Smkinnier's Weblog

Greek Week

This week marks the beginning of what will prove to be an exciting week of Greek Week events, as members of the Greek community will battle it out in numerous events including powderpuff football, iron chef and a lip sync. The lip sync is by far the most anticipated event and like all other events that are apart of Greek Week, anyone in the QU Community can come out to watch. The main goal for Greek Week is to inspire a sense of unity and community among both members of the Greek community and members of QU as well. It’s a week that I personally feel creates a sense of school spirit; something that I think Quinnipiac is lacking in general.

Beans of Hope

Every day I am more and more impressed and in awe at what is happening around this campus, that for the most part,usually goes unnoticed. I recently discovered that there are a group of students on campus that are working on a project that is not only beneficial to members of the Quinnipiac community, but it is also beneficial to the villagers in Bawa, a village in the West Province of Cameroon, Africa. These students are members of SIFE (Students Involved in Free Enterprise) and their mission is to continue the production of a local coffee bean from Bawa. According to their website, “Because of its high altitude growing conditions, the village is capable of producing very high grade coffee beans, but struggles to ship a consistent finished product due in part to primitive growing, grading, and drying processes and the lack of adequate and available transportation.”
Not only that, but there is also a very poor market system in Bawa as well, so it makes it more difficult to make a profit. The students have made it their personal to not only help the Bawa community become more successful in producing and selling their coffee, but they also want their efforts here to help raise enough money to eventually build a health center in Bawa-which is something they desperately need.
To me, what I find to be most interesting is that what started as a simple discussion among Quinnipiac students, has become a full-blown, living, breathing project that really has begun to make a huge impact on these villagers.
According to quinnipiac’s wesite, SIFE “promotes the entrepreneurial spirit and an ongoing exploration of the free-enterprise system through outreach projects in the community and throughout the world. SIFE also encourages career development and cultivates future opportunities for its members.”
I think that there is something to be said about this group of students who are using the skills that they have obtained here, and are applying them to help benefit others. This is something that I feel we should all strive for. SIFE is definitely yet another Quinnipiac student organization that I feel has been kept underwraps for too long, and should be exposed for the inspirational project that they are currently working on.

For more information about their project in general, visit their website.

Dance Season in Full Swing

I personally have never seen our Dance Team perform before, but from what I have heard, they are a group of extremely talented girls For those of you who were not even aware that we have a dance team, I thought I’d expose you to one of their performances from last year where they took first place in the Scholastic College Open Championships.

Club Highlight: QU After Dark

Q.U.A.D., Quinnipiac University After Dark, represents social programs that take place on Friday and Saturday nights from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Q.U.A.D is made up of a committee of undergraduate students, graduate student advisors, and professional staff members who meet weekly to organize activities and events. All undergraduate students are encouraged to participate on the committee – no experience is needed!
Examples of previous events include, but certainly are not limited to: bingo, trips to bowling alleys and laser tag, craft nights, Quinnipiac Idol contests, temporary tattoos, and Game Room events. New members and ideas are always welcome.

Meetings are held Tuesdays at 4 p.m. in Student Center room 123.

To become part of the Q.U.A.D. Squad, contact:
Carrie Robbins-O’Connell, assistant director of the Student Center
Student Center room 214, extension 8739, carrie.robbins-o’connell@quinnipiac.edu

*Read more about Q.U.A.D in this week’s Chronicle issue online

Upcoming Events

For the week of Sept. 29- Oct. 5:

1. Thursday, Oct. 2 – Alpha Chi Omega is holding a Domestic Violence Walk

2. Friday, Oct. 3- Parents Weekend begins. The Food Fair will be taking place on the Quad from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Phi Sigma Sigma’s Rock-a-Thon will begin at 3:00 p.m.

3. Friday, Oct. 3- QUAD is holding a Speed Dating event in Alumni Hall from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m.

4. Saturday, Oct. 4 – SPB is hosting a special gues, “Mad Chad,” a man who juggles chain saws- should be very interesting. This will be held from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. in Alumni Hall.

5. Sunday Oct. 5- If your parents are coming for the weekend, use Sunday as your day to hike Sleeping Giant as a family and take in the beautiful fall New England colors. They won’t be dissapointed.

Transitioning Sometimes a Challenge

As the leaves begin to change and Sleeping Giant continues to transform into a vibrant display of fall colors, it feels as if we’ve all begun to settle into the school year. To me, I find the fall to be the hardest transitioning period of the year because it feels as if it’s been years since we last opened a book or stayed up all night studying for a test. My handwriting looks different and it’s almost as if I’ve forgotten how to hold a pencil correctly. Sitting at a desk feels strange and unfamiliar, and sitting in that desk feels like the most uncomfortable thing you’ve ever had to experience in your life.
Of course, after all of this is said and done and after you re-learn how to hold your pencil and sitting at that desk become more bareable, it feels as if you’ve never even left. Personally I feel that summer vacation is too long. I know that this seems like a crazy idea because most people never want their summer vacation to end. While I do enjoy having a break from the studying and all of the stress, about a month into summer I always find myself counting down the days until I return to school-not necessarily to get back to homework and tests and constant bustle that the school year brings, but mostly because I have come to love my life here. I have come to love it because of the friends that I’ve made and because of the organizations that I have participated in. It has given me such a sense of community and sense of belonging, and something that I truly feel can not be duplicated. I would urge anyone who is new to the college experience to get involved-it truly has made my experience.

Rock for a Good Cause

As Parents Weekend approaches and students are finally doing that load of laundry or cleaning their room before mom and dad see their room, many student organizations are preparing to participate in some of the weekend’s events. Many student groups will be participating in the yearly Food Fair, set up in a large tent on the Quad. Each group will prepare a food of their choice- usually ranging from fried dough, to homemade chili, to soups, to cakes and the list goes on and on. The food usually costs between $1-3 and donations are always accepted-these usually come out of the pocket of mom or dad.
Another highlight of the weekend that those involved in the Greek Community look forward to each year is Phi Sigma Sigma’s Rock-a-Thon. In this event a member from each greek organization must rock in a rocking chair (decorated and customized by each group) for 24 hours straight. It is a great tradition that Phi Sig has created and something that even parents can get involved in. Each group comes out wearing their letters proudly as they brave it through often chilly weather conditions all through the night, rotating who sits in the chair each hour. I’ve personally participated in the event in years past and I think that it creates a great sense of community among not only greeks but all members of the QU community.

JuicyCampus.com

Over the past couple of weeks, SGA has attempted to join student organizations on campus together in the battle to ban Juciycampus.com from the Quinnipiac network. If these attempts are in fact successful, then students will no longer have the ability to access the site when on campus on the network. Of course this is no small task, as Quinnipiac has never blocked a site in the past, and no other University has blocked the site from their school network. Over 30 organizations on campus joined Vice President of Student Concerns, Jason Caplin in support. If you are unfamiliar with how the site works, students from all over can log on and click on the name of their university and they enter an open forum, specific to their school. On their particular page, students post topics that other students can comment on. While in some cases this could turn into a positive aspect, it truly has become hateful and extremely harmful to other students.
With everything that has happened so far in regards to the Administration and “censorship,” I think that if that the University faces an extremely tough decision. While I believe that there are many students on this campus that feel that the site should be banned, I think that if the University were to actually block the site, there would be a giant uproar. All of a sudden students would be complaining about censorship and freedom of expression- all things in which most likely 90 percent of this campus can not define. At times I feel that students on this campus like to complain about things, simply to complain-many never take the time to look at the facts.
While I do feel that certain lines should not be crossed when it comes to the University stepping in, I truly feel that there would be no harm in blocking the site from the Quinnipiac network. If you have ever read the site, then you can understand how horrible it really is and how unnecessary it is to the Quinnipiac Community.

Read what the Chronicle has to say about Juicycampus.com

Maintaining a High Standard

It was announced at the end of last week that Quinnipiac’s chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma, the honor society for graduate and undergraduate business students, has been named a Premier Chapter for the 2007-2008 academic year.
The International Business Society (Beta Gamma Sigma Chapter) is a student organization made up of students enrolled in a business major and others interested in international business gather to gain an in-depth understanding of course materials and issues and to encourage professional interests and development.
This is the fourth consecutive year that the Society has been named a Premier Chapter.

Battling it Out for a Good Cause

While most college students look forward to sleeping in on a Saturday morning after a long week filled with homework assignments, exams and other responsibilities, this past Saturday proved to be an exception for some.
The fourth annual Hall Wars, hosted by Sigma Phi Epsilon proved to be nothing short of spectacular, as students representing the four freshmen dorms (Ledges, Irma, Dana and Commons) went head to head in numerous competitions. Starting at 10 a.m. on the quad, students competed in basketball, dodgeball, volleyball, and many other competetive sports games.
For those who are not familiar with what exactly Hall Wars is, it is a day full of events where the four freshmen dorms compete against each other in various sports games, tug-o-war and an event called “Gladiator.”
While much of the focus is put on the freshmen dorm that wins the event, I think that there are many students that are not aware of what is accomplished in putting on this event. Throughout the day there are raffles, a BBQ, and many of the other greek organizations sell various food items. All of this money goes to Youth Aids. Youth Aids is established in many different countries around the world, helping to prevent the spread of AIDS and HIV. It places a lot of its focus on teaching prevention techniques, especially in third world countries.
I think that this event is a perfect example of how participating in a school activity and showing school spirit is rewarding in so many ways; not only are you putting yourself out there and allowing yourself to connect with the community, you are also participating in a positive experience that helps to benefit others. This is an event that hopefully will continue to happen for years to come.