For three and a half years, Quinnipiac has served as my haven in good times and in bad. I am now a senior and as I reflect back on my collegiate career and flip through my photo albums – I have nothing but the fondest memories of my time here. Of course, it hasn’t always been a cake walk as I have had weeks I’d love to forget and days where the schoolwork seems to be never ending but it all comes with the territory. Most of all, what I will walk away with when I graduate is a Bachelor’s Degree in Print Journalism and some of the best friends/experiences/memories a girl can ask for.

But like all things in life, Quinnipiac University has many faces – the good, the bad and the very ugly. Last year the staff members of The Chronicle finally reached their breaking point when the University continued to strip them of their First Amendment rights. Quickly noticing they were fighting a lost battle, the Chronicle staffers walked away to form their own independent newspaper leaving the Chronicle without writers.

The University became the laughing stock of the nation as prominent newspapers like The New York Times, the New Haven Register and even our rivaling neighbors in New Haven – The Yale Daily News all wrote about the battle for freedom of speech happening at Quinnipiac.

Under strict surveillance, President Lahey has managed to find the University’s youngest members to replace the Chronicle’s staff and publish the presence of the public relations team in the newspaper. This semester’s last issue was put out yesterday and yours truly was the subject of an Op/Ed piece written by Ben Wald. Now, I don’t very much about this Wald character, just the little I could gather from his heavily guarded Facebook account which told me he is currently a sophomore who graduated from Livingston High School in New Jersey. After Googling his name, I found a LinkedIn resume profile revealing that Wald is a business major (which might account for his writing) who is involved with the Quinnipiac University School of Business Alumni.

Wald wrote a lengthy piece just shy of 1,000 words commending me for expressing myself and not “standing behind the cowardly wall of Juicy Campus” while he told of his shock for my critique of the average Quinnipiac student. Wald even, impressively, went on to state (oh so very sincerely) that "in no way was [he] writing this to bash Almanza, or publicly agree or disagree with her statement. In fact, I have no opinion on what she said, or how she worded it.”

Here’s an excerpt from Wald’s tirade just in case, it mysteriously becomes “unavailable” in the next few days…

"I think what impacted me the most was how Almanza ended that last quote, let me repeat, "They should add this to the list of grievances against us." By saying "us," Almanza clearly recognizes the fact that she is a member of this very community she bashes. While we are not a broken community, we certainly have been having some identity issues as a whole throughout the past few months. In a time when we are lacking that necessary sense of community, how are we supposed to strengthen while the people taking shots at us are internal? I respect the idea of freedom of speech, but is this not slander to every member of the QU community?

I am an individual, as are the other 5000+ students in the Quinnipiac system. Together, we make up what is known as "Quinnipiac University" and that's the truth. We are not classified by our immaculate landscaping, modern architecture, courses offered or even grades earned. We are classified by the people that live among us, who do not stand for hate, who do not allow for suppression of rights, but most of all, who do not stand quietly and observe. We speak out against what we feel is wrong, and that is what I am doing today. That is what a true bobcat does.

If you truly feel that strongly to provide our fellow Connecticut school with so called "material" to bash us with, I suggest you rethink where you want to be right now, because it doesn't seem you are too happy with Quinnipiac.

PS if you do decide to join the Yale community, and are ever not in the mood to do laundry yourself, I did some research, and found something called the Yale Laundry Service! They provide full service & dry cleaning for you. Hopefully you don't find them as awful or distasteful as Quinnipiac's service."

Well Big Ben, first off you specifically said you had no intention of bashing me but that little schpiel savors bitterly of bashing. As a Print Journalism major, I am a HUGE advocate of freedom of speech and like good ole Socrates, I believe that the “unexamined life is not worth living.” So rather than aid Lahey in his initiative to keep his students quiet about the Wonder Bread campus we are a part of, I choose to speak out and let the world in on a campus seemingly untouched by reality. I can only hope that by your senior year, young Ben – you can do the same.