When something bad happens involving the Quinnipiac community there always seems to be a lot of finger pointing. Often times, much of the criticism comes from those outside of the Quinnipiac community.
The Nov. 9 edition of The Chronicle ran a letter to the editor entitled “Quinnipiac Pulls Punishment Lite in Off Campus Keg Incident.” This particular letter was written by Lee Flemming, a parent of a former Quinnipiac student.
The letter criticized the students involved with hosting the party, the students who attended, and the University for not taking appropriate action and for not providing adequate housing for students to begin with. The letter also suggested the “Mega-Kegger Bust might just be a first step in Hamden’s ability to take back control of its town and off-campus students”. The letter portrays a student population, and a University, that are out of control.
While people outside of the Quinnipiac community, and certainly those residents of the Hamden area community have a right to voice their opinions, they should do so responsibly. Do not make accusations and generalizations of an entire community based on unfortunate incidents.
Quinnipiac, especially as of late, has been cast in a negative light; that is not to say that criticism of incidents such as the off-campus party are not deserved, but the Quinnipiac community does many positive things as well. The Quinnipiac fraternities and sororities chapters do community services projects on a regular basis; in October, Alpha Chi Omega sponsored a domestic violence awareness speaker, in November SADD and TKE sponsored a mock car crash to demonstrate the horrors of drunk driving. CAP and the RAs sponsored Helping Hands Day. What about the blood drive that took place this semester? What about the “Stuff-a-bus” campaign for hurricane Katrina relief? There are numerous guest speakers that come to the University, most recently world renowned humanitarian Jane Goodall was brought by the Albert Schweitzer Institute.
A generalization is made by those outside of the Quinnipiac community that the students who are enrolled here don’t care about the greater Hamden community; that is just not true. In fact, students are out to make a change for the better in Hamden; you don’t have to look farther than the election that took place last week. Quinnipiac student Brittany Sanders ran for a seat on the Hamden Town Council. Quinnipiac Alumnus Mike Germano also ran, and won, a seat on the Hamden Town Council.
Quinnipiac, like every other university, has issues. Rather than punish the students, as Lee Flemming suggests, why can’t the University and the Hamden community work together to find solutions to off-campus housing for the student segment of Hamden’s population?
Quinnipiac students come from all over the country, and some live on-campus while others live off-campus, but the bottom line is that we live in Hamden too. No one is trying to make light or brush off the recent incidents that have occurred, but please do not suggest that Quinnipiac students are actively trying to degenerate the Hamden area.
