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Quinnipiac’s annual State of the QUnion, hosted by SGA, took place last night. The State of the QUnion serves as a dialogue between students and faculty. Often students are able to address concerns while faculty gets answers to their own questions concerning the student body.

A student panel was present as well as a faculty panel that included President Judy Olian, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Don Sawyer, Vice President for Academic Innovation and Effectiveness Annalisa Zinn, Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Jennifer Brown, Vice President for Facilities and Capital Planning Sal Filardi, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mark Varholak and Vice President and Dean of Students Monqiue Drucker. 

Many topics were discussed last night, but a recurring topic was the opening of the new pub. The new pub on York Hill has a target date of a grand opening on Feb. 29, when the Quinnipiac men’s ice hockey team hosts Yale. Students were eager to find out more and the faculty was happy to talk about it. 

“We are very close to being finished with construction stuff and we have everything lined up,” said Sal Filardi, vice president for facilities and capital planning. “We should open for the Yale game. It is going to be a great venue.”

The space will not only be for 21-year-olds, but also host events for under 21 as well. 

“This is a beautiful space for the university. We are planning programming for both people who are 21 and also we will have events for people who are not 21,” said Monique Drucker, vice president and dean of students. “So we will have non-alcoholic nights, trivia nights, happy hours, lots of different things.” 

Students also learned that changes to counseling services have been made. Now students can get day-of appointments instead of having to wait weeks at a time to speak with someone. 

“As of today, we are able to offer same day appointments for our students,” Drucker said. 

Students can also expect to join a new virtual community called Bobcat Connect. This platform gives students the opportunity to speak with alumni an

“Hopefully now you can be connected to people who had similar career interests or career paths, individuals who can help write a resume, or prepare for that first job interview” said Daryl Richard, vice president for marketing and communications. 

This site will act as the Bobcat version of LinkedIn. 

Students can expect to see these changes and more taking place over the course of this year, such as the parking situation on campus. 

“I think the parking issue is something we are looking at closely,” Filardi said. “There are really two aspects of that. One is operational which we are already beginning to address and see if there are different ways we can assign parking to make it more convenient for students. We are looking at parking more holistically.”

Other major topics that were discussed were club sports, President Olian’s house renovations and Chartwells.