Observer Issue 5 Spring 2019

Observer the

@thefordhamobserver @fordhamobserver @fordhamobserver

March 28, 2019 VOLUME XXXIV, ISSUE 5

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Alum Accused in Admissions Scandal

Theater Director to Step Down, Stay at Fordham

By GABE SAMANDI Asst. News Editor

On Tuesday, March 12, federal prosecutors charged 50 people, including one graduate of Fordham Law, in a nationwide college admissions conspiracy that enabled wealthy parents to buy their children’s way into elite universities by way of bribery, fraud and fake admissions profiles.

The case centers around middleman William Singer, founder of the college preparatory business Edge College & Career Network, who has pleaded guilty to charges of mail fraud, bribery and more in a college application scheme based on fixing grades and test scores as well as doctoring application profiles.

Singer used the nonprofit arm of his business, the Key Worldwide Foundation, to accept payments and assist admissions officers, coaches, test proctors, parents and students in fraudulent activities.

Gordon Caplan, Fordham University School of Law ’91, was one parent who allegedly used Singer’s illegal services. Caplan, a resident of both Greenwich, Connecticut and Manhattan, is a lawyer and a co-chairman with Willkie Farr & Gallagher, an internationally renowned law firm.

Caplan was awarded the prestigious Louis J. Lefkowitz Public Service Award by Fordham Law see ADMISSIONS page 4

ZOEY LIU/THE OBSERVER

Maguire will stay at Fordham Theatre as a professor and the head of the acting track.

By JORDAN MELTZER News Editor For the last 26 years, Matthew Maguire has called Fordham University home. For the last 13, he has been at the helm of the school’s famed theater department, based at Lincoln Center. Now, he is stepping down as the program’s director, staying on as both the head of the acting track and a professor in multiple Fordham colleges.

The change, a decision which Maguire made himself, comes as the department is set to put on the final play under his direction for

Soulja Boy Arrested, Will Not Perform at Spring Weekend

By GILLIAN RUSSO Asst. Arts & Culture Editor

The rapper Bryce Vine will perform at Fordham’s 2019 Spring Weekend concert, a representative from Warner Brothers Records confirmed.

Vine will appear in place of Soulja Boy. Campus Activities Board (CAB) announced on Wednesday they had removed Soulja Boy from the lineup following his March 15 arrest after ammunition was found in his home, which violated his probation.

Vine rose to fame with his single “Drew Barrymore,” which has received more than 140 million streams and reached the Top 15 at Top 40 and Rhythm radio, according to the label. His most recent single with YG, “La La Land,” was released on Feb. 28, and the lyric video has since garnered more than 800,000 views on YouTube.

“We want to reassure our fellow students that we considered every side of this decision as well

as their larger implications,” CAB president Kathryn Teaney said in a statement released yesterday on CAB’s behalf.

Soulja Boy’s appearance at Spring Weekend was originally announced on Jan. 20, which Teaney said “was the earliest release of a Spring Weekend performer in recent history.” The early announcement allowed students to “watch Soulja Boy’s resurgence into the limelight, all with the Spring Weekend concert in mind.” Teaney apologized to those looking forward to his performance.

“We work countless hours to properly represent the students’ interests while programming safe, successful, and mostly free events for the student body,” she said. “We are a group of students programming for the students and we hope that you’ll understand our reasons for having to remove this artist from our lineup.”

This year’s concert is set for Saturday, April 27 at 1 p.m.

the program, “Mr. Burns,” which will show in mid- to late April.

Maguire already was the head of the acting track simultaneously with his position as director.

The role of head of acting largely includes recruiting freshman acting classes: He organizes annual national tours that aim to narrow down nearly 600 candidates to a class of 20 to 24 acting students.

He also hires professors and teaches some classes himself.

Since he is not leaving Fordham, Maguire’s tenure line is not available for the next director. In an unusual move, the university

has created a new tenure line for whomever that director might be, which Maguire called “an enormous vote of support for the theatre program.”

Maguire made the decision to step down as director at what he says is the peak of his career.

“I never want to get to the place where anyone is quietly disappointed in me,” he said.

Speaking in sports metaphors, he said that while Willie Mays played too long into his career, Mariano Rivera retired while still playing well. “He’s the first person to ever crack that unanimous

vote,” he explained, referencing Rivera’s historic first 100 percent vote into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

But his passion for teaching at Fordham remains. “If teaching is to be able to share with others why you love what you love,” he said, “then I’ve got plenty of good years left in me. But I also want to be able to continue to keep my balance as an artist.”

That artistry currently manifests itself in the form of a longterm project: Maguire has been working on an adaptation of Goethe’s “Faust” for the past two years with the Mabou Mines company, located in the East Village.

He emphasized the impact that this show has had on his creative drive, but it has also helped him realize his desire to step down as Fordham’s theater director.

“This momentum I’m having at the moment with this production of ‘Faust’ has inspired me,” he said.

“I want to keep going with that.

One project leads to another.”

A hiring committee will narrow down the search for the next director to a small number of finalists. Once that list is completed, a student committee will be convened to vet those candidates.

Once that list is completed, a student committee will be convened to vet those candidates.

Stefanie Bubnis, associate director of the program, stressed the significance of the students’ role in that process. “The students are obviously the most important part of this equation,” she said. “Without them, we’d be nothing.”

She also highlighted the value see MAGUIRE page 5

Fordham Rallies Behind Feminism for Women’s History Month

GILLIAN RUSSO/THE OBSERVER

Students test their knowledge of women’s history at trivia night.

By SOPHIE PARTRIDGE-HICKS Asst. News Editor

In 1987, the United States Congress declared March as Women’s History Month to celebrate and recognize the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. At Ford-

ham Lincoln Center (FLC), the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) and the Feminist Alliance group organized events throughout the month to honor women and advance gender equality in the Fordham community.

Maya Tatikola, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’21

and president of the Feminist Alliance, said that her hope for the month was to “focus on outreach so that we are able to create a larger feminist community at Fordham.”

Highlights of the month were the two “Women At Fordham Luncheons” that took place on March 6 and 13. The lunches were part of the F.A.C.E. (Fordham Advocates Cultural Enrichment) series and were co-sponsored by the Office for Student Involvement, the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer and Career Services.

At the events, a panel of female Fordham faculty, staff and administrators shared experiences navigating society as women.

As part of their “Women’s Herstory” event, OMA screened a video compilation of students discussing women who inspired them.

This was the first year that the OMA developed a student committee to implement their cultural heritage programming for Women’s History Month. see WHM page 3

NEWS

OPINIONS

ARTS & CULTURE

FEATURES

SPORTS & HEALTH

Presidental candidates’ platforms explained PAGE 4

It’s time to take a stand against Islamophobia

Runway Ready Recycling

NYC bleeds green for St. Patty’s

How to get into the running groove.

USG Elections

Chistchurch Shooting Thrifting PAGE 7

PAGE 12

Dubliners PAGE 17

THE STUDENT VOICE OF FORDHAM LINCOLN CENTER

A Reluctant Runner PAGE 19

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March 28, 2019 THE OBSERVER

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Campaign to Eliminate Smoking at Fordham Lingers

By SOPHIE PARTRIDGE-HICKS

Asst. News Editor

Smokers and non-smokers at Fordham Lincoln Center can agree on one thing: Smoking itself is prevalent on campus, as cigarette clouds tend to hang in the air of the outdoor plaza no matter the weather. But David Vassar, a reference and instruction librarian, is looking to change that, leading a campaign that aims to eliminate all smoking on campus.

Vassar has coordinated the campaign over the past four years, working closely with other university administration and New York City organizations to make Fordham a 100 percent

community, as he believes everyone is affected by the smoke in communal spaces.

“It is primarily the users but also the whole community who are affected by the smoke,” Vassar said.

Exposure to secondhand smoke can result in higher risks of cardiovascular disease and lung cancer. Vassar noted that smokers are in effect polluting the common resource that is everyone’s air.

Vassar said Lincoln Center’s outdoor plaza “is a social space that should be used for all, and this is greatly compromised when the quality of air is affected.”

While Vassar recognizes

“ It is primarily the users but also the whole community who are affected by the smoke.”

– DAVID VASSAR , Reference and Instruction Librarian at Quinn Libary

smoke-free campus.

Lisa Spitzner, community engagement coordinator for a separate citywide movement called NYC Smoke-Free, joined Vassar’s campaign in 2015. Spitzer explained that she “partners with community members, legislators and health advocates to support local efforts to end the devastating tobacco epidemic throughout NYC.” The campaign hosts educational events on the harms of smoking. Alongside University Health Services (UHS), Vassar and Spitzner coordinate an annual Great Fordham Smokeout, which discourages students from smoking.

Inspired by other Jesuit universities — like Loyola University — that are tobacco-free, Vassar emphasized the Jesuit philosophy of “cura personalis.”

He believes that Fordham has a responsibility not only to provide an education to students but to encourage healthy living.

Vassar said he would like to see Fordham institute “policies that enhance health.”

Beyond individuals who choose to smoke, Vassar is concerned for the entire Fordham

that as adults, students are free to make their own choices, he strongly believes that “there is no inherent right to smoke.”

“The question of free choice becomes moot,” he said. “We’re talking about a behavior that is irrational; the decision to smoke becomes with times less out of rational decision-making but a deeply ingrained compulsion, one which for many ends in a full-blown addiction.”

Yet some students like Luke Farrell, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’21, strongly disagree with Vassar’s sentiment.

“Yes, nicotine is an addiction, but vices are vices, and smoking or the use of nicotine should not be ground for you to have your personal liberties revoked,” Farrell said.

Supporters of the campaign believe that making the campus smoke-free will change how public space is used. They believe that the absence of smoke would make communal spaces more conducive to healthier activities.

But four years into the campaign, Vassar has seen little change in smoking on campus.

Vassar has been in communication with senior administrators and the faculty senate, ask-

NIGEL ZWEIBROCK/THE OBSERVER

A poll showed roughly 80 percent supported a smoke-free campus.

ing them to consider eliminating smoking on campus.

In spring of 2016, the university instituted a rule that students cannot smoke within 50 feet of the building. Robert Dineen, director of public safety at the Lincoln Center campus, explained that “as a result of some complaints from members of the university community regarding persons smoking too close to our building entrances, Public Safety and our colleagues in Facilities Operations worked together on designing ‘no smoking’ signs for each entrance.”

While Vassar believes this is a step in the right direction, he also thinks that the rule is is too difficult to enforce to make a meaningful difference.

Yet in Farrell’s experience, “the security guards do enforce the rules. I have been asked to

move if I am too close to the buildings.”

Dineen also confirmed that “when a public safety guard observes or becomes aware of someone smoking within 50 feet of a campus entrance, they have a responsibility to direct that person to move further away from the entrance beyond the required distance.”

Farrell continued, “those rules ensure that the common air quality is preserved. Also, when you live in an urban environment, you are already signing off on having a lesser air quality.

You can’t really complain about air quality if you’re choosing to live in a city like New York where there is so much air pollution anyways.”

Many students believe a smoke-free Fordham would improve public space on campus.

In 2017, campaign organizers conducted a smoking survey, which polled 220 participants.

The survey found that roughly 80 percent of students somewhat or strongly agreed that a smokefree Fordham would be desirable.

“My stance is supported by so many faculty members I’ve spoken with,” Vassar said, “but our students are key here, and they as a body need to want a smokefree Fordham too.”

Spitzner said that “what really needs to happen is to fully engage college leadership in the process and have their support in discussing the rationale for the policy to staff and the various campus stakeholder groups.”

“We need an in-depth conversation with university leadership,” Spitzner said, “but we have not gotten much interest in at that level.”

In May 2018, Vassar spoke with the United Students Government (USG) about making the campus smoke-free. While Vassar believed he had a good reception overall, some members of the government objected and argued that the ban on smoking would curtail students’ freedom.

Demetrios Stratis, president of USG, said that “while it seems that there is a sense of consensus that making the plaza smoke free is a priority, there are concerns about enforcement and applicability. Further, if this would alienate some students also complicates matters.”

He continued, “We sympathize with the motives of the initiative and recognize its need but we want to allow for a student dialogue on an issue that directly impacts students.”

Vassar noted that while he expects an initial opposition from the student body, he believes “that a smoke-free policy will benefit the Fordham community — and especially Fordham students — in the long run.”

He referenced former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s motion to forbid smoking in all restaurants and bars in 2002, explaining that now the policy is widely respected. He said that “from the standpoint of both personal and public health, it has proven a win-win.”

Beyond Grades Promotes Community Dialogue

By GUS DUPREE Staff Writer

A new program hopes to foster student-teacher discussion and dialogue. Beyond Grades, created by Interim Dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) Frederick Wertz and Associate Dean of FCLC Mary Bly, seeks to encourage, as quoted in the email announcing the program, “learning for the pure love of it.”

In each Beyond Grades session, no more than 10 students meet with a professor to discuss a diverse list of subjects, sessions ranging from the sci-fi novel “The Sparrow” and the horror movie “Night of the Living Dead” to music from the hit musical “Hamilton.”

Wertz described the program as “a way to enhance the culture of the college by increasing opportunities for student intellectual engagement, students’ relationship with the faculty and relationships that would really be generative.”

For Wertz, the inspiration for Beyond Grades stemmed from academic discussions that famed psychologist Sigmund Freud had with German philosopher Franz Brentano on Wednesday evenings in Vienna.

Wertz believes it was through

ZOEY LIU/THE OBSERVER

Natural Science chair Jason Morris (back) leads a discussion at “The Music of Randy Newman” event.

these discussions of philosophy and psychology that both Freud and Brentano inspired each other and, in turn, aided the men in their contributions in their respective fields.

“It seemed to me like relationships between inspiring faculty and students could really transform not only those students lives, but also the world,” he said.

Professor Lea Puljcan hosted a Beyond Grades session on Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” the inspiration

for the popular “Blade Runner” movie series. The organization of the event was noticeably inconsistent, with the email detailing the time and location of the event being sent out a mere hour before it began. This likely contributed to the lower turnout, with only four students attending despite all 10 slots being taken on the sign-up document.

Students engaged in lively discussions during the session. As promised, free pizza and soda were delivered. Students also received

free copies of the book, which they were allowed to keep. Much of the discussion revolved around themes, comments and critiques of various aspects of the novel.

For Wertz, Beyond Grades is just one aspect of a much broader initiative to create more opportunities for Fordham students to interact with one another. This initiative began before the school year started with the freshman class reading “The Magicians” by Lev Grossman as well as with the subsequent panel that freshmen attended during

orientation.

The reading of “The Magicians” was part of what Wertz called the “Year of Magic,” the theme for a series of events that have occurred so far this year.

Such events included day trips to an exhibit on magicians hosted at the New York Historical Society, as well as readings of the “I Ching,” an ancient Chinese divination classic.

These events will culminate with the group “Magicians Without Borders” visiting Fordham Lincoln Center. According to Dean Wertz, the event, scheduled for March 29, will include catering, music, live magical presentations and a magic workshop to teach aspiring magicians.

As for his Beyond Grades initiative, Wertz is optimistic about its popularity. He noted how quickly spots for Beyond Grades sessions filled up with interested students.

“Within 24 hours, almost all of them were totally full,” he said.

Already, Wertz has received offers from other faculty members offering to host future Beyond Grades sessions for later years.

“There’s interest on the part of the faculty and students,” he said, “and we’d like to see this program continued.”

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The Future of Salary and Benefits for Fordham Faculty and Staff

By REBECCA THOMPSON Staff Writer

In 2020, Fordham will re-evaluate healthcare benefits and salary allocation for faculty and staff. It will mark three years since faculty members protested against the administration’s original agreement in 2017.

The 2017 agreement reduced health care benefits and raised salaries by 2.1 percent. However, many faculty members viewed the raise as insufficient to the increased healthcare expenses and the high cost of living in New York City. Though Fordham employees fought this decision in 2017, it has remained unchanged.

Since the settlement, faculty and staff have been paying for health services which were previously free. Former chair of the Faculty Salary and Benefit Committee Andrew Clark said that “all of those costs have gone up significantly, so the wage the faculty are making decreased as a result overall.”

Clark expects few changes from the 2020 re-assessment. He believes Fordham administration has displayed a pattern of undermining faculty and staff. “They think the benefits the faculty receive are too rich,” Clark said, “and that we don’t really work, we only work 12-hour weeks, and that we don’t deserve such rich benefits.” As a result, Clark stated he anticipates that administration will make the argument that “faculty want wealthy benefits for themselves at the cost of students who are starving to get scholarships”.

“Historically, the re-evaluation process has been difficult,” Haim Mozes, current Chair of the Faculty Salary & Benefits Committee, said. Both Mozes and

GEORGE HORIHAN/THE OBSERVER

Fordham Faculty United and Fordham Students United protested for better salaries and benefits in 2017.

Clark said that there are difficulties in both communication and trust between the committee and Fordham’s administration.

Clark explained how a more comprehensive package for faculty and staff could also play a role in improving Fordham’s student and faculty retention. According to Clark, cutting benefits makes it difficult to recruit faculty who are classified as “Research I” quality. Research I institutions, also referred to as Doctoral Universities, are classified by the Carnegie Classification of Institu-

Campus Events Foster Gender Equality WHM from PAGE 1

Juan Carlos Matos, assistant vice president for student affairs for diversity and inclusion, explained that “while OMA [sought] collaboration with cultural and identity-based clubs, this was an opportunity for students who were

This was the first year that the OMA developed a student committee to implement their cultural heritage programming for WHM.

not involved in these student organizations to partake in event planning.”

Matos continued, “this also alleviates the burden of cultural and identity-based clubs from having to be the only ones planning events for their respective identities.”

The Women’s Herstory Month Planning Committee was comprised of undergraduate students from both Rose Hill and Lincoln Center who worked with April Ortiz, the graduate student at Lincoln Center for OMA. Matos stated that “each student was tasked with coordinating, facilitating and implementing an event for the month.”

Some of the other student organized events included International Women’s Day Movie outing where

students saw “Captain Marvel” — the first Marvel movie to star a female protagonist. Professor Diane Detournay led a dinner where students discussed the history of feminism; trivia nights were also held at both the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campus.

Working alongside OMA, the Feminist Alliance co-sponsored a “Gender Roles and Sushi Rolls” event on March 14.

“We were interested in talking about gender roles and how they affect Fordham and manifest in our own lives,” Tatikola said. “The idea was to conceptualize and recognize the presence of gender roles, to then create our own personal identities apart from them.”

Throughout the month, the Feminist Alliance has focused on their menstrual product drive for Bowery Mission, an organization that serves those who are trapped in cycles of poverty or homelessness. Tatikola confirmed that “the project has grown tremendously.

Through collaborating with other clubs, we have been able to more than double the number of products we donate.”

The group has also continued its work with the Dwelling Place, a transitional residence for homeless women in Midtown Manhattan.

The Feminist Alliance arranges semester-long service programs where members coordinate varying empowering activities for the residents.

The last event of the month, “Women in Corporate Leadership,” scheduled for March 28, will feature a panel of women in leadership positions in the New York area to share their experiences.

tions of Higher Education as universities that meet lofty scholarship and research criteria. These universities attract passionate professors, provide extensive research opportunities for students outside of the classroom, and provide a wide range of majors.

Clark believes faculty and staff are also likely to become disengaged with the Fordham community, affecting retention rate and ability to establish longterm staff. He said the frustration of insufficient compensation for working weekends and sitting

on committees has had a direct effect on a faculty’s willingness to donate their extra time to students and programs.

In addition, a lack of comprehensive housing benefits has resulted in some faculty and staff being forced to live hours away from campus. Living in close proximity would allow faculty and staff to be more present on campus, which could positively impact the Fordham community.

Clark hopes that the selection of the new vice president for Human Resources, Kay Turner,

could influence the administration’s decision-making process.

Clark describes her as an “honest and respectful negotiator,” something he admitted he had not necessarily experienced with Fordham’s administration in the past.

Mozes hopes the re-evaluation “will be done in a collaborative manner between faculty and administration.”

“If Fordham wants to continue to raise its profile, then the salary issue is always going to be a significant one” Clark said.

Junior Dean Spot Filled by Fellowships Assistant Director

By JORDAN MELTZER News Editor

In January 2019, Milton Bravo’s sudden departure from his position as assistant dean for juniors and transfer students surprised many community members and left them with questions about their futures.

Now, students have an answer to those questions: Rebecca Stark-Gendrano has accepted an offer to take the position, effective this April.

An internal hire, Stark-Gendrano will assume this role from her current position at Fordham as assistant director of Lincoln Center’s Office of Prestigious Fellowships. She is also an adjunct professor in the English department. She will continue teaching English in the future.

Her connection to Fordham is even deeper, though, as she began her master’s program in English at Fordham in 2003. She received her doctorate in that same program in 2014. During her studies, she was a student of current Acting Associate Dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) Mary Bly, who was her first professor on her first day at Fordham.

After a nationwide search, Fordham narrowed down the search to five candidates who underwent interviews, Bly said.

Stark-Gendrano was selected among those five.

As the dean of the junior class, Stark-Gendrano will help guide juniors as they transition from veteran college students into the workforce or graduate

school. She believes her background in Prestigious Fellowships makes her a perfect fit for this role.

“Junior year is really a critical year,” she said. “They’re starting to look beyond Fordham a little bit. They’re starting to think about internships, graduate school, prestigious fellowships … so I think junior year is a really crucial year for students to begin thinking about how they’re going to apply their education.”

Additionally, Stark-Gendrano feels that her experience as a transfer student — having moved from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City to Rutgers University in New Jersey — gives her a strong background to help assist Fordham’s incoming transfer students.

“I went from a school that had about 250 students altogether to one that had 40,000,” she said.

Having experienced that dramatic shift, she feels qualified to guide transfer students through the throes of their culture shock as well.

Stark-Gendrano is most excited to work with a larger portion of the student body than she did in her previous role. At the Office of Prestigious Fellowships, she said, she worked with a “relatively narrow slice of students,” but now she is excited to broaden her reach at Fordham.

Bly praised Stark-Gendrano’s work in her role in the Prestigious Fellowships office, citing the fact that FCLC students received more Fulbright fellowships last year than their Rose

SHAMYA ZINDANI/THE OBSERVER

Dr. Rebecca Stark-Gendrano will begin her new position in April.

Hill counterparts. Stark-Gendrano went on to describe this as “a point of pride for FCLC.” Also important to Bly was Stark-Gendrano’s existing relationship to Fordham. “She knows Fordham really well,” Bly said, “and she’s going to bring that to FCLC.” The culture of social justice within the Fordham community is something that has motivated Stark-Gendrano to stay at the university as long as she has.

“Fordham culture is really supportive,” she said. “Fordham students are really passionate, and it’s really exciting to be working with students who believe they can go out into the world and improve things on a big scale.”

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March 28, 2019 THE OBSERVER

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Candidates Tout Opposing Platforms in USG Elections

By ALEJANDRA CARRASCO Staff Writer

As election day for the 2019-20 United Student Government (USG) officers approaches, two presidential candidates have emerged running on nearly opposite platforms.

Before students cast their online ballots on April 2, Tina Thermadam and Austin Tong have laid out their plans to win the hearts — and the votes — of those students: As far as student involvement goes, Tina Thermadam has a laundry list of accomplishments, including being USG’s secretary since her sophomore year. She said her time there and on BeWell LC, Campus Activities Board and Winterfest Committee has given her the proper foundation to be President of USG. Thermadam’s campaign focuses on keeping students on campus and in clubs. To do this, she hopes to resolve club-student miscommunication and bolstering student leadership on campus.

Like many past presidential candidates, Thermadam said she wants to see more students at club meetings and events. She believes a fix for this is developing more “streamlined methods of communication,” like flyering for lesser-known clubs.

Amid criticism of club spending, Thermandam has defended student leaders’ spending decisions.

She said funding is spent wisely already. It’s communication between clubs and students that needs tweaking.

Thermadam wants to address how student leaders and club executive board members are generally confused as to what their responsibilities are. To address this, she suggested implementing a leadership program that would be similar to the Fordham University Emerging

COURTESY OF TINA THERMADAM AND AUSTIN TONG

Candidates Tina Thermam, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’20, and Austin Tong, Gabelli School of Business ’21, campaign for President.

Leaders (FUEL) program, but that would focus on the basics of club leadership.

Thermadam also wants to create a campus experience for all.

Similar to the end-of-year Bash, Thermadam proposes events where both residents and commuters could mix over a casual dance and cocktail snacks.

Tackling a perennial facilities debate, Thermadam is pushing for free female hygiene products on campus. “That’s something basic enough that should be offered on campus,” she said, In general, however, Thermadam is not looking to change the current systems in place. Running on reform, she wants to work with the administration to create more streamlined processes and increase efficiency, especially for clubs and club activities.

Austin Tong, in an effort to re-

turn to USG after resigning from USG vice president of operations infall 2018 over internal disputes, has launched an ambitious campaign to completely refit USG with new structure for the organization and the clubs it oversees. His campaign focuses on improving fiscal responsibility for student groups and cutting down on what he labels as “unnecessary processes.”

Tong believes one of the major reasons Fordham lacks school spirit is because the process of forming and running clubs is inefficient.

According to Tong, holdups such as excessive paperwork and a complicated clubmaking process, cut creativity and competition within the student body.

Tong proposed a new system in which clubs are divided under departments based on what he deems to be each club’s broader category. Tong thinks that a depart-

Trump Proposes Cuts to Federal Student Aid Programs

By GABRIEL SAMANDI Asst. News Editor

Fordham students utilizing loans to pay for their education may need to reevaluate their repayment options come 2020. Proposed cuts to education spending may end both federally subsidized loans and federal loan forgiveness programs.

The Trump administration’s proposed budget for next year, released March 11, seeks to cut roughly 10 percent — about $7.1 billion — of funding from the Department of Education, as well as $1.4 billion in unused Pell Grant funding, totaling an overall 12 percent decrease in education spending from 2019.

These cuts would mainly effect three federal programs for funding higher education.

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The Pell Grant program funding would be decreased.

Pell Grants are awarded to low-income students, as determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and do not need to be repaid to the government. This program would lose $1.4 billion in “unobligated balances,” referring to money that has not yet been allocated to students.

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Federally subsidized loans would be eliminated from the Department of Education. Subsidized loans are given by the federal government directly to students and do not accrue interest while the student is in school. The federal government also supplies unsubsidized loans, which begin accruing interest as soon as they are distributed.

A student’s loan package can be

ment-based system would decrease the likelihood of one person doing the work of many, an issue many clubs have never hammered out.

He believes that the student-run departments, which would replace the Operations Committee, would foster student ownership of specific clubs.

He believes that this model would also address the question of club funding, as departments would also shoulder more of responsibility raising money to fund club events.

University funding would be relegated to “financial support,” where clubs would be tasked with “financial self-sufficiency.”

Tong has also proposed significant changes to USG and its operations. Under his presidency, elections to executive board would be scrapped for Tong’s nomination and senate review, “to increase efficiency and legislative authority.”

Fordham Law Grad Faces Charges ADMISSIONS from PAGE 1

GAGE SKIDMORE VIA FLICKR

Betsy DeVos, Department of Education head, supports student aid cuts.

comprised of both subsidized and unsubsidized loans, as determined by their FAFSA information. Under the 2020 proposed budget, all new federal loans distributed would be unsubsidized.

capricious” in regards to changing the list of approved employers for the program, which resulted in the denial of several applications that previously would have been eligible for loan forgiveness.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program would be cut under the proposed budget. Introduced by President George W. Bush in 2007, the program allows students who have worked for approved public service employers (such as the federal, state or local government or certain nonprofits) for 10 years to have their remaining balances forgiven if they have kept up with payments.

The first class of applicants eligible for aid was in 2017. Under the current administration, 99 percent of applicants to this program have been denied. In addition, a recent decision by a New York federal district court found the actions of the department to be “arbitrary and

The proposed budget also outlines a new program to “streamline” the repayment process for undergraduate federal loans, leaving only one avenue for federal repayment. Under this plan, monthly loan payments would be capped at 12.5 percent of income, and any outstanding balance after 15 years of payments would be forgiven.

These changes will decrease the number of options students have to finance their educations and likely result in higher costs for borrowers past 2020. However, the proposed budget will almost surely undergo revision as it passes through the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which stated strong opposition to many aspects of the budget.

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To make it “less intimidating to join USG,” he wants to divide people into executive and senate powers in order to split the work. E-board officers will lead “recruited students” on specific initiatives while senators will remain as the primary voting body, greatly expanding the population of USG, an organization that has already struggled in the past to fill its ranks.

All senate votes, however, would be subject to presidential veto.

If elected, Tong expressed that he would be the link between the students and the Fordham administration. Under a larger and more top-down structure, Tong’s proposed government reflects his platform – primarily online – that has generated thousands of supporters from Fordham and his high school.

Whether that following will translate into votes at the polls this April is still conjecture.

in 2016 as well as the Dealmaker of the Year Award by American Lawyer in 2018.

Caplan’s charges come from information gathered via wiretap by the FBI during their monthslong investigation, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues.”

According to prosecutors, Caplan secured testing accommodations for a disability his daughter did not have and paid Singer $75,000 in a scheme to doctor her test scores. In a plan devised

by Singer, he flew his daughter to a testing location in Los Angeles with bribed staff who would facilitate the falsification of her results.

The FBI also released wiretap transcripts from a series of calls between Singer and his alleged conspirators, including Caplan, on March 12.

“There’s lots of ways to do this. I can do anything and everything, if you guys are amenable to doing it,” Singer told Caplan over the phone. Caplan expressed concern in the call about his daughter’s scores for getting into Cornell, his alma mater for his undergraduate degree. The payment of $75,000 to Singer was meant to secure a score “strong enough” for the school. Singer used his business and contacts to allow Caplan’s daughter an individual testing room where a bribed proctor could alter the results of the test, unbeknownst to her.

“That’s how simple it is,” Singer said to Caplan. “She doesn’t know. Nobody knows what happens. It happened, she feels great about herself. She got a test a

score, and now you’re actually capable for help getting into a school. Because the test score’s no longer an issue. Does that make sense?”

In another call with Singer meant to clarify the plan, Caplan expressed some discomfort.

“I mean this is, to be honest, it feels a little weird,” Caplan said.

Singer, who has claimed to have handled millions of dollars through his business, was able to convince Caplan of the plan’s security.

“I know it does,” Singer said.

“I know it does. But when she gets the score and we have choices, you’re gonna be saying, ‘okay, I’ll take all my kids, we’re gonna do the same thing.’”

“Yeah, I will,” said Caplan. After a brief pause, “So, how do I get this done with you? What do I need to do?”

During Fordham Law’s 25th Annual Public Interest Student, Alumni and Faculty Awards Dinner in 2016, Caplan was one of three Fordham alumni to receive the Louis J. Lefkowitz Public Service Award. This award is given to Fordham Law alumni who exemplify Fordham’s values in advancing public service and civic law.

The office of Matthew Diller, Fordham Law Dean, and Fordham Law’s Office of Communications and Media Relations had no comment to share at this time.

“To be honest, I’m not worried about the moral issue here. I’m worried about the, if she’s caught doing that, you know, she’s finished,” Caplan told Singer in the final transcript released by the FBI. He is set to appear in federal court on April 3.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER March 28, 2019

News

5

Chosen Name Policy Expected to Take Effect Next Semester ta is confident that the services will roll out gradually, with all systems fully operational by September.

Elizabeth Cornell, director of IT communications at Fordham, confirmed that IT will “comply with and implement” the new policy. “When the policy goes into effect,” she said, “Fordham IT’s role will be to enable systems (such as Gmail and Black-

By JORDAN MELTZER News Editor

A university-wide chosen name policy is in development and is expected to be fully operational by the start of the fall 2019 semester, according to Chief Diversity Officer Rafael Zapata.

The policy will give all Fordham community members the option to choose a name that will appear in place of their birth name in many places within the school.

Those changes will take effect on ID cards, class rosters, Blackboard, Gmail and other Google services. New ID cards will be available to students free of charge.

The change comes amid a year of heightened concern for the rights and safety of transgender people on campus. In October, a group of Fordham activists penned an open letter to the Fordham community demanding improved rights for transgender students. The transgender rights rally in November had a high turnout, but a poster for that rally was defaced with transphobic rhetoric. A statement was released in support of transgender rights a month later. In January, transgender students raised concerns about their difficulty with indicating a chosen name on Fordham’s online services.

The new policy has been in the works for a year now, Zapata said, and members of the administration fully back the change.

“People understand the policy, the spirit of it,” Zapata said.

“It’s supported by the administration, the president, colleagues of Student Affairs, the provost …

Folks have been great, students have been great. My colleagues on the Academic Records Com-

The policy will give all Fordham community members the option to choose a name that will appear in place of their birth name.

ZOEY LIU/THE OBSERVER

Community members like Kassandra D’Aniello, FCLC ’21, who is transgender, will be able to obtain new IDs.

mittee and other parts of the university have been incredibly supportive.”

The idea for this change was first suggested by a graduate student, Zapata said. When Zapata first arrived on campus in January 2018 as the university’s first chief diversity officer, he sent an email blast to the entire community asking them to reach out to him with suggestions for how the university community can be improved. The graduate student responded with the suggestion for a chosen name policy, as some schools, including New York’s own Columbia and NYU,

currently have.

Notably, Fordham’s policy will refer to a chosen name, not a preferred name. “For some people, particularly those who identify as trans and/or non-binary,” Zapata said, “the importance of choosing — agency — it’s a subtle but very important difference.”

In addition to transgender students, the university will offer this new option to international students and community members who prefer an anglicized or Americanized name, people who prefer to be known by their middle name rather than their first,

or any community member who prefers a different first name.

The policy will not have an impact on external or legal documents, as the university has no power to alter them. These include official transcripts, W-2 forms, tax forms and any other similar documentation.

One of the only hurdles left is on the technological side. Fordham IT has been making logistical preparations to launch the new policy since last year, Zapata said. Progress reportedly slowed down after the death of Provost Stephen M. Freedman in July.

Despite these setbacks, Zapa-

board) to display the preferred name and ensure it appears in the systems as seamlessly as possible.”

Zapata offered praise for the transgender students who have advocated for change like this at Fordham. “The trans rights issue is certainly at the forefront,” he said, “and they deserve a lot of credit for engaging the administration, engaging my office, about the importance of this issue.

“People want to be their authentic selves,” he added. “We want people to know our names.

I don’t know what can be more fundamental to who we are than the name we go by.”

The policy is expected to be finalized by the end of April and implemented by September 2019.

Maguire Bows Out of Fordham Theatre She went on to emphasize the fact that the new director must meld the traditions of Fordham theater with a unique approach to the creative vision of the program.

“Keep the foundation as it is, but build the building a little higher, and maybe in a different way.”

SUMMER SESSION IN NEW YORK CITY

“ If teaching is to be

ZOEY LIU/THE OBSERVER

Maguire has spent 26 years at Fordham, 13 of them as theater director.

MAGUIRE from PAGE 1

of all the department’s stakeholders, both during the search for a new director and throughout the program’s existence as a whole.

“There’s many moving parts,” she said. “Bringing the right kind of students, bringing the right kind of adjuncts and having the right support staff. I value and learn from every single student, every single person I come in contact with at Fordham.”

Maguire made it clear: “I’m not going,” he said many times. “I love teaching so much. I’m not leaving.” But he did acknowledge that in this change within Fordham’s theater department, “any direction different than me is new.”

What that direction might be and who the new head of the program might be are both still unknown.

“We’re looking for the same things we look for in students that we recruit: curious, risk-taker, in

love with community,” he said.

“We have a list of about 40 people in mind at the moment, and it’s very broad.” Directors, actors, playwrights, designers and even producers are all possibilities for a new face of the program.

Maguire also believes that the new director must be able to handle both Fordham work and external non-Fordham projects, just as he has done throughout his career.

“The reason why the theater program is so successful is because people are working artists,” Maguire said. “That’s really necessary.

“The person who has the ability to juggle a working professional career with the demands of this job — that’s crucial,” he added.

For Bubnis, the new leader should be “someone who would be calm in the midst of chaos, because it’s very busy,” she said.

“We’re basically running a theater company and an academic program all in one.”

able to share with others why you love what you love, then I’ve got plenty of good years left in me.

But I also want to be able to continue to keep my balance as an artist. ” MATTHEW MAGUIRE , outgoing Director of Fordham Theatre

“I hope it would be a woman,” she added. “The majority of our students are women. I just think it would be interesting to see what that sensibility would bring.”

No matter what happens next, Bubnis sees a bright future for both herself and Fordham’s theater program. “I just hope I can continue that love,” she said.

“Love for Fordham and love for the theater — and meld those two together.”

Eva Badowska, dean of faculty of arts and sciences at Fordham, who has been working closely with Maguire during this transitional period, said that his “leadership of the program has brought it to great prominence.” As far as the future goes, she said, “we are busily discussing how to support the program’s continued success.”

750+ undergraduate and graduate courses Online, classroom, and hybrid formats.

Visiting students welcome.

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Opinions

Opinions Editor Owen Roche - oroche2@fordham.edu

T

WE NEED TO ADMIT THE TRUTH case, and it’s limiting to believe we can stop them completely in the admissions office alone.

It falls to Fordham and the rest of American higher learning to change the mindset that made the admissions scandal possible in the first place.

Regardless of a university’s individual proximity to the recent events and other admissions scandals, institutions of higher learning should strive to delegitimize the culture of prestigious exclusivity that provides incentives to cheat the system.

It is no secret Fordham is often considered a “safety school” among its New York City neighbors, but the negative connotations surrounding that term obscure the fact that a truly effective system of higher education would be as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. If Fordham is a place anyone can attend, no rich snob would dare pay thousands of dollars to cheat the system and send their child here, and

Observer the

STAFF EDITORIAL

he news of kids taking spots away from those who applied fairly comes as no surprise to a population well aware of the fact that the obvious solution, getting the rich to play fair, just isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

To prospective students and their families, it can be easy to feel powerless against the untouchable outcomes of back-room bribes and bottom lines.

For those still wishing to send their children to Yale with falsified SATs and photoshopped extracurriculars, the only lesson learned from the intense media exposure is simply to be more careful with their fraud in the future.

But it is not in the hands of parents or students to fix this problem. Rich parents have exploited and will continue to exploit the same exclusivity and prestige that universities strive to increase with every new admissions statistic and U.S. News & World Report ranking.

It falls to Fordham and the rest of American higher learning to change the mindset that made the admissions scandal possible in the first place.

This problem with college admittances goes far beyond the few dozen students implicated in this

March 28, 2019 THE OBSERVER

we’re all be better for it. Inclusivity is the one thing that the rich can’t cheat at.

The first and most important step in changing the role and value of college education is to make an honest, inclusive and meaningful reinvestment in people — people who are passionate, who have diverse perspectives and who can make Fordham the school we want it to be. Look in the Bronx, Puerto Rico and Nebraska for students that can work for something more than themselves. That’s the real prestige. Not what your parents did, not how much you make, but how passionate you are about living your life for others.

That’s what we’re about, and now is Fordham’s chance to step up and prove it. As “elite” schools across the country are exposed for their superficial allegiance to exclusivity and reputation, Fordham can prove itself an institution dedicated to merit, by awarding the students who are deserving and denying the students who are riding on mom and dad’s paycheck. Here, it’s not about your false scores, your fake grades or your photoshopped athletic photos — it’s about what you bring to the table.

Editor-in-Chief Colin Sheeley Managing Editor Izzi Duprey Business Managers Alexios Avgerinos Teymur Guliyev Online Editor Courtney Brogle Layout Editors Loïc Khodarkovsky Steph Lawlor Asst. Layout Editor Esmé Bleecker-Adams News Editors Ruby Gara Jordan Meltzer Asst. News Editors Sophie Partridge-Hicks Gabriel Samandi Opinions Editor Owen Roche Asst. Opinions Editors Grace Getman Evan Vollbrecht Arts & Culture Editor Marielle Sarmiento Asst. Arts & Culture Editors Kevin Christopher Robles Gillian Russo Features Editors Lindsay Jorgensen Jeffrey Umbrell Asst. Features Editor Gianna Smeraglia Sports & Health Editor Luke Osborn Asst. Sports & Health Editors Patrick Moquin Lena Weidenbruch Photo Editor Zoey Liu Asst. Photo Editor Shamya Zindani Copy Editors Libby Lanza Lulu Schmieta Sami Umani Social Media Manager Shamya Zindani Fun & Games Editor Dan Nasta IT Manager E.J. Ciriaco Visual Advisor Molly Bedford

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Editor: In response to the editorial article, “Let’s Be Adults About Sex,” which discusses Fordham university’s policies against students’ possession of contraception, I wish to laud you for writing in support of students’ sexual health. I have always been in support of exercising safe practices and people being in charge of their reproductive health.

No matter at what age, it’s important to practice safe sex.

However, it’s becoming increasingly more vital for students to make sure they use contraception. The CDC has reported a spike in the rates of STDs among college-age adults. It’s entirely a disservice to students to shroud sexual activity as though it doesn’t occur on campus, as it’s mentioned in the editorial that 70 percent of Ford-

ham students report being sexually active. If the school really cared about the physical well being of the students, they wouldn’t hold punishment over student’s heads for providing the safety that the school failed to.

I stand with you on this matter. I believe it’s becoming of paramount importance that students stand up for their well beings.

Abigail Valdez San Jose, CA

Dear Editor: I really enjoyed Kristen Skinner’s article about Fordham’s production of Diana Son’s “Satellites” (and I thought that it was an excellent production).

However, I was a little dismayed when director Sonoko Kawahara said that she “does not consider herself to be an American, but an Asian who came to America.”

I realize that there have been times when Japanese-Americans like Ms. Kawahara have been persecuted. The most egregious example of that was when President Roosevelt approved the incarceration of Japanese-Americans into prison camps in retaliation for the Japanese military dictatorship’s atrocities at Pearl Harbor and Manchuria. We also have to have sympathy for all the innocent Japanese people who died in the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But, at the same time, we all have the great privilege of living in a country that provides equal opportunities to everyone. We should always remember that everyone who lives in this country is an immigrant, but we should also remember that we are lucky enough to have the best government in the world.

John Francis Fox CLC ’83

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POLICIES AND PROCEDURES • 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 e-mailed to fordhamobserver@gmail.com. Length should not exceed 200 words. All letters must be signed and include contact information, official titles, and year of graduation (if applicable) for verification.

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

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Corrections may be issued when mistakes made in the publication of a story affect its accuracy. Retractions may be issued when these mistakes are so severe that they change the story entirely. In such a case, the editor-in-chief will make a final decision.

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THE OBSERVER March 28, 2019

We All Must Join the Fight Against Islamophobia Asst. Opinions Editors

EVAN GRACE VOLLBRECHT GETMAN Within this seemingly unending cycle of terrorist attacks, it is easy to become numb, to see casualties as no more than numbers, tragedies as nothing more than beats of sadness in a long string of suffering.

But sometimes they reach through the headlines and punch you in the gut.

The New Zealand mosque shootings did just that. A self-proclaimed white nationalist drove to two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killed 50 people and injured at least 20 others during Friday worship services.

While this act of terror occurred in New Zealand, we are all too familiar with acts of senseless hatred and mass killing in the United States. Around the country, we have been standing in solidarity and grief with the rest of the world.

Jason Morris, chair of the Department of Natural Sciences, spoke at the vigil held on the Lincoln Center Plaza on the day following the attack. He said, “I’m angry at this terrible expression of evil and hatred that is directed at all of us, at our feelings of security and of belonging, at our sense of community and at our belief in basic human decency.” The mood at the vigil was somber and silent, students craning to hear the speakers’ words through the cacophony of New York traffic, each speech

SOPHIE PARTRIDGE-HICKS/THE OBSERVER

Students shared in mourning at Fordham’s March 15 vigil for the victims of the Christchurch shooting in New Zealand.

resonating with them during an extremely difficult time.

We thank Fordham University for its sensitive and inclusive approach to the vigil. The voices of Muslim students were supported

by Jewish speakers who stood in solidarity, with Conor O’Kane of Campus Ministry providing only opening and closing remarks.

A poster was provided afterward on which students could write messages in solidarity against the terror that befell New Zealand. Each expressed shock, grief, and called for peace and justice, but one student summed up the feeling of the Fordham student body well. They wrote a hadith in Arabic, a saying of the Prophet Muhammed: “Ijtanibul ghadaba.”

“Avoid anger.”

Each speaker voiced their grief

at the senseless loss of life in New Zealand and issued a call to action for the entire Fordham community to join them in combating Islamophobia and white supremacy, “today and every day,” as Morris, one of the Jewish speakers, said.

While we stand together and hope for peace, we recognize that our solidarity and our prayers are not ends in themselves, but meant rather to steel us as we continue to defend harmony against the forces of hatred and chaos.

The 49 victims of the Christchurch attack were killed as they prayed for peace, and we must honor them by upholding those ideals, through word and action, in all areas of life.

As a part of actively resisting Islamophobia, people who are not Muslim must prioritize the voices

of Muslims, as they are the ones who feel tragedies like this the most viscerally.

Listen to and respect the wishes of your Muslim friends; listen to groups like the Muslim Students Association. If they ask you to pray with them, pray with them. If they ask you for emotional support, give it to them. If they ask you to give them space, give them space.

It’s time to say something when we encounter Islamophobia. If that one uncle of yours or even a friend says something problematic, instead of awkwardly smiling through gritted teeth, you need to say something.

It may be hard to confront people you may genuinely like for their Islamophobia, but it can be done. Experts recommend that instead of immediately labeling

Opinions

7

the comment offensive or leveling accusations — which could lead to a pointless and drawn-out fight — the best thing to do is to explain your reaction to the comment and ask what the person was trying to say. A question like “Why did you just say that?” can go a long way to starting a potentially crucial dialogue. Even if you fail to engage them in constructive conversation, it’s still important to signal to those who exhibit Islamophobic behavior that their harmful beliefs are unproductive and unacceptable.

But it’s not enough to simply drive them off with cutting words and cold shoulders. In exile and exclusion, they only deepen their hatred and turn to each other for reinforcement. Eradicating Islamophobia is harder work than simply denouncing an evil — it must be fully co-opted and defeated.

Most of these actions are on the personal level, but combating Islamophobia must occur on the political stage as well.

One of the best ways to pray for peace is with your feet.

Go to the next protest. Donate to groups that fight Islamophobia.

Go to the voting booth and kick out politicians who spout Islamophobic ideas and create Islamophobic policies.

Islamophobia left unchecked does irreparable harm to our Muslim brothers and sisters around the world. The only way to wipe out Islamophobia — and respond to terrifying acts such as the New Zealand mosque shootings — is to make concerted efforts to push back against Islamophobia in our personal and political lives.

Smoothies Don’t Count As Dinner GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ESME BLEECKER-ADAMS

DREW BERNSTEIN Contributing Writer

I need to start with a disclaimer here: I am a terrible vegan.

I am a big fan of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as it relates to eating: if I don’t know whether or not there’s milk in this, I probably don’t want to know.

I routinely cheat on Thursdays for free bagels and cream cheese from the Jewish Students Organization (I may be a vegan, but I’m also a Jew).

When the only vegan options at the dining hall are a tasteless black bean burger, a pizza with an uncooked crust or a flimsy salad made with lettuce that has been sitting out for too long and dressing I don’t like very much, I might have a scoop of creamy mashed potatoes or a handful of egg noodles.

The willful ignorance and the bagels are fully on me. But it’s not just me: when any student walks into the dining hall, they shouldn’t have to choose between their ideals and a meal with actual sustenance — especially when we have been promised so many times that

the problem is being fixed.

You all know those posters, right? They started popping up last semester, laying out all of the vegan options that were now available, and the vegan-friendly changes they were planning to make. Aramark said that Jumping Greens would now be a vegan/ vegetarian station, that they’ve added tofu scramble to breakfast, that they have vegan pizza now, that Mondays are going meatless, that we still have black bean burgers and so on. But each of those promises fell massively short.

For example, though Jumping Greens did stop serving meat, it is only open on weekdays. I can’t speak for all vegans, but personally, I also eat on weekends.

Not only that, but Jumping Greens serves many dishes that no one could possibly consider full meals. Often, the only things there are smoothies. Don’t get me wrong, I love smoothies, but not so much for dinner.

Or maybe they serve a taco salad. Salad is a stretch though: it’s glorified nachos, and by the time you make it vegan, it’s tortilla chips with guacamole and a few black beans.

Again, I like all of those things, but they aren’t dinner. So, I end up living off rice from Foodology and scraped-together options from the salad bar. This just isn’t sustainable. If you are going to have a vegan/vegetarian station, it needs to be open every day, and it needs to serve an actual meal every day.

Otherwise, what’s the point in having a vegan station at all? At this point, they might as well not be serving us anything.

While I commend the efforts of tofu scramble, Meatless Mondays, vegan pizza and veggie burgers, there are issues here too.

Tofu scramble only helps for one of three meals, and it’s the only non-cereal option available for breakfast as the Dining Hall does not even have vegan butter for toast. Meatless Mondays are one day a week. The vegan pizza takes 15 minutes to come out because they don’t make it ahead of time, and is so undercooked that the crust turns back to dough in your mouth.

And while I don’t know if you’ve ever eaten a black bean burger from the Dining Hall, I wouldn’t recommend it. As far as I can tell, no one actually likes

them, which makes sense, as the black bean burgers they serve here, like every other black bean burger I have ever eaten, taste like wet cardboard.

When there are real vegan meals, it’s usually just stir-fry over and over again, which gets tiring really quickly. Especially when they can’t seem to figure out how to cook tofu so that it’ll actually have flavor.

The fact is, even if there are options, if they are unchanging ones that no one actually wants to eat, they aren’t viable. We vegans, like everybody else, actually care about what our food tastes like, and get tired of having to eat the same thing every day. If you wouldn’t eat it, we probably won’t either. If you wouldn’t want it every day, we probably don’t either.

And before you tell me that all of the cafeteria food is bad, I know that. But you try eating vegan there for a week. I guarantee that you will come to appreciate the food available to you.

The vegan and vegetarian population at Fordham Lincoln Center may be relatively small, but we are paying the same high meal costs, so we deserve to have real options.

A student should not have to give up their ideals in order to feel comfortable and fed at their school. And this is, of course, not necessarily the most important issue with the dining hall (Halal and Kosher options, anyone?), but it’s a problem I can speak to, and it’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

And it can be fixed if Aramark really tries. It’s pretty simple, honestly. If Jumping Greens was just open every day and always served a real meal, I would be happy. It’s that easy!

Contrary to popular belief, vegans only eat plants, we haven’t actually become them yet. So, no, we can’t produce energy through photosynthesis. We also can’t just survive on tofu and lettuce, because the human body needs more vitamins and proteins than that. And, believe it or not, we do actually enjoy good food. You’d think someone over at Aramark would’ve figured that out by now.

After all, we spend thousands of dollars a year on meal plans. It’s high time that money actually goes towards serving us meals.

But until that happens, I guess I’ll just have another smoothie.

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Opinions

March 28, 2019 THE OBSERVER

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Doctors Have a Duty to Care, Not Discriminate

AIZA BHUIYAN Staff Writer

When I was growing up, I hated going to the doctor’s office because of the possibility of needles and scary tools. But not once did I think my physician would discriminate against me because of my identity.

It never crossed my mind that there were millions of people in the country who refrain from paying their physician a visit for this very reason. So many people lack the agency to go to their doctor and rightfully ask questions about their bodies and health. They harbor fears and concerns that their physician will pass judgment on them and treat them unfairly because of who they are.

These fears are not unfounded.

Even though doctors are supposed to be completely devoid of judgment when treating their patients, federal policies allow doctors to discriminate against their patients. Across the country, doctors are allowed conscience protections which allow them to refuse to treat patients based on their “religious” beliefs.

These protections are derived from laws passed under the Bush administration such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 as well as the Church, CoatsSnowe and Weldon Amendments, which all shield healthcare workers from carrying out different procedures and treatments that conflict with their religious views.

Roger Severino, director of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the Health and Human Services (HHS), aims to strengthen these conscience protections laws for doctors. After President Trump signed the executive order “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty” in 2017, OCR founded the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in order to enforce pre-existing conscience protections laws in 2018. The new division will make it mandatory for all healthcare centers to post these laws in their facilities.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ESME BLEECKER-ADAMS

Roger Severino, director of OCR, seeks to expand the ability of doctors to discriminate against patients.

Under these conscience protections, doctors are able to refuse to treat patients if they have a “moral obligation” against the treatment. Although these laws existed under the Obama administration, the scarcity of cases regarding any alleged religious discrimination from physicians did not require them to be inordinately enforced.

In fact, under the Obama administration, there were only 10 cases citing conscience protections. Under Trump, this number tripled. However, there were 30,000 cases in 2017 where

a patient felt like they were being treated unfairly because of their identity. Based on these numbers alone it’s clear that instead of strengthening conscience protection laws, the HHS should increase initiatives to protect patients from discrimination.

In the HHS budget brief for 2019, the importance of equal access to all patients is emphasized. However, because of these conscience protections, millions of people will be denied access to proper medical treatment.

Severino did not deny that

LGBT-related cases may become a point of contention. Doctors could potentially refuse to prescribe PrEP, birth control and deny hormone therapy treatment to transgender individuals. Under Severino, the HHS division will support doctors who refuse treatment and also those who choose not to provide a referral to another doctor who would be willing to provide the patient with the care that they are seeking.

Although these conscience protections have substantive reasons as to why they exist — to protect the religious freedom most Americans cherish — the lines suggesting how and when they should be enforced become blurry. It is unclear whether they would allow medical practitioners to deny care for patients based on their sexuality or gender identity, but refusing treatment for a patient based on these attributes is extremely unconstitutional.

There is precedent from the California Supreme Court that protects patient’s rights over the religious views of physicians. In 1999, North Coast Women’s Care Medical Group refused to provide treatment for Guadalupe Benitez because she identified as lesbian.

She claimed that the medical center provided the same treatment she requested to heterosexual women, but denied her. In 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled in her favor. The Court stated that businesses are not exempt from laws protecting clients from discrimination based on their own religious beliefs.

Additionally, the price for strengthening these protections is steep. In fact, the HHS estimated that it would cost $312 million in the first year and then another $126 million annually for the following years. These increased expenses are due to the expansion of the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division in the OCR and the costs of implementing new strategies to enforce the conscience protection laws.

All this money would be spent from taxpayer dollars when there

aren’t even many cases where doctors complain about having to subvert their religious beliefs in order to care for patients to begin with.

In any case, doctors are supposed to transcend their moral and political convictions when they treat their patients.

In June 2016, at the Brocher Foundation, multiple bioethicists and philosophers formulated a general set of guidelines doctors should follow when treating patients.

They basically say that doctors should prioritize the well-being of their patients over their personal opinions. If they do have moral conflicts, they can refer their patients to another doctor. However, if no other doctor is available to complete the treatment they should administer it themselves.

Freedom for doctors should never come about at the expense of their patients.

The suggestions brought forth by this group recognize the importance of protecting every physician’s personal beliefs while also acknowledging the value of their patients. No doctor should feel forced to carry out procedures they are morally opposed to, but they should understand that if no other medical practitioner is able to perform their duties, it is their responsibility to carry out themselves. It is their job to care for, prioritize and address their patient’s medical needs.

Religious freedom is every American’s first amendment right.

No one should ever feel like their liberties are being suppressed.

However, this freedom for doctors should never come about at the expense of their patients. Especially when there are substantially more recorded acts of discrimination against patients than their medically trained counterparts.

The Rubberneck

THE OBSERVER March 28, 2019

We’ve All Bin Fooled: Recycling a Hoax

OWEN ROCHE Opinions Editor

You’ve undoubtedly seen them.

The tall, shadowy banners leer at the entrances of both Lincoln Center residence halls, clad in 2002 Word Art and strange, blurry image macros. Like gargoyles — or rejected Hogwarts house paintings — they keep silent watch over the comings and goings of Fordham students who seldom take notice.

Have you felt it? Have their whispers of sustainability pierced your consciousness?

Does the phrase “Oh say can you recycle” ring a bell?

The perceptive among us have sensed their overnight arrival.

With no announcement, no fanfare and nary an email of explanation, the old, tall flags have appeared once more.

RecycleMania has consumed Fordham anew.

If the rune-covered, navy blue flags emblazoned with that catchy name haven’t given you enough information, let this be your enlightening: RecycleMania is sweeping across Lincoln Center and Rose Hill — and it threatens to melt the very plastic of the university.

The RecycleMania movement began in 2001 when Ohio University and Miami University held a friendly competition to see who could recycle more material. Gaining traction ever since, the program now partners with the National Wildlife Federation and the Keep America Beautiful campaign, a group known almost entirely that one commercial from the 70’s with the crying Native American — and of course for pioneering of “corporate greenwash,” a way for big companies to treat the symptoms of pollution and feel good without ever touching the root cause (which, more often than not, they are).

Fordham began its participation in the Great Recycling Ruse in

SHAMYA ZINDANI/THE OBSERVER

This may be the last thing Owen Roche ever saw.

2002, according to RecycleMania archives. To the casual observer, our residence halls have been helping the planet and building community for 17 renewable, renewable years.

Right?

I consulted Fordham News, the propaganda arm of the university, and a revelation stopped me in my tracks. I searched for a record of any residence hall’s past performance in RecycleMania, of any

scrap of news lauding Fordham’s commitment to sustainability.

Nothing since 2013. Eleven years of alleged recycling, and then nothing.

Nothing but the annual appearance of those blasted banners to remind students of clipart past.

The outdated information doesn’t even mention McKeon Hall as a participating residence hall, casting doubt not only on the shadowy movement but the existence of

McKeon Hall itself.

RecycleMania and its baseless statistics threaten to reveal a truth the banners know well, but it is a revelation we’ve never suspected: Recycling. Isn’t. Real.

How could we have been so foolish? Nestle knows it. The cigarette companies that partnered with Keep America Beautiful to organize litter campaigns instead of smoke-free zone initiatives — they know it.

Opinions

The alien lizard people running the National Wildlife Federation who subsist exclusively on plastic grocery bags know it all too well.

Recycling initiatives divert our focus from the real, root causes of our ecological problems. Namely, our acute lack of landfills. It’s an embarrassment — New York is our campus, and it certainly wasn’t built by turning waste into anything useful.

It’s time we dispose of this myth for good. Don’t recycle. It’s un-American, it puts hardworking bottle factory workers out of jobs and it’s contrary to every Jesuit value for which this university purports to stand.

My research into exposing RecycleMania for the sham it truly is has not left me unscathed. I try to shield my thoughts from the banner when I pass by, but I fear my true intentions are already known to the Recyclemasters.

Two days ago, returning from a night class, I discovered a single, empty plastic Dasani bottle on my bed. My garbage can was completely empty, a pizza box I had thrown in there without a care perched menacingly on top.

The next night, my recycling bin was full of plastic monogrammed Fordham cups.

I see those three cursed arrows every night when I close my eyes, spinning faster and faster as everything I know and love is reduced, reused, recycled. St. Ignatius throws my soul into a trash compactor and the Indian sheds a tear. Reduced, reused, recycled.

Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Re-educate.

EDITOR’S NOTE: For disloyalty to the Blue Bin and seditious speech, Owen Roche was transferred to the Bronx Recycling Center and will undergo treatment to suppress his g*rbage thoughts.

In lieu of donations, he requests you dutifully present your papers and plastics to the nearest receptacle and wishes you a happy and healthy RecycleMania season.

Elevator Mayhem: My Scandalous Soup Story NICOLE PERKINS Staff Writer

The time: 9:30 p.m., Friday, March 15. The location: McKeon Hall. The problem: the chicken soup that I ordered for dinner had arrived.

My soup savior and delivery man, Jason from Uber Eats, arrived 15 minutes early and called my phone to let me know that he was waiting in the lobby. With only five minutes to reach the promised land before my delivery window timed out, I sprinted towards the elevators.

Like magic, its proud silver doors opened before me almost instantly. Fear not, I thought to myself, within mere seconds I will be holding the liquid gold that is chicken soup. I pressed the button for the first floor and waited to descend to my destiny.

Only it did not move. The button didn’t light up, and I did not hear the elevator begin its gentle journey to my soup.

I was befuddled, hurt, betrayed. The dining hall elevator I was situated in was supposed to close at 11 p.m. Here I was, an hour and a half early.

I had been lied to. Reality was an illusion. The very fabric of Fordham University was disappearing before my eyes. As the

SHAMYA ZINDANI/THE OBSERVER

Tempers rise. Elevators do not.

situation became clear, I realized that I would have to take the main lobby elevators. I shuddered as I stepped out and began my walk to the true Elevator from Hell.

I say elevator, singular, because as of Friday, March 15 at 9:30 p.m., only one elevator was functioning on the lobby side of McKeon Hall. The other had been shut down for at least a week,

with a flimsy sheet of paper posted nearby dooming everyone to an eternity of waiting.

Every time I needed to go to class, leave the building or do anything else that required me to use the lobby elevators, I found myself standing in the dance-themed lobby of floor 12 for hours. I would grow a beard and start to develop a curvature in my spine, reaching the ripe

old age of 84 before I heard the signature ding telling me that finally, at last, the elevator had arrived. I would look up, a smile gracing my now old and wrinkled face — only to see the elevator already full of students from higher floors. Crushed, I would retreat into the darkness.

The cursed night of the soup saga is one I will never forget.

I want to say that the elevator

miraculously appeared, that I got onto it in time and held my soup up high for all to see. But it didn’t come.

I tried to vault myself down the stairs, skipping step after step but alas. I arrived mere minutes after Jason from Uber Eats had departed. As I collapsed in the lobby, crying on the floor in the fetal position about that devastatingly cold chicken soup without anyone to love it, I knew that there had to be a better way.

So now I ask Fordham: why is the freshman student body saddled with elevators that constantly break, when McKeon Hall was built in 2014?

Even my old public school, which had less funding than the last remaining BlockBuster, had an elevator (albeit with questionable graffiti) that did not break this often.

Is one student dead set on breaking an elevator every Friday night to continue tormenting their innocent peers? Is this Fordham’s way of subtly encouraging us to take the stairs more often? Either way, it needs to stop.

Unless the school is about to introduce a way to teleport from our dorms to the lobby, something needs to be done. Not one more soup should go cold into the night because of a faulty elevator.

Not one more.

10

Sports & Health

March 28, 2019 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

not a king’s court Fordham women’s basketball reached a pinnacle of their sport in a sea of empty bleachers and, even in defeat, deserve more from their community.

By PATRICK MOQUIN Asst. Sports & Health Editor

To anyone not paying attention, it must have come as a surprise to see Fordham women’s basketball roll through the Atlantic 10 and enter as a 14 seed in the NCAA Tournament last Saturday.

In the Round of 64, they played the 3 seed, Syracuse University, a team that had thrived in much deeper waters than the Rams had tread in the Atlantic 10. In this difficult position against a superior team, Fordham did not go easily but was eventually defeated soundly by a 70–49 score, eliminating them from the national tournament.

To the average bystander, a 21-point defeat in the NCAA Tournament would be seen as a disappointment. There are programs that expect success from all of their sports, and a firstround exit would then be considered a failure.

To the chagrin of some Fordham Sports fans, however, this women’s basketball team has proved to be the most successful team on campus this year. In addition, national recognition is a rare feat for Fordham athletics, and women’s basketball achieved it despite falling short against a superior Syracuse team. Even as Fordham’s most decorated team, the spotlight on their success remains dimmed, and the crowds

were always sparse compared to their male counterparts. They had to constantly work within the stereotype of women’s basketball as a joke.

Throughout the season, Fordham was nearly unstoppable in the Atlantic 10 conference. Before entering conference play, the Rams participated in invitationals with the top teams in the country, and at this level, the Rams’ competed in a way few expected of them. Against their conference rivals, they dominated, compiling a 13–3 record.

Earning the 2 seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, they completely dismantled their competition, defeating UMass, Duquesne and Virginia Commonwealth in short order to win the championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. In those three games, they won by a combined score of 211–143.

Though players like Lauren Holden, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’19, and Mary Goulding, FCRH ’19, proved to be great performers and leaders, Fordham’s success was largely driven by redshirt sophomore Bre Cavanaugh, FCRH ’21. Cavanaugh led Fordham to many key victories and was especially dominant during their tournament run, averaging 23 points per game during that stretch.

This team was any basketball fan’s dream: a team with senior

leadership bolstered by the spectacular play of an up-and-coming phenom. But for the majority of the season, Fordham women’s basketball saw very small attendance numbers.

A lack of attention on campus can be viewed as part of a larger dismissal of women’s athletics, and to a degree, that is a strong point of contention. During a conversation about March Madness, a Fordham alum, who has asked to remain anonymous, said that the Fordham basketball program needed work. When reminded of the women’s success, he responded, “Sure, but what are we focusing on really?”

While this is undoubtedly a problem plaguing women’s basketball in general, it does not affect Fordham more than it does any other university. In fact, Fordham women’s basketball received widespread national attention last week, when they were invited on to the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to throw cheese at the host in anticipation of their matchup against Syracuse.

Putting aside the current quality of NBC programming, this basketball team has reached a platform very few people ever do, and yet they played most of their home games to empty stands. In essence, Fordham students were presented a winning product representative of their

school and its values two to three nights a week this winter, and they declined the opportunity to attend.

While the games of a 25–9 basketball team were largely shunned by students, the 12–20 men’s basketball team regularly enjoyed more considerable crowds, even when diminished by the team’s lackluster record.

Cavanaugh said that her team “could play a team that’s number one in the conference and only a handful of students show up,” while “the men’s team could be 0–12 and both sides of the gym are filled with students and faculty.”

In men’s sports, competency is often rewarded, and conversely, poor performances are responded to with poor attendance.

Fordham football had dismal attendance numbers after a very turbulent season, and the home court advantage was seldom utilized fully by men’s basketball as they struggled against their conference rivals.

On the other hand, the women’s basketball team was not only competent, but excelled over their competition. In the most strenuous situations, Fordham dominated their local rivals to a degree that earned them national recognition.

Any sports fan at Fordham should want to be a part of that success, and if school spirit were

truly at the heart of every fan’s enthusiasm, Fordham women’s basketball would be sold out every night. Instead, their accomplishments are diminished to those of a second-tier sport.

If a person in general society were to choose between attending an NBA and WNBA game, it would be acceptable for that person to choose the NBA game if that is the product they prefer. However, Fordham students should not choose to attend games in the same way. In their case, the connection to a university is far more personal than that of a state or city.

School spirit should be the driving force behind the decision to attend a Fordham sporting event, and that spirit should be rewarded by teams who perform at a level representative of their school’s standards and expectations.

In Cavanaugh’s words, “we do feel like we deserve more attention but it doesn’t affect how we play because we play for each other. We don’t play to please the fans and spectators.”

Despite playing most of the season to an empty student section, women’s basketball performed at an exceptional level and deserve recognition for accomplishing things that no other athletic team at Fordham has come close to achieving in the 2018-19 academic school year.

Following a 62–47 victory over Virginia Commonwealth, women’s basketball celebrates their Atlantic 10 Championship and automatic NCAA Tournament berth.

COURTESY OF AUSTIN MORIASY

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER March 28, 2019

Sports & Health

11

NCAA DIVISION

NCAA DIVISION

NCAA DIVISIOn

NCAA DIVISIOn

basketball

national invitation

BASKETBALL

BASKETBALL

TOURNAMENT

TOURNAMENT

TOURNAMENT

TOURNAMENT

women’s

women’s

women’s

women’s

basketball

basketball

basketball

basketball

1994

2o13

2o14

2o19

History of Fordham Women’s and Men’s Basketball Win Percentage

2017 Attendance In a stadium with a 3,200 person capacity: Men’s Basketball 31,167 total avg. 1,833 per game Women’s Basketball 16,056 total avg. 845 per game Men’s games: 57% of full capacity Women’s games: 26% of full capacity

Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture Editor Marielle Sarmiento - msarmiento3@fordham.edu

March 28, 2019

THE OBSERVER

Save the Planet, Save Cash, Go Thrifting

Thrift shopping can help you sustain both your wallet, your closet and the planet

SAMANTHA VOGEL/THE OBSERVER

Marina Vergara searches for one-of-a-kind “holy grail” items at thrift stores.

By MARINA VERGARA Staff Writer

As fellow New Yorkers and Upper West Siders, we all have at least some passion for fashion. Here at Fordham Lincoln Center, we tend to be “’fitted” for the streets, the classroom and everything in between.

But, as you know, fashion isn’t cheap. Seasons change, styles evolve and new clothes are made and sold in a matter of weeks, all of which can take a chunk out of your wallet. Fashion isn’t very eco-friendly either; the constantly changing trends mean more clothes are made cheaply and quickly at the expense of the planet.

Here’s the tea: the fashion in-

dustry is one of the highest polluting industries in the world.

Although its exact rank within the most polluting industries is debated, the fashion industries still remains within the top 10 and is responsible for massive amounts of environmental damage.

The garment industry produces 1.26 billion tons of greenhouse emissions each year, is responsible for 20 percent of the world’s industrial water pollution and creates 92 million tons of solid waste every year. These numbers increase with every new fashion week, new trend and ever-changing “look.”

So how does one stay stylish and save the environment?

The answer is thrift shopping.

Thrifting is not just for hipsters and trendy YouTube vloggers.

Rather, it is an easy and inexpensive way to experiment with one’s style without the carbon footprint of fast fashion.

I will admit, thrifting can be daunting. Racks and racks (and sometimes bins) packed full of used clothing is intimidating at first glance, but it can also be exciting — you never know what you are going to find.

Consider thrift shopping like a treasure hunt. The key is to know what “treasure” you’re looking for before you begin the search, or else it can get a bit overwhelming.

Go in with some idea of what pieces you want to add to your collection, but keep your eyes open for unexpected gems hidden in the mix.

Here are some thrift store staples to keep your eyes open for: Graphic tees: They are everywhere, and so easy to style.

Why should you pay upwards of $20 for a graphic T-shirt at Urban Outfitters when you can find a very similar one for a lot less at a thrift store? Bands, motorcycles, destinations, funny sayings, you name it — graphic tees are a great way to make your style about you.

Button-down shirts: plain, patterned or anything in between, button-down blouses and shirts are a great way to look like you tried a lot harder than you actually did. Style them open over a graphic tee, buttoned up with a corset or loosely tucked with some statement pants. And don’t just stay within the women’s section or men’s section; explore a little. Forget the binaries. Fashion is fashion — who really cares what gender it was “made” for?

Denim: a wardrobe staple that is both easy and hard to thrift.

Denim is easy to find, but it doesn’t always come in the right size. My biggest piece of advice: try it on.

Don’t just go by the tag. Sizing, especially for women, makes little to no sense; numbers are arbitrarily stuck on labels with very little consistency across brands.

For instance, I have jeans that range from a size 6, to a size 0, to a size 12, all of which fit me about the same. Confusing, right?

So with denim, try it on. But hey, what’s better than a cute pair of vintage mom jeans?

Thrifting is an easy and inexpensive way to experiment with one’s style without the carbon footprint of fast fashion.

One-of-a-kind pieces: the holy grail for thrifters. Thrift stores are the home of many pieces that you will never find anywhere else, and that, my friends, is beautiful.

Unique pieces call to you; you’ll know when you find one. There will be something about it — the color, construction, fabric — that just makes you think, “I have to have this.” Maybe it’s a color-shifting corset or a crazy striped jacket or a floor-length fur coat — some pieces are just meant to be in one’s wardrobe.

Call it materialism or call it art, funky fashion is how we all communicate in this world. Make a statement, live a little.

Thrifting is the new recycling; it may require a bit more effort, but it is worth it for your wallet and your planet.

Climate change is real and the fashion industry isn’t helping. Shopping at thrift stores and thereby reducing the amount of fast fashion consumed will make a difference, even if it starts small. Go to Goodwill, find some eccentric clothes and live your truth sustainably.

Thrift stores aren’t just full of old slogan tees and dated clothes your grandma wore — do some digging and you will find unique pieces to elevate your style without elevating pollution.

By SAMANTHA VOGEL Staff Writer

When I was 10 years old, I thought I wanted to be a fashion designer. But I realized I just wanted to have my own unique style.

The streets of New York are more than the constantly dirty, trash-filled meccas locals complain about. They’re full of color, life and style. Style is synonymous with the city. Each borough in Manhattan has its own stylistic flair.

When I came to the city, I wanted to create my own city look. I soon became aware that being on a student budget might pose a few challenges.

So I began thrifting. It was a cheap way to add eclectic looks to my closet. However, I now thrift not only for the fun of it, but also because of the benefit it serves our environment.

Fast fashion, multi-million dollar companies and sweatshops are all harmful to the planet and actually produce an effect on climate change. Thrifting, or buying secondhand, helps alleviate and bring attention to this harmful waste.

Jeans and other denim items are some of the least environmentally sustainable clothing items. Buying your jeans secondhand or supporting companies like Madewell, Reformation or Levi Strauss — companies that create jeans either from more sustainable fabrics or recycled denim and whose jeans can go longer without washing — you can save about 1.7 million tons of chemicals and 2,000 gallons of water for each pair of jeans you purchase second-hand, or from a company like Reformation.

I decided to make my closet “full-thrift” and only support enviromentally sustainable companies after the new year. (Of course, I cannot afford most of the companies on a regular basis, so thrifting has become my main way of gathering clothes.) I understand not everyone wishes to adopt this same lifestyle, but making the switch is easier than you might think — not to mention much more rewarding.

Here are some thrift store suggestions in Manhattan to get you started: Beacon’s Closet, 10 West 13th St., Manhattan, N.Y. & 74 Guernsey St., Brooklyn, N.Y.: If you’re looking for designer clothing and high quality pieces at a (mostly) student-friendly price, I recommend Beacon’s Closet. In ad-

MARINA VERGARA/THE OBSERVER

Samantha Vogel has decided to make her closet “full-thrift” to support sustainable fashion.

dition to the Manhattan location, there is a bigger store in Brooklyn if you’re willing to make the trip.

L Train Vintage, 204 1st Ave. & 629 Grand St. Brooklyn, N.Y.: If you’re looking for basics like hoodies, denim jackets, Levi jeans and sweaters, I recommend L Train Vintage. L Train is reasonably priced and has several locations in New York City. I’ve bought several jackets for only $13 each and some as low as $6.

Goodwill (at least nine Manhattan locations): Goodwill, though not as fancy as the other thrift stores, has some gems.

All items are reasonably priced and prices of each item don’t fluctuate depending on the brand name or quality.

Air Force 1: The Sole of the City

By ETHAN COUGHLIN Staff Writer

Of the Fordham campuses, Lincoln Center is by far the most fashion-forward. You can’t walk to class without spotting someone rocking labels from head to toe. The hypebeasts wear Balenciaga and Supreme, the hipsters wear Carhartt and Noah and the Chads wear Vineyard Vines, Patagonia and Sperry. But one article of clothing transcends cliques and is shared by everyone on campus and in the city alike: the Nike Air Force 1.

The Air Force 1 first hit the market in 1982, named after the presidential airplane. Designed by Bruce Kilgore, the Air Force 1 came in three styles: high, mid and low, low being the most popular of the three. Though air bubble technology cannot be seen like on the Nike

Air Maxes, the Air Force 1 was the first shoe to use it. They come in numerous different colorways and materials; however, classic white on white leather is by far the most common.

Nike has collaborated with countless artists, designers and brands on the Air Force 1 with new designs coming out almost weekly. Some of the more famous collabs have been with Supreme, Off-White, Andy Warhol and Travis Scott.

Once I moved to the city, though, I found you cannot throw a stone without scuffing someone’s fresh Air Force 1s. They’re ubiquitous.

Fordham students agreed that Air Force 1s are timeless and comfortable.

Grace Munson, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22, went as far as to call them the most

comfortable pair of shoes she owns.

Samer Sabbour, FCLC ’22, said he likes them because they’re a “solid, all-around utility shoe that you can do anything in.”

Mateo Prada, FCLC ’22, said he loves how you can “dress them up or down.”

Despite their popularity on campus, not everyone is so keen to the Air Force 1. Dante Mayeno, Gabelli School of Business ’22, called them “basic white girl” shoes.

Love them or hate them, the Air Force 1 has become a staple of New York fashion that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Every year, the Air Force 1 continues to be among Nike’s top-selling shoe models, and new collabs and colorways rope in more customers with every drop. If you don’t already have a pair, what are you waiting for?

NIGEL ZWEIBROCK/THE OBSERVER

There is but one shoe that dominates the concrete streets of New York: Nike’s Air Force 1.

13

Arts

March 28, 2018 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

II, Too: The Next Generation of Dance Sparkles at Skirball

By ROXANNE CUBERO Staff Writer

Five minutes before showtime, the air was filled with panic, excitement and pale smoke.

Disciples of dance scurried down the aisles to find their red velvet seats. People from every walk of life gathered at NYU Skirball Center to see what Ailey II had to offer. As the house lights threatened to dim, audience members were still gathered in the aisles, as if this performance was a reunion of old friends.

Ailey II’s season at NYU Skirball, titled “Ailey II — The Next Generation of Dance,” is a continuation of Alvin Ailey’s 60th anniversary. The season features two programs: “All New” and “Returning Favorites.” The former features premieres from choreographers in “the Ailey family,” as artistic director Troy Powell calls it. They include Uri Sands, Bradley Shelver, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Artistic Director Robert Battle and Powell himself. The latter features audience favorites from Juel D. Lane, Renee I. McDonald and Darrell Grand Moultrie.

Audiences will be awestruck

by Ailey II’s infallible energy.

The company’s 12 dancers — five of whom are Fordham/Ailey BFA alumni — display their versatility in the programs, showcasing everything from percussive prowess in Battle’s “Flock” to emotional expertise in Powell’s “Ebb and Flow.”

It’s Ailey II’s 12-person roster that distinguishes the company from other second companies, as well as the first company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

As company member Marcel Wilson, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’18, stated, the second company serves as a “stepping stone” for students from The Ailey School.

“The objective was to expose

COURTESY OF NAN MELVILLE

Ailey II provides a safe bridge between The Ailey School and the rigorous professional life that follows dancers of all stripes.

these 12 dancers to what life as a professional dancer within a company was like, but to give [them] the space needed to grow and mature,” Wilson said. Their efforts have certainly paid off; Ailey II dancers move with the maturity of a seasoned professional and the vigor of a student.

The second company’s smallsize also contributes to the sense of community that underlies many of its works as well as the general atmosphere of the company. Company member Alisha Peek, FCLC ’18, noted a sense of “comfortability amongst the dancers” because the majority of the company is selected from The Ailey School. This translates into their work, most notably in Brad-

ley Shelver’s “Where There Are Tongues,” an energetic, quirky work that takes you on a journey alongside all 12 members of the company.

Throughout the 27-minute piece, the dancers never left the stage even when they weren’t dancing. In fact, the work begins with all of the company members on stage, watching a soloist. As the men dance, the women watch from the corner, and vice versa.

In the lively finale, the entire company dances in unison, sometimes pausing to cheer on soloists and duos.

Their energy was so infectious that the entire audience began to clap and cheer as if they were on the stage with them, as if they

were dancing with them.

There’s an indescribable kind of chemistry between the young members of the company, who come from near (Bronx native and BFA alumnus Marcel Wilson) and far (Brazilian Leonardo Brito and Swiss-Ghanian Caroline Theodora Dartey). As Grace Bergonzi, FCLC ’17, put it, they “come together to create this unique community” of storytellers.

Despite the rigorous lifetime of training that each company member has gone through, their most impactful skill is their ability to emote and tell stories.

Though community seemed to underlie all of their works, they didn’t whisk audiences away to a

go-lucky dreamworld to escape from today’s world. Many of the pieces in their repertoire serve as poignant commentary on society.

Notably, Robert Battle’s “Flock” tells the story of a charismatic yet problematic leader and his disciples, which reminded Amarachi Korie, FCLC ’18, of “how powerful influence of any kind can be.”

Similarly, Uri Sands’s “Tracks” features an endearing duet between two black men, “a sight that is rarely seen in society today,” Antuan Byers, FCLC ’17, pointed out. Danced to The O’Jays’ “Desire Me,” one can assume that the pas de deux is about a romantic relationship between the two men. But nowhere is it explicitly said that the duet was about two gay black men.

People forget to consider the stereotypical relationship between a father and a son or two brothers. With every entangled movement, the men dance their way against toxic masculinity.

In accordance with his principle that dance is for everybody, Alvin Ailey created Ailey II to provide not only a bridge between The Ailey School and professional life but also to provide access for the general public. In fact, the company’s season at NYU Skirball is triumphant homecoming from a 36-city world tour.

While the first company performs in larger cities, the second company performs in smaller cities that don’t have the same access to the arts as their larger counterparts.

In addition, the company teaches master classes in those cities to extend their own sense of community to others through dance. Byers calls the touring schedule “intense,” but “without pressure you can’t have diamonds, right?” The company’s two main objectives work hand in hand to create the crown jewels of the next generation of dance.

Splinter Group Says ‘Willkommen’ to the Cabaret

By BRIELLE CAYER Contributing Writer

On Friday, March 8, Fordham Lincoln Center’s musical theater club, Splinter Group, said “Willkommen” to a packed audience for their production of “Cabaret.” This marked a milestone for the performance group, as it was the first time they put on two shows in one school year.

Co-director and Splinter Group President Sophia Oliveri-Meyer, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’20, explained, “We just wanted to do more shows because there aren’t as many opportunities for musical theater at Fordham.” Judging by the long lines of people anxious to be let in, it seemed that the Fordham community wanted more shows as well.

“Cabaret” takes place in 1930s Berlin, following Clifford Bradshaw, a young American writer who seeks inspiration in the scandalous thrills of the city.

While exploring the sordid Kit Kat Klub, he meets Sally Bowles, a vivacious, gin-drinking cabaret performer with a bold personality. The two delve into a daring romance that quickly turns serious when Sally becomes pregnant in the midst of the Nazis’ political uprising. Throughout it all, the omniscient, mysterious Emcee walks the audience through the show’s themes of love, hate, sex, anti-Semitism and politics.

Since winning the 1967 Tony Award for Best Musical, the acclaimed show has lived on

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CAMERON DASHER

Splinter Group performed “Cabaret” to a packed and engaged audience.

through three Broadway revivals, an Academy Award-winning movie and countless regional productions around the globe.

Opening the show as the Emcee was shining Splinter Group newcomer Orlando Whitcomb-Worden, FCLC ’22. When asked about the experience, he praised the show’s co-directors, Oliveri-Meyer and Jonathan “J.J.” Jackson, FCLC ’20. “They had some great ideas about the Emcee being kind of like the god in the world; he manifests in

all these different people. He’s not necessarily being the Emcee when he does them, but he’s the face of all the people — the oppressed and the oppressors,” Whitcomb-Worden said.

Peri Rohl, FCLC ’20, and Jon Uy, FCLC ’19, starred as Sally Bowles and Clifford Bradshaw, respectively; each gave a commanding, genuine performance in their leading role. Annalee Tomanelli, FCLC ’20, (Fraulein Schneider) and Pedro Gonzalez, FCLC ’22, (Ernst Ludwig)

portrayed their characters with both comedy and heart. The ensemble of Kit Kat girls stood out with their strong voices, impressive choreography and seductive attitudes. The energy and passion present in the show certainly reflected the hard work of the entire cast, crew and creative team.

Beneath all the flash, “Cabaret” explored dark subjects like anti-Semitism, violence and poverty; these topics are still painfully relevant in modern society.

By the second act, the audience grew aware of the somber undertones of the piece; many moments cued audible gasps and shocked silence.

Oliveri-Meyer noted the show’s relevance and how musical director Katie Dolan, Fordham College at Rose Hill ’18, referenced current political topics. “The very end of act one, the way we crafted it, that’s when the hate really starts shining in the show,” Oliveri-Meyer said.

“That’s the moment when someone decides to start building a wall. That wasn’t necessarily part of the decision-making on what show we would do, but it worked out that way.”

By exploring darker shows s as “Cabaret,” Splinter Group is proving its ability as a truly artistic ensemble. This is integral to Oliveri-Meyer. She acknowledged, “Splinter got kind of the reputation of [being] a joke when we did ‘High School Musical.’ However, it was the biggest crowd.”

Now, Splinter is beginning to “bridge the gap” with the theater program. “Cabaret” included the most theater majors ever in a Splinter show. “We’ve gotten actors in the theater program coming to us to have an outlet for musical theater. And slowly but surely, we’re trying to make it more legitimate, to make art, real art.

“I’ve heard tour guides talk about Splinter, so this club carries a lot of weight in this school.

I love it.”

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER March 28, 2019

From the Pages of Published Professors

Arts

14

Faculty books feature wild historical romances and a new look at a presidential legacy

By ELISABETH O’NEILL Staff Writer

As registration rolls around, most students head to Rate My Professor to make sure their professors are worth taking. However, I wonder how many have considered the research and books to which many Fordham professors dedicate much of their careers.

Mary Bly and Joseph Ponterotto, who cover completely different but equally interesting topics for their books, are two examples.

Each of them utilize their expertise to write about topics they are truly passionate about.

Professor Mary Bly (Eloisa James) Mary Bly, an English professor and acting associate dean at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC), is most notably a New York Times best-selling author. Under the pen name Eloisa James, Bly has sold millions of copies all over the world to beloved fans of historical romance novels and is considered one of the most well-known novelists within the genre.

Her following includes many fans who are eagerly anticipating Eloisa James’s newest release, “Say No to the Duke,” the fourth book in “The Wildes of Lindow Castle” series. So far, the series has received tremendous praise, and the second book, “Too Wilde to Wed,” was named a New York Times Bestseller and 2018 Best Book by Apple Books, and had scores of fans praising the work online.

According to Bly, this series is a bit more “edgy” than her usual works. She attributed this partly to having a biracial hero and setting her series during the Georgian period, a time when marriage between an Indian woman and an English man was taboo.

For most of her series, past and present, Bly connects her stories with current events happening in society. For “The Wildes of Lindow Castle” series, she

COURTESY OF ELOISA JAMES AND JOSEPH G. PONTEROTTO

Both Mary Bly and Joseph G. Ponterotto published books to the general public in the past year.

chose to tackle “the lack of public privacy” — one of the most pressing topics of today. In an iconic scene, the hero from the first book, who is now a celebrity figure, returns home to a crowd of women who are eagerly waiting to see him. The Georgian period, Bly explained, introduced the start of celebrity culture, largely due to the printing press beginning the ability to print photos that people could collect.

Cue the memories of cutting out Jonas Brothers posters from J-14.

In “Say No to the Duke,” readers meet a rebellious young girl, Lady Betsy Wilde, who is looking for one last adventure before marrying a duke. However, when another man is thrown into the mix, one who could possibly help Lady Betsy Wilde execute her daring adventure, he strives to convince her to “say no to the duke.” As a newbie to historical romance novels, I was eager to

read Bly’s work. Her words will bring out the romantic in any reader.

The book is available for preorder on her website, which features an excerpt from the first chapter.

Professor Joseph G. Ponterotto Joseph Ponterotto is a professor of counseling psychology in the Graduate School of Education at Fordham Lincoln Center.

Prior to meeting Ponterotto, I had never read a psychobiography, a work that analyzes the life of an individual through psychological theories. I also knew little about his book’s main subject, John F. Kennedy, Jr., son of President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. I was interested to learn more about this person, who has been stuck in my mind as the little boy sa-

luting his father’s casket on one of the most memorable days in American history.

In “A Psychobiography of John F. Kennedy, Jr.,” Ponterotto analyzes what may have happened to JFK, Jr., had he not perished in an unfortunate plane crash alongside his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister, Lauren.

Previously in his career, Ponterotto wrote another psychobiography on Bobby Fischer, an American chess player who won the world championship in 1972.

Ponterotto was inspired to write a psychobiography about JFK, Jr., for several reasons. He discussed his admiration with the Kennedy family, their social justice-oriented politics and the draw of JFK, Jr., being “a person of [his] generation.” Not only was JFK, Jr., famous for being a part of American royalty, but he was also the editor-in-chief of George, a magazine that sought

to combine his impressive eye for creativity and passion for “[bringing] politics to the general masses.”

What many students and faculty may not know is that the Kennedy family has ties to Fordham University. On John F. Kennedy’s campaign trail, he made a stop at the Fordham Law School for a speech and was awarded an honorary law degree.

A psychobiography combines historical facts similarly seen in a traditional biography with a deep analysis of the emotional mindset of its subject, making it much more complex.

Ponterotto explained that as a psychologist, he looked at “what led the inner drive” of JFK, Jr. The book starts off by introducing the reader to JFK, Jr., on the day leading up to his death. From there, Pontoretto presents his psychological analysis.

To conduct his research, Ponterotto interviewed people close to JFK, Jr., in a professional setting. Since the time of his death, there have also been memoirs released by friends describing their personal relationships with JFK, Jr. These firsthand accounts helped to give Ponterotto more insight as to what JFK, Jr., was really like behind all the media.

Was he the quintessential American heartthrob risk-taker connected to a high-profile family and marriage? Or was he much more than that? Ponterotto offers an inside look of who he really was: a genuine person who “always made people feel at ease” and who was underestimated for his broad range of skills and talents.

Readers are drawn in by the curiosity of the life story that Ponterotto narrates. Out of so many questions to ask, one stays ever-present in the mind. Could JFK Jr. have succeeded in politics; could he have one day been president of the United States?

“A Psychobiography of John F. Kennedy, Jr.” is available on Amazon.

A Vivid Burst of Basquiat

By NADYA SHAHIN-COBOURN Contributing Writer

The Brant Foundation quickly sold out of its 50,000 tickets to its new Jean-Michel Basquiat gallery earlier this month. Fans needn’t despair, though, because the Nahmad Contemporary Gallery, located on the Upper East Side at 76th Street and Madison Avenue, has opened its own free Basquiat gallery. The exhibit focuses on Basquiat’s work made with Xerox photocopies and runs until May 31.

The moment you step into the gallery, you are greeted with neo-expressional and primitive works, slapping you across the face. No handshakes here.

Throughout the exhibit, abstract portrayals of the human body combine with emotional, and even violent, depictions of everyday words and objects wrapped in vivid colors. If you look close enough, you’ll notice tribal and Egyptian motifs sprinkled throughout the works. While the whole exhibit conveys intense emotional aggression and passion, it gives the impression that anyone — even a child — could create it. This juxtaposition of these two attributes is perhaps the most refreshing aspect of this gallery and of Basquiat’s work.

Seeing as all of Basquiat’s work is rather eccentric, it’s hard to pick out which piece is the most unique.

NADYA SHAHIN-COBOURN/THE OBSERVER

The Nahmad Contemporary Gallery’s free Basquiat gallery is showing his works until May 31.

Each piece is comprised of a string of smaller pieces, drawings, words and scribbles. My favorite section was a corner of a large piece with a doodle of a plant and a title reading “How To Remove Sunlight.”

It’s a combination of dark, quirky and rather normal art. Perhaps the most striking pieces are those featuring tribal like drawings of fac-

es, decorated with vibrant colors and childlike drawings.

The gallery offers more than intriguing artwork. Along with the pieces on the wall, I found myself viewing the people in the space around me, a rather unique experience to have at an art gallery. I typically know what to expect when going to a gallery or art

museum. A bunch of people crowd around pieces, staring, analyzing pretentiously and discussing interpretations of what they’ve just consumed. But this wasn’t the case at Nahmad. It was just as much a social gathering as it was a celebration of artwork. There was none of the desolate silence usually encountered at galleries; the room

was filled with people chatting, laughing and taking lots of photos and selfies.

Not only was the crowd energized, but it was diverse. It was fortifying to see so many different types of people, of different ages and races, all come together in the name of art. This, of course, is thanks to Basquiat and all he has come to represent. Not only have he and his artwork achieved icon status, but his life and career trajectory show people the power of individuality. He was a black man who started as a graffiti artist in the Lower East Side and integrated social commentary into art pieces as part of the neo-expressionism movement. He challenged society’s norms. Basquiat has been regularly mentioned in rap lyrics, referenced in movies and books and has been featured in clothing collections with Uniqlo and Urban Outfitters. He is a staple in the cultural zeitgeist, and the crowds that show up to view his art reflect that.

Even if you’re not an art fan or find the art world annoyingly ostentatious, I challenge you to stop by the Nahmad Contemporary Gallery and take a look at this Basquiat exhibit while it’s running.

You might be surprised. Basquiat creates art for the everyday person, and I believe that there is something in his work for everyone. If nothing else, come for the art, and stay for the people.

15

Arts

March 28, 2019 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

Seniors Show Off Fordham Theatre gives its all in Performance Showcase

By GILLIAN RUSSO Asst. Arts & Culture Editor

Engagement rings, classic oldies and a tray of aspic convened in the Veronica Lally Kehoe Studio Theatre on March 11 and 12, as Fordham Theatre’s class of 2019 mounted their senior Performance Showcase.

The house was near full with family, friends and industry professionals for each of the three performances. The theme of the showcase was “I’ll Play,” and in the course of the hour-long revue of short, two-person scenes, each of the 17 performance majors played two characters. Some were jilted lovers, others bickering siblings, hairdressers, drag queens, lawyers and of course, actors.

Each scene depicted a poignant moment in everyday life. They explored all kinds of emotional play, from fun romps between new friends to the struggle of whether or not to propose to someone who plays with a character’s emotions.

The short showcase was the culmination of almost a year’s worth of preparation and rehearsal. The development process began in the fall with the Senior Audition 1 class. The seniors met industry professionals, got headshots and began to peruse plays for scenes they wanted to explore.

“We read a lot, we submitted a lot, scenes got rejected a lot,” Avalon Christie, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’19, said. “In the end it was important for everyone in our class and for our director, Maria-Christina Oliveras, to ensure that we all were in scenes that we loved.”

After choosing their scenes

COURTESY OF MICHAEL KUSHNNER

Fordham Theatre’s performance class of 2019’s last four years of training has to lead to this showcase.

and scene partners, the performers had to put their pieces together to build a cohesive showcase.

They rehearsed their scenes with each other and with Oliveras throughout the spring semester.

All the preparation led to tech weekend, in which the students and stage manager incorporated the design elements and smoothened the transitions between scenes — that is, this was the time when fan-favorite songs like “Surfin’ USA,” “Eye of the Tiger” and “That’s Amore” officially

SUMMER SESSION 2019

The work displayed in the showcase goes beyond the actors’ senior year preparation — it reflects all they have learned since they were freshmen in the theatre program. became part of the show as interlude music.

The purpose of the annual showcase is to display students’ skills and work for the industry professionals who make up the audience. Above all, the show-

case serves as more than a career pitch, though. It is also a labor of love for the students themselves.

“This year has been about not only how we wanted to present ourselves individually as artists, but making sure the quality of

work in the showcase lived up to the standard we’ve held for our class as a whole,” Marc David Wright, FCLC ’19, said.

The work displayed in the showcase goes beyond their senior year preparation — it reflected all they have learned since they were freshmen in the program.

“The best part of the experience for me was going through the process with my class, and getting to celebrate the four years of training that we had together,” Christie said.

Catch up or get ahead this summer!

• Finish core requirements.

• Begin a second major.

• Set yourself up to graduate early.

Session I: May 28–June 27 Session II: July 2–August 6 Choose from more than 200 available courses!

Register now via my.fordham.edu.

Features

Features Editors Lindsay Jorgensen - ljorgensen@fordham.edu Jeffrey Umbrell - jumbrell@fordham.edu

March 28, 2019 THE OBSERVER

What Are You Giving up for Lent?

FCLC students talk about their Lenten sacrifices and their thoughts on the tradition

By LINDSAY JORGENSEN Features Editor

While the month of March brings brighter mornings and, for most college students, spring break, it is a rather solemn month for most Christians. Lent is a time of reflection and penance as Christians worldwide observe this religious period beginning on Ash Wednesday, which this year fell on March 6, and ends roughly six weeks later on Easter Sunday.

During Lent, many Christians fast, avoid eating meat on Fridays and decide on a Lenten sacrifice. A Lenten sacrifice generally consists of giving up a certain luxury to echo the temptation that Christ endures in the Bible, where Jesus travels through the Judean desert and fasts for 40 days and 40 nights. Here are what some students at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) — and the university president — said about their Lenten experiences this year: A break from the famous Seattle coffee chain “I realized I was spending way too much money at Starbucks and drinking way too many lattes. Plus gluttony is one of those big bad sins, so I knew I needed to slow down.

And so I gave up Starbucks for Lent this year. It’s been pretty hard as I find myself always wanting to stop in for a snack or a chai tea latte. But it’s been good since now I’m actually drinking all the tea I have stockpiled in my dorm to still get that caffeine fix.”

- Sarah Grace Houston, FCLC ’20

A farewell to negative vibes “I gave up negative self-talk for Lent. It is fairly hard to be honest about that because sometimes I find myself doing it without even knowing. The farther we get into Lent though, the easier it has gotten for me to notice it and control it more.”

- Janel Fitzgerald, FCLC ’20

An installation of a swear jar “I gave up cursing for Lent because I wanted to give up something empirical that I could measure and easily be held accountable to. I think that my cursing really increased while in the freedom of college. I think it’s something that doesn’t enrich my life, but I definitely enjoy using invective and colorful language, so it’s been challenging.”

- Charles Scheland, FCLC ’20

A traditional Lenten sacrifice “This year for Lent I decided to give up sugar. I wanted to give up something that would challenge me over the 40 days and since I have a sweet tooth, I thought it would be a rewarding challenge. Right now, all I want are caramel M&Ms but I know they’ll taste 10 times better at Easter.”

- Morgan Steward, FCLC ’19

An addition, not a subtraction “This Lenten season I have decided to dedicate more time to prayer. One of my favorite places to pray is at St. Paul the Apostle. I visit occasionally during the week after classes at the Ailey School to end my day. I decided to make my visits more regular during Lent and go in the morning before my dance classes each morning. It would be a spiritual warm-up before my physical dance warm-up.

“On the first morning that I went, the sun was shining through the back stained glass window, casting an orange light on the right row of pews. Never having been at the church at this hour, this was a new and beautiful sight that reassured me that taking time to pray could be, and always was, fruitful. Sticking to my new morning routine has not been easy though.

I have had challenges getting up earlier and have not had a perfect track record. Despite this, I do feel more conscious about my prayer life lately and hope to continue my morning sunshine visits throughout the rest of the year.”

- Amanda Egan, FCLC ’19

A statement “The best Lenten observance is not giving anything up, but committing oneself to works of mercy.”

- University President Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J. ILLUSTRATION BY ESME BLEECKER-ADAMS

Falling Action: One Dancer’s Road to Recovery

By JACLYN SCERBAK Contributing Writer

PHOTO COURTESY OF NIR ARIELI

Scerbak’s injury forced her to find her strength.

“You know, I’ve never observed a single class,” I boast while walking to my first class as a senior in the Ailey/Fordham BFA Dance program. “Observing,” or not being allowed to participate in class, was synonymous with “giving up” in my mind. Never doing so was worthy of bragging rights.

I’ve given my heart and soul to this program for the last three years: “You did it! Last year at your dream school and you fought through the struggles, the pain — OUCH!” That one-sided conversation became the paradoxical prologue to my groundbreaking life story entitled, “The Life You Thought You Knew.” Because instead of the ground, it was actually my foot breaking.

“Ignore it, you’re fine.” I repeated the familiar coping mechanism that I used to protect my pride over the years. Five blocks more and I’m there. I limp into my class — with an alarming new gait for a self-proclaimed “tough guy.”

I thought that this was the finale of my story, where all my hard work and preparation met in perfect culmination onstage.

As it turns out, this moment was

not the ending of my story. In fact, this was only the climax of one small yet significant chapter in my own coming-of-age tale.

I was convinced that the falling action following the “metatarsal earthquake,” as I call it, would lead to my downfall — like a real-life tragic hero. My hubris, the flaw that misled me to misconstruing self-care as selfishness, to hustling through the pain, also deceived me into dancing four more minutes on a fully fractured joint, just to prove that I am not weak.

And so it began — the shockingly ironic, brutally humbling and beautifully enlightening journey that saved me from my reckless ambition. It was the journey that finally made me the hero, not the victim, of my own fate.

In congruence with the structure of any classic tragedy, that falling action was full of personal doubts, fears and the frightening realization of my impending downfall. The observance, otherwise known as my formerly feared kryptonite, became the cruel, daily reminder of the girl I was once was as I was forced to sit and watch life go by. That was a girl who associated stepping back to reevaluate my health with weakness and combatting constant

negative thoughts with strength.

That was also a girl who took on “pounding the pavement” as a full-time job and then committed to dieting, never sleeping and

I thought that this was the finale of my story, where all my hard work and preparation met in perfect culmination onstage.

As it turns out, this moment was only the climax of one small chapter in my own tale. self-deprecation as her second, third and fourth priorities. The value I incurred was measured in how far I could push myself without breaking, without showing them I’ve failed. In truth, that is what I needed all along — a breaking point, an unavoidable warning sign that I could no longer twist in my head as an obsta-

cle to conquer.

My revelation occurred somewhere towards the end of my fourmonth-long healing process. I realize that stories are much more exciting when there is a dramatic “a-ha” moment where the heavens open up and a Hallelujah chorus plays overhead. However, “The Life You Thought You Knew” is non-fictional, constantly in the works, with unexpected trials and tribulations that only real life can create.

I can best describe my revelation as the moment when I realized that I actually hate tragedies.

Reading them makes me feel anxious, frightened and downright depressed. So, then why am I writing my life’s story about the tragic flaw that robs me of life’s joy and fulfillment? The trivial rewards that I once thought I received from making regular, unnecessary sacrifices never bought me happiness anyways.

Life is precious and incomprehensible, and yet also exciting.

Happiness derives from appreciating life for what it is and is cultivated through genuine gratitude for the unique life that we are all given and the countless blessings and opportunities that each day brings. It is also found in pizza and ice cream — that is a fact.

www.fordhamobserver.com

Luck of the Irish

THE OBSERVER March 28, 2019

Features

17

Reporting among Irishmen, religious protesters and festive leprechauns including the annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, were held on Saturday, March 16. I attended the parade, which travels north on Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 79th Street, to commence my research.

As I walked east on 59th Street, the sidewalks became increasingly populated with revelers donned in green and gold attire. Sports jerseys were quite popular; surprisingly, there was a roughly equal number of attendees supporting both the Jets and the Boston Celtics. One man wore a green morph suit with white shamrocks and an oversized top hat.

Aside from some religious protestors who were loudly denouncing sex and alcohol, threatening damnation on inebriated spectators, the parade was a lively affair. I high-fived many a marcher as they passed by.

Later that night, I explored the Upper West Side nightlife scene.

I headed north to Jake’s Dilemma on Amsterdam and 81st Street.

The densely packed bar served green-dyed beer, although whiskey served in small plastic cups seemed just as popular. Any music playing was barely audible over patrons’ raucous voices.

By JEFFREY UMBRELL Features Editor

Keith Eldredge, Fordham’s assistant vice president and dean of students at Lincoln Center, was a bit apprehensive last year when, for the first time in his 23year tenure, classes were in session during Saint Patrick’s Day. Spring break did not begin until March 22, 2018.

The university has typically tried to schedule spring break over Saint Patrick’s Day, Eldredge explained, in hopes of avoiding extraordinary amounts of alcohol or other substance abuse violations from students celebrating the holiday.

After the relative tameness of last year, scheduling Spring Break during Saint Patrick’s Day is no longer an “overriding concern” for Eldredge.

Eldredge and representatives from Student Affairs, however, noticed that sometimes the spring and Easter breaks fell too close together. He recalled one year when students returned from spring break, attended classes for three days and then went back home for Easter. Eldredge said that faculty found this awkward gap between breaks “disruptive” and unproductive.

To avoid another similar gap, Eldredge pushed the 2018 spring break back a week and combined it with Easter. This delay meant that students would be on campus for Saint Patrick’s Day, which fell on a Saturday.

“Early semester and late spring are generally the times where we see more alcohol and policy violations,” Eldredge said.

As the weather warms up, students tend to become more active on and around campus with regard to substance use.

Last year, though, Saint Patrick’s Day was largely uneventful. “It wasn’t anything unusual for an active spring weekend,” Eldredge said. He made sure to differentiate a typical spring weekend from Fordham’s Spring Weekend concert held in late April, which is always “one of the busier weekends” for alcohol violations. “Saint Patrick’s Day was not anywhere near Spring Weekend,” Eldredge said. “It was on par with a normal, lowercase spring weekend.”

After the relative tameness of last year, scheduling spring break during Saint Patrick’s Day is no longer an “overriding concern” for Eldredge. “If we happen to be in session when Saint Patrick’s Day hits,” he said, “no problem.” *** Even at an Irish-Catholic university like Fordham, Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations often pale in comparison to those at other colleges. At the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst, a rather notorious party school, students celebrate what is known as the “Blarney Blowout” shortly before March 17.

The all-day festivities are held in and around off-campus apartments and townhouses and are marked by copious alcohol consumption.

Fordham is not unique, though, in its efforts to prevent excessive on-campus drinking on Saint Patrick’s Day.

JEFFREY UMBRELL AND ANGELA CHEN/THE OBSERVER

Fordham’s campus may be quiet, but the city comes alive to celebrate the Irish-Catholic holiday.

In 2014, Blarney festivities rapidly descended into chaos. According to the Daily Hampshire Gazette, thousands of students had already congregated just off campus by 10 a.m. The crowd quickly turned violent, and Amherst police were called to break up the celebrations.

By the end of the afternoon, approximately 73 students were arrested by police and four officers sustained minor injuries after they were assaulted with beer bottles, cans and snowballs.

Charges against students included inciting to riot, liquor law violations and assault and battery on officers.

Since then, UMass Amherst

has implemented a variety of security measures in conjunction with the city to prevent holiday festivities from turning sour. During Blarney Weekend, the university introduced a parking ban, guest restrictions in the residence halls and even began holding concerts in its basketball arena as a safe, alternative activity. Performers at these concerts have included Kesha, Ludacris and Future.

UMass Amherst’s efforts have largely appeared successful. This year’s celebration, held on March 2, was deemed “another quiet ‘Blarney Blowout’” by the UMass Daily Collegian. It was also reported, though, that two arrests were made that day — it was “qui-

et” relative to years prior.

Eldredge said that, to the best of his knowledge, nothing of a similar scale or severity has ever happened at Fordham. Fordham is not unique, though, in its efforts to prevent excessive on-campus drinking on Saint Patrick’s Day. *** This year, due to the lateness of Easter, Saint Patrick’s Day once again fell within Fordham’s spring break. Despite the fact that classes were not in session, I was curious to see if, as Eldredge said, student celebrations would again be minimal.

Because the holiday fell on a Sunday, many city festivities,

I was prepared for a similar experience as I got ready to travel up to Rose Hill on Sunday afternoon. Saint Patrick’s Day had finally arrived, and I imagined that, despite spring break, students who were staying on campus would surely be celebrating the holiday.

The first bad omen of the day came when I tried to make a Ram Van reservation and discovered that vans were not in fact running. Undeterred, I simply took the subway instead.

When I arrived in the Bronx and walked to Rose Hill, the campus was nearly deserted.

Many buildings, including Duane Hall, which houses the Office of Undergraduate Admissions; Collins Hall and Hughes Hall, home of the Gabelli School of Business, were closed altogether. The University Church was open (it was a Sunday), as was the McGinley Center — there were some students there using the fitness center.

Still, I was certain that things would be busier off-campus.

Again, I was mistaken. Mugz’s and The Blue Goose Tavern, two of the most popular off-campus bars, were also closed for the day. Howl at the Moon was open, but only a few older patrons sat inside. The bartender there said that the entire weekend had been relatively quiet.

Disappointed, I headed from the Bronx to the East Village to end my evening at McSorley’s, which opened in 1854 — a small Fordham University pennant hung in the corner behind the bar. Even if Eldredge was right to predict another uneventful holiday, in some ways, Fordham’s presence is still felt during Saint Patrick’s Day.

Fun & Games

Fun & Games Editor Dan Nasta - dnasta1@fordham.edu

March 28, 2019 THE OBSERVER

CROSSWORD

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4. Push 5. Freshly cut 6. Answered perfectly 7. Untidy state 8. Step up to the plate 9. (It’s) lit 10. Month with a foolish beginning 11. Foamy concoction at a Starbucks 12. Forehead markings on a certain Wednesday 15. Light-truck for a family: Abbr.

18. Location of actors and gaffers 20. Wicked 23. Threatening words that end a demand 25. Order (around) 26. Broadway’s “ on this Island”

27. Doze (off) 28. 1978 musical romance with a hoodlum and an Australian 29. Clutch 30. Pres. election month 34. Pointed accessory donned with a robe 35. Happily after 36. Standing in which Fordham has been slowly descending 38. Letters on a grave, perhaps 40. “Hold on, just a ” 43. Strips on a guitar 45. Buck 48. Choice at a raw bar 49. Ashlee Simpson’s “ of Me” 50. Clark’s exploration partner 51. Precise 52. Alleged consistency of our solar system 56. Subtle 57. Rating of a moderately violent video game, perhaps 58. Actress Tara of “Sharknado” 59. Lawyers: Abbr.

60. Days of 62. Brown bread 64. Direction from NYC to Seattle: Abbr.

Word Scramble

Question: A Train song for the locomotives of a bygone era?

RADARS FINELY TENTS

A HILTS DOWNTURN

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PAGANSREMIND

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EDITED BY DAN NASTA

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11/2/18 2:38 PM

EDITED BY DAN NASTA

Sports & Health

Sports & Health Editor Luke Osborn - losborn1@fordham.edu

March 28, 2019

THE OBSERVER

Notes from a Reluctant Runner

By GRACE GETMAN Asst. Opinions Editor

As Albert Camus once did not say, “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible runner.”

I am by no means “invincible” or confident that what I do can legally be called “running,” but becoming an “invincible runner” is a goal I have reluctantly thrown myself into three times a week, huffing and puffing my way through Central Park with one of my best friends (he is usually much more dignified).

Before we began our weekly struggles, I was a worse candidate for running than Hillary Clinton.

Absolutely no one thought that I would run, requested that I run or expected running of me, and it came as shock to many. It’s been long accepted by friends and family that I don’t have an athletic bone in my body, and that the only running I’m good at is running from my responsibilities. In gym class during high school, I was probably hit on the head with more balls than I ever caught.

Running in Central Park has been a major life change for me, and in the midst of almost passing out, being judged by moms with strollers for going so slow and receiving more stitches than a homemade blanket, I’ve picked up some good advice as to how to approach running as someone wholly unathletic.

1. Outsmart Your Idiot Self The nights before I run, I feel on top of the world. But when I actually have to get up to run in the mornings, that feeling is all but a dream. I must always fight, outsmart and outmaneuver “Sleepy Grace,” who will easily and joyfully go back to sleep rather than exercise.

I lay out my outfit the night before. I leave my shoes in front of my bed so when I roll out of my covers I land smack into them. I even put my alarm far away from my bed so there’s no way to put it on snooze without getting up.

These methods usually work out, because if I’m being honest, “Sleepy Grace” is too tired to think about all of the traps I laid the night before.

Once I’m up, I have to get ready because I know my running partner will be at the door in five minutes, which leads me to my next piece of advice for the athletically ungifted:

2. Peer Pressure (Read: Shame) is an Excellent Motivator My running partner is Corbin Gregg, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’22, who put it this way: “You need the horrible shame of a friend to force you to continue being a jock.”

He’s right. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was going to be at my door in five minutes, I would more likely stay in Snoozeland.

And sometimes, even knowing that Corbin is waiting for me isn’t enough for me to get up. Upon claiming that I was getting better at being motivated, he stopped me right there: “Grace, I’ve heard you leap out of bed the moment I’ve knocked on your door when we are supposed to leave.”

Alright, fair. Nobody’s perfect.

But it is important to have a running partner, who will be there with you, encourage you and shame you if necessary.

Even if I don’t have a rock solid record of motivation, I’ve found it important to keep trying, no matter how hard it is.

3. Small Steps Can Lead to Giant Leaps If running is brand new to you, it’s important to start small and to do what you can, and then work your way up to more difficult workouts. It’s a lot better than setting an impossible goal and becoming frustrated when you don’t reach it on your first try. The first time I ever ran in Central Park, I made it a whopping 10 steps before wanting to pass out. A month and a half later, I can almost do the entire 1.7-mile track loop before passing out.

By accepting my very limited ability at running, I was able to feel encouraged rather than discouraged. All the while, I built my way up through small goals. I certainly won’t be competing in the New York City Marathon, but I’ve been showing those pigeons who’s boss in Central Park lately.

And that’s what matters. All jokes aside, the best advice I could give to a reluctant runner like myself is just to start. Yes, you’ll be bad, and yes, it will be embarrassing when you get a stitch when you try to catch up to that horse that one time — but it will be worth it, and you’ll be getting better habits and better exercise than anyone who’s too embarrassed to even begin.

ZOEY LIU/THE OBSERVER | PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ESME BLEEKER-ADAMS

The de-evolution of Grace running: every person can achieve a productive run, even if it’s only 10 steps.

Living For Laughs How Comedy Can Positively Impact Your Mental Health

By LUKE OSBORN Sports & Health Editor

The simple acts of smiling and laughing can release endorphins, the happy hormone, in your brain, leading to a better mood.

Moreover, the act of writing down your thoughts or performing them in front of an audience can lead to a cathartic release from the grip of poor mental health.

Mental health concerns are difficult to treat and different methods might work for particular individuals but have no effect on others. “For some people, comedy absolutely can and does work,” said Elizabeth Clark, a psychologist at Fordham’s Counseling and Psychological Services, said. Most importantly, Clark mentioned that individuals who have not worked through their mental health concerns should not use comedy as an outlet.

Working through your mental health means that you have come to a point where you can talk about your mental health without feeling pain. Everyone feels this pain differently, but it essentially boils down to looking at yourself negatively. Clark emphasized that doing so can lead to comedy that arises from aggression, and you often see this comedy in self-deprecation and humor against groups.

“You see this person that really doesn’t like themselves,” Clark said. “When comedy comes with an aggressive edge, where they do believe their deprecation, it becomes painful to watch.” Com-

ZOEY LIU/THE OBSERVER

Emily Krichmar, FCLC ’21, uses stand up comedy to transform her mental health into something positive.

edy can be harmful to individuals with mental health issues, because comedy can make it harder for these individuals to make a meaningful recovery. Moreover, this aggression can hurt members of their audience.

Nevertheless, if you are able to engage your mental health expe-

riences in a neutral mindset, comedy can very much benefit you.

Clark mentioned that telling your own story of painful or awkward experiences can greatly benefit your relationship with those events. Writing comedy allows you to “transform that narrative,” said Clark, and this process can

lift you up and invite others to share in your experience.

Comedy allowed Emily Krichmar, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’21, to process her mental health issues differently.

Krichmar has experience with depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and is recovering from

eating disorders. A member of Stoves, Krichmar takes part in improv, stand up and sketch comedy. Comedy has helped Krichmar find humor in her experiences with mental health issues.

“I work through a lot of things while writing and performing stand up,” she said.

Krichmar finds that comedy prevents her from wallowing in her depression and allows her to use these emotions to make herself and her audience laugh. “I often tell stories that were in the moment hard to go through, but being able to find what’s funny or lighthearted in them … really helps me work through them and get over them,” Krichmar said.

She also finds that inviting people to laugh at these experiences with her is healing.

Krichmar plans on doing comedy in the future, and she also wants to keep using her mental health experiences as material. “I do see myself continuing to talk about hard subjects like mental health or difficult things I went through in the past and making them funny.”

As Clark noted, after working through your negative feelings and experiences, they can become fresh material for you to share with the world. It’s important to keep in mind that people who want to explore their mental health in comedy should do so without aggression. Though comedy can be dark and edgy, it isn’t an outlet for self-loathing. Rather comedy allows you to detach yourself from your most intimate feelings and find a joke in them.

20

Sports

March 28, 2019 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

Baseball Runs Circles Around St. Bonaventure

By PATRICK MOQUIN Asst. Opinions Editor

The beginning of conference play is always an exciting time in the realm of college athletics. Non-conference games can be fun and, for teams like Fordham, they can provide tougher competition than they would see in their normal schedule. But, conference play is the source of rivalries between schools and important matchups as the regular season winds down in late April.

Fordham played their first conference series last week against St. Bonaventure University and started their season forcefully.

Going into the weekend series against St. Bonaventure, Fordham had only one prep game, a non-conference matchup on Wednesday, March 20 against Manhattan College. The Rams dominated every step of the way, delivering a tour de force on both offense and defense in a 9–0 victory over their crosstown rivals.

On Friday, March 22, Fordham faced the Bonnies for the first time, and the offense did not need to perform well in order to score runs. In the bottom of the first inning, a leadoff triple by Alvin Menendez, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’20, and a costly St. Bonaventure throwing error by the pitcher led to two early runs and a man on second base for Fordham. The Rams’ third and fourth runs came on pitching miscommunications as well, as a wild pitch and passed ball led to two more runs and a 4–0 score after one inning of play.

After two wild pitches and an error, one might consider removing their pitcher, but St. Bonaventure felt confident in their starter and left him in. He eventually settled down and pitched six and two-thirds innings, yet another wild pitch in the second inning led to another Fordham run, making the score 5–0.

Having already scored five runs, Fordham’s bats quieted

Sunday

PHOTO COURTESY OF FORDHAM SPORTS INFO

Matt Mikulski, FCRH ’21, is all business as he throws his circle change against St. Bonaventure.

down as the opposing pitcher prepared himself, but in response, starting pitcher Matt Mikulski, FCRH ’21, performed immaculately. In six innings, Matt gave up only two runs and walked two batters while striking out 10. It was a strong performance from the sophomore, and Fordham’s offense re-emerged, scoring one run in the fifth and two in the seventh to put the game out of reach down the stretch.

Monday

In any sport, defeating a single team three games in a row is notoriously difficult. As a result, winning two out of three games in a series is considered a success, with a three-game sweep remaining an exceptional accomplishment. With one win under their belt, Fordham was one game away from winning the series and looked to ride their hot streak into Saturday.

On Friday, Fordham scored

Tuesday

Wednesday

Upcoming March and April Sports Events 31 M’s Golf vs. Coca-Cola Bottling Company of the Lehigh Valley Collegiate Invitational, The Steel Club, Hellertown, PA M’s Tennis vs. Yeshiva, 11 a.m., Bronx, N.Y.

1

2

M’s Golf vs. Coca-Cola BotBaseball vs. Siena, 6 p.m., tling Company of the Lehigh Bronx, N.Y. Valley Collegiate Invitational, The Steel Club, Hellertown, PA

early and often and cruised to victory. Saturday’s game developed in much the same way, with Fordham’s offense working efficiently from the start. After a one-two-three inning on the defensive side, the Rams scored seven runs on five hits, all of them singles, and a wild pitch to take a prohibitive 7–0 lead in the bottom of the first.

After that explosive bottom frame, St. Bonaventure had

Thursday

considerable trouble against John Stankiewicz, FCRH ’21. In a dominant performance, the sophomore pitched six scoreless innings, striking out 10 batters while allowing only one hit. Each team would score one run more in later innings, and Fordham recorded their second victory of the regular season by a score of 8–1.

In their second game on Saturday, Fordham’s bats went dormant. Recording only two hits, both by Jake MacKenzie, FCRH ’21, Fordham’s offense could not muster anything against the Bonnies’ pitching. Fordham’s pitching staff performed phenomenally, but allowed one run in the first inning that would remain the lone score in a 1–0 loss.

Despite losing their last game, and generally displaying a deceptively low-powered offense, Fordham secured two victories over St. Bonaventure, and they improved their overall record to 14–10 and began conference play with two wins to only one loss.

The bright spot of this series came in the form of Fordham’s pitching staff. At the start of the season, there were several questions as to whether the Rams’ younger players could fill in for their impressive predecessors on the mound. In this series, two sophomores, Mikulski and Stankiewicz, dominated the St. Bonaventure batters, establishing that there would be no dip in quality in that area.

Even in impressive performances, questions remain for this Fordham team. St. Bonaventure is a 3–11 team that made numerous mistakes in the first two games to aid the Rams in their efforts, and it’s still unclear if Fordham can compete with stiffer opponents in the Atlantic 10 conference. Regardless, this week has been a strong one for Fordham baseball, and fans can expect Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” to blare over the loudspeakers in victory many more times over the course of the season.

Friday

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28

27 Men’s (M’s) Tennis vs.

Rider, 3 p.m., Bronx, N.Y.

Saturday

30

Baseball at Sacred Heart, 3 p.m., Fairfield, Conn.

Women’s (W’s) and M’s Track at Raleigh Relays, 10 a.m., Raleigh, N.C. Baseball at Rhode Island, 3 p.m., Kingston, R.I.

W’s and M’s Track at Raleigh Relays, 10 a.m., Raleigh, N.C.

Softball at Rutgers, 3 p.m., Piscataway, N.J.

W’s Tennis vs. LIU Brooklyn, 3 p.m., Bronx, N.Y.

Baseball at Rhode Island, 1 p.m., Kingston, R.I.

4

3 W’s and M’s Track at Colonial Relays, 5 p.m., Williamsburg, VA

W’s Volleyball vs Columbia, 10 a.m., Bronx, N.Y.

M’s Tennis vs. George Washington, 1 p.m., Bronx, N.Y.

5 W’s and M’s Track at Colonial Relays, 5 p.m., Williamsburg, VA

6 W’s and M’s Track at Colonial Relays, 5 p.m., Williamsburg, VA Softball vs. Dayton, 12 p.m., Bronx, N.Y. Baseball vs. Saint Joseph’s, 2 p.m., Bronx, N.Y.

Baseball at Rhode Island, 12 p.m., Kingston, R.I.

Softball vs Dayton, 2:30 p.m., Bronx, N.Y.

M’s Tennis vs. Manhattanville, 3 p.m., Bronx, N.Y.

Games You Missed March 24 - M’s Tennis Fordham: 5 Saint Louis: 1 March 24 - Softball Fordham: 4 George Washington: 2

March 20 - W’s Tennis Fordham: 6 Hope College: 1

March 18 - Softball Fordham: 6 Oral Roberts: 1

March 19 - Softball Fordham: 1 Stony Brook: 4

March 13 - M’s Basketball Fordham: 50 Univ. of Richmond: 52