Issue 14 Fall 2020

Observer the

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August 19, 2020 VOLUME XL, ISSUE 14 Online-Only Edition

VitalCheck, Fordham and You

By GUS DUPREE Asst. Sports & Health Editor

As the outbreak of COVID-19 continues to spread across the U.S., colleges and universities have been faced with the challenge of educating students while also keeping them safe. As Fordham prepares

for an in-person and on-campus semester, the university has taken health precautions that will impact students, faculty and employees’ experiences on campus.

Community members planning on returning to campus will be required to utilize a screening program called Vi-

talCheck. All students also must go through a COVID-19 orientation, regardless of whether or not they’re returning to campus.

Keith Eldredge, dean of students at Lincoln Center, clarified that VitalCheck is not an app but rather an online database. Every

morning, community members will receive “a daily text” by VitalCheck.

see VITALCHECK page 8

GABE SAMANDI/THE OBSERVER

Fordham community members will receive a daily text from VitalCheck and answer a collection of questions in order to get a pass necessary to enter campus for the day.

Tasked With Childcare, ‘Teaching seemed insurmountable,’ Professor Said

By JOE KOTTKE News Editor

Features

News

Communities at risk as schools reopen

Faculty clarified student questions about the fall semester

Locals Left Behind Page 3

Town Hall Recap Page 4

More than 280 Fordham employees signed and sent a statement regarding COVID-19 and care work on Tuesday, Aug. 4, addressing Fordham’s “lack of attention to race, class and gender disparities among employees” in its reopening plan.

The statement highlights the

absence of support for employees who have become caregivers during the pandemic, saying that the unpaid role falls “disproportionately upon female and economically disadvantaged employees.”

“For most of us, in-person teaching seemed insurmountable,” Carey Kasten, associate professor of Spanish, said.

“How to teach on campus when our children are home and in need

of help to login to virtual classes?

How to hire a sitter during a pandemic, when you do not know the number of hours/which days your child will be in school (not to mention questions of exposure and contact tracing)? There were and still are many questions of this nature.” see CAREGIVERS page 7

Arts & Culture

Checking in on Fordham's favorite eateries

Sports & Health

Opinions

How residence halls are adhering to COVID-19 precautions

First-years face a unique welcome to campus

Distancing in Dorms Page 8

Quarantining in NYC

Local Restaurants

Page 15

The Student Voice of Fordham Lincoln Center

Page 10

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News

August 19, 2020 THE OBSERVER

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Quarantining Off-Campus

Students from New York restricted states must quarantine for 14 days prior to campus entry

By KATRINA LAMBERT News Editor

Students coming to Fordham’s campuses from any of the 30 restricted states must quarantine for 14 days before entering campus. The Fordham community received detailed information about the quarantine expectations in an email on July 27 from the Office of the President.

“ For about a week, I was scrambling, considering many options and frantically trying to communicate with my friends and suite-mates to figure out what Fordham meant. ”

Cooper Wilson, FCLC ’23

Students have three options: reserve a hotel or other housing accommodation within an approved area by the university, remain home and take classes online until their state moves off of the restriction list or quarantine in a private home in a non-restricted state.

“For about a week, I was scrambling, considering many options and frantically trying to communicate with my friends and suite-mates to figure out what Fordham meant,” Cooper Wilson, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23, said.

Originally, Wilson was planning to live on campus and attend in-person classes for the fall semester. Since Wilson is from California, a designated quarantine state by the state of New York, he had to reconsider his plans for moving in following the July 27 email.

“The most problematic detail was and is that we aren’t allowed to quarantine in the dorms,” he said.

In the email, the university stated that there is a possibility for students to quarantine on campus; however, that decision was awaiting acceptance from the New York State Department of Health. Only a small group of early move-in students, such as Orientation Leaders and ResLife staff, were allowed to quarantine in their dorms, as long as none of their other suitemates had moved in yet.

COURTESY OF MATTHEW KOZAKOWSKI

Matthew Kozakowski, FCLC ’21, from California, accepted the incurred costs of staying in a hotel in NYC. He said he found the experience stressful as he had to make accommodations quickly after Fordham released its quarantining guidelines.

In a recent update from the university, it was confirmed that quarantining on-campus is still not an option for students as New York state requires a private room and private bathroom, which the university cannot provide yet.

“Fordham only suggested waiting until our states were off the list or renting a hotel, which would have been prohibitively expensive with no help from Fordham,” Wilson said.

A 14-night stay in one of these hotels is at least $2,789 — which is almost 17% of the room and board cost for one academic year at FCLC. Fordham provided a list of nearby hotels in the NYC area for students to stay in during their quarantine period. However, the university did not address the added financial burden that students may face by staying in a hotel.

From the suggested hotels in the NYC area that the university provided, the average additional cost a student would have to incur with a 14-night stay in one of these

hotels is at least $2,789 — which is almost 17% of the room and board cost for one academic year at FCLC. Additionally, two of the hotels on the list provided are not accepting any reservations until after September due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), and four out of the seven are booked out until at least October.

Students can still locate their own hotel in an area of their choosing, as long as it is not in a restricted state.

NYC Test and Trace Corps has a program, Take Care Hotels, that is available to New Yorkers who test positive and may have been exposed to the virus or for travelers from restricted states.

If a person meets qualifications for the program, the benefits include a 14-day hotel stay, transportation to medical appointments, onsite COVID-19 testing, three meals catered to dietary restrictions, interpreter services and onsite health care services — all free of charge.

Fordham did not make any of this information apparent in emails to students or on its website.

Wilson considered withdrawing from housing and moving off-campus instead to avoid paying for a hotel and to alleviate himself from the stress of the unexpected changes with on-campus living.

COURTESY OF COOPER WILSON

Some students were not wiling to take on the financial burden of a hotel room. Cooper Wilson, FCLC ’23, was fortunate to have a friend offer up his couch in a nearby apartment to quarantine in.

“In the end, one of my friends’ cousins offered up his apartment for us to quarantine, which is realistically the only reason I am able to come back to on campus living,” he said.

Another student, Matthew Kozakowski, FCLC ’21, from California, accepted the incurred costs of staying in a hotel in NYC. Kozakowski was not aware of Take Care Hotels until he received a phone call from the New York state government informing him of the quarantine requirements as an out-of-state traveler. This was after he had already begun his stay in a NYC hotel and paid for the expenses.

Kozakowski said he had a stressful experience booking a hotel and plane ticket last-minute after Fordham’s delayed communication. He didn’t get his housing assignment until Aug. 6, only four days before he was expected to begin the two-week quarantine in order to have it completed by the expected move-in date, Aug. 24.

“I didn’t buy/book anything before I got my housing because there was no guarantee we would be able to return to campus for classes or to the dorms to live,” he said. “I think most people would agree that I’m not going to invest that money and risk losing it.”

To make the process more manageable for students, Kozakowski expressed the need for a checklist sent out to out-of-state students planning on returning.

“That would’ve reduced my stress, put me and my parents at ease in terms of my safety in the city and given me something reliable and official to reference while navigating transcontinental travel during a pandemic,” he said.

Sheridan Tyson, FCLC ’23, is from Chicago, Illinois, and was set to move back to campus until she found out that Illinois was added to the restricted states list on July 28.

Tyson said that her family had previously planned a trip to Nantucket, Massachusetts, at the end of the summer before going back to Fordham. Her family was able to readjust their duration of the trip to stay the extra weeks to quarantine in Massachusetts and then move onto campus.

“I’m really grateful to be in a position where this is not a big financial burden for my family,” she said. “That said, obviously my family is spending more money on just getting me to Fordham (paying those extra days/nights in MA) than we expected.”

Students are also worried about not receiving a partial refund for room and board after the univer-

sity transitions to an online format following Thanksgiving break.

On the website for COVID-19 Updates: Frequently Asked Questions, it says that “The University will refund the housing fees on a pro-rated basis for anyone who moved out in the first 2 weeks of the semester and then refunds will be given according the published refund schedule.”

The refund schedule provides a partial refund up until the fifth week after move-in; following the fifth week there is no refund. However, it is not confirmed whether the university will change its policy given the evolving situation.

“ Transparency is

nothing to be scared of, Fordham. ”

Matthew Kozakowski, FCLC ’21

Kozakowski said he is disappointed by the lack of sensitivity to students’ time and financial situations apparent in Fordham’s communication during these past few months, especially for a Jesuit school that stresses the importance of caring for students.

“Transparency is nothing to be scared of, Fordham,” Kozakowski said.

Despite the inconvenience of traveling from a restricted state, some students say the trouble is worth it.

“I learn so much better in an environment set up for learning, not crammed into my parents’ home,” Wilson said.

Kozakowski, who is a part of the Honors Thesis in Psychology program, said that meeting with advisers, conducting research and collaborating to write the thesis are all necessary for his courses. He was also worried about taking online courses on the West Coast that are conducted in Eastern Time.

“Being three hours behind felt like such a disadvantage when completing the Spring 2020 (semester),” he added.

Tyson said that she hopes to forge stronger bonds with her roommates this year, and coming back will be a big part of that. An even greater motivator for her is the desire to take advantage of NYC. “Since the city is a huge part of the Fordham experience, I decided to go back so I could still enjoy everything the city has to offer,” she said.

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THE OBSERVER August 19, 2020

News

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More Than 300 Students Sign to Lower Tuition Costs

By KATRINA LAMBERT News Editor

Anticipating the unprecedented fall semester, coupled with high financial tensions due to the coronavirus pandemic, 10 Fordham students created a petition to request that the university lower its tuition cost for students taking online courses and to demand that their voices be heard. The petition was emailed to approximately 80 Fordham administrators and Board of Trustees members.

“Though we pushed out this petition at the end of the summer, it has come after many calls, emails and townhalls with Fordham since March,” one of the petition organizers, Tess Gutenbrunner, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’21, said. “The support we have received from students and families has been overwhelming.”

“ They support BLM but

raise tuition which would mainly affect black and brown students. ”

Diane Greg-Uanseru, FCLC ’21

The principal organizer of the petition, Diane Greg-Uanseru, FCLC ’21, said she created the petition after being disappointed in Fordham’s financial response to the fall semester. She said raising tuition during the coronavirus pandemic neglects the disproportionate impact that it will have on students of color.

Because of systemic health and social inequities, such as poverty, inadequate access to health care and occupation in essential work environments, Black and brown communities are at a higher risk of becoming infected by and suffering from the virus.

“They support BLM (Black Lives Matter) but raise tuition which

MADDIE SANDHOLM/THE OBSERVER

would mainly affect black and brown students,” Greg-Uanseru told The Observer.

The petition outlines a list of demands, including a 35% reduction in tuition costs for online students and the removal of the 3.3% tuition rate increase. With the applied reduction, the new price of tuition would be reduced from $54,730 to $35,575 per academic year.

“I looked at what we would be missing as students online: for example, clubs, facilities, etc. ... we thought 35% was a fair reduction as we are still getting classes but not the same quality,” Greg-Uanseru explained.

The full cost of tuition covers colleges’ expenses from operating facilities, such as labs, classrooms, libraries and performing arts spaces, as well as from paying the salaries and benefits of faculty and staff members. With colleges going online for the fall, many students said that they think tuition should be lowered since they won’t be able to take advantage of everything the college offers in-person.

Natural science courses, which charge a lab fee, conducted online will still charge students even though they are unable to use the facility. The petition demands a removal of this lab fee for all science and language courses conducted online.

Since Fordham is employing a hybrid model for the fall semester, some students will have the opportunity to take advantage of these facilities and resources, and Fordham will maintain its general operating budget.

At FCLC, 484 classes have been declared as operating fully online for the fall. There is not yet full data on the modalities of every course, according to Laura Auricchio, dean of FCLC. However, certain classes, such as Dance Technique, are confirmed to be offered only in-person.

“My office is working closely with any student who has reached out to request a change in classes, whether they are seeking a different modality or looking to change courses for other reasons,” Auricchio said.

During the transition to online instruction in the spring 2020 semester, Fordham took on increased costs for technology to support online courses; these costs will further increase, as Fordham plans to improve its online learning resources for students in the fall 2020 semester.

“We did not agree to the proposed plan for the Fall semester, and therefore should not be expected to uphold the same financial commitment,” the petition states.

The petition further demands that the funds saved from Ford-

ham planning to limit group events and postponing the graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020 should be allocated to supplement auxiliary costs used to offset the price of tuition.

The petition also asks that Fordham provide “a detailed and itemized list of how every penny of tuition money will be used.”

Generally, the net price that a student pays for tuition is less than the average published price for tuition and fees. The published price of tuition and fees at Fordham for a full-time student in 2019-20 is $54,730 per year. For a private institution such as Fordham University, the average net price for tuition and fees for the 2019-20 academic year was 40% less than the published “sticker” price.

This net price is the sum of costs a student pays after receiving scholarships, federal or state grants, and aid, which are provided based on a person’s family income bracket.

The net tuition at Fordham University makes up 79.3% of the school’s budget, with the rest of the budget supplemented by housing, dining, bookstores, endowments, government grants and private donations.

Due to the coronavirus, the university will most likely see a severe decrease in students paying for services such as housing and dining.

However, the exact downturn in these numbers is not confirmed yet, according to Peter Feigenbaum, director of the Office of Institutional Research at Fordham University.

The petition acknowledges that tuition makes up a significant part of Fordham’s budget and demands that the university continues to pay staff and faculty fair wages even with a decrease in tuition price.

However, it also requests that the university imposes pay cuts on a sliding scale with the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., and the highest administrators receiving the greatest pay cuts.

“Tuition increases are being justified for maintaining Fordham’s economic well being, while no mentions have been made of pay cuts to

those benefiting the most from high tuition,” the petition states.

In June, Fordham announced that tuition will be raised by 3.33% for the 2020-21 school year. The petition argues that this year’s increase exceeds “the usual rate of inflation for tuition.”

From 2019 to 2020, the rate of inflation decreased from 1.81% to 0.62%; in 2021, it is expected to increase to 2.24%. Colleges generally increase tuition to keep pace with the rate of inflation to pay for higher living and instructional costs.

Since 2010, Fordham’s tuition has been increasing by an average of 3.9% each year. However, the annual rate of inflation over the past 10 years has averaged only a 1.67% increase. Another reason for the high rate of tuition increases are state cuts in funding for higher education, but this rarely affects private institutions like Fordham.

When Fordham announced the tuition increase, another Fordham student had created a different petition in response, requesting Fordham to retract the 3.33% increase, given the tense financial climate. As of now, 615 students have signed that petition. Fordham has not taken any action in response to this petition’s demands.

Since the creation of the most recent petition to lower tuition for online students and retract the 3.33% increase, more than 300 students have signed. Gutenbrunner reported that of the roughly 80 administrators and Board of Trustees members emailed, none have responded to the petition.

The Observer reached out to the university regarding the petition and did not hear back at the time of publication.

“They need to respond, and they need to comply with our demands,” Gutenbrunner said. “The Observer asked us to have empathy for Fordham’s financial situation. Today, we are not asking for empathy; we are demanding action.”

“What is Fordham without its students? Nothing. Listen to us,” she said.

Students Can Leave. Longtime Residents Can’t.

By NICOLE PERKINS Features Editor

In March, among university students being sent home and schools closing, almost 40% of the residents in Lincoln Center’s neighborhood fled the city. As families packed up their belongings and moved to summer homes in Connecticut and New Jersey, those who lived in housing projects such as the Amsterdam Houses — which borders the campus — had to stay as New York became the epicenter of an unprecedented pandemic.

Around the same time in March, ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom, predicted that Manhattan had 4 times less than the number of hospital beds they would need to adequately combat the virus. Manhattan was better off than other areas: in the Bronx, where the virus hit the hardest, they were predicted to have 5.5 times less than the needed beds.

In 2018, there were 1,235,977 total students attending higher education in New York state. At Fordham alone, there are 4,793 students who currently reside in on-campus housing who are now expected to return. This poses a threat not just to students, where school requires more social interaction than staying at home, but to those in the surrounding community who cannot afford to leave.

In the months that in-person classes were not in session, when dorms were vacant and once-bustling streets were eerily empty, 645 people got infected in the 10023 ZIP code, and 54 died. The hospi-

tal closest to campus, Mount Sinai West, faced overflowing beds and a lack of proper personal protective equipment — forcing them to wear garbage bags over their scrubs. The hospital workers did receive proper personal protective equipment only after repeated protests were held and a nurse died of the virus.

One of the nurses said of working on the floor without personal protective equipment, “We know how poorly prepared we are ... We know this is a suicide mission."

Hospitals are also facing financial setbacks from the influx of patients, many of them not privately insured. A privately insured patient is much more attractive, as they earn the hospital two dollars back for every one dollar they spend on emergency care. For a low-income patient, the hospital loses 13 cents per dollar if the patient has Medicare. If not, the hospital pays the entire bill. In both cases, they lose money.

Mount Sinai West is located in a wealthy ZIP code, meaning that more often than not it makes money on its patients. But it also is the closest hospital for the Amsterdam Houses, a housing project between West 61st and 64th Streets, where the community is mostly Black and low-income.

New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complexes reported COVID-19 death rates that were twice that of the average. The Amsterdam Houses saw zero deaths but reported cases in the double digits. Harborview Terrace, a housing project on West 57th Street where more than half of the resi-

dents are elderly, also saw cases in double digits.

A study from the City Comptroller found that “75% of frontline workers in the city are minorities” contributes to the relatively high death toll for Black and Latino people compared to their white counterparts.

This was during the first peak in April and May. Scientists know that the second wave is incoming.

Although the city is currently facing an impressive lull of 1% of tests coming back positive (compared to 7% in Los Angeles), epidemiologists have pointed to places such as South Korea that squashed the disease only to now be facing a sudden resurgence. They know that eventually cases will rise — the question is, are hospitals prepared to handle it again?

A statement from the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) on Aug. 10 deemed COVID-19 a present threat and said that “Our hospitals are still rationing rapid testing reagents, personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes because of federal shortages and persistent supply chain constraints ... Because of the grave risks, NYSNA calls on state and local officials to postpone in-person schooling for the fall.”

Of the recent rise, the New York Times writes, “about 20 percent of new positive cases in New York City have been connected to out-ofstate travel, city officials said … In New York City, neighborhoods with the highest rate of infection are increasingly found in Manhattan —

ANDY BABCOCK/THE OBSERVER

During the first wave of the pandemic, Mount Sinai West, the hospital closest to Fordham Lincoln Center, had their staff wearing garbage bags due to lack of PPE.

Hell’s Kitchen or the Financial District, for example, which are home to wealthier residents.”

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill made all of their classes online a week after the academic year began — and 130 students tested positive for the virus.

Along with changing the mode of learning, officials said that they expected many students to move off-campus again.

Columbia University and Barnard have canceled in-person classes in the fall, with Columbia allowing a small number of students to live in residence halls and Barnard shutting down its housing.

Mayor de Blasio has said he will allow all New York public schools

to operate as long as the current percentage of tests coming back positive remains under 3%, a number that was seconded by Harvard’s Global Health Institute as an upper limit on the metric.

As of now, Fordham is allowing all students with housing to return if they wish, and faculty to decide for themselves if the class will be in person or online. As of August 17, 1,980 classes across the university are operating fully online. Questions remain: What will a second surge look like in the neighborhood? Will Fordham close its doors for a second time? Most importantly: what will happen to the residents who can’t leave, if students pack up their bags once again?

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News

August 19, 2020 THE OBSERVER

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Fordham Details University-Wide Reopening Protocols in Town Hall

By ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS, GILLIAN RUSSO, ALLIE STOFER and EVAN VOLLBRECHT Asst. Photo Editor, Online Editor, Asst. News Editor and IT Manager

On July 30, the Office of the President hosted a series of town halls via Zoom to answer student and parent questions about the fall semester. Faculty and administration discussed modifications to classes, campus life and student conduct and provided new information from the Fordham Forward reopening plan.

COVID-19 Testing and Monitoring The university will conduct free testing for all students, faculty and staff upon their initial arrival to campus, according to Jeffrey Gray, senior vice president for student affairs.

Each Fordham campus will have one COVID-19 testing site through a collaboration with The Broad Institute in Massachusetts. Testing is conducted by appointment, and people will receive their test results after 24 to 48 hours.

Students traveling from states on New York’s mandated quarantine list, as well as any international country, were initially required to get tested during their quarantine period. However, an Aug. 7 email update from the Office of the Dean of Students at Lincoln Center stated that this is no longer required. According to the email, “The University will test these students on campus when they arrive and after their quarantine period and they can enter campus for classes or to move into their residence hall.”

Rose Hill students received the same update.

Students from nonrestrict-

ed states are “strongly encouraged” to present proof of a negative test from 10-14 days prior to their first planned arrival on campus. If they do not have this, Fordham will administer a test.

It is unclear if students will be allowed back on campus before they receive their test results.

Regardless of where the initial test takes place, all returning students will receive a test from Fordham within 14 days of arrival. The university will also conduct “random surveillance testing”; throughout the semester, groups of students will be randomly selected to receive a test.

As previously announced, the university will use the VitalCheck system to monitor the health of all students, faculty and staff. Each user will have an initial 10- to 15-minute telemedicine visit with a doctor upon registration, according to Public Safety Director John Carroll.

Users will then answer a series of health questions via text each day to obtain a pass to enter campus.

Regarding travel, Gray said, “We ask that you engage in travel behavior with prudence and caution.” Anyone who goes off-campus will have to show a VitalCheck pass upon return.

Though Fordham will not restrict interstate travel, Gray discouraged students from traveling to states on the mandatory quarantine list.

Carroll stated that Fordham has purchased 100,000 reusable cotton masks, enough for each student to receive approximately four should they need them.

Keown also encouraged all students to bring their own “go bag” with snacks, Gatorade, a thermometer and Motrin or Tylenol for a fever, to have ready in case they need to quickly isolate.

SCREENSHOTS VIA ZOOM

Father McShane addressed town hall participants at the beginning of the general session. “We wanted to make sure that in this upcoming semester, our students experience the fullness of the Fordham education insofar as that as possible” while also prioritizing health and safety, he said.

Moving In

Quarantine

Students were able deliver belongings to campus from Aug. 7-15, although they are still encouraged to pack lightly in case of changing circumstances. Official move-in will take place between Aug. 22 and 25 as previously announced.

Students can bring up to two helpers on move-in day; these helpers will be allowed in the lobby to help load bins, but not in the rooms.

All rooms have been reportedly cleaned and sanitized.

Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) Dean of Students Keith Eldredge confirmed that Fordham will coordinate with moving companies to deliver belongings in storage to the dorms on Aug. 24 and 25, and Alex Fischer from the Office of Residential Life told students to expect more information on the subject soon.

Students returning to campus from states on the mandatory quarantine list of restricted states, as well as any international country, are required to provide proof of a two-week quarantine before moving in.

A hotel receipt; airline reservation; or the owner’s name, address and arrival date at a private residence in a nonrestricted state will grant access to campus. Pre-move-in quarantine spaces will not be available in the dorms. Dean Christopher Rodgers from Rose Hill reported in the Q&A tab that “New York State requires a single room with a private (not a shared) bathroom to complete quarantine,” and unlike larger schools such as NYU, Fordham does not have enough rooms to accommodate this — even temporarily.

Additional guidelines for quarantining were outlined in a July 31 email.

Rodgers also indicated that Fordham will be watching for any change in the state’s requirements that would allow students to quarantine on campus, and will inform students accordingly.

Late move-ins due to the quarantine requirements will be coordinated through ResLife.

Affected students will be sent an email to sign up for alternative check-in dates.

Students who fall ill and test positive during the semester will be expected to return home if possible, according to the Dean’s Office. If not, they will be isolated in designated spaces on campus and provided with medical oversight through health services, as well as food delivery.

If Fordham’s capacity to quarantine students is exceeded, they will provide additional off-campus accommodations. Students must be in isolation for 10 days and be fever-free for 24 hours before being released.

Additionally, Eldredge wrote in the event’s Q&A, “We will engage in contact tracing to track down anyone who might have been exposed to an infected individual for long enough to have put them at risk of infection, and those students (which will include suitemates) will be asked to quarantine in their apartment for the designated time frame as determined by Student Health Services following DOH guidelines.”

Withdrawal and Housing Refunds

These calendars were provided to show example return schedules for students arriving on campus from states on the non-restricted and restricted states list, respectively. Students should continue to monitor the list as it may change in the coming weeks.

Students have until the start of classes, Aug. 26, to withdraw from housing for the fall. They

may either withdraw entirely and receive a full refund for their room and board costs (excluding the housing deposit), or defer for the fall and be guaranteed housing in the spring, receiving a refund for the fall only. The Dean’s Office also confirmed that if conditions force the university to once again close operations, students will receive prorated refunds for the unused portion of room and board charges at the end of the semester. It is unclear if this means students will be refunded for the period after Thanksgiving break.

Students are permitted to live on campus even if they take all their classes online.

It is unclear whether students whose time in housing must be shortened for reasons other than university closure — including medical reasons, such as illness and quarantine requirements — will be issued a partial refund or lessened housing costs. The Observer reached out to the Office of Residential Life and the Office of Student Financial Services for confirmation, but received no response as of Aug. 16.

“ We’re trying to

balance getting people up and down through our buildings with the safety aspect and making sure that we’re doing it safely. ”

John Puglisi, Associate vice president for facilities management

Facilities According to John Puglisi, associate vice president for facilities management, facilities at the Lincoln Center campus have been prepared to receive students in a safe way that will accommodate social distancing and meet the necessary ventilation standards.

Elevator policy is particularly important at Lincoln Center, where “there is a very heavy reliance on vertical transportation.”

In accordance with guidance from the state, the elevator capacity will be limited to six occupants per car in the Lowenstein Center, and four occupants in the 140 West Building. Elevator riders will be expected to wear masks (as required in all common areas of the campus), face forward and remain silent while in the elevator.

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“We’re trying to balance getting people up and down through our buildings with the safety aspect and making sure that we’re doing it safely. It’s obviously not an optimal situation,” Puglisi said, but the department is confident in the safety of its approach.

Campus buildings will have 24-hour ventilation, a distributed air system and “near-medical grade quality” filtration units to “maintain a high level of indoor air quality.”

All campus facilities including libraries and study spaces will be opened, barring any changes to directives from New York State. The school will make sure that common areas, potentially including vacant event spaces, are available to commuters for study, according to Puglisi, Gray and Associate Dean Robert Moniot.

These spaces will have limited capacity to ensure that de-densification and social distancing is maintained. The school is working on making lockers available to commuter students as they have been previously.

Outdoor spaces will be open and available. Gyms, including the fitness center, are closed pending a green light from the state government. All dining spaces will be open but modified to satisfy New York state guidelines. This includes physical adjustments to furniture spacing and reducing the capacity of interior areas, as well as extending dining to tents outdoors. To avoid the hazards of self-service, all meals will be served by staff or prepackaged.

With regards to classrooms, Puglisi said, “We have removed quite a bit of classroom furniture to enable everybody to spread out,” and the school will provide hand sanitizer and “access to hand washing facilities in copious amounts.” In shared dorm bathrooms and common spaces, students are expected to maintain safety and social distancing measures. “A lot of this is going to come down to the goodwill of our students,” Gray said.

In an email regarding facilities operations from the Office of the President sent on Aug. 4, the university also addressed increased disinfecting procedures by Custodial Services, particularly at high-risk contact areas.

Fordham will also be “providing wipes and other appropriate disinfecting materials with the expectation that the students will wipe down desks, shared equipment, and other contact surfaces before and/ or after class,” as well as set-

THE OBSERVER August 19, 2020

Auricchio spoke with Rebecca Stark-Gendrano and Mica McKnight, assistant dean for juniors and transfer students and assistant dean for sophomores, respectively. Both assured listeners that they are available and working hard to answer students’ questions. They also noted that the add-drop period will proceed as usual until Sep. 3.

ting up “transparent barriers in locations where social distancing cannot be maintained and where face-to-face interactions with visitors or potentially COVID-impacted individuals take place.”

The email also included information about modified procedures for picking up mail and packages, using public restrooms, riding the Ram Van and maneuvering in high traffic areas on campus.

The latter will be facilitated using “associated floor markings, directional signage, and modifying stairway directions to minimize potential face-to-face exposure” as well as designated “enter” and “exit” doors.

If a student is found to be in violation of the Ram Pledge and campus rules regarding pandemic safety, students will be subject to disciplinary measures via the established conduct process “designed to educate people around boundaries and community standards,” Gray said at the town hall.

“We will enforce those policies in the same way we enforce other policies.”

On Aug. 14, Fordham sent out a COVID-19 Orientation Module for students to complete, including a document entitled “Community Safety Expectations for Students.”

In addition to outlining previously announced disciplinary procedures, the document read: “Students should be aware that New York City Police Officers, at their discretion, will intervene when students are observed to be engaging in unlawful conduct and may confiscate their student identification cards.

“At the same time, the officer will make a report as to

the behavior of the student and submit both the card(s) and the report(s) to the Fordham Department of Public Safety.

Students who have been apprehended in violation of the law should be able to retrieve their IDs at the Department of Public Safety no later than one day after the violation.

“NYPD reports may be sent to the Office of the Dean of Students for the campus and the student may be held responsible through the Student Conduct Process.”

“ This will not be

last semester’s online learning. ”

Laura Auricchio, Dean of FCLC

Employment and Internships Brian Ghanoo from Financial Aid confirmed that while the campus is open, work-study positions will remain available.

Dean of FCLC Laura Auricchio noted that all student workers who can work remotely are encouraged to do so.

Career Services will be open and working in-person, but will provide and expand virtual internship opportunities in addition to existing in-person opportunities. The Ram Van will remain in operation with a normal schedule at half capacity, and students with internships will have priority. All passengers will be required to wear face coverings.

Clubs and Events Both clubs and events will proceed as usual, with safety measures in place. Clubs are encouraged to continue operation in the fall, and budget requests may still be submitted, but according to John Carroll, the ability to keep them running will “depend on your cooperation.”

Events such as New Student Orientation and Family Weekend, all club meetings and activities are expected to “be supplemented with virtual components.” In addition, all in-person meetings, events or activities must require masks, social distancing and caps on attendance. Off-campus events will be expected to follow the same procedures. Specific guidelines will be available shortly, online and by email.

Classes and the Flexible Hybrid Model As the beginning of the fall semester approaches, students were given the choice between online or hybrid classes. Students were being asked to fill out an online survey by Aug. 6 if they are choosing to only take online classes. Faculty were also allowed to determine how they prefer to hold their classes. As of Aug. 10, 74% of classes on the Lincoln Center campus will be fully online, excluding the Gabelli School of Business.

Online courses will have both synchronous and asynchronous components, according to Auricchio. Additionally, since online classes do not pose the difficulty of distance, all core classes can be taken at either campus.

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5

Online classes will not have additional seats added. The caps will remain the same to allow professors to give students adequate attention, according to Associate Dean Robert Moniot.

“Do reach out to us, don’t be afraid and we will try to accommodate you as best as possible,” Assistant Dean for Sophomores Mica McKnight said.

For hybrid courses, Fordham’s provided training to over 500 faculty members about how to design a hybrid course so that faculty can easily switch between online and in-person coursework.

“This will not be last semester’s online learning,” Auricchio said.

Due to a need for social distancing in hybrid courses, most classes will not be able to meet fully in person. The class capacity is being reduced to roughly a third for in-person classes.

Auricchio explained that many faculty members may choose to do online only as the segmented classes require only half the class to come for half of the class period and then switch or switch days during which half of the class is in-person.

Classes that are held off-campus can meet at any facility that complies with the New York guidelines, according to Jason Morris, the outgoing chair of the natural sciences department.

Many aspects of a Fordham education will return to normal, according to the faculty on the Zoom. Dean for juniors and transfer students Rebecca Stark-Gendrano explained that the add/drop period will proceed as normal, concluding on Sept. 3. Additionally, students will not have the same opportunity to declare all of their classes pass/fail this semester, according to Moniot.

Students will still be able to receive academic help from their professors and the writing center throughout the semester. Professors will hold office hours either virtually or in-person. Additionally, the Writing Center and tutoring will be available online, with Fordham College at Rose Hill and Fordham College at Lincoln Center joining forces.

If a student's financial situation has changed, they can contact Assistant Dean for Student Support and Success Tracyann Williams. Williams can help students appeal for additional financial aid and help them make use of the emergency funds that are available for students.

For additional information, including protocols specific to departments within Fordham Lincoln Center, visit fordhamobserver.com.

Donna Rapaccioli, dean of the Gabelli School of Business, shared and presented a PowerPoint including an overview of the reopening process and the f lexible hybrid learning model, as illustrated by these diagrams.

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News

August 19, 2020 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

Tightening the Circle: Police’s New Tactics in LC Neighborhood

Amid national protests, calls to defund the police and rises in tension, security efforts soar around the city

By GABE SAMANDI News Editor Emeritus

Six years before George Floyd begged for his life with the words “I can’t breathe,” the phrase was a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement after a New York Police Department (NYPD) officer killed an unarmed Black man, Eric Garner, on Staten Island.

As the sole police department for the most densely populated city in the United States, the NYPD is responsible for a massive law enforcement operation, including protection for visiting heads of state, enforcement of vagrancy and loitering laws, terrorism prevention, and citation of unlicensed street vendors.

Amid a slew of New York City budget cuts and national calls to defund the police, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans in late June to cut $1 billion from the NYPD, shrinking the department’s current operating budget by about one-sixth.

According to The New York Times, the cut will halt plans to hire additional officers, as well as shift police resources away from enforcing laws on homelessness, illegal vending, and school safety.

The changes come during a summer marked by widespread distrust in the police, citizens engaging in protests since late May and extensive public discourse on police abolition throughout social media.

Conspiracy theories about

police tactics circulated social media in July, including one that alleged that police were engaging in “psyops warfare” against residents by launching fireworks at night to desensitize people for an impending “invasion.”

Police have also been accused of expressing hostility toward residents. One anonymous NYPD officer admitted that the department has been refusing to enforce some laws, such as noise complaints and the ban on illegal fireworks, after the surge in calls to “defund the police.”

In June, NYPD cars were shown on video driving directly into a crowd of protesters in Brooklyn. Over the course of the summer, organizers have utilized social media to gather hundreds of videos of police across the country provoking peaceful protesters.

Reported crime has also increased this summer in comparison with last year; according to the NYPD, there were 244 shootings in July 2020, compared to just 88 in July 2019, a 177% increase.

One Fordham College Lincoln Center alumna now potentially faces life in prison for throwing a Molotov cocktail into an abandoned police cruiser.

There has also been an extreme increase in unemployment since the start of the pandemic. Compared to last summer, unemployment has risen 2,637%.

PHOTOS BY GABE SAMANDI/THE OBSERVER

New York City is vibrant with monuments, murals and dedications to Black Americans and the Black Lives Matter movement. While the outer boroughs are decorated with dozens of new murals, graffiti and public messages, the area surrounding Fordham Lincoln Center — like much of Manhattan — is decorated mostly by privately owned displays of support, such as this installation on 65th Street.

Throughout the summer, police barricades have been placed to block off key streets, city landmarks and privately owned spaces. In late June, police would occasionally close the streets around Columbus Circle, with patrol units encircling the landmark for several blocks. In August, these spare barricades sit unused in clusters around the intersection.

For many years, there has been heavy police presence in the area surrounding Lincoln Center, but students might now notice larger groups of police on patrol. On occasion, officers have recently exhibited signs of stress or distrust, silently watching individuals or walking with their hands on their weapons.

Fordham students may notice certain streets or intersections barricaded off by police upon their return to New York (such as West 54th Street between Eighth Avenue and Ninth Avenue, pictured above).

The friction between police and civilians has led to some members of the NYPD wading into national politics. In mid-August, the union for NYPD officers, the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), endorsed President Donald Trump; this is the first time the organization has ever endorsed a presidential candidate.

The PBA, which represents more than 50,000 retired and current NYPD officers, has also taken an active role in disparaging Black Lives Matter activists on the national level, posting controversial content on social media and rallying against the

New York City is one of a handful of major cities in the United States to protect its monument to Christopher Columbus. Cities that have removed monuments to Columbus — or had protesters tear his statue down — include San Fransisco, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Richmond.

movement during public events throughout the summer.

As Fordham Lincoln Center students return to campus, they may notice an increased police presence in the neighborhood surrounding the university. The most notable change for Fordham students is Columbus Circle.

While the Christopher Columbus statue — sitting just in front of the Trump International Hotel — has always been overseen by police, it has become more heavily guarded in recent months after many Columbus and confederate statues have been forcefully removed by protesters.

During the campus virtual

town hall regarding campus reopening for the 2020-21 school year, John Carroll, Associate Vice President for Fordham Public Safety and former NYPD officer, stated that campus security was working closely with the NYPD to ensure the safety of students on campus. Public Safety employs many former or retired NYPD officers — this fact makes many students uncomfortable. Among the petitions circulating the Fordham community, students released a petition for Fordham to cut ties with the NYPD two months ago.

This petition has garnered over 3,000 signatures.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER August 19, 2020

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Fordham Clubs Join Forces With USG To Pledge Anti-Discrimination Action

By MICHELLE AGARON Asst. News Editor

As the United States navigates a period of great change with the coronavirus and widespread conversation sparked by Black Lives Matter protests, student leaders are looking internally to create change.

Fordham clubs and organizations have been reimagining and reforming their established practices in response to a collective call for the inclusion and execution of anti-discrimination and anti-racism on campus.

On July 18, the United Student Government (USG) at Lincoln Center released a statement and anti-discrimination pledge on Instagram called “Start With Us” encouraging student leaders to sign the pledge and formalize their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

USG cited the “traumatizing, uncomfortable, and valid experiences” students have shared on the Instagram accounts @letstalkaboutitfordham and @blackatfordham about discriminatory treatment within various Fordham departments as the basis for their pledge.

The pledge details five points which USG promises to maintain as they continue to hold themselves accountable; USG stresses the rejection and fight against hateful actions such as perpetuating stereotypes, minimizing and comparing oppression and traumas, making disparaging comments against organizations associated with minorities, performing hate crimes or other displays of discrimination and promoting any individuals who violate these mandates.

USG representatives also listed pursuing divestment from Aramark, creating a bias concern form, constructing meaningful anti-racist programming and looking into incident reporting systems as simultaneous goals.

“As student leaders of USGLC, we wanted to demonstrate our leadership by proactively stepping up against all forms of discrimination on campus, and encouraging others to do the same,” Loreen Ruiz, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’21 and president of USG, said.

“Students ought to know that we are allies for all students, and that our allyship is reflected not only in our written speech, but also our actions and mentality.”

A list of Fordham clubs and organizations that signed the pledge was released in an Instagram post on Aug. 10. As of Aug. 16, 24 out of the 60 groups on the Lincoln Center campus have committed themselves to these five tenets. A few of these groups include Commuting Students Association (CSA), FLOW, the Filipino Club at Lincoln Center and Wavelengths, a student-run radio station.

CSA, an organization that represents and advocates for undergraduate commuters at Lincoln Center, has shifted its focus to anti-racist and anti-discrimination efforts and amplifying the voices of groups on campus such as the Black Student Alliance at Lincoln Center or ASILI at Rose Hill.

“The ultimate goal is not only being consistent with our progress within this academic year, but to take this pledge that we swore to to heart and allow the anti-discrimination work to become a part of our yearly work instead of a temporary accessory,” said Hannah Kang, FCLC ’22 and president of CSA. Kang also mentioned that CSA recently joined an inter-campus coalition called Fordham Initiative for Race Equity (F.I.R.E.), which combines the “Big 4” of Lincoln Center, including USG, CSA, Residence Hall Association (RHA) and Campus Activity Board (CAB), and the corresponding Rose Hill orga-

nizations. The main goal of this coalition is to be actively pro-Black and support ASILI in having all of its anti-racist demands met.

Individually, CSA plans to host more dinner and recreational outings outside of Manhattan to engage with and support local businesses, purchase catering and other programming items from Black and non-Black People of Color-owned New York City businesses and host fundraiser events to support neighboring boroughs and communities.

CSA is also dedicated to using their growing platform to amplify and promote events on campus hosted

by Lincoln Center’s cultural clubs.

“We are committed to being there for all identities within our organization and outside of our organization. In the classrooms, in communal spaces, in work spaces, in study spaces, and in the dining halls, we are going to be there for them 100% of the way,” Kang said.

For Regine Anastacio, FCLC ’21 and president of FLOW, publicly committing to anti-racism was important seeing as the Filipino Club already serves as a space for inclusion, safety and support for Filipinos and Filipino allies. She emphasized the need to extend the love and support within the FLOW group to the entire Fordham community.

During the month of October, Filipino American History Month, FLOW will be paying homage to the Black Lives Matter movement through an online panel. Anastacio stated that the histories of the Black and Filipino communities were intertwined during the civil rights movement and the Philippine-American War, binding the struggles and liberations of the two groups. FLOW will also be hosting a talk discussing the influence of Black artists on popular music genres.

Wavelengths, an entirely student-run radio station, aims to amplify the voices of Black, Indig-

COURTESY OF USG LINCOLN CENTER

In an effort to establish anti-discrimination and anti-racism practices on campus, USG released a pledge detailing their commitment to diversity and inclusion. This pledge encourages all student leaders and organizations on campus to join in and do the same.

enous, People of Color (BIPOC) through the medium of music. To diversify the content of their radio station, the staff of Wavelengths plans to host a series of live sets featuring music exclusively created

by BIPOC artists.

“Music has long been an outlet for the oppressed to raise awareness of their personal experiences and to allow listeners to show solidarity with the artists they listen to,” said Caitlin Bury, FCLC ’22, who is the social media manager of Wavelengths and multimedia editor emerita of The Observer. “We want to encourage all our DJ’s to use their platform and music choices to advocate for social changes

they believe in.”

Bury said that a year from now, she hopes Wavelengths will be one of the most diverse groups on Lincoln Center’s campus, despite Lincoln Center’s historically majority-white student body.

Given the initial positive reaction and growing number of signees, Ruiz said she is feeling optimistic about working towards and creating a more equitable campus.

“We believe that clubs will take a common sense approach to upholding the five tenets of the pledge, and we hope that they are a tool for them to center their thinking and planning as we move towards the beginning of a new year.”

Employees Release Statement on Caregiver Support CAREGIVERS from page 1

Fordham employees with children will be balancing their students and their families’ education this semester. The NYC Department of Education’s fall plan lays out a hybrid model where students will be spending the majority of the school week learning remotely at home. Many schools will not reopen in-person, leaving parents responsible for providing care for at-home students.

Others are also caring for elderly or disabled family members who may have been impacted by COVID-19.

“Our group shared feelings of failure and despair around their

multiple caregiving roles: we felt torn between our students and our families and our communities, and devastated and afraid that we couldn't give any one of those important roles all the attention,” Margaret Schwartz, associate professor of communication and media studies, said.

The email was sent to University President Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dennis Jacobs, Vice President for Human Resources Kay Turner, Vice President for Mission Integration and Planning Michael C. McCarthy, S.J., and the deans at both Lincoln Center and Rose Hill.

Organizing began in March

through a listserv, an email list communication, where faculty and administrators shared their situations. “We acknowledged how much we all were struggling with the challenging situation of caring for small children at home while also teaching full-time,” Kasten said.

Many employees started learning what their children’s fall plans would be in July, making planning for the fall more complicated. Several employees created a listserv for caregivers to widen the range of perspectives.

“The listserv crucially included/invited staff and Service Employees International Union faculty as well as tenured and

MADDIE SANDHOLM/THE OBSERVER

More than 280 Fordham employees signed and sent a statement regarding COVID-19 and care work on Tuesday, Aug. 4, addressing Fordham’s “lack of attention to race, class and gender disparities among employees” in its reopening plan.

tenure-track faculty, allowing us to build solidarity across departments and roles,” Diana Kamin, a lecturer in the communication and media studies department, said.

The staff and faculty who collectively worked on the statement recommended nine further steps of action to aid employees beyond the ability for instructors to choose their preferred method of class instruction — including fully online.

“Now that we can choose our modality, we would like the university at the very least to recognize the burdens put on caregivers.

Even better, they could commit to some structural changes with research funding,” Kasten said.

Recommendations include Fordham issuing a public statement recognizing the mounting burden of care work in the age of pandemic, allowing employees to continue working from home until there is a vaccine or consistently effective treatment — instead of deciding on a semester-by-semester basis — and creating an emergency dependent care fund for all employees.

According to Karina Hogan, associate professor of theology, faculty are currently not allowed to spend research grant money on dependent care, even though she said uninterrupted time is needed to complete research.

“We are being asked to spend our time this summer preparing to teach in a new hybrid model, while also (many of us) trying to keep our kids occupied, all the while the clock is ticking on our research grants or our tenure clocks,” Hogan said.

The statement also requests continued support of employees conducting research and halting nonessential committee work at

all levels of the university.

Organizers called for a suspension of Students’ Evaluation of Educational Quality (SEEQ) Surveys, which are influential in determining whether an instructor’s contract is renewed for the upcoming academic year.

“Students may not know that SEEQS can play an enormous role in how contract instructors are hired and how tenure and promotion is evaluated for tenure track employment,” Schwartz said.

“We feel that the most vulnerable instructors (those with carework responsibilities and without tenure) should not be judged solely based on student perceptions of how they handled teaching in these extraordinary circumstances,” Hogan explained.

Developing a committee for the 2021-22 academic year is another request with the intent to reevaluate departmental norms for tenure, promotion and retention in light of the pandemic and increased role of caregivers. The final recommendation urges Fordham to create long-term, institutionalized and financial solutions to provide affordable child care for all Fordham employees.

“Fordham doesn’t offer faculty housing or on-site daycare services, either. For those of us who have to spend long hours on commute and have to pay full fee to babysitters, etc, working at Fordham has been challenging physically and financially,” Asato Ikeda, assistant professor of art history, said.

“At minimum, we expect a statement from the upper administration acknowledging the exceptional strain that the pandemic puts on caregivers, and the unequally distributed burden of carework in our society,” Hogan said.

Sports & Health Editors Aiza Bhuiyan - ebhuiyan@fordham.edu Patrick Moquin - pmoquin@fordham.edu

Sports & Health

August 19, 2020

What Social Distanced Dorm Life Will Look Like

By LUKE OSBORN Sports & Health Editor Emeritus

Fordham has reopened its residence halls to students for the fall semester. Since the university plans on filling residence halls according to their regular capacity, the return of residential life raises questions about what social distancing and COVID-19 prevention measures will look like in the dorms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published guidelines for universities regarding the reopening of college residence halls. Within these guidelines are three tiers of risk that universities may incur by choosing to reopen or not.

The “lowest risk” plan of operation involves closing the residential halls completely. The next tier, in which residence halls operate at a lower capacity and without shared spaces, incurs more risk. Finally, the “highest risk” tier includes fully occupied residence halls with communal spaces accessible to residents.

Fordham lies somewhere between the latter two tiers because the university plans on allowing students to reside in on-campus dorms, but only time will tell at what capacity. Jenifer Campbell, senior director of residential life, did not respond to The Observer’s request for comment.

There are two residence halls at Fordham Lincoln Center: McKeon Hall and McMahon Hall. McKeon Hall, which comprises the top 12 floors of the Law School Building and was completed in 2014, houses about 425 first-year students in two- or three-person rooms. McMahon Hall is a larger residence

GABE SAMANDI/THE OBSERVER

The residence halls will be open and occupied this semester, although it is unclear at what capacity. Extracurricular programming for residents will take place virtually and/or in spaces that allow for social distancing.

hall with apartment-style dorms, each equipped with a kitchen and living space. Students can choose to live in a single or double room within a two- or three-bedroom apartment.

Both residence halls have shared spaces in the form of laundry rooms and study lounges, although McKeon has more specialized communal spaces in the form of a dance lounge, game lounge, movie lounge and full kitchen.

It’s unclear as to what extent these shared spaces will be open to students. According to a recent email from Laura Auricchio, dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC), shared study areas, in the form of unused class-

rooms and library spaces, will be available to both commuter and resident students.

The limits placed on communal spaces poses concerns for programming regularly put on by resident assistants (RAs) and resident freshman mentors (RFMs).

This programming included events about mental health and stress management as well as check-ins for residents.

“We’re going to utilize online platforms for programming instead of the in-person programming,” said Matthew Skibiel, FCLC ’21, an RA at Fordham Lincoln Center. Alternatively, programming may also take place in “areas where it’s more plausible that we can actually so-

cially distance.”

Nevertheless, if shared spaces are available to students in the dorms, the CDC recommends placing COVID-19 prevention supplies, like 60% alcohol-based hand sanitizers and face masks, in those areas to encourage safety in those environments. The university has said that they will provide four washable face coverings at no charge for students.

Visitation poses social distance problems as well; therefore, the university has suspended visitation of non-Fordham individuals. More broadly, the administration has stated that “visitation will be limited and capped.”

A recent post from Fordham

THE OBSERVER

Simplified on Instagram shed some more light on the visitation policies. This account, which is run by “an informal student organization,” presented information stemming from an anonymous tip.

According to the account owner, several Rose Hill RAs undergoing their training for the upcoming fall disclosed this information to Fordham Simplified.

Residential Life staff and the Fordham administration have not confirmed the claims made on this account at the time of publication.

According to the post, movement of residents will be limited between residence halls; that is, residents will only be able to access their own residence hall, not any other. Fordham will station guards at residence halls in order to enforce this rule.

The CDC’s guidelines regarding visitation do not directly stipulate that movement of students between residence halls needs to be limited, but the policy will likely prevent COVID-19 from spreading from one residence building to another.

Beyond visitation, Fordham has expressed the imperative of wearing masks on campus. The same rule likely applies to residents, unless they are in their own dorm room, according to Skibiel.

Much of the specific information regarding day-to-day dorm life is still unavailable, even though classes are starting next week. In the meantime, students can refer to updates from the Office of Residential Life and the administration, as well as the CDC guidelines for living in shared housing to prepare for a safe transition to on-campus housing.

A Cautious Return to Campus: Fordham’s Preventative Measures

VITALCHECK from page 1

Students can adjust when they receive the notification. VitalCheck can additionally be accessed via email if the user chooses.

When accessing VitalCheck, users will be asked whether they’ve experienced a list of COVID-19 symptoms, such as a cough, chills, fever, shortness of breath, or loss of sense of taste and smell; whether they’ve been traveling from a state with increasing infection rates; or whether they’ve been in contact with someone who has recently tested positive for COVID-19.

Mask wearing will be required on campus in a combined effort to not only limit the spread and transmission of respiratory droplets but also to reduce the chances of asymptomatic individuals from inadvertently infecting others.

Wearing a mask has proven to be one of the most effective methods of preventing transmission of the virus and is highly recommended.

The mask blocks a person’s mouth and nose from releasing potentially COVID-19-laden respiratory droplets. Social distancing will also be enforced on campus, with all classes and gathering areas on campus requiring all community members to keep at least six feet away from each other.

Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends keeping at least six feet apart from others, some studies have found at least 3 feet as effective enough. Other studies have found the opposite, recommending at least 10 feet to sufficiently prevent risk of infection from others.

Robert Dineen, director of Public Safety at Lincoln Center, said that the university has ordered over 100,000 masks and that all community members will be given

four for free, in addition to disposable face coverings for guests and visitors.

The university’s enforcement of mask wearing is in line with CDC guidelines for monitoring potential asymptomatic individuals, which recommend routinely testing all inhabitants in a communal setting.

VitalCheck offers two options to respond: “no to all above” or “yes to some of the above.” Eldredge described that if the latter is selected, VitalCheck will ask them to confirm before connecting them to a doctor via a telehealth meeting — an online call with an accredited physician.

Fordham originally planned on checking everyone’s temperature when they enter campus but switched to VitalCheck in order to provide easier access to medical help for concerned community members.

“Rather than saying ‘alright, go figure it out,’ we just want students to contact a medical professional,” Eldredge said. “The VitalCheck gives you a quick and easy system to schedule a telehealth with a doctor right then.”

Eldredge clarified that the university would not receive any personal details if a student reports symptoms on VitalCheck, saying “all we get is ‘student is cleared’ or ‘student is not cleared.’”

Public Safety will also be overseeing if students have been cleared through VitalCheck, according to Eldredge.

“There’s an automatic feed between the VitalCheck database system for both employees and students (and) Fordham’s ID card system. So just like how you normally take your Fordham ID and put it near the card reader, Public Safety will know if you’re both registered for classes and are cleared by Vital-

Check to enter campus for the day.”

Fordham staff members are also using VitalCheck. “Every Fordham employee went or is going through a telemed visit with doctors, and (is) self reporting their physical health via VitalCheck each day,” Dineen stated over email.

VitalCheck isn’t the only preventative measure taken on campus.

All spaces on campus are also being rearranged to allow for social distancing, with classes being reduced and students spread six feet apart from each other in all social and academic areas. “In any situation where you’re congregated for 10 minutes or more, you’ll be staying six feet apart,” Eldredge said.

Jet hand dryers, which have been found to help spread the coronavirus, have been shut off and replaced with paper towels to reduce the virus’s chances of spreading.

All incoming students and faculty have also been required to get tested for COVID-19 at least a week before coming to campus. The initial screenings will be followed by periodic testing of the Fordham community in order to screen for asymptomatic individuals.

Fordham partnered with the Broad Institute to offer testing on campus. University Health Services staff will be administering the tests, and the Health Centers on both campuses will have different staff.

COVID-19 tests are already being conducted on campus. Olive Zoda, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23, received a test in a reserved room in McMahon Hall. “They didn’t tell me a specified time range but other people I know said they were told 48 hours,” Zoda said.

Students returning to campus have had different responses to

Fordham’s precautions. Max Balanevsky, Gabelli School of Business (GSB) ’22, felt that the risk of COVID-19 spreading on campus is already limited due to reduced dorm and class sizes.

“I can’t speak to the student body in general, but I, along with most of the people that I know are almost entirely online,” Balanevsky, who has only one class scheduled to meet in-person, said. Balanevsky expressed anxiety over how the first few weeks will unfold, saying, “we’ll have to see what life

GILLIAN RUSSO/THE OBSERVER

The VitalCheck database is connected to Fordham’s ID card system so Public Safety can see if you’ve been cleared to enter campus.

on campus actually looks like when things kick off in a few weeks, but I am not optimistic it will go well.”

Balanevsky’s fears are not without precedent. The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill originally reopened its campus, only to witness a surge of cases in student housing and dorm rooms after only a week. UNC will now be conducting all classes online.

However, Ishaan Maisuria, GSB ’22, didn’t understand why the campus was reopening when many classes have already been moved online, saying, “it should only be kids who need to do in person labs who should be going to campus.”

Maisuria will be taking all of his classes online from home.

Eldredge acknowledged the

very real possibility of a community member becoming infected. “I’d say it’s almost inevitable that we’re going to have a member of the community — student or employee — test positive,” Eldredge said, assuring that affected community members would be quarantined and regularly checked to assure their own health.

Regardless of what measures are put in place, Eldredge stressed students’ responsibilities to adhere to social distancing guidelines, both on and off campus. “We can have all the policies, procedures and protocols that the university wants to have,” Eldredge said. “But we’ll still need the cooperation of the university community.”

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER August 19, 2020

Sports & Health

The 1942 Sugar Bowl and the Tragedy of Fordham Football

9

Despite torrential downpour, Rams beat Missouri 2-0 for first (and only) bowl win

By OWEN ROCHE Business Manager

2-0. Two to nothing.

The lowest possible scoring combination in the game of American football isn’t usually grounds for classification as “the outstanding triumph of Fordham athletic history,” in the words of one Fordham Ram reporter. But it was.

Three fumbles, two interceptions, one safety — and zero Fordham passing yards. Nothing about this game was ordinary.

Despite America’s declaration of war on Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor only three weeks prior, the game was played on schedule. It was New Year’s Day, 1942. The climax of the 1941 football season. A cold, driving rainstorm turned the field to a veritable marsh and the die-hard crowd above to a sea of umbrellas.

It was the eighth annual Sugar Bowl, then one of the newest premiere collegiate football championships. The seventh-ranked Missouri Tigers assembled at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans to thwart the sixth-ranked Fordham Rams.

This was Fordham’s second bowl game in as many years, the first a heartbreaking 13-12 loss to Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.

The Rams had a decade’s worth of success behind them.

Having already accepted the invitation to the 1942 Sugar Bowl, Fordham was even forced to turn down a second bowl game invite that same year, this time to the Rose Bowl.

Fordham football was that good — and as it turns out, they’d never be better.

The height of Fordham’s storied era as a college football powerhouse was realized that day to the strange tune of a single safety — an uncontrollable slide in the mud through the back of the end zone for two points. Stranger still, this football pinnacle in all respects marks the great, unredeemed decline of the gridiron Rams.

Fordham’s biggest victory on its biggest stage to date happened beneath the backdrop of an even greater test of grit and faith — on a stage far larger. Two to nothing.

An American beginning; a Fordham end. A triumph gone stale before the last hard-fought minute was played. Three fumbles, two interceptions, one safety — and one world at war.

On Dec. 21, 1941, 30-odd players, coaches and sportswriters departed from Penn Station, arriving in New Orleans two days later.

The team practiced twice a day, every day — save for a reprieve on Christmas — leading up to the big New Year’s game. Students tuned in to the NBC Blue Network for the call, live on the radio from Louisiana. Kickoff slowly neared, and as the 66,000 spectators in attendance looked heavenward, the first drops began to fall.

“By now, everyone including Premier Tojo ought to know that during the contest, the Sugar Bowl was drenched by three tropical showers,” The Ram reported.

This commentary appears on page three of the Jan. 9 issue of the newspaper. Page one is dominated by the headlines “College Considers Three-Year Plan For Degrees,” “Buy a Bomber” and “Fr. Tynan Promoted To Lieutenant-Colonel.”

The staff message, page two, calls for a student-funded memorial for the alumni already killed in the Pacific theater and the countless more to come.

“Before the war is over the litany of the Fordham dead may be large,” it reads. “It is a grim thought and one that is not pleasant to express. But it is true.”

Through the rain and mud, the first quarter of the 1942 Sugar Bowl began with a Missouri three-and-out and an equally unsuccessful Fordham drive. The elements severely hampered both teams’ visibility, something Fordham capitalized on in the ensuing Tigers possession. A Missouri fumble, recovered for a nine-yard loss deep in their own territory, set up their second straight punt of the game.

One year later, the Rams would be unranked in national polls for the first time since the practice began seven years prior.

The war effort would consume the attention and enthusiasm of the United States, and the Fordham football program would be left in the dust. As administrators mulled expedited programs to get Fordham students off to the front, alumni were already fighting and dying overseas.

Missouri lined up for its second consecutive punt of the 1942 Sugar Bowl at its own 10-yard line.

The rain was unrelenting, however, and a momentary fumble from the Tigers’ kicker gave Al Santilli, Fordham College (FC) ’42, just enough time to break through the left side of the Missouri line.

Driving through the muck, Santilli struggled to find purchase in the sloughing ground, and leapt — far enough and high enough to block the punt off his chest.

The crowd must have erupted.

The ball careened into the end zone, and the 22 men on the field raced towards it. Fordham’s own and Missouri’s finest fell over each other, single-mindedly pursuing the live football, wobbling erratically towards the sideline.

The Rams’ defensive end, Stanley Ritinski, FC ’43, led the charge. He knew the stakes: Recovering the blocked kick meant an early Fordham touchdown — seven points and first blood in a game that the weather would not permit to be very high-scoring at all.

Falling to the ground, Ritinski skidded through the end zone after the ball, juggling it in his hands before finally controlling it as he crossed the back of the end zone, coming to rest out of bounds.

One wonders if the young men assembled that day knew the significance of the moment they were living. Did they know what the years would bring? Did a lull in the action bring enlistment worries and Navy transfer papers back to the forefront of consciousness? Did they know that, in that very Louisiana quagmire, Fordham football would hold tight — if only for a moment — to its brightest hour? Or was the 1942 Sugar Bowl already lost to the footnotes of time, sucked into the black hole of war looming on the horizon even as they lived it?

The Rams’ celebration of Ritinski’s touchdown was, unfortunately, short-lived. Referee William Halloran tempered the heart-pumping early-game Fordham score with his final ruling: Ritinski did not have possession of the ball until after he slid through the back of the end zone.

Not a touchdown, but a safety.

Fordham 2, Missouri 0.

It would remain this way for the next 54 mud-soaked minutes of the game. The highly anticipated explosion of offense from the two talented teams fizzled in the Louisiana deluge. Three fumbles, two interceptions, one safety — and zero Fordham passing yards.

Rams win. 2-0.

It doesn’t matter how good a college football program is. It doesn’t matter how storied its greatness may be. Fordham —

CHARLES L. FRANCK PHOTOGRAPHERS COLLECTION, THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION, 1979.89.7122

The Fordham football team won the 1942 Sugar Bowl with the lowest possible score of two points to the Missouri Tigers’ zero.

and its students — knew where their priorities lay. By year’s end, Fordham football had lost many of its own stars to military colleges, where the ex-Rams continued their passion for football before shipping out with the Army or the Navy.

1942 began with a historic win for the program, but it ended with a win against many of their own.

In the last game of the Rams’ season, Jimmy Crowley — now Lt. Commander Jimmy Crowley — led the North Carolina Pre-Flight School Cloudbusters against the Fordham team he had coached for eight years. Eleven former Rams and three former coaches numbered among the enlisted lineup for that game alone. Fordham won the game, 6-0. If, in the grand scheme of things, that matters at all.

The Rams ended the 1942 football season with five wins, three losses and one tie. They were outscored 155 to 103. The glory Fordham captured less than a year before had faded. Those young men at the top of college football — posed to solidify a new dynasty and cement the Rams at the heart of the sport — gave it all up. However great the promise of Fordham football was, their allegiance was to something greater.

The “Stamp-ede The Axis” committee set up a table in the cafeteria in October 1942, selling war stamps. Graduate Athletic Manager John “Jack” Coffey optimistically released the Rams’ 1943 schedule the next month, the place of football on Fordham’s campus in the coming years still unknown. The writing, however, was on the wall.

The end of the Cloudbusters game and 1942 season carried with it the decision to suspend the Fordham football program for the duration of the war. When peacetime returned, the university fielded a de-emphasized and largely unsuccessful team for the next decade — before Fordham football was dropped altogether in 1955.

In 1970, Fordham football returned to the NCAA after its revival as a club sport six years prior. They returned to the Division I stage in 1989, where they compete to this day. Though the program has achieved moderate success in its modern era, Fordham football

THIS WEEK IN NEW ORLEANS VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Tulane Stadium, pictured here in the 1940s, was the original site of the Sugar Bowl college football championship, which the Fordham Rams won for their first and only time on January 1, 1942.

has never won another major national championship.

For the record, Missouri didn’t fall to Fordham 2-0 in the 1942 Sugar Bowl for lack of trying.

Three times, the Tigers broke off big gains and drove within scoring distance, but three times the Rams denied them. The rain ebbed for a few moments in the final quarter, and a Missouri field goal attempt went up — straight and true — but fell yards short of the crossbar. The lowest possible combined point total in American football, despite all efforts from both sides to the contrary, stood.

It must have been meant to be.

The tragedy of Fordham football is bittersweet. No lack of funding, failed recruitment program or internal corruption allowed the dynasty to fade to black. They sacrificed it willingly. As “BUY WAR BONDS” and “RADIO SCHOOL – GET BETTER NAVY JOBS” filled The Ram’s weekly issues, players and coaches alike relinquished bright futures at Fordham to serve the United States in the Second World War. While football remained in their lives, Fordham maroon — and all the prestige it implied — simply wasn’t theirs to claim anymore.

Fordham men saw something far greater worth fighting for in the war effort. Some, like First Lt. Santilli, paid the ultimate price.

“Lt. Santilli of the Marines, former Fordham football tackle, was killed by a Japanese snip-

er while leading a charge in the bloody fighting at Saipan on July 8,” reported the Dunkirk Evening Observer. “He wasn’t scheduled for action that day. He had been ‘benched’ for shell shock.”

“But big Alex, star of Fordham’s 1942 Sugar Bowl victory over Missouri, couldn’t sit on the bench while his mates were battling down the Saipan field in rough going. The spirit impelled him to join the fray, and the rugged body he had developed on the gridiron permitted him to carry on heroically despite his shellshock.”

Of the 230 Fordham alumni killed in World War II, Santilli was one. Players, coaches and fans undoubtedly number among him.

Such loss — one year removed from such triumph, such hope — is nothing short of a tragedy.

On New Year’s Day of 1942, the young men that lined up in the driving rain at Tulane Stadium might have already known that the game they were playing was moot. A last gasp, not a first step. A flash of glory — of youth, of pride — eclipsed as inevitably as Santilli blocked the kick. As inevitably as Ritinski slid through the back of the end zone. As inevitably as Missouri’s kick fell short.

As inevitable as the final score.

Two-nothing. Three fumbles, two interceptions, one safety — and a triumph the likes of which Fordham football has not seen since.

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Arts & Culture

August 19, 2020 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

: s s e n i s u B r o f Hungry

UWS Restaurants Still

Restaurants have had to adapt after the government has postponed the allowance of indoor dining in order to preserve customers’ safety.

By ALYSSA MACALUSO Copy Editor

The pandemic has hit local restaurants hard. Fluffy’s Cafe and Pizzeria (pictured right) has shuttered it doors after 45 years of service.

Struggling with having less customers and still having to pay rent, Justino’s owner, Justin Alioni hopes to see more faces in his restaurant soon.

When students return to campus in the fall, the provisions outlined in the Fordham Forward plan won’t be the only changes to their New York experience. Many of the familiar places around Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus will be operating differently than before the coronavirus pandemic, if at all.

Since New York City shut down in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants’ road to reopening hasn’t been easy. From March to late June, restaurants that had the means to remain were only able to offer take-out services.

When New York entered Phase 2 of reopening on June 22, restaurants were permitted to offer outdoor seating in addition to deliveries. Even though the city technically moved into Phase 3 on July 6, which would allow restaurants to offer indoor seating, the government has indefinitely postponed indoor dining due to concerns about ensuring customers’ safety, especially as cases rise across the U.S. Though New York state moved into Phase 4 on July 20, many restrictions on indoor activities, including dining and gym operation, continue to remain in place in NYC. After restaurants shuttered their doors, weathered lay-offs and furloughs, and attempted to make ends meet through deliveries and shortened hours, many are still struggling to attract customers and fear they won’t be able to open their doors again.

Justin Alioni, the owner of Justino’s Pizzeria on 57th Street, opened up about the struggles his business — and many businesses like his — have been experiencing since the onset of the pandemic.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to us. I hope we can hang in there, but landlords are not being nice to tenants; the government needs to do something for the landlords so that

the landlords can give relief to the tenants,” Alioni explained.

“Everybody has left the city — no one is around anymore.”

Many businesses have found it difficult to keep up with paying rent due to slow business and restrictions on the type of services they can provide, including more severe regulations on selling or serving alcohol.

Navigating monthly rent payments has been tricky for many restaurant owners, with some making informal deals with landlords to pay a portion of the rent or, in rare cases, securing rent forgiveness, but these deals are anything but certain. Though the New York City government is currently protecting citizens against eviction through a moratorium on evictions until October, some landlords’ policies still induce anxiety in many businesses.

“ Maybe on the whole

it’s not that big a deal that NYC is now short one more pizza place, but Fluffy’s was a great addition to the student experience. For us, it’s definitely a loss. ”

Bruno Palomares, FCLC ’23

With fewer people living in or visiting the city and more people opting to stay behind closed doors, lighter foot traffic has made it difficult to maintain sales.

“Not knowing when it’s going to be back to normal, or back open ... not knowing, that’s the biggest problem. We don’t know what to do: Surrender or hang in there,” Alioni said.

When asked about how people can help, he said to “Show face.

We need more people to start coming out.”

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER August 19, 2020

Arts & Culture

11

Troubled by COVID-19 Measures “ Being at Fordham

means being in New York City, a melting pot of different ideals and cultures ”

Emme Weisenfeld, FCLC ’23

Several common dining spots of Fordham students, like Burrito Box, Empanada Mama and the Olympic Flame Diner, are open and offering takeout and delivery options only, according to their websites and Google.

However, many other student favorites are currently closed, and some will not be reopening their doors. Levain Bakery on 74th Street and Amsterdam Avenue has temporarily closed until further notice.

A staple of the Upper West Side

and many Fordham students’ diets, Fluffy’s Cafe & Pizzeria on the corner of 58th Street and Ninth Avenue is permanently closed after 45 years, according to their website.

Bruno Palomares, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23, reflected on Fluffy’s closure: “Maybe on the whole it’s not that big a deal that NYC is now short one more pizza place, but Fluffy’s was a great addition to the student experience. For us, it’s definitely a loss.”

While Fluffy’s may be missing from the Fordham food scene as students trickle back to campus, many places, like The Flame Diner, The Jin and Pick-A-Bagel, took advantage of the less-dense city to take over the streets and set up outdoor dining spaces where customers can eat-in while also respecting social distancing practices. The Department of Transportation also created a detailed, interactive map of

restaurants approved to offer outdoor seating in New York City.

Though precautions taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus may be slowing restaurants’ abilities to operate as they have in the past, the food scene around the Fordham Lincoln Center campus will remain a vital part of students’ palates and practices.

“Being at Fordham means being in New York City, a melting pot of different ideals and cultures,” Emme Weisenfeld, FCLC ’23, said. “With such a great amount of opportunities to expand my palate, finding new places to eat on the Upper West Side has become one of my favorite pastimes over the past year.

“Restaurants and dining on the Upper West Side has become such a crucial aspect of my college experience, and I am so grateful to have such wonderful food just a few blocks from campus.”

Burrito Box on 9th Ave. near 57th St. is a favorite of many Fordham students.

They are open for takeout and delivery, and have outdoor seating set up on the sidewalk.

A Fordham LC Student’s Off-Campus Food Staples Burrito Box......................57th and 9th Ave. Empanada Mama..........52nd and 9th Ave. Justino’s........................58th and 10th Ave. Levain.........................76th and Amsterdam Olympic Flame............60th and 10th Ave. Pick-a-Bagel..................61st and West End The Flame.......................58th and 9th Ave. The Jin..........................56th and 10th Ave.

Pick-a-Bagel

PHOTOS BY ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS/THE OBSERVER

MAP BY LARA FOLEY/THE OBSERVER

Empanada Mama on 9th Ave. between 51st and 52nd Streets is open for takeout and delivery.

Opinions Editors Emily Ellis - eellis14@fordham.edu Haley Smullen - hsmullen@fordham.edu

Opinions

FORDHAM SHOULD REFUND PARTIAL TUITION FOR A VIRTUAL STUDENT EXPERIENCE

D

petition founded by 10 Fordham students and circulated by @letstalkaboutitfordham demands lower tuition costs and exemplifies the anger and disappointment that the tuition increase has inspired.

Students are simply not content to spend thousands of dollars on Zoom calls and FaceTime chats. Even for those students who can still come to campus after the quarantine requirements, any class could be transitioned to a virtual format at any time — not to mention the 1,980 classes throughout the entire university that will be offered only online, as of Aug. 17. If this trend continues in the spring, then Fordham needs to lower tuition costs significantly.

To respond to a severe economic crisis by raising the cost of tuition as families face bankruptcy is inexcusable.

What makes the tuition increase sting even more is the massive blow the pandemic has dealt to the financial stability of many Fordham families. A recent survey conducted by LoaningTree found that 36% of parents have already been forced to take money from their children’s college funds in order to remain financially stable during the pandemic, and the situation is not likely to improve anytime soon. Affording a college tuition alongside everyday expenses is already a difficult task for most of us, but when

Observer the

STAFF EDITORIAL

espite the changes that the pandemic has brought, Fordham decided to yet again increase tuition for the fall 2020 semester by 3.3%. With mostly-online coursework, a lack of in-person contact due to necessary health precautions and the growing strains on many students’ financial situations and mental health, projected tuition costs simply do not match the reality of the fall semester. In order to accommodate for the new virtual experience, Fordham should refund students for the increased tuition costs and lower tuition costs in the spring.

Most students, even if they choose to come back to campus, are going to take some portion of their classes online. Although students sign up for a hybrid experience, they are still at the mercy of their professors, who may decide at a moment’s notice to transition the class to a virtual format. These potential changes, alongside the changes that Fordham has already made by restricting class sizes and dining locations, means that all students will be forced to experience a highly altered and diminished semester. A refund is the least that Fordham can do to repay students for the aspects of college life that they are missing out on due to the pandemic.

With the social aspects and physical amenities inaccessible and major parts of the college experience missing, it’s unreasonable to expect students to pay the full price tag for a service they are not receiving. A recent

August 19, 2020 THE OBSERVER

family providers are laid off from work or unable to earn money, these financial burdens become nearly impossible to manage. To respond to a severe economic crisis by raising the cost of tuition as families face bankruptcy is inexcusable. The New School promised a freeze in tuition, Georgetown cut costs by 10% and Santa Clara created a special fund for grants — why didn’t Fordham do the same?

In the past, The Editorial Board has expressed empathy for Fordham’s financial situation during the pandemic. None of this sentiment remains. While the outbreak of the virus in the spring was unexpected and beyond Fordham’s control, now the university has had ample time to prepare for the difficulties of the fall semester.

We expect the more than 160 faculty members on the Fordham Forward Task Force to continue to champion the idea of cura personalis, to do more than shrug while we struggle. By raising tuition prices, Fordham has demonstrated that its primary concern is not the wellbeing of the student body but rather the money in our wallets.

The decision to increase tuition is a blatant insult to students. Fordham students deserve a partial refund for fall tuition costs and a guarantee that tuition costs will decrease in the spring should online classes become the new normal. The pandemic might have placed Fordham under financial strain — but that does not give them the right to overcharge students for a subpar college experience.

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POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

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Moving into campus and everyday entry into buildings will be defined by COVID-19 protective measures.

• Letters to the Editor should be typed and sent to The Observer, Fordham University, 140 West 62nd Street, Room G32, New York, NY 10023, or emailed 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

13

Austin Tong Has Done Nothing Wrong JOHN H. WILSON Fordham Alum

I graduated from Fordham College at Rose Hill in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and political science. After graduating from Pace Law School in 1986, I was admitted to the Bar in New Jersey in 1986 and New York in 1987.

In 2004, I was elected to the Civil Court, Bronx County, and assigned to serve in the Criminal Court. I sat in both Brooklyn and the Bronx. Currently, I work as a mediator for a private company called First Court, where I work to resolve personal injury matters.

I provide you, the reader, with this description of my background in an effort to establish my qualifications to make the statements that follow.

I have reviewed with great interest the case of Austin Tong, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’21, who was disciplined by Assistant Dean Keith Eldredge for posting a series of photos on social media: one commemorating a murdered police officer and another of himself, holding a rifle. Members of the Fordham community complained that Tong’s posts made them feel “unsafe.”

I have also read the article published by Gabriela Rivera in The Fordham Observer on July 29, 2020, regarding her views on the Tong matter.

It is my considered opinion that Tong is well within his rights to post a photo of a deceased police officer and to post another photo of himself holding a legally owned rifle on private property. To view these actions as a violation of any code of conduct is ludicrous, and to sanction Tong for the exercise of his rights is nothing short of criminal.

In her article, Rivera states that “(t)he Constitution, while we believe it is always intact and applicable to every point in our life, loses its power in non-public spaces like Fordham.”

Yet, while Fordham is ostensibly a private institution, it does accept federal funding, in exchange for which it voluntarily subjects itself to federal rules and regulations, such as Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Education Amendment of 1972, “which protects students from discrimination in housing, athletics, and access to facilities on the basis of such things as gender, sexual orientation, sex or pregnancy outside marriage, or having an abortion.”

Very few schools can claim exemption from federal law —

almost all that do are religious institutions, and only “if they can show they are controlled by religious organizations with whose beliefs Title IX requirements conflict,” according to The Atlantic.

“ If we are not to stran-

gle the free mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes. ”

-Justice Abe Fortas, Supreme Court Justice in 1969 case of Tinker v. Des Moines

In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Tinker v. Des Moines. The principal of a public school tried to stop students from wearing black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court, which stated that both students and teachers did not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Justice Abe Fortas went on to add that the law “protects the citizen against the State itself and all of its creatures—Boards of Education not excepted ... they are educating the young for citizenship is reason for scrupulous protection of Constitutional freedoms of the individual, if we are not to strangle the free mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes.”

This landmark case remains the law of the land to this day. In fact, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) continues to bring cases against schools that violate the free speech rights of their students.

The ACLU even states that, “You have the right to speak your mind on social media, and your school cannot punish you for content you post off campus and outside of school hours that does not relate to school.”

Thus, despite being a private institution, Fordham’s right to punish Tong for the free exercise of his constitutional rights off campus is not absolute.

Further, there can be no doubt that Tong was punished for the content of his speech. This is the fundamental reason our founding fathers incorporated the First Amendment into the United States Constitution — to allow for divergent opinions. Tong has the same right to speak out that

U.S. NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

While Fordham is a private institution, it accepts federal funding, in exchange for which it voluntarily subjects itself to federal rules and regulations.

any other citizen has, no matter the content of his speech.

That being said, free speech is never absolute. In the 1919 U.S. Supreme Court decision Schenck v. United States, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes gave his famous warning: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.”

Yet Tong has not “falsely shouted” anything that would “cause a panic.” He merely celebrated his right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, a right he did not possess in China, by exercising his First Amendment right to express his opinion.

Frankly, Rivera’s position is a “clear and present danger,” which is another quoted warning

from the Schenck case. Her view would censor Tong and any other person who wishes to express a view contrary to that held by the majority. Most insidious, her concern that she “wouldn’t feel safe knowing someone I see in the hall has the means to commit violence ... (b)y posing with the gun and spouting praise for the right to be armed” has no basis in law or fact.

All legal gun owners have the “means to commit violence” — this is the very purpose for which these persons own guns!

Rivera has also failed to differentiate between a legal gun owner and a criminal. A legal gun owner is exercising their right to bear arms, a right which is subject to regulation from both federal and local authorities.

More likely than not, a legal gun owner has training in the use of a firearm and has learned discretion in the safe handling of a weapon. A criminal has no such training or discretion. Who is more likely to bring a gun on campus and threaten students — a criminal, or a legal gun owner?

Common sense tells you it’s the criminal.

How Rivera, and no doubt other Fordham students, have become opponents of our Constitutional rights is beyond the space I have available here to discuss.

But suffice it to say, there can be little doubt that the decision of Assistant Dean Keith Eldredge should be reversed quickly and Tong returned to his place among his fellow students — whether they agree with him or not.

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Opinions

August 19, 2020 THE OBSERVER

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Warming Up to Biden We can’t afford to settle for complacent climate change policy — or Biden AVA PEABODY

Contributing Writer

This upcoming election, Americans are presented with two options that nobody seems to be excited about. It feels like nearly everyone has determined their opinion of Donald Trump, and many are looking for an alternative to his leadership.

Considering the size and variety of the initial pool of potential 2020 Democratic candidates (20 people! remember those days), it is disappointing to come up with Biden as the best solution to America’s problems. Biden is far more conservative than progressives are likely to be enthusiastic about, and there is a reluctant air of “settling for Biden” even among his supporters. However, many voters are setting aside their dislike of Biden as a strategic maneuver to prevent a second term of Trump. Although this is not an ideal scenario, one of the best things voters can do now is to ask what progressive measures Biden can take in order to earn our vote.

One of the areas in which Biden has the biggest chance of winning progressives and young voters is climate change.

Many people want to be able to point to something in Biden’s candidacy that will make them feel that they are fostering positive change. Climate change is the ideal issue for Biden to emphasize: It will garner real, unified support for Biden and it is a genuine emergency that the United States must address.

The climate crisis must be taken more seriously in politics as a whole if we plan on having a habitable Earth in the future, and we are rapidly running out of time to take practical action.

The 2020 presidential race is a perfect opportunity to establish a baseline understanding of the importance of climate action, on which we can build a collection of policies and commitments.

Political candidates who center their campaign on the deceleration of climate change are treated as an anomaly rather than as an example of what every single candidate running for every office should be doing. Climate change is rapidly diminishing the quality of life worldwide, yet American leaders overlook the issue time and time again in favor of corporate interests. Candidates are often commended just for solemnly acknowledging the issue. It’s not too late to raise the bar of

expectations: Biden is currently in a position to highlight the importance of real climate action by committing to bold, unequivocal policies.

Biden’s initial climate plan was a vague $1.7 trillion gesture toward clean energy and reduction of carbon emission by 2050, and it was widely criticized by environmental activists for not being specific. He was initially dismissive of activists’ concerns, causing many to think he had only included any policy at all to avoid criticism.

However, as the U.S. has simultaneously experienced a pandemic, a rise in unemployment and protests against police brutality, Biden has responded to mass discontent by cautiously exploring a more progressive platform — a strategy which includes a stronger climate change approach.

Biden, along with former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, appointed six joint task forces to outline more progressive stances on issues ranging from education to health care. Their recommendations on climate change included an electricity sector that runs fully on renewable power by 2035, the consistent construction of carbon-neutral buildings by 2030 and zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Whether Biden decides to accept these goals or not, the mere fact that he commissioned the task force shows that he is at least conscious of the large swaths of voters who consider the climate crisis high on their list of priorities. Adopting the recommendations of the Biden-Sanders task force would demonstrate to those voters a genuine interest not only in

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY OLIVIA STERN/THE OBSERVER

addressing climate change, but also in actively reaching out to citizens rather than expecting their vote.

This type of behavior from such a significant figure in American politics would signal America’s readiness to finally center climate change in the general national discourse.

Biden has often been criticized in this election for coasting on the “Not Trump” platform. However, the “I would vote for a ROCK as long as it wasn’t Trump!” narrative reflects the frustrations many have with Biden — he might as well be a rock. But with climate policy, Biden has an opportunity to stand for something,

especially considering the resources the U.S. has to mitigate climate change (not to mention the duty we have to clean up the mess our country has had a substantial hand in creating).

If Trump wins a second term, his active rejection of climate change solutions will put us on an irreversible path toward climate destruction. We cannot afford to spend four more years ignoring climate change. We also cannot afford to settle for a lackluster climate plan.

We need Biden to seize the moment he has been awarded to commit to progressive, comprehensive climate change policy.

If he does, I might finally feel some enthusiasm about voting for him.

GAGE SKIDMORE VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Biden’s initial plan to address climate change was criticized for being vague, but the climate reform recommendations from the task force appointed by himself and Bernie Sanders provide an opportunity to win over progressive voters.

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THE OBSERVER August 19, 2020

Opinions

15

Adventures of a Fordham Hoodie in Quarantine JOHN HULTQUIST Contributing Writer

I faced a mandatory quarantine for the first time in midMarch when Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a stay-athome order. My family took it with a grain of salt and headed to our happy place, a place where I have spent every summer of my life since I was two years old: Charlevoix, Michigan.

Since I left my home in the Chicago suburbs, I have been faced with many challenges resulting from the ever-evolving decisions made by the government, public health officials and Fordham University.

On July 28, it hit me that attending Fordham was going to come faster than originally anticipated. If Michigan continued to show an increase in COVID-19 cases, I would be left with just under two weeks to find a space to quarantine in New York state. Otherwise, I would have to start my college career completely online and at home.

Fordham, like most colleges and universities, was struggling to find the right balance between providing the education that the Fordham community expects while protecting the health and safety of students and faculty.

Since the state of New York requires visitors from most states in the Midwest to quarantine for 14 days upon arriving in the state, my family and I were concerned Michigan could be added to the list. I did not want to find myself in a position of only being able to study online, and decided that the best solution was to arrange a place to quarantine in New York.

Two weeks before my quarantine period, I got to work. I located another incoming fresh-

man, Roberto Lugones, Fordham College at Rose Hill ’24, to quarantine with. We made flight arrangements, found a place in New York to stay for two weeks and figured out our tentative move-in dates assigned by the university.

So, on Aug. 8, I left northern Michigan in my Fordham

hoodie and ventured to the city of my future, hoping to remain COVID-19 free.

As I found myself stressed getting ready to fly during the pandemic, I realized that it was all about not letting down my guard. I knew that the minute I quit paying attention or being careful would be the time that

I would catch the infectious airborne virus. With sufficient personal protective equipment and my Fordham hoodie, I headed to the gate in Traverse City, Michigan.

When I flew through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, I found that social distancing was not exactly being

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY PAMELA PAJARES/THE OBSERVER

enforced at 8 a.m. on a Saturday. Wearing my mask and latex gloves the entire route, I persevered and dodged every human that I could, keeping at least 6 feet away from everyone.

The Fordham hoodie, which I have worn all summer, acted as my safeguard and got recognized more than I was expecting. An old woman asked me if I was going back to school.

Not only am I “going back to school,” but I am beginning a new chapter of my life with a never-before-required 14-day quarantine, I told her. We started talking about college and all the fun it would be.

The old woman was not the only encounter I had with my Fordham hoodie. Upon arrival in New York, a state travel coordinator asked if I was going to school. As I nodded my head and simultaneously said yes, smiling under my mask, she said, “Fordham is a great school; I wish you the best.”

Finally, I met Roberto in person and, as we waited for an Uber to pick us up, a man behind us asked, “Do you guys go to Fordham?” I told him that we were incoming freshmen and he introduced us to his son, also a member of the Fordham Class of 2024. At Fordham, I know I will have the opportunity to meet different kinds of people from all across the country and perhaps international students.

As soon as Roberto started to talk in fluent Spanish to our lost Uber driver, I reflected on my exhausting day of travel. The adventure had begun and, while a 14-day quarantine was not at the top of my list, it felt good to be in New York, and I was happy with my decision to attend Fordham. Regardless of where the next couple of weeks take me, I have learned that there is always a home at Fordham for the incoming Class of 2024.

Fordham Is in the Wrong on Austin Tong A reluctant defense of a notorious Fordham student’s Instagram posts EVAN VOLLBRECHT IT Manager

To be honest, I do not hold Austin Tong, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’21, in very high regard. In fact, I would say that he is long overdue to face the music.

In his time at Fordham, he has actively sabotaged the operations of the United Student Government, continually expressed discriminatory views and generally been an unpleasant person to know. I would even go so far as to say that I believe Fordham was right to investigate when yet another controversial Instagram post of Tong’s sparked unrest and fear among students.

Unfortunately, however, the way they chose to handle the situation was completely incompetent.

Yes, in the context of the moment, it is eminently understandable how the politically active students of Lincoln Center would interpret a picture of Tong holding a rifle as dangerous. He has been outspoken about his opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement at a time when such opposition is often accompanied by threats of violence against protesters. It is therefore reasonable that Fordham would feel the need to reach out to Tong and address the issue. It’s at that point, however, that the justification for Fordham’s actions begins to break down.

Tong’s defense against the university’s censure is that he was simply celebrating his Second Amendment rights in light of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and his case is admittedly very solid. His words and actions have been consistent with this narrative, even prior to the controversy — in fact, he clarified the meaning of the post even before the university stepped in. As a result, I expect that Fordham will have a very difficult time proving that his post met even its criteria for censure and will likely lose face by trying. There’s a difference between actively threatening speech and just being an insensitive tool, and unfortunately, the latter isn’t against the code of conduct.

What made Fordham decide to pursue punitive measures even after meeting with Tong, with the full knowledge of his nearly airtight rationale? After facing heavy criticism for its lax attitude toward discriminatory speech, was the university anxious to take the pressure off by making an example out of Tong? What could explain such a seemingly hasty and misguided decision — especially one that harmed the university’s reputation at a national level?

The jaded, cynical side of me speculates that this was exactly the point. A defeat at the courthouse for Fordham would set a

precedent of nonintervention, allowing the university to claim that its hands are now tied. It would give Fordham an excuse to avoid the hassle of dealing with hate speech, shrugging off all but the most egregious violations with a “Well, we already tried.” A strategy like this would certainly explain why the university took on the case at such an obvious disadvantage.

The slightly less cynical side of me wonders if the real explanation is less complicated or conspiratorial. It’s possible that Fordham is simply too stubborn to back down, convinced that defending a losing position is better than admitting defeat to a mere student. Better to die on a hill than surrender, I suppose, even if it’s a really, really stupid hill. After all, Fordham has continued to appeal the court’s decision on the Students for Justice in Palestine club after losing that battle.

All in all, it’s sad to see that Fordham has once again dropped the ball. Not one of the nearly 10 recorded incidents involving racist and/or anti-Semitic imagery on campus since 2015 has resulted in similar consequences for a student. Even when leaked data from a neo-Nazi forum revealed the presence of a virulent, self-admitted white supremacist at Fordham, no student ever faced punishment.

It took nationwide protests and social unrest to pressure Fordham

administrators into actually prosecuting discriminatory speech on campus, and the first thing they did was pick a fight they can’t win.

It’s a completely unforced error;

they might as well have stepped on a rake. Austin Tong deserves to be held accountable for many of his words and actions — but, for God’s sake, not these.

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Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture Editor Ethan Coughlin - ecoughlin7@fordham.edu

August 19, 2020

THE OBSERVER

Fordham Theatre Pledges New Diversity Initiatives

COURTESY OF HUNTER CANNING VIA FORDHAM THEATRE

Fordham Theatre shared a statement on Instagram on June 28 detailing the department’s plan to address racism within the theater program, including diversifying class curricula and mainstage productions, committing to equity in hiring practices and avoiding typecasting.

By JOHANNA CYRAN Staff Writer

As the ripple effects of the Black Lives Matter movement continues to create a wake, the Fordham University theatre department joins the cast of institutions pledging new standards to support Black artists.

On June 1, the Fordham Theatre blog published an article expressing “A Statement of Solidarity” with the Black Lives Matter movement. The post, signed by the “The Fordham Theatre Faculty,” included wishes of love, a quote from Toni Morrison, a condemnation of racial violence, and resources for allyship, protesting and fundraising.

“We must reach inside ourselves to acknowledge our own racism, call on other White people in our community to do the same, and engage in anti-racist practices,” the statement read.

The undertaking is anything but a small production; it simultaneously attempts to quell historically institutional racist leanings and inspire future thespians to take action.

While the theater community took note of the extensive promises made, many are concurrently waiting to see words take root.

On June 28, following heated Black Lives Matter protests and resistance movements across the country, Fordham theatre again pledged further reforms and initiatives.

In a statement on their Instagram, Fordham Theatre shared a screenshot of a document outlining their action plan to address racism in the department. The department stated that they will further increase the percentages within the curriculum to include more works by playwrights of color and amplify POC (People of Color) stories.

The increases would spur from the self-published statistics in which “the past fourteen seasons, 36% of our mainstage productions have been written by playwrights of color, and 46% directed by artists of color.”

“ We must reach inside

ourselves to acknowledge our own racism, call on other White people in our community to do the same, and engage in anti-racist practices. ”

Fordham Theatre Statement

The department also hopes to attract a more diverse pool of artists, and wants to ensure at least two students of a specific ethnicity or identity are available for any productions that require them, in order to avoid typecasting.

However, realizing this goal proves difficult at a predominantly white institution; merely 4% of the entire student body identifies as African American.

The Fordham theatre department published data highlighting that of the incoming theatre class, 45% identify as a race other than white. The statement declared that the program is committed to increasing those numbers in the future.

However, other promises, such as “deepening our work with our institutional partners run by BIPOC artistic directors” and “telling stories that honor the histories of underrepresented

groups,” are much less concrete.

Austin Spero, the marketing and public relations director for Fordham Theatre, spoke about the plan’s implementation.

“This summer, our entire faculty is working together to reimagine the curriculum to better represent BIPOC artists across intersecting identities,” Spero explained.

The first mainstage show of the season will be “Men on Boats,” a play written by Jaclyn Blackhaus with an all female cast about the first expedition of the Colorado River.

This year will also mark the department’s decision to eliminate the audition fee. In the past, the department waived the fee for students in need, but Spero expressed the department wanted to remove the onus from students to ask for an exception.

“It’s vital that we recognize White artists benefit from a system centuries in the making that disproportionately disadvantages young BIPOC artists,” Spero explained.

“Dialogue is a powerful tool, but our pledge centers on action,” Spero affirmed.

Theatre alumna Alicia Moeller, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’18, agreed that structured conversations and planning would seemingly lead to the goals of the statement.

However, she questioned if students would be compensated or acknowledged for their discussions and work to address racial reform.

While Moeller understands the department’s goal to include students’ perspectives in future anti-racist policies, she, too, highlighted that it is “Equally important that (students) are compensated for their time, research, and emotional commitment.”

One professor at the forefront of the effort to decolonize the theater is Fordham professor Clint Ramos, a Tony award-winner and costume and set designer.

On July 8, Ramos, a Filipino artist, vowed in an Instagram post that he would pay up to $3,000 in application fees for “young BIPOC Theatre/Film designers and Technicians out there struggling with this hustle.”

Ramos extended the invitation to both current and former students and denounced the chains that capitalism places on opportunity. He also referenced the mentors who helped him with the “lottery ticket” he claims allowed his success.

“ I’ve witnessed and

been a part of some of the huge shifts in the way the program handles these issues.”

Wayne Babineaux, FCLC ’20

When describing his career at Fordham, Ramos explained that it “certainly has been an eventful two years.” The professor expressed that “right now is a really good time to look at where we are as a University, and acknowledge all of the stuff that we have taken for granted.”

Ramos stressed the urgency that both activists and students alike are feeling, saying “we need to look at this. We cannot continue if we don’t.” For Ramos, moving forward together includes his hope that the university will

“mandate anti-racism training on a regular basis.”

He also said that there is no reason days set aside for orientation should not include anti-racism training “across the board.”

While the department has much to do, theatre alumnus Wayne Babineaux, FCLC ’20, spoke to the progress the program has made so far.

“From the time I arrived (at Fordham) four years ago to today, I’ve witnessed and been a part of some of the huge shifts in the way the program handles these issues,” he said.

Babineaux, a theatre major and economics minor, further explained, “there is still a lot of work to be done, but that I have confidence that Fordham Theatre can and will do the work.”

Part of Babineaux’s vote of confidence in his alma mater stems from his opportunity as a senior to exhibit his solo show “Coincoin: Queen of Louisiana.”

“Coincoin” opened windows into the experience of Babineaux’s eponymous ancestor who freed herself from slavery in the 1700s. “Coincoin” debuted alongside Eliana Rowe’s, FCLC ’20, original solo written about Rowe’s personal experience as a black queer woman growing up in the church. Babineaux cited this double bill as “an instance of Fordham centering black artistic voices.”

The theater world historically yields criticisms for enabling white privilege, white-washing, appropriation and other problematic practices.

While the theatre department has certainly captured the attention of the Fordham family, it also must face both the praise and criticism that comes with a large, hungry and well-versed audience.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER August 19, 2020

Arts & Culture

Stepping into the New Semester: Fordham-Ailey BFA Students Reflect on Fall 2020 Plans

By ETHAN COUGHLIN Arts & Culture Editor

Going into a semester of “hybrid learning” is confusing and seemingly different for every major and student. Many professors have simply pivoted to fully online classes; however, some courses realistically don’t have that option.

While students try to keep up with the endless emails from Fordham, Ailey students have an entire other institution to keep up with.

Just as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater followed Fordham’s decision to suspend in-person learning in March, they are once again taking Fordham’s lead on setting up a hybrid model for the fall semester.

“ I’m just happy to be

able to have in person and ‘hands on’ training because it’s so necessary to the craft. ”

Meghan Boyle, FCLC ’21

Earlier this month, Ailey sent out the Ailey Forward Plan for reopening the Joan Weill Center for Dance during the COVID-19 pandemic to dance students. The 70-page document outlines the center’s plan for a safe reopening. Much of the plan is similar to Fordham’s reopening plan with clauses like “Ailey will conform to the critical key metrics for reopening New York City developed

by Gov. Cuomo and other officials, including the local prevalence cri-

By BRIELLE CAYER Staff Writer

TORI LI/THE OBSERVER

The Ailey school will implement a hybrid model for classes which will consist of specific cohorts of dancers taking their in person classes together. This approach, although designed to mitigate the risk of coronavirus exposure, has received some mixed feelings by students.

terion, before commencing operations,” adding that they will continue to work closely with the city’s health department.

One major change to the curriculum this semester is the addition of cohorts. In order to reduce the density of classes and try to limit exposure, students are placed into cohorts where they will be taking all of their classes with the same group of dancers.

Meghan Boyle, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’21, was bummed to learn that she will not be able to see all of the other dancers on a day-to-day basis like she had in the past. “I’m just happy to be able to have in person and

‘hands on’ training because it’s so necessary to the craft,” Boyle said.

Going into her final year at the center, Boyle is more than eager to return to dancing and performing as a whole. Making the best out of a tough situation, Boyle plans to use her newfound extra time from the less frequent dance rehearsals to take more acting and singing lessons. “I am crossing my fingers that there will be Broadway auditions and Rockette auditions come late fall or early spring,” Boyle said.

Additionally, Boyle seemed very confident in the Ailey Forward plan. “The Ailey Forward Plan has made me feel very safe in

returning to school,” Boyle said, “and has definitely taken extensive precautions while still making us excited to dance.”

Not every student has quite as much confidence in the plan as Boyle has. Julia Fuchs, FCLC ’24, admitted that she was a little nervous about going back. “I’m happy that they seem to be taking many steps to limit the number of people in the building and make sure we are safe,” Fuchs said, “however I’m not sure if dancing and sweating with other people in an enclosed space is a good idea right now.”

Fuchs considered taking a gap year this fall. “I haven’t started

college yet so this year would be a good opportunity to take a gap year if I wanted to,” Fuchs said.

Ultimately, she decided that she would be coming to Ailey this semester. “I didn’t want to fall behind, and also, the idea of living in a dorm and dancing in person again is something I wanted.”

Unlike Fuchs, Jacob Blank, FCLC ’22, did decide to take an Ailey semester off and continue his Fordham classes online at home in Maryland.

“Overall I’d say that my decision to take a leave of absence from Ailey was ultimately a financial one,” Blank said. “Because of the circumstances, the Ailey School is not allowed to offer such classes as dance composition (choreography), men’s ballet/pointe, or even have performances. And since tuition is staying the same this year, I felt that it would not make sense to spend so much money, when we would not be able to take these classes, or perform.”

Blank added that the risk of a second coronavirus wave also influenced his decision to stay home. “Ultimately the decision was very difficult to make. I wanted to go back this year, to see my friends, and most of all, to dance at Ailey,” Blank said. “But in the meantime, I’m going to take some classes at my old studio here in Maryland.” Blank does plan to return to Ailey in the spring if the circumstances have changed.

While it will be sad to see fewer dancers making the pilgrimage between campus and Ailey every day, hopefully a safe fall semester will mean we can return to seeing our friends and classmates performing this spring.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Reduced, Restricted, But Still Reopening

Normally frequented by tourists and New Yorkers alike, Manhattan’s famous Museum Mile has been much quieter this summer.

In March, the COVID-19 outbreak forced cultural institutions across the nation to close, including the largest museum in the United States, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), located along this popular stretch of Fifth Avenue.

The Met, which shut down on March 13, hadn’t previously been closed for more than three days in over a century. Now, after months of waiting, the museum is finally prepared to welcome back its members on Aug. 27-28 and then the public on Saturday, Aug. 29.

In a statement on Aug. 14, 2020, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that low-risk cultural institutions would be allowed to reopen by Aug. 24, 2020.

Making waves as one of the first major cultural institutions of New York City to reopen, The Met’s two million square-foot building will be open five days a week, Thursday through Monday.

On Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, it will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Thursdays and Fridays, the museum will offer later hours from noon to 7 p.m.

“The safety of our staff and visitors remains our greatest concern,” Daniel H. Weiss, president and CEO of The Met, said in a museum press release.

ANDREW DRESSNER/THE OBSERVER

After having its doors closed for the longest time in over a century, The Met will finally open on Aug. 29 for five days a week at 25% capacity and with physically distancing in place.

Following guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a comprehensive safety plan will be enforced. Visitation will be reduced to 25% of the museum’s maximum capacity and the building will offer enhanced sanitization procedures.

Guests will also be required to wear face coverings and practice physical distancing.

The museum also will not provide any printed materials such as maps and brochures, so visi-

tors are encouraged to download these resources ahead of time, as well as review the complete list of guidelines which are available on The Met’s website.

“Opening The Met’s doors is an important signal for New York and for all of us. We have never been forced to close for longer than three days—much less five months,” Max Hollein, director of The Met, said.

“This will be a time for New Yorkers to reconnect with their

favorite artworks and spaces in their Museum. So many people have reached out during the time of closure to express how much they miss being at The Met, and we are eager to welcome all back to the galleries.”

During the forced shutdowns, many museums, including The Met, have provided virtual tours and online exhibits free to the public. Some organizations have taken it a step further and opened COVID-19-safe, outdoor exhibits.

17

One of The Met’s neighbors, the Museum of the City of New York, has unveiled an open-air installation on the property’s terrace and balustrade called “New York Responds,” which documents the experiences of New Yorkers during the pandemic through crowdsourced photographs.

Similarly, the New-York Historical Society opened a free outdoor exhibition on Aug. 14 called “Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine” featuring pictures and audio interviews of different New Yorkers affected by the coronavirus and quarantine. Both museums have plans to open their indoor facilities in the coming weeks.

In addition to The Met’s main Fifth Avenue location, The Met Cloisters, a branch museum in Washington Heights, will open in September. However, The Met isn’t the only New York cultural institution with upcoming plans to reopen. The American Museum of Natural History will open its doors to museum members on Sept. 2 and then to the general public on Sept. 9. Other museums with set opening dates include the Whitney Museum of American Art on Sept. 3, the Museum of Modern Art on Aug. 27, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage on Sept. 13.

Students can purchase general admission timed tickets to the Met online or suggested admission tickets onsite at either a kiosk or ticket desk.

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Arts & Culture

August 19, 2020 THE OBSERVER

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Bethany, Benko and ‘The Rehearsal’ Process

For acting professor Tina Benko and Fordham acting graduate Jaclyn Bethany, “student” and “teacher” are only subjective terms

By KEVIN STOLL Staff Writer

Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) acting graduate Jaclyn Bethany has, in many respects, often found herself on the path of ambition, always looking towards new artistic ventures while still retaining the knowledge she learned from her past experiences.

After graduating from FCLC in 2011, it was that ambition that led her to the prestigious AFI Conservatory film school in Los Angeles, where she earned her M.F.A. in directing. With multiple indie short films already listed in her filmography, such as “The Delta Girl” (her AFI thesis film) and “The Last Birthday,” her latest endeavor “The Rehearsal,” at first glance, seems like a natural continuation of her career. But for this 45-minute, micro-budget digital series, one that showcases her talent both in front and behind the camera, she received a little help from her former acting professor to make it happen.

The series follows a young actress, Anne (portrayed by Bethany), who is cast in the lead role of a popular off-Broadway play.

However, as she begins to immerse herself in the role and in the rehearsal process, her personal life gradually begins to become affected by her intensive dedication.

Set against the backdrop of the “NY Theatre World” (as Bethany likes to call it), “The Rehearsal” is her own dramatic interpretation of the off-Broadway scene, taking a peek behind the curtain at the drama that transpires when the audience isn’t there to watch.

“I don’t consider myself in that world, but I am definitely intrigued by it,” Bethany said.

“Professionally, I have only been in one Off-Broadway show and then moved to LA to pursue filmmaking. So in a way, I became an outsider to it. Interestingly, that’s when I started developing (“The Rehearsal”). Because I miss theatre so much and I think it is where I ultimately belong.”

Bethany began to truly develop an eye for both acting and directing as early as her days on the Lincoln Center campus, ob-

COURTESY OF JACLYN BETHANY

Jaclyn Bethany’s digital series, “The Rehearsal,” provides her take on the off-Broadway theater scene in New York.

serving the people around her and looking for anything that captured her attention. One of those people was Fordham acting professor Tina Benko, who became involved with the project after Bethany decided to reach out to her about it.

“Yes, I was her student,” Bethany said. “At that point, when I was 20 or whatever, I honestly had no idea I would ever become a director or work with her in that context. I was too busy figuring myself out! But I definitely admired her, and as I entered my adult career, I admired her even more. She really pushes boundaries as an actor.

“And I suppose I’m good at observing people. It’s why I became an actor and eventually a director. I was probably observing her

Benko’s character, Helen, doesn’t necessarily have much screen time on the show; most of her relevance to the plot comes from other characters referencing her existence. Still, Bethany considers her to be a crucial component of the show’s central conflict: She’s a character who can’t always be seen, but whose presence can always be felt.

Helen “only has one scene, but she is mentioned frequently,” Bethany said. “She sort of ties the conflict together in the piece.

She is a powerful theatre producer, probably Artistic Director of a theatre like the Public or The Signature. She’s made a lot of sacrifices both professionally and personally so she feels extremely betrayed when her husband who is also a playwright and her artistic partner - leaves her for another woman, my character, Anne. Helen is a woman who I think very much holds it together in public, but barely loses it.

That’s why her scene was so impactful. It’s just honest.”

That “one scene” was enough to convince Bethany that she made the right choice in casting Benko, and that she even had the potential to be considered as an “awards-worthy” contender.

However, it wouldn’t be until a (virtual) awards ceremony broadcasted on July 19 that Bethany learned she wasn’t the only

one who thought that, as Benko took home a Daytime Emmy award for her performance.

Bethany’s initial reaction to Benko’s win was one of shock and surprise, while at the same time, still acknowledging that the award was more than deserved.

“I was shocked. But I also hoped she would win,” Bethany said. “I joked on set that she was so good in this one scene that she could win an Emmy. And then she did! She’s so deserving of this honor and has such a plethora of amazing work. To be able to say that The Rehearsal is an Emmy winning series is nuts! But more importantly, Tina won for playing such a strong female character that originally came from my brain. I’m still processing all that.”

Seldom does a Fordham alumna manage to both direct and star in an Emmy-winning series, let alone do so with someone they’ve looked up to for the longest time.

Yet, one simple connection between an acting professor and their respective student seemingly paved the way for a future collaboration years later. If anything, Bethany and Benko’s professional relationship can attest to the importance of the college professor as not just an educator, but as a mentor for aspiring young artists.

during that class. So nine or ten years later, when I was writing The Rehearsal, I immediately thought of her and sent her the script.”

“ I definitely admired

her, and as I entered my adult career, I admired her even more. She really pushes boundaries as an actor.”

Jaclyn Bethany, FCLC ’11

COURTESY OF JACLYN BETHANY

The series has given Bethany a chance to work with her former professor Tina Benko, who won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as the character Helen.

Theatrical Musings: Adjusting to the Hybrid

Theatre majors are being forced to get more creative with their medium in the absence of live performances

By AASTHA AGGARWAL Staff Writer

While the past six months have been instrumental in adapting the entire world to the nuances of social distanced “online” learning and work from home, many wonder about the fate of the entertainment industry and live theater. While the white collar professionals and majority of the students of the world can still thrive in a contactless existence, the performing arts stream relies on physical interaction for its enabling.

Would the Fordham theatre department successfully translate a largely physical curriculum in a socially distanced era?

While many theatre students are jostling with the idea of studying online, the university is implementing a largely cohesive curriculum for the theatre stream. “The theater program is planning to use the first week of classes to hold what is called

a ‘teach in.’ Over the course of three separate meetings, the program will lay out the foundation of the year ahead of us. In order, these meetings will focus on an introduction to our season, the design and technology, and how our creative work is influenced by the world we live in.

This will greatly help resolve any questions that students might have about how each show will be presented,” said theatre performance student Zoe Lishinsky, Fordham College Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22.

Although the Fordham theatre department has been relatively tight-lipped about the specifics of the online transition, two theatre students look forward to the new “creative” fall semester and all the new opportunities and challenges it offers.

Sofia Ubilla, FCLC ’21, is a rising senior double majoring in directing and Spanish studies.

Her perspective on the nature of studies after the pandemic is

refreshingly positive. Although like countless students, assimilating to the online approach was difficult in the spring semester, she feels optimistic about her classes for fall.

The physical component of theater will be virtual. This redefines the universal concept of theater. “I think the big question that is really exciting to me is what does it even mean to make theater. We can rethink the structures that are required to produce art and think about what it means to us and what we’re interested in,” Ubilla said.

A major component of the theatrical build will be lost in the translation to an online semester. However, Ubilla seems unhinged by this loss. “It is a really freeing experience to produce this Fall without worrying about the thesis. It is still theater but outside those constraints (mounting a big production) and I can dive into what I’m really passionate about. We

can just collaborate with a few artists without worrying about rehearsal and set design.”

On the other hand, Lishinsky, who is majoring in acting, believes that in-person collaboration supersedes the online component. However, she has decided to take it as an opportunity to learn and develop different skills in the digital theatrical world.

“Theater makers are born to change and transform, so even though this switch to online learning was unprecedented, I am proud of every single artist who is using their skills learned overtime to create digital theater.” Lishinsky said.

Lishinsky also highlights the challenges that every artist and collaborator may have to face in a digital translation of theater. “From a personal standpoint, actors must become more nuanced, and must learn to practice their craft without their scene partners present in

the room with them.

“Lighting, set, and sound designers must learn and adapt to this format by discussing different ways to present their craft with tech consultants. Stage managers, directors, dramaturges, and so many more will need to use their skills to adapt, collaborate, and think outside the box,” she continued.

With the fall semester approaching in its new avatar, both Lishinsky and Ubilla offer their snippets of wisdom on adjusting to the new “real.”

“Be open. Allow yourself to be swept up in the process of learning. Theater is best learned when our obstacles are presented as opportunities,” Lishinsky said. Ubilla urges everyone to find the little positive things in life that can be controlled. It is important to find the silver lining in every situation.

Maybe the silver lining can transform into the silver sky.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER August 19, 2020

Arts & Culture

19

A Definitive List of Manhattan’s Best Burgers Chipotle Mayo, the product of an Italian immigrant who smuggled his mouth-watering chipotle plants into the United States from his time in Mexico.

4. The Classic Cheese, Cobble & Co. ($18) Here’s another one whose ambiance didn’t hurt its placement on this list. When you visit Cobble & Co., you have to take advantage of all the Seaport neighborhood has to offer, including McNally Jackson Books and the South Street Seaport Museum.

Their burgers are nothing short of amazing and have some of the best brioche buns I’ve ever had.

Pair it with one of their great milkshakes, and you’ve got yourself a meal.

3. The Smith Burger, The Smith ($19)

ETHAN COUGHLIN/THE OBSERVER

Minetta Tavern is located on MacDougal Street, two blocks from Washington Square Park. “Trust me, it’ll be the best burger you will ever have,” Bernabei writes of their Black Label Burger.

By LEO BERNABEI Staff Writer

There is arguably no dish more quintessentially American than the hamburger. And there is arguably no city that dominates the hamburger game better than New York.

Just within two blocks of Lincoln Center, one could probably find a dozen different hamburgers from Mexican luncheonettes to cheap diners. Here’s a list of the top five burgers you can find right here in the Borough of Manhattan.

Honorable mentions: Various selections, Sugar Factory ($18-$21) Let’s be honest, you aren’t going to the Sugar Factory for their burgers. You’re going so you can post a photo on Snapchat of one of their

$39 titanic-sized goblet drinks that are so utterly huge they’re made for two. But it doesn’t hurt that their burgers happen to be some of the best in the vicinity of the Lincoln Center campus. As you’d expect with the name, you have your pick of some fairly unorthodox styles: buns made of waffles or donuts?

Absolutely. So just the fact that they aren’t made of wagyu or Pat LaFrieda beef shouldn’t deter you from stopping in here.

Various selections, Lucky’s Famous Burgers (~$7.50-$10.50) There’s a certain style to latenight bites. It’s hard to describe in writing, but everyone knows it when they see it. So consider this the “Olympic Flame Diner” of burgers for Fordham students.

Open until 4:30 a.m. on Friday

and Saturday nights, it’s hard to not find time to go, and on 52nd Street, it’s only a short walk from campus. Their menu is pretty expansive, and it can be tailored to both vegans and vegetarians, so it’s perfect for any of your friends.

Another reason to go: These are by far the cheapest burgers on this list. So after a night out, be sure to check this dive out.

5. The Tavern Burger, Greenwich Street Tavern ($18) What do Will Ferrell, Charles Barkley and Andy Reid have in common? They’ve all been to the Greenwich Street Tavern. Play your cards right, and you, too, may encounter a celebrity at this Tribeca bar. But even if you don’t, that’s fine, because the burger will make up for it. Their tavern burger is made with Joe Red’s

I’m not going to definitively say that this is the best burger on the Upper West Side, but I’ve never had one that’s better (and I’ve tried most). I often wonder what makes this burger so tantalizing, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it is the special sauce. I still don’t know what’s in the sauce to this day, perhaps something of a hybrid between mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauce, but it is delicious. The onions and sweet pickles add a great flare. It’s a messy burger, but it’s still worth it to order it medium-rare with the juices intact.

2. The Cadillac, P.J. Clarke’s ($20.50) Nat King Cole dubbed it “the Cadillac of burgers” in the late 1950s, and that assessment hasn’t changed a bit since then. A quintessential old-time saloon, it’s difficult to find a building quite like it in the city. While there is a location across the street from Fordham, it’s worth the hike to dine at their original location — the one at the corner of 3rd Avenue and East 55th Street. Their signature hamburger, still called “The

Cadillac,” is surprisingly simplistic: bacon, American cheese, tomato, lettuce, onion and pickles.

For showing someone New York City for the first time, this would be the place to take them.

1. Black Label Burger, Minetta Tavern ($30-$33) It’s unfair that other burgers have to even compete with this one. Never before in human history has such a perfect blend of beef and caramelized onions been put on a sesame-seed sprinkled brioche bun. Those two ingredients, aside from the bun, are it.

A surprisingly bare burger, you won’t believe how it tastes.

The beef is a blend of four different cuts: short rib, skirt, brisket and dry-aged ribeye; it sinks in your mouth like mashed potatoes and gravy. The exact proportions of the blend are still kept top-secret. The amount of care taken in preparing the hamburger is second to none. Grapeseed oil is applied to the griddle to prevent the patty from sticking, butter is drizzled on top of it as it cooks, and salt and pepper are added throughout the process. After the patty is cooked, the chef uses a metal skewer to check the internal temperature, pressing it to his lower lip. While it is left to rest in order to allow the juices to redistribute, the onions are griddled in the beef juices.

At $31 for brunch, $30 for lunch and $33 for dinner, the Black Label Burger’s eye-popping prices should not at all discourage you from buying it.

Trust me, it’ll be the best burger you will ever have. (I think I stopped counting how many I’ve had after around 10.) Any food critic or journalist who doesn’t put this burger at number one on quite literally any list of the best hamburgers in the United States should be exiled to Guantanamo Bay. It’s safe to say that the Black Label Burger at Minetta Tavern is not just the best in New York, but the world.

Drive-In Theaters Go From Nostalgic to Necessary for This Year’s New York Film Festival

By WARREN CHRISTOPHER GREEN Staff Writer

As film festivals around the world decide how to proceed in this time of social-distancing, Film at Lincoln Center has announced their plans for New York Film Festival 58 (NYFF58). In a joint statement with Toronto International Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival, these global cinematic events have committed to collaboration in order to bring film to a world in quarantine.

Via Twitter, the New York Film Festival (@theNYFF) announced on Aug. 3 that Film at Lincoln Center is partnering with Rooftop Films, Queens Drive-In, Museum of Moving Image, The New York Hall of Science, New York City Economic Development Corporation and The Brooklyn Army Terminal to present this years’ films with the boroughs of New York by way of drive-in theatres. Similarly, the Telluride Film Festival will be hosting a drive-in screening in Los Angeles.

Press screening for the event will be held in mid-September.

The festival will take place via drive-ins in Brooklyn and Queens as well as online. All tickets will be sold online. All in-person events will have extensive health precautions and social distancing procedures in place.

So far, the New York Film Festival (NYFF) has announced these three films as focal points of this year’s festival: Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock,” Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” and Azazel Jacob’s “French Exit.” On Aug. 13, Film at Lincoln Center posted the full roster of the main slate for the event.

Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen’s film “Lover’s Rock” is set to premiere this year’s NYFF scheduled from Sept. 25 - Oct. 11. As the first part of a four-part anthology titled “Small Axe,” “Lover’s Rock,” starring Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn and Micheal Ward, “tells the fictional story of young love and music at a blues party in the early 1980s,” writes Film at Lincoln Center. “Mangrove” and “Red, White and Blue” of the “Small Axe” anthology will also premiere at the festival.

Centering the festival,

Zhao’s “Nomadland,” based on Jessica Bruder’s 2017 work of nonfiction, follows Fern, played

by Frances McDormand, as she sets off on a journey in a repurposed van. Along with McDormand, the cast of “Nomadland” is rife with “nonactors” and real-life nomads.

Closing the festival is Jacobs’ adaptation of Patrick deWitt’s eponymous bestselling novel.

Starring Michael Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges, as well as their feline friend voiced by Tracy Letts, this absurd film follows a New York City socialite, Frances Price, who faces fiscal collapse and flees to Paris with her son, Malcolm, and their cat, Small Frank.

It is inspiring that Film at Lincoln Center’s dedication to celebrating the achievements of up-in-coming cinematographers holds true even through a global pandemic. Thanks to their great team, the people of NYC will have the opportunity to enjoy films in an old, but new way. The solidarity that the various film festivals around the world have shown insights hope for a more communal future for the arts.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY LARA FOLEY/THE OBSERVER

20

Fun & Games

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August 19, 2020 THE OBSERVER

Welcome, Class of 2024

Fordham Lincoln Center Fact Sheet Important Phone Numbers: General Campus Numbers: Lincoln Center: 212-636-6000 Rose Hill: 718-817-1000

Health Services: LC: 212-636-7160 RH: 718-817-4160 Counseling Services: LC: 212-636-6225 RH: 718-817-3725

Public Safety: LC Supervisor: 212-636-6076 LC Main Desk: 212-636-6075 RH: 718-817-2222

Nearest Clinics: City MD (315 W. 57th St.): 212-315-2330 CVS Minute Clinic (241 W. 57th St.): 866-389-2727

IT Customer Care: 718-817-3999

International Services: 718-817-3145

Financial Services: 718-817-3800

Dean of FCLC (Laura Auricchio): 212-636-6000

Student Accounts: 718-817-4900

Dean of GSB (Donna Rapaccioli): 212-636-6165

Office of Residential Life: 212-636-7100

Dean of Students (Keith Eldredge): 212-636-6250

Facilities Operations: 212-636-6090

Assistant Dean for FirstYear Students (Conor O’Kane): 212-636-6350

Virtual Scavenger Hunt: Get to know my.fordham.edu Link to your Fordham email account Link to the Fordham Libraries homepage Link to Pharos (remote printing) Where to register for classes

Office Locations: Health Center: 140 W, G16 Counseling and Psychological Services: 140W, G02 Residential Life: McMahon 108

Link to access school Wi-Fi

IT Services: Lowenstein SL19A Enrollment Services: Lowenstein 2nd floor Title IX Coordinator: Cunniffe House 114 (RH) Disability Services: LL408

Office of Multicultural Affairs: 140W, G41 Career Services: 140W, G49 Office of Student Involvement: 140W, G33 ID Services: Lowenstein 128A

Deans’ Offices: Laura Auricchio: LL821 Keith Eldredge: 140 W, G33 Conor O’Kane: LL804 Mail Services: Lowenstein SL25 Writing Center: Quinn Library 233

Where to find your Fordham Identification Number DegreeWorks (check your credits and degree progress)

West 62nd Street School of Law 140 West 62nd Street ll

n Ha

eo McK

Residence Hall Addresses:

Columbus Avenue

McKeon: 150 W. 62nd St. New York, NY 10023 McMahon: 155 W. 60th St. New York, NY 10023

West 61st Street Amsterdam Avenue

The Plaza

Martino Hall

Closest Subway Stops: 59th St. Columbus Circle A C B D 1 66th St. 1

McMahon Hall

Leon Lowenstein Center

57th St. 7th Ave. N Q R W

Accessible Entrances Ram Van stop

West 60th Street

Fill in your schedule: TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

9th Avenue

10th Avenue

MONDAY

Important Dates: Fall 2020 Wed. Aug. 26 Classes begin Thurs. Sep. 3 Add/drop period ends Mon. Sep. 7 University closed for Labor Day Mon. Oct. 12 University closed for Columbus Day Tues. Oct. 13 Midterm exams Tues. Nov. 3 University closed for Election Day Wed. Nov. 25 University closed for Thanksgiving Recess Monday Nov. 30 Classes resume virtually Tues. Dec. 8 Last day of classes Thurs. Dec. 10-Fri. Dec.18 Final exams Thurs. Dec. 24 University closed for Winter Break