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QUCHRONICLE.COM
SEPTEMBER 28, 2016
OPINION: OUTRAGE TO IMPACT P. 7
ARTS & LIFE: STUDENT DJ FEATURE P. 10
VOLUME 87, ISSUE 5 SPORTS: WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY PREVIEW P. 16
Examining campus culture after racial incident
Budget cuts bring up questions By OLIVIA HIGGINS Staff Writer
Turn to page 8 for the full story and interview with the face of the Snapchat, Sarah Goodrich CAITLIN CRYAN/CHRONICLE
Students hold a sign that says Black Lives Matter during the peaceful protest held Saturday, Septmeber 24th on the library steps.
Chris Montalvo to lead class of 2020
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After a week of preparation and campaigning, the Quinnipiac freshman class student election closed this past Wednesday. Chris Montalvo was elected by to serve as the freshman president for the class of 2020 out of nine candidates. Anthony Martino was voted to become vice president. Montalvo and Martino are both in the 3+1 program for business. This rigorous program requires additional responsibilities and classes, much like the additional responsibilities of president and vice president. They have to listen to peers and then taking action to improve things that affect the student body. Living across the hall from each other, Montalvo says he got to know Martino well. “We teamed up and worked together to build our campaign,” says Montalvo. His campaign slogan, “As freshman Bobcats, we will work together and achieve greatness,” describes his objective to represent the voice and interests of the whole freshman class. Montalvo is no stranger to student government. Serving as class president all four years in high school, he believes his past experiences have contributed to the success of his campaign and will continue to help guide him in his role as president. Along with past student government experience, Montalvo was a student representative for the Connecticut Board of Education, as-
sistant captain on his high school football team and served on the executive board for the business club at his school. For Montalvo, leadership is something that comes naturally. He describes himself as an organized person who is easily able to work through problems to find the best solution. “I want to lead wherever I go,” he said. “[I will] ensure we are serving the community and making a name for our class.” Freshman business major Taylor Lind said that Montalvo was consistently campaigning. “Chris was the only candidate who I saw campaigning every day,” Lind said. “One day he was handing out flyers and cookies and another he was knocking on people’s doors.” Although Montalvo has had a tremendous amount of experience with student government in the past, he says that becoming the freshman class president of Quinnipiac was not an easy task. Coming from a high school that had a graduating class of 450 students to a class of more than 1,900 here at Quinnipiac, running for president in college was a new challenge that he was eager to take on. “Becoming president did not seem like a feasible task,” says Montalvo. In order to stand out within the larger array of students, Montalvo took his campaign very seriously. He handed out flyers, made a video and was vocal about what his goals are for the
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coming year. “Anthony and I’s job is to represent our class” says Montalvo. He plans to “use his experience as a platform” to work together with his VP to serve their classmates best interests. The video was something that Montalvo and his Martino came up with to spread their campaign throughout the QU community. According to freshman entrepreneurship major Sean Cohen, this tactic got their message across. “The video was really funny but serious at the same time,” Cohen said. “They made jokes, but the main focus of the video was on why they would be a good to fit to represent the class.” Becoming the freshman class president was a major goal Montalvo had even before he came to Quinnipiac. Achieving this goal points to his determination and strength as a leader. “I was not surprised to see that Chris won the election, he seemed like the most popular candidate by far,” Bailey House, a freshman criminal justice major said. As of this week, he says that his presidential duties are starting to begin. He is gathering schedules, figuring out meeting times for his cabinet and has held an unofficial meeting to discuss initiatives. He is looking forward to using his experiences from the past to help him best represent the freshman class and be a voice for the change his classmates want to see.
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By CAITLIN FISH
If a Quinnipiac student takes a look at their tuition bill, they’ll see the $1,650 student activity fee that all students pay every year, which presumably goes toward student activities. But this year Student Government Association’s (SGA) budget for organizations on campus has been cut and the school has not made students aware, according to Vice President for Finance George Corde. Many students were surprised by the budget cuts because they had not heard about them before from the school or student government. “I feel that it’s Quinnipiac’s obligation to tell us where our money is going,” Sophomore Niamh Butler said. “We’re going here, we’re participating in the clubs, our parents are paying so we should be kept in the loop of what’s going on with our money.” Almost 7,000 students pay the $1,650 fee each year, this means the school is receiving around $10 million per year in student activity fees. A portion of this money goes directly to the Student Government Association (SGA) to provide funds for all the organizations on campus. The SGA has typically been given $700,000 out of that $10 million to budget across all the organizations on campus. But this past summer, SGA was informed that its budget would be cut by $150,000 for the upcoming school year. Quinnipiac justified these budget cuts because SGA usually only spends $600,000 per year, and so they removed the difference according to Corde. “Over the past three years, the school kind of averaged out our spending, and we only ever really spend $600,000 of our budget,” Corde said. Corde said the school is validating its budget cuts because SGA was not spending all of the money in those previous years. “What all of us should have [to do is] to go to different organizations, to go to different events on campus and things like that,” Corde said. “So, all of the student fee money should be spent on things for the students.” Corde, other student government members and students would like to know where this money is going instead of to SGA. The budget has been cut and yet students still pay the same amount in student fees, which is something students should be aware of. “There are definitely going to be people who are upset about it, different organizations will be upset because now we have to evaluate some of our practices,” Corde said. Sophomore Marissa Motti believes the school should make students and their
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