Quinnipiac has paved out a clear and promising path toward a successful future for its students, but it struggles with the more literal sense of the word.
Quinnipiac’s Quad is iconic because of its stone paths which lead to almost every conceivable building on campus to avoid any temptations of stepping on the grass.
I have three distinct problems with the walkways and roadways surrounding Quinnipiac that will uphold our reputation as a path-friendly university.
1. The network of paths covering the Quad is only handy on non-rainy days.
When it rains, or even just sprinkles, these paths become the enemy. They have absolutely no drainage capacity. It is impossible to get to class without leaping over massive puddles and streams. We all remember the great flood of 2018 when the entire university became an ocean and freshmen whipped out their bikinis and their boxers and went bodyboarding down Bobcat Way. For those of us who lacked a bikini to wear, but did have a class to attend, the evening was a lot less enjoyable. It involved taking leaps of faith over huge puddles throughout the Quad and despite our best efforts, still arriving to class looking like a sewer rat. This is even worse for admissions events. Imagine being a prospective student and your family and taking a tour of a university and having to deal with our puddle trouble. Rainy day tours are bad enough, but when you have to focus on surviving the lazy river, you just aren’t going to care that our average class size is 25. You’re going to care that your average sneakers are soaked.
2. I almost got hit by a car trying to get to the Albert Schweitzer Institute.
This university-owned property has absolutely no path leading to it and no crosswalk across New Road. In the snow, accessing the building is treacherous. You can either walk down the path to the Peter C. Herald House for Jewish Life and then walk down the side of New Road or you can walk through the snowy field in the visitors’ lot. We need a path and a crosswalk ASAP.
3. My last issue with paths is the road that leads to Quinnipiac itself–Mount Carmel Avenue.
The Quinnipiac website’s directions for getting to campus direct visitors onto this road which is like giving your new boyfriend directions to your house that involve a backpacking trip through the Rockies–it’s just not the first impression you want to leave. Let’s not scare anyone off! In case you’ve somehow avoided it, let me tell you about it. To say this road has potholes is like saying Donald Trump has affairs. It just doesn’t do it justice. You can’t count Trump’s lies and you can’t count the pot holes on Mount Carmel Avenue. It has no shoulder. One wrong turn sends your wheels careening into the caverns and bramble lining the road. Additionally, it usually has a rushing stream running down the middle of it, bent trees that scrape the roof of your car and an occasional pileup of rock and silt from a mini-avalanche. This road is not welcoming for guests, including my mom, who will probably refuse to visit me if that road gives her a flat tire. It’s time for Hamden to step in and pave the road.
These problems may seem petty but it’s hard to get students to blaze their own trails at Quinnipiac if they can’t even blaze the road that leads here or the paths that connect our buildings. Paths are important and this is my official plea to make drainage, a path to the Albert Schweitzer Institute and a repaved Mount Carmel Avenue part of the University-Wide Strategic Path.
