WFUV Stars and DJs Tell Stories Behind The First Record They Bought

Back in the days of vinyl, buying your first record, whether it was a single or an album, was a rite of passage. (Do folks today feel the same way about their first MP3 download?)

Here are the recollections of some of our favorite artists – like Rickie Lee Jones, James Maddock, and Jeff Tweedy – and WFUV hosts about the first piece of music they owned. (Note how many mention Elvis and The Beatles!)

Have you told us yours? If so, you might hear it next week as we feature the stories behind The First Music I Bought from artists, hosts, and listeners during our winter membership drive. In the meantime, visit us online to support WFUV and share your story. Starting January 24, you'll be entered to win a brand new turntable and a stack of vinyl!

And if you can help us answer phones during the drive, please sign up here. We can promise you some food, a few laughs, and lots of camaraderie.

Fordham Seeking Volunteers for 2011 HOPE Count

Are you interested in giving up one night of your time to help the homeless?

Fordham University’s Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice is recruiting students, staff and faculty to participate in the annual Homeless Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) count, to be held at the Rose Hill campus on Monday, Jan. 31.

The annual event attracts some 3000 volunteers citywide, who spend one night a year combing streets, subways, parks and public spaces to count the numbers of New Yorkers who live unsheltered in the city.

For the past six years, Fordham has been designated one of the volunteer training center sites for Bronx neighborhoods by the city’s Department of Homeless Services. Last year some 120 volunteers were trained at the Fordham site to participate in the count, which takes place in surrounding Bronx neighborhoods from midnight to 4 a.m. Groups travel on foot and are accompanied by New York City police patrolmen.

Information gathered on the 2011 HOPE count will be used to determine federal and state money to be allocated to New York and, more specifically, to each borough.

For more information or to volunteer, contact Caitlin Becker associate coordinator of Community Service at the Day Center or register on line.

--Janet Sassi

Fordham Employees Enjoy Winter Wonderland Lunch

Fordham staff and faculty came together for the annual Winter Wonderland luncheon organized by the Fordham University Association (FUA) on Jan. 14 at the Rose Hill campus. Nearly 100 staff members shared holiday stories and lunch while preparing for the return of the student population.

Patrick Ryan, S.J., the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society, opened the afternoon with a prayer of thanksgiving.

Francoisline Joy Freeman, the chair of the Winter Wonderland Luncheon and senior assistant director of Student Financial Services, and Grant Grastorf, the academic operational administrator at Fordham Westchester, handed out prizes at the post-luncheon raffle, which included tickets to the New York Philharmonic and Fordham sporting events, a lovely afghan and a basket of wine. One lucky employee won $250 in the 50/50 raffle.

Sodexho, the university’s food service provider, helped to offset the cost of the meal and ice cream dessert. John Burns, Sodexho’s catering manager, was presented with a certificate of thanks.

Also honored was Aida Napolitano, a longtime senior secretary for the Chemistry Department who retired this past December. Napolitano was actively involved with the Fordham University Association for many years before she retired.

Sister Regina DeVitto, C.N.D., coordinator of faith formation and sacraments at Campus Ministry, provided the musical entertainment. She played the guitar and sang classics such as “Do Re Mi.”

The Fordham University Association is comprised of members of the faculty, administrative, clerical and maintenance staff of the University. The Office of the President sponsors the group. FUA’s goal is to sponsor events and activities that bring the Fordham community together for fun and fellowship.

-Gina Vergel

Poets Out Loud kicks off spring semester with readings by Gregerson, Phillips

Poets Linda Gregerson and Rowan Ricardo Phillips read from their work on Jan. 24 at Fordham University’s Lowenstein Center, 12th-Floor Lounge, 113 W. 60th St., in Manhattan, as part of the Poets Out Loud series.

Video clips of the readings appear below.

A 2007 National Book Award finalist and a recent Guggenheim Fellow, Gregerson (top photo) is the Caroline Walker Bynum Distinguished University Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, where she teaches creative writing and Renaissance literature.

Of her poems, The New Yorker has written, “Gregerson’s rich aesthetic allows her best poems to resonate metaphysically.” Her poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry as well as in the Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Yale Review, TriQuarterly and other publications.

Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a poet, scholar and translator and associate professor of English at Stony Brook University. His poems have appeared in Granta, The Kenyon Review, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Harvard Review, The Iowa Review and Callalo, among other venues. He is the author of When Blackness Rhymes with Blackness (Dalkey Archive, 2010) and a forthcoming collection of poems entitled The Ground.

-Gina Vergel

Psychology Researcher Gets APA Recognition

Fordham's Monica Rivera Mindt, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, has been selected as the American Psychological Association’s Division 40 Early Career Award recipient for 2011.

The award is given annually to one APA member psychologist that is no more than ten years post doctoral degree, who has made a distinguished contribution to neuropsychology in research, scholarship, and clinical work.

Rivera Mindt is co-investigator of a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to gauge the cognitive functions in HIV-positive Latinos in New York who are on anti-retroviral therapies. The $1 million study will help identify cognitive and sociocultural barriers that may interfere with the ability of the cohort to adhere to their medication regimens.

As an award recipient, Rivera Mindt has been invited to present her research at the 119th Annual APA convention, to be held in Washington D.C. on Aug. 4 to 7.

Rivera Mindt teaches in the graduate program in clinical psychology and at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She has been a member of the Fordham faculty since 2002.

This is Rivera Mindt’s second national award; last October she received the 2010 Early Career Service Award from the National Academy of Neuropsychology. That award was given to her for her professional service, her service to the community, and her outstanding teaching/mentoring of her students.

—Janet Sassi

Fordham University Press joins Oxford UP ebook Distribution Platform

Fordham University Press has joined a groundbreaking new online platform developed by Oxford University Press.

University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO) is a fully enabled XML environment for university press monograph content that features cutting edge search and discovery functionality.

“The expansion of Oxford Scholarship Online to include the research and scholarship of other university presses, creating a single platform searchable across many high-quality programs, represents a step forward in ensuring that academic content is increasingly accessible—and conveniently so,” said Tim Barton, Managing Director of Global Academic Business for Oxford University Press.

Responding to increased demand for online scholarly content, UPSO streamlines the research process by making disparately published monographs easily accessible, highly discoverable and fully cross-searchable via one online platform. Research that previously would have required users to jump between a variety of books, and disconnected websites can now be concentrated through a single search engine.

For more information, visit Fordham ImPRESSions, the Fordham University Press blog.

—Gina Vergel

Rose Hill in the Snow

Fordham University was closed on Wednesday, Jan. 12, because of predictions for heavy snow. That didn't stop intrepid correspondent Nicholas D. Lombardi, S.J., from capturing these images of Rose Hill beneath a white mantle. The University will reopen Thursday, Jan. 13.

(Click on Images to Enlarge)

Fordham Senior to Receive Ethics Award at White House

Joseph Vignone, a Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior, is going to the White House to meet President Barack Obama.

The Fordham theology and history double major won the nationally renowned 2010 Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics last summer. He is slated to receive the award at an upcoming ceremony, date pending, with the President and the handful of other student runners-up and honorable mentions.

Also present at the awards ceremony will be 82-year-old Elie Wiesel, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor, whose Foundation for Humanity created the prize in 1989.

The prize is given to a college junior or senior annually for an essay that articulates an ethical issue, often of a religious or political nature. Vignone, who is also earning a minor in Middle Eastern Studies, won for his essay examining the choices of good vs. evil, as illustrated through the story of Iblis, an angelic figure in Islamic theology.

The Staten Island native was mentored by his advisor Aristotle Papanikolaou, Ph.D., associate professor of theology and associate chair for undergraduate studies and co-founding director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Program, and by Kathryn Kueny, Ph.D., clinical associate professor of theology.

While Vignone is in Washington, he will also meet fellow Fordhamite John O. Brennan (FCRH ‘77), chief counterterrorism advisor to President Obama.

Brennan, who spent 25 years in the CIA before receiving his White House appointment, meets with the President for a daily intelligence briefing.

—Janet Sassi

Forum to Discuss Online Threats

The hazards that threaten private citizens online also present challenges for government agencies, corporations and academic institutions. On Wednesday, a panel of experts will discuss the strategies and technology they’ve employed behind the scenes over the years to protect data.

What: Dangers Lurking on the Cyber Highway: Threats in Academia, Business and Crime

When: Wednesday, Jan. 5 at 6:30 p.m.

Where: The Princeton Club of New York, 15 West 43rd St.

Who:
Anthony Ferrante, (FCRH ’01, GSAS ’04) Special Agent, Cyber Division, FBI, New York

Frank Hsu, Ph.D., Calvius Distinguished Professor of Science, Fordham University

John Pignataro, director of SIRT Investigations, CITI Group

Cost: $10 (Includes one drink)

Reservations: (212) 596-1255 or humanresources@princetonclub.com

—Patrick Verel

Fordham Senior To Present Research at Biophysical Society

Congratulations to Stacey Barnaby, a Fordham University at Rose Hill senior and chemistry major, who has received The Biophysical Society student travel award to attend the Biophysical Society's 55th Annual Meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland, March 5 through 9.

Barnaby is one of 48 students worldwide to receive the award, which is based on scientific merit, with priority given to those who will present a paper at the conference. Her paper, "Ellagic Acid Nanotubular and Poly-Cationic Conjugates as Nano-Carriers for Delivery into Mammalian Cells," will be presented in poster format at the convention.

Barnaby has been doing research in the laboratory of Ipsita Banerjee, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry and her mentor, for more than a year. She and the other winners will also be recognized at a reception on Saturday, March 5.

—Janet Sassi