At the Fordham-Army Weekend: Festivities, Football and a Freeze

Photos by Chris Taggart, Joseph McLaughlin and courtesy of the West Point Athletic Association.

Thousands of Fordham football faithful took to West Point last weekend expecting to see hard-hitting action. Little did they know that the hardest hit would come from Mother Nature, who dumped at least six inches of October snow on the Hudson Valley.

Despite the weather, members of the Fordham community who attended the weekend's festivities - which included self-guided tours of the Army Sports Hall of Fame, a gala dinner on Friday night with West Point alumni and tailgate party on Saturday morning - made the most of the unique experiences.

These images capture the wide array of events available to fans who traveled to support the team.

- Joseph McLaughlin

Lincoln Center Construction Progress

Progress on construction of the new Law School and residence hall at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus in October.

POL’s 20th Draws 300 for Evening of Exquisite Poetry and Music

(Above, POL's directors over the years, Elisabeth Frost, Frank Boyle and Heather Dubrow)

The lighting was subdued, the audience laid back, and the mood pitched from contemplative to sentimental to celebratory, as poetry lovers filled the Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 27 to celebrate 20 years of Fordham University’s Poets Out Loud.

Poets J.D. McClatchy and Julie Sheehan read their works for more than 300 attendees. A trio of musicians, led by Lawrence Kramer, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of English, performed his original composition Song Cycle both in spoken format and to music.

“At 20 years, this is just the beginning,” said POL Founder Frank Boyle, Ph.D., associate professor of English. “[We have] wild expectations for the future.”
(Photos by Michael Dames)






--Janet Sassi

Orthodox Christianity Scholar Wins Award for Research

In the old days, Jon Stanfill might have walked away with a sack of Byzantine coins for placing second in a competition sponsored by the Byzantine Studies Association of North America.

Times have changed. For the research and writing that he devoted to the paper “Baiting the Hook: John Chrysostom and his Barbarian Mission,” Stanfill, a doctoral candidate in Fordham’s Orthodox Christian Studies Program, will have to settle for a $1,000 prize.

George Demacopoulos, Ph.D., co-director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Program, said Stanfill’s award was notable because it’s the first time a Fordham student has won it in the 20 years the association has been giving it out.

“The award almost always goes to someone who is in the final stages of their dissertation and almost always to someone working in art history, which is a particular emphasis of the organization,” he said.

“Jon delivered this paper before he had even sat for his comprehensive exams, during the first semester that he was teaching on his own, and in the field of early Christian studies.”

Stanfill is currently revising the paper and will soon submit it to a top-tier journal for publication.

—Patrick Verel

Fresh Produce Draws Hungry Crowds at Rose Hill

Visitors to the McGinley Center at Fordham's Rose Hill campus on Monday were treated to visions of carrots, basil, apples, kohlrabi, radishes, lettuce, and grapes, all for sale by members of the student culinary council.

The market, which was open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., was sponsored by the council and Fordham Hospitality Services, which purchased the vegetables from farmers 150 miles from campus or closer.

Nell Roberts, FCRC ‘11, a sustainability intern at Sodexo Services, said the market, which was held in conjunction with “National Food Day” generated roughly $450, which will go toward Lot Busters, a local urban garden.

She said she hoped to educate people about the issues that affect farmers, distributors and consumers in the country’s current food system and get students and faculty members to think about where their food comes from.

“Sodexo believes it’s important to support small local businesses where the farmers get fairly compensated, so that's what we we're promoting,” she said.


Monday’s market was the second one organized on campus, after one on Earth Day in April. It drew undergrads who snapped up apples for mid-day snacks to well as those with greater ambitions.

Nicole Casey, a junior majoring in psychology at Fordham College at Rose Hill, was one of them. Living in Walsh Hall, she’s able to cook for herself, so she bought a butternut squash.

“I thought, instead of going off campus, this is easy, it's accessible, and all the money is going to Lot Busters, so I’m happy to do it,” she said.

“I’ll keep it around the apartment for a little bit, as decoration this weekend for Halloween, and then I’m hoping to cook a pasta with it. My mom has made it, so I’m going to call her and give it a shot.”

Nicole Casey and Rosanne Sarro, administrators at the Jesuit community at Loyola Hall, both came away with escarole.

Sarro planned to make it with beans, and although she doesn’t typically buy vegetables at farmers’ markets, she said she would if it was as fresh as what was on hand on Monday. Casey, a frequent Union Square Farmers Market shopper who also belongs to an organic food co-op, said she’s serious about food.

“I like fresh food, organic if possible,” she said. “I think this is a great idea for the kids here, because many of them have kitchens and they can pick up fresh produce and eat it. It’s healthy and I think it's fun.”

—Patrick Verel

GRE Honors 'Homeboy' Priest at Annual Sapientia

Gregory Boyle, S.J., and several others were honored on Oct. 21 for service to the church and to humanity at the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education's (GRE) Sixth annual Sapientia et Doctrina event.

Pictured below are the awardees, including Father Boyle (top center) and Joseph O'Hare, S.J., president Emeritus of Fordham (to Father Boyle's left). Father Boyle is also pictured with Msgr. Joseph Quinn, vice president for mission and ministry.

Coverage of the event will appear in an upcoming edition of INSIDE FORDHAM.



--Janet Sassi

Young Scholars Meet to Merge Words and Music

Music and literature may seem to move independently from each other, but when one stops to look and listen, the overlap in their relationship makes for some fascinating scholarship.

If lectures on the Sonata and the Domestic Novel, or Tennyson’s Ambivalence & Strauss’ Revision, pique your curiosity, it’s worth checking out “Counterpoints: 19th Century Literature & Music,” being held this Oct. 21 and 22 at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center campus.

The event is sponsored by the university and the Department of English’s publication, 19th Century Music.

The two days of lectures by junior faculty and graduate students from North American universities will also give thought to the works of Oscar Wilde, Proust, Schubert, Brahms, Debussy, Baudelaire, and more.

Lawrence Kramer, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of English and Music, is the conference director.

On the evening of Oct. 22nd the event will have a fitting close, with a free piano recital honoring the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hungarian composer and piano virtuoso Franz Liszt.
You can find more information here.

--Janet Sassi

Men’s Basketball Scrimmage with Boomer and Carton on Nov. 2

Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton, co-hosts on WFAN sports talk radio, will coach opposing teams for a November 2 intersquad scrimmage of the Fordham University men's basketball team. Proceeds from the special event will benefit the Boomer Esiason Foundation and its fight against cystic fibrosis.

The game is open to the public, and tickets can be purchased at the door. Students are invited to attend for free, and general admission tickets are $10. For $20, spectators can watch the game and attend a post-game meeting with Boomer and Carton, as well as Fordham Basketball Head Coach Tom Pecora.

What: Fordham Men's Basketball Scrimmage with Boomer and Carton
When: Wednesday, November 2, 2011, at 7 p.m.
Where: Rose Hill Gym, Fordham University Rose Hill Campus - Bronx, N.Y.
Tickets: Purchase at the door (free for students; $10 general admission - game only; $20 - general admission and post-game event)

Disabled American Veterans Mobile Service Visits New York in October

The nonprofit Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Mobile Service Office will be at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center, 130 West Kingsbridge Road, in The Bronx, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, October 24 and 25.

Many veterans are confused about benefits and services they’ve earned, and there are changes from year to year. The DAV provides counseling and claim filing assistance free to all veterans and members of their families.

Other Dates and Locations

October 26, 2011 | 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Northport VA Medical Center,
79 Middleville Road, Northport, N.Y.

October 27, 2011 | 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Northport VA Medical Center,
79 Middleville Road, Northport, N.Y.

October 28, 2011 | 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Disabled American Veterans Department of New York
162 Atlantic Avenue, Lynbrook, N.Y.

For further information contact Michael Mills at (212) 807-3157.

Fordham Theatre Student Shines in Global Humanitarian Competition

My name is Brandon Jackson. I am a sophomore theatre major at Fordham University. I was recently selected to participate in Faces of Transformation, a global humanitarian competition sponsored by Nations United, a Toronto-based humanitarian company.

The goal of Faces of Transformation is to raise awareness about humanitarian and developmental projects around the world and to move forward Nations United’s mission of bringing nations together through social media.

Participants were chosen from more than 6,000 nominations from 40 different countries based on previous humanitarian and developmental work. For the final rounds of competition, Nations United selected 11 men and women from 11 countries. I am honored to represent the United States. 


The program launched in September 2011 and will continue for the next six months.


Each month, Nations United gives participants a challenge, which is designed to benefit our individual humanitarian and developmental projects. At the end of each challenge, the participants with the lowest three scores are sent to the “Red Zone,” where online viewers vote on which red-zoner is allowed to return to the competition.

The winner of the contest will become the 2012 face of Nations United and help implement the project he or she developed during the competition.

Before the competition, Nations United asked me to focus my project on media. I am currently creating an interactive app tailored to children in early development that deals with collaboration and multiculturalism. Once complete, the app will serve as a tool for teachers and parents to make children more aware of the world around them and to show them how to become better citizens

I have worked in the humanitarian field since 2006, when I started as a fundraiser for the Hope for Honduran Children Foundation. I raised more than $200,000 for the organization. Since then, I have served in many advisory positions and have many projects in the works.

For more information about Face of Transformation, click here.

You can also join the Faces of Transformation in the USA Facebook group here. 


—Brandon Jackson

Fordham Freshman Learns From Wall Street Occupation

Rose Hill freshman Rachel Dougherty found a way to link one of her Fordham courses to the real world.

As a young person interested in social justice, Dougherty found herself interested in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Dougherty wanted to understand why people were so committed to taking a stand day after day in New York City’s streets, risking arrest and/or physical harm from police, uncomfortable conditions and a slate of negative publicity from some news outlets.

So Dougherty travelled down to Wall Street with a stack of note cards and handed them out to the protestors, asking them to write the words ‘I want’ followed by one thing that brought them to the occupation. Afterwards, she chatted with and photographed some of the respondents, making selected audio recordings. Her media project is on line at Fordham Rose Hill’s student publication, the paper, and is being worked into a class project in her Introduction to Sociology course.

“I felt the need to understand why people were there [and] I thought that my project would help me gain understanding and give me a way to enter into discussion with everybody,” said Dougherty, who is leaning toward being a communications major. “By engaging people, I simultaneously engaged myself, for I became more reflective of why I was there. Thus pushing me to be more passionate about the movement."

You can see more of Dougherty’s images below or by visiting the paper.

--Janet Sassi

Fordham's Feerick Center Hits Five

Fordham Law School’s Feerick Center for Social Justice celebrated its fifth anniversary on Sept. 26—five years to the day of its launch in 2006.

The center presented honored guest Senator George J. Mitchell (left above), a former visiting professor at the Law School, with the very first George Mitchell Lifetime Public Service Award, recognizing Mitchell’s social justice work in the Northern Ireland Peace Process and as Special Presidential Envoy for Middle East Peace.

Over 240 alumni and friends attended a reception at the headquarters of Mutual of America, raising almost $400,000 for the Center’s initiatives on behalf of poverty and consumer law, pro bono counsel initiatives and other social justice programs.

Robert C. Sheehan, former managing partner of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, was honored with the "Spirit of Service Award” and David Jones, president and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York, received the "Life of Commitment Award."

Attending the event were the center's founder and director John D. Feerick (right, above), former dean of the law school; University president Joseph M. McShane, S.J.; provost Stephen Freedman, Ph.D.; law school dean Michael M. Martin; former New York State Chief Judge Judith Kaye, and Fordham president emeritus Joseph A. O'Hare, S.J.

Since its founding, the Feerick Center has been recognized for its outstanding work by the New York State Courts with their "Access to Justice Award," and by the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University with its "Bright Idea of 2010 Award".

Career and Internship Fair Scheduled at Rose Hill Campus

Fordham students majoring in the humanities, physical sciences, social sciences and business who are interested in learning about what opportunities await them after graduation can find out on Wednesday.

The office of Career Services is sponsoring a career fair that will feature more than 70 employers. The list of companies and groups that are confirmed include Aflac, Continuum Health, Federal Air Marshals, Hollister, MTV Networks, Pepsico and Teach for America.

The Career & Internship Fair will be held:
Wednesday, October 5 | 1 – 4 p.m.
McGinley Center Ballroom | Rose Hill Campus

For more information, visit http://www.fordham.edu/career

—Patrick Verel