Volume XLII Issue 1

Observer the

February 2, 2022

The Student Voice of Fordham Lincoln Center

VOLUME XLII, ISSUE 1

Fordham Deletes Comments Advocating for Hybrid Learning

By MARYAM BESHARA News Editor

COURTESY OF CHRIS TAGGART VIA FORDHAM NEWS

After 19 years at Fordham, McShane will be leaving behind a memorable legacy defined by campus expansion and combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

McShane’s 19 Years

By KATRINA LAMBERT Editor-in-Chief

During his 19 years serving as president at Fordham University, Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., made his curiosity toward the Fordham community known. If one found themselves in an interaction with him, it likely started with him asking this question: “Where are you from?”

Your response is followed by a series of facts about the area, the Fordham connections surround-

ing your place of upbringing and recommendations for locations to check out.

After one conversation with McShane, it feels as though he must have seen every corner of the U.S. Throughout his life in academia, he moved from the Northeast to the West to the Midwest, until he decided to return home — not just to New York, but to Fordham.

When McShane took over as president, he referred to himself as “the inside outsider,” because

despite having been away from Fordham for five years, his ties to the university date back 93 years when his father enrolled at the university.

Upon accepting his position as president, the “inside outsider” outlined his main goals to develop the Fordham Lincoln Center (FLC) campus, improve fundraising and enrollment rates, and listen to the concerns of students and faculty.

Fordham’s announcement to conduct an in-person spring semester sparked a flood of comments on the university’s Instagram posts. Students were concerned about the safety of an in-person education due to the omicron variant spreading more rapidly than previous strains. The university’s account deleted many of the comments criticizing the lack of a hybrid option.

Several people left comments on the university’s social media account, @fordhamuniversity, pushing Fordham to adopt a hybrid modality or to conduct the first two weeks of classes virtually before returning to campus. In addition to deleting these comments, Fordham also blocked the Instagram account @fordhampassfail, which is currently petitioning for a remote learning option for students.

Isabella Frassetti, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC)

’20 and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ’21, commented on an Instagram post made by the university’s account on Jan. 6 with the caption, “We can’t wait for our Rams to bring life back to campus!”

When she returned to the post a few hours later, Frassetti noticed that her comment, along with at least 20 to 30 others advocating for a hybrid option, had been deleted.

“Maybe if you just offer hybrid learning or a capable administration, there would be more people happy and willing to come back to campus,” she commented on the Instagram post.

Frassetti saw that the comments left showed support of Fordham and noted that the university limited who can comment on posts. She believes the deletion of comments is also unfair to prospective students, as they only see positive comments and not the real reactions from students who are currently enrolled at Fordham. see SOCIAL MEDIA page 5

Fordham Women’s Basketball Approaching A10 Tournament in Prodigious Form

see MCSHANE page 3

Students Express Dismay Over Fully In-Person Spring Semester

By ALLIE STOFER News Editor

Amid the spike in COVID-19 cases alongside the omicron variant, Fordham announced on Jan. 10 that the university would continue to operate with fully in-person classes for the spring semester.

The decision was met with criticism from both students and faculty due to the rising number of cases.

When students left for winter break, Fordham’s COVID-19 cases were at a record high, with 120 cases at Fordham Lincoln Center and 239 cases at Fordham Rose Hill. As of Feb. 1, there have been 12 positive tests in the past seven days at Lincoln Center and 35 at Rose Hill.

As colleges across the country approached the beginning of their spring semesters, many announced that they would hold the first few weeks of class virtually.

Schools such as Harvard, Stanford and Georgetown universities began their semesters online, and other schools have chosen to either delay their start time or allow professors to choose their

modality of instruction for the first few weeks.

Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications, said that many of the universities that opted to begin their classes online did so because they were scheduled to begin their semesters a week or two before Fordham and that these schools made their decisions with less information about the spread of the omicron variant.

Universities like Barnard College and Columbia University

NEWS PAGE 5

SPORTS & HEALTH PAGE 6

Tremont Fire

Students seek ways to help surrounding Bronx community

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

The addition of Asiah Dingle, FCRH ’22, has strengthened Fordham's roster this season,. She is currently the Rams' second highest scorer.

By GABRIELLA BERMUDEZ and PATRICK MOQUIN Asst. Sports & Health Editor and Sports & Health Editor

Pandemic Inequities

COVID-19 disproportionately impacts minority groups

in New York, as well as Rutgers University in New Jersey, held their first two weeks of classes remotely and were scheduled to begin the semester on Jan. 18, the same day that Fordham’s spring semester began. Howe also cited the fact that the omicron variant has already peaked in New York City, as it is ahead of New York state and the rest of the United States. see SPRING page 4

FEATURES PAGE 8

Flame Diners

Which restaurant sets your world on fire?

For many college basketball teams, a single great season can represent a pinnacle for the program after years of hard work and sacrifice. A great decade, on the other hand, seems unfathomable by comparison. But after eight winning seasons in the last nine years, the Fordham women’s basketball team has made overachieving a cottage industry in the Rose Hill Gymnasium.

With seven games remaining in the 2021-22 regular season, it’s still business as usual for the dynastic Bronx program.

The season has proven to be another booming one for Fordham, as the team currently holds a 15-5 overall record. The Rams are also third in the Atlantic 10 (A10) with a 6-2 conference record.

Going into the season, this success was far from unexpected.

When Fordham was projected to finish third in the A10 preseason poll, Head Coach Stephanie Gaitley expressed confidence in the year to come.

“I feel this could be the strongest A10 season yet, and to be picked third speaks a lot to our success and consistency,” Gaitley said. see WOMEN’S B-BALL page 7

OPINIONS: RUBBERNECK PAGE 12

ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 14

CDC quarantine guidelines prioritize CEOs over science

Art students across departments unite in new exhibit

Quarantine, Shmorantine Slogan 13

2

News

February 2, 2022

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER

Theater Students Create White Anti-Racist Group

Working group collaborates with BIPOC Theatre Alliance to educate white Fordham theater members about racism

By SEAN RYAN Staff Writer

Following advice from the Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) Theatre Alliance, students within the Fordham theatre department created the White Anti-Racist Working Group (WARWG). In their introductory Instagram post, the group called on white-identifying Fordham theatre students to join their meetings and educate themselves about issues surrounding racism.

According to their community guidelines, the group intends to actively fight against racism and combat it within themselves, their peers and their community.

“ Sometimes they came

to us, but it was more so saying, ‘Hey, don’t keep coming to us for these problems. Make a group for yourself. That way you can answer these questions.’ ”

Raekwon Fuller, FCLC ’23

WARWG was formed when members of the BIPOC Theatre Alliance, along with white theater students, noticed issues concerning racism within the Fordham theatre department. White students were lacking proper resources to educate themselves and tackle issues within the space,

ANDREW DRESSNER/THE OBSERVER

Fordham theatre students created WARWG intending to combat racism within their community and among themselves.

and it was decided a group could be formed to assist in this process, according to Raekwon Fuller, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23 and a chair of the BIPOC Theatre Alliance.

According to WARWG’s Instagram page, the group wants to, “challenge the positions of faculty members and the purpose of program practices that have continually inflicted harm among students.”

The group also wants to create a space in order to learn the best ways to address racism and create the most inclusive environment

possible. Currently, the group aims to combine anti-racism resources with discussions they can build off of for future use.

Katie Heaton, FCLC ’23 and a social media chair for WARWG, noted that last semester the group had conversations that needed to be had. Heaton referred to WARWG as a microcosm of the larger community, which is how the group approaches which issues to address at meetings.

Fuller said the anti-racist working group was created to give white-identifying theater students their own space to dis-

cuss issues surrounding racism without feeling judged.

At each meeting, WARWG takes notes about what was discussed. They then share the meeting notes with the BIPOC Alliance, who advises them on further group proceedings. Fuller, who also serves as a point person for WARWG, explained that the BIPOC Alliance strives to ensure members of WARWG are doing good work and are on the right track.

Meeting notes are available on the @warwg_ft Instagram account. They also include a variety

of important resources regarding anti-racism measures and mutual aid, which involves bringing people together to donate to a variety of causes.

Fuller and other members of the BIPOC Theatre Alliance hope the group can teach white theater students how to answer each other’s questions.

“Sometimes they came to us, but it was more so saying, ‘Hey, don’t keep coming to us for these problems. Make a group for yourself. That way you can answer these questions,’” Fuller said.

WARWG meetings begin with discussions among group members, as the group seeks to incorporate the viewpoints of all the members to foster an effective conversation. Michelina Smith, FCLC ’24 and one of the outreach chairs of WARWG, said that the group has had great discussions from topics brought up by other members.

“One of our best-ever group discussions in meetings was kind of a spontaneous thing that a group member brought to us,” she said. “It was the week before Thanksgiving break, and a member said, ‘Hey, I know that I’m going back to my home in the South, and a lot of my relatives are very close-minded and blatantly racist.

How do I deal with that?’”

Both Fuller and the members of WARWG emphasized that all white Fordham theatre members should attend the group meetings. Smith echoed this sentiment and noted that even if individuals attend only five minutes of the meetings, they are still taking “one step toward dismantling some of the inherent racial biases within you.”

Low Turnout at Walkouts

Only three students attended the walkout at the Lincoln Center campus and zero at Rose Hill

By CHRISTINA IOANNIDES and ALLIE STOFER Staff Writer and News Editor

In response to Fordham’s decision to hold the spring semester fully in person, a petition circulated among the study body asking Fordham to implement a hybrid learning option for all spring classes. The petition, created by John Lonie, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’22, has received 802 signatures as of Feb. 1.

The call for a hybrid option comes alongside the rising number of COVID-19 cases from the omicron variant. Students expressed concerns about the lack of a virtual option for those who test positive for COVID-19 or those that have immunocompromised families.

During the fall 2021 semester, Lonie organized a petition for a pass/fail grading option, citing the stress and anxiety that came along with the transition from online to in-person learning as a reason for more lenient grading.

The petition was rejected by the administration. Lonie said that the attention he had garnered from the pass/fail petition led to many students asking him to help advocate for a hybrid option.

“Many students had reached out to me to push for hybrid because I had already established a platform for advocacy through last semester’s pass/fail grading petition,” he said.

Lonie also used the pass/fail Instagram account to encourage students to email the administration regarding implementing a hybrid option for classes. He created an email template for Fordham community members to

ALICE MORENO/THE OBSERVER

John Lonie, the creator of the hybrid learning petition, during the Lincoln Center walkout on Jan. 24.

use when contacting the deans at both Fordham Lincoln Center and Fordham Rose Hill.

Even though the petition for a hybrid learning option received over 800 signatures, the administration has not created such an option. According to Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications, contact tracing from last semester showed little evidence of COVID-19 transmission in classrooms where students and faculty wore masks.

“The thing that has made Fordham successful in offering

in-person instruction has been the diligence and cooperation of our students, faculty, and staff,” Howe said. “That said, a new variant is always possible, and we are continually monitoring, and in dialogue with, federal, state, and local public health agencies.”

Despite receiving little response from the university, Lonie has continued his efforts to have his and other students’ voices heard by organizing walkouts at both Lincoln Center and Rose Hill. Lonie held a walkout at Lincoln Center on Jan. 24.

Only three students, including Lonie, attended the gathering outside of the Leon Lowenstein center. In addition to the three students present, there were also administrators, including Jenifer Campbell, dean of students at Lincoln Center.

Campbell explained that the university was preparing as much as possible to hold classes in person. She also added that she has nothing against students voicing their opinions and had not heard concerns from students beside Lonie.

Lonie claimed that in addition to the few students in attendance outside of Lowenstein, there were an additional 75 to 100 students who directly messaged him stating that they had walked out of class.

According to Lonie, the main reason that people did not stay was due to the cold weather.

Lonie did not respond to The Observer’s request for proof of attendance.

The Lincoln Center walkout on Jan. 24 did not have a large turnout, but Lonie said he was hopeful for the one at Rose Hill. The walkout at Rose Hill was originally scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 26, but was postponed until Monday, Jan. 31, to allow for better weather and for Lonie to work with other organizations.

“We believe a full walk-out would help gain outside media publicity, which in turn will hold Fordham accountable to acknowledging our efforts,” he said. “In addition, we have reached out to on-campus organizations to help provide support and have reached out to community leaders for comment including the NYC Council member of the district and the state representatives.”

The Rose Hill walkout scheduled on Jan. 31 has since been postponed until further notice. According to Lonie, he is waiting to receive approval from Fordham for the protest.

The Instagram account did not create a post informing students of the second postponement and did not delete the post about the walkout until over three hours after it was originally scheduled. The walkout was scheduled to take place outside of Keating Hall at 12 p.m., but no students were in attendance.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER

February 2, 2022

News

3

The ‘Inside Outsider,’ McShane’s Farewell as President

McShane discusses the ‘saddest moment’ of his presidency and his deep love for the Fordham community MCSHANE from page 1

Efforts as a Visionary When McShane came to Fordham as the university president in 2003, the FLC campus was in its earliest phase, and one of his goals was to help expand the campus.

“It’s my belief and my hope that everyone at Lincoln Center, every student at Lincoln Center, has to feel that he or she has access to everything that Rose Hill has,” McShane said in an interview with The Observer in 2003.

At that time, the FLC campus mirrored its footprint from the 1960s — seven acres filled by the Law School, the Leon Lowenstein Center, Quinn Library and McMahon Hall with its 822 beds. Built for 3,500 students, it was serving 8,000 by the turn of the century.

McShane and the board of trustees developed a “master plan” to address the facility needs at Lincoln Center as well as anticipate the future.

The blueprint intended to double the size of the campus through expanding the Quinn Library, reconstructing the Law School building, adding a new student center, dormitory and additional parking — seven new buildings in total. Fordham faced criticism and legal action from neighbors, but the plan was approved by the city and finalized in 2014.

In a press conference with The Observer on Nov. 11, 2021, McShane outlined further plans to add more elevators to the Leon Lowenstein building, as well as expand its footprint to make room for the growing enrollment sizes, arguing that “we still don’t have enough” space on campus.

Under McShane, enrollment rates increased, and the university expanded beyond New York.

Fordham’s London Centre campus opened in 2008, and the Class of 2025 is the largest and most diverse class in Fordham’s history.

Vote of “No Confidence” and Student Relations The past 19 years, however, haven’t been all positive.

In September 2016, a move by the university to overturn a previously agreed-upon contract without the approval of the Salary and Benefits committee caused an infamous tear in the president’s relationship with faculty and staff.

The Faculty Senate stated that the administration violated university statutes, and on April 7, 2017, the senate approved a motion stating the imposed health care plan “would result in significantly increased costs

for faculty and staff and would threaten their health, well-being, and incomes.”

After a series of failed negotiations between the administration and the faculty, 431 out of 488 faculty members voted for “no confidence” in McShane.

“That is the saddest moment of my presidency,” McShane said, reflecting on the first, and only, time the university’s Faculty Senate ever voted no confidence in a president.

A year after the vote took place, Andrew H. Clark, a faculty senate officer during the “no confidence” vote and current professor at Fordham, said not much has changed in the conduct of negotiations between the Faculty Senate and the president and Board of Trustees.

The issue of shared governance — the principle that both the faculty and the administration have separate areas of responsibilities — was at the root of the “no confidence” vote, and it continues to present itself in faculty-president relations today, according to Faculty Senate President John Drummond.

“ That is the

saddest moment of my presidency.”

Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., President of Fordham University

Members who advocate for shared governance believe that faculty should have “a substantial voice, even if it’s not decisive in terms of making the final decisions,” Drummond said.

Even though he was disappointed by the vote, McShane made it clear in the aftermath that “it didn’t diminish the high regard and affection that I have for the faculty.”

“There’s also a genuine friendship that many people have with Father McShane,” Drummond said. “He is quite a storyteller and has a great sense of humor, and I think that he cares deeply about the university, its faculty and its students.”

McShane created traditions to get to know the students and faculty at Fordham, such as helping first-year families at Rose Hill on move-in day and shaking every student’s hand at the President’s Ball.

Thomas Reuter, Fordham College at Rose Hill ’22 and president of United Student Government (USG) at Rose Hill, said he devel-

COURTESY OF DANA MAXSON VIA FORDHAM NEWS

Speaking with students and their families during move-in day was something McShane often did to get to know his Fordham community better.

oped a friendship with McShane through his positions on USG. When he would see McShane around on campus, McShane would stop to have a conversation with him.

“I think his interactions are kind of dual purpose,” Reuter said. “One is very welcoming and compassionate, and the other is extraordinarily motivating or inspiring.”

Not all students experience the same engagement with the president. Students at the Lincoln Center campus expressed having fewer interactions with McShane.

“I think he’s a lot less accessible to you if you’re at the Lincoln Center campus,” Zann BallsunSimms, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’16, said.

Ballsun-Simms, who was a social justice leader with Fordham’s Dorothy Day Center and president of the Black Student Alliance, also noted that she felt McShane tended to surround himself with students in more traditional leadership roles, such as USG. In response to his perceived elusiveness on campus, McShane acknowledged: “At Lincoln Center, at Rose Hill: I can do better at both.”

Racial Injustice The year 2020 brought attention to systemic racism and the ongoing fight for the Black Lives Matter movement. Fordham’s history with racism on campus dates back long before 2020, with a particular rise in racist incidents during the 2015-16 academic year.

COURTESY OF BRUCE GILBERT VIA FORDHAM NEWS

McShane speaking at a memorial Mass on Sept. 11, 2021.

During the fall 2015 semester, three “bias incidents” were reported, including a racist slur carved on a Black student’s door at Rose Hill and a swastika carved into a bathroom dryer at Lincoln Center.

In light of these incidents, six students were invited to speak at the Faculty Senate meeting in November 2015 to address the institutionalized racism at Fordham.

After the swastika was found in a bathroom at FLC, McShane addressed the incident in a university-wide email denouncing the white supremacist reference and noted that “We will continue to repudiate such actions whenever they occur, and rise above them.”

“ In subsequent years,

it’s been clear that what I said and what my fellow students said meant nothing.”

Zann Ballsun-Simms, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’16

Among the students who spoke was Ballsun-Simms. “I’m tired of not feeling safe in my own home, because Fordham is my home,” she said.

Present at the meeting were McShane and Stephen Freedman, university provost at the time.

Ballsun-Simms recalled being close to tears while giving her testimony. After the students spoke, McShane offered a statement at the meeting: “There is no place for prejudice at Fordham, period.”

Ballsun-Simms said following the meeting there was some response from the university, but it was “not as strong as it could have been.”

In 2016, McShane released a diversity action plan that created a new senior administrative position, the chief diversity officer, which was filled by Rafael Zapata in 2017; placed priority on diversifying administrative positions and faculty members; and incorporated diversity and inclusion programs into student orientation.

Ballsun-Simms felt that McShane’s action plan and statement was a softer approach than the situation necessitated. She wished McShane took more concrete actions, such as condemning the incidents publicly as hate crimes and expelling the students who were involved.

According to Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications and special adviser to the president, the president doesn’t

usually interfere with a student or faculty disciplinary process. He said these circumstances are governed by federal and state laws and that it would be unethical for a president to involve oneself.

“In subsequent years, it’s been clear that what I said and what my fellow students said meant nothing,” Ballsun-Simms said, referring to the continued reports of students on campus who have experienced discrimination by members of the Fordham community.

In light of the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, McShane renewed the 2016 action plan, expanding it to include instituting mandatory anti-racism training for faculty, administrators, staff and students, as well as establishing Juneteenth as a university holiday.

McShane also released a statement praying for the families mourning the losses of their children and loved ones and for the ones who had died. His statement received pushback from students who demanded more than “thoughts and prayers.”

Several student petitions were created over the past two years since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 demanding the university follow through with cutting ties with the food vendor Aramark, whose income comes from private prisons, and severing Public Safety’s ties with the NYPD. At the Nov. 11 press conference, in response to these issues still being unaddressed by the university, McShane asked for more information on the issues and stated “together we can seek certain information.”

He noted that other departments receive these petitions and sometimes he is debriefed during his meetings, but the vice presidents are the ones who deal more closely with the policies affecting students.

McShane is choosing to have little involvement with the search for his successor and gave little information about whom he would like to see in the position next.

The university made the historic announcement on Jan. 21 that the next president will not be a Jesuit, breaking Fordham’s tradition since its founding in 1841.

Even though McShane didn’t provide any personal characteristics he would like to see in the next president, he did stress the importance of the next president being willing to listen.

“The next person can make a new beginning based on my mistakes,” he said.

The full version of this article is published on The Observer’s website.

4

News

February 2, 2022

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER

Students At Odds With In-Person Spring

11%

SPRING from page 1

New Safety Measures

Survey demographics

Fordham announced new safety measures to be implemented for the spring semester in an email sent on Jan. 3. Two of the changes from the fall semester included requiring all on-campus students, faculty and staff to receive their booster dose and submit a PCR test by Jan. 23.

The Observer conducted an anonymous survey on Jan. 16 about student opinions on returning in person and received 211 responses by Jan. 27. In the survey, many students expressed their concerns regarding Fordham’s booster exemptions.

When Fordham announced that students, faculty and staff would be required to be fully vaccinated to return to campus for the fall 2021 semester, they also stated that people may be accommodated if they had documented proof of a medical or religious exemption.

According to Keith Eldredge, assistant vice president and dean of students, the only new exemptions that exist for the booster requirement are for those who had extreme reactions to

the first or second dose of their primary vaccination series or for those for whom it would be harmful to their health to receive the booster.

One of the reasons for extension is eligibility. Individuals become eligible for the booster five months after they received their second dose. When one becomes eligible, Eldredge said they are given a two-week window to receive their booster dose.

“ We are trying to

balance between having the capacity to do the testing while also having it be reasonably effective.”

Keith Eldredge, assistant vice president and dean of students

“Sometimes people will have had a reaction and don’t want to go to class the next day; they want to do it on a Tuesday since they have a light class load on Wednesday or whatever it may

be,” he said. “So we will give folks two weeks after that.”

Aside from the extension for those not yet eligible, Fordham will also allow an extension for those who have recently had COVID-19. The most common extension after a COVID-19 infection is one month, according to Eldredge.

“The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guideline says, generally, once you are out of isolation and symptom free, folks could get it, but if they send us a doctor’s note that says, ‘Hey, I want my patient to wait a month because of this circumstance,’ then they are getting that exception,” Eldredge said. “It seems like we will be back to 99 percent with the booster within a few weeks.”

During the 2020-21 academic year, the university implemented monthly surveillance testing for all in-person students, faculty and staff. Many of the respondents to the survey expressed that they would like to see surveillance testing return this semester.

Students had differing opinions on how often the surveillance testing should be conducted, with most wanting it every one to two weeks. One student said Fordham should do weekly testing and “not once a month, as is Fordham’s precedent.”

On Jan. 27, Marco Valera, vice president for administration and COVID-19 coordinator, announced that Fordham will be implementing surveillance testing again this semester. All on-campus students, faculty and staff will be required to test again before Feb. 13.

Eldredge explained that one of the considerations with surveillance testing was how frequent it can be. Many students in the survey suggested weekly testing but, according to Eldredge, that would not be possible due to the testing shortages.

“We are trying to balance between having the capacity to do the testing while also having it be reasonably effective,” he said. “Once a semester testing isn’t really sufficient. Once a week testing probably isn’t possible, especially now with testing results taking longer to come back from off campus (testing).”

In addition to testing and boosters, Fordham dining places will offer additional to-go options, and events will not be permitted to have food or drink until further notice to limit opportunities for unmasking.

Fitness centers — with the exception of the Ram Fit Center at Rose Hill, which reopened on Jan. 28 — are also closed. Eldredge noted closing the gyms was the “most controversial decision” that the administration made.

New policies for the Ram Fit Center at Rose Hill include occupancy limits, social distancing requirements and indoor masking. The McMahon Gym at Lincoln Center will remain closed until further notice.

Masks continue to be required on campus, with free KN95s made available to all students, faculty and staff by Public Safety. Many students in the survey wanted individuals on campus to be required to wear N95s or KN95s, as they offer more pro-

only

Out of 211 respondents to the survey, 43.1% want Fordham to implement a hybrid option for classes

of respondents supported a fully in-person semester tection than other masks, according to the CDC. Other students worried about students not wearing their masks correctly and the mask mandate not being enforced adequately.

“On the one hand, it is not solely the responsibility of the students to police each other, but I do think that peer-to-peer pressure from students can have an impact on that in a positive way,” Eldredge said. “And we certainly rely on students and other faculty, staff and employees to address that in the best way that they can and then tap into other resources.”

“ As students we

deserve the highest level of education possible, and online learning simply does not achieve this.”

a survey respondent

Student Response After the decision to return to in-person classes was announced, students advocated for a hybrid learning option. They listed the need for a virtual modality for those who test positive for COVID-19 and are not allowed to attend classes, as well as for those who are immunocompromised or have high-risk family members.

In the survey from The Observer, many other students also advocated for a hybrid option to be implemented. Of the 211 respondents, 43.1% stated that there should be a hybrid option.

“As a commuter student who lives with immunocompromised individuals, I feel that going back to campus at this time is incredibly dangerous,” a respondent said. “From my experience last semester on campus, I know that safety precautions are not being taken seriously by students or staff members.”

Other respondents, 39.8%, wished Fordham started virtually and then made a decision later.

“This will only make cases go up,” another student in the survey said. Other students echoed this sentiment, with one stating, “right now Fordham is risking lives.”

On the two extremes of the options, 4.3% of respondents said that the semester should be entirely online, whereas 11.8% said that the semester should continue completely in person.

A student who voted for the semester being online said they still have lasting effects from a COVID-19 infection and would “most likely be unable to attend classes unless they allow a virtual option.”

Other students voted for having a semester in person due to Fordham’s high tuition.

“To have the semester online is a slap in the face to the families and students who pay to attend Fordham. As students we deserve the highest level of education possible, and online learning simply does not achieve this,” a respondent said.

“With the entirety of the student body vaccinated, boosted, and masked, being in the buildings and classrooms serves no serious health risk.”

In the email sent on Jan. 10 announcing the return to in-person classes, President of Fordham University the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., explained that the decision came from guidance suggesting that the omicron variant is “far less likely to cause severe disease, especially within a fully vaccinated community.”

Additionally, McShane stated the desire to provide the best education is what led in-person classes to resume.

Faculty Response After the decision to return in person was announced, the Faculty Senate held a special meeting on Friday, Jan. 14, to discuss the return to in-person classes for the spring semester.

Senate Faculty President John Drummond explained that one of the major concerns for faculty is the ventilation in older buildings, as well as the use of public transportation for the commute.

At the meeting, they passed a resolution to allow professors to choose how they teach for the first two weeks of the spring semester, according to Drummond.

The resolution was rejected by the Fordham administration.

In response to the resolution, Dennis Jacobs, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, sent an email to all faculty explaining the decision. In the email, Jacobs stated that the decision to remain completely in person, in comparison to previous semesters that were virtual or hybrid, came from the ability to have the student body both vaccinated and boosted, as well as the omicron variant’s “reduced virulence.”

“The vast majority of cases have arisen among students, and a majority of those have been traced back to unmasked socializing off campus,” Jacobs said. “A rather smaller number is attributed to contact among roommates and suitemates.”

As February arrives, health officials remain hopeful that the omicron variant will slow down. However, although the experience with the omicron variant in South Africa and Australia ended in a sharp decline, health officials are encouraging New Yorkers to continue to exercise caution to avoid an increase in cases.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER

February 2, 2022

News

5

University Social Media Actions Receive Backlash

Students express disappointment over Fordham’s decision to remove negative comments from its Instagram page SOCIAL MEDIA from page 1

“I think they are trying to make their image into something that is only half true, where the other half is that they’re not listening to either their faculty or their students, and I’m just not okay with that,” she said. “They need to have at least some regard or respect for how their students are feeling.”

With Fordham deleting comments made on their Instagram account’s posts, Frassetti believes the Fordham Cares logo, which promotes the motto “each of us caring for the whole of us,” is ironic.

“ Fordham’s social

media platforms are not Reddit. ”

Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications

John Lonie, FCLC ’22 and owner of @fordhampassfail, believes the university’s decision to block the Instagram account goes against cura personalis, a Jesuit value which is Latin for “caring for the whole person.”

Lonie said that the university’s Instagram account blocked the pass/fail account on Dec. 7 without any prior notice. He believes the action was unwarranted because the account had not engaged in any behavior that would lead to that decision and that having access to the university’s instagram account is important.

“It is Fordham University; it is our school. We want to be able to have access to that information that everyone else does, and we discovered that they had blocked us for simply just existing,” he said.

Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications, referenced the university’s social media policy and noted that students have multiple platforms in which they can express their

points of view. However, Howe argued that the university’s social media platforms are official Fordham publications, and Fordham exercises editorial control over them.

“Fordham’s social media platforms are not Reddit,” he said.

Howe quoted two sections of Fordham’s social media policy in relation to the university’s Instagram account blocking @ fordhampassfail as well as the deletion of comments regarding a hybrid option. The policy states that Fordham’s social media platforms are integral parts of its marketing and public relations. It adds that the university has the right to moderate comments without notice and delete comments that are clearly off-topic.

The university’s social media policy acknowledges the existence of different viewpoints and seeks to promote academic freedom.

“We welcome critical posts and opposing points of view, but users shall refrain from using profanity and from making personal attacks in any comments posted to University social media platforms,” the policy read.

Lonie believes that the decision to block the account revolved around the onboarding of prospective students.

He added that the account never did anything beyond repost Fordham’s posts and saying whether or not it approves or disapproves of a certain policy the university had implemented.

Noran Shabana, FCLC ’23, believes that students aren’t being considered in the university’s decisions.

“This is only my second semester at Fordham, and I’ve already seen how Fordham as an institution is being very oppressive toward most of its students,” she said.

Shabana referred to the Instagram accounts advocating for a hybrid option and mentioned that the freedom of choice would be very helpful, but Fordham blocked those accounts and

ANDREW DRESSNER/THE OBSERVER

After students started criticizing Fordham in the comments on its Instagram post for not offering a hybrid option, the university responded by deleting negative comments.

deleted any comments that they thought would somehow tarnish their image as an institution instead.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) ranked Fordham in the bottom 10 on its list of the worst colleges for free speech multiple years in a row.

Adam Goldstein, a member of the senior research council at FIRE, referred to previous cases that contributed to this ranking, including the Austin Tong and the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) cases the university faced in court in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

“Of course, in Fordham's case, it’s pretty stark because of the SJP case and others where Fordham showed it was will-

ing to interfere with student expression whenever it felt like it, whether or not it fit the rules they’d published,” he said.

Goldstein noted that lots of students encourage schools to build up speech-policing hierarchies but fail to acknowledge that the people who are enforcing these policies are not students and do not have the same agenda.

“I do wonder if the students who praised Fordham’s handling of Austin Tong are beginning to realize that the question was never about what students should be allowed to post on Instagram but about whether Fordham should be the one deciding what students should post,” he said.

Several students have directly messaged the Fordham pass/

fail account regarding their comments being removed from the university’s page following Lonie’s acknowledgment of Fordham doing so.

Lonie has directly messaged the university’s page through his personal account, along with deans at both FCLC and Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH). He noted that Laura Auricchio, dean of students at FCLC, has not responded about the new petition or the blocking, and he has yet to receive an email from any of the FCLC or FCRH deans he contacted.

“We just hope that Fordham can unblock an account that is dedicated to just helping students,” he said.

Chloe Zelch contributed additional reporting to the story.

Fordham Community Responds to Bronx Fire

McShane directs members of the Fordham community to donate to Catholic Charities to help victims

By LAURA OLDFATHER Asst. Social Media Editor

A deadly fire occurred at a high-rise apartment building in the Tremont neighborhood of the Bronx on Jan. 9, killing 19 people and injuring 44. Students called on Fordham to help its surrounding Bronx community as well as provide ways to help the victims’ families.

CCEL provided halal snacks for families waiting to be relocated, as well as $1,500 in gift cards as immediate relief for necessities.

Fordham University President the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., encouraged the Fordham community to donate to Catholic Charities, an organization supported by Rev. John J. Cecero, S.J., vice president for mission integration and ministry. McShane explained that the charity has a sizable footprint in the community, which ensures that the aid

goes to those in need.

“I hope you will give generously to support the survivors of this tragic fire—the worst since the Happy Land Social Club fire not very far from campus—and in keeping those who died or are injured, and their loved ones, in your thoughts and prayers,” McShane said in the email he sent to the Fordham community on Jan. 10.

According to Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications, Fordham sent $1,500 from the Student Emergency Action team, $1,000 from the Campus Ministry Alms Fund, and $5,400 from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, which is a part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. “Campus Ministry also took up a Church collection last Sunday, (raising approximately) $1,000,” Howe said. “It will be channeled to the victims through Catholic Charities as Father McShane had asked.”

The Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL) provided halal snacks for families waiting to be relocated, as well as $1,500 in gift cards as immediate relief for necessities, according to Howe. CCEL is also

running a school supply drive in coordination with BronxWorks for families affected by the Tremont fire with school-aged children. Fordham community members can drop off items from the School Supplies Drives list by noon on Feb. 7 at the CCEL Main Office located in McGinley 205, or purchase items from the Amazon wishlist by Feb. 5.

According to Joe VanGostein, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’22 and president of United Student Government (USG) at Lincoln Center, USG has been using its social media platforms to provide ways for students to donate and help those in need. VanGostein added that USG has been promoting Catholic Charities per McShane’s recommendation.

While McShane spoke highly of Catholic Charities and referred to them as “the most expeditious way to get aid to survivors and the families of victims,” Kadidia Keita, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’25, believes otherwise.

“Many of the families were Muslim, (so) why were Catholic charities given money?” Keita asked.

She underscored that the GoFundMes created to directly help

Ways to Help: Give to Fordham’s preferred charity, Catholic Charities.

Purchase from CCEL’s Amazon wish list by Feb. 5 or give items directly to their school supply drive by Feb. 7.

Donate to the verified GoFundMe campaigns of those affected by the Tremont fire. the victims and their families should have been promoted instead. GoFundMe created a list of over a dozen campaigns, organized by verified fundraisers, that help individuals and families affected by the fire.

Although Keita is glad the university is supplying victims of the fire with resources and is encouraging students to ac-

knowledge the fire’s effects, she hopes continued communication from the university about the event will emphasize the needs of families who are still struggling and show how the fire affected the community.

“Sending out the emails one time to talk about this one time is not enough to make us care about this,” she said.

Sports & Health Editors Patrick Moquin Chris Murray sportsandhealth@fordhamobserver.com

Sports & Health

February 2, 2022 THE OBSERVER

Spiritual and Scientific Roots of Veganism

Research into the vegan diet suggests numerous health benefits and potential lifestyle enrichment has only a few vegan options for its wraps, salads, bowls and sandwiches.

There are options in the rotating menu at the Community Dining Room, such as the Asian teriyaki noodles and the grilled black bean burger.

Although the vegan options offered by Fordham are relatively limited, they do contain a healthy mixture of carbohydrates, proteins and fats along with the necessary fruits and vegetables. In fact, the assortment of salads and fruits may be more nutritious than the meat options available.

By AASTHA AGGARWAL Asst. Features Editor

I grew up in the glitzy suburbs of Juhu in Mumbai, the hub of the Bollywood industry. It was ingrained in me to have the cleanest diet and to uphold physical health and beauty as my utmost priority.

Specifically, in a patriarchal society, I learned that a woman’s currency is her health and beauty.

From visiting nutritionists, I experienced the benefits of a vegan diet.

Radiant skin, long silky hair and a heightened immune system are the most noticeable effects of the vegan diet. I became so accustomed to this diet that I no longer crave any sweets; all I want is my homemade lentil rice soup!

In Indian culture, specifically in Hinduism, consuming meat and dairy products is considered a taboo, and one has to brave social and cultural shaming for consuming meat. However, there is a spiritual rationale that promotes veganism, specifically pointing to the ancient texts of the Vedas. The Rigveda, an ancient Vedic text, condemns the killings of men, cattle and horses and the god Agni is said to punish those who disobey.

“ Lately, my friends and

I have been visiting SVK (Sous Vide Kitchen), which I think has some of the best options for vegans on campus. ”

Meg Schanes, FCLC ’23

According to the Isha Institute of Inner Sciences, the rawer the food is, the easier it is to digest as it absorbs a certain aliveness in the body without going through the heavy process of digestion.

Navigating Costs as a Vegan

MOLLY HIGGINS/THE OBSERVER

Successfully living a vegan lifestyle requires special considerations to nutrition and budgeting.

Health Benefits and Risks Medical News illustrates the benefits of veganism, including improved heart health, as well as a lower risk of cancer and diabetes. However, a vegan diet excludes some essential vitamins and minerals.

It may lack sufficient quantities of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B-12, calcium and vitamin D. Vegans are recommended to add these vitamins as supplements, as a vegan diet may not provide a comprehensive nutritive profile.

Beauty Benefits of Veganism One of the most important considerations for a vegan diet is the impact on skin and hair health.

According to The Derm Collective, a consortium of dermatologists and biologists, a diet rich in

fruits and vegetables can offer a range of benefits to the skin.

Acne, fine lines and wrinkles are alleviated by a vegan diet due to high consumption of fruits and vegetables that are rich in antioxidants. Diets rich in dairy have also been shown to cause fluctuations in hormone levels as well as inflammation.

On-Campus Options Meg Schanes, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23, has been vegan since middle school. She made the decision to be vegan due to animal rights activism. While finding vegan options while going out with her friends can be a challenge, Schanes believes that eating vegan on a college budget is doable.

“Lately, my friends and I have been visiting SVK (Sous Vide Kitchen), which I think has some

of the best options for vegans on campus,” Schanes said.

SVK, located near 62nd Street and the Fordham Law School entrance, features some of my favorite vegan options at Fordham, including the delicious Tofu Kickshaw Salad and a makeyour-own bowl.

Although one may be tempted to rely on off-campus vegan options, Fordham also offers a selection of vegan items at its dining locations. The salad bar at the Ram Café has a selection of plant-based items. Vegan staples such as vegetables, chickpeas, hummus, greens, lentils, beans and assorted dressings are solid options if you’re looking for a balanced vegan diet.

Aside from the salad bar, finding quality vegan options at the Lincoln Center campus may be a struggle for students.

Freshens at the Ram Café

Many students find it difficult to find vegan options at a budgeted cost. However, one can still make purposeful decisions without breaking the bank.

“I tend to buy a lot in bulk and gravitate towards shelf-stable and frozen foods,” Schanes said. Buying frozen vegetables and fruits can be a smart way to incorporate more nutrients into your diet without worrying about bulk items perishing.

Another way to practice veganism on a budget is to buy lentils and rice along with a few spices and coconut oil. These ingredients are all that is necessary to cook a vegan staple in India called “khichdi.”

Take a measured amount of lentils and rice along with water and add the coconut oil and spices.

Put it in an instant pressure cooker for 40 minutes on high. The end product is a complete mixture of protein, carbohydrates and fat and an Ayurvedic superfood.

Despite requiring a little more effort, the pros of a vegan diet can outweigh the cons. One has to prioritize mental, physical and spiritual well-being over shortterm gratification or minor inconveniences if they want to reap the benefits of going vegan.

Pandemic Exposes Inequities in Health Care System

Historically marginalized groups forced to weather faltering health coverage coupled with job insecurity

By ANUSHA IMRAN Staff Writer

On March 26, 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.” Though it was said at the Convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in Chicago nearly six decades ago, it remains relevant today with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has highlighted social and racial injustice and inequity in public health, putting racial and ethnic minority groups at a higher risk of becoming ill and dying from COVID-19.

Social Determinants of Health Social determinants of health (SDOH) are “the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.” These conditions are divided into five categories, which include economic stability, neighborhood/built environment, education access/quality, social/community context and health care access/quality.

Hospitalization Rates per 10,000

Death Rates per 10,000

Black

24.6

5.6

Hispanic

30.4

5.6

Asian

15.9

4.3

White

7.4

2.3

Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Epic Health Research Network MADDIE SANDHOLM/THE OBSERVER

These circumstances contribute to societal stratification and thus exacerbate health disparities among various groups of people based on social and economic class, gender, and ethnicity.

SDOH are a root cause of many of the current major societal health issues, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and depression.

Underserved populations and people of color usually experience higher levels of stress because of poor health, lack of education and low-income jobs that put a con-

straint on their lives. These conditions distance them from health care, nutritious food, physical activity and other healthy coping mechanisms.

Disproportionate Effect of COVID-19 When compared to white people, Black, Hispanic and Asian people have significantly higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. According to a 2021 study conduct-

ed by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Epic Health Research Network, “the hospitalization rates and death rates per 10,000, respectively, were 24.6 and 5.6 for Black patients, 30.4 and 5.6 for Hispanic patients, 15.9 and 4.3 for Asian patients, and 7.4 and 2.3 for White patients.”

Because people belonging to historically marginalized groups typically work in “essential fields,” many of these individuals were unable to work remotely during the worldwide lockdown.

Jobs such as transit workers, grocery store clerks, nursing aides, construction workers, household workers and sanitation workers were all still active when the streets were barren.

These workers were not protected and feared exposing their families to COVID-19 as they lived in crowded conditions or multigenerational households.

Mistrust in the system might lead vulnerable populations to delay seeking care or medical attention. About 1.6 million Hispanic faamilies have lost access to employer-sponsored health insurance since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, making up nearly half of those who lost coverage. Furthermore, immigrant and undocumented populations are less likely to access the health care system due to fears of deportation and legal issues.

Disparities in disease outcomes due to race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status is not something new in the United States. COVID-19 has stressed the urgency of these disparities and made social conditions worse for many Black, Hispanic and Indigenous people in the United States. However, these inequities are not unchangeable.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER

February 2, 2022

Sports & Health

7

Fordham Falls Short Against GW in Final Minutes, 64-55

The Rams’ losing streak stretches to five, as they now stand 11th in the Atlantic 10 conference

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Kyle Rose, FCRH ’23, is a key starter for the Rams, scoring 13 points in 35 minutes of play.

By AURELIEN CLAVAUD Asst. Sports & Health Editor

The Fordham men’s basketball team dropped another conference game to the George Washington University (GW) Colonials, 6455. Despite valiant efforts by their stars, the Rams now stand 2-5 in the Atlantic 10 (A10), a grim prospect as the end of the season approaches.

The game started off with a marked lack of enthusiastic play from both sides, leading the Colonials and Rams to combine for double-digit turnovers in the first few minutes of action. Chuba Ohams, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) ’22, returned to the starting lineup coming off of an injury. The Rams hoped to make use of Ohams’ height and skill around the rim.

Within three minutes, after multiple missed shots, the Colonials hit a three to break the deadlock. But something was off. The players crowded the referees, and complaints and nervous chatter filled the Charles E. Smith Center; fans reciprocated with confusion and glares directed at the hardwood. Soon enough, the referees revealed what had been suspected by both coaching staffs: The game ball was in fact a women’s basketball. For reference, a men’s basketball is inflated to 29.5 inches, whereas women’s basketballs are inflated to 28.5.

After the brief delay, GW brought forth a tidal wave of offense, leaving the Rams’ defense flustered and out of position for much of the first half. Backdoor cuts led to layups around the rim.

This ballooned the Colonials’ lead

to their biggest of the game. With around four minutes left in the half, GW had an 11-point advantage, 29-18.

Fordham had attempted to run much of the offense through Ohams. Unfortunately, GW was prepared, and Ohams’ recent injury did not help the situation.

Double-teamed on nearly every possession, Ohams struggled, and many possessions resulted in either turnovers or poor shots.

The Fordham defense fared no better in those first 20 minutes.

GW had its way through the supporting play of forward Hunter Dean, GW ’23. Meanwhile, guard James Bishop, GW ’23, led in scoring with 11 points in the first half.

The shooting was equally horrendous for both teams. The Rams and Colonials tied at 36% field goal shooting.

Entering the second half, Fordham Head Coach Kyle Neptune prepared significant defensive adjustments. The Rams began to defend GW guards from the inbound, and soon the whole team was engaged in an effective but exhausting full-court press.

What Neptune had noticed in the first half — that the Rams were more effective on the fast break — translated directly to the floor in the second. Darius Quisenberry, GSAS ’22, had scored his only points at the halftime buzzer following an embarrassing GW backcourt violation. In the second half, he was converting multiple fast-break layups, often extending to beat the shot blocker to the backboard.

Unfortunately, with 13 minutes left, fatigue appeared to kick in. The Rams’ transition from full-court to half-court defense left lanes wide open for Bishop to slash, and inside shots were easy pickings for the Colonials’ big men.

A hustle play by Antrell Charlton, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’24, presented the Rams with multiple opportunities to score on a possession.

Ohams’ threat inside was drawing GW players into the paint, leaving GW vulnerable to a long rebound by Charlton. The opportunities were wide open, but the Rams missed both a three and an interior shot. Charlton, a key rotation player for Fordham, hit only a single shot all game.

Despite this sequence, Fordham miraculously pulled off a 9-2 run late in the second half led by Kyle Rose, FCRH ’23, and Quisenberry, securing an advantage as the clock trickled away.

The Colonials eventually stopped the bleeding with one of Bishop’s signature mid-range pull-ups.

The possession kept changing hands as crunch time approached, but GW was the only team that produced any offense. A collective push by the Colonials with six minutes left instantly evaporated the Rams’ five-point lead, and the game became a race against the clock. After a stretch of poor offense and defense plagued with gaps, Fordham found itself facing the uncomfortable prospect of a free-throw game.

Following a turnover on his part, Rose hit a clutch three-pointer and made it a two-possession game with two minutes left. It wasn’t enough.

Quisenberry, Rose and Ohams left it all on the court.

They combined for 41 points — 15, 13 and 13, respectively. Despite this, the game ended with GW at the foul line.

The game turned sour very quickly for the Rams, and Neptune is going to have to make some major adjustments moving forward.

The Rams tallied 14 turnovers, shooting 20-56 from the field and 8-23 from three — far from a winning performance in a highly competitive conference.

Although the program has recently lost a star in Antonio Daye Jr., the team still has certain expectations to uphold. With the losing streak at five since Daye’s departure, the Rams have some work to do to secure a competitive position in the standings.

The Rams’ next game is on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at home, facing off against the University of Rhode Island. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.

Women’s Basketball Formidable With 7 Conference Games Left

Rams win two of their last three games, move into third place in Atlantic 10 standings with postseason looming WOMEN’S B-BALL from page 1

Gaitley is right about the team’s consistency, as the Rams have controlled the pace against almost every team they have faced with their unique defensive intensity. In the team’s most recent slate of games, many opposing offenses have been completely stifled. At this point in the season, Fordham’s defense has only allowed 57.1 points per game, the second-lowest average in the conference.

An Elite Defense In a game against the University of Dayton on Jan. 23, the Flyers nearly lost their undefeated record with an unusually dull offensive showing. Going into the fourth quarter, Fordham led by 10 points, and although the Rams squandered that lead in a 52-48 defeat, the Flyers’ struggles cannot be understated.

Over the course of the game, Dayton shot 33.3% from the field.

For a team that has scored 66.7 points per game on average, the Flyers’ 52-point performance represents their worst of the season.

Both teams chased each other in points throughout the contest, and Fordham remained in striking range until the final buzzer.

Fordham’s competition with the St. Joseph’s University Hawks on Jan. 26 was an even clearer display of the team’s defensive prowess. The Hawks were held to just 10 points in the first half, eight of which came in the first quarter. The Rams weren’t particularly impressive on offense until the third quarter but nevertheless cruised to a 55-35 victory.

“Super defensive effort tonight,” Gaitley said after the

game. “I think we are starting to understand the importance of defense and rebounding as we hit this stretch run.”

On Jan. 29, the Rams cut it close with the St. Bonaventure University Bonnies. The first quarter was strong for Fordham as the team put up 15 points and left the Bonnies lingering at nine.

Like many of Fordham’s recent opponents, St. Bonaventure had a sluggish start and only scored 24 points in the first half.

In the fourth quarter, Fordham denied the Bonnies multiple chances to shoot and applied consistent pressure to secure a 62-54 victory.

After nearly a month out of action due to various COVID-19-related postponements, the Rams responded with one of their most successful stretches of the season, with only two losses. On average, Fordham produces 60.4 points per game while only allowing their opponents to score 57.9. The team has even managed to derail teams with superior field goal averages like Dayton.

Areas for Improvement Fordham’s defensive abilities give fans hope for its success in the approaching A10 Tournament, which begins on March 2.

As the tournament approaches, however, small mistakes can cost the Rams seeding later in the year. In the team’s matchup with St. Joe’s, the Rams fell behind the Hawks by four points in the first quarter and only took the lead five minutes in.

Although Fordham eventually pulled ahead of St. Joe’s and led by 15 going into the third quarter, the team’s rough start was a

continuation of a dangerous habit. The display of great defensive tactics against a weaker team like St. Joe’s disguised the team’s inconsistency on offense.

Fordham’s unstable offensive efforts could prove to be an issue in what could be a deep run in the A10 Tournament. When the Rams face teams like the University of Massachusetts, who are 15-5 this season, taking a quarter or more to start scoring in earnest or fading in the late stages will make Fordham vulnerable.

Gaitley is aware of her team’s weak points and plans to strenghen her team on all ends. “We will need to improve on cleaning up our spacing and timing on offense as well as limiting turnovers.”

A Recognizable Core The Rams’ offense may be a source of weakness at this point in the season in comparison to the defense, but familiar faces make improvement at the rim seem likely. Reigning A10 Player of the Year Anna DeWolfe, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’23, is having yet another stellar season, leading the entire A10 conference in scoring with 20 points per game. She was also named A10 Player of the Week after the Rams’ most recent stretch of victories.

Though DeWolfe remains the team’s undeniable leader, Asiah Dingle, FCRH ’22, has also had a profound impact on the team’s offense in her first year as a Ram. Since joining Fordham after a season at Stony Brook University, Dingle has scored 13.9 points per game while leading the team in assists and steals.

As a physical team on both offense and defense, the Rams have

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

After winning six of their last seven games, the Rams have firmly established themselves as A10 contenders.

multiple players who play hard in the paint. Though a thinner roster hurts the team’s overall statistics, Fordham is the only A10 program featuring four players with more than 100 rebounds at this point in the season. Megan Jonassen, FCRH ’22, leads the Rams in this category with 115, 60 of them coming on the offensive side.

Kaitlyn Downey, Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill ’22, has as much ability in the paint as she does from the threepoint line, controlling opposing forwards down low on defense while shooting with 40.9% accuracy from beyond the arc on 86 attempts.

Kendell Heremaia, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences ’22, does not lead the team in any category overall but seems to do everything well. The team’s third-highest scorer also has

114 total rebounds, one short of Jonassen’s mark, and the second-highest free throw percentage behind DeWolfe.

Challenges Ahead With two victories under their belt in the past week, the Rams are firmly in the hunt for the A10 title. Fordham is not the best team in the conference, as both Dayton and the University of Rhode Island remain undefeated. These two rivals, along with plenty of outsiders, are capable of giving Fordham trouble in the postseason.

But with one of the most experienced and talented starting fives in the A10, Fordham seems to improve with every outing and is in an excellent position to compete.

The next chapter in this storied program’s history awaits.

The Twin Flames: Which Diner Burns Brighter?

TREVOR WOITSKY

Staff Writer

Which diner can lay claim to being the best Fordham diner?

If the delis of Arthur Avenue anchor the Fordham community at Rose Hill, the twin diners of 60th and 58th Streets are the cornerstones of student life at Fordham Lincoln Center. Like countless other students, I have lost track of visits and memories I have made at Olympic Flame Diner and The Flame Diner while attending Fordham. As a certified regular of both establishments, I now ask: Which diner is “The Best Fordham Diner”?

Judging Criteria

The parameters of comparison must first be established. Since both diners are classic American-style establishments, I will judge both restaurants based on specific menu items, waiter service and interior atmosphere. Both diners will be considered on traditional breakfast and lunch items: French toast with sausage and cheeseburger with waffles fries.

Breakfast

Both diners served the breakfast meal with two identical sausages, yet Olympic Flame Diner served three pieces of French toast while The Flame Diner only did two. The sausage from the Olympic Flame Diner was better than The Flame’s with the latter’s being overcooked and less juicy. The French toast at The Flame was best and had thick, fluffy bread, while the Olympic Flame Diner’s was thinner and firm. I give the breakfast win to Olympic Flame Diner because they served more French toast slices and had better sausages than The Flame. Furthermore, their meal was cheaper since they offer a 10% special discount exclusive to Fordham students.

Service

I must first acknowledge that The Flame Diner has more booths than Olympic Flame Diner and more customers for waitstaff to manage. Accordingly, The Flame employed more waiters, with myself and my friend seeing more than five waiters in The Flame at any given time and Olympic Flame Diner having a maximum of two whenever we visited. The Flame’s waiters were much friendlier and engaging than the waiters at Olympic Flame Diner. The former’s waiters not only engaged in more conversation with customers but were much more social and more outgoing than Olympic Flame Diner’s waiters. More importantly, they checked on customers more often, asking if the food was okay, if one wanted dessert or seconds and refilling beverages. On top of that, the high-quality service was consistent throughout the day and night. Even at 3 a.m., The Flame’s waiters offered superior service.

Interior Atmosphere After visiting both restaurants during the day and night, I can say The Flame Diner has a more friendly, vibrant, inviting atmosphere than Olympic Flame Diner. When entering The Flame, one immediately recognizes it as a classic American diner — people are laughing and talking, waiters are scurrying about and talking to customers in a friendly mood, and the bar and kitchen are alive with energy. The Olympic Flame Diner, in comparison, is far quieter and slower. There is always less talking among customers and servers, the counter and kitchen are quieter and the waiters are less outgoing. To put it simply, The Flame has everything you could ask for when going to a diner, while Olympic Flame Diner only provides a necessary acknowledgment of the best qualities in a diner.

u n e m

The Flame Diner

VS T h e O lym p i c Fl ame D i n e r Lunch

I ordered a classic cheeseburger from both restaurants cooked medium rare with a side of waffle fries. Upon first impression, it was evident that Olympic Flame Diner served more waffle fries than The Flame Diner. The meal at Olympic Flame Diner also came with coleslaw and a pickle. Both burgers were roughly the same size, although Olympic Flame Diner used more doughy buns that were slightly burnt compared to the more evenly toasted Flame bun.

The actual test of a burger is the meat quality, and sadly, Olympic Flame Diner falls short. Despite my request for medium-rare, only The Flame came close. The Olympic Flame Diner’s patty was utterly welldone, while The Flame’s retained a good rare color to the beef. When paired with the more doughy bun, Olympic Flame Diner’s burger was more challenging to eat due to the excess amount of bread and tough meat. The Flame’s burger was tastier due to the thinner bun and more flavorful patty. Overall, I give the burger win to The Flame for their thinner buns and more delectable patties. Even though Olympic Flame Diner provided more fries, The Flame’s were crispier. When combined with the better burger, The Flame edges out the win.

R E N WIN

The Flame Diner is the better diner — edging out Olympic Flame Diner in lunch, service and interior atmosphere. Still, this conclusion is an obvious one, given how many Fordham students can be found enjoying a meal with their friends there. Even though I personally prefer The Flame Diner, I do not solely eat there. I believe all Fordham students should alternate between eating at both establishments. Both are family-owned diners that offer classic food and great service who have treated my friends and myself well every time we have visited.

ALIC

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GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS AND PAGE DESIGN BY TARA LENTELL

Opinions Editors Clara Gerlach Isabella Scipioni opinions@fordhamobserver.com

Opinions

February 2, 2022 THE OBSERVER

STAFF EDITORIAL

I

THE SAFER OPTION: HYBRID

n the past month, COVID-19 cases in New York City have been at an unprecedented high.

Though they are declining, Fordham students began classes this year before the full extent of the university’s procedures were announced. COVID-19 testing was mandatory to return to campus, and we are expected to test again within the next three weeks.

The university is offering free KN95 masks this semester, but this availability isn’t readily advertised, and many students still wear cloth and surgical masks.

Rather than having clear policies from the get-go, Fordham emphasizes student responsibility and ignores community demands for stricter guidelines.

Instead of allowing professors to develop their own absence policies, Fordham should have streamlined a system that gave students more leniency in terms of unexcused absences.

By failing to do so, the university indirectly discourages testing and quarantining, possibly causing some students to feel pressured to attend classes even if they are not feeling well or have been exposed.

Students exposed to roommates who contract COVID-19 are not required to quarantine and do not get an excused absence. Those students then must make the decision to potentially expose their whole class, or

take the unexcused absence and miss class.

With the threat of repercussions from accumulating absences, many students may fear that their grades will suffer if they aren’t there in person.

The good news is that Fordham can still implement a different policy. In a rigorous academic setting, students who test positive for COVID-19 should either be able to attend class online or not be penalized for missing in-person meetings.

Getting a degree is hard enough: The last thing that students need to worry about is the added danger of COVID-positive students attending in-person classes.

Going into the third year in a pandemic, the leniency associated with sick students has faded, but the community is still getting sick. The university must revisit how to handle these cases.

Since students can test positive for the virus at any point during the semester, the class structure should be adjusted to support continued access to classes.

A hybrid structure for symptomatic students to virtually attend class meetings through Zoom would help them avoid the conse-

Observer the

quences associated with missing classes for a prolonged period of time.

If the administration believes that a hybrid option would interfere with the “transformative Fordham experience” outlined by University President Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., a hybrid option is preferable to missing class entirely or running the risk of getting other students sick.

This is not an unpopular opinion. In a survey conducted between Jan. 16 and 27 by The Fordham Observer, only 11% of students supported a fully in-person semester.

Many professors are already implementing aspects of a hybrid structure into their classes. By accommodating their students, they are treating them with the common-sense empathy that all students deserve.

Getting a degree is hard enough: The last thing that students need to worry about is the added danger of COVID-positive students attending in-person classes.

It is fully possible to implement a hybrid option at Fordham. If the school could deliver a Jesuit education to all students through a virtual format for the 2020-21 academic year, then they can offer a temporary hybrid option for sick students.

In the past, Fordham made sure to emphasize that the university put the health and safety of our community first. So what’s changed?

Snowy St. Ignatius

The first snow of the spring semester blankets campus

Editor-in-Chief Katrina Lambert

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February 2, 2022

Opinions

11

Move Over Student Loans, Space Loans Are Calling

Don’t become an indentured servant on Mars — crushing debt and undervalued labor needs to stay on Earth CLARA GERLACH Opinions Editor

Debt plagues about 80% of the American population, and if Elon Musk has any say in the matter, there will be debtors on Mars as well. The billionaire, known for his SpaceX and Tesla ventures, said that anyone sent to Mars for work will have to pay their way to the planet, with “loans available to those who don’t have money.”

His response to how employees can pay off the loans?

There’ll be plenty of jobs on Mars.

Should employees really have Earth debt … on Mars?

On the surface, this makes sense. Many employers on Earth don’t pay for transportation fees, but this relocation is an excessively large cost to put onto the backs of laborers whom Musk assumes would be willing to risk moving to Mars.

With a goal of a million humans on Mars by 2050, there are a lot of people for Musk to profit off of before they even step on the planet.

By taking out loans to work, an employee is investing their money into the goldmine they assume Mars will be. However, they don’t gain anything out of their relocation apart from a potential pat on the back and a paycheck that will not begin

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ASHLEY YIU/THE OBSERVER

to cover their transportation debt, let alone the cost of living on a planet with a scarce food supply.

Just because Mars may be our plan B when the world ends, anyone who’s read or watched “The Martian” knows that it’s not an easy planet to live on. Mars will need highly educated crews to terraform the planet, but most importantly, it will need hard labor.

This hard labor, though not valued as much today on Earth, will be the difference between habitability and death. We need launch pads, but we also need houses, farms and, put simply, work that no robot could

replace. This work is dangerous on Earth, so one could only imagine the risk adopted by those performing this labor during Mars’ many dust storms.

Musk has demonstrated his lack of regard toward his employees on Earth, unfortunately foreshadowing his potential attitude toward employees on Mars.

Knowing all this, are we going to start yet another colony on the backs of laborers riddled with debt? To put it mildly, people on Earth have a troubling history of relying on the underpaid and overworked.

This is an undervaluation of the work that will be expected of these first colonists and a hor-

rible precedent to set on a new world. Should employees really have Earth debt … on Mars?

This is ultimately an opportunity to start a world in which people aren’t crushed underneath loans and paying off decisions that may help them achieve upward mobility.

I’d also argue that indentured servitude and debt of such large proportions would start this colony off on the wrong foot. As we’ve learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, debt doesn’t stimulate growth. If Mars is a colony and not just a tourist attraction, it shouldn’t have a large percentage of its residents under pressure to pay for their ride there.

Space is a place of unbridled mystery and exploration, and we’re converting it even more into dollar signs. This is ultimately an opportunity to start a world in which people aren’t crushed underneath loans and paying off decisions that may help them achieve upward mobility. Mortgages, along with medical, auto and student debt are all symptoms of an economy that does not provide its people with what they need to flourish. We have an opportunity, and an obligation, to start anew on this brand new, shiny (read: dusty) planet.

Musk leaves much to be desired as a capitalist on Earth, and if we’re going to start a new planet, there must be a system of accountability for those who are creating a habitable planet for future generations. Unfortunately, if we already start with debt, there’s going to be a system of accountability focused on those who have a negative net worth, instead of prioritizing the rights of laborers and the working class to work toward a flourishing economy.

If you’re considering this trek into space, make sure it makes sense for you to make this step.

Taking out loans to get to Mars means you are investing in a planet that may not give you a return, just a whole lot of dust.

Fordham Should Have More Merch for Moms

The university’s bookstore is lacking in personalized merchandise and should expand its line SYDNEY CHAMPAGNE Staff Writer

All my mom wanted was a hat.

When she visited Fordham for the first time during Family Weekend in October, one of the things she was excited about was visiting the campus bookstore. Like many proud parents of college students, she wanted to don some Fordham parent merch.

Upon entering the Lincoln Center bookstore, we came across sweatpants, sweatshirts, hats, blankets and T-shirts that read “Fordham University,” but my mom had her mind set on a specific item: a “Fordham Mom” baseball cap.

While we searched for “Fordham Mom” merch, we found a wall filled with “Fordham Dad” caps, mugs and T-shirts of different styles. I remember thinking, “There must be a section for moms too.” We scavenged the store looking at every rack, shelf and table but had no luck.

After two laps, we came across only one item in the entire store that said “Fordham Mom”: a T-shirt with dainty cursive writing on it. They couldn’t even give moms the option of having an item with any of Fordham’s standard fonts — there was only cursive, because all women must love cursive writing.

“Wow, I can’t even get a mug,” my mom said, as we stared at the wall of “Fordham Dad” coffee cups.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY MADDIE SANDHOLM/THE OBSERVER

As a last resort, we approached a cashier about ordering a cap online, but were stunned to learn that Fordham no longer sold “Fordham Mom” hats. It would be one thing if they were just out of stock, but why would they stop selling them altogether while continuing to sell ones branded for dads? Moms also raise children and pay bills, so why would Fordham discontinue some of their merchandise for moms?

I searched “Fordham Mom hat” online, but it brought me to a page that said “An unexpected error has occurred while

displaying this page.” I had no trouble finding the Fordham Dad hat online, though, along with mugs for moms, dads and grandmas. Interestingly, the bookstore website also sells a “Fordham Grandma” sweater, but it is labeled as a men’s pullover.

I know I am not the only student with a single mother attending Fordham Lincoln Center, and seeing the look on my mom’s face as she had to stare at a wall of exclusive merchandise was heartbreaking. At a very basic level, there should be an equal amount of things

for moms to purchase as well as dads. Leaving one of the two out is sending an inherently sexist message to students and parents alike.

My mom is part of the “Parents of Fordham University Students” Facebook group, and I asked her to post on it to see if anyone had noticed the difference in merchandise availability and design variation among products for mothers and fathers. The responses she received were overwhelming.

One Fordham mother wrote, “I noticed the difference during family weekend and had to

customize a shirt because I was unable to find one I wanted to wear that weekend. Ended up having ‘mom’ monogrammed on a basic Fordham long sleeve shirt for my next trip.”

Some parents said they noticed Fordham’s lack of options for moms because they have other children attending different colleges, such as Drexel University and Texas A&M University, where they have not had issues buying mom merch.

Another mother said, “My other daughter attends (Texas) A&M, where there are multiple stores devoted to the merchandising of the school, so coming to Fordham to buy some spirit wear was surprisingly disappointing.”

One mom also commented about the discrepancies in sizing, adding, “I notice it every time I come to the store! And never ever (the) right sizes. My son had to buy an XL sweatshirt for my daughter.”

Some moms raised us on their own, helped us apply to college and, yes, shop at Fordham campus bookstores. It is unacceptable that they would have to resort to monogramming “mom” onto standard Fordham University merchandise because of a lack of options.

There should be an equal amount of items for both moms and dads, or Fordham should consider selling items with just “Fordham Parent” on it so everyone is always included.

But the sexist exclusion of our moms in the bookstores must stop.

The

Rubberneck SATIRE & HUMOR

February 2, 2022 THE OBSERVER

CDC’s ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ Strategy

The organization offered its latest omicron advice while shrugging its shoulders and smoking a cigarette ISABELLA SCIPIONI Opinions Editor

After two years of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. recording over 1 million new cases of COVID-19 in one day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is changing its advice for managing the virus.

Rather than advising 10 days of isolation to prevent positive cases of COVID-19 from spreading, the CDC now recommends only a five-day isolation period and individuals wear a mask during the remainder of their infectious period (as long as it’s not too inconvenient for them).

The organization also recommends that infectious individuals refrain from traveling for at least 10 days after testing positive, with the only exception being if they really, really want to go to Miami.

For those who are fine with never hugging their grandparents again, the CDC recommends wearing a mask for the duration of their travels — unless, of course, they just don’t want to.

The omicron variant, which accounts for over 95% of current COVID-19 cases, does appear to have a shorter infectious period than previous variants of the virus. However, one study determined that about 30% of people remain infectious after day five of contracting the virus. Since it is difficult to determine on an individual basis whether or not someone can spread COVID-19, a five-day quarantine period means that many who leave quarantine after only five days can still spread the virus to others.

Currently, the CDC does not recommend a negative antigen test to leave quarantine, which may

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS BY MADDIE SANDHOLM/THE OBSERVER

help indicate whether or not an individual is still infectious. The confusing and convenient advice has left many Americans making their own decision of when it is safe to leave quarantine. This policy is part of the organization’s ultimate plan to issue a masters degree in public health degree to every American.

“Since we’re basically telling Americans we don’t know what’s going on and they can just decide for themselves despite consequences to their community, we might as well put it in writing,” the CDC said in an official statement.

To qualify for the master’s degree, individuals must “conduct their own research” on COVID-19 from either a reputable medical journal or flagged Facebook posts, whichever they prefer.

The CDC is also offering free “Choose Your Own Adventure” guides on their website for anyone who has come in contact with

COVID-19. Players can make decisions on whether or not they will get tested, how long they will quarantine — if at all — and whether or not they will still attend their best friend’s wedding.

The guide reinforces the organization’s belief that an individual’s autonomy to go on vacation is far more important than the proliferation of the human race.

The organization also recently released a travel guide for individuals with COVID-19, highlighting bars, restaurants, destinations and social events to attend if you have tested positive.

“People are going to go out anyway, so we figured we’d capitalize on audience access and get some sponsorships out of it,” a spokesperson for the organization said.

While the CDC is giving many individuals the opportunity to choose when they think they will stop spreading the virus, not everyone is given a choice

in the matter. Previously, the CDC met with the CEO Delta Airlines, who suggested that the isolation guidelines be reduced from 10 days to five so that their employees can stop wasting time recovering from a highly contagious illness and get back to superspreading. After discovering that her local McDonald’s was closed due to labor shortages, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky implemented Delta’s guidelines.

Walensky has not commented on whether Delta’s request influenced the updated guidelines.

However, the public health figure was last seen at JFK International Airport with a free meal voucher and a one-way ticket to Bermuda.

“I’ll be completely honest,” Walensky said. “When Betty White died, we really stopped caring about America’s elderly population.”

In response to the new guidelines, workplaces are adapting

their requirements for employees who test positive for COVID-19.

Understaffed hospitals facing a surge of COVID-19 cases are calling COVID-positive “health care heroes,” and Walmart is cutting paid sick leave for COVID-19-positive employees.

Within the next month, the CDC is expected to announce that all essential workers who test positive for COVID-19 should quarantine for the duration of their 20-minute lunch break before returning to work.

When asked if the CDC and large corporations were prioritizing capitalist greed and profit over literal human lives, Walensky assured the public that this was not the case — a message that was greatly undermined when she took off her sweater and revealed a Delta Airlines T-shirt.

Medical experts who have not yet met with Delta Airlines advise Americans to remain vigilant against the virus and continue to wear masks, social distance and get vaccines and booster shots.

Although there are differing perspectives on managing the latest COVID-19 variant, it is best to practice caution in the face of disease in order to protect yourself and those around you. All we can do now is try our hardest to be smart and safe in our ever-changing new “normal.”

Ms. Green, the First Hot Girl

When faced with progress, a girlboss’s shoes should be the last to go JAKE ERACA Asst. Opinions Editor

I am no fan of Tucker Carlson.

In fact, I despise him with every ounce of my being. However, there is one thing the mostwatched man in America and I have in common: stanning the Green M&M. Long before Tucker hopped on the caboose of the Green M&M’s fame train, I was there. Long has she stood in my mind, of hallmark to femininity, the first woman.

The Green M&M, also known as Ms. Green, showed me what a girlboss was, how to work a boot and how to properly wear gloves.

Before her controversial shoot revealing a candy shell falling gracefully around her shoulders, I don’t think “off the shoulder” was even invented. Ms. Green has been gracing screens internationally since her 1997 premiere in the Mars Corporation’s promotion for M&’s.

More recently, Mars Wrigley has decided to update the M&M’s, giving these hallmark characters various redesigns ranging from personalities to outfits. In the case of Ms. Green, The First and Only Woman, she had her iconic go-go boots stripped and replaced with a more modern sneaker. Describing the change as one to represent a more modern and empowered woman, Mars Wrigley has wrought chaos upon the cultural

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY NYCKOLE LOPEZ/THE OBSERVER

icon that is Ms. Green.

I am no Fox News puppet, and I am no conservative. While this issue has become the latest referrendum a return to classical gender roles, I would argue that Ms. Green has crossed partisan lines.

Aside Ms. Green from throwing the first brick at Stonewall, gays and Republicans alike can attest to Ms. Green’s look being a hallmark of society, one that should be free from the tampering of a corporation trying to appease the

masses. I am all for religion-free Starbucks cups, and Gingerbread People, but when it comes to Ms. Green, the go-go boots stay on.

I frequently turn my nose up at tradition, and am the first to stir the pot in the Thanksgiving political brawl; however, when the topic is Ms. Green, I have to put my foot down. What could be a better representation of femininity than the ultimate slay?

Those go-go boots and eyelashes have more power than any down-

trodden sneaker could hope to communicate. There is something to be said for the unprecedented bipartisan unity in that green candy shell and those seductive lips.

Additionally, take a look at any footage of Ms. Green the limp wrist? She invented Pride!

Not to mention a controversial tweet from 2015 showing her and her apparent lover Ms. Brown holding hands at the beach. Ms. Green is gay rights in a candy shell. In a cast of heteronorma-

tive and frankly boring, largely male M&M’s, Ms. Green steps into the spotlight and graces the world with a divine feminine (and slightly chocolate) presence.

The lucky few who have stood in Times Square and bathed in the massive screens featuring Ms. Green’s likeness can attest that it changes you. Mars Wrigley (aside from being a proponent of child slavery and extremely problematic) has crafted some of the most yassified work of the corporate sphere, and somehow it has fallen to Tucker Carlson to defend it? I say no more. As a community, we need to do better by Ms. Green and reclaim her likeness.

We should be wiser than to fall victim to Mars changing the M&M’s just to distract from the lawsuits alleging the use of child slavery. Ms. Green would’ve wanted us to keep a sharper eye on corporate media tactics, and never should the price of slay be ignoring a victim’s cry for help.

Ms. Green is for the girls and the gays, and she shows up for us by werking a go-go boot and the best damn eyelashes in the business. It’s about time we save her from the clutches of Fox News. She is a bipartisan icon who deserves better than QANON bigots fighting for her. I call upon the material girls, the girlbosses and the girls who get it. The girls, the gays and the theys. It’s time to defend our matriarch from the meddling hands of yet another corporation.

Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture Editors Isabella Gonzalez Olivia Stern arts@fordhamobserver.com February 2, 2022 THE OBSERVER

The Girl in the Printed Dress

Fashion model Isabella Salvucci, FCRH ’24, explains why dressing up in the classroom helps her exude confidence

By CARRIE BERK Contributing Writer

Isabella Salvucci, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’24, wore a blue, sky-print, floorlength dress to her first Introduction to Fashion & Culture class in September, the sole pop of color in a room filled with dark sweatpants and hoodies.

“I’m usually the only one in a dress,” said Salvucci, a plus-size model who prefers to sit in the front row of her fashion course.

“Portraying myself as feminine while being intelligent and confident makes me feel powerful.”

Likewise, sweatpants never crossed her mind for our 11 a.m. interview. Salvucci strolled into H&M on the Upper East Side in a pink blouse, black jeans and a rose gold cross necklace passed down from her grandma. The store caters to curvy women, and Salvucci owns several of its ensembles. “It’s difficult to walk into a store and find clothes I like as a plus-size woman,” she said. “I often shop online or at stores that carry my size, like H&M, using the money I make as a model.”

Each shopping choice is clear and decisive: printed blouses over plain tees, Cinderella blue over neon yellow, and pearls over everything. “My style is dynamic and feminine,” she explained. “I embrace the idea of looking different, and I enjoy when I’m more dressed up than others.”

Salvucci has not always been this confident in her clothing.

“I was a very shy and insecure child,” she revealed. “It has taken me years to be comfortable with standing out due to my height and weight.”

Growing up in Pittsburgh, she loved playing with clothes like most children might love dressing Barbies. “My mom and grandma were both very into fashion, and I would put together these hideous outfits that I thought were so cool.”

Salvucci struggled while shopping. Consignment and thrift stores had few options, and the companies that did have her size had few pieces in stock.

Instead of getting upset, Salvucci would laugh it off. “It’s silly,” she said. “They say they have an extra large, but where is it?

Brands need to start increasing their inventory.”

Watching her tall, thin mother exude glamour was an added pressure. “From a young age, I wanted to be like her, but I didn’t physically look like her,” Salvucci said. “We have very different body types. I’m tall like her, but larger and curvier, so it was challenging to accept myself.”

She would attempt to mimic her fashion choices, borrowing her mother’s stilettos — despite being 5’ 11” — or copying her makeup. “I thought she was more beautiful than me, which was a mental challenge I had to overcome,” she admitted.

“ Going to castings

and jobs with women of different sizes made me realize that beauty, glamour and femininity can come in every shape or size.”

Isabella Salvucci, FCRH ’24

Rita, Salvucci’s mother, noticed her daughter’s low self-esteem but felt helpless. “I saw her struggling, but no matter what I said to her, it didn’t seem to help,” she said. “She just had to go through that journey by herself, on her own time.”

It wasn’t until 2018 that, fueled by her mother’s encouragement, Salvucci began to embrace her unique beauty through modeling. She became the first curvy model signed to The Docherty Talent Agency in Pittsburgh. After a few years of modeling locally, she signed with STATE Management in New York City, an agency that “prioritize(s) diversity and inclusion,” according to the firm’s mission statement.

“Going to castings and jobs with women of different sizes made me realize that beauty, glamour and femininity can come in every shape or size,” she said.

“It’s determined more by your

confidence and how you present yourself, not your biological makeup.”

However, there are times when Salvucci still fears being judged for her appearance. On the first day of her fashion and culture class, she specifically chose a dramatic printed maxi dress to impress her peers. “I wanted to look fashionable to hopefully gain respect from the class,” she said.

“I wanted to show people that as a plus-size woman, I deserve to be taken seriously.”

It didn’t take long for fellow fashion student Sophie Skinner, FCRH ’23, to spot Salvucci in their classroom. “It was refreshing to not just see your average jeans, leggings, sweatshirts and crop tops,” she said.

Caitlin Rogers, FCRH ’22, admired Salvucci’s ensembles as well. “The dresses she wears to class are very eye-catching. She definitely has a different style than a lot of people,” she said.

Salvucci dreams of one day channeling her unique style into her own high-end fashion business, specializing in sustainably-produced, size- and gender-inclusive clothing. “I want to help people learn to love themselves through fashion like I have,” she said. “I know how much clothing can affect how a person feels, and I just want people to feel their best.”

As we headed toward the H&M checkout line, Salvucci considered a last-minute purchase. She held up an oversized blue button-down against an off-white vest. “What do you think? Do these work together?” she asked.

I glanced down at my black leggings and sweatshirt. I felt anything but stylish, and it felt wrong to be giving her my opinion.

I asked her to style me, pointing out a fuzzy beige sweatshirt on a nearby rack. I could tell from the way she slowly inched toward the piece that it wasn’t her taste. Still, she listened to how much I loved it and gave me the go-ahead. “Sure, it looks comfy,” she said.

With newfound confidence, I bought the sweatshirt. It may not be studded with Salvucci’s favorite pearls, but thanks to her, I am convinced it will make me feel unique and empowered — my very own “printed dress.”

PHOTOS COURTESY OF ISABELLA SALVUCCI

Isabella Salvucci, FCRH ’24, models in New York City for STATE Management. Prior to that partnership, she was working with The Docherty Talent Agency in Pittsburgh as its first curvy model.

14

Arts & Culture

February 2, 2022

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‘Artist Conversations’ Unites Art History and Visual Arts Students

‘Slogan 13: Be Grateful to Everyone’ highlights art of Fordham seniors in the Lipani Gallery

Mateo Solis Prada’s, FCLC ’22, interactive sculpture shows his relation and connection to family.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF STEPHEN APICELLA-HITCHCOCK

The work of Lara Foley embodies the exhibit’s themes of family, memory and community.

By GILLIAN KWOK and MCKENNA MESKAN Contributing Writers

Until Feb. 18 in the Lipani Gallery, an exhibition of works from Fordham’s visual arts seniors is on display for all members of campus to see, but the project has more behind it than just this temporary exhibit.

“Artist Conversations” is an ongoing collaborative project that came to fruition at Fordham during the fall 2019 semester. The project provides art history students with the opportunity to interview visual arts students about their senior seminar thesis works.

Students held one-on-one conversations, creating spaces for the artists to describe their practice, process and inspiration. Each art history student produced a review following the interview that highlighted the senior seminar project, shedding light on the artists and their work. These reviews are published on Art Ramblings, alongside the visual arts senior seminar group exhibition held at the end of the fall semester.

“Artist Conversations” aims to facilitate and encourage students across disciplines to engage with each other, exploring questions of art production and criticism and celebrating the vibrant, distinctive, creative voices in our community.

The “Highlights from Senior Seminar” exhibition is now up in the Lipani Gallery at Lincoln Center. The “Artist Conversations”

reviews are available through the art history department’s blog, Art Ramblings. The following is a review of the group exhibition written for the project.

Review of “Artist Conversations” “Slogan 13: Be Grateful to Everyone,” the title of Fordham’s visual arts senior seminar exhibition this year, aptly ties in with the themes of memory and community that the artists focus on.

The artists highlight the contents of their own memories and the very nature of memory, addressing personal histories in the contexts of comfort, despair and family — including chosen families.

Caitlin Bury and Mateo Solis Prada, both Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22, aim to preserve memories from their family histories. Bury’s large collage involves music and, according to her, the stories her family doesn’t tell. On a large, pink vertical background, she combines text, images and an interactive sound element, which allow visitors to experience years of her family history in a condensed, comforting multisensory environment. Bury addresses her personal connections to her family history, exploring links between music, femininity, family relationships and identity.

Similarly, Prada deals with memory and the comfort that arises from recognizing one’s own

part in a vibrant community. His interactive sculpture features ceramic food made with craft materials such as sequins, googly eyes, beads and pipe cleaners. This installation is part of a larger project in which he explores his family history through family recipes.

Prada wrote letters recommending certain recipes to people close to him, invited them to a meal in which he made the dishes in the recipes, and recorded the group’s conversation over the meal. In order to recreate this experience, he placed his sculpted food on a table with chairs and headphones that observers can wear to listen to these conversations while sitting at the table. In this work, Prada allows observers to share the familial, community environment that can be created by food.

Lenah Barge, FCLC ’22, also utilizes documents from her family history in her work. Blackand-white photographs of family members form the core of her graphic posters, reminiscent of those used in protests. Barge’s many posters fill the viewer’s field of vision, each one emblazoned with the words “More Than a Monolith.” These black-and-white photos are framed with flowers and eye-catching reds and blues.

Using intimate, engaging images of the artist’s family, these posters demonstrate that monolithic stereotypes are unproductive, harmful ideas that ignore the multifaceted communities and individualities of people of color.

Zane Austill, FCLC ’22, used auditory film and notes of correspondence written during his six-month vow of silence to explore the relationship between imagery and sound.

Sarah Hujber and Lara Foley, both FCLC ’22, each focus on their own personal memories, approaching them from a quiet, meditative perspective. Hujber’s photographs depict abandoned buildings she encountered while on a road trip. In these images, she focuses on intriguing interplays between light and perspective, making mundane scenes look alien in their intense emptiness.

While memorializing an experience in her own life, Hujber also captures the strange feeling of solemnity that one can only experience by witnessing buildings that humans once inhabited and no longer do.

Foley’s small watercolor paintings are based on photographs she has taken over the years, each focusing on a single everyday object or detail and arranged on a large sheet of white paper. She deals with the very nature of memory, as each one of these small images acts as a reminder of a certain event or place and may represent a different memory for each person who sees it.

Nicole Perkins, FCLC ’22, similarly focuses on memory, drawing from her own environment and those of the people close to her.

She states that her photographs are meant to be peaceful and a respite from a chaotic year, and peace is exactly what she communicates in these images. They often depict her friends in familiar spaces such as beds and cars.

Perkins uses dramatic lighting and color to give her photographs

a dreamlike atmosphere, evoking nostalgia, intimacy, comfort and leisure.

Addressing the emotional duress many of us have experienced during the pandemic, the portraits made by Kaila Cordova, FCLC ’22, express the thoughts and feelings of their anonymous subjects using personal, private methods. Her colorful paintings feature flowers alongside the subjects’ faces, each one depicting a unique interaction between its subject and the flowers surrounding them. Cordova uses the meanings coded by different types of aesthetically pleasing, often comforting flowers to communicate information about her subjects’ internal lives. Here, Cordova respectfully depicts individual difficulty while also suggesting the potential for healing.

These works are interspersed with each other throughout the gallery, lending the exhibition a feeling of community and collaboration, which is consistent with this group of artists’ creative process.

Some include images of their peers in their work, and many have mentioned a sense of working as part of a supportive community. Communities can help us deal with the difficult times that we are currently facing, and that is evident in “Slogan 13: Be Grateful to Everyone.” In their emotionally potent work, senior seminar students emphasize the importance of both individual and collective memory, depicting remembering as a path to healing.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER

February 2, 2022

Arts & Culture

15

‘Be Brave’: Behind-the-Scenes Broadway Star Morgan Steward’s New York Mindset

Associate producer with the company behind ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Freestyle Love Supreme’ reflects on her time at Fordham and the connections she has made along the way

By ALYSSA MACALUSO Head Copy Editor

You can’t live in “The City That Never Sleeps” without being imbued with hustle culture. From pedestrians who could qualify for speed walking in the Olympics to the grid of apartment lights that glow well into the night, New Yorkers share a certain, undeniable grit for survival in this competitive city.

Anyone who shows an ounce of hesitancy to cross the street before the signal changes in their favor is easily identified as “outsider.”

But Morgan Steward, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ’19, blended seamlessly into the New York City scene even before she stepped off her Dallas-Lovefield-incoming plane and into the LaGuardia International Airport her first year at Fordham.

“I truly feel like I was made to be here. I like the culture. I love the environment,” Steward exclaimed.

Steward, who is now the associate producer at the production company responsible for “Hamilton,” Jill Furman Productions, possessed many qualities that prepared her for city life — ambition, drive and perhaps a little stubbornness. She wasn’t satisfied with leaving any stone unturned. Her life philosophy is to “be brave,” a motto she applied to everything from day-to-day living in NYC to her career prospects.

“I never had a moment where I thought, ‘I can’t do this, I have to go back to Texas,’” Steward said.

“And I really do attribute a lot of that to the fact that I’m not satisfied being unhappy: I’m not someone who’s just going to accept that I don’t like my surroundings or that things are bad and dwell in that. If I don’t like something, I’m just going to change it.”

During the second semester of her senior year of high school, an 18-wheeler ran over Steward’s car with her inside, landing her in the hospital for several weeks. Yet, Steward didn’t let that accident

or months of recovery in a wheelchair stop her from getting on an NYC-bound plane at the end of the summer.

Overflowing with enthusiasm to explore her new home, Steward contended with a challenge many Fordham first-years didn’t face: navigating the city with a cane, which limited her both in distance and energy. “But then I got stronger, I got better, and now I’m training for a half marathon,” Steward smiled. “There really was nothing that was going to stop me from coming here and stop me from liking it.”

Though dynamic and vivacious, Steward was adamant about preferring the behindthe-scenes side of Broadway rather than the spotlight.

As for what drew her to the city in the first place, Steward came for Broadway. Though she was originally inclined toward STEM-based careers as a child — once aspiring to be a forensic scientist — she quickly changed tracks when she found that, “one day, math and science became hard. And when they became hard,” she continued, “I was suddenly very disinterested.”

“It didn’t help that, because I was in Texas, all my science teachers were (coaches),” Steward added. “I love my school, but science wasn’t our forte.”

Despite the arts also being quite neglected in her corner of football-centric Texas, Steward took a drama class in eighth grade where she and her peers put on a production of “a very illegal, a very unlicensed version of Grease.” Steward explained how she “was at a very conservative Catholic school,”

and the teacher had to modify the script to make it acceptable for the Catholic school.

Her initial drama class was followed by a lackluster theater class her first year of high school, which precluded her from taking any other drama classes at her high school. Steward sought theater experiences in her local community, but even those options were limited due to travel, time and availability constraints.

But Steward knew she was going to end up on Broadway. “I didn’t know how, but that was where I was going to be,” she said.

Though dynamic and vivacious, Steward was adamant about preferring the behind-the-scenes side of Broadway rather than the spotlight.

As a compromise, she pivoted to media studies — a field she later identified as her path for infiltrating Broadway one day. Instead of theater, she participated in the debate team, led her school’s service club, and traded off the class presidency and vice presidency with her best friend every year, both of which helped her to hone her public speaking and leadership skills.

Steward’s high school interests set the stage for her debut at Fordham as a ​​ communications and new media and digital design double major. Attending Fordham itself was a bit of a strategic choice, Steward explained: “Fordham, especially Lincoln Center being right there, so close to Broadway, I just knew that there was going to be such a wealth of resources.

So I was always looking for ways to incorporate theater whichever which way I could into my communications major.”

One of the ways in which she did that was through Frank DiLella’s class on theater journalism, which she took in the spring of her sophomore year. DiLella’s class was a choice as much out of interest as strategy — DiLella is an Emmy Award-winning host of “On Stage” on Spectrum News NY1, a company that would be every the-

ater journalist’s dream.

Steward took this opportunity to make an impression, one that first landed her an internship and later a lifelong friend, mentor and neighbor. Now, she and DiLella regularly meet up in their neighborhood to walk to their local CrossFit together.

It was through DiLella that Steward got her first internship at NY1’s “On Stage,” and that experience helped launch her later success at internships and jobs with companies like ABC News, Broadway News and Broadway Direct. Steward even assisted with two Tony Awards shows, helping with live and video production for NY1’s “On Stage” in 2018 and print media for Broadway News in 2019.

It was also DiLella who walked her through a difficult decision second semester of her senior year, when Steward was choosing between a paid internship with theater-owner company Jujamcyn Theaters that DiLella had connected her to, or getting her name out as a theater journalist for Broadway Brands, an unpaid internship.

Wrestling with possibly disrespecting DiLella and following her own aspirations, Steward chose the less secure — but more appealing — job with Broadway Brands. DiLella reassured her that she was making a good decision.

Though decidedly on the theater journalism track, Steward switched gears when she was introduced to and offered a position with Jill Furman, the woman behind productions like “Hamilton,” “In the Heights,” “West Side Story,” “Freestyle Love Supreme,” and many more. Now a two-women team, Steward was recently promoted from assistant to associate producer at Jill Furman Productions and is helping usher more shows, like “Suffs,” out of development and onto the stage.

Steward’s trajectory is unabashedly a success story: At just 25, she is living the life many her age, and older, dream of. Her days consist of reading scripts and networking

with clients, while her evenings often involve her sitting down to enjoy a show, as much for research on actors’ and directors’ styles as for her own entertainment.

When asked if she can consider herself successful, Steward responded, “Objectively, yes.”

“ I consider it a true sign of success when you like what you do.”

Morgan Steward, FCLC ’19

“I’ve worked very, very hard to put myself in this position that I am,” Steward explained. “But more than that, I consider it a true sign of success when you like what you do ... For me, success is driven by an emotional thing. Like, am I happy where I’m at?” she pondered. “Yes, I am very happy, and that’s what I consider my greatest marker of success.”

And Steward’s advice for approaching life? “Be brave, you can do it, and just do it.” That’s largely how she got to where she is now, along with lots of emails and honing time management and prioritization skills.

“I just think, as a whole, people don’t tend to give others enough credit for their generosity and their willingness to want to help the next generation,” Steward explained. “And, I do understand, it’s really hard. It’s very frightening to reach out to someone that you admire or to even ask, but you just have to be brave if you can, even if it’s over email.”

This is the kind of mentality that New Yorkers embody, one in which bravery and grit permeate their every action. Though once an outsider, Steward exemplifies these qualities, and her trajectory is indicative of how anyone, with the right mindset, can be a New Yorker too.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MORGAN STEWARD

Morgan Steward, FCLC ’19, attended her second Tony Awards in 2019 with NY1’s “On Stage” producer Ariella Weintraub. That year, she was working for Broadway News.

Fun & Games Editor Kreena Vora puzzles@fordhamobserver.com

un & ames

February 2, 2022 THE OBSERVER

Crossword: It’s About Time

22. “cardigan” and “willow” vocalist 25. *Latin sentiment of “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may” 29. *“You have a bright ahead of you” 31. “Me too” alternative, “ well” (2 wds) 32. Old t-shirt’s new name 33. Answer to “Who had his wand broken by a tree?”

(2 wds) 34. Marine Corps emblem (Abbr.)

35. NYC basketball team 36. *Of value, not material 39. Artist’s work 41. Microsoft text file format 42. 2000s adventure movie, “The Road to El ” 45. Bugs Bunny’s greeting to Elmer Fudd, “What’s up, ?”

46. Bro and 47. Text response to “Are you still upset?” (2 wds) 48. *Not permanent 52. Helpers 53. Assessments for international students in the city of the Leaning Tower 55. Cards used by a psychic 58. *Act for 62. Eye 63. Internet shortening when it must stop

BY IRENE HAO

13. Dollar’s Mexican counterpart 14. Loose outer garment worn by painters, minus “k” 16. Hit, perhaps 17. *Italian hors d’oeuvre 19. Dance studio near FCLC 20. South American corn-based bread that will lead you to your destiny? (2 wds)

1. Like rap battles or poems 5. Type of white blood cell (Abbr.)

8. Antagonist in “The Vampire Diaries”

64. The Reds in the Cold War (Abbr.)

65. Promises 66. Hours when clocks spring forward (Abbr.)

67. Wait

1. American federal group concerning clean air and water (Abbr.)

2. Compose 3. Suffix for novel or journal 4. Elaborate hairstyles 5. SAT precursor 6. Small measurement for speed, without “per” 7. AAA batteries are batteries (2 wds) 8. Sceneries in art 9. Homer’s series of miseries 10. “Hahaha” 11. Best on a team 12. The limit when there is none 15. Corrected, en français 18. Sponsor 21. “You ,” where “you” is 1 Down (3 wds) 22. “No , ands or buts,” backward 23. Confusion in a text: “Omg, ?”

24. “ a drag,” (2 wds) 26. Country where they speak Gaelic

27. Bite 28. 1000 in a metric wt. measurement 30. There are many in a ledger 34. Charged subject in physics (Abbr.)

35. He suffered death by rippling mirror, according to Ovid 37. “ to find someone like you” to a standout (2 wds) 38. Until now (2 wds) 39. Beethoven composed this to joy 40. Burst 43. Surname of John, commonly 44. Exclamations of pain 46. Metalworkers 49. Age 50. Finally, without the article (2 wds) 51. Rabbit constellation 54. CAD procedure constructing matching networks (Abbr.)

55. Number of peas in a pod 56. Roadside assistance org.

57. Cellphone feature for the hearing or speech impaired (Abbr.)

58. Alternative to 66 Across in NYC 60. American federal intelligence org. (Abbr.)

61. Attempt

DELAYED START New year, new semester, new

. Walking into noun

Lowenstein on

, I see my friend,

day of the week

. I try to name

them, but they are busy

. I go to

verb

-ing verb

to have time alone to location on campus

. Sadly, I was verb

interrupted by a

, noun

through the hall -ing verb

just outside. I decide to just head to

, but I am class

stopped by Father McShane, who is

and wants -ing verb

me to join in. I was late for class, but Father McShane gave me a

for my efforts. It was almost worth it, object

but the

wasn’t

same object RAM LIBS BY CORBIN GREGG RAMS LIBS GRAPHIC BY CHAISE JONES GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS AND PAGE DESIGN BY KYLA MCCALLUM

enough. adjective

Sudoku

Instructions: Each row, column and 3x3 box must contain the numbers 1-9 exactly once.

BY KREENA VORA