome,” Sargent said. “I think if you could get (musicians) that students really want to be here and really want to see, that’d be awesome.”
Even though midterm season can be a stressful time, there’s nothing like kicking back and relaxing, looking at the colorful leaves on Sleeping Giant State Park and listening to live music.
QUINN O'NEILL/CHRONICLE
Quinnipiac students paint pumpkins at the multiple painting tables on the Quad.
QUINN O'NEILL/CHRONICLE
First-year mechanical engineering major, Garion Havens, rides the mechanical pumpkin at Quinnipiac's Fall Fest.
QUINN O'NEILL/CHRONICLE
Silver Sands Pizza serves pizza to Quinnipiac students at the 2024 Fall Festival.
QUINN O'NEILL/CHRONICLE
Hannah Wager (left), a first-year 3+1 public relations major, and Natalie Duverger (right), a first-year health science studies major, sit on the Quad painting pumpkins.
Postcards from Italy
By GRACE CONNEELY-NOLAN
Associate Arts & Life Editor
Earlier this month, I had the unexpected opportunity to go to Italy. It was very spontaneous and luckily, my schedule worked out in my favor. I was able to leave school for a week to go abroad with my family.
On Oct. 2, we took a red-eye to Italy, arriving in Milan the following day. Struggling to stay awake after hours of travel, we left the airport and took a train to one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen. It was surreal.
Considered one of the world’s fashion and design capitals, Milan’s cobblestone streets are lined with every luxury and designer brand you could think of.
Walking with our bags to our Airbnb, we passed one of the most architecturally impressive buildings in history: the Duomo — a breathtaking cathedral located in the center of Milan with 600 years of rich history embedded in every column.
We took a moment to stop and take it all in, but looking back, I regret not going inside to see all of it.
Fighting the jet lag, we went to walk around and get food. With a six-hour time difference, I could feel my body was shutting down. At this point, we were up for 20 hours.
To pass the time, we went through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Italy's oldest active shopping gallery. Because of the rain, it was full of tourists and people taking photos at every opportunity. It was beautiful to look at and fun to visit the shops we could get into.
The next day, we took two trains from Milan to Cinque Terre, a coastal area located in the province of La Spezia, Italy. Cinque Terre consists of five towns: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and Monterosso.
Historically, these villages were medieval fortified settlements, each protected by a castle
overlooking the sea and guard against Saracen raiders. Essentially, they are communities built into the mountains.
We stayed in Corniglia, located in the heart of Cinque Terre. It is the only village without direct sea access and exists 100 meters above the water. Corniglia is the smallest village in Cinque Terre and is known as a quieter, less accessible town with the fewest tourists.
Everything is within walking distance, including the town square, which was filled with local markets, restaurants and shops. We walked through tight passageways and alleys to reach stores hidden within the town walls.
I bought homemade earrings for five euros to serve as my memory keepsake.
We explored and hiked to Vernazza, one of the most popular cities in Cinque Terre. Hiking trails connect the five villages and the Cinque Terre Express runs every 20 minutes between them.
On the way there, we stopped at a pit stop to grab some coffee. All of the views in Italy were amazing, but this particular spot was breathtaking. We were high up on the cliff overlooking the coast, with the two villages on either side.
Known for its picture-perfect views, Vernazza is tucked into a gorge that opens to a small cove. It is a traditional fishing village with pastel houses huddled together on the steep coast and boats bobbing in the harbor.
We wandered through shops and stopped for food. Some say Vernazza is the birthplace of pesto, so we made sure to try their pesto pasta. No surprise, it was amazing.
Throughout the trip, it rained almost every single day, and on the worst days, we chose to stay local and continue exploring Corniglia.
Taking shelter anywhere we could, we visited the Chiesa di San Pietro, an elegant Gothic church built in 1334. The ceiling
was covered in a century-old painting by the Corniglia painter Prospero Luxardi. It consists of 18 panels depicting the Rosary and the Judgment mysteries, and it is insanely detailed and intricate.
When it wasn't raining, we took advantage of the nearby swimming area. Taking steps from the town down to the water, we were led to a private swimming hole where we swam in the beautiful aqua waters of the Ligurian Sea.
During my time, I was fortunate to go out to eat in several restaurants. The experiences were very different from eating out in America. For one, the tipping culture is different. Servers are paid more per hour, so tipping is unnecessary.
Coming in at the end of the tourist season, it was understandable that some locals did not receive us well. We experienced some off-treatment.
One restaurant turned us away because we wanted to order appetizers and drinks at 3:00 p.m., not a full meal. When we were told we had to move on to another restaurant, a couple next to us shared that they were doing the same thing but weren't asked to leave.
On one occasion, the language barrier was also a problem. People in Europe generally know more English than Americans do of other languages. A weak “Grazie” was all I could manage.
One of the first nights in Corniglia, we asked our waitress if she could box up our food at the end of the night. But she misunderstood and threw it out, which was disappointing because the food was one of the best parts of the trip.
I think I fully peaked as a person now that I can say I ate pasta and pizza in Italy. I could not get enough of the food. The coffee was so rich, and the bread was delicious. Gelato became a staple almost every day.
Throughout the trip, I kept reminding
myself that I was in Italy and that everything was real; it was hard to believe.
In my short time, I wanted to make the most of it. I think that travel makes people modest. Or at least I notice how small I am in the world. Grateful to experience and understand other cultures and their customs, I feel a little more well-rounded every time I travel.
Even though I only saw a sliver of Italy, I am so thankful to have had the chance to go. I will definitely come back, this time maybe backpacking through all of Europe to experience everything I can.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY GRACE CONNEELY-NOLAN
Conneely-Nolan eating spaghetti at a restaurant in Corniglia.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY GRACE CONNEELY-NOLAN
Grace Conneely-Nolan, associate arts & life editor, trying homemade pastries with coffee by the ocean.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY GRACE CONNEELY-NOLAN
Shops on the streets of Vernazza, including Focacceria which is a bakery known for their flatbreads.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY GRACE CONNEELY-NOLAN
The Lingurian Sea, between the two villages of Corniglia and Vernazza.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY GRACE CONNEELY-NOLAN Houses built on the mountain of Corniglia, overlooking the ocean.
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY GRACE CONNEELY-NOLAN
An alleyway through Corniglia in the town square.
By AMANDA MADERA Arts & Life Editor
'Outer Banks' is out of time Streaming services beat shows until they’re dead
Plot holes, unnecessary tension, lack of character development and excessive romance are all elements that can plague a good TV show. Unfortunately, Outer Banks Season Four: Part One incorporated all of them.
Released Oct. 10 on Netflix, the show continued to follow the treasure-hunting pursuits of John B. Routledge (Chase Stokes), JJ Maybank (Rudy Pankow), Sarah Cameron (Madelyn
Cline), Kiara Carrera (Madison Bailey), Pope Heyward (Jonathan Daviss) and Cleo Anderson (Carlacia Grant), known as the Pogues.
After finding the El Dorado gold in season three, an old man, Wes Genrette (David Jensen), approaches the group, wanting help unearthing Pirate Blackbeard’s amulet. This just felt like a grab at trying to keep the series going when the show could’ve ended.
Using the $1 million they received from the gold, which is not a lot of money considering it took three seasons to get it, the group decides to try and buy back JJ’s dad’s property which he was kicked out of. At the auction, they get into a bidding war but seemingly have it under control until JJ freaks out and offers $775,000. Mind you, the property was originally selling for $80,000.
I understand the point of JJ’s character and how reckless he is, but it would’ve been nice to see some character development and maturity.
The point of buying the land back was to restore the house and build a dock and shops for some income. But since they spent $775,000, there wasn’t much left to work with.
Meanwhile, why not go dirt bike racing? A classic Pogues versus Kooks showdown at the beach leads to JJ once again acting foolishly and carelessly. He uses the money leftover from the gold to bet on himself in the race only to end up losing at the last second. Pretty on-brand and an unnecessary conflict.
With a $13,000 property tax payment due in a week, the group seems to be out of answers — until Genrette offers to pay the Pogues $50,000
for securing Blackbeard’s amulet, as he believes the ghost of Blackbeard’s wife has cursed him.
Adding a supernatural feature to the series bothered me. It’s never been part of the plot before and now all of a sudden we believe in ghosts? Genrette also ends up dying mysteriously two days later.
JJ and Kiara have to scuba dive into an abandoned shipwreck to find the amulet. It seems easy enough. Until of course the antagonist of this season, Lightner (Rigo Sanchez), also happens to be diving for the amulet at the same time. Shocking, right?
Lightner attacks JJ and Kiara, but luckily JJ has a speargun and uses it to stab him in the arm, giving them enough time to swim up to the top. However, they contract the bends from ascending too quickly. Another meaningless plot that leads to JJ and Kiara hooking up in a hyperbaric chamber (I’m confused too).
If you were in danger of being evicted, have no money and were being stalked by a murderer, wouldn’t you want to spend a day surfing at the beach? The Pogues sure would. The group has the beach to themselves until the Kooks show up and of course, cause drama.
I think the whole Pogues and Kooks situation needs to be let go. It’s childish and old news, and it doesn’t do the show any good.
During the beach debacle, Cleo is busy being kidnapped by Lightner who demands she give him the amulet, which she can’t find in the house. She then calls Pope who is given the deadline of 4 p.m. to give Lightner the treasure or else he’ll
kill Cleo.
I felt like I was being whiplashed between plots and drama throughout this episode. One moment they’re at the beach, and the next Cleo has a gun to her head.
This high-stakes situation causes Cleo’s father figure, Terrance, who was hired by Lightner’s crew, to be shot and killed. In my opinion, this was an avoidable death and could’ve been handled a lot better. The police show up to the Pogues house to question them about Genrette’s death and they end up hiding Terrance’s body instead of telling the police what happened.
But let’s forget about all that because treasure is more important. John B., Pope, Cleo and Sarah decide to head to Charleston because they believe Blackbeard hid something important there. This only led to Pope and Sarah being stuck in a catacomb that was filling up with water. Turns out, Lightner beat them to it and found a 300-year-old scroll from Blackbeard.
On top of all this, JJ receives a letter from Genrette from beyond the grave. In the letter, he tells JJ to ask his father, Luke (Gary Weeks), about the Albatross. This prompted Luke to tell JJ that he isn’t his father, his biological mother is Larissa Genrette (Wes Genrette's daughter), and the Albatross was the boat she died on.
So about 50 “What?”s and one headache later, I concluded that for the sake of my sanity, I’ll be skipping out on Season Four: Part Two which comes out on Nov. 7.
And I have to live with the fact that I’ll never get the five hours I spent watching this back.
More than a basketball player 'Starting 5' pulls back the curtain on life in the NBA
By COLIN KENNEDY Managing Editor
I’m probably a little too invested in Boston Celtics basketball. The wins and losses tend to dictate my mood for the next day. I tend to sound off my harsh feelings on X, even if I don’t actually mean it. I didn’t really understand, or at least want to, how this could affect a player — until now.
Netflix’s new series, “Starting 5,” released on Oct. 9, highlights the lives on and off the court of five NBA players: LeBron James, Domantas Sabonis, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum.
This series, directed by Peter J. Scalettar is at its best when it is focusing on the lives of the players off the court. Scalettar does a great job of humanizing these players, whom many view as superheroes. Every one of these guys faces challenges in their personal lives while still having to perform at a high level 82 nights a year.
That’s the biggest message that the show delivers, and I think it hit home with me. You just don’t know what these guys’ lives are like off the court. So, while you're yelling at them from your seat or on X, saying how bad they are, just take a step back and understand the immense pressure they are under.
Take, for example, Jayson Tatum.
The Boston Celtics superstar has been the best player on the most historic NBA franchise for seven years, and with that comes the pressure to deliver championships — which during the taping of the show he had not done. Add on that he is playing in Boston, where its fans and media are notoriously hard on star players, Tatum has become one of the most scrutinized athletes in the league.
“Starting 5” provided an inside look at Tatum’s Christmas Day matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers, and the internal challenge he faced during the game.
Tatum struggled throughout the first half of
what in the NBA, is the biggest regular season game on the calendar. I’m sure I was firing off electric tweets at the time about how Tatum needed to wake up or take a seat on the bench, and in hindsight, I was wrong in doing so.
The Celtics star was expecting to spend Christmas with his son, Deuce, in LA before the game, and have him sit courtside. That morning, Tatum got a call from his mother, Brandy Cole, saying their plane wouldn’t start and they may not make the game. Throughout the night, Tatum kept looking at their empty seats, and it threw him off his game. Fortunately, in the second half, Deuce was sitting courtside, giving Tatum the extra juice needed to lead the Celtics to a crucial win.
Now, before I start talking about LeBron, let me just clarify something — I don’t like LeBron. He’s hurt me so many times growing up that I can’t stand the look on his face. Every time he faces off against the Celtics is appointment television for me because I get great joy when LeBron loses.
LeBron, you suck.
That said, “Starting 5” does show me a different side to LeBron that I didn’t know before. The amount of work that he has to put into his body at age 39 just to play a single game is insane. He puts in 12 hours of stretching, massages and recovery in order to perform at the level that fans expect every night.
To also see how LeBron handled the situation where his son, Bronny, suffered cardiac arrest while practicing at USC was powerful to watch. It’s just another example showing you can’t imagine what goes on in a player's personal life while they’re still performing in front of thousands of demanding fans. The man almost lost his son, no one would have blamed him if he stepped away from the game, but he didn’t. Maybe that’s a different problem, but it’s something you have to appreciate.
Talking about another man I dislike, Jimmy
Butler, and going to be honest, this show didn’t change my stance. He does a lot of talking and doesn’t back it up. After spending most of his time making espresso coffees, I don’t feel bad when the season didn’t go his way. He also goes out of his way to talk about his strong dislike for Boston. The feeling is reciprocated, Jimmy.
Edwards was an unexpected bright spot in the series for me. During the early episodes, he honestly didn’t seem like a great guy. He’s outwardly cocky without accomplishing much in the league, and there was also an instance where his family was visiting but he wouldn’t get off his video game. Not a great look.
But as the show went on Edwards began to mature, and he credits that to the birth of his first-born daughter, Aislynn. He seemed to be improving in juggling the responsibilities of becoming a star of the league while also having a family at home. Now, what the show didn’t show you is in the past year, Edwards has had three children with three different women. So, maybe he didn’t mature much after all. Guess that’s up to you to decide.
Now, this is probably where my bias comes in because the last episode titled, “Just Be Yourself,” was easily my favorite of the series. Seeing Tatum finally win the NBA Finals and join the ranks of Celtics legends to win a title is one of my all-time favorite sports memories. To see a behind-the-scenes look at the win was awesome as a Celtics fan.
Winning a title in Boston is special, and I’m glad they got Celtics legend Kevin Garnett for an interview. He explained what it’s like to be a Celtic in a way only Garnett can.
“That means the tradition still lives,” Garnett said. “That big oval in the sky isn’t the bat signal. The joint you looking up in the sky is a shamrock motherfucka!”
Seeing the bond that Tatum and his son have was special, so when the moment finally comes
when Tatum hoists Deuce into the air with the green confetti falling was the highlight of the show for me.
If you can come away with one thing from ‘Starting 5” I hope it’s this: These players are more than just their gamewinning buzzer-beaters and flashy dunks. They’re humans, just like the rest of us, we should treat them as such.
ILLUSTRATION BY KATERINA PARIZKOVA
By ZACHARY CARTER Staff Writer
Despite infrequent playtime, graduate student goaltender Noah Altman will serve in the Bobcats’ leadership group in his fourth and likely final season. Here’s how.
Noah Altman is not a traditionalist.
He hardly fits Quinnipiac University’s standard student demographic. The Los Angeles native began his freshman year in Hamden, not at 17 or 18, like most wide-eyed first years. He was 21. Now at 24 years old, he’s lived in seven different states.
His path to hockey was not remotely similar to that of the average player. The 6-foot7 goaltender didn’t put on his first pair of skates until he was 13 years old. He played his first organized game a year later at 14. In a decade, he has played just one position.
And under no circumstances does he fit the conventional mold of what a captain looks like for one of the most prestigious Division I hockey programs in the nation. Altman has appeared in only four games over three seasons — par for the course for a third-string netminder — bringing his career ice time to 11 minutes, 42 seconds.
Yet, at a team banquet near the end of Quinnipiac’s 2023-24 season, coaches announced Altman was voted by teammates to be one of three alternate captains for the upcoming year. Quinnipiac last had a goalkeeper in its leadership group in 1996. Now, Altman is just the sixth goalie in the program’s history to stitch a letter to his sweater.
But what is not weird? The overwhelming consensus, a most collectively understood and uniformly accepted thought, that a lifetime of irregularity has prepared him for this role, one he is undoubtedly fit to serve.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Noah’s parents, Kendra and Ron, are not Los Angeles natives. Kendra, from Calgary, and Ron, from Vancouver, found their way to sunny So-Cal separately (and yes, there is a
massive Flames-Canucks rivalry that persists to this day in the Altman household). Noah’s natural curiosity for sports started young. He immediately gravitated to all but hockey, ironically enough.
“He played every sport,” Kendra Altman said. “From the time he could walk, he had a basketball in his hands. We used to travel even away for the weekend with a portable hoop. I think some of his first words were slam dunk.”
On top of basketball, his initial sports of choice included baseball and soccer. It wasn’t until he was about nine when hockey entered his athletic arsenal. Inspired by players like Wayne Gretzky, whose playing days with the L.A. Kings inspired millions of youth hockey players on the West Coast, and goaltending legend Roberto Luongo, Noah started to practice casually.
“Roberto Luongo is my favorite athlete — definitely favorite goalie — probably favorite athlete of all time,” Altman said. “The reason I play hockey.”
The passion to play came quickly. The proper equipment came later. Using what he could — a catcher’s mitt, mask and chest protector, soccer shin guards and a skater’s glove for a blocker, Altman suited up for the first time in rag-tag fashion. He and his dad began shooting around on a net in the family’s driveway. When his parents took him to Goalie Monkey, a sports superstore in Orange County, to buy his first set of street hockey gear, Altman was “A kid in a candy store,” as his mom put it.
Not long after, Noah joined his first team in a house league — designed to equip players with the necessary fundamentals to pursue hockey more ambitiously. At 15, he joined his first organized team, the U18 California Heat.
“It was basically high school kids,” Altman said. “I was a goalie, I always was a goalie. I was coordinated because I had played so many other sports. I was big and I
Noah A ltman’s off-ice leadership paves way for alternate captainship
was pretty good at it. It’s a lot harder to move around when you’re bigger, and that was hard for me especially because most kids will be players before they’re goalies, but I never had that. I basically learned how to skate and then put the goalie gear on.”
SURFIN’ U.S.A
At 16, Altman played for a local team — the California Titans. At 17, he left California for Ohio to join the Cleveland Barons. At 18, he attended the acclaimed Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Minnesota, where many aspiring
“Noah is the epitome of our culture.” – Jayden Lee ‘24
NHL talents frequented in their days prior to the league.
But Shattuck proved to be a challenge for Altman, who struggled through the team’s tryout process. Poor performance ultimately relegated him to the school’s junior varsity equivalent, a lesser team Altman had not been recruited to play for. This proved to be an especially frustrating blow.
“It still, to this day, eats at me,” he said. “It was the worst hockey I ever played.”
Withdrawing from Shattuck — what Altman calls, “The hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life,” landed him in Detroit for his final year of youth hockey with the program Belle Tire. From there, he began junior hockey, bouncing around to Washington and
finally to North Dakota to join the USHL’s Bismarck Bobcats.
Altman was the eldest of five goaltenders on the team and was given the nod as the team’s starter to begin the season. He played well before tearing his quad. When he returned a few weeks later, his coaches informed him of the team’s decision to move away from him, opting to play and develop younger prospects.
“The writing was on the wall,” Altman said. “They basically cut me. They didn’t want to say that, but they basically cut me.” SUIT UP OR SIT DOWN Altman returned home to California again as a free agent. He made frequent trips to train with his goalie coach in Michigan, but May loomed and the inevitability of a college decision crept closer.
Two paths emerged. Altman could pick up the phone, entertain the calls and emails he had been receiving from Division III coaches around the country and continue his days as a hockey player. Or, he could put down the pads altogether, regain his youth and attend college somewhere he could be known as Noah Altman the person, not the player. He chose the latter, unamused by the allure of smaller programs like Hamilton, Trinity or Colby College in his inbox.
“He applied to college as a normal student, putting it off as long as he possibly could,” Kendra joked. “He only had a limited number of schools he could apply to based on the application deadlines.”
“My older brother went to Michigan, so I applied to Michigan,” Noah said.
Altman had good grades — scattered across three different high schools — and his academic prowess yielded an acceptance from the University of Michigan. He soon shifted his aspirations to club hockey in Ann Arbor, or, if he was lucky, even a potential walk-on spot. He would be a Wolverine, just like his brother Adam.
“But he was going to be a 21-year-old freshman,” Kendra said. “The idea of going and rushing a fraternity when you were older than the seniors, and all of his friends were playing hockey, that would have been difficult for him.”
Then Joe Dumais called.
A BOBCAT, YET AGAIN
Altman was leaving a workout when he noticed the missed call. Dumais, Quinnipiac’s assistant coach, thankfully left a voicemail encouraging Altman to visit the facility. The team was in search of a third goalie to flesh out the depth chart and reached out to the agency of one of two goalies already rostered — fifth-year Dylan St. Cyr — to inquire about other goaltenders not yet committed. It was the same agency Altman was signed to.
When the two connected, Dumais told Altman that they had seen him play sporadically over the years, but given it was now almost June, he would need to make his decision promptly and report to the team’s training camp just a few weeks later.
The next day, traveling cross country via plane, Altman and his mom met Dumais in the parking lot at M&T Bank Arena, then called the People’s United Center. Ongoing COVID restrictions prohibited any contact between them, so Dumais had to get creative with his recruitment.
“He waved at Noah and said, ‘Everything’s open downstairs,”’ Kendra said. “Noah walked in and got a grin literally from ear to ear.”
COAST-TO-COAST
Life had turned on a dime for Altman, who in February was unsure if he would even be playing hockey for the next four years. Come July, he packed up his life and moved across the country, the furthest east he had ever been. Only now, there were no billet families to help ease the transition. No former teammates to break the ice between him and his new one. It was him, an entirely new program and the overwhelming realization that he was now a Division I hockey player.
But Noah was still Noah. He retained the same full-of-life temperament that his parents say he was born with. A bright, bubbly personality gave him the tools to ground himself on a new team. Teammates felt an initial appreciation for his profound authenticity and unbridled free-spiritedness.
“I obviously (noticed) his height,” said Jayden Lee ‘24, former captain and defenseman over five seasons with Quinnipiac. “(But also) how he was so outgoing and charismatic and how good of a person he was. Everyone liked him. It wasn’t like some guys were like, ‘Oh, who is this guy?’ Everyone genuinely liked him.”
This was not a sentiment lost on his coaches, either. Justin Eddy, the team’s goalie coach, knew exactly what Altman’s char-
acter consisted of from the first conversation they shared.
“Sometimes you meet those people and you know right away you’re going to get along with (them),” he said. “I could tell by the enthusiasm in his voice. I knew we had very similar personalities.”
It was not an easy first year for Altman, who came to understand his role quickly as the young season progressed. He was not recruited to be the star — that he knew. But as reality set in, the truth was he would not be a day-to-day player or even the backup.
He was chained to the bottom of the depth chart, brought in at the last minute to make sure the team could say they had three goalies rostered.
“I knew coming in, especially in my freshman year, that I wasn’t going to play unless (there was) injury,” Altman said.
“Nothing was promised. I kind of realized halfway through the year that, in my situation, it would be very hard to get out of where I was.”
He worked hard to improve his skills, hoping to catch the eyes of his coaches, including head coach Rand Pecknold. But issues persisted. Limited reps, ill-fitting equipment and a general uptick in game tempo and skill made practice — the only real time Altman could prove his worth — a daily grind.
“Some of these guys are 23, 24 years old. There was a big learning curve, and he really went through that right away,” Eddy said.
“He found out how fast the pace was and how smart you have to be to read plays and players’ releases … He struggled getting his bearings physically on the ice.”
But with time, Altman’s ailments faded and his relationship with the game returned to copacetic levels. Born from comfort was progress. Altman developed a routine and his
game began to progress exponentially.
“There were days freshman year when he was getting absolutely destroyed in practice,” Eddy said. “It is unbelievable the difference from his freshman year (to) when he came in for his sophomore year. I was blown away by how good he was over one summer.”
Eddy saw Atlman as most didn’t — a player unbound by his role. Playing time allotted or not, Eddy could not deny Altman’s persistence. He was frequently the first on the ice for practice, he often fought for extra looks and he rarely passed up the opportunity to do additional drills. His unconventional nature had followed him to Quinnipiac. By no means were these the actions of an apathetic goalie third on a depth chart. This was a man who had everything to gain and nothing to lose.
“There were days when I thought, in the drills that we did, he was better than the two guys ahead of him,” Eddy said.
Both understood that Altman had a responsibility to the team. If and when his number was called upon, he needed to be able to hold his own.
“When the first guy gets sick and the other guy pulls his groin, I need to have him ready and confident to step in,” Eddy said. “Most people are like, ‘Oh, statistically the odds are it’ll never happen.’ You’re probably right, but when it does, don’t you want to have him comfortable and ready to play?”
CAPTAIN ALTMAN
“Some of the other goalies I’d watch, and I’m like, ‘Geez, you know, I’d probably play a lot of games for this program,’” Altman said.
And yet, transferring was far from his list of considerations. As the years passed and the program’s customs became second nature to him, he said he could never imagine himself anywhere else. If he was going to play for Quinnipiac, he was going to earn it. As a head coach, Pecknold preaches these same values to his players. Luckily for Altman, he was already instilled with them.
“(Pecknold) respects coming to the rink, doing the right things, having a good attitude, being a good team, all those things I don’t even think about,” Altman said. “That’s just something I’m lucky (is) the way my personality is. I love talking to the guys. I’m always smiling.”
Altman’s voice began to carry more weight in the locker room as his personality began to shine its brightest. He kept the team tight, all the way down to Tampa, Florida, where the group won the national championship in 2023 during Altman’s sophomore season.
“Not everyone sees how much he does for the program,” Lee said. “Whether it’s on the
ice, in the gym, or in a social setting, whether it’s rallying the guys together just to watch football on a Sunday or a day off. Just know how hard he works.”
Culture is bred through players like Altman — insatiable in practice and fiercely competitive, yet warm and welcoming off the ice, while also putting aside personal wishes to play to adopt a team-first mindset. His selection to this year’s leadership group came as no surprise to those within the program. Instead, there was pride and gratification.
“Noah is the epitome of our culture,” Lee said. “I wasn’t shocked at all, I was just super pumped for him.”
“He has a big personality, which is why people love him. I mean, that’s why he is who he is,” Eddy said.
As teammates and friends came and went, either by way of graduation, the transfer portal or pursuit of professional careers, Altman’s consistent presence in Hamden allowed him to plant roots he was unable to do roving around the U.S. in years past. He built a group of friends that became some of his closest around the country. His dad says it was fate.
“It’s important to look at who his best friends are on the team. All of his friends that gravitated to him, as much as he to them, are the guys that were really the leaders of the team,” Ron Altman said. “The ones that he was closest with, even from his first year, they were the leaders.”
He’s not wrong. Lee and Altman lived together. Altman recalls older teammates like Zach Metsa, ‘23 the captain throughout the national championship run, specifically showing him the ropes when he was just starting out. Some of his best friends from the beginning like Jacob Quillan ‘24, Collin Graf ‘24 and others — wore A’s for the Bobcats in prior seasons. This year it is Altman’s turn to sport a captain role, alongside graduate student forward Travis Treloar, and defensemen graduate student Cooper Moore and senior Davis Pennington The three all transferred into the program at one point. Not Altman. He’s been there from the start.
In a sport where goaltenders rarely ever wear letters, in a program that has not issued captaincy to a goalie in almost 30 years, on a team that settles for no less than perfection, a man who may not even play will hold one of its most valued titles.
“He wants to start and finish something,” Kendra said. “He signed up for four years.” Irregularities and all, that is Noah Altman. California kid? Journeyman? Third-stringer? Yes, but he has grown to be more than that. Self-sacrificer. Leader. Motivator.
Assistant Captain.
TRIPP MENHALL/CHRONICLE
In four seasons, graduate student goaltender Noah Altman has just under 12 minutes of playing time as of Oct. 16.
TRIPP MENHALL/CHRONICLE
Altman at 19 years old playing for the BCHL’s Wenatchee Wild.
Quinnipiac tops Penn State in home opener
By AMANDA DRONZEK Sports Editor
HAMDEN — No, Quinnipiac men’s hockey didn’t earn its 3-2 home opening win over Penn State Saturday night at TD Garden in Boston.
Bruins anthem singer Todd Angilly just happened to perform his second Star-Spangled Banner of the day in Connecticut, following the first prior to the Bruins’ matinee against the Los Angeles Kings earlier Saturday afternoon.
But antics aside, the Bobcats’ outing against the Nittany Lions was far from Quinnipiac’s standard. In fact, it left an equally sour taste in its mouth if the outcome was a loss.
“There’s not many times I’m speechless, but I am right now,” head coach Rand Pecknold said. “So we’ll take the win.”
Much of that haphazard win is credited to another familiar face from Beantown who had a bigger night than Angilly — junior left winger and Boston University transfer Jeremy Wilmer, who notched two goals in his first game donning the navy and gold.
“He’s a high-end player, for sure,” Pecknold said. “He’s got great offensive instincts, makes a lot of plays and he’s gonna get a lot better for us as the year goes.”
Wilmer was a scratch in the 2024 Frozen Four after consecutive 30+ point seasons for the Terriers, but he’s already one of Quinnipiac’s best off-season grabs.
In the opening frame, freshman right winger Aaron Schwartz snagged the puck from a scrum on the left-hand side of the goal and fired toward Wilmer at the crease, who tipped it past Nittany Lions junior goaltender Aresnii Sergeev.
The 2-0 cushion followed swiftly when three minutes later, junior defender Charlie Leddy received the puck at the point, shuffled it to graduate student defender Cooper Moore and sent it at Sergeev for junior left winger Andon Cerbone to deflect over the goal line.
Wilmer’s second of the night came on a Quinnipiac power play. Sophomore wing Mason Marcellus crossed the puck to senior defender Davis Pennington, who delivered it to Wilmer to chip in.
“It was nice to get a couple (goals) out of the way, but we still have more to grow,” Wilmer said.
And it couldn’t be truer. Quinnipiac had a shutout on its hands after 40 minutes, but it was not a pretty 40 minutes. By the third period, the Bobcats fell apart — and it nearly cost them the game.
Penn State capitalized on the power play that bled into the final frame thanks to senior right wing Ben Schoen and seemingly rattled sophomore goaltender Matej Marinov.
Quinnipiac was too comfortable with a three-goal lead — and it showed.
“We were just all over the map,” Pecknold said. “It’s just very chaotic. There’s a lot of panic, just a lot of turnovers, and it was a bad hockey game.”
The Bobcats had their woes taking bad penalties and making sloppy passes through the first two periods. There were no notable consequences, Marinov made sure of it.
But as a “1” appeared on the scoreboard below Penn State, Quinnipiac unraveled.
“You know, we definitely wanted to play
more offense in the third,” Pecknold said. “We kind of punted a little bit, which is what we don’t want to do. So again, this is a young team and a lot of new players, and we’ll figure it out.”
Despite Penn State’s follow-up — a topshelf wrap-around goal netted by senior left wing Danny Dzhanjev — Quinnipiac figured things out enough to scrape by its Big Ten opponent.
“No team is out of it,” Schwartz said. “Obviously, Penn State’s a really good program. I think we have to stay focused, and you know, not just sit back and let them take shots at us, we (have to) go on the offense and that’s the best way.”
If someone were to ask Pecknold point blank if Quinnipiac was buying in on Saturday, the answer would be “no.”
But ask him again come the winter, and the answer should be different.
Quinnipiac continues its non-conference campaign up north for a weekend series against Maine on Oct. 18-19. Puck drop Friday is set for 7 p.m.
