Kevin Rooney Jr., GSB '07, to Fight, Flack

Boxer Kevin Rooney Jr., GSB ’07, will step into the ring for the first time as a professional on April 22 at the Mohegan Sun resort in Uncasville, Conn.

The son of Mike Tyson's former trainer, Kevin Rooney Sr., Rooney posted a 9-2 record as an amateur. Last year, he reached the quarterfinals of the New York Golden Gloves before deciding to turn pro. He is expected to fight at 154 pounds, about 10 pounds less than his amateur fighting weight.

When not in the ring, Rooney is director of media relations for Joe DeGuardia's Star Boxing. DeGuardia—a former boxer turned promoter who also served as a Bronx assistant district attorney—is a 1986 alumnus of Fordham College at Rose Hill. He established Star Boxing in 1992.

Fittingly, Star Boxing is promoting the April 22 card, and Rooney will work the media after he’s through working his opponent.

"I'll go in the back to the dressing room after my fight to change," Rooney recently told ESPN. "I'll put my suit back on and be back working as the publicist for the show."

—Miles Doyle, FCRH ’01

Voices Up: Songs for James Joyce & Hart Crane

The Voices Up premiere of Songs for Joyce by Samuel Barber and Victoria Bond, and Songs for Crane by Elliott Carter, Lawrence Kramer and Alexander Nohai-Seaman.

Friday, March 11, 2011 | 7:30 p.m.
Lowenstein Center | 12th-Floor Lounge
Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus
Free and Open to the Public

Joyce, Crane, and Fordham University Press
This event is held in collaboration with Fordham's Poet's Out Loud program and will (as all Voices Up events do) feature live readings of the texts set to music. This year's event commemorates the publication, by Fordham University Press, of the first critical edition of Hart Crane's epic of America, The Bridge, edited by Lawrence Kramer, professor of English at Fordham, and the 2011 edition of Joyce Studies Annual, edited by Moshe Gold and Philip Sicker. Books will be available at the concert.

Vote for Cassandra, Vote for Fordham

Fordham College at Rose Hill junior Cassandra Lombardi, a communications and media studies major, has been selected as a finalist in the national University Language Service Photo Contest for her artistic perspective of Rome’s famous Via Del Corso as it stretches, endlessly, to the horizon.

Lombardi took the photo while she was a study abroad student in Rome during the Fall 2010 semester. If Lombardi’s photo is voted as one of the top two, she has a shot at a $500 college scholarship.

Lombardi is up against some stiff competition from five other student photographers. If you would like to support Lombardi, you can vote for her in the contest at the ULS website. It only takes a few seconds to support a member of the Fordham community by clicking here (or at the url below), checking the circle next to Lombardi’s name, and then submitting your choice on the Vote icon.

www.universitylanguage.com/finalists

Winners of the scholarship contest will be announced on or around April 25, 2011.

—Janet Sassi

Fordham Students Take Home Design Award

Shane Moan and Andrew Koudlai may call different Fordham campuses home, but when it came to a recent design competition, they won as fellow Rams.

Moan, a sophomore theatre design major at Fordham College at Lincoln Center, and Koudlai, a senior pre-architecture major at Fordham College at Rose Hill, took home honorable mentions on Tuesday, March 2 in “Revealing Shadows,” a contest sponsored by the New York City section of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.

They were chosen along with four other prize-winners from a field of 135 entries from schools such as Parsons The New School for Design, Pratt Institute, New York University’s Tisch School of Arts and New York School of Interior Design.

Their light studies and those from other Fordham students who entered will be on display starting Thursday, March 10 at the Push Pin Gallery, on the ground floor of the Lowenstein Center, at the Lincoln Center campus.

"The Heart of a Confident Man" by Shane Moan

"Perspective Counts" by Andrew Koudlai

—Patrick Verel

Big Trucks at Lincoln Center

A short clip of the construction work at the Lincoln Center campus. This clip, shot on Tuesday, March 8, 2011, shows a bucket loader filling a dump truck with rocks and earth from the excavation to be carted away.

In the early part of the clip you can see a worker on the right side of the screen cutting rebar with a torch. Notice as the truck rocks on its springs when the bucket loader is tamping down the dirt in the truck bed. Though it's difficult to see on the video, the truck driver is grinning hugely—an e-ticket ride at the Lincoln Center campus.

Video by Jon Roemer.

From the Hollywood Hills to Rose Hill

The basketball team’s 77-73 win over UMass on Saturday had fans seeing stars.

Well, one star in particular.



Sitting courtside at the Rose Hill Gym was indie filmmaker Edward Burns, whose hits include The Brothers McMullen, Sidewalks of New York and Nice Guy Johnny.

Burns, a friend of Head Coach Tom Pecora, brought his son to watch the team in action. The Rams rewarded him by posting their first Atlantic 10 victory in more than two seasons.

He tweeted after the game, “Courtside in the Bronx. Big win for Coach Pec,” and posted a photo he took from his seat.

Burns recently announced that he will star in a new HBO series called 40, which focuses on four friends in their forties whose lives are at varying levels of success.

—Joe McLaughlin

Congratulations to Fordham's Longtime Employees

Yesterday's Fordham University Convocation recognized the service of 20 and 40-year employees at the university. Below is a complete list of those honored:

Archbishop Hughes Medal | (40-Year Award)

Melba F. Chamberlain | Associate Director for the Masters of Law Program | School of Law
Estelle Fabian | Assistant Dean of the Masters of Law Program | School of Law
Joan Mastrangelo | Director of University Collections
Michael Wares | Assistant Director for Technical Services | University Libraries

Archbishop Hughes Medal | (20-Year Award)

Robert Allen | Deputy Director | Quinn Library
Garrett Barker | Assistant Director of Custodial Services at Rose Hill
Biswa P. Bhowmick | Assistant Dean/Associate Director Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP)
Michele C. Burris | Associate Vice President | Student Affairs
Margaret “Peggy” Cuskley | Administrative Assistant | Department of English
Gene Fein | Director of Academic Services | Enrollment Group
Kenneth J. Lau | Program Director for the Children and Families Institute for Research, Support and Training (Children FIRST) | Graduate School of Social Service
Edward Peter Mix | Science Reference Librarian
Cornelius “Corny” O’Connell | WFUV Radio Host
Joseph Scaltro | Senior Project Manager | Office of Facilities Management
Maria G. Terzulli | Administrator | The Francis and Ann Curran Center for
American Catholic Studies

The Bene Merenti Medal | (40-Year Award)

Susan Fahrenholtz | Adjunct Professor | Department of Natural Sciences
Fordham College at Lincoln Center
Rowland Hughes | Professor of Education
Mary Bradley McElligott | Lecturer | Department of English
Robert J. Penella | Professor of Classics and Chair | Department of Classics

The Bene Merenti Medal | (20-Year Award)

Christopher R. Blake | Joseph Keating, S.J., Distinguished Professor of Business
Fordham Schools of Business
Janet DiLorenzo | Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing | Fordham Schools of Business
Kevin T. Jackson | Professor of Law and Ethics | Fordham Schools of Business
Deborah W. Denno | Arthur A. McGivney Professor of Law
Marlene Cooper | Associate Professor | Graduate School of Social Service
Thomas S. DeLuca Jr. | Professor of Political Science | Director of International Studies Program
Kenneth E. Dupuy | Adjunct Instructor of Philosophy | Fordham College of Liberal Studies
Susan Celia Greenfield | Associate Professor of English
Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J. | Distinguished Professor of Theology
Judith Jones | Associate Professor of Philosophy
Héctor Lindo-Fuentes | Professor of History
Edward John Van Buren | Professor of Philosophy | Director of Environmental Policy

Sursum Corda Award

Georgina Calia Arendacs | Director of Equity and Equal Opportunity
Steven Madigan | Electrician

Congratulations to the employees and their families.

Van Hughes, FCLC '05, Stars in "American Idiot"

Van Hughes, a 2005 alumnus of Fordham University’s Theatre Program, has landed the role of Johnny in the Broadway production of American Idiot, the theatrical adaptation of Green Day’s rock opera of the same name.

“I’d been waiting in the wings, as they say, for about a year,” said Hughes, who had been an understudy for the musical's three lead characters—Johnny, Tunny and Will—and whose Broadway credits include 9 to 5: The Musical and Hairspray. “It really taught me a lot about rolling with the punches, and never knowing what you’re going to get."

In the show, Johnny is a disaffected youth, fed up with the trappings of modern suburbia. He moves to the city and quickly loses himself in sex, drugs and rock and roll, while his friend, Tunny, enlists in the military. A second friend, Will, languishes in the trio’s hometown, Jingletown, USA, raising a child with his girlfriend, Heather.

“It's about people searching for meaning, like all shows,” he said. “It’s about these kids trying to figure out the next steps forward in a post-9/11 world.”

After studying musical theater at the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, Va., Hughes wanted to explore the craft of acting in full—which is how he ended up at Fordham.

"One of the main things I learned at Fordham,” he said, “was the importance of physical actions. You have to use your body to tell a story. Someone in the back row needs to understand the story by the way your body is positioned. I have to show [my character] is working something out while singing lyrics that aren’t necessarily expressing that.

“I combine what I learned at both schools for what I do every night on stage.”

In addition to his Broadway credits, Hughes has appeared in the films Sex And The City: The Movie, Sex and the City 2, Tenure and Rachel Getting Married.

His first official performance as Johnny was Tuesday, March 1, at the St. James Theatre.

For tickets or more information, click here.

—Miles Doyle, FCRH ’01

Vote for Fordham’s Funded Research Scholar Award

Do you know someone at Fordham who’s doing amazing research in the humanities, sciences or social sciences and professions? If so, the Office of Research wants to hear from you.

The first ever “Funded-Research Scholars” award will be presented at a ceremony on March 29, at “Growing Research at Fordham Day & Night” a series of panels, displays, presentations and receptions that will be held in McNally Amphitheatre and the Law School Atrium at Lincoln Center.

Participants will see a snapshot of research being conducted by colleagues and collaborators, student research assistants, administrators and support staff.

To see the list of eligible faculty and submit a nomination(s) in any or all of three areas that will be awarded, visit

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FundedResearchScholars2011

Voting closes at noon on Friday, March 4. For more information, visit the event website.

—Patrick Verel

The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything

Meet James Martin, S.J.
Wednesday, 2 March | 7 p.m.
Campbell Hall Commons, Rose Hill Campus
Free and Open to the Public

James Martin, S.J., graduated from the Wharton School of Business. He worked for General Electric. He's the culture editor of America magazine and the New York Times bestselling-author of numerous books, including The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything. He is also the author of My Life with the Saints (Publishers Weekly named it one of the Best Books of 2006). Father Martin is a frequent commentator on faith and values in a variety of media, including The New York Times; NPR’s Fresh Air; The Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS; The Colbert Report; and The Wall Street Journal.

See Father Martin in Action

Father Martin Part I



Father Martin Part II



Father Martin Part III