Fordham Notes

RecycleMania Back For Second Year

2012-01-23T14:07:00.002-05:00

Denizens of the ten residence halls at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus and one at Lincoln Center will once again compete against each other in RecycleMania, which kicked off on Sunday, Jan. 22.

The competition, which runs through March 31, will once again measure the amount of paper, cardboard glass, metal and plastic the members of each building collects, as well as how little solid waste they generate. The event seeks to increase recycling on campuses and highlight the work done by universities’ sustainability programs.

Last year was the first year the University participated in the contest, which began in 2001 and has grown to include 576 schools. As in the past, Fordham will be competing in the “benchmark” division of the competition. Although the University will not be directly competing with other schools, the individual dorms on campus will be ranked against each other.

Weekly updates will be issued by sustainability consultant Great Forest and sent to the residence halls weekly so students can track their progress. At the end of the competition, the winning dorm will receive a trophy, along with the satisfaction that they’re greener than them all.

For more information, visit recyclemania.com.

—Patrick Verel

New GSE program aims to benefit both undergrads and struggling schools

2012-01-18T13:41:00.003-05:00

Fordham’s Graduate School of Education (GSE) is starting off 2012 impressively.

The school recently launched a new program aimed to help struggling New York City public schools. Last week, the school announced on its blog that the scholarship-funded program, Teacher Residency Scholars Program in Adolescence Education, will combine academic coursework with an ongoing residence in a classroom setting.

The scholars—undergraduates pursuing a career in teaching—will serve as student teachers in four Bronx schools, offering participants a hands-on experience in the classroom while they assist schools in their neighborhood. Following their completion of the program, residency scholars must go on to teach in struggling New York state schools.

The program, funded by a $2.5 million grant from the state Department of Education, will allow participants to pursue a master of science in teaching degree and become eligible for certification in New York.

The Office of Admissions at GSE will hold an online information session Jan. 26.

Find program specifics here.

The school also released its latest edition of GSE: Facts & Figures, which outlines the school’s most recent statistics, including its ranking in US News & World Report’s top 20 private schools of education and its participation in the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate.

Read the full account here on the GSE blog.

-- Joanna Klimaski

How the FBI Caught the Times Square Bomber

2012-01-11T15:10:00.002-05:00

Within hours after a smoking Nissan Pathfinder was discovered in Times Square on May 1, 2010, Linda Walsh, FBI special agent assigned to the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, was hot on the trail of the perpetrator.

In an effort to do extensive damage, Faisal Shahzad had abandoned the explosives-loaded Pathfinder on a Saturday evening in the height of Broadway show traffic. A quick-acting food vendor noticed smoke coming from the car and immediately alerted police.

“Propane tanks in the back of the car is always the first investigative clue that you have a bomb on your hands,” Walsh joked with an audience of securities experts at the Fordham-FBI International Conference on Cyber Security. “And red gas cans? Another very bad sign . . . “

The FBI discovered one VIN number on the Pathfinder that the perpetrator forgot to scratch off, and traced it to a woman in Connecticut.

The woman had recently sold the car on Craig’s List for cash, and had no receipt or name of the buyer. But she did have a phone number.

That number was a prepaid cell, but the FBI was able to find the vendor, get records and link the card owner to a number in Pakistan. Checking U.S. entry records from Pakistanis, they discovered the same number tied to Shahzad.

By May 3, agents initiated surveillance on Shahzad’s Connecticut residence only to discover he was already at JFK Airport boarding a plane headed for Dubai. They arrested him just in time.

From there, the FBI recovered his cell phone and computer and traced Shahzad’s descent into radical Muslim extremism through records. What they found, Walsh said, was an “eye opener.”

Shahzad had been in regular contact with the Pakistani Tereek-e-Taliban (TTP) through a proxy IP and Virtual Private Networks (VPN) at file sharing locations, Walsh said.

Among the sites the terrorists used were www.esnips.com, RapidShare and the German-based TeamViewer. In order to avoid detection, Shahzad’s Pakistani contacts had taken great care to choose particular features and to know the laws of the country they were operating in.

In all, the FBI required 700 grand jury subpoenas to access 18 email accounts, 20,000 emails and 10,000 unique telephone numbers, she said. For three years, she said, Shahzad had operated very much “under the radar”— free of dogmatic rhetoric and working within respectable professions. In fact, he became a U.S. citizen in 2009 and held an MBA in finance.

“I have worked terrorist cases with Internet nexus’ since 2004, and the terrorists are getting much better at it,” said Walsh. “As we develop more cloud computing and different storage, we ask ourselves ‘if I were a terrorism subject, what would I use?’ And then we investigate.”

--Janet Sassi

Rams Heed Cantor’s Call (or Yes, But Can He Play Defense?)

2012-01-09T12:46:00.005-05:00

Fordham’s Basketball team has had an amazing streak of wins lately, starting with the Dec. 22 game against Texas State and followed by wins against Georgia Tech and nationally-ranked Harvard.

In Monday’s New York Times, Clyde Haberman suggested that Fordham’s winning streak is in part do to a “talisman”—one who is also a man with a talis.

Daniel Pincus, a cantor at Congregations Shaarei Shalom in Riverdale, replaced Fordham’s choir during Christmas break in singing the Star Spangled Banner. It seemed that, whenever he sang before a game, the Rams won the game.

Coach Tom Pecora, however, chalks up the wins to “defense and rebounding.”
“But we’ll include the Cantor if that’s what it takes to win games,” he said in the Times piece. Read it here.

Want Better Vision? Eat Grapes, Fordham Study Shows

2012-01-06T17:19:00.004-05:00

New research from a Fordham University cell biologist suggests that a diet rich in anti-oxidants and begun at a young age can significantly reduce age-related blindness.

Silvia C. Finnemann, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, conducted the three-plus-year study by comparing the vision of three groups of mice fed differing diets: One group received a diet rich in freeze-dried grapes, a fruit very high in anti-oxidants. Another group received a diet rich in lutein, an anti-oxidant derived naturally from marigolds. The third group, the control group, received a normal diet.

All of the mice used were from the same genetic strain, said Finnemann—one prone to developing retinal damage in old age in much the same way as human beings do.

Results showed that the mice in the control group experienced a 74 percent reduction in retinal function, while the mice fed the lutein-rich diet experienced a significantly lower 29 percent reduction in retinal function.

Those mice fed a grape-rich diet, however, did dramatically well: retinal function decreased by only 16 percent.

“We’re not suggesting that you need to eat grapes like crazy, but that a life of having a healthy diet of natural anti-oxidants makes a difference to changes in the human eye,” said Finnemann.

Finnemann’s study also showed that, in order to be effective, eating anti-oxidant-rich foods should begin before the onset of advanced age, preferably in youth or young adulthood.

Mice who were not fed a grape and lutein-rich diet until they were the equivalent of a human age of 60 showed little or no improved retinal function, she said.

“Once the changes have started to happen, it may be too late to reverse them,” she said.

According to statistics, Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness or partial blindness in the elderly, affecting about 25 percent of the population over 70 years of age in the United States. Finnemann said she hopes her study will lead to the development of new ways to prevent AMD, especially among the bourgeoning elderly population of baby boomers.

“Our research shows that, when it comes to AMD, a healthy diet may be better than supplements, and the earlier you begin it, the better the results,” she concluded.

Finnemann was assisted in her research by Chia-Chia Yu, M.S., and Ying Dun, Ph.D., both from her laboratory at Fordham University and Emeline Nandrot, Ph.D., a biologist from the Paris-based Institut de la Vision. Funding was provided by the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health and The California Table Grape Commission.

Results of the study were published in December 2011 in Free Radical Biology & Medicine.

--Janet Sassi

Fordham Theatre Director’s Newest Production Debuts

2012-01-05T15:02:00.002-05:00

Wax Wings, the production that Fordham Theatre head Matthew Maguire premiered last May at New York’s Wild Project has a new name, and more importantly, a new home, on the Great White Way.

Instinct, as the newest incarnation of the play is known, will make its Broadway debut on Friday, Jan. 13 at the Lion Theatre at 410 West 42nd Street. Directed by Michael Kimmel and featuring Kimberly Blair, Maggie Bofill, Amirh Vann Rosario and Jeffrey Withers, it follows four cohabiting epidemiologists in a race against time.

Science gets personal as they fight to contain a potentially devastating outbreak, while trying to keep their relationships from unraveling. Instinct ultimately reveals that nothing is more contagious than human desire.

The play was born out of Maguire’s attendance at the Science of Evolution Conference at Emory University in 2008. Organizers asked him to write a play based on the science discussed there. He worked closely with Leslie Real, Ph.D., a molecular epidemiologist who was on a team that saved African Great Apes from being wiped out by the Ebola virus.

Performances are Tuesdays at 7 p.m. and Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. through Feb 4. Tickets are $18. Call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.telecharge.com for more information.

—Patrick Verel

A Nice GSS Christmas Story

2011-12-22T10:12:00.006-05:00

Since 1989, the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) has been running a program that helps those Bronx schools showing high dropout rates to keep “at risk” students in school.

Known as the Liberty Partnerships Program (LPP), the dropout prevention initiative liaisons with I.S. 254 (just two blocks from the Rose Hill campus) to offer more than 80 students in grades six through eight tutoring, mentoring and social and emotional counseling.

Fordham’s GSS students do the counseling as part of their field placement curriculum. They spend 21 hours a week doing both one-on-one and group counseling with underrepresented students who might otherwise fall through the cracks in an already-taxed school system.

Part of the GSS’ larger curriculum, however, is also being mindful of social justice issues. So it was with great enthusiasm that GSS interns devised a friendly contest among the I.S. 54 classes to gather canned goods for needy families around the holidays.

Throughout the month of November the interns worked with the school’s parent coordinators to set up the class competition. Each day the middle school students charted the number of cans brought in by class members on a colorful graph on a hallway wall.

When the contest was complete, the school’s youngest sixth grade class, Class 601, was the winner. All in all, the students gathered more than 600 cans.

“They are really proud of themselves,” said Shelly Topping, LMSW, LLP’s program director. “They were very excited that the donations were going to families in need.”

As evidenced above, the winning class was also very excited to take a photo in front of the City Harvest truck, which picked up the donations for distribution on Dec. 15th. (photo by Benia Thomas)

--Janet Sassi

GSE and Bloomingdale’s Team Up to Help Promote Catholic Schools

2011-12-22T09:11:00.001-05:00

Schools exist to educate students, open their minds to local and global issues and prepare them to be citizens of the world.

None of that is possible, however, if a school cannot draw students in the first place.

To address this basic challenge, the Center for Catholic School Leadership and Faith-Based Education, part of the Graduate School of Education, and Bloomingdale’s co-sponsored an in-service training session on Dec. 20 regarding the marketing of schools.

Thirty Catholic elementary school principals from the Archdiocese of New York, the Diocese of Brooklyn and the Diocese of Rockville Centre gathered at Bloomingdale’s corporate headquarters to gain entrepreneurial and marketing skills geared toward promoting their schools.

“School leaders in the 21st century not only have to be competent instructional leaders, but in Catholic schools they need to develop an entrepreneurial spirit as a core competency as well, so that they know how to promote their schools,” said Patricia Kelly-Stiles, Ed.D., associate director of the center.

“As a result of demographic changes, Catholic schools throughout the New York City metropolitan area are challenged to recruit adequate numbers of students so that the schools can continue to thrive,” she said.

Led by Kelly-Stiles and Gerald Cattaro, Ed.D., executive director of the center, along with Bloomingdale’s Richard Pittelli, vice president of financial control, and Michelle Pogue, manager of education, communication and recognition, the training drew on the retail giant’s corporate models to give the principals tips on marketing their schools.

“It’s important for the principals because one of their main functions is to attract students to the schools,” Cattaro said. “They have a terrific product and the real challenge is to get the word out there… We can learn from business.”

The participating principals will assemble again in May to reflect on the strategies they implemented since the December training and how their schools have benefitted.

Moreover, Kelly-Stiles added, these strategies are essential not just for Catholic school administrators, but also for anyone who serves in an administrative role in education.

“[For] people studying for school leadership positions, knowing how to promote their schools is becoming more and more prevalent and I would anticipate seeing some of those elements infused into the existing courses,” she said. “Twenty-first century leaders have to have an entrepreneurial spirit whether they are in business, retail or education. It’s part of what one is called to do.”

-- Joanna Klimaski

In Order and Chaos, Faculty Art Revels in Color and Detail

2011-12-21T10:33:00.008-05:00

Fordham’s Center Gallery has yet another fantastic show on display—this time featuring the very first exhibition of what will be an annual “Faculty Spotlight” show.

Three members of Fordham’s Visual Arts Department faculty are featured:

Abby Goldstein’s paintings reference ancient hand-drawn maps and satellite images (center), creating “fictional landscapes” that navigate unfamiliar territories in an orderly format;

Casey Ruble’s small-scale paper collages (top) have been influenced by minimalist literature, late-modernist cinema, documentary photography of the 1970s and true-crime television; and

Carleen Sheehan’s “Convertibles Series” (bottom) depicts fusions of built and natural worlds by combining a range of media into “open-ended narratives of distilled chaos and spectacular abundance.”

Goldstein is an associate professor and head of Fordham’s Graphic Design concentration. Casey Ruble and Carleen Sheehan are both artists-in-residence who teach painting, drawing and visual thinking within the department.

The show will be on display through January 30th, 2012, Monday to Sunday from 9 am. to 7 p.m. It is sponsored by Fordham’s Department of Theatre and Visual arts.

For more information visit www.Fordham.edu/visualarts

—Janet Sassi

IPED Student Wins Competitive Internship with State Department

2011-12-20T14:29:00.001-05:00

Having landed a highly sought-after internship, John Casey, a graduate student in the International Political Economy and Development program (IPED), Class of 2013, will journey this summer from Fordham to Washington, D.C.

Casey recently was awarded an internship with the Office of Development Finance, of the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. At the forefront of international development, the Office of Development Finance works closely with the U.S. Treasury Department in assisting multilateral development banks such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank. It also supports the Millennium Challenge Corporation, a congressional initiative to improve the distribution of U.S. foreign assistance.

“It’s extremely competitive. I really wasn’t even giving it much thought that I even had a chance,” Casey said, “so I’m pretty excited.

Despite the competition, Casey’s “excellent academic and professional credentials, as well as strong references,” brought him to the fore, State Department officials wrote.

Among these numerous credentials were two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia, where Casey helped to bring an innovative radio education program to rural villages that could not otherwise access a school.

“The Peace Corps has really opened up the doors for all of my prospects for careers,” Casey said. “It showed my ability to think outside the box and take responsibility on my own.”

Although Casey is not certain what his next step will be after the internship, he is interested in exploring the contribution that private organizations can make to development.

“I really feel that private corporations do a have a role to play in development. I don’t think it all has to be the government,” Casey said. “I feel that that’s been missing in development.”

Casey has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Indiana University. Currently, he is specializing in International Banking and Finance and in International Economics and holds an IPED Public Service Assistantship.

-- Joanna Klimaski

Fordham’s Student Health Services Receive Accreditation

2011-12-16T15:09:00.002-05:00

After five years of data collecting and surveying, Fordham’s Student Health Services at Rose Hill and Lincoln Center was awarded accreditation from the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), distinguishing Fordham as one of just four New York colleges and universities with accredited health services.

The accreditation guarantees that Student Health Services meets the criteria set by the AAAHC in areas including patient rights, administration, infection prevention and clinical records and health information.

“When parents are looking at schools for their children and they see that the health services are accredited just like a hospital, it shows that that health services live up to a certain standard of care,” said Kathleen Malara, FNP-BC, director of student health services.

“They can rest assured that the staff members there are listening to patient grievances, are looking at processes to make sure they’re being done correctly… and making sure our facilities in general are not only clean—but safe,” she added.

By receiving a three-year accreditation—the longest term any health center can achieve—Student Health Services demonstrated that the AAAHC had no reservations about the quality of care provided at the clinic.

“It’s a very stringent and a very arduous process,” Malara said. “You have to have a lot of information in place before you can even apply.”

Not only does the achievement offer an outward sign of Student Health Services’ sterling reputation, it has also caught the attention of other Jesuit schools, she said. She’s heard from Loyola University and Boston College seeking to find out more about the process.

-- Joanna Klimaski

Urban Studies Class to Present New Vision for NYC Suburb

2011-12-13T11:26:00.003-05:00

If you had 43 acres of property on the Hudson River that afforded stunning views of the Palisades and the New York City skyline, what would you do with it?

Before answering, there’s a catch: The land is heavily polluted and the site is only accessible via a two-lane bridge.

That scenario is one of the challenges facing Hastings-On-Hudson, a village of 8,000 people 20 miles north of New York City.

At 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 14, students from the master’s in urban studies program at Fordham will present ideas for retrofitting the village.

Working from the notion that cities aren’t the only places where the principles of retrofitting—improved connectivity, public amenities, affordable housing options, mixed-use buildings, and congestion easing—can be applied, they will present their findings at the Hastings-On-Hudson Public Library, 7 Maple Ave., Hastings-On-Hudson.

The presentation is the final project for the class “The American Suburb,” which was taught by Roger Panetta, Ph.D., visiting professor of history at Fordham.

The students will address issues of governance, housing, the downtown, transportation, and food and community. Their recommendations will come from a larger collaborative project that entailed a semester’s worth of interviews, document analysis and site visits that can be found here.

For more information, call (415) 533-9665.

—Patrick Verel

Tongue Twister Wins FCRH Student Trip to Germany

2011-12-08T09:53:00.005-05:00

What does it take to get a free trip to Germany? For Matthew Kasper, a sophomore majoring in German at Fordham College at Rose Hill, all it took was a few Z's. Thirteen of them, to be specific.

As part of an entry in to "German Jungle - Twist your tongue," a competition sponsored by the Goethe Institute, Kasper recorded the following video snippet:

For those un-versed in German, Kasper, who is also president of the Deutscher Klub, provided a little context:

"I said: 'Am zehnten zehnten zehn Uhr zehn zogen zehn zahme Ziegen zehn Zentner Zucker zum Zoo, which translates as 'On the tenth of the tenth (October 10) at 10:10, ten tame goats pulled 10 centers (that's an an obsolete measuring unit) of sugar to the zoo.

"This is why I had my watch in the video, why I "baaed" like a goat (probably the most embarrassing part) and then dug into a bag which said Zucker (sugar) on it to the zoo.

"At the end, I said 'Das ist nicht der Eingang!' which means 'That is not the entrance!'"

For his efforts, Matthew will go to Dresden, Germany, in January for a free language course, courtesy of the Goethe Institute. Whether he shows off his Z's to his German hosts, we'll have to wait and see.

—Patrick Verel

More Green, More Birds, More Diversity

2011-12-05T13:02:00.012-05:00

Given his surname, Fordham graduate student Dustin Partridge admits to some amusement in his love of birds.

He studied birds and arthropods as an undergraduate and now does research in the laboratory of Dr. Alan Clark, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology. Recently the two of them collaborated on Urban Green Roofs as Migratory and Breeding Bird Habitat, funded by the New York City Audubon Society, Sigma Xi and Fordham.

The data collection, completed last spring, measured the frequency with which migratory birds land on green roofs while passing through the city on their southern route. Using Autonomous Recording Units (ARUs) to measure bird calls, Partridge recorded the amount of bird traffic on four green roofs (in three boroughs) against four traditional roofs of comparable size and elevation located almost directly across the street from each green roof. On average, up to three times more species and four times more birds were found to use the green roofs.

Of course, the data is hardly a surprise, said Partridge. What is surprising, he said, is the amount of benefit that cities and neighborhoods can take from installing more green roofs.

The first is diversity: the roofs attracted species that don’t show up on other rooftops—the raven, peregrine falcon, ruby-throated hummingbird, willow flycatcher, wood thrush, cedar waxwing and others. In an area like New York, which has a certain number of endangered species, these rooftops can only help to support biodiversity.

Secondly, roof greenery itself is not only sustainable but it helps with heating and cooling of the host building, as well as offering a place of refuge for the building occupants.

Thirdly, the roofs can provide additional needed refuge space for birds on the Atlantic Flyway, a migratory route that has increasingly limited habitat for the millions of bird species that use it each spring.

“I love birds and I love arthropods,” said Partridge. “It is my hope that our study will be used to fund more support for green roof installation in New York City. “

Partridge noted that 24 percent of Manhattan is rooftop, and only three percent of the borough is dedicated to natural green space.

“The benefits of green roofing are quite incredible for any city or neighborhood,” he said.

The study data was presented at an October conservation conference at the Museum of Natural History. Partridge took the photos of the green roofs (pictured) in lower Manhattan and in the Bronx (the large green roof is, in fact, the Bronx County Courthouse, said Partridge.)

—Janet Sassi

McGinley Chair Launches Course on Interfaith Dialogue

2011-12-01T16:27:00.004-05:00

Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., the McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, is expanding his efforts to promote interreligious dialogue.

Father Ryan and Rabbi Daniel Polish, Ph.D., adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, will team-teach a new course this spring that aims to create a literal as well as scholarly conversation between Judaism and Christianity.

The course, “Jewish-Christian Dialogue,” will examine the historical contexts of the two faiths to uncover areas of overlap and sources of difference.

“This course is good for Fordham students because it will help them reflect on the links that bind Jews and Christians in one of the major urban centers in the United States, where so many Jews and Christians live and work together,” Father Ryan said.

The course stands as part of Father Ryan’s larger mission to develop what he calls a “trialogue” among the three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Father Ryan was appointed the McGinley Professor in 2009 after serving as Fordham’s vice president for University Mission and Ministry since 2005. For nearly half of his life as a priest, he held academic and administrative positions in Nigeria and Ghana.

Rabbi Polish is the spiritual leader of Congregation Shir Chadash of the Hudson Valley in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. An eminent scholar in interreligious affairs, Rabbi Polish has published widely in the field and served as director of education for Inter-Met, an interfaith seminary in Washington D.C.

-- Joanna Klimaski

NASW Honors Dean Vaughan

2011-11-29T11:23:00.005-05:00

Peter Vaughan, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS), will be honored on Thursday, Dec 1 with a National Association of Social Workers’ “Leader of the Profession” award, given a by the NASW’s New York chapter.

An active participant in the professional community, Dean Vaughan has worked on NY-NASW's strategic planning committee and served two terms on the Council on Social Work Education's Commission on Accreditation.

He will be among four persons being recognized at an annual dinner for their exemplary leadership qualities and their commitment to improving the profession and the community they serve; also being honored are Alma Carten, Ph.D., associate professor of social work at New York University; Larry Lee, executive director of New York Asian Women’s Center, and Nancy Wackstein, executive director of United Neighborhood Houses.

This is the organization’s fifth annual Leadership Awards ceremony.

Known as a collaborative leader, Dean Vaughan has headed Fordham’s GSS since October 2000. Under his guidance the school has advanced enrollment and expanded its curriculum to include a global services and a human rights focus. GSS is currently is ranked 18th in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.

Dean Vaughan also co-chairs the FordhamVEts Task Group.

—Janet Sassi

Fordham Jesuit’s Book Featured this Advent Season

2011-11-18T11:20:00.003-05:00

Mark Mossa, S.J., recalls a profound moment he had while watching an Adam Sandler movie.

The movie, 50 First Dates, tells the story of a man, Henry, who falls in love with a woman, Lucy, whose handicap doesn’t allow her to remember things more than 24 hours. Every day she meets Henry again for the first time.

The author of Already There: Letting God Find You (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009) Father Mossa calls the situation an “apt metaphor for our relationship to God.”

“Like Lucy, we treat God from day to day as if we’ve never seen God before. But like Henry, God keeps coming back, trying to get our attention in both ordinary and unexpected ways,” he said.

Father Mossa’s message about letting God find us will be the subject of this season’s Advent Book Club, led by Msgr. Joseph G. Quinn and held on all three campuses. The Lincoln Center book club will kick off the season with a discussion on Monday, Nov. 28 in McMahon 109 of the Lowenstein Center. For a full schedule of times and dates on all three campuses, visit the advent website. (fordham.edu/advent)

Father Mossa, who has taught a course on Catholicism and Popular Culture in America, will be in attendance with each campus book club to help facilitate discussion.

--Janet Sassi

Latina Performance to be Held at Rose Hill

2011-11-16T14:20:00.003-05:00

O’Keefe Commons on Fordham's Rose Hill campus will be alive with readings and performances by three legendary artists on Thursday, November 17.

The 1 p.m. showcase will feature:

-Magdalena Gomez, author of Dancing in My Cockroach Killers and artistic director of Teatro V!da and a National Endowment of Arts master artist.

-Josefina Baez, author of Dominicanish and founder/artistic director of Ay Ombe Theatre Groupe.

-Alina Troyano, aka Carmelita Tropicana, author of I, Carmelita Tropicana: Performing Between Cultures (Beacon Press, 2000) and Obie award winner.

The performance, which is sponsored by the department of Modern Languages and Literature, is free and open to the public. A reception will follow. For more information, call (718) 817-2698

—Patrick Verel

'Groundbreaking' a New Fordham Website

2011-11-15T15:12:00.002-05:00

By James J. Kempster

Soon after the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Fordham Law building last May, I went for a tour of the half-century-old current building on the Lincoln Center campus.

I was struck by the number of state-of-the-art services that have been squeezed into the tight, insufficient structure. It is not a comfortable fit. Equipment sticks out into halls. Floor plans meander like mazes and students congregate in lounge areas barely bigger than the elevators.

Glimpsing some of the original fixtures and molding, I easily imagined a time when the rooms housed only desks and chalkboards, when Mad Men-era faculty members and priests maneuvered the halls with the streamlined mid-20th-century polish of statesmen. However, the structure has clearly become insufficient for their 21st-century successors, and we are grateful that the new building promises to support services never imagined in the 1960s.

I have had a similar feeling when I roam the virtual hallways of Fordham’s website. Time collapses in virtual years. As technology has advanced, the University’s website, though visually redesigned only a few years ago, has not been able to incorporate new features and content easily. As with the websites of many academic institutions, the Fordham site has devolved into a cobbled-together group of services filling the immediate needs of schools and departments, without a cohesive system or guiding plan to unify them, enhance the user experience, or support the greater mission and goals of the University.

Our capable but small web staff often must first attend to users’ immediate needs and frustrations, without the time or support to focus on larger issues that would not only curb these frustrations, but improve the website for a broader group of users now and going forward.

The result is a website overdue for reassessment and redesign. Many important features are necessary to make a good website, but the following are perhaps most important, currently:

• support for video, social media, calendaring and user-provided content;
• intuitive navigation and structure that are clear to the user;
• design that unifies the Fordham look and message, while supporting the vast needs of the University;
• readiness for mobile and other future technological advances;
• data integration that directs information internally to serve school office procedures, while shaping content outwardly to suit the interests of each visitor;
• sufficient staff to support ongoing maintenance and development; and
• a cultural shift that puts web communication first, recognizing that our website is our single most important marketing tool.

A core steering committee of administrators and faculty members has met and is committed to shepherding this new website project. With the full support of the administration, we have begun planning a comprehensive strategy, based on good research and analytics, an extensive survey of the community, and sound technical, marketing and communications tactics.

From the start, a thorough assessment of our current online services, infrastructure and needs is crucial. The process must involve representatives from the entire Fordham community, including students, faculty members, alumni, administrators, supporters and friends. This requires assistance.

The steering committee is reviewing proposals from several outside firms to lead the assessment of the Fordham website and our needs. The finished assessment will include a report on the current state of our website and a plan for designing and implementing a new one. We estimate that the full process will require 18 to 24 months, though we expect the company with whom we ultimately work to provide a clearer timeline as part of its assessment.

Throughout the process, we will continue to keep the Fordham community informed of our progress. Over the coming months, we will publish a series of reports and articles about the project in Inside Fordham and on the Fordham Notes blog. From time to time, we will invite community members to participate in the assessment or share their thoughts as we proceed. Your support will ensure that what we develop in the coming months and years will serve the Fordham community well into the future.

James J. Kempster is the senior director of marketing and communications at Fordham.

Fordham Hosts Education Dean/New York Regents Meeting

2011-11-11T11:45:00.006-05:00

The leaders of the institutions that train teachers came together on Monday, Nov. 7 at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus to meet with Merryl Tisch, the Chancellor of the New York Board of Regents.

The meeting, which was attended by John King, the New York State Commissioner of Education and New York area deans of schools of education, was meant to address changes being proposed for teacher evaluation and preparation.

James Hennessy, Ph.D., dean of the Fordham Graduate School of Education, chaired the meeting along with Joan Lucariello, Ph.D., University Dean for Academic Affairs The City University of New York.

“We’re joined here today by members of board who really committed to understanding your issues. We would prefer that you lay everything out so that some fresh air can enter the dialogue between us. It is not helpful for us if you have your conversations by phone with each other,” Tisch said.

“As with anything, there will points that can be addressed, there will be points of commonality, and then there will be points of disagreement. But if everything’s not on the table, then the conversation continues to take place in the shadows. This is our opportunity to get it out of the shadows.”

The three and half-hour meeting was dedicated to addressing:

-Race to the Top;
-Assessment of Teacher Educator Effectiveness;
-The Adequacy and Use of Video in Performances-Based Assessment
-College and Career Readiness

—Patrick Verel

Fordham College at Rose Hill Dean to Host Breakfast

2011-11-09T16:15:00.004-05:00

Attention Fordham College at Rose Hill alumni!

You're invited to the second annual State of the College Address, hosted by dean Michael Latham, Ph.D. Join us for breakfast from 8-10 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17 at the New York Yacht Club in midtown Manhattan. Click here to RSVP and for more information.

—Patrick Verel

Literature and Social Justice Make a Home

2011-11-03T11:04:00.011-04:00

Fordham University has launched a national literary magazine.

The inaugural issue of CURA: A Literary Magazine of Art and Action, is now on line, with a print and kindle issue to follow in the spring.

The magazine will feature creative writing, visual art, new media and video in response to current news and themes of social responsibility. The theme of the first issue is “Home,” and proceeds from the project will go to support Covenant House, New York’s largest adolescent care agency serving homeless, runaway and at-risk youth.

Featured in the first issue are works by renowned writers Robert Bly, Lia Purpura, Evie Shockley, Rigoberto Gonzalez and Idra Novey, alongside that of Fordham graduate and undergraduate students.

CURA, says Sarah Gambito, assistant professor of English and the magazine’s editor in chief, acknowledges the marriage of literary publishing with Fordham’s mission of cura personalis, or nourishment of the whole person.

“What is unique is the idea of integrating a literary magazine with social justice,” said Gambito. “I think Fordham has created something meaningful in the literary community.”

And here are two excerpts from the inaugural issue.

Woman in Black
– Hamra Abbas –

Climbing into Bed
– Robert Bly –

There's no end to the joy of climbing into bed,
And hearing your wife rustling about nearby;
There's no end to the delight of the huge covers.

There's no end to the delight of hearing your body
Rumbling, and night waiting to capture you,
And take you off to your childhood bed.

There's no end to saying there's no end,
No end to rubbing your feet after a run,
No end to the delight when the door closes.

There's no end to thanking Jesus for his words,
To pulling up the covers of a century
And stretching out your toes into the dark,
And saying goodbye to the world once more.

CURA is administered by Fordham faculty, graduate and undergraduate students. You can find the online magazine, including submission deadlines, here.

--Janet Sassi

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

2011-10-31T14:46:00.023-04:00

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

2011-10-29T17:26:00.003-04:00

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

2011-10-28T11:46:00.016-04:00

(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

2011-10-28T11:36:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-26T10:14:00.005-04:00

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

2011-10-24T14:08:00.007-04:00

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

2011-10-20T11:18:00.007-04:00

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

2011-10-17T10:28:00.003-04:00

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

2011-10-12T07:29:00.004-04:00

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

2011-10-06T17:57:00.008-04:00

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

2011-10-06T12:13:00.013-04:00

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

2011-10-04T15:16:00.004-04:00

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

2011-10-03T11:46:00.005-04:00

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

Fordham GPS Addresses

2011-09-23T07:20:00.003-04:00

If you are planning to use a GPS or other navigation system to visit either the Lincoln Center or Rose Hill campuses, please use the following addresses:

Rose Hill

2853 Southern Boulevard

Bronx, NY 10458

Lincoln Center

113 West 60th Street

New York, NY 10023

London Dramatic Academy Newsletter

2011-09-22T16:47:00.003-04:00

The Fordham University London Dramatic Academy (LDA) Fall 2011 newsletter is out. Get to know LDA in pictures and text.

Contents

LDA Fall 2011 Semester Commences
Auditions and Masterclasses
LDA Orientation In Pictures
Important LDA Application Updates
New Courses
LDA Fall 2011 Novel Project Showing

Download Newsletter Here (PDF).

University Statement: Farm to Fordham Program

2011-09-21T14:52:00.001-04:00

University Statement | September 21, 2011
Farm to Fordham Program

Fordham University has committed to resuming the Farm to Fordham program, provided its organizers can satisfy concerns regarding safety, hygiene, and insurance. University administrators will meet with program organizers and Fordham's food service managers in the next week to resolve these issues.

Jesuit Rhetoric and Education in the 16th and 21st Centuries

2011-09-20T19:19:00.001-04:00

Inaugural Distinguished Guest Lecture in Jesuit Pedagogy
ELOQUENTIA IMPERFECTA: Jesuit Rhetoric and Education in the 16th and 21st Centuries
by Steven Mailloux, Ph.D., President's Professor of Rhetoric at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles

Wednesday, 28 September 2011 | 6 to 8 p.m.
12th Floor Lounge, Lowenstein Center | Lincoln Center Campus

Professor Mailloux's lecture will explore the earliest traditions of Jesuit rhetoric and of Jesuit educational theory, beginning with the Spiritual Exercises and the Ratio Studiorum, as well as the place of Jesuit rhetorical arts and pedagogy today.

Professor Mailloux is the author and editor of six books, including, most recently, Disciplinary Identities: Rhetorical Paths of English, Speech, and Composition. He is currently at work on a history of Jesuit rhetoric.

Sponsored by The Center for Teaching Excellence of Fordham University
Reception to follow lecture

RSVP by Monday, Sept 26, to: www.fordham.edu/ctelecture.

Park Not Thine Car Here

2011-09-16T14:18:00.005-04:00

Fordham Lincoln Center campus students and faculty joined Transportation Alternatives on Friday, Sept. 16 to claim their space on the curb in the annual Park(ing) Day 2011.

The students joined activists in some 130 cities around the world to reclaim a street parking space for a day and to transform it into a people-friendly public space.

Students in Fordham’s architecture program designed and crafted furniture out of recycled cardboard; students from Fordham’s theatre program built a stage, and a group of freshman acting majors performed Shakespeare in the Park(ing) spot for passers-by.

With Hearts Open, Fordham Kiwanis Help Fund Education of 9/11 Family

2011-09-15T11:43:00.007-04:00

Shortly after 9/11, Fordham Kiwanis got a letter from a student in a local school as part of a Christmas “grant a wish” program.

The letter was from a boy, Wilson Asitimbay, who had lost his father, Manual, in the World Trade Center attack. The boy’s wish was to have his father back.

An immigrant from Ecuador, Manual Astimbay had been employed as a cook at Windows on the World, where he had worked hard with the dream of bringing his children—including 12-year-old twins Wilson and Richard—to America.

Now, the children had arrived with help from the Red Cross, but their father was gone.

“All we wanted to do was to bring the Asitimbay family some holiday joy,” said Thomas DeJulio, (FCRH '73, LAW '77) New York Kiwanis International vice president and Fordham’s general counsel.

The Kiwanis members purchased toys for the family, and “adopted” them over the long term, keeping in touch as the children grew.

“Kiwanis in New York focused on the long term needs of those families, particularly their educational needs,” he added.

On Tuesday, Sept. 13, Fordham Kiwanis reunited with the Asitimbay family (above, front row) to present a $6,000 contribution toward funding the children’s continuing education, in memory of their father.

The twins, Richard and Wilson, are now 22; 18-year-old Wilmer is a high school senior starting college next year, and the youngest, Edwin, is entering Catholic high school this fall.

In all, some 3,000 children lost a parent on that day ten years ago.

“On the anniversary of 9/11. Kiwanians around the world re-dedicated themselves to impacting the lives of children and trying to make this a "better world" for them to live in,” he said.

--Janet Sassi

Fordham Hosts a Day of McLuhan

2011-09-14T14:25:00.003-04:00

Literary critic and communication theorist Marshall McLuhan died over 30 years ago, but even today his work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory. His expressions "the medium is the message" and "the global village" are fixtures in media discourse, and he predicted the development of the World Wide Web three decades before it arrived.

Some may not know that McLuhan was Fordham's Albert Schweitzer Chair in Humanities for the academic year 1967-68.

This weekend the Lincoln Center campus marks what would have been McLuhan's 100th year with "A Marshall McLuhan Centenary Symposium, sponsored by Fordham University and others, on Saturday, Sept. 17. The event is open to the public.

The keynote address will be given by Eric McLuhan, his son and a professor at the University of Toronto. The all-day event is expected to draw a few hundred people on the media visionary and his theories. Now that the Internet age is upon us, there is renewed interest in his work and perspective.

You can get more information here.

--Janet Sassi

POL Launches New Season On Sept. 12

2011-09-08T16:36:00.004-04:00

On Monday, Sept. 12, Fordham’s Poets Out Loud will launch its new season with a New York City-themed reading by poets Patricia Spears Jones and Edwin Torres.

Spears Jones, co-editor for Ordinary Women: Poems of New York City Women, was born and raised in Arkansas. She moved to New York City in the mid-1970s and has actively participated in the city’s poetry and theatre communities, notably as former program coordinator for the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church.

Edwin Torres, a first-generation Puerto Rican who grew up in New York City, got his start in the 1990s at the Lower East Side’s Nuyorican Poets Café, where he created the “Poets Neurotica,” dance-poetry-music performances. He has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, New York Magazine and on PBS’ Charlie Rose. His work mingles poetry with theatre, music, sound and physical improvisation.

The readings are free and open to the public. They start at 7 p.m. on Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, in the Lowenstein Center 12th Floor Lounge.

POL was founded in 1992 by faculty, students and alumni to offer a series of poetry readings in the Lincoln Center area. Later this year, POL will stage a 20th year anniversary reading in the Lowenstein atrium.

GSS Welcomes its First Online Class

2011-09-02T11:08:00.005-04:00

On Aug. 30, Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) welcomed its first cohort of students enrolled in its new online Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW) program.

The thirteen students, who all hail from the tri-state area but live beyond a 50 mile radius of New York City, were on campus for a two-day orientation and a meet-and-greet with eight faculty members participating in the 66-credit program. (In the photo above, associate professor G. Lawrence Farmer talks about research methods to the group.)

Students also met Dean Peter Vaughan, Ph.D., and were given campus tours and tutorials in digital research methods. Fordham's GSS is the first school of social work in New York state to offer an online MSW, said Dale Lindquist, LCSW, D. Min, assistant professor and coordinator of the online program (pictured left, above).

New student Thomas Omaje Benjamin, a transition counselor for the Duchess County Sherrif’s Office, said the online degree served his desire for a graduate program that offered both a social justice emphasis and a part-time curriculum.

“I work full time,” said Benjamin, a resident of Poughkeepsie. “I’ve been looking for a program that has both a social justice foundation and flexibility. There aren’t too many of them around.”

The online students will participate in a monthly integrative seminar designed to match classroom learning and field learning. They will visit Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus again next semester to meet fellow online students, faculty and staff.

—Janet Sassi

Could This Be You?

2011-09-01T09:45:00.009-04:00

Do you like costumes? Are you passionate about Fordham?

The University’s Department of Athletics is looking for a few good students to be this year’s official costumed mascot, the Fordham Ram.

The job requires skill, enthusiasm and commitment, said Julio Diaz, associate athletic director for promotions. Some compensation is available.

The Fordham Ram is expected to appear at all home football games and as many men’s and women’s home basketball games as can be arranged. Additional appearances are required at playoff games in all sports and some student and fundraising functions.

Theatrical and athletic ability are a plus; the successful candidate will be expected to do things like dance to Michael Jackson songs, pose for photo-ops with children and alumni, carry flags or banners, incite the crowd to cheer and to generally promote enthusiasm and good sportsmanship at events.

“It’s a bit like being a Disney character,” Diaz said. “You don’t take off your persona.”

Work shifts average three or four hours, Diaz said. The costume has a cooling system to help the Ram stay comfortable while bringing the sports crowd to a boil.

For more information about how to apply, contact Francoisline Freeman at ffreeman@fordham.edu.

Captured by Fordham's Seismic Station . . . a rumble in the Bronx

2011-08-24T09:37:00.008-04:00

The helicorder display sheet for yesterday, Tuesday, August 23rd, showing the day's seismic readings for the New York City area.

IPED Students Study Emerging Economies at the Source

2011-08-19T10:19:00.006-04:00

For the fourth consecutive year, Fordham University students are in South Africa studying with students from the University of Pretoria (U of P) through a joint venture with Fordham’s International Political Economy and Development (IPED) program on emerging markets.

The students are working with South African and American business, government and labor leaders to learn about monetary and fiscal policies and to explore issues of economic partnership between the nations. So far, students have participated in briefings with political advisors at the U.S. Embassy and with top economists at the South African Reserve Bank (pictured above). They will be visiting the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as well.

During the first couple of weeks of August, student research terms worked at U of P analyzing data to determine prospects for future U.S. equity investment in South Africa. This year the students were joined by students from several other nations, including Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and the Philippines.

The summer session is part of an exchange agreement that was completed in 2008-09 between Fordham’s IPED and the U of P, in which students from each university do summer study abroad.

In June, Fordham hosted a contingent of South African students for a five-week study at the Rose Hill campus.

Fordham's IPED program is internationally recognized for its excellence: graduates of the program, which was founded in 1979, consistently obtain prestigious awards ranging from Fulbrights to US Presidential Management Fellowships.

Fordham Student Shows She Can Dance

2011-08-16T09:47:00.011-04:00

Fordham Lincoln Center campus student Melanie Moore may study art, but at heart she is a dancer.

The freshman visual arts major took first place honors on Thursday, Aug. 11 when she clinched the title of America’s favorite dancer on the Fox channel’s popular show, “So You Think You Can Dance.” The native of Marietta, Ga. won with 47 percent of a four-way vote, with dancer Sasha Malloy coming in as the runner up. Together, they accrued 71 percent of all of the 11.5 million votes cast.

According to the show's website, Moore received a $250,000 award and will be featured on the cover of Dance Spirit magazine. She also goes on an American dance tour in the fall, reportedly putting her studies on hold.

Moore had seemed like a favorite of the panel of judges for some weeks; she was consistently recognized for her acting ability as well as her dance prowess.

This summer's contest was judged by a panel that included actress Katie Holmes, producer/choreographer Nigel Lythgoe, ballroom dance champion Mary Murphy and choreographer Kenny Ortega. This summer some five million viewers tuned in to watch and vote for their favorite dancer on the Emmy-award winning show, which is now in its eighth season.

The show auditions young dancers from all over the country; those dancers who are chosen to appear are given the chance to work with top choreographers to learn multiple styles of dance, including hip hop, salsa, quickstep and jive.

Books? Bring Them On!

2011-08-09T14:57:00.003-04:00

It hasn’t exactly been quiet in the Quinn Library this summer, but the annoyance is about to come to an end.

A major shelving installation project, said Quinn Library Director Linda LoSchiavo, is scheduled to be finished by the beginning of the academic term.

The project, which has been underway all month, will enable the Library to house approximately 290,000 books on electrically operated high density shelving systems replacing stationary shelving. It will boost the library’s total potential capacity to 562,000 volumes.

Currently, the library stores 400,000 volumes.

The new shelving will be used to expand the Quinn collection as well as to hold a portion of the present collection of law library books while the new law school is built. The old law school and its library will undergo a major overhaul to create new space for Quinn Library and Fordham-Lincoln Center’s other professional schools.

LoSchiavo said that Clancy-Cullen Movers have been transporting approximately 10,000 books a day to the new shelves, which are compressed on moveable tracks.

“This type of shelving gets a lot of volume into a lot less space,” she said.
In an effort to conserve, the university had its existing metal shelves taken off and put in the moveable frames, she said.

Once the books are moved, the Quinn Library will get a mini-facelift: new carpeting, new paint, new lighting and a re-configuring of the reading and study areas.

And quiet, of course.

—Janet Sassi

Batisti to Receive Woman of the Year Award

2011-08-08T17:08:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to Fordham Graduate School of Education’s Anita Vazquez Batisti, Ph.D., associate dean and director of the Center for Educational Partnerships (CEP). Batisti has been named Woman of the Year in Education by the New York League of Puerto Rican Women for her leadership in education. She will be honored on Aug. 19.

Batisti was tapped in 2006 to launch the CEP, a far-reaching educational-services institution for public school students. Through her leadership, CEP has helped meet the needs of the metropolitan area’s school children through grassroots outreach in mentoring, scholarship awards, literacy improvement, professional development and other initiatives.

Batisti will receive her award at the NYLPR’s annual College Awards Gala, to be held at Marina Del Ray in the Bronx. The event raises funds to help support Puerto Rican women doing their undergraduate studies.

All for equal time, the women’s group will present a Man of the Year award to Ray Negron, sports executive with the New York Yankees. Several others will receive Lifetime Achievement awards.

—Janet Sassi

Fordham Celebrates Sister’s Years of Service

2011-08-08T11:31:00.017-04:00

Members of the Fordham and religious communities came out on Saturday, Aug. 6 to celebrate a Mass and garden party for Anne-Marie Kirmse, O.P., (center above) on her fifty years of service with the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Amityville.

A longtime member of the Fordham community known for her dogged devotion to her vocation and duties, Sister Anne-Marie served for 20 years as research associate to the late Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Fordham’s first Laurence J. McGinley Chair in Religion and Society.

Following the Cardinal’s death, Sister Anne-Marie continued on as research associate for the new McGinley chair, Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., who was appointed in 2009.

Offering Saturday’s special homily, Father Ryan (pictured below with Sister Anne-Marie characterized their relationship in opening remarks: “My name is Father Ryan,” he joked. “And I work for Sister Anne-Marie.”

The Sister renewed her vows at the Mass.

Over the course of her career, Sister Anne-Marie has worked as an elementary schoolteacher, an adult education specialist, a religious education coordinator for the diocese of Rockville Centre, and an instructor at several seminaries and colleges in the New York metropolitan area. Once Father Dulles was named a Cardinal, Sister Anne-Marie said she took on many new duties: liturgical consultant, wardrobe mistress, executive assistant and eventually as care giver when the Cardinal began to suffer the effects of post-polio syndrome.

Currently at work on a Dulles biography, Sister Anne-Marie said she is aiming to bring the late Cardinal’s theological teachings to “the person in the pew.”

And she is well positioned for the task; her 1989 doctoral dissertation was on the Jesuit’s writings; shortly thereafter, she was named his research associate.

“I was in the right place at the right time!” she said. “The twenty years I worked with (him) were filled with excitement and blessings.”

Along with maintaining her duties for the McGinley chair, Sister Anne-Marie teaches theology in Fordham’s College of Liberal Studies. She recently co-edited The Legacy of Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. (Fordham University Press, 2011) with Michael M. Canaris.

—Janet Sassi

Fordham Pilgrims Travel to Spain for World Youth Day

2011-08-04T11:07:00.008-04:00

Thirty-Eight members of the Fordham community head to Spain Aug. 4 for a three-week pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Ignatius.

Their celebration of Catholic faith starts on Aug. 5 with MAGIS 2011, a three-day pastoral experience organized by the Society of Jesus in Spain, where students have been gathering from around the globe at the Sanctuary of Loyola, St. Ignatius’ childhood home in the mountains near the Basque country.

From there, the groups will spend a week in various locales in Spain or Portugal doing social service, ecology and spiritual pilgrimage. The event is being co-sponsored by many religious organizations, among which are the Sisters of Charity, the Inigo Network, the Xaverian Missionaries and other lay movements.

On Aug. 15, the Fordham group will join some 400,000 youths and members of religious communities from every continent as they gather in Madrid to participate in the weeklong World Youth Day (WYD). The annual event celebrates the message of Christ through gatherings at emblematic sites, and will include a Papal Welcoming Ceremony on Aug. 18 at the centuries-old Plaza de Cibeles in downtown Madrid. Pope Benedict XVI is expected to travel through the Madrid’s streets by popemobile and to receive the keys of the city from the mayor.

This year’s WYD participants will also be able to see Caravaggio’s The Deposition at the Prado, on loan from the Vatican Museum for the event.

The Fordham group, organized by Carol Gibney of Campus Ministry and Roxanne de la Torre, (FCRH ’09, GRE ‘11) will be blogging and tweeting their experience daily. You can follow their journey at http://fordhamwyd-madrid11.blogspot.com/.

—Janet Sassi

Fordham's Stein Center Helps Break Geo-Barriers Through "Law Without Walls"

2011-07-28T11:36:00.031-04:00

As an alternative to spending hours in the law library working on a paper, last semester two Fordham Law students earned credit through a collaborative internet-based course offered in a budding global law school community.

Law Without Walls (LWOW), is an experimental program launched in the spring by Miami Law School with five partner universities: Fordham Law School, Harvard Law School, New York Law School, the law school at University College London, and the Peking School of Transnational Law.

The collaboration groups students, faculty, practitioners, and entrepreneurs from around the world into teams to study new developments in the legal profession and to propose innovative professional practices. Last semester, the students' projects included proposing new billing structures for law firms, a plan to make Shari’ah-compliant finance more accessible in the U.S., developing emotional intelligence training for lawyers and developing virtual resources to help pro se clients to better present their cases at trial.

Each student group had the assistance of an academic mentor, a practitioner mentor, an entrepreneur advisory board and a subject expert board to ensure creativity and value in their projects.

Bruce Green (top), Louis Stein Professor of Law and director of the Stein Center for Law and Ethics, acted as academic mentor to students from China and New York Law School. Green’s Fordham students, Mari Byrne (center) (GSAS, LAW ‘ 11) and Marc Sittenreich (LAW ’11), worked on separate projects with students from Harvard and London, while being mentored by faculty from China and London.

The students presented their final projects at Miami Law and received credit at that time.
“The course's concept reflects the globalization of the legal profession,” said Green. “The course provides students with experience working in a way we think lawyers are increasingly going to have to work in a globalized profession – collaborating with professionals from different legal cultures and overcoming the obstacles of borders and time zones and internet conferences.”

Green said that LWOW would be in session again next spring, this time with even more students, more participating universities – and more time zones.

“Somebody is going to be on the phone at 1:30 in the morning,” he said.

—Janet Sassi

Health Services and Residential Life Partnership Makes News in College Health

2011-07-26T12:02:00.003-04:00

Ensuring students’ health, safety and well being takes a team approach, according to Kathleen Malara, MSN, FNP-BC, CTTS, director of Student Health Services at Fordham, and Greer Jason, Ph.D., assistant dean of students and director of Residential Life at Rose Hill.

Malara and Jason helped publicize Fordham’s model of holistic student care in an article, “Partnership between Health Services and Residential Life: A Confluence of Efforts, which they published in the spring 2011 issue of College Health in Action, the member newsletter of the American College Health Association.

Malara and Jason outlined the key partnerships that enable Health Services and Residential Life to best meet the diverse needs of students.

These partnerships include:

Fordham University EMS Reporting (FUEMS), an on-campus health care source staffed by volunteer students who are first responders and/or emergency medical technicians. FUEMS provides round-the-clock emergency care and hospital transports, and Health Services follows up to provide status reports on the students to Residential Life.

Counseling Concerns Case Conference (CCCC), a monthly check-in of Health Services and Residential Life staff, as well as other administrators from Counseling and Psychological Services, Substance Abuse Prevention and Student Support, Disability Services, Campus Ministry, and Academic Affairs, among others. The meeting informs University staff about students struggling with a variety of issues, from physical and mental health concerns to academic difficulties.

Housing Accommodation Process, a partnership between Health Services and Residential Life to serve students who request housing accommodations for medical reasons.

University Emergency Management Team (EMT) and Pandemic Response, a coordinated response to an individual or communal health crisis on campus. In 2009-2010, Health Services and Residential Life coordinated with EMT members from across the campus in minimizing the impact of the H1N1 influenza outbreak.

“Regular contact between Health Services and Residential Life often results in the discovery of a community health concern that may need attention, a population in need of education, or an opportunity to improve our work,” Malara and Jason stated.

“Without an open line of communication, effectively addressing community concerns is not possible.”

—Nina Romeo

Fordham Marketing Society Lends A Hand to Hungry

2011-07-26T10:58:00.003-04:00

In class, members of Fordham’s Marketing Society might debate the best strategy for selling a sandwich.

But on the morning of July 16, a dozen members of the group joined advisor Sertan Kabadayi, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing in the Graduate School of Business Administration, in making and bagging sandwiches for free.

The group, in partnership with Citymeals, the nation's leading meals-on-wheels organization, spent the morning at the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Center in Brooklyn, packing and delivering 150 meals to seniors no longer able to shop or cook for themselves.

“This is one of many community service events to come from Fordham Marketing Society, as it aims to connect Fordham G.B.A with the those in need,” Kabadayi said.

—Patrick Verel

Students from Japan Encounter Social Work and Education, New York Style

2011-07-25T12:38:00.017-04:00

Twenty-one undergraduate students from Tokyo University of Social Welfare (TUSW) got a taste of American social work and educational practices last week through a summer study program co-sponsored by Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Work (GSS) and Graduate School of Education (GSE).

The annual program includes class lectures and on-site visits to interest-specific agencies and schools in the city. This year’s study tour focused on child welfare, elementary education, and the role of school psychologists, said Martha Bial, Ph.D, faculty research scholar for the Ravazzin Center on Aging and director of the GSS’ Institute for Japanese and American Studies at Fordham Westchester (pictured above, center).

Among those agencies the group visited were Children’s Village, a residential treatment center for abused and neglected children in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., and P.S. 175, a Manhattan elementary school. The students were accompanied by American chaperones, an interpreter and TUSW faculty and staff.

On July 25, Peter Vaughan, Ph.D., dean of GSS and Anita Batisti, Ph.D., associate dean and director of GSE’s Center for Educational Partnerships, presented the visiting students with certificates of completion at the Lowenstein Center on the Lincoln Center campus.

This marks the third consecutive year that GSS and GSE have collaborated on the program with TUSW, which is Japan's top-ranked school in job placement for its graduates.

“We learned a lot about American systems of social welfare, education and psychology, especially the programs that are widely accepted in New York City classrooms,” wrote Nori Nakajima, chancellor of TUSW. “It is meaningful to be able to experience this diversity in the heart of Manhattan. We are looking forward to studying next year at Fordham.”

—Janet Sassi

First-Year Essays Featured in New Rose Hill Online Journal

2011-07-21T14:23:00.008-04:00

For a bit of satisfying summer reading check out Rose Hill's new online journal, Rhetorikos: Excellence in Student Writing, just published by Fordham.

The journal was the idea of a group of graduate students, led by Allison Adair Alberts and Rose Hill Writing Director Moshe Gold, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, who wanted to give core composition students a crack at the peer-review process and the art of crafting writing for an outside audience.

Alberts said she’d noticed that even her most talented freshmen had few outlets in which to write for an audience beyond the classroom. Last summer, she joined forces with a few English graduate students and Dr. Gold to start the magazine, which publishes entries of first-year undergraduate writing.

The eight non-fiction essays in the premiere issue were chosen by a editorial committee of graduate students, from approximately 40 anonymous entries submitted by Rose Hill faculty. Topics range from the immigrant experience to the problem of rising tuition in U.S. colleges, to a friend’s battle with cancer.

“They’re pretty weighty topics, and they represent the most outstanding examples of student writing from Fordham’s core writing classes,” said Alberts.

Once the selections were made, the student winners worked in tandem with faculty members to revise their prose.

“Not only have we tried to mimic the process of blind submission and reader response,” said Alberts, “but one of the most valuable things about this journal is that it helps the students navigate the revision process.”

Rhetorikos will be published twice annually, said Alberts. The current issue features work by members of the Class of 2014: Garrett Henderson, John McMenamin, Erin Murphy, Gabrielle Nugent, Timotheos Pariotakis, Bianca Pasquel, Venona Vilajeti and Allen Ying.

You can read their work at http://rhetorikos.org/

—Janet Sassi

Alumnus and Broadcaster’s Personal Battle Becomes Public

2011-07-20T12:14:00.000-04:00

Fordham University alumnus Chris Carrino, GSB ’92, has had a distinguished sports broadcast career, most notably for the past decade as the radio voice of the New Jersey Nets on WFAN. Yet despite the Yonkers native’s strong, dulcet tones on the airwaves, Carrino has been battling Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy (FSHD), a debilitating form of muscular dystrophy, for most of his adult life.

The cross country travel and mostly-night-games-life of an NBA basketball broadcaster can take its toll on even a perfectly healthy individual, so the treks have sometimes been that much more grueling for the WFUV Radio product. Not many knew. Yet, Carrino has truly achieved elite status in his chosen profession, making his mark with the likes of Vin Scully, Mike Breen, Michael Kay, Bob Papa, Charlie Slowes, and Spero Dedes for excellence in the play-by-play calling of sporting events.

“I was always reluctant to be treated differently,” says Carrino, who kept his physical plight to a select few on a need-to-know basis, preferring to fight his fight quietly. That was until earlier this year, when with the support and urging of his wife, Laura, whom he calls “the person who inspires me every day…who finally convinced me that it was time.” And so, the Chris Carrino Foundation for FSHD was born.

“I was determined to continue on the path I set forth,” reflects the New Jersey resident. “I had dreams of a career in sports broadcasting and dreams of having a family. I was determined not to let FSHD get in the way of those dreams.” He was not to be denied.

FSHD is difficult to pronounce, a disease you probably might have never heard of before Carrino began to bring attention to the muscular affliction with a media tour that gained national attention in print, radio and television. Fordham alumni scribes, Tom Canavan of the Associated Press and Dave D’Alessandro of the Newark Star Ledger, broadcast partner Tim Capstraw and his radio outlet WFAN, YES Network and the Nets were among those who teamed to assist in getting the word out. Carrino’s efforts have been tireless to fight the disease that effects thousands of adults and children worldwide.

Carrino says that his game plan was always to first “make something of myself” (he sure has) and “then try to help others” (he sure is). Teaming with Jennifer Burgess, “a devoted mother and tireless worker trying to help cure FSHD through her own Long Island foundation,” the Chris Carrino Foundation for FSHD was hatched.

The Chris Carrino Foundation for FSHD is a 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to eradicating the life-altering effects of fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. The foundation will hold its inaugural dinner dance on Thursday, August 18. You can find the foundation’s website at: www.chriscarrinofoundation.org.

—John Cirillo, FCRH ‘78

Baseball and a Catholic Education

2011-07-11T16:52:00.003-04:00

America’s favorite pastime and the teachings of Catholicism made a winning pair for Jimmy Ruvituso Jr., a third-grader at St. Patrick’s School in Bedford Villages, N.Y.

The son of Donna Ruvituso, FCRH ’80, and James Ruvituso, FCRH ’78, Jimmy won the “Home Run for Catholic Schools” promotion, sponsored by the Hudson Valley Renagades minor league baseball team and the Catholic schools of Hudson Valley, for his essay comparing baseball with Catholic education.

Baseball and a Catholic education are alike, Jimmy wrote in the essay, “because they teach me about listening, focusing, taking direction, getting along with others and being a good sport.”

Donna said her son “was totally floored” when he heard the good news about his essay (which can be viewed on the Catholic New York website).

For winning the contest, Jimmy threw out the first pitch at the Hudson Valley Renegades game against the Brooklyn Cyclones at Dutchess Stadium on June 30. Donna said several representatives from the Archdiocese of New York attended, including Timothy J. McNiff, Ed.D., superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of New York. “I didn’t expect to see all those people, and it was really nice,” she said. “Jimmy was like a celebrity.”

Donna and James met at WFUV while they were students at Fordham. She was a reporter and newscaster at the radio station, and James was the public affairs director and music director. They married at the University Church in 1981.

“[My parents] say that being taught by Jesuits in college was the best education,” Jimmy wrote in his essay. “The priests and brothers at Fordham … taught students morals and subjects about faith in Jesus. So it was no surprise that my parents decided to send me to a Catholic school too.”

Is Fordham University in Jimmy’s college plans? Donna, who has seven siblings, four of whom also attended Fordham, said, “It’s not out of the question!”

—Rachel Buttner

Executive MBA Program Ranks Among Best in North America

2011-07-11T12:13:00.004-04:00

The Fordham Executive MBA (EMBA) program has been ranked No. 27 in North America by Poets and Quants, a new website devoted to Executive MBA education.

In Poets and Quants’ ranking of the top 50 EMBAs, Fordham tied with the University of Western Ontario in Canada and is just behind the University of California at Irvine at No. 26.

The Poets and Quants ranking measures the overall reputation of EMBA programs by combining equally weighted ratings from BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and U.S. News & World Report.

The new ranking also takes into account an array of additional data to assess the quality of the programs, from surveys of student satisfaction to increases in income attributed to the degree.

“We are, of course, always delighted and thankful to be positively recognized for our Executive MBA program and for our dynamic and spirited EMBA students and faculty,” said Francis Petit, Ed.D., associate dean for Executive MBA programs in the Graduate School of Business Administration.

“We also believe this recognition adds to the continued momentum of our program,” he said.

The Poets and Quants’ ranking maintains the high profile of Fordham’s EMBA program, which last year was ranked 25th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and was among the top 25 global MBA programs as ranked by CEO Magazine.

Launched in 2010 by John Byrne, the former editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek.com, Poets and Quants has received wide coverage by The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and BusinessWeek, and has reached 500,000 page views per month.

—Nina Romeo

Theology Professor Wins Catholic Press Award

2011-07-05T16:55:00.006-04:00

Charles Camosy, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology, has won second place in the category "Social Concerns" in the Catholic Press Association’s annual publishing awards for his book, Too Expensive To Treat? Finitude, Tragedy and the Neonatal ICU (Eerdmans, 2010).

The Catholic Press Association listed its annual awards in the June issue of The Catholic Journalist, recognizing individuals and publication teams for outstanding work in Catholic publishing. The awards went to recently-published books in 23 different categories and also to magazines, newsletters, newspapers and Spanish language publications.

Camosy’s book, which focuses on neonatal intensive care unit practices in the United States and the larger issue of heath care rationing, outlines a case for equal proportioning of community health care resources among all people. A scholar of Christian ethics, Camosy has published articles in the Journal of the Catholic Health Association, the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy and the American Journal of Bioethics.

“This is a clear, honest look at a heartbreaking issue,” notes the Press Association’s citation. “The research is thorough, the analysis is excellent, and the conclusions are courageous and challenging. This work provides a possible framework for use with other issues of bioethics and life.”

Camosy is currently at work on a book about how the diametrically opposed philosophies of Princeton’s Decamp Professor of Bioethics, Dr. Peter Singer, and today’s traditional Christian ethicists can find common ground on many contemporary polarizing issues.

In addition, Camosy is one of the organizers of the Catholic Conversation Project, a coalition of young academic theologians under 40 addressing contemporary Catholic issues through new dialogs and perspectives. The project was featured in the July 2 issue of The Tablet, the International Catholic Weekly.

—Janet Sassi

Pretoria Students Celebrate Successful Studies at Fordham

2011-07-05T11:57:00.006-04:00

South African students who have spent the past month studying at Fordham wrapped up their New York adventure on June 30 with a barbecue on the Keating Hall Terrace.

The students were at Fordham as part of an agreement with the University of Pretoria that was completed in 2008-2009. They pursued studies in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences while experiencing life in New York City.

This is the second consecutive summer in which Pretoria students have taken a five-week course at Rose Hill run by the International Political Economy and Development (IPED) Program. The exchange complements the trips taken by Fordham students to South Africa in 2008 and 2009.

IPED students from Fordham will journey to Pretoria in August for a course on emerging markets. They will collect and analyze economic and financial data on South Africa and compare it with similar data on other emerging markets as well as more established markets.

- Joseph McLaughlin

Art Show Highlights Pivotal Moments For Designing Women

2011-06-24T11:04:00.025-04:00

When Abby Goldstein, associate professor of visual arts, noticed that her student Lindsay Reichart, FCRH ’11, possessed a passionate interest in modern art history, feminism and design, Goldstein got an idea.

“I suggested that Lindsay curate an exhibition as a senior thesis project,” said Goldstein, who had long noticed a lack of recognition for great women designers.

Over some months, Reichart started out with 75 names and narrowed the field from there, doing research and in-person interviews.

The result, Benchmarks: Seven Women in Design: New York, is now on display in the Lowenstein Center Gallery through Aug. 15. Co-curated by Reichart and Goldstein, the show focuses on a group of prominent New York-based women designers born before 1960 whose work ranges from print to collage to audio-visual installation: Gail Anderson, Eileen Boxer, Elaine Lustig Cohen, Carin Goldberg, Louise Fili, Paula Scher and Lucille Tenazas.

Although much of the artists’ work has been underrecognized, said Goldstein, all the artists have been firmly established and active in New York’s design scene for decades.

“We asked each of them to choose a work that holds special meaning for them, or was a turning point in their approach to their practice,” said Goldstein. “We hope to show exemplary work that also [is] personal.”

Among the works featured are Gail Anderson’s photo collages for Rolling Stone magazine of Axl Rose (2000) and Chris Rock (1997, pictured above left); Eileen Boxer’s conceptual announcement for the Ubu Gallery’s Hans Bellmer show (1995, pictured right); and Paula Scher’s vibrant silkscreen for the Public Theatre’s presentation of “Dancing On Her Knees” (1996, pictured left).

Reichart, who earned a bachelor of arts in art history and music, said she hopes to extend the project beyond New York sometime in the future.

The exhibit is sponsored by the department of theatre and visual arts. For more about the exhibit, visit the department blog, where you can find a link to an interview with the curators in imprint e-magazine for designers.

—Janet Sassi

Fordham Theatre Alumna Assays The Plot

2011-06-23T15:38:00.002-04:00

If every actor’s dream is to perform Shakespeare, Annie Parisse, FCLC ’99, is twice blessed.

She currently stars as Helena, the lead female character in All’s Well That Ends Well, and Mariana in Measure for Measure in the Public Theater’s 2011 Shakespeare in the Park season.

“[Shakespeare’s] language is so breathtaking,” she recently told Crain’s New York Business. “To be supported by that kind of text is incredible.”

Before tackling Shakespeare, Parisse starred as assistant district attorney Alexandra Borgia on Law & Order. She also had a recurring role on As the World Turns and appeared in such films as Definitely, Maybe, National Treasure and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Parisse’s turn in Shakespeare in the Park marks the second consecutive year the Public Theater cast a Fordham theatre alumna in its repertory company of actors. Last year, Heather Lind, FCLC ’05, acted opposite Al Pacino as Jessica in The Merchant of Venice and also played the role of Perdita in The Winter’s Tale.

—Miles Doyle, FCRH ’01

Fordham Hosts Send-Off for Incoming Students and Their Parents

2011-06-23T13:55:00.004-04:00

Members of Fordham’s Class of 2015 and their parents joined Fordham alumni, and they kept on coming. All told, more than 200 members of Fordham’s extended family from Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon and Passaic counties trekked into a wooded glade in Van Saun Park in Paramus, N.J., on Saturday, June 18, for a summer barbecue.

Forty Rose Hill and 10 Lincoln Center students engaged in animated conversations with their peers and made new friends, while Fordham alumni shared their college experiences and thoughts about Fordham with the students’ parents. People ate and lingered, groups shifted and generations mixed. For incoming students and their parents, it was a great initiation into the Fordham community.

Nine prizes, including Fordham T-shirts and hats, were raffled off.

Dawn-Marie Yardis, FCRH ’78, leader of the Fordham Alumni Support Team (FAST) for the Northern New Jersey Alumni Chapter, coordinated the event and created a festive atmosphere with maroon and white balloons and 22 tables covered in maroon tablecloths.

Fordham’s undergraduate admission and alumni relations offices co-sponsored the event, which was part of the University’s summer send-off program. Every summer, the University works with Fordham parents and alumni to host receptions across the country for incoming freshmen and their parents.

The regional events provide a unique opportunity for incoming students to meet fellow students in their neighborhood and for their parents to get to know each other.

—Sean McCooe, FCRH ’80, President, Fordham Alumni Chapter of Northern New Jersey

GSE Alumnus Helps Students Pen First Draft of History

2011-06-22T11:23:00.005-04:00

A good teacher makes a subject come alive. And that’s exactly what Michael Malnic, GSE ’99, did for his seventh-grade social studies class at Meadow Hill magnet school in Newburgh, N.Y.

To complement his classroom lessons, Malnic enlisted his students as journalists to file news reports about black soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War.

For their beat, the cub reporters covered the historic 54th Massachusetts Regiment, one of the first official regiments of blacks troops in the U.S. military.

The students used as their historical guide the 1989 film Glory, which dramatized the real-life story of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment and starred Fordham graduate Denzel Washington, FCLC ’77. The regiment was raised and commanded by Col. Robert Gould Shaw, who attended the lower division of St. John’s College, now known as Fordham Preparatory School, before he joined the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry as a second lieutenant.

Malnic’s students each selected archival photos and wrote feature-length stories, which they ran in individual front pages of their own newspapers.

Their work was recently featured in the Times-Herald Record.

“What really meant a lot to me was for them to see the human element [of history],” Malnic told the paper.

—Miles Doyle, FCRH ’01

WFUV and NYC Media Launch The Alternate Side on WNYE

2011-06-20T18:17:00.003-04:00

New York, NY—WFUV will celebrate the June launch of The Alternate Side on WNYE (91.5 FM) with an acoustic performance by songwriter (and driving force behind the acclaimed indie band Pedro the Lion) David Bazan in Madison Square Park (Madison Avenue at 23rd Street) on Wednesday, June 22 at 2 p.m. The Alternate Side DJs Russ Borris and Alisa Ali will be on-hand to host. The concert is free and open to the general public.

As of June 1, The Alternate Side, the independent music service produced by WFUV, has been airing weekday mornings from 6 a.m. to Noon on the NYC Media-owned WNYE. The service will also continue to be available around the clock at thealternateside.org and 90.7FM HD3, as well as weeknights from 10:00 PM. to midnight on WFUV (90.7FM, wfuv.org).

Since its launch by WFUV in 2008, with support from The New York State Music Fund, The Alternate Side has showcased the vital and diverse indie music scene in New York City and beyond. The Alternate Side’s forward-thinking, music-savvy range of artists includes everybody from The Strokes and The Beastie Boys to PJ Harvey and Radiohead and champions new local bands like Yeasayer, School of Seven Bells and The Hundred in the Hands. WNYE listeners will discover new music and reconnect with favorite artists, experience one-of-a-kind in-studio interviews and performances, and get artist news, concert information and community announcements.

Part of the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, NYC Media is the official TV, radio and online network of the City of New York, informing, educating and entertaining New Yorkers about the City’s diverse people and neighborhoods, government, services, attractions and activities. NYC Media oversees several television channels, a radio station and other online assets. Visit nyc.gov/media for more information. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/nyc_media or become a fan on Facebook at facebook.com/nycmedia.

Fordham Alumnus Wins Tony Award

2011-06-14T12:28:00.002-04:00

John Benjamin Hickey, a 1985 alumnus of Fordham College at Lincoln Center, won a Tony Award Sunday night for his featured performance in The Normal Heart, playwright Larry Kramer’s semi-autobiographical drama about the early HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City.

After receiving the award, Hickey, who stars as Felix Turner in the play, said his Tony win was “the proudest moment in [his] career.”

Hickey’s Tony Award is impressive—especially considering how he had to juggle his appearance on Broadway with his work on the Showtime series The Big C, which stars Laura Linney. While performing in The Normal Heart eight times a week, Hickey, who plays Linney’s eccentric and off-the-grid brother, also filmed episodes of the show three or four times a week on location in Stamford, Conn.

During his acceptance speech, Hickey also thanked Linney for always getting him to “the stage door on time.”

After earning his bachelor’s degree in English at Fordham College at Lincoln Center in 1985, Hickey trained at the Juilliard School. He made his Broadway debut in 1995 in the original cast of Terrence McNally’s Tony Award-winning play Love! Valour! Compassion! His other Broadway credits include Cabaret, The Crucible and Mary Stuart.

He’s also appeared in the films The Ice Storm, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, and has landed various roles on NBC’s Law & Order franchise.

—Miles Doyle, FCRH ’01

Family Matters

2011-06-14T09:44:00.003-04:00

Siblings often share time on a Fordham campus. Twins sometimes occupy the same dorm rooms. Brothers and sisters, a few years apart, bump into one another between classes or out and about in the city. Such familial interactions are a normal part of the Fordham story.

It’s the rare Fordham father, however, who shares a campus workspace with his daughter. But that’s exactly what the McGees did since 2007, when Kate McGee enrolled at Fordham and joined her father Don, a part-time DJ at WFUV (90.7 FM, wfuv.org), on the Rose Hill campus.

Three years later, Annie McGee joined her older sister and father at Rose Hill.

“It was kind of a neat thing,” said Don McGee. “They both decided to come here on their own, though I do like to think I had some influence on their decisions.”

Both Kate and Annie said having their father around—if only on occasion—initially helped with the sometimes-difficult transition from high school to college. But they are quick to point out that they eventually found their own footing.

“It was nice in the beginning,” Kate said, “because I didn’t go home a lot. When I saw him, I kind of felt like I had. Later, I didn’t see him as much because I was always running between internships and classes, but usually when he was [at WFUV] I did try to stop by. Usually to pick up something he brought from home.”

Like her father, Kate wanted to pursue a career in radio, which is one of the reasons she chose Fordham. Since its launch in 1947, WFUV has trained countless Fordham students for radio careers in music, sports and news.

Once on campus, she landed a work-study position at WFUV. She later earned an internship and, eventually, a staff position in the station’s news department, working closely with George Bodarky, FCRH ’93, the station’s news and public affairs director and host of Cityscape.

As a student journalist, she amassed an impressive array of clips, including stories for Issues Tank, the station’s new regional investigative program. In 2010, she won a Gracie Allen Award, presented by American Women in Radio and Television, and a Society for Professional Journalists’ Region 1 Mark of Excellence Award in 2011.

“WFUV became a kind of second home for me,” said Kate, who completed internships at NBC and WNYC during her senior year before landing a job as content producer for The Star-Ledger. “I was there all the time, even when I wasn’t working.”

Though the McGees shared a workspace for four years, Don said he always tried to let Kate stand on her own, even if that meant sacrificing a few on-air opportunities.

“We only got on the air together twice,” said Don, who joined Fordham’s noncommercial radio station in 2001, when Mixed Bag host Pete Fornatale, FCRH ’67, a former colleague at WNEW (102.7 FM) and WAXQ (104.3 FM), needed someone to sit in for him on the air. “But it was thrilling.”

While her father and sister shared an interest in radio, Annie McGee came to Fordham with a different set of goals and interests.

“I joke around and say Kate and I have the same resume,” she said, “but I’m not interested in journalism. I want to study political science and find my own way.”

Did the family’s presence on campus ever grow too close for comfort for either sister?

“Not at all,” Annie said. “She and I [have] had totally different experiences. We met different types of people. We took different classes. It’s always nice to see family. It’s nice to touch base with home from time to time.”

(Above, left to right: Annie, Kate and Don McGee at the 166th Commencement. Image courtesy of Don McGee)

—Miles Doyle, FCRH ’01

FCLC Student Meets Commander in Chief (With Bo in Tow)

2011-06-09T11:08:00.005-04:00

Fordham College at Lincoln Center rising senior Ryan O’Toole got an unexpected surprise on June 6 when President Barack Obama dropped in to the 100 Youth Roundtables event O’Toole was attending at the White House.

O’Toole (above at far end of table in blue shirt) was one of ten young leaders from around the nation invited to a discussion session with the President’s senior advisor Valerie Jarrett and others in the White House’s Roosevelt Room. As part of the youth initiative de-briefing, the were asked to share their views on youth entrepreneurship, the environment, poverty, the job market, student loans and other topics of interest to the nation’s future leaders.

Suddenly President Obama showed up in an unscheduled appearance at the session (with his dog Bo), meeting the student attendees and engaging in a chat about education, Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, the Social Work and Reinvestment Act and the need to be involved to inspire change.

“It was an incredible meeting,” said O’Toole. “He shook hands with us and I was sure to mention Fordham to him. It was a great discussion and a chance for us to share our opinions and make our voices heard.”

As president of FCLC’s United Student Government, O’Toole said he had initially organized a roundtable on campus last semester to draft a report for the White House after he heard its Office of Public Engagement wanted input on issues students felt were important.

“As students at a Jesuit university, we are actively engaged in our community,” he said. “I immediately felt that Fordham should get involved.”

He sent in the report and received an invitation from the Office of Public Engagement to join the West Wing roundtable with nine other youth leaders from around the nation.
“I [was] proud to be able to represent Fordham at the White House,” he said.

⎯Janet Sassi

NBC Nightly News to Air Footage from Fordham’s Commencement

2011-05-31T14:37:00.003-04:00

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams will air a four-minute package at 6:30 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday, May 31, featuring footage of the evening news anchor's address to Fordham graduates.

The piece will also feature interviews with members of the Class of 2011 from Fordham and four other universities. This year, NBC worked with schools across the nation to create an unprecedented amount of footage on-air and online. While all interviews may not make it to the on-air broadcast, there will be more online.

A producer at NBC warned that breaking news could bump the segment, but for now, please make sure to turn on your local NBC station tonight when NBC Evening News airs, 6:30 p.m. ET.

For more information on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, visit their site, where the additional footage will be found after the story airs tonight.

And again, don’t forget to tune into your local NBC station tonight.

Generous Student Now on Teixeira’s Dream Team

2011-05-31T12:17:00.003-04:00

Fordham student Catherine Menta has been named the first member of Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira’s “All-Star Dream Team” in support of Harlem RBI, a nonprofit youth-development organization.

Menta, who will be a junior at Fordham College at Lincoln Center in the fall, was chosen from those who have already donated over $25 to Teixeira’s Dream Team 25 campaign, which challenges New Yorkers to match his $1 million donation to the East Harlem program.

As an “All-Star Dream Team” member—the first of 9 who will eventually be chosen—Menta will have lunch with Mark Teixeira and get a behind-the-scenes tour of Yankees Stadium. She and a guest will also watch a game from a luxury box, and Menta will be given on-the-field recognition before the game begins.

First started in 1991, Harlem RBI helps inner-city youths develop their potential and pursue their dreams by providing them with year-round sports, educational and enrichment activities.

The goal of Teixeira’s campaign is to help fund the development of a new mixed-use community facility in East Harlem, which will house Harlem RBI and its DREAM Charter School as well as provide affordable housing, a public park and more than 500 jobs for the community.

Menta, an avid Yankees fan, found out about the “Dream Team” contest by following Teixeira’s Twitter posts. To enter, Menta submitted a short written statement explaining why she should be considered for the team.

In her response, Menta, who is originally from Ridgefield Park, N.J., expressed her desire to give back to the New York community that is helping her further her education. She also drew upon her experiences in past community development work, teaching Sunday school, tutoring and baking for a local soup kitchen.

As a communications and media studies major, Menta was particularly pleased that she was recognized for her writing. Her statement is now featured on the Harlem RBI website, a fitting honor for Menta, who is also a writer for the Fordham Observer.

When Menta got the call on May 13 letting her know she had been chosen for the team, she had just finished her last final, a philosophy exam, and was waiting for her dad to pick her up to take her home for the summer.

Along with her excitement upon hearing the news, Menta felt pleased that she would have the opportunity to spread the word about Harlem RBI, particularly its DREAM Charter School.

“I’m a big believer in everybody having a chance to have a good education and recognize their talents and explore them,” she said.

“I have had really great teachers who encouraged me and I feel like charter schools help kids have opportunities they might not have otherwise. Every kid should have that opportunity.”

Menta now hopes to become a volunteer or tutor for Harlem RBI.

While she has not yet heard what game she will be attending, Menta knows for certain that she will be bringing her dad, another big Yankees fan, to her big day.

“I’m really happy and flattered that they chose me at all,” she said. “And the fact that they felt compelled to pick me as the first person—I just can’t believe it—it’s exciting.”

—Nina Romeo

A Peek at Calder Cabin-in-Progress

2011-05-27T11:09:00.009-04:00

Last summer, ground was broken on Fordham’s Calder Center log cabin facility, a 3,800-square-foot facility that will house 12 graduate research students when completed later this year.

Here are some spring photos of the cabin well on its way to completion. It is constructed of solid Pennsylvania pine logs in a rustic Adirondack style, designed to blend with the surrounding wooded area and the historic turn-of-the-century cabin already on site (see architectural rendering by Kouzmanoff Bainton below).

The new cabin will occupy two of the 113 forested acres used for ecological research and environmental education. It will play a critical role in helping increase the quality and quantity of research that can be conducted at the Center, according to Calder Director John Wehr, Ph.D.

A thank you to Dr. Wehr for providing the photos.

—Janet Sassi

Alumni Chaplain’s Leap of Faith

2011-05-26T10:25:00.010-04:00

On May 5, 2011, Alumni Chaplain Daniel J. Gatti, S.J., performed his first parachute jump—at age 69—with the U.S. Army’s Golden Knights Parachute Team at the Joint Base in Lakehurst, N.J. (if the name sounds familiar, it’s because it is the crash site of the Hindenburg).

See the Video
(Added June 15, 2011)

Father Gatti was in Lakehurst as a friend of Xavier High School, whose X-Squad Drill Team was performing at the three-day Army-sponsored event. His thoughts on the jump are below.

From my perspective as a Jesuit, I somewhat jokingly call my tandem jump a “leap of faith.” And so it was. Not, however, in the theological sense of a movement to belief in God, but in the basic sense of trust; trust in the U.S. Army, its plane, its equipment and its personnel; trust that all elements would work together for a successful jump!

How did I feel about doing this? I felt euphoric, extremely happy to be able to do something exciting I had never done before. Once in the plane and ascending to 13,000 feet, I had the sense that “this is it; the time has arrived; no thought of changing my mind now.” I had willingly boarded this plane; I will willingly tandem jump from this plane and “return to earth.”

The initial free fall lasted about 60 seconds and the two of us were falling at 120 miles per hour. With our arms and legs now extended, my partially exposed face felt like it was about to freeze. My Army instructor and Golden Knight, Greg, then pulled the chute and we quickly came to a sudden but not jolting stop. In reality we were still descending, but for a moment the sensation was that of absolute stillness, with a blue sky all around us, and a familiar terra firma beneath us. To the northeast I could see the skyline of New York some 85 miles away, and to the east the New Jersey coast and the expansive Atlantic Ocean beyond. All was simply beautiful.

Our full descent took a few minutes more, with only sounds of wind gushing through and around our chute to accompany us. Then with land seemingly rising up to meet us, we made our approach to the target area and made our landing—not as soft as I would have liked, since I jammed my knees, but a welcomed landing none the less. Greg later described it as “a little bumpy.”

Certainly it was an experience making one feel fully alive! Yes, given the opportunity, I would be willing to jump again. Certainly it was the highlight of my two days at the event. But what impressed me most was the caliber of the Army personnel I met. Not for nothing is their current motto Army Strong! These are men and women battle tested and mission ready; confident, fit, crystal clear in eye and in speech, exuding an admirable strength of character for which all Americans can be extremely proud.

—Daniel J. Gatti, S.J., FCRH '65, GSE '66, '96
Alumni Chaplain

Fordham Celebrates Retirement of African American Studies Chair

2011-05-24T11:45:00.011-04:00

Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham University, recollected his steadfast persistence, when he was dean of FCRH, of thinking that the spelling of Claude Mangum, Ph.D., was really “Claude Magnum,” or Claude the Great.

Mark Naison, Ph.D., Mangum's colleague for 40 years and an integral force in founding an African and African American Studies Department at Fordham, recalled the early days when “our department’s theme song was Bill Withers’ ‘Just the Two of Us.’”

Father McShane and Naison, professor and current chair of the department, joined nearly 200 faculty, friends, administrators and former students on May 23 for a celebratory sendoff for Mangum, associate professor of African and African American Studies and former chair of the department, on his pending retirement. The evening was filled with etched memories and heartfelt tributes to Mangum, who was described as a passionate advocate for social justice and a voice of conscience at Fordham. He will now hold Emeritus status.

Mangum began at Fordham in 1969 with the university’s Upward Bound program. Eventually he, Naison and Quinton Wilkes (GSAS ’69, GSAS ’77), helped launch the African and African-American studies department, which began in 1969 as an Institute and became a full department in 1976.

Today, Fordham offers a major and a minor in African and African American studies. The department is home to eight faculty members and also hosts the Bronx African American History Project, dedicated to “uncovering the cultural, political, economic, and religious histories of the more than 500,000 people of African descent in the Bronx.”’ It serves between 200-300 students each semester.

Former students Nilda Soto (TMC ’74, GSE ’78), assistant dean at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Craig Steven Wilder, Ph.D., professor of American History at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offered gratitude to Mangum for sharing his intellect and his wisdom in the classroom, as well as ushering them through some turbulent college years.

“We showed up under rather awful circumstances as first generation college students from failing Bronx schools,” recalled Wilder, a 1987 FCRH graduate, “And you made us feel like we belonged.”

Father McShane called Mangum an “extraordinary presence at the university, a saintly figure, principled.”

“And your name is misspelled; it truly is Magnum.”

—Janet Sassi

The Class of 2011 in Pictures

2011-05-24T07:47:00.002-04:00

Fordham University's 166th Commencement
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Rose Hill

All images in this series by Jon Roemer.

Meet 2011 Graduates Choosing Service for Others

2011-05-23T14:27:00.020-04:00

On Thursday, May 19 and Friday, May 20, Fordham University recognized a group of graduating seniors who are choosing missions of public service over careers in the more lucrative private sector.

More than 35 graduating seniors were recognized for their extraordinary time and energy commitment to volunteer service during their time at Fordham, as well as their post-graduate plans to carry forth the Jesuit mission of being men and women for and with others.

These students have chosen to do the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, Teach for America, and other mission-based and non-profit work following graduation. The students and their families received a send-off sponsored by University Mission and Ministry and Fordham’s Jesuit Community.

“We Jesuits admire you,” said John Cecero, S.J., rector of Fordham’s Jesuit residence. “You embody our core values of love in service to others.”

Nine of the students received the inaugural Father Joseph Currie, S.J., Volunteer Award for their community service, faith and justice in the spirit of Fordham’s former associate vice president for mission and ministry. They are: Cara McMenamin, Chloe Edwards, Christine Johnsen, Alice Barry, Zachary Hudson, Kendall Lewis, Tyler Kline, Christina Moehrle, and Kaylyn Toale.

Father Currie, who retired from his position in 2010, was on hand to meet the awardees.

Below, in their own words, five extraordinary students describe their plans:

Kaylyn Toale, American Studies major: “I am going to be serving with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Tucson, Arizona. I’ve been involved in service throughout my time here at Fordham and wanted to continue that, specifically working with women’s empowerment. I am looking forward to living in a community like JVC. I want to adopt that manner of simple living for the rest of my life, so this will start me off in that direction.

Kendall Lewis, anthro- pology major: “I am working for City Year, a unique program in Columbia, South Carolina. I will be working in the Young Heroes program with middle school kids, doing projects around social justice. It is volunteer for a biweekly stipend, which is very small. They actually suggest we ask for public assistance to help pay our rent. This is the sacrifice you have to make to do this kind of work, living simply with basic necessities. I am doing what I am called to do with City Year. I realize how much I lacked a holistic education of myself during K through 12. And right now I want to pass that along to other students.”

Christine Johnsen, political science major: “I am going to Calcutta with the Missionaries of Charity, to work in the homes of the sick and dying. I am working this summer to pay for my airfare. I also want to help teach women’s empowerment to women in the slums. My mother is going too for a few weeks, because she wanted to do service after college but couldn't. I will be staying on for at least a few months, if not longer. I will probably come back to the States and eventually become a social worker because I want to live a life of service.”

Kara Mackinson, psychology major:
“I am going to Boston to work in a children’s services organi- zation called Wediko, which does therapeutic special education. Education is so important and influential in young people. I have worked in a similar treatment program and it is very rewarding. Working with someone who has Asperger's, or post-traumatic stress, I learned about the power of the human connection. We can all learn through the eyes and mind of someone with a disorder.”

Nova Lucero, political science major: “I am going to Bolivia to work with the Good Shepherd Volunteers. Their mission is to work with women and children who have experienced domestic violence. I will be living in a safe house with the women and children, and will work on empowering them every single day. This is a program where you make of it whatever you want, bringing your individual skills to shape your work with the population. I feel in my heart that I am supposed to do international humanitarian mission work. I am from the Bronx and have lived at home for so long, in my little bubble. Even though I did volunteer work here in shelters, I want to try living and working somewhere completely different.”

—Janet Sassi

Chronicle Notes Fordham University Press Book on Primo Levi

2011-05-23T12:57:00.003-04:00

The Chronicle of Higher Education had this to say about Answering Auschwitz: Primo Levi's Science and Humanism After the Fall:

One triumph of scholarship, however, is that it can ride the force of established reputation like a wave, and take us into new dimensions of a writer or subject. At first glance, Answering Auschwitz: Primo Levi's Science and Humanism After the Fall, a new collection of essays edited by Stanislao G. Pugliese (Fordham University Press, 2011), looks to be more of the same—another deserved monument to 20th-century literature's most disciplined witness to the Holocaust, that flinty, unsentimental voice like no other. But Pugliese, a professor of modern European history and Italian studies at Hofstra University, offers us a fuller portrait.

The book was published in March by Fordham University Press.

Fordham's Commencement Hour by Hour

2011-05-23T12:55:00.007-04:00

8 a.m. on Edward's Parade:

Before the sun is high, before the seats are dry, the early birds arrive . . .

Dean Robert Parmach and crew dry the seats.

Front-row seats are secured by John Sunofsky, right, whose daughter Alyssa, a theology major is graduating, and Neal Symonds, left, and fiancee Shelley Beavcage, here to see Symonds' son Mark graduate. The Sunofskys got here at 6:55 a.m. after flying in from Long Beach on Wednesday; Alyssa is their first child to graduate from college. Symonds arrived yesterday. "I've always wanted the front row," he said.

An early photo op . . .

Fordham staff began arriving before the sun rose.

9 a.m., let's get that gown on . . .

Ian Christie, a political science major from Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) and Inna Ulanova, an FCLC psychology major, get a hand with their gowns.

Christie gets the okay from Ulanova, right before they march. Both are excited to be on the Rose Hill campus. "It's more official to be here," said Ulanova.

I'll take that one . . .

Chinatown, king of the flowers: "You give me $3,000, I'll give you the whole thing!"

10 a.m. procession begins . . .

NBC's Brian Williams, center, Fordham's 2011 commencement speaker, cues to proceed.

A student rings Fordham's Victory Bell announcing the start of the procession.

Some students who have earned bachelor's of science degrees prepare to join the procession.

"Where's my graduate?"

Fordham's EMTs Elizabeth Szymanski, an FCRH sophomore, Rob Villegas, a GSB junior, and Jennifer Gennaro, a FCRH junior, take a breather after a morning of prepping the campus for emergency-readiness.

Jesuit prayers kept the rain at bay, but some people put their umbrellas to good use anyway, shielding themselves from those UVRs.

11 a.m. Honorary Degrees Conferred . . .

MSG Richard Fredrickson, senior military science instructor, New York City Army ROTC, (right), waits with cadets in the color guard before the ceremony officially begins.

Honorary degree recipient Marian Hall Seldes, accompanied by Matthew Maguire, M.A., director of Fordham's Theatre Program.

Brian Williams tells Fordham graduates: "I have 18 community college credits to my name. I dropped out of every college on that list. I got my working papers at 14, I worked any where they would pay me. I got as lucky as a kid gets growing up in this country, and that’s the only reason I am standing here talking to you today."

Brian Williams calls out Fordham senior Andrea Paul for her comments about him in The Observer, and brings her to her feet.

Father Joseph M. McShane, S.J. sending off the Class of 2011: "Set the world on fire."

—Photos by Patrick Verel

Fordham Commencement Hour by Hour

2011-05-21T11:44:00.026-04:00

11 a.m. Honorary Degrees Conferred . . .

Honorary degree recipient Marian Hall Seldes, accompanied by Matthew Maguire, M.A., director of Fordham's Theatre Program.

Brian Williams tells Fordham graduates: "I have 18 community college credits to my name. I dropped out of every college on that list. I got my working papers at 14, I worked any where they would pay me. I got as lucky as a kid gets growing up in this country, and that’s the only reason I am standing here talking to you today."

Brian Williams calls out Fordham senior Andrea Paul for her blogging, and brings her to her feet.

Father Joseph M. McShane, S.J. sending off the Class of 2011: "Set the world on fire."

Commencement Hour by Hour

2011-05-21T10:40:00.015-04:00

10 a.m. procession begins . . .

NBC's Brian Williams, center, Fordham's 2011 commencement speaker, cues to proceed.

A student rings Fordham's Victory Bell announcing the start of the procession.

Some students who earned their bachelor's of science degrees join the procession.

Fordham Commencement Hour by Hour

2011-05-21T09:38:00.013-04:00

9 a.m., get that gown on . . .

Ian Christie, a political science major from Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) and Inna Ulanova, an FCLC psychology major, get a hand with their gowns.

Christie gets the okay from Ulanova, right before they march. Both are excited to be on the Rose Hill campus. "It's more official to be here," said Ulanova.

I'll take that one . . .

Chinatown, king of the flowers: "You give me $3,000, I'll give you the whole thing!

Fordham Commencement Hour by Hour

2011-05-21T08:15:00.012-04:00

CSTEP and HEOP Award Winners Travel the Road to Success

2011-05-20T15:42:00.007-04:00

Fordham College at Rose Hill students who won the University’s CSTEP Scholar Award and HEOP Award are poised to excel in the academic and professional pursuits waiting for them after graduation.

Peter White II, CSTEP Scholar Award winner, and Aryany Pérez, HEOP Award winner, received their respective citations on May 19 at the Encaenia ceremony on the Rose Hill campus.

Both credit Fordham with providing the foundation they will need to follow their dreams and face life’s challenges.

White said his dual major in history and Spanish language and literature has set him on the path to a career in international law with a focus on global environmentalism.

“It’s an expertise we’ll need to survive as a global community,” he said. “I feel it’s a way I can do a lot of good in the world.”

In pursuit of his goals, White received support from the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) at Fordham, a statewide initiative to prepare minority students for careers in areas where they are under-represented, such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics, health and licensed fields.

White also received a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship from the federal government to spend a semester in his junior year studying in the Dominican Republic.

The following summer, he used a George McMahon, S.J., Travel Fellowship from Fordham to complete a research project in Puerto Rico, where he examined how women use reggaeton music to redefine and improve their social status.

Coming to Fordham was a “logical transition” for White, who attended Gonzaga College High School in Washington D.C., which is also a Jesuit school. “This education changed my life for the better,” he said. “Learning how to be somebody for others serves as a great basis for the future.”

While he is still considering other offers, White is fairly certain that next year he will be attending St. John’s University Law School on a full academic scholarship.

Like White, Pérez sought an international focus in her studies at Fordham. A joint major in French language and literature and Middle East studies, Pérez is considering pursuing a career in diplomacy, linguistics or interpreting.

Although Pérez attended St. Jean Baptiste High School in Manhattan, she did not initially consider applying to Fordham. She was encouraged to do so, however, by a student services counselor with connections to the University, who sent her transcript to the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) at Fordham.

Pérez said that her acceptance into the HEOP program, and the financial support it provided, made all the difference in enabling her to attend Fordham. The New York state-administered program was created in 1969 to provide educational and financial assistance to students who demonstrate the potential for academic success.

In the fall semester of her senior year, Pérez studied in Marseilles, France, where she participated in a community service project, working side-by-side with recent North African immigrants to bake bread for local restaurants and homeless shelters.

Her experiences abroad made a lasting impression on her. “It was something I will never forget,” she said. “I made it my goal to go there to understand another culture and be a part of it.”

Her experiences working with recent immigrants also opened her eyes to the specific hardships and social problems faced by these groups in Europe.

Pérez hopes to continue her education on the graduate level. A native of Honduras, who moved to the United States with her mother and brother when she was nine years old, she will now apply for United States citizenship so she can qualify for fellowships and grants.

Looking back at her time at Fordham, Pérez said that two things stand out. “The Walsh Library has been my home,” she said. “It has been a blessing to have a such a library.

“My connections with my professors were also important to me. I was able to build strong relationships with a few of them who have guided me toward what I should do in my education and in my career.”

—Nina Romeo

Fordham Alumnus Named President of Renowned Cancer Center

2011-05-16T07:13:00.002-04:00

Ronald A. DePinho, M.D., a 1977 alumnus of Fordham College at Rose Hill, has been named the sole finalist to become the next president of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Texas System Board of Regents announced on May 11.

“Doctor DePinho is a distinguished scientist and proven administrator capable of leading the nation’s premiere comprehensive cancer center,” said Gene Powell, chairman of board of regents. “He has an excellent background in teaching and research and a demonstrated ability to work effectively within complex medical institutions. The board is extremely confident he has the ability to advance the institution's mission ‘to make cancer history.’”

The son of Portuguese immigrants, DePinho earned his bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at Fordham College at Rose Hill, with a minor in art history, before earning his medical degree with distinction in microbiology and immunology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he later served as a member of the college’s faculty.

A renowned cancer geneticist, DePinho is currently director of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Center and professor of medicine (genetics) at Harvard Medical School. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

DePinho’s focus includes the fields of cancer research, aging and chronic degenerative diseases. He is a leader in using lab mice as a model of human disease, genetically manipulating and engineering the mice to understand the molecular underpinnings of complex human disorders, most notably cancer and aging.

In 2002, DePinho received the 43rd Clowes Memorial Award from the American Association of Cancer Research, in recognition of outstanding accomplishments in research.

More recently, he appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss his research of reverse aging in mice.

Once officially approved by the board, DePinho will become the fourth president in MD Anderson’s 70-year history.

“This is what makes this country great,” DePinho told the Houston Chronicle, “that the son of uneducated Portuguese immigrants could become president of the nation’s premier cancer center.”

DePinho was profiled in the fall 2003 issue of FORDHAM magazine.

—Miles Doyle

GSS Student Awarded Child Oncology Study Grant

2011-05-13T15:57:00.001-04:00

Meredith J. Barnhart, M.S. LMSW, a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS), works as a social worker in the pediatric oncology division of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

During the course of her counseling, she came across a handful of families that had both a child and a parent being simultaneously treated for cancer. In one instance, she said, a father even postponed his own treatment regimen to allow for his son to stabilize first.

Starting in July, Barnhart will be doing her dissertation research on “Enhancing Concurrent Child and Caregiver Oncology Treatment,” thanks to $40,000, two-year grant she applied for and received from the American Cancer Society.

The grant’s goal is to look at the psychosocial impact of having a parent and child in active treatment simultaneously, on the family structures.

Barnhart noted that, at present, there is little or no research on the topic. The grant also supports her participation in professional conferences, including at the Society for Social Work and Research.

Barnhart hopes that her dissertation will eventually help inform treatment for those families facing the daunting set of circumstances.

—Janet Sassi

Fordham Westchester Hosts Holocaust Memorial Art Exhibit

2011-05-12T14:35:00.000-04:00

The Fordham Westchester campus will host an art exhibit on Holocaust memorial art beginning May 13 until May 27 in the Lobby at the Westchester campus, with the artist’s reception on Thursday, May 19 at 5 p.m.

The Holocaust Memorial Art Exhibit will feature paintings by Marilyn Honigman, chair of the Fine Arts Department at Fordham Preparatory School. The exhibit will depict pictorial impressions on the Holocaust.

Honigman’s paintings have been exhibited at the Polish Consulate, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Corcoran Gallery, the Blue Mountain Gallery, and other group exhibitions.
The art exhibit is part of the Fordham Forum Spring Series and is co-sponsored by Campus Ministry.

-Jenny Hirsch

Arts Spotlight: Angela Alaimo O'Donnell

2011-05-12T07:50:00.000-04:00

May is apparently The Month of Angela.

This month, Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, associate director of Fordham's Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, published her fourth collection of poems, Saint Sinatra & Other Poems, with Word Press.

St. Martha

"She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word." Luke 10:37

A silly child she ever always was-
our mother said so a thousand times-
her quick eye caught by the flight or buzz
of some pretty creature's mastering wings.
Lazarus tried to keep her out of sight,
to spare his clever sister women's tasks.
I hauled the water, rose before first light,
set bread upon the board before they asked.
The day You came to us our prayers were granted.
My hands obeyed the rhythms of my labor
while Mary sat beside You like a man,
embraced within the circle of Your favor.
I stood apart, Your beauty kept from me,
and only when You left us did I see.

Her essay, "Seeing Catholicly: Poetry & the Catholic Imagination" has been published in The Catholic Studies Reader (Fordham University Press, 2011), edited by Jim Fisher and Margaret McGuinness. The book is the inaugural volume in the new Catholic Practice in America Series at Fordham University Press.

Her poems, "Circling the Inferno" and "Letters to My Heart" were published in the spring issue of Saint Katherine Review, a new literary journal published by Saint Katherine's College; and "Our Mother at the Nursing Home," was published in the spring 2011 issue of Christianity and Literature.

O'Donnell has also recently published poetry in Windhover: A Journal of Faith & Art; The Journal of the Motherhood Initiative; and Tiferet magazine. The poem in the latter is part of a series of ekphrastic pieces O'Donnell has written in response to paintings by Holocaust survivor Martin Spett.

Finally, O'Donnell presented a lecture/poetry reading, "Making Saints: The Mothers, Sisters, and Daughters of the Church," for The Women's Guild of Saints John & Paul Church at the Larchmont Shore Club, on May 12.

Visit Angela Alaimo O'Donnell's website for more poetry, reviews, photos, videos, articles, and event information.

Fordham Joins with Keats-Shelley Association to Promote Romanticism

2011-05-10T14:49:00.006-04:00

Was there a literary regency?

That and other questions will be the focus of a weekend conference on Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus as a group of Fordham faculty who constitute the NYC Romanticism Group, join with the Keats-Shelley Association of America to sponsor a daylong conference of the same name on Saturday, May 14.

The free event hopes to cultivate an interest in Romantic literature beyond academia, and is hoping to attract anyone with an interest in the genre of Regency romance, and beyond.

Featured lectures include “Regency Literature? Regency Libel,” by Charles Mahoney, Ph.D., associate professor of English at the University of Connecticut; “Shelley’s Romantic Paganism," by Suzanne Barnett, a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania who is writing a dissertation on romantic paganism; and “Graphical Satire in the Regency” by Steven Jones, Ph.D., professor of English from Loyola University of Chicago.

A Round Table discussion on “1816 as Literary Year,” will open the event, which gets underway at 9:15 a.m. It was the year, among other things, that Mary Shelley wrote her novel Frankenstein.

You can register on line here or contact Sarah Zimmerman, associate professor of English, for more information.

—Janet Sassi

Business Professor Honored by IBM

2011-05-06T10:55:00.010-04:00

Wullianallur "R.P." Raghupathi, Ph.D., professor of information systems at the Fordham Graduate School of Business Administration, was awarded two grants worth $20,000 for developing curriculum in innovation skills for smarter planet from IBM.

Raghupathi and his students were invited to visit IBM Research at Yorktown Heights on Thursday, May 5 to discuss the application of "Watson-like" technologies in developing a smarter planet.

The award was one of 50 given to faculty worldwide who are working to develop teaching materials that demonstrate the collaboration between technical, business, and industry disciplines to address the problems in our cities, health care, and transportation systems.

For more on this award, check out the video on IBM's YouTube page.

—Patrick Verel

Father McShane's Bucket List for Graduates

2011-05-06T09:37:00.002-04:00

At the beginning of the academic year, Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, addressed the class of 2011, sharing with them a few ideas for making the most of their last year as Fordham undergraduates. Here are his suggestions.

1. Thank your parents—before graduation day.

2. Take your best friend to dinner and pick up the tab.

3. Take in a game at Yankee Stadium.

4. Eat in an ethnic restaurant that serves food you've never eaten.

5. Take a ride on the Staten Island Ferry.

6. Walk on the promende on Roosevelt Island or the Esplanade at the Battery—after sundown—with the love of your life.

7. Take a walk through the financial district and through Times Square before 11 on a Sunday morning so you get a sense of the place.

8. Volunteer to help.

9. Go to a Fordham basketball game and make the rafters shake with your cheers.

10. Prepare for the future by doing the following:

a. Make a retreat.
b. Develop a habit of giving to others.
c. Prepare for the job interview.
d. See the Atlantic and visit the Hudson Valley so that your heart knows what wonder is all about.
e. Pray at Ground Zero, at St. Patrick's Cathedral and at the Jesuit cemetery on the Rose Hill campus so that you know what real prayer is.
f. Thank your favorite teacher for all he or she has done for you.

Gratitude is a large part of this, and one of the most Ignatian of all things. To become a virtuoso at gratitude, develop a habit of reflection: experience, reflection, gratitude, praise should be the rhythm of your life. As the Country Priest observed: All is grace. Grace is everywhere. Do it. Live in it.

Chop Kicks!

2011-05-05T13:30:00.006-04:00

On Thursday, April 28 the University welcomed 78 children of Fordham families for its annual Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work day, sponsored by the Fordham University Association.

Each of the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses hosted an all-day curriculum for children aged 8 through 17. At Lincoln Center, students Skye Azhar, top, grandson of Margaret Cluskey (Department of English), followed by Ariana Pertuz, daughter of Sofia Pertuz (Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs) got a lesson in Tae-Kwon Do from Rose Hill senior and blackbelt Gurpreet Parmar.

Other events included a discussion on Eco-Tourism by Robin Andersen, Ph.D., professor of communication and media studies, workshops in dance and landscaping, and a Darkroom Demo by artist-in-residence Joseph Lawton.

—Janet Sassi

Marketing Professor Earns Two Faculty Excellence Awards From GBA Students

2011-05-05T12:33:00.006-04:00

Assistant Professor of Marketing Sertan Kabadayi, Ph.D., has been elected to receive two faculty awards by Fordham graduate business students.

One of the prizes, the Gladys and Henry Crown Award for Faculty Excellence, is given to a full-time faculty member in the Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) whose exceptional performance and devotion to the school’s ideals and goals warrant extraordinary recognition.

The other, the Stanley Fuchs Faculty Award, is presented to a full-time faculty member who has made an impact on students through his or her dedication and commitment to the student body.

“Professor Kabadayi is an exceptional contributor to the School and the University, and we are proud that GBA students have chosen to recognize him with this double honor,” said David A. Gautschi, Ph.D., dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration. “His diverse background in international industry, as well as his research interests, enable him to bring a global perspective to the classroom that can help our graduates compete in a today’s business environment.”

“If anyone deserves both, particularly at the same time, it’s Professor Kabadayi,” said Dawn Lerman, Ph.D., associate professor and area chair of marketing. “He is highly engaged with students in and beyond the classroom, and he demands a lot from them.

“This year, for students in his GBA classes, he purposely raised the bar—which was already quite high—to ensure that they worked hard and got the most out of class,” Lerman said.

Indeed, Kabadayi admits to challenging his students with an interactive teaching style that embodies a holistic approach of care for the whole person—a style that imparts lifelong learning skills to students.

“It is gratifying to me that students recognize the effort that I put into my teaching. They respond by putting effort into their learning,” he said. “I know that I am a demanding and challenging teacher who cares deeply about his students. My goal is to create active learners—not passive students.”

In addition to fulfilling his teaching load with distinction, Kabadayi has also accomplished significant research, with three published papers appearing this year.

“The Role of Wireless Service Provider (WSP) Trust on Consumer Acceptance of SMS Advertising,” written with Luke Kachersky, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing, will appear in the International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising. “Choosing the Right Multiple Channel System to Minimize Transaction Costs” will appear in Industrial Marketing Management. Another paper, “Made In China But Sold At FAO Schwarz,” written with Lerman, was published in the International Marketing Review.

Kabadayi also authored an opinion piece in the Feb. 11 issue of Business Insider on the challenges AT&T faces after losing its iPhone monopoly.

He serves as faculty advisor to the Fordham GBA Student Marketing Society and is the academic director of both the Global Professional MBA Program and the recently announced Three-Continent Master of Global Management program.

Kabadayi joined the Fordham business faculty in 2005 after receiving his doctorate from Baruch College of the City University of New York. He will receive his awards on May 15 at the GBA Dean’s List and Awards Ceremony.

Alumnus Helps Track Osama bin Laden

2011-05-04T14:15:00.007-04:00

On Sunday afternoon, May 1, John Brennan, FCRH ’77, waited anxiously with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other national security advisers in the White House situation room, while American commandoes stormed a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the likely hideout of Osama bin Laden.

“The minutes,” Brennan later said, “passed like days.”

As President Obama’s deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, Brennan was part of the government-wide intelligence team that helped track down the leader of Al Qaeda and the man responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The following morning, as news of bin Laden’s death continued to spread around the world, Brennan appeared on several television programs. He later answered questions at the White House’s news briefing about the raid, its planning and the U.S. government’s years-long search for bin Laden, as well as the administration’s decision to kill, rather than capture, the world’s most wanted terrorist.

“If we had the opportunity to take bin Laden alive,” he said, “if he didn’t present any threat, the individuals involved were able and prepared to do that.”

Before joining the Obama administration, Brennan served in the Central Intelligence Agency for 25 years, including four as Middle East station chief in Saudi Arabia. In 2004, he was named director of the federal government’s National Counterterrorism Center, established that year to coordinate intelligence from the myriad agencies collecting data around the world. Later, he served as an adviser to Obama’s presidential campaign.

As a student at Rose Hill, Brennan traveled to Indonesia in between his freshman and sophomore years to work at the U.S. Embassy there and to research the politics of oil. During his junior year, at the suggestion of John Entelis, Ph.D., professor of political science at Fordham and director of the University’s Middle East Studies program, Brennan studied abroad his junior year at the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Last fall, FORDHAM magazine published a profile of Brennan. “Terrorism,” he said, “unfortunately, is found in the Middle East, so it’s been a driving force in my career and in my life.”

—Miles Doyle, FCRH ’01

(Photo by Peter Howard)

'Race to Nowhere' Screened at Fordham

2011-05-02T15:02:00.004-04:00

An attendee of the screening gives her thoughts on the film.

Photo by Gina Vergel

More than 130 people attended a screening of a documentary that condemns the pressure put on some students by schools and parents. Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture (2009) was shown at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus on April 27.

Fordham’s Graduate School of Education and the Student Affiliates in School Psychology (SASP) sponsored the screening of the documentary, which was produced by parent-turned-filmmaker Vicki Abeles.

Abeles said she made the film after she noticed her own three children were experiencing stress due to the pressure of a culture that has “invaded our schools and our children’s lives, creating unhealthy, disengaged, unprepared and stressed-out youth.”

“I saw the strain in my children as they navigated days filled with school, homework, tutoring and extracurricular activities. But it wasn’t until the crisis of my 12-year-old daughter being diagnosed with a stress induced illness that I was determined to do something,” Abeles said on the film’s website.

Race to Nowhere featured interviews with young people who attend public and private schools, educators who are worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, even though some of them admit they are the ones who add to the pressure.

After the screening, Zsuszanna Kiraly, Ph.D., associate professor of school psychology and director of the Hagin School Consultation and Early Childhood Centers, moderated comments from the audience.

One woman who said she was a teacher in a New York City public school said she couldn’t help but think of her students, who many times are not involved in any extra-curricular activities.

“So for them and their parents, homework is that thing they do after school. It’s a responsibility and, sometimes, a source of success for some very underprivileged students who don’t have the opportunity to participate in any activities,” she said. “This [film] seemed very far off on the other side to me.”

Another teacher who said she worked in a school where some students do participate in extracurricular activities, wondered how one could go about getting schools and parents to buy into reducing homework, which the film advocated for.

“How do we get them to take those risks? Let’s say the students don’t perform well on the test, where everything is accounted for, then we may start losing money,” she said. “It’s really a tricky position. I think [the movie] is trying to get across a great message, but it may be too idealistic.”

Kiraly said she feared society at large might be sending a double message.

“In one way, to get to the best school, you must get the best grades and so it becomes very grade oriented,” Kiraly said. “And then in terms of psychological adjustment, we’re trying to come up with non-academic ways of success. But still, society tells us you are only successful it you get into a certain kind of school.”

In the film, middle school students expressed pressure to get into the best high schools while high schoolers stressed about getting into top colleges. The film even interviewed the mother of a 13-year-old who may have committed suicide over a bad math grade.

An audience member who said she was a public school teacher in the Bronx said students are being prepared for tests very early in the school year.

“Students are losing their ability to enjoy school because school has become test prep, starting early as October,” she said. “Students are judged on one test score. So you’ll have a child upset the score and if they don’t achieve a certain level, they are either sent to summer school or retained. I think students are suffering and losing their sense of what school really should be.”

—Gina Vergel

To Save the Elephant, First Understand its Ancestors

2011-05-02T14:34:00.004-04:00

Science writer Sharon Levy admits to feeling sympathy for the “hard life” endured by a young female, Owosso, who lived some 13,000 years ago in the North American plains.

Owosso, according to Levy, lost all three of her infants before they reached a year in age. She, herself, was eventually eaten by a tribe.

What makes Levy’s compassion unique is that Owosso was a female mastodon and one of the last of the great Pleistocene megafauna, or Ice Age large animals.

On April 27, Levy told students and faculty at Fordham University that Owosso’s story, ancient though it is, still reverberates today in the lessons it offers scientists about environmental change and species’ survival.

“These big animals were just really awesome,” said Levy, author of Once and Future Giants: What Ice Age Tells us About the Fate of Earth’s Largest Animals (Oxford, 2011). “They were social animals who lived in packs. They lived at a time of drastic change in temperatures. And they all disappeared at the same time.”

Exactly what was responsible for the demise of the great herds of mastodons, mammoths, lions, saber-tooth tigers and other animals that roamed the great plains of North America is a topic of some debate, said Levy. It’s true that the Earth’s glaciers may have retreated during this period, possibly leading to the animals’ extinction through disease or loss of habitat. But, she said, there is also scientific evidence that humans began actively hunting during this time period with stone spear points. Remnants of these hunters, or Clovis people, have been found at 14 sites containing animal remains, said Levy.

“Science has long debated whether prehistoric people drove large Ice Age animals to extinction,” said Levy. “There is growing evidence that what did in the megafauna was a one-two punch. These species were already stressed by a changing climate, and then humans showed up and changed the balance.”

In 2000, Levy said a small but vocal segment of the scientific community led by geoscientist Paul S. Martin, wrote an article in Nature magazine advocating “Pleistocene rewilding.” This concept would repopulate the North American plains by bringing large animals (such as elephants) from Africa which are facing loss of habitat as stand-ins for the extinct species.

While Levy said many scientists found the idea “crazy”, she decided to research its potential by studying re-entry populations of wild mustangs in the California to Arizona regions of the Great Basin. American horses, she said, disappeared 13,000 years ago along with the other great animals, but mustangs were reintroduced by the Spanish in the 1500s.

Levy said the mustang population is a “rewilding success,” but the population is currently growing approximately 20 percent each year because there are no natural predators to keep its numbers in check.

Two better examples of rewilding, said Levy, are the Australian Dingo and the Aldabra Giant Tortoise introduced on the Island of Mauritius. The Dingo has helped preserve native Australian marsupial populations by attacking their predators; the tortoise has helped revive native vegetation by disbursing seeds in its feces.

Today, said Levy, the world’s human biomass is “far greater than the total biomass of the Ice Age megafauna, even at their most abundant moments.” By definition, said Levy, any animal 100 pounds or more is considered to be a “megafauna” species.

“If the system crashes the way we know it did 13,000 years ago, the toll will be taken on humans,” she said. “So I think we need to understand these animals because right now the megafauna are us.”

(Pictured above are Levy and Guy Robinson, right, instructor in the Department of Biology. Photo by Bob Howe.)

— Janet Sassi

English Professor Wins Fulbright Award

2011-05-02T12:52:00.005-04:00

Alvin Eng, an adjunct professor of English and Creative Writing at Fordham, has been accepted into the Fulbright Specialist program, and will be teaching at Hong Kong City University this summer.

Eng, who has been a member of the Fordham faculty since 2005, will depart for Hong Kong in June and spend seven weeks there, leading a playwriting and performance workshop titled Our Town: China/U.S.A.

Our Town creator Thornton Wilder spent part of his childhood in China while his father was serving as U.S. Consul General to Hong Kong and Shanghai in the 1910’s and Eng said one can see the influence of Wilder’s time there in Our Town, which debuted in 1938.

“I love that Our Town is the quintessential 20th Century Americana play, but it has Chinese roots,” he said.

“It was groundbreaking, because it was a real minimalist play. It did away with all the scenery, and really broke the fourth wall. A stage manager serves as a narrator, and that stage manager came directly out of what they call the property manager in Peking Opera.”

As part of the workshop, students will write and perform, short English language dramatic pieces about their own towns and experiences. Eng, who has taught courses such as “The Comic Voice” and “The 20th Century on Stage” at Fordham, will be blogging about his experiences at www.alvineng.com.

—Patrick Verel

National Poetry Month - Poem(s) of the Day

2011-04-29T10:59:00.003-04:00

As National Poetry Month draws to a close, today Fordham Notes features two final poems by members of the Fordham community.

Travel Writing (by Lytton Smith)

Or I have not been here before.
This movie theatre. This movie theater.
A revolution leads to sunset, the salmon

emboss of clouds against an evening.
The glass face of a corporate structure
edged beautifully with the reflection

of corporate structures. Here you are
not lost for things to do. The walk
to the famous monument takes you

past the inaccessible street musicians.
The city on the edge of sunset yet.
The walk you musician with footstep

ventures (it was folly to go barefoot
but you did) and inner compass.
There are side alleys but it is sunset

there too. The way a place is delimited
by colours you are too. Eagerly so: scents
along the avenue, imported skylines.

The lost gather at airports, silent
as geography. Observing their waiting
we expect flight you I this theatre.

(Lytton Smith is an Instructor in the Department of English.)

A Long Night (16) (By John Reed)

A long night, my love, my sweet sick sunrise,

my drunken dawn, my pearly, priceless doom.

Who but you? Waiting in my blinking eyes,

churning in exhaustion—my reckless fume.

Dirty feet, white thighs and somebody's bride;

divorcee, chapped lips and laughter to lie for.

We had no shame but we both had our pride.

Never were you mine, never was I yours.

Never came the nevermore, the sorrow

for the lost cold war, the bickered, battered

bedroom sores, mascara charred and marrow

bored. I hate how they knew we would shatter.

And whoever invented the promise

had no love, made no concession, for us.

(John Reed is an adjunct professor in the Department of English.)