Fordham Observer - Issue 7

Observer the

MAY 1, 2014 VOLUME XXXIII, ISSUE 7

www.fordhamobserver.com

Photo Feature Fordham Reacts to Court Ruling

By TYLER MARTINS Editor In Chief

On Tuesday, April 22, the US Supreme Court delivered a 6 to 2 ruling that upheld a Michigan State law banning the use of affirmative action in the admissions process for public state universities.

How this ruling can affect the future of college admissions is unclear, according to Patricia Peek, director of admissions at Fordham. “The use of race in admission, as you know, has been on the enrollment landscape for quite some time and right now, it’s impacting the public colleges,” Peek said. “It’s too early to say what’s going to happen in the future, but it’s certainly something that we’re following.”

For Irma Watkins-Owen, associate professor of history and director of African-American studies at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC), the Court’s ruling was unsurprising yet still disappointing. “The direction of the court in recent years has been towards revising the major developments and changes in civil rights that so many of us had hoped that would be the turnaround points in our country,” she said.

Jackie Mosteller, a Diversity Peer Leader and FCLC ’14, echoed Watkins-Owens. “The primary impetus for creating affirmative action policies was to undo historic injustices done to minorities and the disadvantaged,” she said. “To promote bans on those policies is definitely a step backwards. We have yet to provide adequate reparations for anything that our government or our people have done.”

“This case is not about how the debate about racial preferences should be resolved,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion joined

by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito Jr. “It is about who may resolve it. see COURT RULINGpg. 2

SARAH HOWARD/THE OBSERVER

For this issue’s photo feature, Observer photographers illustrated the act of looking up at the city.

Gap in Reported Sexual Assaults at Fordham

By ADRIANA GALLINA Asst. News Editor

According to the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) in the United States Department of Education, Fordham’s sexual assault incident rate, that is incidents per student population, is approximately .00151 from 2010 to 2012.

However, according to the White House report, “Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action,” one in five women have been sexually assaulted in college.

Under the conditions of this statistic and Fordham’s 53 percent female population (out of a 15,170 total), Fordham’s incident rate should

be approximately .106 accounting for assaults involving female victims alone. On Tuesday, April 29th, Vice President Joe Biden said, “Colleges and universities can no longer turn a blind eye or pretend rape or sexual assault doesn’t occur on their campuses.”

“We are transparent with everything that gets officially reported to us. Anything that comes to someone who is classified as a campus security authority, that language comes out of the Clery Act, is obligated to report to security. That includes pretty much everyone involved in student affairs, ” Dean of Students at Lincoln Center Keith Eldredge said.

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of

Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics, also known as the Clery Act, signed in 1990, requires all college and universities that receive federal financial aid to record and disclose yearly crime information on and near their respective campuses. These statistics can be found online at the Department of Education’s website, and criminal offenses are broken down by nine categories. Two of the nine categories deal with sex offenses, forcible (any sexual act when the victim is incapable of giving consent) and non-forcible (any unlawful, non-forcible sexual intercourse).

“I think the bigger reason for the low statistics is people not feel-

ing comfortable enough to report and that’s the biggest gap we have,” Eldredge said.

Fordham Security Operations Investigator Patricia Upton echoed the sentiment that getting people to come forward to report is one of the biggest difficulties.

“I think [victims] fear the unknown. I think if they start becoming educated as to what the process is, their fear won’t be as heightened because there’s a lot of questions. I think it won’t be as overwhelming if we go through the process together,” Upton said, “but in order to get to that point, the victim has to feel comfortable to come to us.” see SEXUAL ASSAULTS pg. 2

Inside

FEATURES

SPORTS

ARTS & CULTURE

OPINIONS

I Pity The Jewel

How Did the NBA Get Here?

Mary Higgins Clark

Wikipedia

Who will win the Larry O’Brien Trophy?

Fordham Alum talks writing and mystery.

We should be able to cite Wikipedia.

PAGE 14

PAGE 7

PAGE 6

Five difficult stages of move-out packing.

Page 11

THE STUDENT VOICE OF FORDHAM COLLEGE AT LINCOLN CENTER

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News

News Editor Noha Mahmoud — nmahmoud2@fordham.edu

May 1, 2014 THE OBSERVER

Fordham Sexual Assault Statistics Inconsistent In regards to making students feel more comfortable reporting incidents of sexual assault, Eldredge said, “I always look to partner with students on those kinds of initiatives.”

“I know that the administrative program, the top-down program that I plan and I put together is not going to get the same amount of response or participation that grass roots level, that students put together, would have,” Eldredge said.

A student at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) who chose to remain anonymous decided to come forward a year after she experienced a female-to-female sexual assault on campus. “I only decided to come forward with it when I found out that she had attacked multiple people,” she said.

“I was told by ResLife that should I choose to issue a statement I would have to wait for the female security supervisor to come down from Rose Hill, which took about two weeks to schedule that appointment,” she said. “Although that was mostly just tag back and forth because of busy schedules,” she clarified.

According to Fordham policy, students have to officially report incidents with a security safety supervisor, however, the supervisor is not required to be the same gender as the alleged victim.

When reporting a sexual assault incident to a security supervisor, “if you feel more comfortable talking to a male, we’ll give you a male. If you feel more comfortable talking to a female, we’ll give you a female,” John Carroll, associate vice president of safety and security, said.

Carroll could not confirm nor respond as to where the miscommunication in policy arose. “ResLife is a big word. It could be anybody. I can’t comment on that,” Carroll said, “all I can say in response is that’s not true.” The office of Residential Life at Lincoln Center was not able to comment.

The student suggested having a female security supervisor on the Lincoln Center campus as one way to help female victims come forward. “They could station a security guard that you could report sexual assault to 24/7 on our campus. I think it’s kind of absurd they don’t have a female security supervisor for a campus that has a 70 percent female population,” she said.

Carroll disagrees with the necessity of having a female security supervisor at the Lincoln Center campus. “Everyone of these women have vehicles here [at Rose Hill] and can be at Lincoln Center as fast as some of the RD’s can be down from the 12th floor in McMahon,” he said.

“I think there’s confusion a lot of the time when a student wishes to speak about something that happened in the past. When it comes to any sexual offense, I’m normally involved at some point in the investigation, so that might be where the confusion is, but I’m certainly not the only [female security supervisor],” Upton said.

“There are 54 Safety and Security administrators at Fordham University, eight of whom are females,” Carroll said. Lincoln Center currently has no female security supervisors on campus.

“We try to give as many options and try to do things that make peo-

KARA JAGDEO/THE OBSERVER

Fordham’s sexual assault incident rate is approximately .00151.

ple feel more comfortable so part of what we will try to do is offer the same gender security person,” Eldredge explained.

“There is a lot of victim blaming that happens in the culture,

there’s a lot of individuals that blame themselves, when something happens so we want to make it as comfortable as possible to come forward,” Eldredge said.

“Sexual assaults are assaults,”

Carroll said. “An attack. A victim, male or female, can’t bring on an assault. The person, who we would call a perpetrator caused it, you can’t ever blame the victim,” he explained.

Fordham Considers Changes to Course Registration

By GUNAR OLSEN Staff Writer

In the aftermath of a complicated course registration that flooded Lowenstein’s eighth-floor hallway at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) with frustrated freshmen, Fordham administrators and Information Technology (IT) are considering changes to the registration process.

According to Gerard Cariffe, associate vice president of IT and chief technology officer, IT will introduce an automated program to prevent glitches such as the one that occurred during registration for fall 2014.

“We are in the process of developing what we call ‘scripted access’ to the system. In other words, there are going to be stand alone devices that will script the experience of someone accessing the system at all times, and it will then send an email to the on-call people when it experiences a preponderance of an outage,” Cariffe said.

Cariffe also mentioned the righthand side login on Banner specifically for class registration. “That was a means of addressing volume registration,” he said.

The Rev. Robert R. Grimes, S.J., dean of FCLC, considered logistical changes to registration. “There’s been some talk about whether this

is the best method of doing it. I have not heard any proposals for specific changes in registration,” he said.

When asked whether the 7 a.m. registration time should be moved to later in the day, Grimes said, “I have a student advisory board that I would want to talk to about that. I’d also be interested in hearing form the Commuter Students Association.”

Reflecting on the recent struggle with registration, Grimes said, “If I had known that it wasn’t operating at quarter of 7, I would have said to send out an email saying that registration is tomorrow. But by the time I had got here, registration had been going on manually for over an hour at which

point that didn’t seem like a very good option.”

“We thought that the next best thing was to get as many registration stations open as possible. I thought it was remarkable that by noontime, pretty much everyone was registered,” he said.

Associate Dean of FCLC Mark E. Mattson agreed: “I think we absolutely did the right thing that day. I think it was nothing less than a heroic effort on the part of Dean [Vincent] DeCola [assistant dean for first year students] and the class deans and Enrollment Services. I’m proud of that effort, but I don’t think we would do it exactly the same way again.”

Despite DeCola’s efforts to register commuters via telephone in proportion to the number of residents he was registering, Mattson said, “Clearly commuters were the ones disadvangtaged in this and that’s probably the main reason we wouldn’t do it the same again.”

After skipping a class and waiting in three different lines to register for classes, Peter Nhan, FCLC ’17, was completely registered by the afternoon. “There were some classes that I wanted that I didn’t get because other people got in before I did. They were lined up at the right place at right time.

I just lost the spots for the classes,” he said.

Fordham Reacts to Affirmative Action Ruling SUPREME COURT FROM PAGE 1

There is no authority in the Constitution of the United States or in this court’s precedents for the judiciary to set aside Michigan laws that commit this policy determination to the voters.”

“Legislation is critical in that the Supreme Court plays a central role in upholding certain kinds of policies and regulations that society is compelled to abide by,” WatkinsOwens said.

Growing up in Jackson, Mississippi during the Jim Crow era, Watkins-Owens experienced first-hand how legislation and the court system can change society. “Growing up as a kid there were some places I couldn’t go,” Watkins-Owens said. “But after the Civil Rights Act passed in 1964, the transformations were not immediate, but they were pretty fast. Within a few years you could go to parks and recreational facilities, restaurants and places like that.”

Some places were faster to change than others Watkins-Ow-

PHOTOGHER’S NAME/THE OBSERVER

The Supreme Court’s decision is not expected to affect Fordham.

ens explained, “for example, the doctor’s office, where previously the doctor had separate waiting rooms for white and black patients. After desegregation, he kept the rooms separate and took down the signs.”

People continued to gravitate to the separate rooms in the 1970, she said.

“What he should have done was take down the wall and made it just one big waiting room, instead of keeping that structure there,” she said.

“I do think these kinds of decision set us back because they don’t promote, they encourage continued discrimination. They encourage maintaining those barriers,” Watkins-Owens said.

Though the ruling would not affect Fordham, diversity is a component of the University’s admission process.

“We want to have our students meet, live with, and interact and collaborate with their peers and the faculty who have different opinions, histories, cultures, interests a global perspective is integral to a

Jesuit education,” Peek said.

Leaders in the world of higher education have expressed concern that this ruling would affect how different universities would pursue diversity. “When there are policy changes, people have to digest them and see how they make sense for each institution. Institutions vary in terms of the diversity of their pools and/or the students they have interested in their programs and campuses,” Peek said.

Mosteller is uncertain that universities will be proactive in bringing in diverse students. “Universities are businesses. If there is no demand for diversity or multiculturalism or promotion of acceptance, they aren’t going to supply those things,” she said.

Peek believes that this won’t be an issue at Fordham. “We will make sure that we pursue diversity because we value it here. I’m sure that it will be more challenging for some schools than others.”

Additional reporting Adriana Gallina.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER May 1, 2014

News

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JESSICA HANLEY/THE OBSERVER

As the Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) campus expands, its security personnel increases.

Additional Security Hired For New Building

By RAMONA VENTURANZA Arts & Cultures Editor

With the opening of the new law school and residence hall in the fall of 2014, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) will be equipped with new security employees, ID swipe machines and protocols to ensure safety for students. Director of Security, Robert Dineen discusses these new additions and changes to the security system at FCLC. OBSERVER: Where will there be

checkpoint stations of security in the new residence hall and law building?

ROBERT DINEEN: There will be

two security guard stations at the new law school and residence hall building. One guard station, which is on 150 W. 62nd Street, is located inside the main entrance to the building. The second guard station is located on the south side of the building at the second floor plaza level entrance. At the law plaza entrance, there will be one security guard covering this post.

OBSERVER: Have you hired many

new security members to ensure safety of these new facilities and the current Lowenstein building?

R.B.: We will be hiring at least fifteen security guards to ensure 24/7/365 safety of these new facilities. Additionally, we hired five new

security duty supervisors to cover the expanded LC campus.

OBSERVER: How many security members will there be at each station?

R.B.: There will be at least one at

each security guard station.

OBSERVER: Is security at Fordham thinking of returning back to the ID scanning machines?

R.B.: By the start of the fall 2014

semester, all the back end IT work needed for the new ID card readers will be in place and working.

Members of the university community will be able to swipe their ID cards to enter into all of our buildings here at FCLC. In fact, the

new building will have turnstile ID card reader access at the 62nd Street main entrance, the law plaza level entrance and at each dorm elevator access control point.

of the new residence hall. And, [students] will have a blue light emergency phone tower on 62nd Street [available for them] near the main entrance to the building.

OBSERVER: Where can students talk to security in case of emergency in the new law school and residence hall?

OBSERVER: Are there any protocols in case of emergency in the new buildings?

R.B.: Students can always call (212)

636-6076 or (212) 636-6975, which is the new law desk, any time day or night and ask to speak to a security duty supervisor. At the FCLC campus, security provides two security duty supervisors every shift. A student can also reach security by using the emergency phones located on every other floor in the stairwells

R.B.: Fordham is fully prepared to deal with any crisis through our extensive Emergency Management Plan. Our coordinated response can be found at www.fordham.edu under resources, safety and security link. Also, the new building will have a state of the art fire command system monitored by a member of the security department who is an FDNY certified Fire Safety Director.

Credits Are Less Likely To Be Accepted From Two Year Colleges

By NOHA MAHMOUD News Editor

According to a recent study done by the American Educational Research Association, students transferring from a community college to a four year university are more likely to lose credits, including Fordham, according to Joseph Desciak, assistant dean for juniors and dean for transfer students.

According to Desciak, while Fordham accepts credits based on similarities in course descriptions between the college or university from where the student is transferring and courses at Fordham, the majority of the time, credits from a two-year university will not be accepted.

“Often times, two-year college students, and again this is not always the case, two year institutions are primarily pre-professional programs for people interested in going to auto repair or some sort of service industry.

Often times two-year institutions are not liberal arts, and you would get an associate’s degree instead of a bachelors degree,” Desciak said.

Thus, transfer students from other

JESSICA HANLEY/THE OBSERVER

Transfers often lose their credits after switching from two year colleges.

four-year universities are also likely to lose course credits or have them count towards elective credits rather than for the core or the major.

“I would say on average, we take three quarters of what a student has

taken in a previous place,” Desciak said.

Desciak noted that ultimately, the decision to have a credit count towards the core curriculum or even towards a major, whether it is from

a two-year college or a four-year, is based on reviewing a number of documents including the student’s transcript, course syllabi, the undergraduate bulletin and the core checklist.

Online course credits however, are not accepted by the University at all.

“A lot of times, I’ll do a quick Google search, I look at the University page and see how the course was constructed,” Desciak said.

According to the Fordham University Transfer Guide, in addition to having similar course descriptions, for course credits to be accepted, they have to meet the following requirements which include the course to be a three credit course or higher, the grade received in the course to be a C or higher, and the course has to be approved by the academic dean in charge of transferring.

For Tom Ringheim, FCLC ’15, a transfer student from University of British Columbia in Canada, the majority of the credits he acquired at his previous university transferred over to Fordham. “For the most part, my transfer credits basically all transferred. The only thing I lost out on was my math credit because I took a

stats course in my previous university, so I have to take math again for next semester,” Ringheim said.

However, for Brigitte Ayaz, FCLC ’15, transferring from Montclair State University (MSU) meant staying in college for an extra year. “Many of my general education courses were not accepted for core credit, which included a lot of history, science and literature courses that I took at MSU. Some classes did transfer as fillers for elective credits, but I had to fulfill the Fordham core from start to finish mainly because the courses I took at MSU were not, if I had to guess, up to Fordham’s standards concerning the core,” Ayaz said.

The Transfer Guide states that transfer students can be awarded a maximum of 60 credits and that those who have over 60 credits should look into the Fordham School of Professional and Continuing Studies.

“When I took this job, my boss [Rev. Robert R. Grimes, S.J., dean of FCLC] said that we do not want to ever make it difficult for our transfer students but it is important to maintain the integrity of the Fordham degree,” Desciak said.

Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture Editor Ramona Venturanza — ramonaventuranza@gmail.com

May 1, 2014 THE OBSERVER

SARAH HOWARD/THE OBSERVER

Mary Higgins Clark (left) speaks to Professor of English Mary Bly’s Publishing Theory and Practice class on April 29. She spoke about her career, the writing industry and her new book

Mary Higgins Clark Visits Fordham

By KAMRUN NESA, RACHEL SHMULEVICH & MEREDITH SUMMERS Managing Editor, Opinions Co-Editor and Copy Editor/Literary Co-Editor

On Tuesday, April 29, 2014, Mary Higgins Clark, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’79, spoke to students in Professor of English Mary Bly’s Publishing: Theory and Practice class. Clark led a discussion on her works as a whole as well as signing copies of her 1975 best-seller “Where Are The Children?”

Clark received her first major book deal for the novel while she was a student at Fordham and on her way to a philosophy class: she walked into class and proclaimed to her classmates: “I just got a million dollar contract!” The book later hit No. 1 while she was still a FCLC student. Since then, she has consistently made the New York Times

best-seller list and has won numerous awards, including being named the Grand Master at the 55th Annual Edgar Allan Poe Awards.

Most recently, the 86-year-old novelist released a new book on April 1, 2014, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” which reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

Clark, who has been writing since age 6, said, “I was always a writer.

I had to write.” She wrote and sold short stories after high school, while she worked for an advertising agency before going on to write four-minute radio shows.

One student asked, “What led you to write in the mystery genre?”

“I would have been writing history novels because I love them,” Clark replied. “I looked at my bookshelves, and most of my books were in the suspense field like Nancy

“ Don’t write like

an English teacher is looking over your shoulder ... Don’t hold back—you can always tear out pages. ” MARY HIGGINS CLARK

Drew, English and mystery writers and suspense writers.” She also added, “A crime story is like getting on a fast train and not getting off until the end.”

Her first historical novel “Mount Vernon Love Story” about George and Martha Washington was unsuccessful. After she worked on the

novel for three years, Clark’s agent told her, “A love story between those two! All George gave Martha was splinters,” which was received with laughter from the class.

Clark also spoke about her inspiration for her suspense novels and how she goes about writing bestsellers.

“The number one question I get asked is ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ and the answer is everywhere,” she said. She looks at newspapers, attends criminal trials and reads the gossip pages of the New York Post.

For instance, for “Where Are the Children?” she was influenced by the murder case of Alice Crimmins, an American woman who was accused of strangling her two young children but later released on parole on a technicality in 1977. Clark believes that Crimmins was guilty but

envisioned the protagonist, Nancy Eldredge, as a parallel to Crimmins.

Clark’s advice to aspiring writers is to “read the books that you like, read the one that you like best.

That may be where you belong [as a writer].”

Clark stressed that it is important to “get right to the heart of [the story] in the beginning [when you’re first writing]. Open it with something that compels readers to read the second paragraph.” She added, “Don’t write like an English teacher is looking over your shoulder,” and “Don’t hold back—you can always tear out pages.”

However, it wasn’t all business.

As a parting comment she told students, “Keep your dream, and one day, you’ll get your first paycheck— believe me, it’s lovely.”

The Comma Interrobang Nibling Envy

By MEREDITH SUMMERS Literary Co-Editor/Copy Editor Wiktionary defines the word “nibling” as the collective and gender-neutral term for nieces and nephews. I know this not only because I spend my time learning random facts in the hopes of becoming the next Ken Jennings, but also because nothing brings out my jealous side faster than someone announcing that one of their siblings is expecting.

Most 20-somethings are jealous of logical things: people with trust funds, friends with great internships that turn into job offers, and Monica’s fabulous rent-controlled apartment in

“Friends.” However, those are not the things that turn me into a green-eyed monster (that’s totally a lie, but it works for the piece so I’m going with it).

Instead, I have nibling envy. I want a baby I can spoil and take selfies with without the financial and societal responsibility of taking a formless being and turning it into a functioning member of society—and I don’t want to change diapers or clean up anyone else’s vomit (I mean, that’s so freshman year).

Unfortunately, my only sibling is 16 years old and has no de-

sire to have a baby before her junior year of high school. It will probably be 10-20 years before I have a nibling to call my own (if I ever have one). So just know that while I am liking that Instagram picture of you and your nephew or when I’m favoriting your tweet about how your sister-in-law is pregnant, I am actually cursing you under my breath and waiting in great aunt-ticipation for when my day finally arrives.

See how fun The Comma is? observercomma@gmail.com

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Arts & Culture

May 1, 2014 THE OBSERVER

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TAYLER BENNETT/THE OBSERVER

A view of the inside of the Colosseum in Rome as well as Saint Peter’s Basilica, two historical sites that the students will visit during the program.

When in Rome: FCLC’s Summer Programs

By JOHN GUERIN Asst. Arts&Culture Editor

This summer, three classes of Fordham students are studying abroad in Rome. After a brief hiatus, the classes will be held for the sixth year. Students of all Fordham campuses, grade levels and Italian mastery are taking advantage of this summer experience in a cultural city.

Performing Italian Students proficient in both theater and the Italian language are traveling to Italy for Performing Italian. The class will concentrate on the production of Dario Fo’s play “Non tutti i Ladri Vengono Per Nuocere” (“Not All Thieves Come to Harm You”), which was performed just last fall at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC). But, this production will be performed in Italian, with the help of Professor Joseph Perricone, head of the Italian Language Department and resident director for the study abroad programs in Rome. Sherri Eldin, an MFA student from Brown University and FCLC alum, is directing

the performance.

“Because this class is a full immersion into the language, students who take this course walk away with a greater mastery of the language, more vocabulary, more everyday expressions, and the ability to fully function in Rome. They get a broader and more complete of the picture of the mosaic of the city,” Perricone said.

The class combines advanced understanding of Italian language and grammar with theatrical training, normally taken by actors in the Theatre Program and non-actors looking for an exciting opportunity.

Performing Italian has been a popular course for students to complete the exit-level foreign language core requirement.

“I’m going because I want to immerse myself in the Italian language and culture, and putting on a theater production all in Italian will be very cool,” Billy Pickett, FCLC ’17, said. “It is a challenging experience, but in the end it is completely rewarding to see students be able to master the language and enjoy performing” Perricone said.

Documentary Photography in Italy A small group of students will have the unique opportunity to devote an entire summer to photographing Rome. “Documentary Photography in Italy”, taught by Artist-in-Residence Stephan Apicella-Hitchcock and Associate Professor Joseph Lawton, focuses on combining mastery of digital photography skills with unique insight into Italian lifestyle, culture and people.

“In Rome, life takes place in public. The urban planning of Rome and nature of Italian life revolves around communal gathering. People walk, eat out late and are constantly outdoors. The culture allows for a great environment for documentary photographs,” Hitchcock said.

The class helps students attach their own voices to a place that has already been photographed prolifically. Through long walks around Rome, studying famous photographers, watching Italian cinema, critiquing student work and on-site experimenting, students develop an ability to produce photographs

from a personal perspective. A quick glance through the published photography books, with the photos taken by students from previous trips shows how students have created an individual eye for frequently taken scenes and locations.

Hitchcock added that the syllabus is constructed in a way that allows for students to have extended weekends. Many students take advantage of these small breaks and travel to other cities in Italy, further exploring the opportunity for documentary photographing.

“This is a course for people who are interested in people, and there is no better place to photograph life in the streets than Rome,” Lawton said, adding, “The class does require a tolerance for walking and frequent cups of espresso.”

Art and Architecture of Rome “Rome is the ultimate classroom. There is no better place to learn about art history,” Jo Anna Isaak said, professor of the course and John L Marion chair in art history. “There is really no way to separate art history and architecture in Rome.” Isaak has taught this course

many times before.

The course will explore famous Roman landmarks, paintings, sculptures, museums, and galleries.

The Roman Forum, Circus Maximus, The Coliseum, San Clemente, and St. Peter’s Basilica are a few attractions the course will cover.

Students will view Rome through a historical and artistic lens while still enjoying the daily life of the historical city.

Students will learn about and view artwork from the Medieval to the Modern era by visiting a multitude of different venues and locations. Trips to the opera, theater, film festivals and neighboring Italian cities are included in the itinerary.

Emily Stone, FCLC ’16, decided to take this course after taking Intro to Art History. “I thought it would be good way to experience and learn more about what I was learning in person,” Stone said.

“This is my very first time abroad!

I’m excited to expand my worldview and gain a better perspective of the city and art I’ve been studying.

Arrivederci, studenti!

Three New Introduction to Art History Courses

By RAMONA VENTURANZA Arts&Culture Editor

Beginning fall 2014, students will have the option of picking from three Introduction to Art History courses at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) and Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH). Each of these three courses will cover three different regions of the world: Europe, the Americas and Asia.

According to Nina Rowe, chair of the art history and music department, the department chose to increase the options of introduction courses because of the expertise of the faculty in various regions of the world. “Because of our present and new faculty members, [the art history department] was in a good position to change the structure of the Introduction to Art History course,” Rowe said.

“This is the first year [the art history program] has a full-time faculty member who specializes in East Asian art. We had already a professor, Barbara Mundy, specializing in Latin American art,” Rowe said. “With the hire of the specialist

in East Asian art together with the strength of our current faculty, [the program] was able to provide these options for students.”

Barbara Mundy, associate professor of art history and music, who is teaching Introduction to Art History: the Americas, said that her course will have the same tempo as the current introductory course, but it will be more geographically specific.

“This class will cover these great American civilizations; this includes the Olmec, the Maya, the Aztec and the Inca. The second part of the class will focus on how the art in the Americas has developed in relation to European and Asian art,” Mundy said. “There [is] great art in the Americas – there is a lot of material to see.” “[Introduction to Art History: the Americas] is a globalism class, but it is really based on giving students the essential tool kit of visual analysis,” Mundy said.

The Introduction to Art History: Europe will be essentially the same, according to Jack Spalding, associate professor of art history

and music. “This course basically focuses on European art, with some American art tacked onto the end,” he said. The course will cover various periods of art in Europe, such as ancient, medieval and modern.

Rowe said that these three courses would benefit students.

These “will give students more exposure to [a] wide range of art, both globally and historically. Both Introduction to Art History: East Asia’and Introduction to Art History: the Americas will satisfy the globalism and fine arts requirement in the core,” she said.

“Students might choose these courses because they satisfy both the fine arts and the global requirement in the core. But we also hope that by taking these courses, students will become more interested in art history.”

Some students who already took the introductory course wish that these courses would have come sooner. “If I had known that these introductory courses were also split into [the Americas and Asia], I would have taken something other than European,” Yasmina Gour-

COURTESY PAUL GOYETTE VIA FLICKR

Students have the opportunity to study East Asian art in a new Introduction course.

chane, FCLC ’16, said. “The more options and views to art there are, the more we students can be interested in art.”

Opinions

Rachel Shmulevich — Opinions Co-Editor rshmulevich@fordham.edu Marina Recio — Opinions Co-Editor marinarecio@icloud.com

STAFF EDITORIAL

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Observer the

MILLENNIALS ARE THE FUTURE OF OUR MILLENNIUM? t feels as if every other day, some major publication, like the New York Times or the Washington Post, writes about millennials in a disparaging way. We’re described as too freespirited, too opinionated, too self-absorbed, just too much of everything. We get it: You think we don’t care enough about the world. But that’s where you’re wrong.

Millennials might not have the hippie movement or flower power, but we have the Internet, and that’s where we go to voice our frustrations.

In Issue 6 of our newspaper, one writer wrote in “CSA: Don’t Whine for Me” that the Commuter Student Association’s attempt to unite commuters is a “trivial thread of connection, especially in New York City.” Students were both outraged by and supportive of his article, posting responses online on both our website and on their personal Facebooks.

May 1, 2014 THE OBSERVER

One student posted on Facebook, writing, “I can now honestly say that while his skepticism towards CSA may be valid, the fact that most, if not all, commuters disagree with him shows how strong of a bond the commuters at FCLC have.”

“Not to mention professors also commute … you

Our youth doesn’t define our intelligence. It supplements it. think they sympathize because you have to take a subway?” another student commented in agreement.

These are just a few of the many and varied responses that appeared online.

We stand by our writer and his right to freely express his opinions wholeheartedly, (this one’s for you, First Amendment!), but we were pleasantly surprised with the dialogue that has followed the ar-

ticle. Sure, we might be addicted to our phones and silly games (like SnapChat and 2048), and we might always be looking for a shortcut so always aim to register for that magical course that fulfills more than one core requirement, but we are still passionate about what matters.

Some agreed with the article and can now feel more open to voice their own opinions. Others may have taken issue with it, but it sparked a conversation among students, and that’s a great thing. It shows that Fordham students aren’t just breezing through college, absorbed in themselves and technology; we’re very much alive and kicking.

Take that, Generation X! How ‘bout them apples, Baby Boomers? We’re not going to hide behind your coattails. We’re going to own those coattails. We may still be somewhat naive about some things, but our youth doesn’t define our intelligence. It supplements it.

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Editor-in-Chief Tyler Martins Managing Editor Kamrun Nesa News Editor Noha Mahmoud Asst. News Editor Adriana Gallina Opinions Co-Editors Rachel Shmulevich Marina Recio Asst. Opinions Editor Dylan Reilly Arts & Culture Editor Ramona Venturanza Asst. Arts & Culture Editor John Guerin Features Co-Editors Brigitte Ayaz Ian McKenna Literary Co-Editors Meredith Summers Mark Lee Sports Co-Editors Dylan Penza Conrad Zajkowski Copy Editor Meredith Summers Layout Editor Jenny McNary Layout Staff Gabrielle Montes Photo Editor Sarah Howard Asst. Photo Editors Kirstin Bunkley Jessica Hanley Multimedia Co-Producers Ian McKenna Paulina Tam

Keep watching here for previews of our upcoming multimedia content.

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CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE GRADUATING EDITORS EMERITI OF THE FORDHAM OBSERVER!

Tayler Bennett Managing Editor & Layout Editor Jennifer Khedaroo Sports Editor Amanda Fimbers Business Manager Emily Tudisco Literary Co-Editor

Faculty Advisor Prof. Elizabeth Stone Faculty Layout Advisor Kim Moy Faculty Photo Advisor Amelia Hennighausen Faculty Multimedia Advisor Roopa Vasudevan PUBLIC NOTICE

No part of The Observer may be reprinted or reproduced without the expressed written consent of The Observer board. The Observer is published on alternate Thursdays during the academic year.

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POLICIES AND PROCEDURES • Letters to the Editor should be typed and sent to The Observer, Fordham University, 113 West 60th Street, Room 408, New York, NY 10023, or e-mailed to fordhamobserver@gmail.com. Length should not exceed 200 words. All letters must be signed and include contact information, official titles, and year of graduation (if applicable) for verification.

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• Opinions articles and commentaries represent the view of their authors. These articles are in no way the views held by the editorial board of The Observer or Fordham University.

• The Editorial is the opinion held by a majority of The Observer’s editorial board. The Editorial does not reflect the views held by Fordham University.

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Opinions

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Gun Control Efforts Are Futile and Misguided DYLAN REILLY Asst. Opinions Editor

The right to bear arms is under fire as per usual and by none other than Michael Bloomberg, for whom gun control has been an important issue for quite some time.

The plutocrat and former mayor of New York City previously helped organize the gun control group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and the irony that the guns in question are already illegal should not be lost here. His latest initiative is called Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization he plans to spend $50 million of his own fortune on to create a National Rifle Association (NRA)- style gun control advocacy group. This comes on the heels of last year’s attempts by Bloomberg to lobby Congress for legislation promoting background checks. That campaign cost him $15 million and was unanimously opposed by Republicans as well as some Democrats. As gun control is a strongly partisan issue, I do not believe his latest endeavor will be successful, nor should it be.

As Jefferson once said, “Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.” While we don’t have mandatory military conscription in this country we do have the Second Amendment, which states that as a “well-regulated militia [is] necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The militia clause may have lost its relevancy, but according to the 2007 Small Arms Survey, the United States has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world, with 89 guns per 100

COURTESY OLIVIER DOULIERY/ABACA PRESS VIA MCT

Former Mayor of New York City Michael R. Bloomberg

persons. The majority of these guns are not used for violent or criminal purposes, but are legally owned and responsibly kept, and it is not hard to imagine why these people and their elected officials are opposed to gun control.

But that’s only half the story.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute(SIPRI), the United States also tops the world in arms exports, and seven out of ten of the largest arms industry companies

are American. Stricter gun control in the United States would be a truly unique case of “doublethink” and would also damage the domestic arms market. Gun lobbyists and their financial backers would never allow this, and here their interests align with millions of gun-owning Americans.

The question remains, how much gun control is really enough?

One of the problems facing Mayors Against Illegal Guns is, of course, that banning guns in one city does

not mean they will be banned in another. If a criminal wants to obtain a gun, they already have no intention of following the law and are free to cross city or state lines to go get one and come back, or barring that, they might try the black market. This is a strong argument for greater control at the federal level, but practically speaking finds itself mired by the intense partisan regionalism of the United States.

Areas with a lot of gun violence, like Chicago, Detroit or New York,

are highly urbanized and vote Democrat, while areas with less gun violence are also less populous and frequently vote Republican. In a country of this size, everyone has their own interests, and for many, gun control is perceived as a threat to legal gun owners more than a solution to illegal gun crime and other gun violence.

We actually do have an existing model of extreme gun control in the world, for those interested in testing their theories. Under the Labour government, Britain banned possession of all handguns (which are of course, more responsible for gun deaths than those “assault rifles” that gun control advocates are always up in arms over) in the 1990s. A decade later, the results are pretty shocking.

According to statistics compiled

by Eurostat in 2009, the United Kingdom is, “the violent crime capital of Europe,” with reported offenses jumping from 652,974 in 1998 to over 1.15 million in 2007.

In 2007, the official violent crime rate was over 2000 per 100,000 persons in Britain; in the United States, it was only 466. Interestingly, violent crimes involving knives have become more common, to the point where it is now illegal to sell them to minors and illegal to carry most kinds of knives in public.

Most infamously, Lee Rigby, a British veteran of the Afghanistan War, was beheaded last year on a London street in broad daylight by a pair of Islamists. Apparently, Britain has traded illegal guns for illegal knives.

A handgun ban is unthinkable in the United States, but gun control advocates would do well to understand that restricting legal access to firearms does not address the causes of violence—it merely changes their methodology.

Working for Free? Save Yourself the Trouble MARINA RECIO Opinions Co-Editor

Promising everything from unparalleled connections to invaluable career experience, internships are to a college student what candy is to a child—and the compensation is often no more than an afterthought. Every day, thousands of college students across the country pay to work. In theory, internships are a great opportunity for students. Yet, with roughly half of the intern work force making no money—and in some cases paying for academic credits—it is only appropriate to ask who is really benefitting here.

The first obvious problem with unpaid internships is that many students cannot afford to work for free, and thus the applicant pool is reduced to mostly upper-middleclass and wealthy students. In effect, unpaid internships are a privilege, and they put lower-income students at a disadvantage in their field before they even graduate.

Perhaps more importantly, most unpaid internships are illegal. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act outlined in Fact Sheet #71, for an internship to be unpaid it must be a “bona fide educational experience,” and the intern’s involvement must not directly benefit the employer. In other words, office work, administrative tasks and errand running are signs that you should be getting paid. I have yet to speak to an unpaid intern who has not contributed to the daily operations of a company in some non-educational way, like orga-

nizing paperwork or mailing out media kits.

A quick Google search will reveal that even high-profile companies, like reputable fashion labels and popular magazines, unabashedly advertise unpaid positions that do not follow the law. You will easily find hundreds of listings describing job duties that fall outside the boundaries of what unpaid interns can legally do. So how do so many companies get away with hiring college students to work for no pay? Well, the short answer is that internship regulations are simply not enforced, and there is no lack of students willing to work for free to get ahead in their field. As Mark Babbitt, founder of internship search-engine YouTern puts it: “It’s a complaint-driven system that is unenforceable and has few consequences.”

With the recent streak of lawsuits fresh in their memories, many companies now require students to receive academic credit for unpaid internships to paint them (many times inaccurately) as educational opportunities instead of mere jobs, shielding themselves from legal trouble. The blame now shifts partly to the universities, who give their seal of approval to these internships, which may or may not be complying with the law.

While universities are no doubt trying to help students gain access to for-credit-only positions, they are in fact creating another barrier for lower income students, who must now pay hundreds of dollars in the form of academic credits to work. In addition, encouraging students to take unpaid positions perpetuates a harmful system in

which companies have no incentive to pay students. If no other company is paying their interns, why should yours? Consequently, more and more internships will be unpaid, as more and more students are willing to work for free with the full support of their universities (some of which are actually making money in the process when they charge students for credits).

Thankfully, there’s reason to believe the tide may be turning. Not all universities are feeding into the unpaid internship system—some are starting to tighten their regulations. In February, Columbia University announced that it would no longer offer credit for unpaid internships. In a less radical move, New York University(NYU) announced it would make the screening process for internships stricter, allowing only those that follow the federal regulations outlined in Fact Sheet #71 to post onto the University’s career resources Web page.

Granted, an opportunity to work for the company of your dreams may in fact be extremely rewarding. However, students should be wary of taking any unpaid position they can find for the sake of adding a line to their resume. It may not be worth it after all.

To the disappointment of many, statistics show that unpaid internships may not be the magical portal to a job after graduation. A 2013 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) suggests that unpaid internships make a small difference in job offers; while 63.1 percent of students that had paid internships received at least one job offer, only

SARAH HOWARD/THE OBSERVER

Interns should be paid and their compensation should be directly propportional to the work they do.

37 percent of those that interned for free did, as compared to 35 percent of those that did not have an internship at all. If that wasn’t bad enough, those who had unpaid internships are more likely to take lower paying jobs than those with paid internship or no internship experience at all. As Forbes’ Rachel Burger explains in “Why Your Unpaid Internship Makes You Less Employable,” this may be because the industries that offer mostly unpaid internships—like fashion and print journalism—are in decline, hence why they need free labor.

It is unlikely they will be hiring you, or anyone for that matter, in the years to come. After all, why hire anyone when you can have an

intern work for free?

Ultimately, lawmakers and universities should strive to create a mutually beneficial system that does not allow companies to take advantage of young people, but rather rewards merit and opens doors for students. The sad reality is that, while companies have an endless source of free labor readily available, students are reaping significantly lesser benefits from their unpaid internships. It is about time young people start questioning how valuable these time and money investments actually are. So before you consent to working 40 hours a week for free this summer, ask yourself: What you are you getting in return?

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Brandeis Should Not Have Rescinded Award From Ali ELIZABETH ATHY Staff Writer

On Tuesday, April 8, Brandeis University made the decision to rescind their offer of an honorary degree from Ayaan Hirsi Ali, apparently at the urging of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). In taking such a drastic measure, Brandeis bowed to the pressure of an organization that is known for silencing those who speak out against Islam—even in those situations where it is merited—and Ali was unrightfully deprived of a well-earned honor.

Raised in a strict Islamic environment, Ali endured genital mutilation and attempts from her family to marry her off to a man against her wishes. Due to these issues, she gave up Islam when she was 30, and since then has been a strong advocate for women’s rights, speaking out against the abuses and injustices done to Muslim women, particularly in the Middle East and South Africa.

In 2007, she founded Ayaan Hirsi Ali (AHA), an organization which works to protect and defend women’s rights against the kind of oppression that is justified by culture and religion. The organization “creat[es] national and regional databases and resource guides for girls and women in distress so that [they] can link them with social workers, attorneys, safe houses, and individuals and institutions qualified to deal with cases of crime, maltreatment and abuse in the religious and cultural contexts.” AHA also wants to make law enforcement in the United States aware that these types of crimes can

COURTESY ASPEN INSTITUTE VIA FLICKR

Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks at the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado.

occur here as well.

Ali was to be rewarded for her work at Brandeis’ 2014 Commencement on May 18, but because of CAIR, as well as efforts made by Brandeis’ students and faculty who warned that Ali was extremely anti-Islamic, Brandeis retracted the award.

In a 2007 interview with The London Evening Standard, Ali stated that she wants all of Islam to be disrupted—not just the radical branch. This seems to be the root of the University’s hesitation to reward Ali. She is not only against the

cruelty fostered by fundamentalism but against the religion as a whole.

However, Ali, despite her radical views, has done great work: She deserves the award. While it is true her comments regarding Islam leave something to be desired, it is nonetheless true that Ali has recognized an important issue—the violence and oppression of women justified by religion—and has done a great deal to help combat it.

However, it seems that Ali herself was surprised that she was considered for the degree in the first place.

She said in her interview with Fox

News: “In the age of Google, all of this is out there, it’s all public.”

Ali clearly feels that Brandeis was aware of her activities—and it is not a ridiculous assumption. A quick Google search of Ali details both her praiseworthy accomplishments and her rather radical comments.

Additionally, since the honorary degree recipient is chosen through an election and the president of the school is required to sign off on the decision, it is very doubtful that Brandeis was not aware of Ali’s antiIslamic statements.

We have to ask, in this situa-

tion, if Brandeis’ decision reflects an inherent fear of speaking out against Islam in our society. The answer to me seems to be yes. While Ali is an extreme case, we’d never fault someone for criticizing the Catholic Church’s failures in addressing their sexual abuse problem.

Rescinding Ali’s award occurred around the same time that CAIR urged schools and universities to stop screenings of the movie titled“The Honor Diaries,” a film produced by Ali herself. The movie is a documentary about the abuse women face in Muslim communities—particularly those in the West.

The point of this movie is to make other countries aware of what is going on in the name of religion and culture, and this is precisely why CAIR does not want instances like these to be exposed. CAIR fails to, or at least refuses to, see the problems that are plaguing Islam. Similarly, Ali fails to see any good in the religion, and while that is problematic, so is the other side of the spectrum.

Withdrawing the degree from Ali makes it look like we are afraid to be aware of the cruelties occurring in other countries. If CAIR gets its way, then those like Ali, who have faced the kind of abuse that has been justified by religion, would not be able to share their experiences.

Brandeis’ actions present a dangerous path. It is one in which so-called “political correctness” translates into the silencing of controversial, but important, issues. This trend cannot be allowed to continue.

If we aren’t given the opportunity and the space to discuss these kinds of issues, then they can never be resolved. Being politically correct is all well and good, but we cannot use it as an excuse.

Students Should Be Allowed To Cite Wikipedia, But Not Just For Honesty’s Sake ELLEN FISHBEIN Staff Writer

Wikipedia: It’s the crowdsourced knowledge engine that’s free to read, write and edit for everyone. It’s the collaborative project of over 300,000 people writing in 287 languages. But it’s more than that: It’s a taboo.

You know what I’m talking about. You’re writing a paper, you Google your topic, and the search returns that first, magical article: the Wiki page. Perfectly free of tedious language, abstractions or scholarly euphemisms, it gives you what you need. You go to Encyclopedia Britannica; you look up the article on your topic. You see a few dry, grammatically correct lines interspersed with the same facts you saw on Wiki. “Good enough,” you think, and you footnote it.

Maybe you get fancy: Instead of looking for another encyclopedic source, you scroll down to Wikipedia’s list of citations. You open the pages, skim them for relevance and add them to your bibliography.

I bet I can count on one hand the percentage of Fordham students who cannot recount one of these experiences. From here, you might think that I’m going to argue, “Everyone already cites Wikipedia by proxy, so let’s be honest and give the site the credit it deserves.”

But the ban on Wikipedia in academic circles is not a problem of denial—it’s a problem of culture.

There is no good reason not to consider Wikipedia a credible source. According to a 2005 article, “Can you trust Wikipedia?” in The Guardian, when experts compare Wikipedia, page by page, to conventional encyclopedias, Wikipedia

wins. Additionally, Wikipedia articles are more neutral than many textbooks. Consider Texas: In 2010, James McKinley reported for the New York Times that nearly 5 million of Texas’ textbook-reading students saw Thomas Jefferson (coiner of the phrase, “separation of church and state,”) erased from a list of figures whose writings inspired the revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries—and replaced by the 13th century Thomas Aquinas.

Blue states are no better. In California public schools, fifth-graders use a textbook by Joy Hakim called “A History of US.” When historian Alice Whealey’s son came home from school with the book, Whealey published a complaint in Volume 12 of “The Textbook Letter” to inform parents and teachers that in the very first chapter, Hakim had invented historical “facts” about Athens, Rome and Islamic Spain.

On Wikipedia, on the other hand, vandalism and bias is reported to administrators and corrected almost instantaneously.

Many of us have experienced this self-correction firsthand: just try to add a sentence like, “The Godfather is the best movie ever made,” to “The Godfather” article. Refresh the page, and it’ll be gone. Thanks to committed paid administrators and to the sheer numbers of volunteer watchmen, Wikipedia remains generally free of text and image vandalism.

However, most Wiki-critics are more concerned about subtler biases, called “slants.” In a recent essay published by the American Economic Association, researchers Shane Greenstein and Feng Zhu analyze Wikipedia in search of slanted articles. They conclude that one particular group of Wikipedia articles introduces slants: articles related to U.S. politics, especially

when they discuss the most recent several decades. A randomly selected article about U.S. politics will slant in one direction or another. However, the researchers conclude that if you read several related articles, their alternating slants will aggregate to a neutral point of view.

Finally, Wikipedia has the Hayek advantage. In 1945, the economist Friedrich Hayek published, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” in which he argues that centrally planned systems will never collect and use knowledge from a large group as efficiently as a free-market system will. Wikipedia exemplifies Hayek’s idea: It is a decentralized, free-market model that aggregates human knowledge better than an elite team of experts ever could.

Those who deny the value of Wikipedia as an academic source object not to its content but to its philosophy. The prevailing image of Wikipedia as unreliable due to its lack of authority is laughable; Wikipedia is reliable precisely because Jimmy Wales and his small, lightweight team supply it with the perfect amount of authority—just enough to be able to prevent organized fringe groups (e.g. neo-Nazis) from sabotaging the website’s neutrality. Wikipedia is not anarchy. It is a case study in what people can accomplish in a well-monitored free market with a small, simple set of rules.

I opened with what Wikipedia is; I’ll close with what it is to me.

Wikipedia is a form of intimacy.

There, just for a moment, people who disagree about sports, religion and politics come together and benefit each other. Wikipedia is a peaceful dialogue among strangers around the world who—in many cases—are actually at war. What

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can be more powerful than that?

When academics step out and acknowledge the power of Wikipedia, they’ll start contributing to it—and that will make the best,

most accessible treasure trove of knowledge even better for everyone on earth.

By the way, the statistics in this article? Credit Wikipedia.

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LOOKING UP IN NYC By photographing from below, Observer photographers aimed to capture the feeling of being small next to the grandiose city of New York.

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LOOKING UP IN NYC

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CONGRATULATIONS 2014 SENIOR CLASS

CONGRATS TAYLER, JENNIFER, AMANDA AND EMILY! Congratulations Tayler Bennett ’14, Jennifer Khedaroo ’14, Amanda Fimbers ’14 and Emily Tudisco ’14 Observer Editors Emeriti on their graduation. xo, Professor Stone

CONGRATULATIONS, TAYLER! People come and go into our lives and they leave a mark on our heart and soul. You’ve made us laugh, been there for us when we’ve been at our worst, and have been a rock for us. You are more amazing than you’ll ever know, and we are SO LUCKY to call you our best friend.

Harry Styles wrote “What Makes You Beautiful” about you. We love you - you light up our world like nobody else.

I don’t care what people say when we’re together.

You’re the Ilanna to our Abbi, the Aidy to our Vanessa and Kate. We’re in love with you and all these little things.

Love, Harry Styles & His People (Ian & Tyler)

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CLASS OF 2014, WE WILL MISS YOU! Hey y’all. You’ve all been a huge influence in our three years at Fordham. You made us feel at home even though we do not live here. Thanks for making us a part of your Fordham experience. We know your time here has ended but the memories we have made together will always last forever! Our three years at Fordham would not be the same without you.

Thank you for everything. We love each and everyone of you dearly. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors!

Love, Peace and All the Happiness, Mike Macalintal & Louise Lingat

CONGRATS CAC SENIORS Congratulations to the Class of 2014, especially the senior members of Colleges Against Cancer! Your work over the last four years with CAC and Relay has helped so many people affected by cancer, and created lasting friendships. We’ll miss you next year, and with love and pride we wish you all the best in your next chapter!

Love, Your CAC Family

CONGRATULATIONS, JOE HARRIS! All your hard work has paid off!

You’re finally free, which is good because you’ve always been too cute for school. I’m so proud of you!

Love, Meredith

CONGRATS OSLCD STUDENT WORKER SENIORS The OSLCD student workers would like to congratulate the graduating seniors from our office: Melissa Gazal, Nicholas Giordano, Gabriella Guinta, Michael McMahon, Ashlyne Polynice.

Congratulations on all your accomplishments and good luck in your future! You will be missed!

CONGRATS TAYLER, Congratulations Tayler! I had a great time working with you.

Good luck on all your future endeavors. ;) best, Weiyu

MI QUERIDO JAIME RODRIGUEZ, I don’t know how but you’ve become one of my best friends at Fordham and one of my biggest inspirations.

Although I tire of seeing your face everywhere on posters and TVs, seeing your face in person never gets old because I know whenever I do I’ll be smiling or laughing or just enjoying life.

You’re beautiful. You make a great date. And I’ll see you in Ghana, jefe!

Te amo siempre.

Your former roomie/current team member/Urban Plunger, Nadia

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Classifieds

A MESSAGE TO ALL OF YOU I would never have gotten to where I am or who I’ve become if not for God, Lord of the Universe. As a gesture of appreciation for God’s kindness, I share this message with you all: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is ONE God! Therefore you shall adore the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” [Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Matthew 22:37, Quran 3:18]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF OUR FORDHAM THEATRE PROGRAM SENIORS!

“O followers of the scripture, let us come to a logical agreement between us and you: that we shall not worship except GOD; that we never set up any idols besides Him, nor set up any human beings as lords beside GOD.” [Quran 3:64] “The fact is: only Him you implore, and He answers your prayer, if He so wills, and you forget your idols.” [6:41] Many will debate that God does not exist, or that God is not one. They are wrong.

We love you. Make us Proud!

CONGRATS GO! BOARD GRADS!

From, The Faculty, Staff, Fellow Students, and the rest of the world

Congratulations to Alyssa, Jackie, and Jaime!

You three are amazing leaders, great friends, and just generally inspiring people. We love you from the bottom of our farts and we know you will set the world on fire after graduation!!

Love, the GO! Board and the GO!racle

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR LINCOLN CENTER SOCIETY SENIORS! • Tayler Bennett • Alex Bivona • Naadia Chowdhury • Lalita De Souza • Raven Diltz • Catherine Keller • Esther Kim • Katie Michaels • Jess Polins • Nastassia Porto • Hannah Reile • Nicole Scotto • Razel Tolentino-Requesto • Pooja Vijay We wish you the very best as you venture out into the world! We will miss you! Remember, like Mr. T says...“I pity the fool who doesn’t keep in touch!”

Sarah, Dan, and the Office of Undergraduate Admission

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www.fordhamobserver.com

GOOD EVENING FRIEND, Congratulations on not dying.

Look at that you actually made it.

I’m so proud of you. Make wigs for the rest of your life. Can you make me one? Thanks. I love you. Neen.

GOOD MORNING FRIEND,

Who coulda thought that it’s finally the end. But it’s not. Because I love you and it’s not the end. You’re just graduating. And if you leave me I’ll kill you. What? No. I won’t. Maybe I will. I LOVE YOU.

SARA JANE DONOVAN, You have made my college experience 78% of what it has been and I definitely wouldn’t have made it to this point without you. You are one of the best friends I have made over my four years here (okay Nina can be included too) and it all started with ME creating our group in German.

I love you a lot and I’m glad you’re my friend.

Love, Tayler Alexis Bennett PS Nothing you do annoys me.

ARE YOU READY FRIEND??

CONGRATULATIONS, TAYLER BENNETT! From your first day of school to your high school graduation all the way to today, we are so proud of all your amazing academic accomplishments.

We are confident your hard work and efforts have brightened your future.We love you!!!

Love, Mom Keith and Gianna

Dear Tayler Alexis Bennett, It’s Sara Jane, if you were still unsure. I am surprised, to say the least, that we are graduating on time. A big CONGRATULATIONS is in order. We have had many adventures, and made great friends along the way. The girl of Russian origin, Nina, tagged along with us as well and together, we became unstoppable (unless of course someone stopped us, but let’s not talk about that now). I know we will stay close after graduation, no matter how many times you pretend not to know me anymore. Just kidding (I hope)!

Oh, one more question. Is there such a thing as being too..........hmm, I seem to have forgotten what I was going to say...I guess we’ll never know.

Love you!!

Sara

Features

Features Co-Editors Ian McKenna —ianmckennawmc@gmail.com Brigitte Ayaz —brigitteayaz@gmail.com

May 1, 2014 THE OBSERVER

I PITY THE JEWEL

Packing is the Hardest Part JEWEL GALBRAITH Staff Writer

Finals season has finally begun, which can mean only one thing: No one is able gather the energy to care about finals anymore. The real test of wits and willpower looming on the horizon for many Fordham students is end-of-year move out. Anyone who ever has moved houses, apartments or tables at the library knows that picking items up in an orderly fashion and moving them from one location to the next is more physically, emotionally and spiritually taxing than it looks.

Over the next few weeks, there will be a lot of Fordham students going through the five difficult stages of move-out packing, none of which are “acceptance.”

The five phases of move-out happen each year in a consistent order, though the length of each varies depending on where you fall on the hoarder spectrum. Regardless, the first stage of packing, Gross Underestimation of Packing Difficulty, always begins after you decide on the date and time of your move-out. During Stage One, you convince yourself that collecting and organizing all your earthly belongings won’t take more than a few hours. “It’ll be quick,” you think. “I’ll just put my clothes in trash bags, and my books in trash bags, and my pens and pencils and makeup in my pockets, and I’ll hold three coffee mugs in each hand and run out and buy a dog, and the dog can carry my computer in its mouth.” You are, of course, fooling yourself, and there is, of

IAN MCKENNA/THE OBSERVER

It’s the end of the semester. Time to grab a cart, pack your stuff and hope it all fits in your car.

course, a small voice inside your head telling you that you can’t get all your packing done in one day. You silence that voice with a traditional bowl of finals week dry cereal and move on to stage two.

The second stage of packing is known as the Realization that You Must Move Out and Study for Finals During the Same Week.

Given that it is impossible to study for finals while doing anything other than eating meal upon meal of the dry cereal you’ve grown used

to, you make the executive decision that packing is not an option. So, instead of entertaining the idea that a mortal human can both write a final paper and put books in boxes during the same five-year period, let alone the same week, you do neither. You retreat from your responsibilities into a dark nocturnal netherworld, barricaded inside a fortress of empty Rice Krispies boxes.

Stage Three: Actual Packing, is a turnaround in the packing

saga. It begins when, while lying in your bed and playing 2048 on your phone (covered in Rice Krispy crumbs, obviously), you are struck with a sense of clarity and purpose.

You decide to make a productive move to start packing up – maybe you sort all the items on your desk and place them carefully in a box.

You throw on some relaxing alternative rock and sift through your handouts from the past semester.

With every sheet of paper, you feel a warm glow of success pass over

you (note: this might just be the sunlight that is streaming into your bedroom now that you have opened the blinds).

Stage Three quickly gives way to Stage Four, when you realize how small a fraction of your entire room your desk accounts for, and you return again to your Rice Krispy cave, away from your wretched material possessions.

Stage Five: Packing For Real This Time, is the final event that all the preceding stages have been leading up to. It sets in out of desperation at 2:45 a.m. the night before you have to put your things in a car, truck or storage unit and vacate your building or be forcibly removed from it. The promised trash bags finally make an appearance, and you stuff them with wrinkled t-shirts, bottles of contact solution and loose thumbtacks from your floor. There is music playing, but this time it’s Ke$ha, and you’re crying along. You throw photos that were once special to you into the trash. Your heart has grown hard. You say goodbye to all that was once yours, goodbye to all that was once you. If it doesn’t fit in a trash bag, it will be left behind and forgotten. This is the harsh truth of packing that it has taken you all this time to confront.

When stage five is finished, you leave your place and move to another. You may have lost a few pieces of your soul in the process, but such is the nature of move-out.

You made your own bed and then were forced to lie in it. Now, at least, you have a couple of days to collect yourself without the stress of schoolwork or exams. Then, the fun begins: unpacking.

No Syllabus? No Problem!

By KAMRUN NESA AND IAN MCKENNA Managing Editor and Features Co-Editor

With the semester’s end just around the river bend, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) students are all gearing up for summer. That means fun in the sun, toes in the sand and books in our hands, and not textbooks and course readings. Summer means its time for leisure reading, y’all. The following English majors at FCLC let us know what adventures they have planned for the summer and what books are joining them for the ride.

KATHRENE BINAG, FCLC ’15 SUMMER PLANS: “I am going

DANTE FRONTANI, FCLC ’16 SUMMER PLANS: “I am going to be

to the Philippines for the entirety of July. Before that, my friend from Hawaii is coming to visit.”

doing a lot of travelling. Maybe try to get an internship. I am going to Norway and Denmark and that general region. Just a family thing.

SUMMER READING: “I am going to be reading ‘Mrs Dalloway’ a good read, a re-read. I want to get into some James Joyce; that’s a pretty English major thing to say. Otherwise, I am reading some science-fiction reading. Richard Matheson, Philip Dick, getting into that kind of stuff.

BOBINA VANDER LAAN, FCLC ’14 SUMMER PLANS: “Doing a few

classes here at Fordham. I am also interning, applying for publishing house internships.”

SUMMER READING: “Right

now I am reading Gayle Forman’s new book [“Just One Year”]. I’ll probably re-read ‘Harry Potter.’ I also tend to read Sarah Dessen, another YA author. And then whatever comes out!”

SUMMER READING: “ I have a huge list. I need to finish ‘East of Eden’ by John Steinbeck, so I am going to be doing that. I recently bought five C.S. Lewis books for like ten dollars, so I am going to be reading those.

PATRICIA CENDANA, FCLC ’15 SUMMER PLANS: “Find

an internship. That’s like my main goal right now.”

SUMMER READING: “I

don’t have any actually.

I am going to look at my account on Goodreads, because that is where I base my reading list. So I am going to wait for my list for June, July or August.”

IAN MCKENA/THE OBSERVER

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Svetlana Siforova: Part Time Model, Full Time Student

By JULIET ALTMAN Staff Writer

A model scout came across 16-year-old Svetlana Siforova, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’15, while she was shopping at S.ephora with her mom. After researching the offer to ensure that it wasn’t a scam, Siforova signed her first contract with VNY modeling agency. “I fell into modeling,” Siforova said. Today, not only is she a fashion model for Major Model Management, but she is also a full-time student at FCLC. When Siforova moved to the United States from Russia, she was only 7 years old. “I adapted really well when I moved here. I was thrown into speaking English, but it was a quick transition.

Now, I could never imagine living anywhere but here,” Siforova said.

Despite her love for New York, Siforova also adores traveling.

“I’m probably going to take next semester off to travel and model full-time.” Siforova also models full-time during the summer and makes enough money to last her most of the school year. “I want to experience different things and I want to make money. I don’t think I’m going to change the world by modeling. I’m just enjoying it.” Siforova said. “Unless some amazing opportunity comes my way, honestly, I probably will not continue to model after I graduate.”

As an English major and psychology minor, Siforova acknowledges that her career plans after Fordham are not related to modeling at all. In fact, she may choose to pursue law school. “If you really want to try modeling, you need to focus on either school

or modeling. Balancing the two is extremely difficult,” Siforova said.

She emphasized the importance of prioritizing. How does she do it?

Siforova explained that modeling full-time during the school year is impossible.

There is immense stress that comes with this type of career – whether it’s stress from school, stress from your job or stress from your personal life, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. “I’m always stressed.

I drink like eight cups of coffee a day. Modeling is extremely stressful because it’s a business where they essentially own you.

You become marketable. You’re an item and you think of yourself as an item, but it helps you develop a hard exterior,” Svetlana said.

Even when she’s stressed, Svetlana is still able to live a balanced life at Fordham, on the runway and at home. “I live in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. When I’m stressed, I like going for walks and runs on the beach. My mom also helps me deal with stress very often. She’s my best friend, my rock, and she’s always helping me through the thick and thin,” Siforova said.

When she’s not busy studying or posing for the camera, Siforova enjoys playing tennis, shopping at stores like Intermix, Scoop and Bergdorf ’s, and loves to read books

by Agatha Christie. She also exercises the lessons she has learned from being in the modeling industry in every day life. For example, she knows the importance of knowing the right people and applies that to another hobby of hers – acting. “I take acting classes and sometimes I work backstage. I’ll go to castings here and there. I do it to make connections,” Siforova said.

If she had to describe herself in one word, she would say passionate. “I put a lot of effort into everything I do, whether I’m successful or not,” Siforova said, “I’m also an optimist when it comes to everything. I like hoping for the best.”

The experiences that Siforova has had through modeling are still fresh in her memory. “The first runway show I ever walked in was really cool. It was Boy Meets Girl, that random obnoxious brand with the boy and girl kissing. I thought it was the cutest thing in the world, but I also remember how scared I was,” Siforova recalled. One piece of advice Siforova has for aspiring models at Fordham is, “If you’re in New York, take advantage of it.” New York has given Siforova experiences she couldn’t have had anywhere else. “I did a campaign in Times Square, I’ve been in Teen Vogue a few times, I’ve been in Seventeen Magazine and I did a campaign for Century 21 that was really cool,” Siforova said. She also did an entire DKNY spread for Milk Magazine in Japan, where she is very popular because of her big blue eyes and blonde hair.

“The best thing about modeling is traveling and the people you meet.

Half of them are great and half are awful, but everyone you meet is interesting and you get invited to really interesting events that you wouldn’t be able to go to otherwise,” Siforova said.

Siforova’s outlook on life glows with positive energy. While acknowledging the stress that comes along with the job, she encourages those who are interested in modeling to pursue it with the same passion she exerts every day.

“If a person really wants to model,

JESSICA HANLEY/THE OBSERVER

Svetlana Siforova is a part-time model and full time student at FCLC.

they should. There are so many ways to do it in New York. There’s an industry for everyone, tall and short. If you want to do it and if

you’re passionate about it, I say do it because you can experience wonderful things,” Siforova said.

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Sports Co-Editors Dylan Penza — dpenza@fordham.edu Conrad Zajkowski — conradzajkowski@gmail.com May 1, 2014 THE OBSERVER

How Did The NBA Get Here?

By DYLAN EDWARD PENZA Sports Co-Editor

If you don’t follow the NBA as religiously as I do, you might be perplexed by this year’s playoffs.

However, a closer look at the regular season shows that many of the less predictable moments and performances have been telegraphed for months.

Due to the Knicks’ yearly basketball failures being ahead of schedule this season, I can actually enjoy the NBA playoffs without the burden of really caring about a team. The playoffs thus far have been exciting, exhilarating and most of all surprising and we haven’t even gotten out of the first round yet. However, if one looks back on the regular season, some playoff events become less and less shocking.

Let’s start with the team many predicted at the beginning of the season to knock off Miami in the Eastern Conference finals, the Indiana Pacers. The organization features a budding franchise player in Paul George. Coach Frank Vogel successfully nurtured Lance Stephenson, a noted talent and headcase, into a triple double threat and borderline all-star. Perhaps most importantly, the team’s center Roy Hibbert, was poised to have a breakout season and be the defensive lynchpin of a team attempting to slow down the Big Three. At the time of writing, they are down two games to one against the Atlanta Hawks, the only team in the playoffs with a losing record.

Indiana’s struggles seem shocking, if not downright unbelievable.

The team took the regular season crown and subsequent number one seed, in the East, so defeat-

ing a team that relies heavily on DeMarre Carroll and Gustavo Ayon shouldn’t be a problem. Atlanta is not a good team and its fans openly asked the team to tank thinking it would get shellacked in the playoffs.

However, in the last few months of the season, Indiana’s weaknesses have become more apparent and the Hawks are the right team to exploit them. Indiana is a team that focuses defensively on limiting points in the paint, so a team like Atlanta, whose frontcourt is prone to longrange jump shooting, can be a hassle. When the Pacer’s defense struggles like it has with Atlanta, they cannot rely on their anemic offense to bail they out of games.

However, the thing that has ruined Indiana the most is that it has been dulled by a mediocre Eastern Conference and diluted by trade and free agency. At the trade deadline, Indiana sent Danny Granger, a former All-Star and one of the leaders of the team, to Philadelphia in exchange for Evan Turner. While Tuner is a marginally better overall player at this point, the move coupled with the signing of team-killer extraordinaire Andrew Bynum, has ruined the team’s chemistry.

The on-court product has suffered, leading to a somehow weaker offense and a no longer impenetrable defense. While the Pacers may have won more games than any other team in the East, they have limped into the playoffs. Truly, if one was watching the last few weeks of the season, they could have predicted a fall from grace such as this.

Directly contrasting Indy, the Nets seem poised to rise from a miserable beginning of the season to a possible upset of the Drake led Toronto Raptors. The series is split 1-1, but just hold on, because

COURTESY ROBERT GAUTHIER/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA MCT

Blake Griffin’s elevation to one of the best players in the league over the regular season has led to Clipper’s playoff success.

Brooklyn’s going home to the Barclay’s Center. They truly started from the bottom, being decimated by injuries and baffling decisions by first-year Dead Coach Jason Kidd, but the team has had the second best record in the East since New Years. Now, they don’t give any award for that, but the team has more momentum than any other team in the East and have only been fueled by Raptors’ General Manager Masai Ujiri being on his worst behavior. Ok, putting aside the Drizzy puns, if one has paid attention to the Nets since January, one might see them as contenders, as they are the only team in the NBA to sweep Miami this season.

The prevailing thought on Blake Griffin is that he sells Kias and can dunk. That’s about it. While the Clippers’ forward does both of those things quite well, his game has completely evolved over the last regular season. Coaching by Doc Rivers and an injury to All-NBA teammate Chris Paul forced Griffin to expand his ability to dribble, his defensive capabilities and his facilitating. As he became Los Angeles’ number one option, over the season, he has blossomed from highlight reel to the possible third best player in the NBA. Blake’s recent dismantling of the rival Golden State Warriors has shown that. Stephen Curry’s team goes out of their way to foul Blake and play him tough, yet he has responded with dominant performances.

In the case of teams like Indy and Brooklyn and players like Griffin, we can see how their respective regular seasons have paved the way for playoff performance. Now all we can do is sit back, relax and see who comes home with the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Masahiro Tanaka: The Yankees’ Imported Savior

By DAN FERRARA Contributing Writer

Through four starts, Masahiro Tanaka has been everything that the Yankees could have hoped for.

Although some questioned whether Tanaka would be closer to Rangers ace Yu Darvish or formerRed Sox bust Daisuke Matsuzaka, he has quickly shown that he will resemble the former – and potentially be better.

Nobody really knew how Tanaka would fare in the major leagues, where the ball is bigger and the hitters are better, but the Bombers’ $155 million man is proving to be worth every penny thus far, silencing doubters and passing every test thrown his way.

He won his major league debut in Toronto on Friday, April 4 before getting a no-decision in his Yankee Stadium debut against the Orioles in his next start. His second start in the Bronx proved to be much more impressive, as the rookie dominated the Cubs, holding them scoreless in his eight frames of work and earning his first home victory.

His most recent test, and possibly most difficult one, was facing the defending World Series Champion Red Sox at Fenway Park. Luckily for Yankee fans, the phenomenom passed with flying colors.

After the Yanks jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, Tanaka allowed back-to-back home runs to David Ortiz and Mike Napoli in the fourth inning. He subsequently shut down the Sox and showed just how unflappable he is on the hill. He settled down and pitched into the eighth inning, allowing just those two runs in 7.1 innings.

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The New York Yankees spent big money to bring Tanaka to the Bronx, so how is he doing so far?

Tanaka is undefeated in the big leagues, going 3-0 with a 2.15 ERA in his first month, donning the pinstripes. Considering that he was 24-0 last season with the Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japan Pacific League, his last regular season loss was in August 2012.

The most surprising facet of

Tanaka’s game has been his strikeout total. The 24-year-old has 35 strikeouts in 29.1 innings pitched, a Yankee record for a pitcher through his first four career starts. It’s also tied for the third-highest strikeout total in baseball history through four starts - Washington Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg holds that record

with 41.

Even more impressive has been his control. Like other Japanese pitchers, Tanaka has a wide array of pitches in his arsenal, but he has command of them all. He has walked just two batters thus far and only San Francisco starter Tim Hudson has fewer among starting pitchers with at least four starts. Although Tanaka’s incredible 17.5 strikeoutto-walk ratio is unattainable, he definitely has the command to keep the ball in the strike zone, throwing 70% of his pitches for strikes until this point of the season.

Tanaka’s critically acclaimed splitter was the topic of conversation early in the offseason and throughout Spring Training. He has shown why, regularly making good hitters look foolish in the box. It has been his second most-utilized pitch behind his fastball, thrown 22.2 percent of the time. The lethal split-fingered fastball has been his out pitch, as opponents are hitting meager .081 in two-strike counts.

Originally slated as the team’s number four starter, it is likely that Tanaka will have to carry a heavier load moving forward.

Yankees’ starter Ivan Nova has been diagnosed with a partially torn UCL and surgery has been recommended. If he opts to undergo Tommy John surgery, he will miss the rest of the 2014 season. Vidal Nuno, who tossed five scoreless innings in his first start on April 20 against the Rays, is expected to fill Nova’s spot in the rotation in his absence.

Carsten Charles “CC” Sabathia’s weight isn’t the only thing that is declining. His effectiveness and velocity are dropping at equally catastrophic rates, as the big lefty has struggled in

the early part of 2014 much like he struggled last season. After posting a career-worst 4.78 ERA in 2013, Sabathia has an identical mark through his first five starts of this season.

Tanaka’s fellow countryman Hiroki Kuroda has also struggled.

Kuroda, 39, was brutal after the AllStar break last year, going 0-6 with a 6.56 ERA in his final eight starts. He has done little to convince the Yankees that he is the same pitcher as he was in the first half of 2013, when he was 8-6 with a sparkling 2.65 ERA. Kuroda is 2-1 with a 4.07 ERA thus far, which is about what the Yankees can expect of him moving forward.

The other Yankees’ starter, Michael Pineda, is a feel-good story gone wrong. After missing two full seasons to injury, the 25-year-old looked poised to get his oncepromising career back on track. He was excellent through his first three starts, going 2-1 with a 1.00 ERA and reminding people why he was an All-Star with the Seattle Mariners in 2011. In his final start, however, Pineda was tossed in the second inning after the Red Sox discovered that he had pine tar, an illegal substance, on his neck. This incident came after television cameras showed pine tar on his pitching hand in his previous start against Boston. He has been suspended ten games for his mindless transgressions, and he will need to prove to everyone that he can be an effective pitcher when he isn’t cheating upon his return.

So, although Tanaka’s first month has gone as smooth as possible, he has a lot of work ahead of him as the leader of the staff. He will need to keep up his outstanding pitching and carry the rotation if the Yankees want to play in October this year.

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Spain’s Quest for History in the World Cup

By CONRAD ZAJKOWSKI Sports Co-Editor

This upcoming World Cup will be sure to guarantee viewers drama that beautiful sport offers every four years, however, an opportunity for history is at hand and it is a dire one.

The Spanish National Team has always been known as the underachievers. Always known as one of the better sides in world football, their results never reflected a case strong enough to consider them the best in the world. The typical candidates of the best national teams always include Brazil, Italy, Germany, Argentina and Uruguay since all these nations have won the World Cup more than once.

Before Spain won their first World Cup in 2010, their last and only top four finish in the World Cup was in 1950. Compared to Brazil with 10 top-four finishes along with five World Cup wins and Germany with 12 top-four finishes and three World Cup wins, one cannot say Spain has had the best national team in history.

The difference in this upcoming World Cup is that the current national team from Spain, stemming from their UEFA Euro win in 2008 over Germany, has the opportunity to be the greatest single national team in history.

Since 2008, Spain has consecutively won two UEFA European Championship titles and a World Cup, the first team to win three consecutive continental or World Cup trophies. They also went on a record breaking 15-game win streak as well as a record tying 35-game unbeaten streak shared with the Brazilian team in the 1990’s.

Spain’s tiki-taka style of play, consisting of a strong control of possession and passing, has allowed Spain to thrive. This radical style of football has allowed Spain’s inefficiencies in size be their strength, allowing finesse and technique overpower teams who are physically stronger than them.

Clubs like FC Barcelona have

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Spain has an opportunity to have the greatest single national team in football history

mastered tiki-taka in the past with domestic and continental titles to show in the past five years. National team players like Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and Pique have helped transition their domestic chemistry to the national side even though they play alongside with players in rival clubs, specifically Real Madrid.

Fast forward to 2014 and you see a Spanish National side in a slight decline. Players have gotten six years older since the team’s 2008 UEFA Euro win. Carles Puyol, the anchor of their defense, has retired from football. Fernando Torres,

the third highest scorer in national team history, has been a shell of his former self since his move to Chelsea from Liverpool.

Signs of descent are beginning to show when Spain lost 3-0 to Brazil in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, ending their 29-match unbeaten streak. Brazil will be hosting the World Cup this year and have remerged over the past half-decade as a major threat having won the Olympics in 2012. Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, Portugal and Italy are all sides who can be seen winning the trophy as well.

However, there is still a silver lining in all this. Striker David Villa who suffered a leg injury while playing for Barcelona has healed and is playing well for Atletico Madrid along with his teammate Diego Costa, a new goal scoring addition to the national team. These two players will be a major threat to any defense.

This coming summer will be an interesting one to watch with a less dominant Spanish team entering this tournament. However, what is at stake is important. If Spain is able to win the World Cup, they will join Brazil and Italy as the only

countries to have won two consecutive World Cups. The benchmark greatest team which is Brazil starring Pelé in the 1950’s and 1960’s, who won the two consecutive World Cups, would have to pass the baton to the new king of football, Spain.

Winning four consecutive continental and World Cup tournaments will be unprecedented in the history books and won’t be contested for perhaps another half-century or more. We will see in Brazil whether fate will have a transfer in power for football supremacy.

FIFA World Cup 2014: The Big Four

By GIANELLA DI LORENZO Staff Writer

With just over one month left before the world’s largest sporting event kicks off, soccer analysts – from professionals to aficionados – have begun to fill out their brackets and dare to predict the winner of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. By and large, the following four teams stand out as the strongest and potentially most likely to win (in no particular order): GERMANY Coach: Joachim Löw Notable players: Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Müller, Miroslav Klose, Mesut Özil, Philipp Lahm, Manuel Neuer Strengths: Having reached third place in 2006 and 2010, Germany is hungry for their fourth star, winning their third and last World Cup title in 1990. Backed by a solid midfield, veteran striker, and (arguably) the world’s best goalkeeper, the Germans are favorites in the tournament.

Weaknesses: As a whole, the Germans’ performance tends to waiver in the face of great opponents, largely due to gaps in the defense. With Germany’s prior experience of coming just short of the title, history could potentially repeat itself.

BRAZIL Coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari Notable players: Dante, Marcelo Vieria, Kaká, Neymar, Dani Alves, Julio Cesar Strengths: Playing at home under the direction of an experienced coach, the five-time world champions have also been added to the list of favorites,

with some predicting they can win the cup. With a number of talented players hailing from European clubs to choose from and their ability to press the ball, the Brazilians are destined to leave quite an impression.

Weaknesses: This is a relatively new team that can either do great things or falter at the hands of direction, as history has shown, combined with wild experimentation in the roster and formations. If the Seleção is not able to operate as a homogenous group, the Brazilians may succumb to pressure.

SPAIN Coach: Vicente del Bosque Notable players: Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Iker Casillas, Andrés Iniesta, David Villa, Fernando Torres Strengths: As the reigning world and European champions, Spain is expected to go far. Their best players can be attributed to two of the world’s best clubs, and their possession style of play (tiki-taka) is well known for its effectiveness. The addition of young talent such as Javi Martínez, Thiago and Diego Costa has freshened up La Roja’s roster.

Weaknesses: Riding the victory wave twice since 2010, Spain has exhibited signs of winding down. The number of veteran players on the squad has also been cited as a cause of concern for Vicente del Bosque’s team.

ARGENTINA Coach: Alejandro Sabella Notable players: Lionel Messi, Ángel di María, Javier Mascherano, Sergio Agüero, Gonzalo Higuaín Strengths: Argentina has made great strides in the direction of World Cup 2014 after an embarrassing perfor-

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Spain, Germany, Brazil and Argentina are some favorites to win this year’s FIFA World Cup.

mance in 2010. Since then the team has gained a number of players with experience in major European clubs to back their star forward Messi.

Weaknesses: Similar to Brazil, Argentina’s style of play will be largely decided by Coach Alejandro Sabella, whose team doesn’t exhibit an organized defense or offense.

In addition to these teams, Uruguay, England, France and Belgium also deserve honorable mention. However, if I were to choose a team to bet on, it would be Germany. Löw’s team has learned quite a bit since coming in third back-to-back in the 2006 and

2010 World Cups, losing the final of the European Championship in 2008 and reaching third in 2012.

The 2013 Champions League all-German final between top two Bundesliga clubs Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich consisted of 14 national team players and marked a turning point in international recognition of the Germans’ capabilities.

Löw’s eye for spotting talent and giving players a chance has proven fruitful, as young additions to the team, such as Marco Reus and Mario Götze, have proven their ability to be lethal in any major competition.

The combination of experienced players such as Philipp Lahm and Miroslav Klose, and younger players such as Reus and Götze, has also worked to the Germans’ advantage.

Since their loss to Spain in the 2008 European Championship final, Germany has proven their resilience time and time again, only improving with every year and marking its place among the soccer greats. After 24 years since their last World Cup title and after years of coming close to any major title, Die Mannschaft stands a chance at lifting the trophy once again in Brazil this summer.

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