OCTOBER 2, 2024 • VOLUME 95 • ISSUE 5
The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929
By AVA HIGHLAND Contributing Writer
Quinnipiac University’s School of Communications announced a new Bachelor of Arts in Sports Communications next fall, opening a wide variety of sports media careers beyond journalism. Within this major, students will explore how they can work for sports teams in public relations, advertising, film, social media or television. The major will not only attract students already in the communications program, but it can overlap with other majors and disciplines as well. While the idea has been in discussions for a while, the process was fast tracked this past spring in the curriculum to have it ready for fall 2025. A committee of faculty members, led by Associate Dean Terry Bloom, gathered to hit the ground running this past spring. Assistant Professor of Journalism Nick Pietruszkiewicz is eager to present students with opportunities that they may have not known were possible. “I think people see that there are so many opportunities in sports and it doesn’t just have to be journalism, it doesn’t just have to be PR, like all these things are available,” Pietruszkiewicz said. “I think watching the light bulb go off on a student, them saying, I
School of Communications announces new major TRIPP MENHALL/CHRONICLE
See SPORTS COMMUNICATIONS Page 2
Tim Wise speaks on Critical Race Theory By ANDREW ALLISON Contributing Writer
Prominent anti-racist author Tim Wise visited Quinnipiac University’s Mt. Carmel Auditorium as part of the Office of Inclusive Excellence’s “Critical Conversations” series on Thursday, Sept. 26. “The objective of the Critical Conversations series is to foster an inclusive and intellectually stimulating environment at Quinnipiac, promoting inclusivity of thought, respectful dialog, empathetic engagement and open mindedness among students, faculty and staff,” said Claude Mayo, director of inclusive excellence, prior to Wise’s speech. Wise’s message to Quinnipiac students was that they should be open to discussing systemic racism and their role in preventing it. “Number one, just being open to hearing someone talk about how the system is marginalizing them, rather than getting defensive about that,” Wise said, in an interview with The Chronicle. “(Be) open to having it pointed out.” During his speech, Wise discussed many points regarding critical race theory and its recognition. “It’s the kind of conversations that about half the states in this country are not allowing schools to have at least not in the way that they would like to have them, or been having them over the years, about half the states in this country that have essentially prohibited discussions on systemic racism at the K-12 level,” Wise said. He claimed some schools and institutions are intimidated by state governments into not discussing critical race theory in their classrooms. One of Wise’s main points was that people should be open to accepting that systemic racism still exists. “There’s a lot of things we don’t know and that we don’t understand because we’ve never
had to look at them,” Wise said. According to Wise, critical race theory was developed to explain how racism still exists today, even after the Civil Rights movement. “So they developed this body of thought to sort of explain that maybe this problem of racism is much more deeply ingrained than we thought,” Wise said. “...you still need to engage it in order to know if you can revise a theory,” Wise said. He emphasized that critical race theory can be “revised,” and to be revised it has to be exercised. “You still need to engage it in order to know if you can revise a theory,” Wise said. He emphasized that critical race theory can be “revised,” and to be revised it has to be exercised. Wise described critical race theory as an attempt to explain something that we see and don’t understand. “I think the most important thing to know is that, just like any theory, it tries to explain a phenomenon, right?” He used a metaphor of “whack-a-mole” to describe how racism is hard to defeat because it is removed from one place and “pops up” somewhere else. Wise has spent over 30 years visiting and speaking with various audiences and institutions about dealing with racial inequity in their organizations. He is also the author of nine books and his memoir, “White Like Me.” The Office of Inclusive Excellence plans to invite additional speakers, including one within the next few weeks. “The events are designed to empower participants to be better prepared to embrace inclusivity of thought by actively listening to and engaging with concepts and ideas that may challenge their personal values without dismissing or silencing different viewpoints,” Mayo said.
TRIPP MENHALL/CHRONICLE
Students and faculty watch as Tim Wise, anti-racist writer and educator, speaks during the Critical Conversations event on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024.
TRIPP MENHALL/CHRONICLE
Wise, author of “White Like Me,” talks during the Critical Conversations event.