November 16, 2011
The Quinnipiac Chronicle
Live and learn PoliSci course lets students follow real campaign
Lox for Love cut short by small turnout By Taylor Trahan Contributing Writer
By Cassie Comeau Staff Writer
While students in other classes spend their weekends writing papers and studying for tests, Professor Scott McLean’s Presidential Election Campaigns course provides students with hands-on learning experiences in the political field. For two weekends during the semester and a week in January, the 28 members of the class travel to New Hampshire to learn the ins-andouts of political campaigning. “So many students walk around not knowing what and how Washington is shaping their future and I refuse to remain ignorant about such matters,” senior Jameson Cherilus, who volunteers on President Barack Obama’s campaign, said. “I want a say in the type of people we elect to run this country and this course has given me exactly that opportunity.” Over the course of the semester, students learn what is involved in campaigning and choose presidential candidates based off of a questionnaire on a program called Select Start, which asks students to fill out personal information as well as their positions on political issues. Students also choose their candidates based off of their positions on certain issues, the candidate’s potential to win and the campaign they think would be the most fun to work on. The students then utilize their newly-acquired knowledge in New Hampshire when
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Photo courtesy of Tara McMahon
Quinnipiac students volunteering for Barack Obama’s campaign in New Hampshire exactly one year before the 2012 election. volunteering for their selected candidates. “New Hampshire is a political Disney World for people like me,” McLean said. “It’s got amazing characters and lots to do. It’s a lot of fun, and really it’s the only place in the country where a college student can just jump into campaigns and politics.” Throughout the New Hampshire trips, students participate in numerous canvassing activities, such as holding signs, phone banking and going door-to-door, to garner support for their candidates. “Anybody can have a lecture telling you what things are about, but to truly experience it and witness what goes into a campaign and how someone is elected, no classroom could ever provide that,” said Natalie Deduck, an-
other volunteer on Obama’s campaign team. “Being a part of that too has been very eyeopening.” McLean hopes to open his students’ eyes to the fact that the election system in the United States is not the only system in the world. The course provides his students with knowledge of the American presidential candidate selection process, as well as a critical point of view of the method and ways to improve it, according to McLean. “They really do come out at the end of this process feeling much more patriotic about their country, they feel like they’ve really done something important, that they were part of making history, and it’s a good feeling,” McLean said.
Six inches of hair is all that is needed to make a tremendous difference in someone’s life and restore his or her confidence. On Sunday, Nov. 13, Rabbi Reena Judd and Hillel members hosted the second annual Lox for Love event at the Hillel house on New Road. At the event, Quinnipiac students volunteered to donate their hair to sick children in need. Locks of Love is a nonprofit organization that offers hairpieces to children under the age of 21 in the United States and Canada who cannot afford them and are suffering from hair loss due to any diagnosis, including cancer. The organization feels it is important for these children to have hair in order for them to fit in with their peers and maintain their self-esteem and confidence. “The hair is put in elastic bands and is sent to Locks of Love in West Palm Beach, Fla. From there, it is woven into wigs for people who have lost their hair due to illnesses,” Judd said. “It started as an organization for people with cancer but has now spread to people who need wigs due to any physical situation.” “I’ve had a couple friends with cancer,” junior Brian Farrell said. “I’ve been growing my hair out for about a year and two months now so I figured when it was long enough, I would cut it and donate it.” Despite the small turnout, two students grew out their hair for this particular purpose and cut off six inches in order to help children in need. A bit disappointed that only two people were expected to donate their hair this year compared to the 17 last year, Judd felt that the event lacked advertising.
University: DATTCO threats were Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel a ‘miscommunication’ Wilkerson discusses book Dattco from cover Hartman also said that the NHPD has made multiple attempts to contact Quinnipiac to inform students and said their requests were denied every time. “We have had little luck with Quinnipiac to talk to students and student groups,” Hartman said. When asked why the requests had been denied, Bushnell said, “the university is willing to do whatever it can to make sure this type of inappropriate behavior is discontinued immediately. We don’t want a small minority of
students ruining this valuable service for the rest of the student body.” Said Hartman: “Southern Connecticut State University has invited us on campus for years now to talk to students, and we haven’t had that relationship with Quinnipiac, and that’s a shame.” After witnessing more than six Quinnipiac students shoplift in downtown New Haven this past weekend, Hartman gave Quinnipiac a “polite message.” “Behave, and you’re all right. However, we will not tolerate this seemingly minor behavior,” Hartman said.
Blackout Tour coming to Toad’s tomorrow Barstool from cover seems like Barstool picked large universities, so it’s exciting that they are coming to QU,” she said. “I know people from Sacred Heart and Farfield are also attending so it should be a great time,” she said.
According to Portnoy, Barstool’s main goal is for everyone to have an awesome time. “We just want everyone to be psyched and have a night that’s different and unusual from what usually happens on campus,” Portnoy said. “We do whatever we can to make sure it’s an event people will have fun at.”
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By Jenna Doleh Staff Writer
Quinnipiac hosted Pulitzer Prize winner and former national correspondent for The New York Times Isabel Wilkerson for a presentation of her book, “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” last Monday at Burt Kahn Court. “The Warmth of Other Suns,” an account of the Great Migration, was selected as one of 2010’s 10 Best Books of the Year by her former employer, The New York Times. She focused on telling the story of 1915 to 1970 in American history when six million African Americans fled the south, by recounting the pasts of three migrants who each represent a different decade and destination. “My goal in writing this book is to try and make [the Great Migration] come alive,” Wilkerson said. “We are all here on this soil because our ancestors made the choice to make this great sacrifice.” Wilkerson said she interviewed more than 1,200 people in approximately 12 years to find her three main characters. “The interviewing process was quite natural,” Wilkerson said. “I wanted to find three delightfully imperfect people like most people would be.” According to the author, many people who Americans have come to know and love would not have been able to be in the spotlight if it
were not for the Great Migration. She gave examples, such as Michael Jackson, Snoop Dogg, and Diana Ross, whose parents all migrated from the South during the period of the Great Migration. “I want to make everyone aware of the power of individual decision,” Wilkerson said. “These people who migrated freed themselves by their decision to leave. There needs to be more awareness.” Burt Kahn was packed with students and faculty during Wilkerson’s speech. Those in attendance seemed highly engaged in hearing Wilkerson’s message. “I never knew much about the great migration before this speech, and I was surprised at how much I absorbed in such little time,” sophomore Nathalie Donaldson said. “There were so many things [Isabel Wilkerson] touched on that people take completely for granted, and still don’t realize today what made them possible. I was a lot more affected by what she said than I expected to be, and I fully plan on reading her book.” During the Great Migration, Wilkerson’s parents journeyed from Georgia and southern Virginia to Washington, D.C., where she was born and raised. “The Warmth of Other Suns” is her first book. “I hope you all are as inspired as I am by the Great Migration,” Wilkerson said. “It really is such an empowering idea.”