The Quinnipiac Chronicle, Issue 12 Volume 88

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The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929. Proud Recipient of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors’ Award for 2015-2016 College Newspaper of the Year

NOVEMBER 15, 2017

QUCHRONICLE.COM OPINION: AN END TO MASS SHOOTINGS P. 6

VOLUME 88, ISSUE 12

ARTS & LIFE: TRUTH BEHIND EATING DISORDERS P. 8 & 9

SPORTS: RUGBY PLAYOFFS P. 14

Sophomore class representative Zhuoqi Helen Dong removed from office By KELLY RYAN & VICTORIA SIMPRI

Members of the Student Government Association (SGA) voted during the general board meeting Wednesday, Nov. 8 to remove sophomore Class Representative Zhuoqi Helen Dong from her position. In a vote of 27 for and 11 against, Dong was removed from office. At the International Business (IB) Dinner on Monday, Oct. 23 hosted by the International Business Society, Dong took down the flag of Taiwan with permission by two professors, Professor Xiaohong He and Mohammad Elahee, who are also the advisors of the International Business Society. Dong said there was a provincial flag of Taiwan hung at the International Business Dinner, but there was not a flag of China. The International Business Society declined to comment. While members of SGA have been asked to step down from their position in the past, no member has been removed in the eight years that SGA advisor, Erin Twomey, has been working with the student government, according to Vice President of SGA Jacqueline Schmedel. Dong was informed of her im-

peachment on Wednesday, Oct. 25. Dong said she was made aware of her impeachment papers receiving 10 signatures in two hours after reading the Nov. 1 issue of The Quinnipiac Chronicle. During the impeachment process, an impeachment committee, made up of one representative from each class, excluding the sophomore class, the Vice President and President of SGA, met with Dong and allowed her to defend herself. However, Dong said the impeachment committee did not understand her reasoning. As an international student from Xi’an, China, Dong explained the history between China and Taiwan in the Chinese Civil War. “The Chinese Civil War made China and Taiwan a little bit divided,” Dong said. “That’s why in 1972 and also 1979, there was a treaty between the U.S. government and the Chinese government about the One China Principle and the U.S. recognized Taiwan as part of China.” Dong believed that hanging only a flag of Taiwan without a flag of China would have created potential controversy. “The United Nations does not

SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF BEVERLY WAKIAGA/Q30 NEWS

Helen Dong was asked to leave the SGA general board meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 8 after being removed from office. recognize Taiwan as a country,” Dong said. “I have no disrespect for Taiwan; I just want to avoid controversy. Taiwan cannot represent all of China. By only having a flag of Taiwan up, it’s more like making a statement like, ‘We saw Taiwan representing all of China.’ That creates controversy.”

Hanging both flags would have been a solution, according to Dong. She said there was no time to have access to a flag of China in time for the International Business Dinner, so she felt it was necessary to take down the flag of Taiwan. Members of SGA are given a list

of events that they are advised to go to throughout the academic year, the International Business Dinner being one of them. “[Dong] had helped advocate for the IB dinner and she had spread the See DONG Page 4

Lights out

Power outages on main campus displace 1,600 students over the weekend

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The Commons, The Hill and The Village residential buildings were all affected by the blown transformers. Power was completely restored to the remaining Village buildings by 3:40 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Sergeant Vignola said students’ cooperation was commendable. “I will compliment the student

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body,” Vignola said. “The behavior was excellent. They understood the magnitude. There wasn’t a lot of complaining. Anything we asked of

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INDEX

see what’s happening on

On a regular Friday night, Public Safety has 15 or 16 officers on duty on campus, but Sergeant Vignola said the department called in the third shift due to the magnitude of the issue involving the evacuation of 1,600 students. Vignola said the officers responded to each impacted area, secured it and called the fire department. Residential Life and Facilities also worked to implement the Emergency Management team’s plan. Students in The Commons were allowed to return to their rooms around 11:30 p.m., though power was still not restored at that time. There was heat, fire protections and emergency lighting, though, according to a 11:29 p.m. QU Alert. As of 2:39 a.m. on Saturday morning, all of The Commons, The Hill and parts of The Village had restored power, and students living in The Hill and those parts of The Village were told they could return to their rooms at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. The facilities team worked throughout the day on Saturday to restore power to the remaining 21 buildings in The Village still without power.

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Approximately 1,600 students living in The Commons, The Hill and The Village residential buildings on main campus were evacuated from their dorms on Friday, Nov. 11 after three transformers blew around 7 p.m., according to Public Safety Sergeant Bob Vignola. The power outages also affected the Bobcat Den and the Health and Wellness Center. Hamden Fire Department Chief David Berardesca said this was a rare occurrence. He said if the transformers did catch fire, it was probably quite small and probably burned out right away. The Hamden Fire Department was called to the main campus due to smoke in some buildings after the transformers burnt out, however, there was no fire involvement. “Whenever we have an issue with electricity, with high intensity wires or transformers like this, the first thing we do (is) isolate the area,” Berardesca said. “We want to isolate that… we want to set the power off where we can, we want to work with Quinnipiac’s maintenance people and security

people who typically are well in tuned with the infrastructure and maintenance fixtures.” Chief Berardesca said Quinnipiac is especially good at maintenance and what they do as far as their infrastructure, so it was comforting for the fire department and the town to know that this campus is being taken care of as well as it is. The cause of the blown transformers is unknown, but Chief Berardesca said factors such as age or overload could have caused the malfunction. Because of the transformer malfunctions, students living in The Commons, The Hill and The Village were evacuated and forced to either spend the night with a friend or relative that had power, be assigned to an empty bed or sleep in Burt Kahn Court, where mattresses were set up, according to a QU Alert sent to students around 10:45 p.m. on Friday night. This plan was put into place by the university’s Emergency Management team. The Carl Hansen Student Center and Arnold Bernhard Library remained open throughout the evening for students to stay in.

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Opinion: 6 Arts and Life: 8 Sports: 13


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