As a freshmen journalism major I am appalled to read in full quotes what President Lahey had to say about The Chronicle, Q30 and WQAQ at the Student Government Association (SGA) meeting.
First of all President Lahey was not very careful in what he said, for he contradicted himself several times. When Lahey was asked by the Connecticut Post to field questions about an article that appeared in The Chronicle last year, Lahey claimed not to know that The Chronicle even had a Web site.
Fine.
However, Lahey also said, “What we decided [last year] was that the electronic version [of The Chronicle] would come out the same time as the hard-copy version so at least dinosaurs like me who read the hard copy version get an opportunity to read it before the external world hears about it.”
That’s fine, except Lahey also claimed that he didn’t know The Chronicle had a Web site.
More appalling is what this contradiction reveals about Lahey’s relationship with the Quinnipiac Community. Lahey is so separated from the students at this school, he doesn’t even have a clue how one of the main media sources on campus relays information to the students.
The SGA meeting was supposed to be an opportunity for Lahey to address the issues of racism existing on our Quinnipiac campus; however, he succeeded more in alienating members of The Chronicle,Q30, WQAQ and many students on campus.
When Lahey did finally discuss the issues of racism, he spoke of how The Chronicle “misinterpreted” what he said in an interview, rather than speaking about the severity of racism in our Quinnipiac community.
In response to the issue of racism, Lahey stated that he was quoted incorrectly when The Chronicle said that “Lahey doesn’t care if it was a crime or not.”
To support his argument Lahey said, “What I said was, actually I did say that, but they left out the other part. I said ‘I didn’t know,’ I didn’t say ‘I didn’t care.'”
Who’s misinterpreting who?
Probably the most appalling part of what Lahey did was tell The Chronicle that they could not print a story about the racial incident that occurred on campus in its first issue.
Why?
One turns to a national or local newspaper to find out about recent events and issues. What makes The Chronicle so different?
Students at Quinnipiac University turn to The Chronicle for news and activity updates on our campus and there is no reason for Lahey to censor this.
One would not be able to censor a local newspaper. The community would fail to learn about what was going on around them.
Quinnipiac University is our community and it is unfair for Lahey to try and stop students from receiving news about what is going on around them on campus.
President Lahey has proved he has a distant relationship with the Quinnipiac community and has alienated many of the students on the Quinnipiac campus.
