If I told you I was in another Quinnipiac University newspaper before I joined The Quinnipiac Chronicle, you’d think I was lying.

I was a part of The Quinnipiac Barnacle. The last time the organization was active, I was a first-year student in 2019 attending its weekly Monday night meetings in the Arnold Bernhard Library. In the spring 2020 semester, everything went south for the organization. The COVID-19 shut down in March 2020 gave us a fear of sneezing in public and took away The Barnacle.

And now, two years later, the student-run satirical newspaper will be returning to Quinnipiac in fall 2022.

In 2020, Claire Gregg, now a senior biochemistry major, held the first Barnacle meeting of the fall semester on Zoom. Gregg took the position of editor-in-chief when the former leaders, Sophie Rodgers and Garrett Amill, graduated in the spring. Unfortunately, with a lack of resources and communication held remotely, the organization couldn’t flourish the way it did in past years.

“Barnacle is dead.”

I’ve heard that many times, and also said it many times myself. The Barnacle no longer being a campus organization felt like a sudden loss to me. I explained to my peers about my short-term involvement. I talked about the friendships I made and the funny articles I wrote such as “Bio major writes thesis on the birds and the bees” and “Guy who puts new music on Instagram story truly ahead of the curve.” I had my share of raunchier articles in The Barnacle with profanity, but the most important part was sharing my creativity with the Quinnipiac community.

When The Barnacle went on its hiatus, I knew I had to do something else with my time. A journalism student without any experience will have a tough time getting into the industry. However, I was never interested in writing breaking news. I found a new home at The Chronicle writing for the Arts & Life section. My first article was about the Kardashian family, but I’ve come a long way since then.

In the fall 2021 semester, I became the associate Arts & Life editor, and I pitched an idea that I never knew would take off: the satire column.

I had plenty of talks with editors on The Chronicle’s editorial board on the vision of satire. The articles are Quinnipiac-related and most importantly, they’re funny. Creative Director Connor Lawless made an amazing Las Vegas-inspired logo for the column, and I was over the moon. The Chronicle’s first satire piece was  “Quinnipiac to demolish Athletic and Recreation Center for parking spots,” poking fun at the university listening to its students but in the most radical way.

The Chronicle’s satire column is my proudest accomplishment so far in the organization. It has come to a point where I refer to myself as “the satire editor.” I’m thrilled when people want to pitch ideas to me, and I help their pieces become stronger. A part of introducing satire to Chronicle was to keep Barnacle alive in some form.

But on Feb. 27, I received the most exciting email.

Gregg gave The Barnacle keys to me and told me, “The Barnacle legacy is yours now, and I know you’ll do good with it.”

All of sudden, I felt like I was Spider-Man and I had a responsibility to take on. I felt like Gregg was Uncle Ben saying, “with great power comes great responsibility.” For almost a month, I’ve worked to revive The Barnacle with meetings every week, figuring out the best way to reincorporate it at Quinnipiac.

On March 23, I got an email that The Barnacle was reactivated on DoYouQU and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs Matthew Kurz was on board to become the club’s advisor. I was screaming in my red Volkswagen Jetta. All I could think about was being a member in 2019, and flash forward to today, I brought the organization back from the dead serving as editor-in-chief. So naturally, my next move was to put up cryptic posts on The Barnacle’s social media, teasing the return.

I was too excited to keep the secret anymore, so I posted about The Barnacle coming back on March 26, at 11 p.m. I’m sure people at the club are scrolling on LinkedIn on a Saturday night.

I am thrilled to bring an organization that means so much to me back to Quinnipiac, and I look forward to the relaunch of The Barnacle.