In the Media: Fordham's Alexander van Tulleken stresses humanity in U.S. ebola case

The IIHA's Alexander van Tulleken M.D.

Whether through its International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance for those already in the field, or its undergraduate or master’s degree program for those who hope to work in the field, the goal of Fordham’s Institute for International Humanitarian Affairs is a serious one.

The institute aims to “educate a humanitarian workforce that will break the pattern of familiar mistakes,” such as paternalism, marginalization, or a top-down manner of doing things that hinders rather than helps.

In 2010, IIHA’s founding director, Kevin Cahill, M.D., a tropical disease expert and veteran of humanitarian missions in 60 countries, told FORDHAM magazine that establishing professional standards is crucial because without sufficient training, relief workers might unintentionally prolong a conflict or inflame local tensions. Rushing in with nothing more than compassion and good intentions, humanitarian workers will almost certainly repeat the same destabilizing mistakes as their predecessors, Cahill said.

In recent days, the public has seen the IIHA’s pedagogy in practice through Alexander van Tulleken, M.D., IIHA's Helen Hamlyn Senior Fellow. who has been a mainstay in the media during the current Ebola epidemic. Van Tulleken has done countless interviews since the news about the ebola epidemic caught fire in the Western media, and more so when the first case of Ebola was diagnosed in the United States on Sept. 30. 

On Oct. 3, when CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield asked van Tulleken about the four people close to the Texas man diagnosed with Ebola, who are now being forcibly quarantined in a Dallas apartment, he espoused the Jesuit value of homines pro aliis (men and women for others):

“You get a sense of the lack of humanity at the way they’re treating this family. You feel it’s not a nice way of dealing with it,” van Tulleken said. “You want to is make it easy for that family. They need someone bringing them food, they need someone bringing them linen. They need a task force of people making it easy for them to stay at home.

“The reason I say it’s sinister when you hear about the legal enforcement [is because] when that’s the main tool, that isn’t going to work for large numbers of people, and that’s what worries me.”

Van Tulleken also appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. (Watch here.)

Follow Fordham’s YouTube account to keep up with his media appearances. And learn more about the IIHA here.

-Gina Vergel

A Fordham Commencement Tradition

Archbishop Hughes receives his diploma.

Fordham Welcomes Jesuit Superior General to Campus

Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus,
celebrates Mass in University Church at Fordham.
Photo courtesy the Society of Jesus' New York Province

Fordham welcomed a notable member of the worldwide Jesuit community to campus recently, when Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, made a stop during an official trip to the United States.

The visit was part of a two-week tour to meet with American Jesuits and Jesuit scholastics, visit Jesuit high schools, and speak with administrators of Jesuit colleges and universities. The trip was Father Nicolás’ second visit to the United States since being elected Superior General of the order in 2008.

While in New York, Father Nicolás met with Jesuits in formation, visited retired Jesuits at the Murray-Weigel Jesuit Community, and celebrated Mass with 150 Jesuits, lay directors, and staff from the New York province.

“Father Nicolás encouraged us to go deep in our prayer, work, and study, that this is what we can offer the church and the world,” said Thomas Scirghi, S.J., associate professor of theology and rector of the Jesuit Community at Spellman Hall.

“He is concerned that many Jesuits wear too many hats, spreading themselves too thin. The danger here is it keeps you on the surface and prevents you from plunging deeply into any one type of work.”

In addition to New York, Father Nicolás traveled to Boston, St. Louis, and Chicago. He concluded his trip with the presidents, administrators, and board members of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU), an organization that represents the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States.

At the gathering, Father Nicolás broached a topic that he said has not yet been fully confronted: the future of Jesuit schools in the face of changing demographics.

“In 1973, there were about 212 million Americans; today there are about 316 million. That means that if the number of Americans per Jesuit institutions of higher learning had been kept constant, there should be 42 AJCU institutions today,” Father Nicolás said. “And since 1973, the number of U.S. Jesuits has declined from 6,616 to 2,547. This means that if the total number of U.S. Jesuits per AJCU institution had been kept constant, there should be only 11 Jesuit colleges and universities today.

“Since the supply of Jesuits is increasingly limited while the demand for more Jesuits seems to always expand, it would seem that some changes are in order.”

These changes are already happening—for instance, a number of AJCU presidents are not Jesuits, and some are not Catholic. Such changes reflect the important role that the laity plays in the Society’s mission, Father Nicolás said; but it is crucial that the 28 AJCU institutions and the Society of Jesus ensure their relationship does not become “stretched so thin that it becomes impersonal and meaningless.”

“[I have no doubt] you are capable of undertaking bold challenges and that you are ready to do whatever is necessary to serve this important ministry that serves so many individuals, so many communities, to say nothing of the Lord and his church,” he said. “You have the talents and temperament, the head and heart, to do what needs to be done.”

For the full text of Father Nicolás' remarks to the AJCU, read the transcript in America Magazine.

Father Nicolás with David S. Ciancimino, S.J., provincial of
the Society of Jesus' New York Province,
and Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham.
Photo courtesy of the Society of Jesus' New York Province

— Joanna Klimaski

Jesuit Appointed Head of Art Collections

Gregory Waldrop, S.J., was appointed executive director of University art collections in an announcement made Thursday, March 9 by Fordham Provost Stephen Freedman, Ph.D.

Father Waldrop, a member of Fordham’s Art History and Music Department since 2009, is an expert in Italian art from 1400 to 1600, and his scholarly research and writing deal primarily with the religious culture and iconography of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance in Italy, with a particular focus on 15th century Sienese painting.

He was a Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome in 2006-2008. He has taught in both the medieval and renaissance areas and will continue his association with the Art History and Music Department.

He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in the history of art from the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds an M.S. in journalism from Northwestern University and a B.A. in English, magna cum laude with distinction in the major, from Yale University.

His credentials in theology include the S.T.B., magna cum laude, from the Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana in Rome and the Th.M., with honors, from Weston Jesuit School of Theology.

In his new role, Fr. Waldrop will work collaboratively with academic units across the University to enhance Fordham’s prominence and visibility within New York City’s richly diverse artistic communities and cultural institutions. He will also oversee an estimated 1,000 works of fine art spread at the University’s three campuses.

—Patrick Verel

Opus Winners, Up Close and Personal

Last night's Opus Prize co-recipients, Beatrice Chipeta, R.S., director of the Lusubilo Orphan Care Project in Malawi, Africa, and John Halligan, S.J., founder of the Working Boys’ Center (WBC) in Quito, Ecuador, have touched so many lives that words alone cannot do their work justice. Our own Office of Marketing and Communications officer Michael Foley shot more than 40 hours of video of the two humanitarians doing what they do, day in and day out, to empower the poor in the countries where they reside.

The footage has been reduced to two eight-minute clips, which premiered last night at the Opus Awards ceremony at Rose Hill. First, Father Halligan in Quito:



And Sister Chipeta in Karonga, Malawi.



The unmistakable voice is Fordham's own William F. Baker, Ph.D., the Claudio Aquaviva Chair and Journalist in Residence and president emeritus of WNET.

—Janet Sassi

War & Peace & War

Robin Anderson spoke on a panel, "Christians in a Warmaking State: Fighting for Peace in Vietnam and Iraq," at Boston College last week 0n the 40th anniversary of the trial of the Catonsville Nine. Led by Catholic priests Daniel Berrigan, S.J., and his brother, Rev. Philip Berrigan, the Catonsville peace activists sparked movements for civil disobedience against the U.S. invasion of Vietnam and are a source of inspiration to activists seeking to end the war in Iraq.

Andersen, director of the the Peace & Justice Studies Program at Fordham, is co-editor of the Berrigan play, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine.