John Lahey arrived in Hamden, Connecticut, in 1987 with a mandate to grow a small college, Quinnipiac, into something much larger. Back then, the school, named for the Native American tribe that once inhabited the area, was a local commuter institution with just a few thousand students. But it had bigger ambitions.
A self-described “political junkie” from the Riverdale section of the Bronx, Lahey didn’t propose investing in Division I athletics or building a medical school, as other small colleges have done — though he would do both in the coming decades. He came up with a completely different idea for boosting Quinnipiac’s profile: a poll. CONT.
Steven Shepard, Politico Magazine