MARCH 6, 2024 • VOLUME 94 • ISSUE 19
The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929
‘ABHORRENT’ HATE SPEECH
Quinnipiac University hit by third incident of antisemitic graffiti amid vandalism-plagued February
Law alum ‘sows seeds of greatness’ as Hartford mayor By MICHAEL LAROCCA Opinion Editor
JACK MUSCATELLO/CHRONICLE
By CAT MURPHY News Editor
Although the month of February is typically characterized by Valentine’s Day festivities, it was a much more malicious v-word that defined the first full month of Quinnipiac University’s spring 2024 semester: vandalism. As mandated by federal law, the Department of Public Safety publicly discloses all on-campus crimes, including vandalism, in Quinnipiac’s daily crime log. Vandalism accounted for over 40% of all logged campus crimes last month, with Quinnipiac officials recording an unprecedented 13 incidents of vandalism in the shortest month of the year. For perspective, between Sept. 9 and Oct. 22 of last year — a period two weeks longer than the month of February — Quinnipiac’s crime log identified just 12 incidents of vandalism. To put this another way: campus officials went from reporting an average of two incidents of vandalism per week last fall to reporting vandalism nearly every other day last month. And in a repeat of last semester, it was an incident of bias-motivated vandalism that garnered the most attention. In late February, Public Safety and Hamden police opened an investigation into another incident of on-campus antisemitic graffiti — the third since November — after discovering a swastika and other anti-Jewish hate speech carved into a bathroom stall in M&T Bank Arena. “It’s terrible to see vandalism (in) any form, but especially when it is targeting other members of our school community,” wrote Leigha Scheman, a first-year in the 3+2 master of social work program, in a text message statement to The Chronicle. In a Feb. 27 email condemning the antisemitic vandalism, Chief Experience Officer Tom Ellett and Chief of Public Safety Tony Reyes said campus officials would
make “every effort to identify and discipline the perpetrators.” “Such hate speech is abhorrent, it can be threatening, and it violates QU’s code of conduct,” Ellett and Reyes wrote. “Hate speech and symbols that evoke violence have no place anywhere and will not be tolerated. They aren’t who we are or aspire to be.” Photos of the vandalized stall show that the antisemitic graffiti invoked Hitler and the white supremacist dog whistle “1488.” The “14” is a reference to the “14 Words” slogan — “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” — and the “88” is a numerical code for “Heil Hitler.” The vandalism also referenced Ye, the American musician formerly known as Kanye West. Ye has repeatedly faced public backlash for his antisemitic comments — most notably for an October 2022 social media post in which he threatened to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” The Anti-Defamation League Center
on Extremism later found that antisemitic incidents frequently invoke Ye’s name, noting that “references to Ye, often paired with swastikas or other antisemitic slurs, have become mainstream shorthand for the hatred of — or a desire to commit violence against — Jewish people.” “I don’t understand how people could think or speak this way,” wrote Haley Organ, a senior theater major, in a text message statement to The Chronicle. “I think they hold baseless hatred that causes them to act out, threaten the safety of others, and deface school property.” The Feb. 27 incident came less than four months after officials on two separate occasions found swastikas scratched into mail lockers in the Rocky Top Student Center. For context, Quinnipiac’s most recent annual security reports indicate that, prior to the fall semester, campus officials had not reported an incident of bias-motivated vandalism since 2019. See VANDALISM Page 2
“With the increase in hate speech there are times I do
not feel as safe as I should on campus.”
– Leigha Scheman
FIRST-YEAR 3+2 MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENT
On May 11, 2014, Arunan Arulampalam stood before his fellow Quinnipiac University School of Law classmates as the student speaker for their commencement ceremony. While Arulampalam was not the final speaker of the ceremony, for the next eight minutes, the floor was his. Arulampalam spent the previous year leading the school as the president of the Student Bar Association. That was finished. He was no longer the head of his class, but on that spring morning, Arulampalam was its voice. Arulampalam spoke on the anxieties his classmates and he held regarding the future of not just the U.S., but the world. “Increasingly, our generation is viewed as incapable and unworthy of the mantle,” Arulampalam said. “But while I believe the challenges we face as a nation and a world are great, I have every bit of faith in our generation to be the ones to meet those challenges.” He spoke of the great and selfless work his classmates completed during their years as law students, spreading the word of what he called “seeds of greatness” he saw sprouting in the halls of the law building in North Haven, Connecticut. “The history of our generation is yet to be written, its stories have yet to be told,” Arulampalam said. “I believe that when they are, they will be so full of the small, yet incredibly significant acts of the multitude of great men and women of our generation, that there will be no room for their biographies.” Nearly a decade later, immediately after the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1, Arulampalam’s own seed of greatness fully sprouted, if it had not already. As citizens of Connecticut were celebrating the new year, Arulampalam was sworn in as the newest mayor of the Nutmeg State capital, Hartford. This was a moment his colleagues and peers believed he was ready for since his days as a law student. “He had a very strong vision of service to his community,” said Jennifer Brown, dean of the Quinnipiac School of Law. “He really believes in the idea of a lawyer as a public servant. I think he wanted to be on the lookout for opportunities to make a difference rather than just opportunities to climb a ladder.” Arulampalam and his family immigrated to the U.S. from Zimbabwe when he was still a toddler, and he became a citizen when he was 12 years old. Despite eventually settling in Connecticut as an adult with his wife, Liza, Arulampalam’s early days in California as a member of an immigrant family were what shaped his political ideology and goals as a public servant. “I grew up feeling sometimes outside of the system,” Arulampalam said. “My family, through their hard work and sacrifice, was able to build opportunities for me, but at a high cost. It is those who are marginalized, those who are on the outside of society who I’ve always felt real, personal kinship with.” Arulampalam might not have known as See HARTFORD MAYOR Page 2