APRIL 16, 2025 • VOLUME 95 • ISSUE 24
The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929
By CARLEIGH BECK Associate News Editor
Quinnipiac faculty and students host first powwow in university’s 96-year history QUINN O’NEILL/CHRONICLE
The Quinnipiac University Indigenous Student Union and the Indigeneity Initiative hosted “Dancing in the Shadow of the Giant,” the first powwow at the university, Sunday, bringing together the five tribal nations of Connecticut and tribes from surrounding states. A powwow is a gathering held by Native American and First Nation communities that often involves singing, dancing and ceremonies. “When I became president of ISU, I was like, ‘Ok, this is my one goal before I graduate,’” said Aiyana Baker, a senior nursing major, a member of the Mohegan Tribe and president of the Indigenous Student Union. “Because I remember growing up, always going to Mohegan’s powwow. I just want to be able to have the representation on campus that would allow us to do this. So obviously, the past three years we’ve been fighting for all of our events to happen.” Another reason why Baker wanted to organize the powwow was because she wanted to honor her late grandfather, who she credits to teaching her about her culture. “I feel as though doing this is really like showing how much he instilled in me and everything like that,” Baker said. “So being able to make something so huge happen to represent our culture is like, so big to me, so I’m just really excited for that and for my family and friends to be there as well.” Baker’s cousin, Kiara Tanta-Quidgeon, graduated from Quinnipiac in 2022 and was the former president of ISU. They collaborated to help plan the event. “So (we just put) our brains together, trying See POWWOW Page 2
School of Communications' Journalism Department reworks two program curriculums By AVA HIGHLAND Associate News Editor
Beginning in fall 2025, the undergraduate journalism and sports journalism masters program will have new requirements geared toward visual journalism. As the industry now sees a big focus on visuals and social media, the program’s changes aim to provide students with a larger skill set. “We’re sort of reimagining the journalism curriculum to fit what the industry is looking for these days,” Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Journalism Ben Bogardus said. Outside of writing and broadcasting, many journalists are utilizing social media and visual journalism in the industry. “People are creating content,” Bogardus said. “They’re doing their own stories online and podcasts, social media, things like that. So we really want to teach students the skills that they’re going to be asked to use when they get into the professional world.” The courses under the new curriculum will not affect students currently enrolled in the programs. BA IN JOURNALISM
In reworking the undergraduate journal-
ism program, the courses will go beyond traditional writing or broadcasting. “It’s designed to reorient the program to focus on modern storytelling techniques, including photography, short form videography, data visualization, social media reporting, podcasting, narrative storytelling, AI/AR/VR use in reporting, etc.,” according to the description of program changes document. The journalism department recognized that consuming media has seen a large shift, as many people now get their news from social media platforms. “In fact, a 2024 Pew study found that 54% of Americans ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ get their news from social media, and a 2023 e-marketer survey found that people spend an average of 4.25 hours a day on devices, compared to only 2.75 hours watching television,” according to the aforementioned document. The department made six overall changes to the program, beginning with reducing the credits needed to graduate from 124 to 120. One of the previously required courses, Fundamentals of Digital Journalism, will no longer be a requirement. Three courses are newly required as well: Photojournalism, Social Media Reporting and Data Visualization for Journalism, which is a new course. The department also reduced the amount
of required electives from four to three, and the credits of the capstone course from four to three. The program’s set of learning outcomes, which were more than a decade old, is revised as well in order to align with the new curriculum. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what the students do in these classes, because as I mentioned earlier, they’re really about content creation,” Bogardus said. “They’re about unleashing the creativity of the students and not being sort of beholden to what a traditional TV reporter or an online web reporter can do.” MS IN SPORTS JOURNALISM
Similarly, the M.S. in Sports Journalism has nine modifications, starting with changing the name to “MS in Sports Journalism and Media.” This change was made to “better reflect the types of classes offered. . . which involve both journalism and creating media content, and to better reflect the jobs graduates get after graduation,” according to the description of the program changes document. The changes to this program follow the same goal of keeping up with the industry expanding to social media and visual journalism. “It’s sort of the same idea that we’re
looking at where the industry is going and where the jobs are, and it’s really more in the social visual space,” Bogardus said. “We’re adjusting the curriculum to match that, to hopefully give our students a leg up on the competition when they get out into the job market.” In an effort “to make the program more accessible to external applicants and more efficient in scheduling and delivery,” the department reduced the number of credits from 36 to 33, according to the aforementioned document. Most of the courses under the program will be renamed in order to better represent what is being taught and the program’s learning outcomes will be revised. Students will have a new required course, Sports Social Media, as well as two new elective options, Photography for Sports Communications and Advanced Podcasting. They will also choose between Sportscast Producing or Digital Sports Newsroom. Students may also choose to take both courses, with one as a required course and the other being an elective. Additionally, the current required Crafting the Sports Feature course and Producing and Presenting TV Sport Remote will be electives.