It lurks in every Quinnipiac students’ inbox. No account is safe. Every weekday without fail, it makes an appearance on computer screens throughout the campus. It is QU Daily, and there is no escape from its regular updates.
QU Daily is an informational e-mail sent out to students and faculty of the university. It is received into accounts every weekday during the year, and weekly in the summer. The e-mail includes events, news and profiles concerning the university itself, and the people that make it a community.
“QU Daily is designed to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for [university] news,” said Frank Campailla, a Quinnipiac graduate and writer for QU Daily.
“Originally the system used was called ‘Intercom,’ and it was a bi-weekly employee newsletter,” Campailla said. “But we couldn’t report news that was up to date.”
In 2003, QU Daily became the solution to the problem. It would be a daily e-mail that would include all announcements and stories to avoid overcrowding with notices.
Despite the large quantity of information inundating QU Daily, there are only a handful of people behind the computer screen and even fewer full time workers.
“There are four fulltime workers behind QU Daily,” explained John Morgan, director of Public Relations at Quinnipiac and unofficial “publisher” of QU Daily. “Mike Patrick and Frank Campailla are the writers. Mark Ludovico is our web director and editor, and Russell Shaddox also assists part-time in the upkeep of the web site. We employ freelance writers and work-study students as well.”
“I [make] sure the content, including photography, is published and displayed correctly through our content management system each day,” Ludovico said. “I also manage a mailing list of members who have signed up to receive QU Daily.”
Although not on the list of employees, there are many others who contribute to QU Daily.
“We get a lot of our information from professors and administrators who know about interesting students, and new organizations,” Campailla said.
QU Daily also gets its information from employee lists, inquiries, observations, and listening.
“We have to keep our eyes and ears open like everyone else,” Campailla said.
The hard work of those behind QU Daily is not done in vain. Many use QU Daily to their advantage for event times and locations.
“Sometimes I find out about speakers coming to the university that I didn’t know about, and who would be helpful for a class,” said junior media production major Katherine Brady.
Campailla and Morgan both attest to the popularity of the photo gallery “Around the Quad.” Even the school newspaper uses articles as sources for information.
But QU Daily is not without its critics. Some claim that its content is biased and only includes the positive news and information to make the school look desirable.
“All you read is good stuff about Quinnipiac. You don’t read about the rising costs of caf
