My roommate Avani and I had taken a trip to New York City one recent Saturday. We had been up since 6 a.m. and walked around for twelve hours. The trip was going remarkably well, considering how long and tiring the day was, and the last thing on our to do list was to get on the 11:05 p.m. shuttle from Union Station back to campus.

The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Our train got in at 10:55 p.m. and all we had to do was wait a few minutes for the shuttle to arrive. When the clock reached 11:15 p.m. we decided that the shuttle was just running a little late because of its routine run to pick up and drop off busloads of students in New Haven.

So, we continued to sit and wait. During our 45-minute wait, we saw three shuttles arrive. Each time we stood up and got our stuff together, only to sit right back down. The shuttles were from Yale.

By the time it was 11:45 p.m. we decided to get a cab with our new friend, Lenny, who was equally angry about the situation. The three of us got into a cab so that we could finally get back to campus.

When we got on the highway we were all in disbelief as we saw the Quinnipiac shuttle just a few cars ahead of us. I was speechless. How helpful is a service that skips over an entire stop on its route back to campus? So in addition to the $49,000 a year to come here, the three of us had to split the cost of a $35 cab ride. Yes, $12 per person is not a huge deal, but that is not the point.

The point is that the shuttle should have stopped at the train station like it was supposed to. The shuttle is not reliable if it just skips over stops where there are several students waiting for the scheduled transportation to arrive.

What would we have done if we had no money? What if our cell phones were dead? What would we have done then?

-Jessica Joline

School administrators, however, have contradicted themselves as to the value and qualifications of obtaining such real estate. With their recent refusal to grant our organization, The Quad News, space at one of those tables, the school continues to curb free speech and students’ rights on campus.

We at the Quad News have reached this conclusion after four months of e-mails and meetings during which we saw the same hesitancy and received the same answers from administrators. When we first called to request table space on Jan. 4, 2010 we felt fairly confident that our request would be granted. During the phone call we were given the specifics of what was required to do so were. We provided the university with all the proper information identifying ourselves as a legitimate business, but a week later were denied our request.

After that initial refusal, we met with Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, Mark Thompson. Over a month later, after he spoke with Vice President and Dean of Students, Manuel Carreiro, we were informed that the answer was still ‘no,’ because the university did not want to set a “precedent.”

Created in the spring of 2008, the Quad News represents the values we as student journalists hold to the highest degree. Since our inception, we’ve worked diligently to abide by all university protocol—no co-sponsorships, no selling merchandise on campus, no funding from student government. The Quad News is a group made up solely of students who pay tuition and fees just like the rest.

Quinnipiac prides itself on three core values: academic excellence, possessing a student-oriented environment and emphasizing a sense of community. How then, do these values translate to the administration’s handling of the Quad News? They have not. The fact that a university is refusing a group of students the opportunity to use its facilities, an opportunity which they give non-students, is simply hypocritical.

–Matt Andrew, Hillary Federico, Brendan Rimetz

How many of that 37.7 percent were actually educated voters?  There were maybe 125 students at the SGA election debates prior to the elections.  So how many students actually voted on an educational vote rather than a popularity vote?  Maybe 350, or 16 percent of those who voted (that’s 6 percent of the total undergraduate student body).  That’s despicable.

In order to vote in the United States elections, citizens must be at least 18 years of age and register to vote.  Even with the prerequisite and requirement, 48 percent of the U.S. population age 18 or older voted.  Of those registering to vote, 71 percent came out to vote at the polls or submitted an absentee ballot.

What if we brought some system to Quinnipiac, similar to the United States elections, where students were required to register to vote prior to the elections?  Students would go on to Blackboard, just like they do on SGA election day to vote, and fill out some basic voter registration sheet—something as simple as first name, last name and student ID number.

By establishing this system, you are bringing the voters to where they would vote on Election Day.  You are leaving the polls open to any student who wishes to vote.  And you are eliminating the roommates who are voting just because one person is friends with a candidate or because the candidate lives in their room.

While there will always be a popularity contest within the elections, having any student wishing to vote register prior to the elections will eliminate a lot of the popularity fashion and make it more of an educated decision by the student body.

When the SGA Election Committee announces the results on Election Day, they could then say that 75 percent of the registered students voted, which sounds a lot better than 38 percent of the students voted.

I strongly urge the Student Government Association and the student body to look into a system as such so that we can have the candidates who will represent us best in office, rather than those with the most friends.

Fellow Chronicle readers, I urge you to send a letter to the editor stating your opinion on this issue.  It would be useful to get other feedback, and to let SGA know how we really feel!

–One of the few educated voters from this year’s election

John Doe

At this point it does not matter what the previous Vice Presidents of Public Relations didn’t do, what matters is that the current Public Relations committee made the right decision.  I was quoted as saying I have a “busy agenda,” but I would like to clarify what this consists of.  The Public Relations committee is charged with collaborating three service projects per semester; publicizing and promoting events and goals of SGA; providing weekly table tents for all organizations requesting promotions; creating stronger relations with all organizations; voting on charter recommendations and removals; and planning the first campus wide community service project: Quinnipiac’s Big Event.  This “busy agenda” has enabled the Public Relations committee to create and grant opportunities to all organizational leaders and students on campus.

Unfortunately in this instance, the Dance Company violations slipped through the cracks, despite our efforts to make improvements for organizations and students.  A mistake was made, appropriate actions were taken, and now we will move forward as an organization and learn from our mistake.  Our Organizational Chair is currently comprising a system for the Public Relations committee to closely monitor organizations’ constitutions and chartered/ recognized status.  Holly Hitchen, the Organizational Chair, will be creating this system to ensure that a mistake like this does not happen again.  With this new system, we will have access to the dates that organizations are recognized, chartered, or have had their charter removed.  This information will provide us with the ability to do a monthly review of the status of an organization, and we will also be reviewing the constitutions of organizations annually to ensure that they comply with our policies.

From this point, the Public Relations committee will take a closer look at the status of student run organizations.  Our committee will make sure that all are complying with our policies while continuing to create opportunities for the organizations which abide by our Student Government policy.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Walts
Vice President of Public Relations
Student Government Association

Since the late 1960s, there has been a movement in philosophy to create more courses that are relevant to students’ needs and interests. During my professorship at the University of Bridgeport from 1969-1994, I initiated courses in applied ethics and philosophical topics (Business and Computer Ethics, Philosophy of the Person and Philosophy of Sex and Love). This trend toward selected topics has continued to the present and the applied ethics area has been expanded to include legal ethics, feminist ethics, bioethics, nursing ethics, and environmental ethics. Even the established philosophy programs at Rutgers, Notre Dame, and Texas A&M have introduced special topics and applied ethics courses. Most noteworthy are: Philosophical Ideas in Film and Science Fiction; Philosophy and Black Experience; Ethics of Race and Gender; and Ethics and Engineering.

Philosophy is evolving and the traditional courses in philosophy have had a limited value for most university students. However, nontraditional courses in applied ethics and philosophical topics have received tremendous support. The applied ethics courses are useful to students with different majors who are concerned with ethical issues in their discipline. Philosophical topics enable students to explore philosophical ideas within a particular area of interest.

The philosophy program at Quinnipiac University, under the leadership of Professor Ben Page, offers a variety of both traditional and nontraditional philosophy courses for student created independent majors, joint-majors, minors, and other interested students. These students manage a philosophy club called Sophia that meets weekly to discuss a variety of philosophical issues. The philosophy faculty has been instrumental in teaching both traditional and applied ethics courses. This has included the following courses in applied ethics: Bioethics, Law and Ethics, Ethics of War and Peace, and Ethics and Human Rights. They have also taught philosophy courses dealing with special topics. The most noteworthy ones are: Philosophy of Sex and Love; Life and Life after Death; Philosophy of Gender; Evil, Suffering and Faith; and Philosophy of the Future. The high student demand for the courses Philosophy of Sex and Love and Life and Life after Death has resulted in creating two sections of these courses. For the fall 2010 semester, the following new courses will be available: Philosophy of Humor; Philosophy of Sport; Philosophy as a Way of Life; Philosophy of Money; and Ethics of Compassion. In the future, medical ethics and environmental philosophy may be offered. Some philosophy departments in the United States offer a few nontraditional courses each semester, however, Quinnipiac’s approach is unique since the majority of its philosophy offerings are nontraditional ones.

For many years our philosophy teachers have demonstrated their versatility and breadth of knowledge in team teaching such courses as: Bioethics; Globalization, and The Thought and Work of Albert Schweitzer. They have also played a key role in instituting service learning at Quinnipiac and currently participate in the program. Additionally, some philosophy teachers have been teaching QU 101 and courses in QU 201 and 301. Anat Biletzki, Albert Schweitzer Visiting Professor, has developed and taught both standard and selected topics courses in philosophy. She has held faculty seminars for the past two years on the philosophy of human rights and Albert Schweitzer’s philosophy of reverence for life. The annual Stiernotte lecture in philosophy also provides our students and faculty the opportunity to meet and converse with a prominent philosopher.

Philosophy plays an important role at Quinnipiac University. It offers standard philosophy courses and independent study opportunities, a large selection of applied ethics and philosophical topics courses, collaboration with other faculty in team teaching, participation in service-learning and QU courses, faculty seminars, a philosophy club and a yearly lecture by a contemporary philosopher. The long-standing relevance and popularity of philosophy at Quinnipiac is a strong indication that its program will experience a greater growth in the near future.

Edward D’Angelo,
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy

We would like to thank you all for the many cards and letters of kind words and phone calls.  We very much appreciated the overwhelming presence of those from Quinnipiac who attended Jessica’s services helping us to celebrate our daughter and sister’s short but fulfilled life.  Fr. Hugh Vincent Dyer’s comforting words will remain in our hearts, and we thank him for having Mass at both of Jessica’s services.

Jessica loved all that life had to offer.  She took advantage of everything that she could fit into each day.  Her high school opportunities prepared her for her ultimate goal in life, which would be a college education.  Jessica took this goal very seriously as she visited many, many college campuses.  But it was when she drove down Mount Carmel Ave. that she knew where she would want her new life to begin.  She set one foot on the Quinnipiac campus and knew immediately that this was where she wanted to attend her college years.  Jessica absolutely loved everything about Quinnipiac.  She loved the campus with Sleeping Giant overlooking it, her teachers, and classes, the gym, her dorm, the activities-everything.

Of course what Jessica valued most in life was friendships, and that she found at Quinnipiac.  In a few short months Jessica found friends of a lifetime.  It was amazing to us that so many knew that true Jessica only after a few short months.  There are no words that we can think of to express the deep and sincere appreciation for the gift that gave our family and friends in the beautiful Memorial Service-Remembering Our Friend.  The Memorial Service was a wonderful tribute to our daughter and sister.  Amy, Kara, Arielle, Emily, and Meghan, there is no way we can thank you enough for all you have been through in honoring our beautiful Jessica.  Jessica only surrounded herself with truly good people, and we know she surrounded herself with all of you every minute of each day.  We will hold the memories that she shared with us about all of you in our hearts.

Throughout Jessica’s life, her love for children had been a guiding force, such that we have created the Jessica Bolognani Scholarship Fund, Inc.  The monies raised for this fund will help support the community’s youth through the Valley Youth Sports Program.  It is our hope that Jessica’s memory be reserved through the opportunities this scholarship fund will create for many of the valley’s children.  This fund will allow children the opportunity to participate in a wonderful program that Jessica herself supported through coaching and refereeing.  Scholarships will be available for registration fees and personal clothing allowances.  Already over the past month there have been many activities going on to raise funds for her scholarship.  We thank all of those who are participating, as it would mean the world to Jessica.  If anyone would like to donate money, checks may be made out to: Jessica Bolognani Memorial Fund P.O. Box 155 Readsboro, Vermont 05350 in her memory.

Again, we would like to express our deepest gratitude for the abundance of love that we feel from all of you.  In her short years, Jessica had given and received much love which made her into the beautiful, kind and loving woman we all knew.

With much love and appreciation,
Tim, Debbie, and Stephan Bolognani

They are now old enough to live in apartment-style housing, but still have the convenience of living on campus. I do not feel like sophomores are old enough nor have gained the responsibility to live there.

Simply put, I don’t think they fully understand how much of a privilege it is and will take it for granted. They have been in college for one year and are now being handed a living situation that emulates the real world. I do not believe they have earned that honor.

I also do not think moving all of the upperclassmen off the main campus is the best idea. Freshmen and sophomores need people to look up to and to learn from.

I remember my freshman and sophomore years and thinking how cool the juniors were. I saw how they acted and tried to be like them. With all the juniors either living off campus or up at York Hill, who are these students going to look up to?

As it is now, there are only a few juniors living on campus and the ramifications of this can already be seen with this year’s sophomore class. They do not hold the same respect for upperclassmen as years past, and some of them still act like they are freshmen.

One can only assume with absolutely no juniors on campus next year, things will only get worse.  I cannot speak for everyone in my class, but I have talked to a few others about this and we all agree that this move is a detriment to our campus and student body.

Senior Student

This semester I decided to rush a sorority.

I had previously never been interested whatsoever in Greek life, but I was looking for something different this semester, and I figured you can never have too many friends, plus community service always looks good on a résumé.

Going to the Greek kickoff, I didn’t really know what to expect.  I had never thought of myself as what can arguably be described as the stereotypical “sorority girl” that is portrayed in television and movies, although here at QU, I never got the impression they were really like that.  All the cheering and singing was a bit overwhelming.

The presidents of each fraternity and sorority made a speech to the crowd of existing members and interested newcomers, and I was surprised to hear how much being a part of something “bigger than themselves” really changed their lives.  I was perfectly content with my college experience thus far, but I began to wonder if I too should become a member of this life-changing program.

Two nights later the first round began, and I can honestly say I have never talked so much in my entire life.  I was very confused about the way a group of nearly 100 girls from four different sororities could make a decision about what type of person I am based on three different girls talking to me for five minutes.  How could they possibly know my character or my values from such a short interaction?  This completely baffled me.

Although everyone says to “go in with an open mind,” I already knew which sorority I wanted to be in if I got a bid.  Talking with women in the other three sororities, it made me take a step back and rethink what I wanted.  But in the end, I stuck with my gut instinct.  This raises an intriguing question:  Why is it that women interested in a sorority must rush all four, whereas men interested in a fraternity can choose which one they want to rush and only go to that fraternity’s events?  I’m sure there is a perfectly logical explanation for this, however, going through the process and coming out on the other side still wanting to rush my original choice is frankly a waste of time.  Perhaps the answer is that the higher-ups want to offer the women a variety of choices in order to make an informed decision, which is fair.  In that regard, it works well for those who don’t have a clue what they want.  I would’ve just liked the opportunity to choose only one sorority, the one I had originally wanted all along.

Another minor issue I had with the recruitment process was the fact that one of the sororities doesn’t accept juniors or seniors due to their program and how they want to develop their members (or something to that effect).  I suppose that is fair, but then why bother making the juniors and seniors meet with women from that sorority?  They shouldn’t have to get their hopes up for a sorority that was never going to consider them in the first place.

Going along with this point, the entire time I had the distinct feeling that being judged like this (and possibly rejected) reminded me of being a contestant in a popularity contest.  The fact that we all get judged by people, more specifically hundreds of people, who don’t even know us is rather unsettling.  Of course, once you know that you have received a bid, you feel like one of the cool kids.  Don’t take this the wrong way: I say this as someone who luckily did receive a bid and genuinely feel badly for those who really wanted it and didn’t get it.  I just wasn’t a fan of the process.

The line of women waiting to accept or reject their bid might be the worst part of this weekend.  Not only are you full of anticipation waiting to see if your first choice wanted you too, but the waiting was positively endless.  I have never been in a line so long.  There has to be a more efficient way to go about the process that would make it easier for those giving the bids, and those waiting to receive.

I ended up getting the bid from my second choice, and was very disappointed as a result.  But after taking some time to really think about it, I decided that for me the pros outweigh the cons and I am going to go through with it.  I’m glad I went through this experience, and I really hope that I am making the right decision.  At the very least I won’t have to look back and wonder “what if.”