Postcard | Where we take the pulse of America

(Hamden, Connecticut) Admit it, it’s exciting. For years we have seen this name, Quinnipiac, in every good article that concerns an upcoming election, an elected official in difficulty, a nomination race.

The most avid readers of The Press consulted poll results in the papers of Richard Hétu, Alexandre Sirois, Nicolas Bérubé and other correspondents in the United States. In the Eureka search engine, the first of 184 mentions of Quinnipiac dates back to 1998, in an AFP dispatch, on the fall in popularity of the mayor of New York at the time, Rudy Giuliani.

As part of this report on the Quinnipiac University hockey program, it was THE chance to see where we take the pulse of America.

Well, maybe our expectations were excessive, but on this Wednesday afternoon, we arrived in front of closed offices. Lights out, a few cars here and there in the parking lot. All that was missing was the ball of hay blowing in the wind, which we would no doubt have seen if only we had been in the middle of farmland.

“We are publishing polls this week, so the schedule will be a little too crazy to organize a visit,” laments Doug Schwartz, director of Quinnipiac University Poll, by email.

John Leahy, president of the university from 1987 to 2018, was however happy to give us a brief history of the polling body, before our visit. “When I arrived, it was just a room, and we were calling the elders to ask for donations. Now we have 200 telephone stations. It’s bigger than the CBS polls,” Leahy contends.

The latter arrived with some experience, since he had also participated in the creation of the surveys at Marist College. He arrived at Quinnipiac with a mandate to circulate the school’s name. The creation of a polling institute was one of the avenues.

“We started off-Broadway,” he explains, returning to the image of musical comedies in progress. At first, we only did Connecticut, I wanted to test it before returning to New York. We then started making them in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.

“I still hear the media mispronouncing Quinnipiac, but the polls have allowed the name to circulate. Applications for admission followed our surveys, we began to receive them from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. When we gained more visibility, we launched into national polls. »

Quinnipiac hires students, but not only, to conduct studies, which are popular. The specialized site FiveThirtyEight gives the Quinnipiac polls an A- rating. Among the hundreds of institutes listed, there are only 21 with an A grade.

Under high security

Quinnipiac, however, is more than hockey and polls. “Go visit the old campus,” advises Cameron Boon, publicist for the men’s hockey team.

Little did Cameron know, however, that security was going to be tight for a visitor. Do not roam around on campus, an observation that is understandable given the heavy history of shootings in this country, particularly here, 30 minutes from Sandy Hook.

Seeing us walking near the main gate, the agent in the parking booth asks us to name ourselves. He tries one call, then another, and gets put on hold. At least he’s nice. “Do you find it beautiful right now? You should have been here two weeks ago, the colors of the leaves were even more vibrant. »

We wait, therefore, while the students drive through the gatehouse, brandishing their access cards. Luxury vehicles, like this shiny, brand-new gray Mustang, are more numerous, but a teenager in an old dented Corolla reminds us that it’s not just rich kids born into cotton wool around here.

Fifteen minutes later, the agent finally gets the OK. “Sorry for keeping you waiting,” he apologizes, before greeting us in French. ” You are welcome. Good day ! » It appears that the security measures came from the fact that crooks had attempted to defraud students in the preceding days, pretending to sell show tickets.

It was a campus with human dimensions that awaited us, an advantage noted by several hockey players we interviewed for our reports. Without comparing to legendary campuses like Harvard, the places are clean and well appointed.

The place also has its qualities and its faults. Unlike Harvard and Columbia, renowned universities located in the heart of the country’s largest cities, Quinnipiac is not invaded by groups of tourists who want to visit every corner of the establishment.

To add to the charm, the campus is adjacent to Sleeping Giant State Park, certainly the perfect place for a student wishing to oxygenate the brain. But the light falls as we leave the place; hiking will be for another time.

Not given

Obviously, life at Quinnipiac may seem idyllic, but there is a cost, which tends to be quite high, as at any private American university. The establishment makes no secret of it. On its website, it displays a table of estimated costs for students, depending on whether they live in residence or with their parents. For a student who lives on campus, the estimated cost for one year is therefore US$73,120, an amount which includes meals, transportation costs and accommodation. The hockey program does, however, offer scholarships. NCAA rules allow it to offer 18, but these scholarships can be split up to give, for example, two halves of a scholarship to two players.