APRIL 11, 2018 | VOLUME 88, ISSUE 23
The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929
OPINION: IGNORANCE IS BLISS P. 7
ARTS & LIFE: A QUIET PLACE REVIEW P. 9
SPORTS: ABBY ZISER P. 13
Ryan Hicks appointed SGA President By STEPHEN MACLEOD
sition you hold. Once that grace period ends of thinking about why you ran we can start to come together as one team.” One issue Hicks wants to tackle is the financing of student organizations. A cause he has long fought for as Vice President (VP) for Finance. The funding SGA gets for student organizations was sharply cut this year, going from $750,000 to $600,000. Many student organizations were unable to attend conferences or competitions and those that did get to attend had to go through a special appeal process. Hicks said that the huge cuts have stunted the student experience and stopped club growth at a time Quinnipiac is trying to tout its growth. “I hope that we can show the administration that we need more money,” Hicks said. “By not giving us more money you’re restricting the student experience. You’re preventing our students from having learning outside the classroom which I think is incredibly important. Without allowing our students to travel and without allowing our students to compete we’re restricting that learning from outside the classroom?” Hicks has been a long time advocate of increasing student organization funding. During his campaign for VP for Finance, he stated his displeasure with budget cuts. Hicks said that the huge cuts left SGA with a shortage of nearly $75,000 when they drew up their budgets this year. While they are preparing for another tight
Staff Writer
MORGAN TENCZA/CHRONICLE
Ryan Hicks will begin his tenure as the Student Government Association President on Wednesday, April 18.
SGA election results releases after five days of deliberation
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Two grievances were filed on Student Government Association election day, April 4, in regards to a Facebook post by Class of 2019 President-elect Matt Corso calling for members to vote for certain Executive Board candidates. Corso’s post was in the “Spring Break 2019!” Facebook group and supported the campaigns of juniors Ryan Hicks, Luke Ahearn and John Khillah. They ran and eventually won in contested elections for SGA President, Vice President of SGA and Vice President for Finance, respectively. Junior higher education leadership major Joe Iasso, who eventually lost the election for SGA President to Hicks, revealed that he filed one of the grievances targeting Hicks, Khillah, Ahearn and Corso. SGA Vice President Jacqueline Schmedel declined to confirm who filed the second grievance. The Facebook post endorsing these candidates closely followed a different post that advertised a chance to win a “booze cruise” in Punta Cana. Members of the group were allegedly misled by the post made by Corso, who is an administrator of the group. They allegedly thought if they voted for the endorsed candidates, they would be admitted to the sweepstakes, as stated
in Iasso’s grievance. Several post comments were promptly deleted by group administrators after they asked if voting would result in admittance to the sweepstakes. “By using a Facebook group dedicated to getting Quinnipiac students to spend a week in Punta Cana partying and drinking, I believe that the Election Policy was clearly violated by Matt Corso, a supporter of Ryan Hicks, Luke Ahearn and John Khillah,” Iasso said in his grievance. These two grievances delayed the release of election results for what is believed to be the first time in known history at Quinnipiac, according to SGA Vice President of Public Relations Victoria Johnson. Grievances must be filed within 24 hours of the violation of the election policy and may be filed for a number of reasons. As long as a violation of SGA bylaws has occurred. Violations include but are not limited to spending over the $250 limit for a campaign or sabotaging another candidates campaign materials, according to SGA bylaws. While Ahearn and Khillah won their respective elections by significant margins (Ahearn by 317 votes and Khillah by 422 votes) the presidential race was decided by a mere 125 votes. Iasso’s grievance challenged the merit of Hicks’ voter tally. The issue Iasso brings up is the violation of Article II of the SGA Constitu-
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By NICHOLAS SLATER AND STEPHEN MACLEOD
tion, which states that candidate conduct during elections must reflect SGA’s values. After Iasso’s grievance was received by the Election Committee, investigation was underway. The Election Committee recognized that the three candidates, along with Corso, were in fact in violation of the aforementioned bylaw. In response to Iasso’s grievance, the committee issued the following: “A post was written in the Spring Break 2019! Facebook group. In the group previously, posts where Matt Corso, the admin, asked for a comment to be made upon completion of a task were coupled with prizes being awarded for a booze cruise. The post in question followed a similar format; from this, we have determined that students felt that if they voted in accordance with the post they had potential to win a booze cruise.” The Election Committee then told the candidates that there would be sanction to revote on Friday, April 6 for their then-pending positions. Iasso appealed this decision. Hicks, Ahearn and Khillah filed a joint appeal while Corso filed his own. “I do not think it is fair to me, or to anyone,
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ILLUSTRATED BY: DEV SONI
Executive Board
President: Ryan Hicks Vice President: John Khillah VP for Student Experience: Austin Calvo VP for Public Relations: Victoria Johnson
Class Boards Class of 2019 President: Matt Corso Vice President: Allison Kuhn Class of 2020 President: Anna Nardelli Vice President: Andy Stafa Class of 2021 President: Sophia Marshall Vice President: Olamide Gbotosho
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After five days of delay, the Quinnipiac Student Government Association (SGA) announced the Executive Board in its entirety on Monday, April 9. Ryan Hicks, a junior physical therapy major from Dedham, Massachusetts will be the next to handle the gavel and serve as the SGA president. A total of 2,255 students voted in this election, a sharp decline from the 3,119 that voted in the last election. Only about 32 percent of the student population voted in this year’s election. Hicks also praised his opponent and friend Joe Iasso for the way he handled himself both on the campaign and during the appeal process. “I am proud of what (Iasso) did,” Hicks said. “He is an incredible candidate and a great friend of mine and I look forward to working close with him in the future.” The president-elect wants to focus on uniting SGA and having more clear agendas and initiatives. He decried “personal agendas” and called for uniting to help solve student concerns on campus. He wants to take a management approach to leadership and help transform SGA into a team that can serve the student body. “I think it’s about recentering,” Hicks said. “Everyone ran with the same intentions: to benefit Quinnipiac, to benefit the student body, and to make the student body’s voices heard. For a brief period of time its thinking of why you ran and what you wanted to accomplish and then keeping those goals in mind no matter what po-
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