Volume 92 Issue 15

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS AT FORDHAM - PAGE 16

MEN’S SOCCER BEATS MANHATTAN - PAGE 19

SERVING THE FORDHAM UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY FOR OVER 90 YEARS

1918-2010

OCTOBER 6, 2010

VOLUME 92, ISSUE 15

Fordham Remembers Deceased Student

COURTESY OF THE BROOKS SCHOOL

Jacob Miller, FCRH ’14, will be missed and rembered by family and friends both inside and outside of the Fordham University community.

By PATRICK DEROCHER NEWS EDITOR

The Fordham community remains shaken by the recent death of Fordham College at Rose Hill freshman Jacob Miller of West Newbury, Mass., who was found deceased in his room

on the morning of Sept. 28.

Miller, a resident of Alumni Court South, graduated from the Brooks School in North Andover, Mass. in 2010. A National Merit Semifinalist, Miller was attending Fordham with a full academic scholarship and was a member of the Fordham College at

Rose Hill Honors Program.

“Even in the short time that we had with him, Miller had become a valued member of our honors class,” Dr. Harry Nasuti, director of the Honors Program, said. “He was clearly very bright and intellectually curious, but he was also just a really nice guy. His loss leaves a real hole in this year’s program.”

“He was blessed with remarkable intelligence which he willingly shared with others,” said Rachel Gibbons, FCRH ’14 and member of the Honors Program, “His loss is painful for all who knew him, but we were lucky to know him. We can only hope now that he has found peace and that he is watching us and smiling his signature smile.”

In an obituary published on Sept.

30 by local newspaper Newburyport Daily News of Newburyport, Mass., Miller was described as “an avidly voracious reader, reading across all genres.” Additionally, the News reported, calling him a “brilliant student,” that in his four years at the Brooks School, remained on the dean’s list.

A Brooks faculty member was quoted as saying that Miller was “deeply intellectual, sensitive, interesting, intellectually brave and curious,” while another described him

as “utterly humble to the core and completely unimpressed by himself and his accomplishments.” This praise echoes the sentiments expressed by both Nasuti and some of Miller’s fellow students.

The University held a prayer service at 6 p.m. on the evening of Sept.

28; the New York Daily News reported that some 100 students were in attendance Tuesday evening in the Our Lady’s Chapel in the basement of the University Church.

University response to the tragedy was quick, thorough and sustained.

Representatives from the Office of Student Affairs were on hand in Alumni Court South and the McGinley Campus Center immediately after Fordham students, staff and faculty were notified of Miller’s death. Employees from the offices of Campus Ministry, Counseling and Psychological Services and Residential Life were available to assist with any student concerns and continue to deal with such matters as they arise.

“I know that the Fordham family will take extra care with and for one another in the wake of Miller’s death and that you join me in holding Miller’s family, loved ones and friends close in our hearts, and in our prayers,” Rev. Joseph M. McShane,

S.J., president of the University, said in Fordham’s official announcement.

In addition to its memorial service last week, Fordham will hold a memorial Mass for Miller on Oct. 7 at 9 p.m.; an e-mail to the University community invited Fordham students, staff and faculty to “join Campus Ministry as we offer the Church’s prayers for the peaceful repose of the soul of Jacob Miller.”

As with Miller’s memorial service, the Mass will be held in Our Lady’s Chapel and Rev. Joseph Koterski, S.J., Master of Queen’s Court, will preside over the Mass.

Miller’s funeral was held on Oct. 2 at the Immaculate Conception Church in Newburyport, Mass., and his burial later that day at the Bellevue Cemetery in Lawrence, Mass. Fordham provided all members of the University community who wished to attend with transportation to and from Massachusetts. Donations in Miller’s memory are being requested for the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C. and the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Waltham, Mass.

Miller is survived by his parents, Drs. Norman D. and Felicia G. (née Maccarone) Miller, his sister Avery G. Miller and other members of his extended family.

U.S. Universities Rapaccioli Holds Town Hall Respond to Student Meeting for Gabelli Students Depression, Suicides

By CONNIE KIM

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Emotion and Responsibility Issues Complicate Suicide Prevention and Response at the University Level; High-Profile Cases Raise National Awareness

By PATRICK DEROCHER NEWS EDITOR

In the last several years, and especially over the past few months, colleges and universities have experienced an apparent uptick in the number of suicides occurring among their students. Although there have been a number of recent, relatively high-profile cases of student suicides at institutions including Rutgers University, the University of Pennsylvania and New York University, the matter of college students ending their own lives is one that has plagued college and university campuses for years.

“College can be a difficult transition with new independence, responsibilities and expectations arriving just as a student’s previous support system of family and friends are often not readily available,” Dr. David Kahn, vice chair for clinical affairs for the Department of Psychiatry at New YorkPresbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center said in a March 2008 article on the matter.

The connections between college and, more broadly, adolescent years and suicide is one that has been well-documented and closely

monitored for years, and thus is regularly addressed in-depth by university administrations.

“There are people [therapists, friends, family members, clergy] who want to help students figure out how to get through difficult times and feel like themselves again,” the Web site for Fordham Univeristy Counseling and Psychological Services states. “Help is available right here at Fordham.”

The University recommends, as it has in times past, speaking to a representative of Counseling and Psychological Services, extension 3725 at the Rose Hill campus and 6225 at the Lincoln Center campus.

These phone lines, the University notes, are not just for students who are having suicidal thoughts, but also for students, staff and faculty who fear that other students may be at risk for suicidal behavior.

“Trust your gut,” Christopher Rodgers, dean of students said. “If you think something is wrong, be sure to tell someone about what you are seeing. Resident students should reach out to resident assistants, commuter assistants or resident directors or to the office of University security (x2222) in an emergency at any time.”

Additionally, the Counseling SEE SUICIDE ON PAGE 3

Dr. Donna Rapaccioli, dean of the Gabelli School of Business, spoke at the town hall meeting in Tognino Hall on Oct. 4 to discuss with more than 250 students the positive changes the $25 million donation will bring to GSB. The town hall was conceived as a forum for students to learn about recent news at the college and to ask the dean their questions.

Rapaccioli shed light on some of the main outlets for the recent $25 million donation that Mario Gabelli, CBA ’65, made to the University last week, prompting the school’s name change.

A Center of Global Investment Analysis will be created specifically for both faculty and students in GSB as part of the major Hughes Hall renovation, which will increase opportunities for undergraduate research.

Also, a challenge program will be created by hopefully recruiting eight to 10 more faculties. Additionally, the school hopes to have SEE GABELLI ON PAGE 3

PHOTO BY CAROLINE DAHLGREN/ THE RAM

Dr. Donna Rapaccioli, dean of the Gabelli School of Business, hosted a town hall meeting with students on Oct. 1 as part of the school’s changes.

INSIDE Sports PAGE 24

Opinions PAGE 7

Culture PAGE 13

Football loses second straight game to Holy Cross.

Point-Counterpoint: The value of a liberal arts education.

The Ram reviews Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

NEWS

PAGE 2 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 6, 2010

SECURITY

BRIEFS

USG Hosts IT Representatives to Discuss Gmail Muslim Student Association Revived After Long Absence; Sara Kugel, Political Groups Spearheads Voter Registration Drive

Sept. 28, Walsh Library, 10 p.m.

A custodian stated that somebody removed $54 from her wallet in the third-floor bathroom.

The wallet was left unattended for approximately 10 minutes.

Security canvassed the area with negative results.

Sept. 29, Keating Hall Room 214, 1 p.m.

A student reported that he placed his iPod on top of his desk, leaving it unattended while speaking with his professor. He returned a short time later to find the device missing. A search of the area met with negative results.

Sept. 30, Salice-Conley Hall, 1:15 p.m.

A fire alarm was activated on the sixth floor of Tower 3, caused by burning food on a stove.

Sept. 30, E. Fordham Road & Webster Avenue, 5:30 p.m.

A female student had exited 24 Hour Fitness when approximately six teenage males approached her from behind. One unidentified male grabbed her buttocks and the group subsequently fled. Security was notified and a Security Alert was sent out to the Fordham community.

Oct. 2, E. 188th Street & Belmont Avenue, 1:30 a.m.

A student was walking southbound on Belmont Avenue when an unknown male standing in front of 2477 Belmont Avenue made derogatory remarks aimed at the female student with him.

When the male student protested, the second male, wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants, struck the male student in the jaw with his fist. It is suspected that he has a broken jaw and was transported to St. Barnabas Hospital.

Oct. 2, Salice-Conley Hall, 9 p.m.

A smoke alarm was activated on the sixth floor of Tower 4; the building was evacuated without injury or incident. A shower activated the alarm and Facilities is rectifying the situation.

Oct. 4, University Main Gate, 1 a.m.

A student attempted to enter campus using a counterfeit hangtag. The guard at the gate confiscated the tag and the matter was referred to the dean of students.

Oct. 4, Martyrs’ Court, 3 a.m.

A resident assistant in Jogues Hall received two harassing phone calls. Security was notified and is investigating.

—COMPILED BY PATRICK DEROCHER

COURTESY OF FORDHAM.EDU

The upcoming transition from Mirapoint to GMail systems was a major point of discussion at the most recent United Student Government meeting; Fordham’s IT department recently announced that students will have a longer time to move their e-mail over and that e-mail outages will be shorter than anticipated.

By VICTORIA RAU ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Fordham University’s switch to e-mail provider Gmail from its current system Mirapoint will occur as scheduled on Tuesday, Oct. 12, Deirdre Dillon and Judy Rothschild, both Information Technology Department personnel, said at the United Student Government meeting on Sept. 30.

“The good news is that everything is on schedule,” Dillon said. “We’re hoping, and I’m very hopeful and very confident, that it [the transition] will be smooth.”

E-mail services will be unavailable starting Saturday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. As of an Oct. 5 e-mail to students, the IT department expects work to be completed on the server by 2 a.m. on Mon., Oct. 11 with e-mail service returning by 5 a.m.

“Extra time must be built into the schedule due to a number of reasons,” Dillon said in an e-mail blast to faculty and students. “This includes the fact that some work for the migration has to be completed by resources outside of our control (e.g., Google, Postini) and they have not been as cooperative and timely as we would have liked them to be in the past.”

Students, professors and administrators alike have expressed concern about this blackout period, especially because it falls during midterm exams.

Dillon assured students at the meeting that professors are aware of the e-mail outage, as it affects them too, and therefore know that they will not be able to send out e-mails or receive replies.

“The reason that they took the faculty, staff and student e-mail down was to ensure, beyond doubt, that no e-mail belonging to anybody would be lost,” Dillon said. “Please be assured that all mail sent to Fordham during the outage will be queued and delivered as soon as e-mail service is restored.”

It is possible that e-mail services will be back in commission ahead of schedule. If all goes “perfectly,” Dillon said, Gmail could be up and running, giving students access to their e-mail before the scheduled time.

The Mirapoint account will be accessible for a period of one month after the switch to Gmail to allow students to transition. IT personnel will staff a table in McGinley Lobby on Thurs., Oct. 7, Tues., Oct. 12 and Wed., Oct. 13 to field students’ questions about the Gmail transition, including instructions for accessing

Fordham e-mail using mobile devices or programs like Outlook and Mac Mail.

“All of the settings will change,” Rothschild said of Post Office Protocol and forwarding functions that allow people to view their Fordham e-mail outside of the My.Fordham portal and on mobile devices.

“We’re going to help you if you need assistance, but we’ll give you the POP settings to do it yourself if you want to continue POP,” Rothschild said.

With Gmail, however, Rothschild said, new software called IMAP is available that functions the same way POP does, except that it also transfers folders and contact lists in addition to e-mail messages. Users will have the choice between POP and IMAP, although the older of the two types of software, POP, will probably be “phased out,” she said.

Many students expressed confusion about how to employ the new settings, but the IT representatives expressed confidence in the Resident Technology Consultants in residence halls and the walk-in IT center to help students adjust.

“We will have a lot of outlets,” Rothschild said.

Muslim Student Association Bryan Matis, GSB ’12, vice president of operations, announced at the meeting that the Muslim Student Association, which has been relatively inactive following the graduation of most of the club’s executive board, successfully held a meeting at which they elected a new executive board on Sept. 30.

Given student interest that Matis noticed at the USG Club Fair in early September and the interest that Campus Ministry reported to him, Matis worked in conjunction with Campus Ministry to call the meeting.

“About 15 students attended, promptly elected a new e-board and began planning for the coming year,” Matis said of the meeting. “I’m really glad that USG had the opportunity to help connect students in this way and am confident that we’ll see good things from MSA this semester.”

The newly elected executive board of the MSA includes Muhammad Hassan Sarwar, GSB ’14, as president; Sara Hadi, FCRH ’12, as vice president; Susan Saeed, FCRH ’12 as secretary and Ayah Ahamed, FCRH ‘14, as treasurer.

“As president, my vision is simply to make MSA an integral part of the Fordham community,” Sarwar said via e-mail. “First and foremost, I aim to provide an active and strong voice to the Muslims students at

Fordham through the MSA [. . .]

Secondly, I wish to make MSA a key part of the larger forum for interfaith dialogue by working together with Campus Ministry, Office of Multicultural Affairs, OSL&CD, along with other cultural and religious clubs.”

The MSA is not restricted to Muslim students; rather, Sarwar said he hopes to welcome students of all faiths to be part of the conversation.

“To this end, we plan to organize engaging and inclusive events beneficial to not only Muslims, but to human beings in general,” Sarwar said.

MSA will hold their general meetings on Thursdays at 1 p.m. in Keating 210, which will be preceeded by a general forum at 12 p.m.

“It’s important for me in my role as vice president of operations to ensure the success of all clubs, especially those that cater to students of all faiths and backgrounds given Fordham’s Jesuit foundation,” Matis said via e-mail.

Voter Registration USG sponsored a voter registration drive last week in efforts to engage students in local and national politics. Students could register to vote in any state and, in total, 80 students registered across seven states.

Fifty-five students registered in New York State, with the next-highest contingent registering in New Jersey.

California had the third-highest registration.

“This is a crucial step in creating a culture of students involved and invested in the world beyond Fordham’s gates,” Sara Kugel, FCRH ’11, executive president of USG, said.

“We want to encourage students to exercise their rights and to have the opportunity to be involved in this exciting period in national politics.”

In past years, Government Affairs has conducted the voter registration drive, but this year USG collaborated with Government Affairs, with Kugel also reaching out to College Republicans and College Democrats. Both groups were invited to participate in the drive by providing volunteers and organizing their own members.

Senior Night The senior class senate hosted the year’s first Senior Night in the Ramskellar on Sept. 30. Sean Radomski, president of FCRH ’11, called the event, which 684 people attended, “a huge success.” “[There was] very high attendance but even though we had more people than usual, there were no transports

by FUEMS [Fordham University Emergency Medical Service],” Radomski said. “Typically, there are one or two people taken to the hos-

pital.”

The theme for this Senior Night was television characters, for which the senior senate decorated by putting TV posters up outside the Ramskellar.

Radomski said that they had extra funds available because Richie Coppolino, president of GSB ’11, provided his disc jockey services free of charge.

“As always, everyone loved the music Richie played,” Radomski said.

Increased attendance could be in part due to last year’s change in policy, introduced by the class of 2010 senate, wherein seniors who are under 21 years old are now allowed to attend Senior Nights but not able to get drink tickets.

“Previously, seniors bought drinks at the bar and could get as many as they wanted throughout the night,” Radomski said. “However, as a compromise for letting in under 21 year old seniors, they implemented a drink ticket policy.”

Radmoski said that this year’s high attendance indicates that limiting drinks has not had a negative effect on attendance.

Other Business Representatives from Progressive Students for Justice subcommittee Women’s Empowerment came to USG seeking co-sponsorship and funds for an honorarium for a speaker they plan to host. USG voted to approve $75 per speaker to provide a Fordham-themed gift basket for Dutch United Nations Representative Caecilia van Peski and her youth representative, Elsa van de Loo, who will address the 65th U.N. General Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in October on women’s issues and will lecture at Fordham in Tognino Hall in Duane Library on Oct. 14.

“We really appreciate having the opportunity to work with people, especially for such high-profile lectures on campus,” Caitlin Meyer, FCRH ’12, executive vice president of USG, said in thanking the Women’s Empowerment Representatives for seeking USG’s support.

Kugel and SiHien Goh, vice president of GSB ’13, continued the theme of working on international student issues by proceeding with discussions to implement permanent mailboxes for international students. They are still in talks with Residential Life, Custodial Services and other campus offices to work out the logistics involved with such an initiative.

“We hope to have a plan in place sometime this month,” Kugel said.

NEWS THIS

week at FORDHAM Thurs., Oct. 7 College Republicans and College Democrats Debate, Keating 1 Rotunda, 7-8:30 p.m.

Thurs., Oct. 7 Memorial Mass for Jacob Miller, Our Lady’s Chapel, 9 p.m.

Fri., Oct. 8 ACE Bubble Tea Fundraiser, McGinley Lobby, 11 a.m.- 5 p.m.

Sat., Oct. 9 Yoga, Keating B23, 10-11:30 a.m.

Sun., Oct. 10 RHA General Board Meeting Campbell Hall Common Room, 7:45-9:15 p.m.

Mon., Oct. 11 Fordham Debate Society Meeting, Freeman 101, 7-9 p.m.

Tues., Oct. 12 Respect for Life General Meeting , Keating B21, 7-8 p.m.

Wed., Oct. 13 Ballroom Dance Club Practice, Rose Hill Commons, 7-8:30 p.m.

—COMPILED BY ABIGAIL FORGET

OCTOBER 6, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 3

SUICIDE, FROM PAGE 1

and Psychological Services’ Web site includes a list of behaviors that might indicate a risk of suicide, in addition to an expanded list of telephone and Internet resources for information and help regarding suicide.

All of this and more information can be accessed through Fordham University’s Web site under the Student Services heading.

Dr. Kelly Posner is an eminent researcher of suicide who works with such organizations as the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control.

“While the warning signs […] can be difficult to spot in the context of college where unusual sleeping patterns, experimental ‘phases,’ drug taking and binge drinking are common, there are several behaviors that should indicate that intervention is necessary,” she said in the aforementioned article.

Another aspect of college suicides that has medical professionals and college administrators concerned is the risk of “copycat” behavior. Stemming from a glorification of the act of suicide, imitation of other students who have ended their own lives is in and of itself a well documented matter.

In late 2003, New York University saw such a pattern emerge when two students committed suicide one month apart by jumping from crosswalks inside the atrium of the

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

New York University’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, with its previously exposed crosswalks and balconies, has been the site of “copycat” suicides in recent years. College is considered an especially risky time for potentially suicidal individuals, as it is the first time many of them are living alone and experience all the pressures associated with that transition.

Elmer Holmes Bobst Library. In spite of University efforts to curb such behavior, namely the installation of Plexiglas barriers, a third student ended his life in this manner in November 2009.

Outside of higher education, this phenomenon has been seen in many other situations, namely at Schenectady High School in Schenectady, N.Y. in early 2009.

“Most people who have mental

illness or depression are grossly undertreated and suffering silently,” Poser said in conclusion. “The most helpful thing one can do, which truly can be lifesaving, is to facilitate treatment.”

GABELLI, FROM PAGE 1

more full scholarships available to attract an outstanding group of students to GSB. Another enormous change that will take place is the renovation of Hughes Hall, which will be the new center of GSB. The newly renovated building will consist of classrooms, an information meeting center with Bloomberg machines and marketing analytic software, and global center, which will be a center for personal and professional development with career counselors. “[Our new home] will allow students to have more flexibility in choosing study areas and focusing on their majors with more resources with the abundant student and faculty interspersed throughout every floor,” Rapaccioli said. “The building is going to have a real community feel.”

The timeline for the full renovation of Hughes Hall is expected to be 18 to 20 months.

“I am very thrilled about the renovation of Hughes Hall particularly for the features like Bloomberg machines and marketing analytic software that will be located in the information meeting center,” Emily Zhong, GSB ’13, said.

According to Tim Lynch, GSB ’13, executive vice president of GSB on United Student Government and chairman of the Gabelli Dean’s Council, the meeting was a joint effort on the part of the GSB, the Dean’s Council and USG. “Initially, we had planned to hold this event later in October since the past month was very busy with other matters; however, the recent announcement changed our timetable,” Lynch said. “From the student perspective, we found that the

PHOTO BY CAROLINE DAHLGREN/ THE RAM

Gabelli School of Business students who attended Dean Rapaccioli’s Town Hall Meeting on Oct. 1 received custom-made T-shirts for the school. tinue to reach out to students for increase in quality of education marketing efforts,” Lynch said. news raised a lot of questions their feedback and to plan events that $25 million donation will “There was strong attendance that needed clarification and the similar to this town hall meetbring to our school.” from all classes, especially from dean agreed that it would be esing in the near future, which will Rapaccioli fielded questions the senior and freshmen classes. pecially relevant to hold a town facilitate the type of back-andabout how the name change This provided a great balance in hall meeting so that she could forth dialogue between students and improved reputation will the topics of discussion, as seaddress the changes herself and help graduating seniors, how the and administration. answer the students’ questions.” niors offered suggestions about name change will affect upcomLynch said that his council Conducted in town-hall style, more changes that could be ing BusinessWeek rankings and will focus on several of the isa significant amount of time was made based on their experiences how Fordham’s Gabelli School sues raised by students during spent on a Q&A session with the here, while freshman got to find of Business will be distinguished the question period, including students who attended the event. out exactly how these changes from the one at the University of efforts to better capitalize on Many students were mainly interwill affect them during the rest Rhode Island, which also bears the opportunities for jobs and ested in how the money will diof their time at Fordham.” internships provided by successGabelli’s name. rectly affect individual students “I came here because it was ful alumni, improving communi“Ours is Fordham and ours is with regard to studying abroad, strongly suggested for the cation within GSB about events in New York City,” Rapaccioli scholarships and international Ground Floor [an interdisciplinhosted by the Finance Society ary program for GSB freshmen] said. “And that’s exactly what internship opportunities. and Smart Women’s Securities students, but I actually wanted Mario Gabelli said when I asked “I think the amazing turnout and representing the interests of to find out the specific changes him the same question. I’m not was based on the hype created current students during ongoing and the opportunities available worried.” by news of the Hughes Hall rendiscussions about fund allocafor us,” Rachel Segrest, GSB ’14, In the coming weeks, the Gaovations, the large donation, and tion for Gabelli’s gift. said. “I am very excited to see the belli Dean’s Council will conthe name change, as well as our

NEWS

PAGE 4 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 6, 2010

Fordham in Brief Freedman Authorizes Task Force to Analyze NRC Assessment Dr. Stephen Freedman, provost of the University, has commissioned a task force to analyze the results of a National Research Council report on Fordham’s Research Doctorate Program, Dr. Nancy Busch, dean of the graduate school of arts and sciences and chief research officer, said in an e-mail to the Fordham community on Oct. 5.

The NRC made public its 2006 Assessment of Graduate Doctorate Programs this week. The complex, complete dataset can be accessed at nap.edu/rdp under the heading “A Data-Based Assessment of the Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States.”

“Fordham provided data on 21 variables in FY 2007, based on FY 2006 activities of programs, faculty, and students,” Busch said. “As such, it is a snapshot of our strengths and weaknesses at that time.”

Because the data is so raw and extensive, Busch said, it will require much careful examination to gain valuable insights from the assessment.

“To that end, Dr. Stephen Freedman, provost of the University, has authorized a task force with representation from across the University community to analyze the data and recommend a course of action based upon an understanding of the NRC data,” Busch said. “The task force will make an analysis and its

report available to everyone in the University community.”

Based on the NRC’s findings, Fordham made strides in many areas of graduate doctoral academics, including rankings, both among the larger pool of doctoral programs and among other Catholic universities, educational quality in terms of research activities, financial support to students and diversity. Where Fordham struggled in terms of the NRC’s studies was in the endowment.

“You will not be surprised to learn that among private institutions that participated in the study, the average illustrative rank of doctoral programs has a direct relationship with the institution’s endowment size,” Busch said.

According to the NRC data, Fordham falls in the bottom quartile of the graph that plots average endowment per full time equivalent student versus average illustrative percentile rank.

Busch said that she plans to hold open meetings in the coming month at both the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses to field questions about the data and its implications since the e-mail message “only scratched the surface of the data.”

GSS Celebrates the Life of Former Dean Mary Ann Quaranta Family, friends and colleagues remembered the late Dr. Mary Ann Quaranta, former dean of Fordham’s

Graduate School of Social Science, who passed away on Dec. 16, 2009, at a well attended memorial service at the Lincoln Center Campus.

Serving as the GSS dean for 25 years, Quaranta had a reputation as a nurturing mentor and transformative leader. Eighteen people who knew her delivered moving speeches to supplement the photo memorabilia and musical tributes.

“Mary Ann Quaranta was the most elegant person I ever met,” Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, said. “Now I know you’re going to think I’m being very superficial and only referring to her unerring sense of fashion. But I’m not. Mary Ann Quaranta was the most elegant person in different and far deeper senses. She was a most extraordinary mind, always active and symmetrical. She could figure out a program on the way to work.”

“Many of us felt we were special to her, and then we’d be surprised to find she made someone else feel that special,” Virginia Strand, D.S.W., professor of social work, said. “That was a unique gift in a leader, to get that kind of response from people who work for you. In her professional life, she was admired. In her personal life, she was loved.”

Passionate about social work, Quaranta started the first doctoral program in social work at GSS and achieved generally high U.S. News & World Report rankings. Funding and grants for research were at record high levels during her tenure.

One of her most prominent achievements in terms of grants was receiv-

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ing a National Institute of Mental Health research grant for Hispanic mental health.

In addition to her outward achievements, Quaranta’s colleagues recalled how she had a significant presence and related well with people on a personal level in addition to a professional one.

“She always added dignity to any occasion she walked into,” Robert J. Reilly, assistant dean of the Feerick Center for Social Justice, said.

“When she walked in, you knew someone significant walked into the room. Everyone would pay attention. She had a great sense of humor, and she would remember the little things about you, always asking how the children were doing. She appeared with the Pope, with presidents of the United States, yet she talked to everyone like they were a next-door neighbor.”

John D. Feerick, FCRH ’58 and Law ’61, former dean of Fordham Law and founder of the Feerick Center for Social Justice; Dr. Peter B. Vaughan, current dean of GSS; Dr. Jeanette Takamura, dean of Columbia University’s School of Social Work and Dr. Julia Watkins, the executive director of the Council on Social Work Education, constituted especially notable speakers at the memorial service.

Cambodian Reconciliation Explored at Symposium Fordham Theatre sponsored a

symposium called “Theater and Peace-Building in Cambodia” at Lincoln Center on Sept. 20-21, exploring the extent to which performance art can help emotionally heal the wounds inflicted on Cambodia by years of war and mass murder.

Playwright/actress Chhon Sina and actress/musician Leng Sithul traveled from Cambodia to New York City to participate in the symposium and explain the role of the theatrical arts in their tragedy-riddled society.

“We do not have the artist protector,” Sina said through interpreter Rithisal Kang. “So artists feel intimidated to do their work, because they are not the people who hold the power in the ministries.”

Sina and Sithul’s collaborative work began with an open rehearsal of the full play on the first day followed by a staged reading of a single scene the next day. The play addresses issues of domestic violence and sex slavery through the voice of a victim.

Sina and Sithul then discussed their efforts as artists in Cambodia on a panel with three Fordham professors.

“How can we overcome these challenges, and how canTHIS we, as the elder teachers of theatre in Cambodia, transfer our knowledge to the younger generation?” Sina said.

“We don’t want to bring our knowledge to the grave.”

Compiled by Patrick Derocher, news editor, and Victoria Rau, assistant news editor.

Due to midterm examinations, there will be no issue of The Ram next week.

Follow The Ram on Twitter at: twitter.com/thefordhamram

Our next issue will be published in two weeks on Wednesday, Oct. 20.

Learn what’s happening on campus and what you can find in each week’s issue of our paper!

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Contact us at: fordhamramnews@gmail.com

ADVERTISING

OCTOBER 6, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 5

THE FALL 2010 LOYOLA CHAIR LECTURE

Let him easter in us: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Ignatius of Loyola and the Spiritual Consolations of Poetry

By Francis X. McAloon, S.J., associate professor of Christian spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, and the Loyola Chair at Fordham University for fall 2010

Monday, 18 October 2010, 7 p.m.

O’Keefe Commons | O’Hare Hall | Rose Hill Campus

Wednesday, 20 October 2010, 6 p.m.

12th-floor Lounge | Lowenstein Center | Lincoln Center Campus A reception immediately follows both lectures.

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PAGE 6 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 6, 2010

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PAGE 7

Point-Counterpoint: Liberal Arts Education

PHOTO BY AMANDA DIPANE

Fordham College at Rose Hill emphazises a liberal arts education, forcing students to take courses in a variety of subjects, but liberal arts courses prevent students from specializing in their fields of interest.

A Liberal Arts Education Provides Students with Skills for All Possible Careers

By CHRISTOPHER KENNEDY STAFF WRITER

It was about two years ago, and I was a terrified freshman, along with roughly 1,600 classmates.

We had just come to college, and already our professors, our parents and the New York Times were telling us that we should not be looking forward to getting jobs immediately after graduation.

The students who looked the most scared, I noticed, were the business students. Wearing black suits more appropriate for funerals, they went to job fairs that looked more desolate than Manhattan in I Am Legend. Suddenly, their dreams of BMWs and corporate expense accounts had dropped out from under them.

Without criticizing the motives of then-CBA undergrads, the economic climate of the past few years has made me realize how valuable a liberal arts education truly is. When you think about it, every good job requires the same skill set: an ability to read, write and use logic. This is what, at its very core, a liberal arts education is about.

College classes cannot give students specialized training for a specific career without limiting them to that same career. A person who majored in business with a focus in finance could probably be a good accountant or stockbroker. Those are two careers. A person who majored in English and graduated with the enhanced ability to think and explain is more marketable. The average college graduate today can expect to change careers several times in his or her lifetime. Why should one, then, pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to limit oneself to one or two careers?

I probably will end up as a stereotypical broke writer traveling the country in a ’98 VW, but I believe in my choice of major–theology. It is a subject that best suits the fact that I, along with probably many 20-year-olds, do not really know what I want to do with my life, and would like to be educated in a way that will give me the most potential. This, of course, has led to some strange looks from my relatives and acquaintances, asking me what on earth I plan to do with my major. However, I have heard this question enough times to have a quick response at hand, which goes something like this: “I am a theology major because the subject focuses entirely on comprehending and synthesizing arguments, which is a skill I can use in several careers I am considering.”

Take the advice of one of my theology professors who explained the benefits of his subject

that should make everyone take notice. His wife, he explains, works for a major software company whose policy is to lay off and then outsource 10 percent of their workforce. People in China, India or a myriad of other countries will work for much less money than those in the Western world. He explained that the only reason his wife is able to hold onto her job and good salary is that she has a firm grasp of the English language.

This is the world into which we will graduate.

Major companies that we have dreamt of working for are outsourcing everything from stock trading to research and development. We cannot market ourselves on the basis of the career-specific skills we learned here. Someone overseas can solely present that same resumé and ask for a tenth of what we would expect. Something has to set us apart.

Not only does the job market recognize the need for skills beyond whatever one specific career requires, but according to a New York Times article from January of this year, “Multicultural Critical Theory. At a Business School?”, more and more MBA programs are realizing that these same ideas of thinking critically and synthesizing arguments to solve problems, ought be an essential part of the curriculum. The Stanford MBA program, for example, has a mandatory first-year course called “Critical and Analytical Thinking.”

So remember this idea when you are sitting in your Composition and Rhetoric class, your Intro to the New Testament class or your English Literature class. There are reasons that Fordham has mandated them, and we are not alone. The idea comes from the Ancient Greeks and led to the development of several disciplines that took the name “liberal arts”: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.

Philosophy and theology were subjects encompassed in the first three studies, known as the Trivium. The value of a liberal arts education has been demonstrated over thousands of years.

In our fast-paced age, it may seem like it is time to throw it all out and replace it with vocational training in order to prepare this generation for the careers of tomorrow, but some skills never disappear: the ones that Fordham and other liberal arts colleges teach. I am proud to say that the value of my education will not dry up until the benefits of good communication and problem solving do.

Christopher Kennedy, FCRH ’12, is a theology major from Mystic, Conn.

The Expansive Requirements of Liberal Arts Schools Hinders Focus on Major

By ALEX KRASNER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I chose Fordham University as my school for one main reason: I wanted to go into business. Fordham was not the only college to which I applied and was accepted, but it had something few schools have: New York City.

That was the defining factor; not the cherry on top of the sundae, not even the whipped cream and sprinkles. New York City was the three flavors of ice cream that made my decision sound. Fordham was the flavorful toppings on the ice cream sundae of college.

However, as we all have experienced (well, most of us) in our lives, it is sometimes the toppings that can make or break a good sundae. For me, Fordham has been a little mixed in its quality.

Looking at schools was a narrow search for me. Business schools near big cities were all I cared about, and Fordham fit that description perfectly. When looking at the business program, all that I could see were opportunities upon opportunities heaped in front of me. However, as I spent my freshman year at Fordham, I began to notice something: I was not taking any business courses. How could this be? I was in the business school, my major was finance (not that I knew what that meant at the time, I only half understand it now), and the only business class I was taking was Information Systems. Though my math class was geared toward business and I was taking macroeconomics, these were hardly business classes. They could more aptly be called general information classes. Even Information Systems could be a general information class.

I enjoyed these liberal arts classes; they were useful for my overall knowledge, but had nothing to do with my major. It has taken until my junior year to be in a class related directly to my major. I truly think that the courses I have taken were and will be helpful to my future, but only in the same way that they would be helpful in any student’s future.

Taking an Information Systems class, basic economics, business communication or even a basic accounting class would be immensely helpful to any student, regardless of their careers. They are as helpful to a liberal arts student as taking History and the Novel was for me: enriching, but not necessary. It is in this

manner that Fordham dropped the ball the most for me. My ideas of business and what I wanted to do were so muddled that I did not have a clear goal to aim toward.

Fordham needs to focus on making coursework for business majors less liberal artsbased, and more business-centered. I would find taking Comp and Rhetoric far more useful and interesting if I had the knowledge and experience to truly understand the reasoning behind the class being required, but as a business major, I had none of the necessary background. The liberal arts courses have a place, but they need to be tempered. I came to Fordham for business, and I am just getting into that. It took two whole years at Fordham for me to get through my liberal arts core.

The Gabelli School of Business is making some changes that I think are for the better.

The acquisition of Hughes to be a new GSB building will define GSB as a part of campus.

The business school will have a centralized image, versus the current split between Faber, Collins basement and FMH. GSB is getting some good media attention through Fordham and as of Oct. 2, occupies two of the four big articles featured on Fordham’s Web site.

GSB also has revamped its Core Curriculum, changing the number of required freshman liberal arts core classes from nine to seven.

Overall, Fordham is on track to move away from its liberal arts roots and expand more deeply into majors such as business. All of the above can be affiliated to FCRH, as well. This is a good move for Fordham overall, but the school should be wise to not leave out the liberal arts part completely. Some rearranging of class priorities is needed, with an earlier focus on the business aspect and a later emphasis of the liberal arts side. The recipe for this strictly business ice cream sundae has not been perfected yet, and I will not be around to taste it, but I get to see it evolve and move toward something delicious. Regardless of the sometimes iff y toppings, being in New York City with all the options it presents the students of Fordham with great opportunities, regardless of their major.

Alex Krasner, GSB ’12, is a finance major from Bedford, N.H. Staff Poll: When The Ram was polled, 12 staff members favored a liberal arts education; seven staff members favored a more specialized education.

OPINIONS

PAGE 8 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 6, 2010

The Ram Serving campus and community since 1918.

The Ram is the University journal of record. The mission of The Ram is to provide a forum for the free and open exchange of ideas in service to the community and to act as a student advocate.

The Ram is published and distributed free of charge every Wednesday during the academic year to the Rose Hill, Lincoln Center and Westchester campuses with a readership of 12,000. The Ram office is located in the basement of the McGinley Center, room B-52.

www.theramonline.com Editorial: (718) 817-0873 Production: (718) 817-4381 Newsroom: (718) 817-4394 Advertising: (718) 817-4379 Fax: (718) 817-4319 theram@fordham.edu Fordham University - Station 37 Box B Bronx, NY 10458 Editor-in-Chief Mark Becker Managing Editor Abigail Forget Design Editor Stephen Moccia Business Editor Caroline Dahlgren News Editor Patrick Derocher Assistant News Editor Victoria Rau Opinions Editor Christine Barcellona Assistant Opinions Editor Brian Kraker Culture Editor Celeste Kmiotek Assistant Culture Editor Jen Cacchioli Sports Editors Danny Atkinson Nick Carroll Assistant Sports Editor Jon Smith Copy Chief Claire Borders Copy Team Mary Alcaro Tara Canon Tom Haskin Sean McGonigle Sandy McKenzie Jillian Minihan Olivia Monaco Sarah Ramirez Hussein Safa Veronica Torok Ryan Vale Photo Editor Simon Sulit Operations and Outreach Mike Burkart Web Editor Kelly Caggiano Assistent Web Editors Tracy Fan Ou Cara Stellato Faculty Advisor Beth Knobel Opinions Policy The Ram appreciates submissions that are typed and saved on a disk in a *.rtf, *.txt or *.doc formats, or sent to the staff via e-mail at RamLetters@ fordham.edu. Commentaries are printed on a space available basis. The Ram reserves the right to reject any submission for any reason, without notice.

Submissions become the exclusive property of The Ram and will not be returned. The Ram reserves the right to edit any submissions. The opinions in The Ram’s editorials are those of the editorial board; those expressed in articles, letters, commentaries, cartoons or graphics are those of the individual author. No part of The Ram may be reproduced without written consent.

From the Desk of Mary Alcaro, Copy Editor Imagine waking up on a typical day in college. You shuffle out the door to be met with sneers, giggles and whispers as your peers take one look at you and then start gossiping to their friends. You feel ostracized for reasons you don’t fully understand. You are not a person to make enemies; on the contrary, you are typically reserved, too quiet to have made deep friendships, let alone to have made adversaries. You turn to talk to a same-gender friend in class, only to be given a leery look and have the person’s back turned to you. Feeling more alienated than ever, you turn even more taciturn but find that no one will meet your eyes.

You turn to your faith, but find no comfort there, only a list of “shall nots” and methods for how to “bear your cross.” The news broadcasts stories about Americans voting on issues that will bar you from having equal rights.

Scientists talk about “causes” for your “condition.” Insensitive teenagers use derogatory names for you in their dayto-day slang. Society regards you as an outcast, someone “different,” “other,” “outside the norm.” You find yourself feeling alone, unable to turn to your congressman, your priest, your peers, your parents, your friends. Your sense of loneliness and alienation threatens to overwhelm you. What do you do?

For many young adults who identify as homosexual, this disheartening scenario is a reality. In the last three weeks alone, ABC has reported six suicides by

gay young adult males, most believed to have been at least partially motivated by bullying (cyber or otherwise) by peers. Only last Wednesday, I was heartbroken to hear of the suicide of my childhood friend, Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after video of him in a sexual scenario with another man was posted on the Internet by his roommate. Tyler and I were never close friends; in fact, we had lost touch in recent years after I went to college. Nevertheless, the news struck me hard. All I could imagine was Tyler’s smiling face, his contagious laugh in the hallways in between the summer violin classes we took together for six years when we were younger.

For me, Tyler was a beautiful person, a violinist talented beyond words and a shy, good-natured kid that I enjoyed playing with, talking to and simply being around. For others, Tyler has become a rallying cry for change in the way society treats homosexuals.

How, in this era of so-called tolerance, can young people continue to be so closed-minded and cruel? Why do we flinch when we hear someone call another person by the n-word but do not hesitate to say that a long homework assignment is “so gay”? As we study the history books and hear of the discrimination against race, ethnicity, religion, gender in generations past, how do we fail to see that we are doing the same thing by discriminating

against people based on their sexual orientations? A change is needed in the way we treat homosexuals, and it is a change that starts with us. Yet it seems that many are afraid of taking the first step, of going out on a limb, of being associated with someone “different.”

Still feeling downcast on Sunday by the past week’s events, I attended 9 o’clock Mass at the University Church.

I was disappointed and a bit embittered by the lack of acknowledgement for the persecution of homosexuals, or even a mention of the victims of the recent suicides, when the congregation joined in the Prayer of the Faithful.

As a practicing Catholic as well as an advocate of gay rights, I feel that I am constantly struggling to reconcile these two groups, these two deep belief systems of mine. I can only imagine how difficult this must be for gay Catholics.

While the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that homosexuals must be treated with “respect, sensitivity and compassion,” many church-goers and preachers alike can often make homosexuals feel like second-class citizens, spouting Leviticus and referring to them as “aberrations,” somehow more prone to sin than heterosexuals.

To me, failing to pray for this persecuted group seemed a cop-out, a way of avoiding a controversial issue that divides churchgoers. However, my heart was somewhat uplifted when I came across an article in America, a weekly Catholic magazine, entitled “What is

a Catholic response to gay suicide?” Its author, Fr. James Martin, S.J., treats the subject in what I can only call a truly Christian manner, calling for Catholics to regard homosexuals with compassion, regarding them as sons and daughters of God, worthy of dignity and respect. He focuses on welcoming gays rather than excluding them, taking those who call themselves pro-lifers to task by reminding them that we have a responsibility to the lives of others, even if those others are different from us, something Christianity’s savior knows a thing or two about.

In light of these recent tragedies, most especially the loss of my friend, I would remind our University community of what is expected of us not as Christians, or Fordham students, but as human beings. The cycle of abuse toward homosexuals in any capacity must be broken. As Donne recalls, “no man is an island,” and so the death of one person touches us all. We have a responsibility as a community to take care of one another, to treat each other fairly and to speak up where injustice exits. I have taken my first step by writing this article: what will you do?

Appointment Only Office Hours Hurt Students

By KEVIN GUHIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

At the beginning of every semester, professors hand their students syllabuses detailing when the students will be expected to complete assignments, read material and take examinations.

However, not all of the expectation is on the students’ side. These syllabuses also include a scheduled two hours per week when a professor will be available in his or her office for course help and general questions. This is an official Fordham policy that is advertised by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to prospective students.

While many students do not take advantage of their professors’ office hours, this time is still an invaluable part of every course. In fact, some courses even require their students to utilize them.

Unfortunately, a number of professors have shortchanged their students by making their office hours by appointment-only. There are some valid reasons professors would prefer this system. It avoids spending hours

a week waiting for students who may or may not show up. This time can be spent preparing other course work, performing academic research or working at other universities or in the private sector. Appointment-only office hours allow the professors to minimize this drain on their time and still answer any questions students may have.

However, this policy hurts the students. College life can be frantic. Many students cannot find an extra hour to sleep, much less schedule an appointment in advance. Regularly scheduled office hours allow students to choose whether they have enough time to drop by before a lecture rather than risk breaking an appointment with the professor who decides whether or not their essay on “The Charismatic Authority of the American Con Man” is worth accepting a week late. This flexibility may keep professors behind a desk for a few more hours a week, but it frees students to see professors when they can manage without obligation or unnecessary formality. If meeting with professors is easier, students will

meet with them more often, instead of waiting to schedule an appointment until they have a problem.

Most importantly, office hours are a required and advertised part of courses at Fordham. The 2010-2011 Undergraduate Faculty Handbook states in Section 10.8 that “All fulltime members of the instructional staff must schedule and hold regular office hours during the semester.

These hours should be posted on the instructor’s office door, filed with the chair of the department, and included on each course syllabus. A minimum of four hours per week is expected, at times appropriate to typical student schedules in the college in which the course is offered. Adjuncts and parttime instructional staff are expected to be available at least one hour for each course they teach.”

Appointment-only office hours do not qualify as “regularly posted” hours.

They are still helpful and made with good intentions, but this breaking of publicized University policy weakens the strength of Fordham’s courses.

Ultimately, I do not believe any stu-

dent wants to report a professor to the chair for breaking this policy, although he or she would be entirely right to do so. Instead, when departments approve next semester’s syllabuses, after verifying that required expectations of students are present, they should check to see if the expectations of the professor are too. Attending office hours may not be the most popular activity in student life, and some students may have never utilized this policy during their entire academic careers. However, many students do attend office hours, and feel more comfortable dropping by whenever they have a question, instead of having to make an appointment.

In the same way that late hours for the library are vital to students who do need a quiet place to study at night, office hours are an important tool for students who require extra help with their courses. Making office hours as convenient as possible should be a priority and obligation of Fordham professors to their students.

Kevin Guhin, FCRH ’12, is an English major from West Chester, Pa.

Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: Over my past three years at Fordham, I have developed a deep and abiding respect for the work that The Ram does on a weekly basis here, providing news and insightful analysis of campus goings-on for all interested students. Your writers have always done their homework, and provided sound reasoning for their arguments when they make them. That is, until your last week’s edition, with an article entitled “Clubs Should Separate Politics from Sept. 11 Service.” Upon reading this article, I was more than a little surprised to see Mr. Masterson, the author, reprobate the College Republicans for “commandeering, for complete lack of a better term, of a national day of

remembrance.” The author referred to the “Never Forget” display which we, the College Republicans, sponsor annually on the Alpha House Lawn, as well as the vigil which followed the URI football game. According to Mr. Masterson, these actions were somehow inappropriate, merely because they came, in part, from the College Republicans.

In no way did our actions politicize this event. In no way did we even publicize these events as being sponsored by the College Republicans. The only mention of the College Republicans in relation to either event that I am aware of came from the pages of The Ram itself. If anything were to surprise me more than this ignorant scolding from a freshman contributor, it was his seem-

ing ambivalence immediately thereafter. He writes “Granted, I do not know under what circumstances the Republicans sponsored this event. Perhaps they were the only club that wanted to do so, and if that is true, then kudos to them and shame on everyone else.” This sidestepping of his central assertion indicates just how little homework he actually did in preparing this article.

That being said, the College Republicans will continue to host this event, and any other event which demands this level of significance, and we invite any and all members of the campus community to join us in these endeavors. We were proud to be co-sponsors of the Sept. 11 vigil alongside both United Student Government and Cam-

pus Ministry, who did in fact step up to make this work. We are proud each year to host apolitical events honoring Veterans’ Day, the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and numerous other occasions. Our political nature by no means precludes us from being responsible citizens – in fact, it necessitates it.

I welcome further comment on this issue, and encourage any student who fears politicization of national sentimentalities to speak with any member of the College Republicans’ executive board. I assure you, your fears will be allayed.

Sincerely, Tom Emala V.P. College Republicans

OPINIONS

Transitioning from High School to University Life

By RORY MASTERSON STAFF WRITER

In a recent university study conducted in the northeastern United States, cases of severe depression among college students have gradually risen in the last decade. Nowhere is the impact greater right now, it seems, than on our own campus.

A death last week of a Fordham freshman has raised many questions about the mental health of students and the state of student well-being. Many, new students arrive at college only to realize in a month’s time that they feel less welcome and comfortable than they did during Orientation or Homecoming Weekend.

The transition from high school to college is one that affects everyone differently. Generally, students spend their first years adjusting to the work load while balancing a social life and, in some cases, their workstudies.

“I don’t get a lot of sleep these days,” Harry MacCormack, FCRH ’14, said. “It’s a struggle to get my work done and get some sleep before it becomes more sensible to just stay up all night instead.”

A lack of sleep has left many first-year students, including this writer, feeling dazed in class and, as a result, has perhaps resulted in lackluster classroom performances early in the semester.

The transition hurts more than just grades. Mental health falters as a result of entering a new environment with new people and large amounts of information in a short amount of time. The experience becomes overwhelming. Students can start to feel paranoid, as if everyone else is having a good time when they are not. They may start to feel as if they do not belong.

These students may not want to talk about their isolation for fear of rejection or embarrassment. They do not know where to turn. What a lot of students do not realize is that Fordham has useful mental health services on campus.

One student, who asked to remain anonymous, felt out of place freshman year, and said that Fordham’s counseling services helped make life at Fordham easier. “[My freshman residence hall] was a bit too cultish to openly discuss if you felt out of place or really needed help,” the student said. “So I definitely think it is something that should be advertised more and encouraged more.”

Many students need to be able to express themselves openly, regardless of what they think the reaction will be. Fordham’s counseling center can help with that.

Students can go into the Health Center, located below O’Hare Hall, and schedule appointments to talk to counselors. Fordham conducts a quick interview with the student to see if counseling may be effective, and if so, the student can attend 10 sessions with an assigned counselor for free. Beyond that, Fordham may attempt to find a regular counselor for the student, at which point counseling costs do come into play.

Regardless of potential cost, if a student feels overwhelmed and helpless, he or she should do something about it. It is easy to attempt to keep emotions bottled up, but in many cases, this is not an effective longterm strategy.

The transition from high school to college and the pressure of professors, peers and suddenly far-off parents becomes almost unbearable for some. People look for an easy way out of the madness, but suicide or other drastic measures should never be an option.

There is always hope as long as there is life, but if a student careens far enough into a depressed state, suicide can appear a viable option. Students should not combat these inner demons alone, but should seek the professional counseling Fordham provides.

Death of any kind is tragic, but for someone to take his or her own life is a great tragedy.

Rory Masterson, GSB ’14, is a business administration major from Fort Mill, S.C.

Issue of the Week:

Rick Sanchez A Look at the World Outside of Fordham from the Perspective of Professional News Bloggers

See what commentators from the Left and the Right have to say about Rick Sanchez’s comments

OCTOBER 6, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 9

Counseling and Psychological Services Good, Improvements Could Be Made

PHOTO BY BRIAN KRAKER/THE RAM

Fordham’s Counseling and Psychological Services Center is located in the basement of O’Hare Hall, by the Health Center.

Recent studies have reported an increase in depression among students all over the country, but part of the larger numbers may be a result of greater student willingness to visit their university’s counseling centers. This trend of seeking help is encouraging, and Fordham’s Counseling and Psychological Services Center offers much-needed counseling for student who grapple with depression or who need help adjusting to the college environment. Though students offer some suggestions for how the center might be improved, many report that they have found real help there.

Fordham’s Counseling and Psychological Services is free and confidential. If a student seeks counseling, it will not be recorded on his or her academic record. The only times records of a student’s counseling session would be disclosed without the student’s written authorization would be if the student is judged to be a danger to him- or herself or others, if there is evidence of an elder or a child being abused or if the information is required in legal proceedings.

Fordham assigns students to a counselor after speaking to them over the phone and hearing an explanation of what issues are affecting the student. One student suggests that this policy be changed, and that there be an option of speaking to someone in person in the Counseling and Psychological Services office, which was not available when he sought help. He reported that it was difficult to find a private place to have the difficult phone conversation, since he lived in a double dorm.

In addition to individual counseling, Counseling and Psychological Services offers group sessions

and referrals to off-campus counseling services. The typical stint of counseling at Fordham is about 10 sessions, one per week, for about an hour each session. After that, students are generally referred elsewhere.

Another potential improvement that could be made would be if Fordham employed in-house counselors, instead of using graduate students training for degrees.

That way, students who had sought counseling might be able to get in touch with their counselors more easily. This could come into play if a student needed a referral to explain lapses in classwork or job attendance because of mental health issues. Students have reported trouble getting in touch with counselors who have since graduated from Fordham.

Also, students have reported problems with being assigned counselors who also taught courses at Fordham. One student related a story where she had met with a counselor who she did not like and did not feel comfortable with.

Later, that counselor taught a class she was required to take because of her major, which made her uncomfortable for the duration of that semester. Fordham should keep this in mind and if at all possible, avoid employing professors who teach required courses as counselors because of this potential problem.

Another issue that deserves consideration might be adding weekend hours to the Counseling and Psychological Services office, since many students are busy and may be more likely to find excuses not to call for help during the week. Currently, the Counseling and Psychological Services Web site directs students to the security office or a local emergency room for psychological needs during the weekend and evening hours.

One student turned to Coun-

seling and Psychological Services at the insistence of his siblings to whom he had told his doubts about staying at Fordham. He was hesitant to speak to one of the schoolprovided counselors, since he had trouble with the counseling staff at his high school, but he was pleasantly surprised.

“I think I was forced to develop a new outlook on life that’s worked out a lot better for me than my own one,” he said. “I think I really improved as a person because of Fordham Counseling.”

He also says that because of the help provided by Counseling and Psychological Services, he was able to stay at Fordham. Though he said some improvements could be made, his experiences were mostly positive. Counseling and Psychological Services even agreed to add on five extra sessions to his counseling, free of charge.

“Would a full-time therapist who didn’t have to stop after 15 sessions serve me much better?” he said. “Definitely. But Fordham is still providing a very good service to its student body. It was really useful and great for the amount that it cost me, but I don’t think it’s a panacea for people who need real help. However, it can and does help those people find the real longterm help they need.”

He recommends Counseling and Psychological Services, and emphasizes the importance of not feeling ashamed of seeking help.

“Just because your friend doesn’t need counseling doesn’t mean you’re not as good as them because you do,” he said. “People shouldn’t be too afraid or too embarrassed to admit they need help . . . We all need to work on fighting that mindset and stigma.”

Christine Barcellona, FCRH ’12, is an English major from Dallas, Tex. She can be reached at cbarcellona@fordham.edu.

Dan Sweeney, The Huffington Post

Justin Quinn, US Conservative

Evelyn Beatrice Hall, Author

“Sanchez assumed that Stewart and Colbert were both anti-Hispanic bigots because they were constantly lampooning him as an anti-intellectual. But they didn’t do this because Sanchez is a Cuban-American, they did it because he’s an anti-intellectual, dim-witted buffoon.”

“Sanchez’s overriding point, that members of both the political right and ... left are equally capable of bigotry, was lost in the confusion of his own xenophobic illustrations. It was only a matter of time before [his opinion] ultimately manifested itself into its own kind of bigotry.”

“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

By CHRISTINE BARCELLONA OPINIONS EDITOR

–COMPILED BY BRIAN KRAKER

Follow The Ram at twitter.com/ thefordhamram.

PAGE 10 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 6, 2010

OPINIONS

Afghans Cross Dress Children for Prestige

CHUCK LIDDY/ MCT

Children withstand a windstorm in Afghanistan while waiting for humanitarian aid. While these children are not dressed in attire for the opposite sex, many girls are forced into clothing meant for boys, so they will be accepted in public.

By ERIC HORVATH CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A recently published article in the New York Times about gender orientation in Afghan children complicates the simplistic notion that only “boys will be boys.” The article discusses the common cultural practice of dressing Afghan girls as boys for social and economic benefits, a practice that labels a girl a bacha posh, which literally means “dressed up as a boy” in Dari.

The practice is employed when a family does not have a son; Afghan culture places tremendous prestige on sons and families without one are socially ridiculed.

The story’s accompanying

picture displays a girl named Mehran and her two older sisters leaning casually against a wall, on a rubble-filled street, observing something to their left. Their youthfully inquisitive faces, mirroring one another with a similar smile and awe, suggest three sisters, yet one of them stands out.

Mehran, despite her comparable facial expression and effeminate pose, looks every bit like her sisters beside her short hair and masculine garb. She is a proud bacha posh.

In Afghanistan’s deeply patriarchal society, forged through a confluence of traditional Islamic law and unenforced customary law, gender inequality is rampant. Despite the ousting of the Taliban in the fall of 2001

women’s rights, including property rights and protection from sexual abuses, are still widely unprotected. Knowledgeable of the difficulties that await them as women, young girls jump at the opportunity to be passed off as a boy.

Bacha poshes are afforded privileges that they would not otherwise enjoy while dressed as girls.

The girls, pre-pubescent in age because parents are concerned that biological changes can not be concealed by trousers, have greater access to education, more social freedom and the ability to earn money by working.

Simplifying the issue of gender reorientation in Afghan culture to a notion of robbed womanhood and ideal feminin-

ity would be insufficient. The deeper travesty resultant in the practice of bacha posh is its stripping of personal freedom and choice, and not because of gender complications. Feminist and queer theorist Judith Butler, in her essay “Performative Acts and Gender Consitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory,” argues that gender “is an identity tenuously constituted in time, an identity, instituted through a stylized repetition of acts [that] is not predetermined by some manner of interior essence.” In other words, gender is ascribed and prescribed by society at a given time, (men like football and beer because that’s what society expects, not because they’re physiologically determined to, and are just as capable of liking ballet and nail polish in the future if that’s what society grows to expect) thus, gender is constructed and entirely independent of sex.

Butler’s understanding of gender, when applied to the situation in Afghanistan, dulls my knee-jerk reaction of sympathy for the bacha poshes. The first time I read the article I felt bad for the girls who were “robbed of their womanli-ness” and awkwardly forced into acting like boys. However, I realized that the bacha poshes’ gender shift allowed them privileges they could never imagine as girls, and that sympathizing for their newfound opportunity to play sports and walk down the street without being accompanied by a male would require me to believe that females are predestined not to do those things, that they were being forced to betray some instinctive requirements of behavior.

The fact that Afghan culture is so divisive and receptive to these rigid gender roles is what is truly bothersome. Part of being in a society requires adhering, to varying extents, to social norms.

However, when social norms become so overt and pervasive to the point that deviating or not aspiring to them is debilitating or violently disadvantageous (as is the case for Afghan women), personal autonomy is stolen.

The ability for bacha poshes to exist, and persist, underlines the overbearing nature of Afghan governance. Females are so marginalized in Afghan culture that when given the choice to “be a boy” they have practically no choice in the matter, because the two options are so unequal.

I sympathize for bacha poshes when their time as boys is up because it requires a drastic amnesia. Due to the silence surrounding the practice, girls are not offered counseling or means to cope with switching to being a boy, when they are simply expected to switch back when their parents tell them.

A sudden reversal of behavior or circumstances in any situation is daunting and worthy of compassion, but the changing of gender, because it is at the core of identity formation, is all the more jarring. It is wonderful that girls are allowed several years in their youth to be free, and the malleability of gender supports that their boyish behavior is not biologically contradictory, but the insensitive switch back (and the oppressive necessity of it) is what sullies their privileged experience.

Eric Horvath, FCRH ’11, is an English and economics major from Sayville, N.Y.

False Fire Alarms Lull Students into Complacency

By RORY MASTERSON STAFF WRITER

I check my cell phone at 10:21 a.m. “Blast, a minute late!” I think to myself as I charge out of my class in Faculty Memorial Hall on my way back to my dorm. What did I lose in those 60 seconds? A minute of sleep, the most valuable commodity this side of gold. I run back to my residence hall in hopes of making it to bed by 10:25, which would give me just under 45 minutes of nap time before my next class. This is a comfortable period to which I have become acclimated.

My roommate is already napping as I nestle under my blankets. I am just about to slip into unconsciousness when a piercing sound blares once and echoes throughout my hall. The fire alarm has just gone off, a common occurrence around this time every weekday morning. Rather than jumping out of my lofted bed onto the cold tile floor and getting out of the dorm as quickly as possible, however, my first reaction is to grunt and turn over, putting my blankets even farther above my head so

as to break up the sound of the alarm should it accidentally go off again.

Is this the proper thing to do? Should I be able to ignore the fire alarm because I know it usually sounds at this time? The apparent testing or oversensitivity of the fire alarm system on campus has become more of an annoyance than a necessity for many students. While my fellow residents reacted quickly to the first fire drill, we do not have any sense of urgency when the tests occur every morning. We have become used to the fact that it happens, and while it may elicit a startle, no student’s first reaction is to go running for the door.

“I always just listen for the second ring,” Paul Guinee, GSB ’14, said. “If that happens, then I know it isn’t just a test.”

Admittedly, I do the same thing, as I am sure many students do. The second ring is the signal for evacuation, and that is something which the majority of us take seriously, or at least we should. We figure that losing around three seconds of time is negligible, and we have the ability to get out quickly enough if we hear the alarm again.

PHOTO BY CAROLINE DAHLGREN/THE RAM

A firetruck arrived outside CSC after a false fire alarm forced students to evacuate and authorities to arrive on the scene.

However, false fire alarms that sound frequently instill a sense of apathy in students who hear them often. One of the issues at hand in the 2000 Seton Hall college fire tragedy was the fact that in the months leading up to the fire, the residence hall frequently had false alarms, and the students became accustomed to that sound. Therefore, many students

did not react as quickly as they should have when they heard the actual fire alarm.

When these sirens become aggravating rather than alarming, we become negligent, and this is the atmosphere in which people make life-threatening mistakes.

Testing the fire alarms is a necessary evil. We have to know they work all the time, even when

there is no fire. The frequency of testing, however, has gotten out of hand. It breeds contempt and carelessness, and if the alarms were to actually go off in a dire situation, we would lose the most valuable commodity there is: time.

Rory Masterson, GSB ’14, is a business administration major from Fort Mill, S.C.

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PAGE 13

‘Glee’ Returns This Season to High Expectations

By MARTY MERCADO STAFF WRITER

When “Glee” first aired in May of 2009, it wasn’t even guaranteed a full first season. The pilot episode was given a favorable spot following “American Idol” to maximize the target demographic viewership.

The first episode was met with some buzz with critics hailing it as a brave new show; however, questions about whether it could be in FOX’s primetime lineup for the long haul were raised. TV musicals do not have a great track record, and most of them are one-off specials for established sitcoms.

The pilot did well enough to earn the show a spot on FOX’s Wednesday night lineup during the fall. Two episodes into the fall, the show was given the green light to complete a full season.

Originally, many expected the show to have a loyal cult following that would be able to keep it running for the season and possibly renewed for a second. Little did they know that not only would “Glee” exceed all expectations and gain a massive national (now international) following, it also would explode into a cultural phenomenon.

The cult following grew exponentially, and New Directions, Mr. Schue, Rachel Berry, Finn and Puck all became household names.

FOX quickly ordered nine more episodes to cap off the first season in the spring and go head-to-head with ABC’s powerhouse “LOST,” which was in its last season. In addition, FOX picked “Glee” up for two more seasons, making it one of the marquee names in its primetime schedule.

The ratings were good, the “Gleeks” were in full voice, and the show had the critics swooning.

This led to incredible commercial opportunities for what is now the “Glee” brand. Besides the expected DVDs, CDs and MP3s of the musical numbers that were released, New Directions embarked on a nationwide tour and added rock star success to its celebrity status.

The cast members were everywhere from morning conversations with Regis and Kelly to sitting down with Oprah to exchanging jokes with David Letterman. The actors became staples of the red carpet, the darlings of entertainment channels and the favorite subject of tabloids. “Glee” has truly arrived, and it looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of it.

The critics don’t mind either. Favorable reviews were thrown from all angles and the awards and recognition kept coming. “Glee” received nominations left and right, including a whopping 20 Emmy nominations (eight Primetime, 12 Creative Arts) in addition to winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.

Now comes the hard part. Season Two has just begun and “Glee” is faced with the task of living up to a lot of expectations. Will it garner the same ratings it did before? Will it continue to deliver on entertaining episodes? Will the musical numbers be just as good?

So far, so good. The first couple of episodes have been entertaining.

The musical numbers have been solid, the stories have been engaging and even the new characters seem interesting. The addition of singer

Charice (“Amazing”) as Filipino foreign exchange student Sunshine Corazon and immediately sending her to join Vocal Adrenaline adds a competent rival to Rachel Berry (Lea Michele, Spring Awakening).

The hate-hate relationship between Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison, Hairspray) and Sue Sylvester ( Jane Lynch, The 40-YearOld Virgin) continues to provide laughs and incredible one-liners.

The development of the minor characters Mike Chang (Harry Shum, Jr., Step Up 2: The Streets) Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera, The Royal Family), and Brittany, now Brittany S. Pierce (Heather Morris, Fired Up) has added depth to characters that used to just sway in the background. Brittany, in particular, proved that she can shine as bright as the main characters in the Britney Spears tribute episode.

In addition, “Glee” continues to connect with audiences at a deeper level. While the funny script and entertaining music bring people to the television, it’s the message of the show that has kept viewers returning and has allowed for an extremely passionate following.

The show’s second season keeps its irreverent attitude and continues to poke fun at the social status quo. It remains as a manifestation of empowerment to the underdog.

“Glee” encourages everyone to embrace their identities and their individualities and to accept differences.

New Directions itself is a mix of races, religions, social backgrounds and sexualities. The show even features characters that are either mentally or physically handicapped. All of these issues that oth-

nie Gekko (Carey Mulligan, An Education), Gordon’s daughter who hates the very thought of her once-incarcerated father. Working for clean energy technology, Jake, along with many other companies, becomes part of the stock market downfall, watching banks abuse the American public and the corruption that follows.

Though his role is minimal, Douglas’s portrayal is again topnotch, playing a different, now anti-hero Gordon, and leaving villainous duties to Bretton James ( Josh Brolin, Milk), a banking hedge fund manager. Trying to reestablish himself, Gekko writes a book on the power of greed, tips and knowledge for future investors. In the process of the tour, he stops at Fordham, the supposed alma mater of Jake and Gordon, and speaks to students about the themes within his new novel.

This lecture scene takes place in Keating’s first-floor auditorium, as Gekko inspires Jake. After the lecture, Jake catches up to him outside and discusses his problems while also relaying the news of his and Winnie’s engagement. As they walk toward the 4 train, beautiful shots of Edward’s Parade fill the background, and Gekko finds

a way back into his daughter’s life and a chance to develop another possible protégé.

What further develops is a multi-relationship movie, emotions crossed between multiple characters and storylines that often get confusing and throw off the intent of the movie, for example, the pointless interactions between Jake and his real estate broker mother (Susan Sarandon, Thelma and Louise).

Stone works hard to give older fans a few nostalgic scenes from a generation before, depicting slicked back hair, puffing a cigar and being in control. Yet with the economy crashing and most of Jake’s attention on tycoon James and fiancée Winnie, it is hard to take Gordon’s deceit as a primary focus. What ensues is a rollercoaster of events the writers work hard to make sense of while at the same time properly finishing the Gekko story.

Stone does his best to convey the emotional experience of the 2008 financial crisis and the dirty discoveries made along the way. However, he fails to make Gekko relevant in a movie where the Bretton Jameses rule the bank world. According to Gekko, “greed is good,” but as one finds out, this phrase simply does

CARIN BAER/MCT

With high ratings and numerous awards, “Glee” has a lot to live up to.

er shows have been cautious to address, “Glee” puts center stage. It is the unapologetic attitude towards these issues combined with a humorous spin that allows the show to be a worldwide phenomenon.

It’s difficult not to relate to at least one of the characters. Though it plays to stereotypes, “Glee” does so obviously, building caricatures in order to push its message of empowerment. The show uses the incredible shallowness of high school to push the depth of the underlying issues it addresses.

It is incredible how what looks to be a standard set-up (high school, jocks, cheerleaders, nerds) for a show can be so different. Perhaps that is the intention. “Glee” started off as the underdog show that has grown into a television giant. The show itself has given its fans an example of something that

nobody expected to shine turn into a marquee name. Season Two continues spreading the same message and tackling issues that every other show is too afraid to touch.

“Glee” is back, and it is better than ever. It is meeting expectations both in the quality of the show and the quantity of the viewers. It has embraced its fame and is using it as a stage to encourage and entertain everyone. As far as the storyline goes, the new goal is to reach nationals in New York City.

We can expect a lot of ups and downs along the way, and we can expect “Glee” to deliver this season with much enthusiasm and a lot of heart. Also, word around the street is we can also expect a lot of laughs and tears this season. The only way to know is to keep tuning in. “Glee” can be seen Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on FOX.

not matter in this day and age.

The peer-mentor relationship between Douglas and Sheen 22 years earlier is choppily recreated and re-envisioned in a less effective way. What you get is a sequel with good acting and some special cameos, attempting to recreate a time

that frankly is just not that intriguing and lacks a place for the Gekko power investors of old.

Watch the movie to see a few brilliant scenes at Fordham and to finalize the Gekko chapter, but do not expect a meaningful, chilling ending.

Fordham Is Pretty, But Wall Street 2 is Subpar

By JAKE KRING-SCHREIFELS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In 1987, Michael Douglas created his most memorable character, Gordon Gekko, in the smash hit Wall Street alongside co-star Charlie Sheen. Now, 22 years later, director Oliver Stone (Alexander, Nixon) brings his most famous character back to the big screen for his latest installment Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

So what do you get when you mix highly talented Oscar-winning actors and actresses, young and old, into a highly anticipated sequel?

A movie that lacks focus and has one too many storylines, but most importantly, not enough Gordon Gekko.

After 13 years in jail, Gekko (Douglas, Traffic) walks into the outside world for the first time since 1987, the peak of his financial prowess. This time, however, his pockets are empty and too small for the gigantic cellular phone returned to him as part of his personal belongings.

The movie jumps seven years later to 2008 into the world of Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf, Disturbia), an ambitious young trader who happens to be engaged to Win-

PHOTO BY STEPHEN MOCCIA/THE RAM

At the very least, see Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps for the Fordham scenes.

CULTURE

PAGE 14 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 6, 2010

That’s So Po

Dining Out: Sevilla

MARY PORPORA Week 4: Good Shuffles One of the small joys in life is a good shuffle on your iPod. I cannot say how many time/I have just wanted to listen to music, but I was not in the mood for anything specific. That is, when I, and probably everyone else in the world, rely the most on the shuffle option. Unfortunately, it seems that many times my iPod is working against me.

If I’m in the mood for something mellow and calming, my iPod decides that this is the perfect time for me to rediscover hardcore rap and every Korn song I own. I end up skipping song after song trying to find something to satisfy my mood. I usually just end up extremely frustrated.

The despair caused by a bad shuffle is almost enough to make me give up on it completely and rely solely on my playlists, but the potential for a truly magical shuffle keeps drawing me back to those crossed arrows. A good shuffle is all about cohesion. Even if songs are from drastically different genres, they can still flow well together if they fit your mood. The best is when you have a string of great songs that just keeps getting better, or when your shuffle hits you with a song that you adore but completely forgot about. Moments like that restore my faith in technology.

A good shuffle can make the most mundane tasks bearable. I love to bake, and the only thing better than raw cookie dough is raw cookie dough with a random jamming soundtrack. One of the best times to have a good shuffle is when you are driving, especially if it is full of songs that allow me to sing my heart out because, yes, I am that driver you see singing and dancing alone in her car.

My friends and I have varying music interests, and a good shuffle provides a variety of music that all can enjoy. Recently I was in the car with my cousin and her friend. My cousin and I have different tastes in music, but there are a few times when we can agree. In that car ride during that shuffle, it was harmonious. It was like her iPod knew that both of us were in the car, and it kept picking songs that both of us enjoyed. It baffles me how spot-on certain shuffles can be. Out of the thousands of songs on my iPod, how is it that the best songs are chosen at the perfect moment? Is there something Steve Jobs isn’t telling us? Are our iPods in line with our souls or is it all pure coincidence? This just got real.

Some would say that I am attached to my iPod, and a large reason would be the potential for an amazing shuffle. I always thoroughly enjoy when my iPod cooperates and provides me with the songs that I have been subconsciously longing to hear. But alas, as I am writing this, my iTunes shuffle is horrendous. “Juicy” by Biggie and the instrumental music from the Aladdin soundtrack do not mesh well. Hopefully I have paid my dues in horrific shuffles, and I will soon be rewarded with a remarkable arrangement.

Good shuffles: now that’s so Po!

PHOTO BY CARA STELLATO/THE RAM

Sevilla is located at Charles and West 4th St., in Greenwich Village.

By CARA STELLATO ASSISTANT WEB EDITOR

Tucked neatly away in beautiful Greenwich Village on the corner of Charles and West 4th Street lies the always busy Spanish restaurant, Sevilla, a place best known for its exciting atmosphere and its delicious sangria.

My boyfriend and I discovered this restaurant through the constant insistence of his parents that we would love it. When they were dating and living in New York City, Sevilla was always on the top of their list of favorite places to go, so we thought it would be fun to do the same. It was definitely worth it.

When you first walk over to the corner where Sevilla sits, the restaurant is noticeably small and always has people hanging around outside waiting for their tables. The wait, however, is never more than 20 minutes and the lively, loud atmosphere makes up for its cramped quarters. The waitstaff dresses in red Eton jackets with white shirts and black bowties, topping off the restaurant’s eccentric feel. If you are lucky enough to get the head waiter to serve you, his “villain-esque” mustache and over-the-top accent will definitely

give the table a great laugh.

Seating includes a few booths that can sit anywhere from four to 10 guests and tables that sit two to four guests. The tables are seated so close together that sometimes it feels as though the people at the table next to you are seated with your party. I’ve found this to be fun, especially during the first couple of trips there because you can see and smell what your neighbors are eating and it has always helped to broaden my knowledge of what is on Sevilla’s large and delicious menu. The restaurant walls are adorned with tons of paintings ranging from pictures of bullfighting to beautiful Spanish women and the only sounds that can be heard are the clanking of dinner plates and the conversations of everyone throughout the restaurant.

Looking around at what everyone else has on their tables, two things are immediately seen. First, everyone has a pitcher of sangria and second, the portions are big enough for everyone at the table to share, whether it is a party of two or 10 people. Meals cover a variety of seafood and chicken dishes, but if you really want a strong sense of what traditional Spanish food is like then you must try the paella.

For starters, the shrimp ajillo, or garlic shrimp ($12.50), is a favorite of mine. Doused in a potent garlic sauce, the shrimp is cooked to perfection and at a table of four, each person can Overall help themselves to three large shrimp Location making it the perfect start to your meal.

Food Quality In addition, we ordered a pitcher of Atmosphere red wine sangria ($22.75) that has an Hospitality Price $$ assortment of fruits including apples, pears and oranges.

The wine’s flavor (Out of 4 ’s) is not overbearing, and eating the fruit in between courses is a great snack.

For the entrée, we ordered the lobster paella ($30.50), which includes rice, chicken, chorizo, mussels, shrimp, clams and of course, lobster. The serving is so large because it is served in the same pot it is cooked in. The rice has a slight spice to it, but the real flavor comes from the chorizo, chicken and seafood. The lobster is extremely tender and the chicken is served on the bone to maintain its strong flavors.

Finally, to top off the traditional Spanish meal we had, we ordered flan for desert ($4.90). The dish is big enough to satisfy a table of four and the sweetness is not overwhelming, making it the perfect end to an already delicious meal.

Not only have I frequented Sevilla more times than I can count, but I have insisted on bringing friends there as well. Everyone I know who has been there loves it, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to try, or already has a love for, Spanish food.

Editor’s Pick: ‘The Muppets’’ Swedish Chef

By BRIAN KRAKER ASSISTANT OPINIONS EDITOR

The Swedish Chef from Jim Henson’s “The Muppets” has no place in contemporary comedy. With television dominated by jokes of sexual conquest, racial insensitivity and human excrement, Henson’s eccentric chef ’s lighthearted humor looks to be an extinct art, yet the Muppets’ favorite caterer is still the funniest puppet around.

Before Martha and Emeril dominated the televised cooking scene, Henson developed the Swedish Chef ’s iconic sketch. With the cook opening each skit with incomprehensible singing and a thick Swedish accent, the Chef plays the role of the ludicrous foreigner. Adorning a traditional chef ’s hat and an ungroomed mustache, Henson has created a character that looks the part of the absentminded cook.

In each episode, the Swedish Chef ineffectively attempts to cook traditional meals preparing his ingredients before his audience.

However, after attempting to wrangle elusive animals and personified fruits in vain, the Chef can never successfully complete his planned meal.

The Swedish Chef is a loveable loser. As he attempts to cook turtle stew, he wields a butcher’s knife forcing the main ingredient to retreat into its shell. Unable to coax the turtle out from its armor, the Swedish Chef reveals a musket to execute the reptile. However, the turtle returns fire with its own battleship-style cannons. While

the audience already suspects the Chef ’s failure, the absurd predicaments this cook encounters always entertain the viewer.

Yet, Henson created a versatile character, casting the Swedish Chef alongside the ensemble puppet cast in a hilarious rendition of “Danny Boy.” Accompanied by Animal, who can only repeat the song’s refrain, and Beaker, who can only produce the song’s harmony in a chorus of beeps, the Swedish Chef butchers the Irish ballad with his thick accent. Ending in hysterics for the beauty of a song that never really started, the Swedish Chef ’s comedic value can transcend the kitchen into the realm of parody.

The Chef has also made cameos on the silver screen, appearing in several Muppet movies. Preparing the roast for the pirates in Muppets Treasure Island, the Swedish Chef naively cooks for the movie’s antagonists. The Chef also appears in the recent parody of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” butchering Queen’s classic with his Swedish accent.

While the Muppets predominately ran in the ’70s and ’80s, the Swedish Chef has made resurgence through YouTube, reviving his skit with contemporary cutlery. As he tries to cook a pumpkin pie, two talking pumpkins convince the cook to use more outlandish methods of cutting the gourds. While the pumpkins request a battle ax, chainsaw and bazooka, the Swedish Chef answers each query, ultimately detonating a missile in the kitchen and baking a pie “à la bazookie.”

The Chef is not the Muppets’ protagonist, but the perfect accent to Henson’s comedic genius.

Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Gonzo appear in multiple skits, where the Chef is only allotted a single gag.

Yet, the Swedish Chef is the Creed Bratton of the Muppets’ cast, while Kermit conducts the cohort of puppet performers, just as Michael Scott’s antics command the spotlight of “The Office.” Nevertheless, the Swedish Chef ’s single skit, like Creed’s curious quips, becomes the highlight of the show.

A Swedish Chef skit does not

have the political commentary of “Saturday Night Live” or the social insensitivity of a “Family Guy” episode. Rather, these scenes are pure, clean humor. Slapstick comedy coupled with a puppet, the Swedish Chef plays to the child in all of us.

The Chef is a return to childhood innocence, a time when we were easily captivated by a mad cook’s attempt to slice talking fruit.

The Swedish Chef is comedy at its core, just a man with a funny mustache, a silly accent and the inability to successfully cook even the simplest meals.

COURTESY OF YOUTUBE

The Swedish Chef is one of the quirkiest and most beloved Muppets.

CULTURE

OCTOBER 6, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 15

Staying Classy in New York

By LAUREN HATHAWAY STAFF WRITER

When taking in a show involves handing over a thick wad of cash, it can be difficult to take advantage of all New York has to offer. Thankfully, since it is general knowledge that college students tend to be strapped for cash, great deals for students on shows and performances can be found throughout the city. From Broadway to ballet, there are plenty of deals a student can find with the flash of a Fordham I.D. One of the essential New York City experiences is to take in at least one Broadway show. Fullprice tickets can cost as little as $20 to $120, but they can usually be purchased at much cheaper prices that will not clean out your wallet.

One of three, TKTS stand in Times Square (at 47th St. and Broadway) sells tickets for dozens of Broadway and off-Broadway shows for 20 to 50 percent off their regular prices on the day of the performance. TKTS is not geared toward the faint-hearted – lines are generally long and the atmosphere can be pretty hectic, but if you are willing to put in some time and are flexible about what show you want to see, the TKTS are a great source for discounted tickets.

Many Broadway shows also offer discounted tickets through lottery and student rush sales. Head over early to the box office of your preferred Broadway production and test your luck in a ticket lottery, where tickets are sold at steep discounts to those whose names are picked from a basket. If the show you want to see offers student rush tickets, be sure to get there right when the box office opens to buy the discounted tickets before they sell out.

Megan Powers, FCRH ’13, took advantage of student rush ticket sales to see Spring Awakening when it played on Broadway.

“My sister and I got to the city early, got tickets, shopped and had

lunch,” she said.

For great discounts to Broadway shows, be sure to keep an eye out on campus for CAB’s next ticket raffle, where tickets are sold to winners at only $15 each. Last year’s raffles included tickets to Hair, Next to Normal, Wicked, Jersey Boys and Memphis.

Though Broadway shows are exciting, they most definitely are not all that New York has to offer when it comes to the arts. New York City is home to two world-class opera companies: the Metropolitan Opera (also known as the Met Opera) and New York City Opera. The Met Opera is renowned for its high artistic standards, and its home stage at Lincoln Center is regarded as one of the best in the world.

Currently, about 32 operas are in production at the Met, performed on a rotating schedule throughout the opera season. Students can purchase tickets for the Met Opera for $25 for weekday performances and $35 for Friday and Saturday performances. The New York City Opera, the second largest opera production company in America after the Met Opera, is known for its innovative opera production, and student discount tickets for its shows are offered at only $12 a ticket.

Colleen Taylor, FCRH ’12, describes herself as “not the type of person who would regularly see an opera.” However, she recently took advantage of a free outdoor showing of a Met Opera production and said she ended up really enjoying herself.

“There were tons of people there and the weather was beautiful,” she said. “The place was packed.”

On the same stage as the New York City Opera is the New York City Ballet, a premier American ballet company that stages around 80 performances per year. Student rush tickets are only $12, and this fall’s season will include a number of classical ballets.

Also at the Lincoln Center is the New York Philharmonic, a Gram-

my Award-winning symphony orchestra based in Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center. With student rush tickets selling at just $12 each, this is an affordable way for college students to hear top-notch musical performances.

Other Lincoln Center-based music groups to check out are the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center, which both offer $10 student rush tickets.

Down the street from Lincoln Center is the New York City Center (located at 55th St. between 6th and 7th Aves.), which is home to a number of dance companies and theater organizations, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theater and Manhattan Theatre Club. Student tickets can be bought for many performances for only $10 through the peer-to-peer (P2P) program, but these special deals are for members only, so go to the New York City Center Web site and sign up for P2P for the inside scoop. Coming up this fall at the New York City Center are Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, the Pearl Theatre Company’s The Sneeze and Manhattan Theater Club’s Spirit Control, among other shows.

what’s Know “what’s going on” on campus or in NYC?

Going

07

?

On

Send tips, event listings, or comments to theram@fordham.edu.

THURSDAY Edible Garden The New York Botanical Gardens Bronx River Parkway Chef Lidia Bastianich, who advocates cooking with children, will detail the various uses for the ubiquitous pumpkin.

08

FRIDAY

The Heist Festival Film Forum 209 W. Houston St.

Sharpen your detective skills with this three-week festival, which will screen movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood to the present.

09

SATURDAY

Ice Rink at Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center 45 Rockefeller Plaza

It may only be October, but who isn’t excited for the opening of this iconic activity?

10

SUNDAY

Abstract Impressionist New York The Museum of Modern Art 11 W. 53rd St.

This brand-new exhibit doesn’t just cover Pollock and de Kooning, but also the museum’s role in the Abstract Impressionist movement.

11

MONDAY

Columbus Day Parade 5th Ave., 47th to 79th St.

Celebrate your day off, and extend your Italian experience beyond Arthur Ave., and head to the annual parade.

12

TUESDAY

Boo at the Zoo Bronx Zoo 2300 Southern Blvd.

Gear up for Halloween in a more low-key way at the Bronx Zoo’s Halloween extravaganza.

13 COURTESY/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The Met is one place to stay classy.

Haunted House Vortex Theater 115 W. 27th St.

WEDNESDAY

For those 18 and older who want a little more intense Halloween experience, this 20-minute tour will be sure to get your heart racing.

— COMPILED BY CELESTE KMIOTEK

Ram Reviews FASHION

MOVIE

TELEVISION

THEATER

ALBUM

FOREVER 21

YOU AGAIN

“DEXTER”

BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON

SUFJAN STEVENS ALL THE DELIGHTED PEOPLE

As I browsed the racks, I was happy to see that the prices of items were consistent with those I have seen at other Forever 21s.

I had initially assumed that the flagship store’s prices would be significantly higher than those at the Forever 21 in my hometown in Massachusetts–this seems to be an exception, however. It seems as though many New Yorkers have been taking advantage of these great deals; the Wall Street Journal recently reported that the store has been welcoming over 100,000 shoppers daily and receives shipments of upwards of 600 boxes of clothing per night.

It is definitely worth it to check out Forever 21 in Times Square.

Just leave yourself ample time in order to take in everything the store has to offer. That perfect dress or top is there, I promise. It just might take a little while to find it.

In the film, Marni (Kristen Bell, “Veronica Mars”) is on her way home for her brother’s wedding when she discovers that her soonto-be sister-in-law is none other than her high school bully. Realizing that the bully, who has Marni’s family spellbound by her seemingly perfect personality, is acting as if the two have never met, Marni sets out to sabotage her brother’s upcoming nuptials. Complicating matters further, Marni’s mother soon finds out that Joanna’s only living relative, is none other than her ex-best “frenemy” from high school, and the two women find themselves thrust back into their wacky high school antics.

Bottom line: You Again may not be the best movie in theaters this fall, but if you’re in the mood for a lighthearted, feel-good movie (albeit a cheesy one), this film might be worth checking out!

Sunday night the long-anticipated Season Five premiere of Showtime’s murderous thriller “Dexter” aired to over 1.6 million viewers in its first showing (a 16 percent increase from last year) and 2.3 million in its later showing. After the shocking death of his wife, Dexter (Michael C. Hall, “Six Feet Under”) is faced with taking care of three children while trying to find a way to harbor his “dark passenger”.

The season opener begins mere minutes from where last season left off; showing Dexter sitting outside of his house with his son, Harrison, as his sister and the police arrive to the gruesome scene.

At this point, no one knows where the season is headed. One thing I definitively know is that I have never been more excited for Sunday nights to arrive. “Dexter” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on Showtime.

The story is a loose biography of Andrew Jackson, following him from childhood in the neglected frontier of Tennessee through his renegade military career to his eventual presidency. If you’re looking for historical correctness, you are going to find it lacking. Political correctness appears in even smaller quantities.

All the elements of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, while they may not stand on their own, come together to produce an original and well thought-out musical. It is a blending of modern pop culture and history, setting elements of today’s way of thinking into a historical setting. It makes for a show that is campy, but at the same time is thought-provoking. Its final question is one for history buffs and theater fans alike: how are we to understand this controversial character of Andrew Jackson?

This August, Stevens released an EP called All The Delighted People.

He immediately followed this up with a live stream of his new album, The Age of Adz, on NPR’s Web site.

You should listen to the stream.

Yes, it’s on NPR and yes, you will be a giant cliché, but it will be worth it.

In an age in which artists are constantly trying to figure out the system, trying to beat hackers and leaks and trying to make a profit, Stevens has offered his album free to anyone with an Internet connection.

This album is a lovely piece of work, but not much more. It might as well be the soundtrack for an indie flick you’ll forget about in a couple of months: beautiful, wellexecuted, smart but not terribly memorable, but the album is free, and that alone makes it worth a listen.

TO READ THESE REVIEWS IN THEIR ENTIRETY, VISIT THERAMONLINE.COM AND CLICK ON “CULTURE” ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE HOMEPAGE.

PAGE 16 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 6, 2010

CULTURE

Breast Cancer Awareness Month at Fordham Fordham Students Are Putting on Activities Such as the Annual Breast Cancer Walk to Unite Students

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Fordham students are putting on events to raise awareness in the hopes of finding a cure for breast cancer during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

By MOLLY McLOONE STAFF WRITER

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Events take place throughout the month all over the world to raise awareness about the disease, including the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” Walk in Central Park on Sunday, Oct. 17.

Begun in 1985, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a

global health campaign aimed at increasing awareness about breast cancer and raising funds for research into prevention and cures, all while providing a platform of information and support to those affected by breast cancer. Events such as the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk bring people together to remember those who have lost their lives to the disease and to celebrate those who have defeated it, all while raising money.

Looking to get involved? Ford-

ham University has its own “Walk for Breast Cancer” committee, headed up this year by juniors John DeMarzo, FCRH ’12; Cara Flynn, FCRH ’12; and Sara Kalwarski, GSB ’12.

Fordham’s Walk for Breast Cancer Committee has been working since September to raise money for the American Cancer Society, their goal set at $15,000. According to Flynn, she has no qualms about achieving this goal, as she said she believes that this is the largest Walk

for Breast Cancer Committee in Fordham’s history.

“Just two years ago, when I was a freshman, the bake sale committee was made up of just four or five people; this year my bake sale committee has over 25 people,” she said.

The committee has a few events taking place in October during the days leading up to the walk on the 17th. They have already held two successful bake sales, one on the Saturday of Homecoming and an-

other at last week’s Senior Night, and T-shirt sales will be sold for $10 each in the McGinley Center from now until Friday, Oct. 15.

The committee’s biggest fundraiser will be the Concert for the Cure taking place in the Ramskellar on Tuesday, Oct. 12 from 8 to 10 p.m. at a suggested donation of $3 upon entry. This night includes performances some of Fordham’s finest, such as the Satin Dolls and the Ramblers, in addition to other student bands and performers.

While the main purpose of the committee is to reach their $15,000 fundraising goal, Flynn said she also hopes that participants will find it to be a rewarding experience, believing that so many people have become involved with the committee after breast cancer affected them in a personal way.

Another goal of the committee is to “paint the Rose Hill Campus pink” through involvement with other clubs and organizations on campus.

“We have worked with and are currently working with [Resident Hall Association], [United Student Government], [Commuter Student Association], [Campus Activities Board] and Fashion for Philanthropy,” Flynn said. “Thus far the administration and fellow students have been very receptive to our efforts.”

“We need good weather,” DeMarzo said. “Last year, on the day of the walk, it was about 40 degrees, rainy and windy.”

For more information, contact fubreastcancer@gmail.com, or visit the Fordham University Walk for Breast Cancer 2010 page on Facebook.

WHO’S THAT KID? Elisa DiMauro A MEMBER OF FCRH ‘12, MAJORING IN COMMUNICATIONS WITH A MINOR IN BUSINESS FROM SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. Where have we seen you?

White Castle, chasing my home run balls on the intramural softball field, at women’s basketball games, hanging out in the Commuter Students Association office, lingering outside the caf on Taco Tuesdays hoping for someone to swipe me in, or hanging out with the best looking people on campus in the best dorm room on campus, Walsh 807.

Favorite childhood show and favorite current show?

My favorite childhood show was “The Price is Right.” I once faked sick for three days so I could watch the $1,000,000 Spectacular.

Judge me. My favorite show right now is a tie between “I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant” and “The O’Reilly Factor.”

Who would play you in a movie and why?

Johnny Depp. That man is a chameleon, I know he could do it.

If you could have a dinner with any historical person, who would it be and why?

Mel Brooks. I would make sure I had a big lunch that day because I don’t see myself eating much dinner. I’d be too busy laughing.

What would your ideal day in Manhattan consist of?

After waiting in line behind Steve Carrell at Shake Shack at lunchtime, I would people-watch in Madison Square Park. While people-watching, a wedding party would be taking pictures. I would overhear that the reception is at the Waldorf Astoria. I’d head up to Herald Square and the cab I get into just happens to be the Cash Cab. I spend my winnings on a dress for the reception I’m obviously going to crash. I’d meet up with my friends that I tipped off about the reception. We’d dance all night, and take the wedding party on the 5:40 a.m. Metro-North back to Fordham so we could all

get McDonalds’ breakfast when they open at 6 a.m.

If you could be anywhere and doing anything right now, what would it be?

Watching the Red Sox win the World Series. At Fenway. In the bottom of the 9th of Game Seven.

With all of my friends.

Favorite class at Fordham and favorite professor?

My favorite class was Poetry and Poetics with Professor Thifault sophomore year, mostly because the longest poem we had to read was four pages. That’s the only course I’ve taken where I haven’t skipped a class.

Aside from Thifault, my favorite professor is my Financial Accounting professor, Prof. Iavarone.

She gave out lollipops a few weeks ago; it doesn’t take much to win me over.

Ten seconds on the phone with him and he’s already telling me what he got in trouble for at school that day.

If a fifth grader can get over missing recess, then I can handle anything going on in my life.

A flare. I would also need a fishing pole so I would have something to do while I was waiting to be rescued. I would also need my friend Phil because he would be mad if I was fishing without him.

What is the biggest misconception people have about you?

That I was a senior last year. In the beginning of the semester, someone asked me if I was back visiting. I still go here.

What is your dream job?

Traveling the world writing travel guide books. I’d get to go everywhere, do everything and get paid for it.

How do you blow off steam?

I call my little brother Vinnie.

Stuck on an island, what would you need?

COURTESY OF ELISA DIMAURO

What is your guilty pleasure?

Playing “December, 1963” on any jukebox I can get my finger on.

CULTURE

OCTOBER 6, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 17

Columbus Day Means Off-Campus Activities A Long Weekend Offers the Opportunity to Leave the Dorms and Explore the Area

By ALEXIS KEDO STAFF WRITER

A long weekend is upon us, and for the majority of Rose Hill residents, that means three blissful days of sleep, sweatpants and “It’s Always Sunny” reruns after a cold, miserable, rainy week–but wait!

Weather.com predicts three days of perfectly sunny, crisp fall days, so why not break free from the weekend routine and get off campus for a little bit? The great weather may even necessitate getting out of the city in favor of breathing some fresh air and experiencing nature no matter how daunting that may sound.

To help you resist the temptation of your down comforter and sweatpants, here are some exciting and quirky day trips that just might beat the allure of ordering Chinese and hibernating in O’Hare.

What could be more appropriate than the quintessential fall tradition: apple picking? With most orchards open until late October, this may be your last chance to enjoy autumn’s bounty without resorting to the cafeteria’s apples.

For starters, check out Dr. Davies’ Farm in Congers, an hour or less away from the city. Cost is $22 per bushel of apples, and the Davies family also offers trailer rides, fresh apple cider and a pumpkin patch open for picking. Call (845) 268-7020 for more info.

Another option is Outhouse Orchards in North Salem, where locals go just for the killer apple cider doughnuts. Walk past the bleating goats and clucking roosters to grab some pumpkins fresh from the patch and, of course, apples.

Getting there is super easy. Just take the Metro-North to the Croton Falls station. Cabs are waiting right outside to take people to the orchard, a quick and cheap threemile drive up the road, and did I mention the doughnuts?

After you’ve filled up on 15 varieties of apples at Fishkill Farms, hit up one of their legendary fall barbeques, complete with hayrides and live music. Getting there is a no-brainer; just hop on the MetroNorth to the Beacon station, and take a 10-minute taxi ride directly to the farm.

For the more hardy, outdoorsy types, there are tons of places to go for extended trips over the long weekend. If you’re feeling nostalgic for the summer camp days of old, complete with rowboats, hiking and picnicking, there’s Croton Point Park in Westchester County, less than an hour’s ride north of campus. Best of all, you don’t need to be a camping aficionado per se: a six-person pre-constructed cabin, nestled right next to the Hudson River, costs just $55 a night–that’s less than $10 a person. Best of all, all you need to do to get there is take the Metro-North to Croton-

Harmon, and walk half a mile. For information and to book a cabin, visit westchestergov.com.

For beach lovers who just can’t tell summer good-bye, the Fire Island National Seashore on Long Island offers a limited number of free camping permits (first-come, firstserved). If you can’t score one of those, take comfort in the fact that five-person campsites are only $20 per night (with a two-night minimum). The campsites are a short ferry ride away (no cars are allowed on the island), with pristine beaches and serene ocean views. To get there, take the Long Island Railroad Montauk Line to Patchogue, and grab a $4 shuttle bus (or walk) to the ferry station. Visit nps.gov/ fils for more information.

If retail therapy is more your thing, don’t miss the amazing Columbus Day Weekend sale at Woodbury Commons in Central Valley. These outlets are world-famous, attracting European tourists in New York City who hear about the legendary deals at the outlets that include Barneys, Coach, Tory Burch and Versace, to name just a few. To get there, take the West of Hudson Metro-North line to Harriman station. Score a free VIP discount coupon booklet when you show your MTA rail ticket to the customer service desk at the mall.

For active types, the MTA offers a “Bike Your Way” package that allows for reduced round-trip Metro-

BOB FILA/KRT

Apple-picking is one enjoyable way to pass the long Columbus Day weekend.

North tickets to the Poughkeepsie waterfront along the Hudson River, or to the Culinary Institute, along with a 50 percent discount on a two-hour cruiser bike rental with free locks ($8). For reservations, go to www.anthonysbikeren-

tals.com.

See? No need to keep the cabin fever that’s been plaguing you all week. With a beautiful weekend ahead of us, there are plenty of ways to get out and explore all that upstate New York has to offer.

Fordham Offers Local October Fun for Students For Those Who Would Rather Stay On Campus, Fordham Groups and Local Establishments Offer Events

By JEN CACCHIOLI ASSISTANT CULTURE EDITOR

As fall kicks into gear this month, many clubs and organizations are offering some great opportunities to get involved on campus. Here are a few options to think about fitting into your October schedule.

Family Weekend In a few weeks, Family Weekend will be here, beginning Friday, Oct. 22. Although you may enjoy the time apart and the independence living away from home offers, it does not hurt to designate this time to spend a day or two with parents, siblings or other relatives.

While immersing your family in the campus environment, you can experience several special events going on around the same time.

On that Friday night, you can head down to Fordham Prep at 8 p.m. to catch a stand-up performance by comedian Max Silvestri, a guaranteed hour of laughs for all. The big family-friendly event on Saturday is, of course, the football game that afternoon, which is followed by an annual fall choir concert at 7 p.m.

College Republicans and Democrats Debate Whether you are involved with these clubs or not, the intense political debates between the College Republicans and Democrats are always fascinating to witness. It is definitely entertaining to watch passionate students, each with well

developed, pertinent views on relevant matters, try to prove their arguments against those of the opposition. The upcoming debate will happen on Thursday, Oct. 7 in Keating Auditorium at 7 p.m. Some of the issues that will be discussed include the Tea Party, immigration reform and November midterm elections.

Blend Café Sitting back and watching a live performer while drinking some coffee is a simple yet perfect way to break up a stressful week. On the other hand, the open invitation to perform in front of others at a casual coffee house is also ideal.

Recently, the Blend Café, which is so close it is practically on campus, started having weekly openmic nights on Thursdays around 8 p.m. It is welcoming students with anything from music to poetry talents to sign up and play. The coffee shop’s surprisingly spacious and comfortable lounge area makes for a great place to relax or watch entertainment.

Pumpkin Carving On Oct. 24, Society of Visual Arts along with Campus Activities Board and Commuter Student Association have joined forces to bring the pumpkin-carving event back. You can also paint pumpkins for more holiday creativity. With a classic Halloween activity such as this, you just cannot resist being a kid again and bringing a decorated

pumpkin back to your dorm.

Breast Cancer Walk Over the past week, you have most likely seen the bake sales full of pink cookies and frosting spread out over campus asking for donations for breast cancer awareness.

For the next few weeks, fundraisers will also be selling shirts promoting their major event, a “Walk for Breast Cancer” occurring in Central Park on the morning of Oct. 17, which you can easily sign-

up to attend. This effort to raise awareness for a great cause is being celebrated with a Concert for the Cure on Oct. 12, which will feature student acts.

Cinevents Although they are fairly easy to forget about, the Cinevents held in Keating on Tuesday and Thursday nights are a weekly treat that allow for many free viewings. This year, there is an amazing lineup including a mix of both popular summer

favorites and some critically acclaimed hits you never got to see in theatres. Coming up this month is The Twilight Saga: Eclipse on Oct. 7 and the indie-flick, The Kids Are All Right on the following week.

Salt, the Angelina Jolie action film, and Dinner for Schmucks, the Steve Carell comedy, are showing at the end of October. Most anticipated, however, might be Inception, playing at the beginning of November, which warrants another viewing due to its brilliant, complex nature.

PHOTO BY STEPHEN MOCCIA/THE RAM

The Blend Café is one local place to enjoy October, with its great drinks and live open-mic entertainment.

PAGE 18 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 6, 2010

ADVERTISING

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For info please call Gerard at x5392.

Due to midterm examinations, there will be no issue of The Ram next week.

Our next issue will be published in two weeks on Wednesday, Oct. 20.

Good luck on your tests and papers.

OCTOBER 6, 2010

PAGE 19

Volleyball Swept by Dayton and Xavier in Ohio

By DANNY ATKINSON SPORTS EDITOR

Being 10-8 and 2-0 in conference play after a month into the regular season is nothing to sneeze at. Fordham volleyball has been solid in 2010 and has generally won the games it was expected to win. The Lady Rams have a perfect record in home matches and have introduced a few talented freshmen who may be able to take the program to the next level, but the team also has been unable to spring significant upsets against any of its opponents. With two important contests against Atlantic 10 powers Xavier and Dayton this past weekend, Fordham had a huge opportunity to prove itself as an up-and-coming program. Even if the team did not win either match, being competitive with and throwing a scare into the Musketeers and Flyers would have been noticed throughout the conference. However, the Lady Rams were easily swept in both matches. There still seems to be a large gap between Fordham and the teams at the top of the conference.

Fordham lost its first matchup on Friday, Oct. 1 in a defeat that could best be described as a wash.

Looking for its first 3-0 conference start, the Lady Rams were swept but were very competitive in two of the three sets. Final set scores were 25-18, 25-13 and 25-23.

Fordham immediately demonstrated it could compete with the Musketeers with the team’s performance in Set 1. The Lady Rams rallied for eight straight points after Xavier got out to a 4-0 lead, and the match was knotted at 16-all before Xavier was able to take a lead they would not relinquish. Though the second set was all Musketeers

PHOTO BY MIKE REZIN/THE RAM

Senior middle hitter Katie Wells (left) had a productive game against Xavier, recording eight kills despite the team being swept.

after Xavier jumped out to a 13-4 lead early on, the final set featured a hard-nosed performance by Fordham, as the score was tied on 17 different occasions with seven lead changes. The teams were tied at 23 before Xavier got consecutive kills to sweep the match.

The Musketeers outperformed Fordham in nearly every important statistical category. Xavier limited the Lady Rams to a .158 hitting percentage while recording a .312 percentage themselves and had 51 kills to only 28 for Fordham.

Senior middle hitter Katie Wells had a team-high eight kills for the Lady Rams and sophomore middle hitter Randi Ewing recorded four kills in 11 attempts, an effective performance that earned her

a starting spot in the following match. Xavier senior setter Claire Paszkiewicz recorded 42 assists against Fordham.

“Xavier is a very good team,” Head Coach Peter Volkert said.

“We gave them a very competitive effort, especially in the third set.

We just weren’t able to sustain the effort needed to win. That was the biggest crowd we’ve played at all year and I thought my guys handled the pressure well.”

Wells, a captain, largely disagreed with her coach’s assessment of the match.

“I thought we could have competed against Xavier more,” Wells said. “We never showed the effort or energy needed to win against them.”

Fordham was overwhelmed in its Saturday match against No. 20 Dayton. The Flyers, hitting .425 as a team, easily swept the Lady Rams by scores of 25-15, 25-15 and 2517.

In the opening set, Dayton went on a 6-1 run to open up a 12-7 lead, and from there the Flyers never let up, as their advantage ballooned to as many as 12 points on the way to a 10-point victory.

The Lady Rams continued to struggle in Set 2, falling behind at 12-4, and never got back into the match.

The third set saw Fordham temporarily crawl back into the match with a set featuring 15 ties, the last coming at 15-all. From there, Dayton closed out the match with a

10-2 run and cruised to a 25-17 set victory.

The Lady Rams found themselves thoroughly outclassed by their opponent, as the Flyers had a much better hitting percentage, fewer errors and more assists, kills and digs. For Fordham, junior outside hitter Brittany Daulton led the way with eight kills and three digs.

With the loss, Fordham has a .500 record on the season at 10-10 and 2-2 in the A-10, while Dayton improved its superb record to 13-3 and 4-0 in the conference.

“Dayton completely overwhelmed us in this match,” Volkert said. “They had a lot more talent than us and we weren’t able to sustain a strong level of play for more than a few minutes.”

With a forgettable weekend behind them, the Lady Rams face one of their most challenging stretches of the season. The team plays four home matches between Oct. 6 and 12, with non-conference tilts against Hofstra and Villanova, broken up by conference throwdowns against Charlotte and George Washington.

Fordham’s record places it in a fourway tie for fourth in the A-10 standings.

If the team can avoid any letdowns with its effort and defeat both Charlotte and third-place George Washington, then the Lady Rams will put themselves in a strong position to compete for one of the A-10 Championship spots. Fordham may have the overall talent to do this, but its young talent must rebound from its performances this past weekend. Wells is not worried about the Lady Rams’ ability to win their next slate of games.

“I’m confident we’ll win these games,” she said. “We’re ready to make the gap up between us and our competition.”

Men’s Soccer Wins Two, Over .500 for First Time

By RICH HOFMANN STAFF WRITER

The Fordham men’s soccer team is heading into the Atlantic 10 portion of the schedule playing winning soccer. After a rough start to the season, the Rams have won four out of their last five games.

After two 1-0 wins over Marist and Manhattan, Fordham’s record is over .500 for the first time this season at 5-4-0, even though the season began with some close losses.

“I feel like we’re in a pretty good position,” Head Coach Jim McElderry said. “I think the games that we lost, we played quite well.

A couple different kicks of the ball and we can be 6-2-1 instead of 5-4.”

Many of Fordham’s losses have been near-misses. A big problem for the Rams has been conceding goals late in games, especially in overtime. Both of the team’s overtime games ended in losses after goals in the final minutes.

Against Marist, junior midfielder

Tim Richardson changed that trend and gave Fordham a rare overtime victory. Fordham’s offense was held off the scoreboard for all of regulation by Marist goalkeeper Joe Pilla, who made six saves.

Despite outshooting Marist 199, Fordham needed overtime to win the game. With just four seconds remaining in the first overtime period, Richardson scored off a pass from sophomore defender Marcus Axelsson. The goal came shortly after a corner kick taken by junior midfielder John McHugh.

“We were pushing on really hard for a goal the entire game, but their defense was playing well,” Richardson said. “To finally score in the last minute was amazing for our team.”

Fordham’s next game against Manhattan had a little less drama, despite getting a victory by the same 1-0 margin as the previous game. Fueled by a defense that gave Manhattan little room to operate, the Rams allowed only four shots.

Junior goalkeeper Ryan Meara had to make only one save to post his second straight shutout.

The lone goal came early in the first half off a set piece. Junior midfielder John Niyonsaba played a sharp cross into the box, and Axelsson was able to shake free from all of the bodies clustered together.

He used his 6’2” frame to head the ball past Manhattan freshman goalkeeper Christopher Lands.

“We played well tonight; we were on top of them,” Richardson said. “We would have liked to have scored another goal but we like to make it hard on ourselves at the end of the game.”

In the Manhattan game, Fordham had 12 shots and many close calls trying to extend the lead. A problem for the Rams has been capitalizing on their chances. Still, their coach said he sees this as an improvement from past years.

“I think we have created more [scoring] chances than we have in a long time,” McElderry said. “In the past we had trouble scoring goals, but it was more that we weren’t even creating chances. We just have to put some more of them away.”

Fordham will open A-10 play

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/THE RAM

Junior midfielder Tim Richardson scored an overtime goal to win against Marist.

at La Salle on Friday night. The Explorers are the Rams’ travel partners for the rest of the season (meaning they play the same two teams every weekend). McElderry stressed the importance of winning the first game and how it can help the team succeed in the league.

“The last couple of years we have done well in the Atlantic 10,” McElderry said. “If we can keep getting better like we have been, the conference right now is up in the air. I don’t think there’s anyone who is really dominant for whatever reason.”

SPORTS

PAGE 20 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 6, 2010

La Salle Women’s Soccer Dominated in 4-0 Loss at Dayton Takes Down

By ERIK PEDERSEN Men’s Tennis STAFF WRITER

By DAN GARTLAND STAFF WRITER

In its most closely contested match thus far this season, the Fordham men’s tennis team fell to LaSalle Saturday, 4-3.

The day began with doubles play where LaSalle took two of the three matches, earning the doubles point.

A victory by third doubles team senior Kevin Maloney and sophomore Dan Kane-West was not enough for Fordham to pick up the doubles point as senior Nick Kelly and senior Ken Fukumoto lost at first doubles and sophomore Alex DiRienzo and junior Eli Plangger fell in their match at second doubles.

“This is a big match for us,” Kelly said following his match. “We had our chances and we probably should have clinched the doubles point but we didn’t capitalize.”

Although Fordham lost two of the three doubles matches, all three were hotly contested, especially Kelly and Fukumoto’s efforts at first doubles. They fell behind early in the match but then rallied in the middle stages to close the gap somewhat before their LaSalle counterparts pulled away and closed them out 8-5.

Fordham carried this energy into the singles matches and very nearly came away with a victory. Four of the six singles matches needed all three sets to be decided. Only Fukumoto and junior Andriy Kulak were defeated in straight sets, at third and fourth singles, respectively.

Of the four three-set matches, Fordham won three. DiRienzo played a particularly spirited match at first singles. He quickly dropped the first four games as he lost the first set 3-6. However, he came out strong in the second set, which he won 6-4. He carried the momentum into the third and final set, taking the set 6-3 for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory. All day long the Fordham bench supported its teammates with intense, incessant cheering. Head Coach Cory Hubbard set the tone during warm-ups as he went down the length of the bench bumping fists with all of the reserves.

The team maintained its high energy throughout the entire match and it was clear it had at least some effect on its opponent.

At one point, a player sitting on the LaSalle bench shouted out to his teammates, “Come on LaSalle!

Let’s shut these kids up!”

During the second set of Maloney’s match against LaSalle’s Chaz Berenato at second singles, emotions ran especially high. A few words were exchanged after a crucial point and Berenato had to be restrained by his coach when he charged the net.

Berenato won the set as well as the next one in a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Maloney that clinched the team victory for LaSalle.

Fordham tries again for its first win of the season Tuesday, Oct. 5 against Rider and Thursday, Oct. 7 versus Concordia. The Rams also take on NJIT on Wednesday, Oct. 13.

After a disappointing 4-0 loss Friday night to the Dayton Flyers, who are projected to be the best team in the conference, the Fordham women’s soccer team was able to recover Sunday afternoon with a 1-0 win over the Xavier Musketeers.

The Lady Rams are now 5-7 on the year, with a 1-1 record in the Atlantic 10.

Facing off against Dayton, which went 8-2 in the non-conference portion of its schedule, was expected to be a difficult test for the Lady Rams, and before the match was 10 minutes old Fordham was trailing 2-0.

Senior forward Jerica De Wolfe scored for the Flyers 1:42 into the game, and senior forward Kelly Blumenschein added to the lead seven minutes later.

“We played the worst game I can remember in my time at Fordham,” Head Coach Ness Selmani said.

“These things happen sometimes, but it’s not that they were that good, we just played bad.”

Senior midfielder Michelle Ancelj got off Fordham’s only shot on goal for the game in the 26th minute, but the shot was stopped by senior goalkeeper Lisa Rodgers.

Dayton added to its lead shortly afterward, when sophomore midfielder Colleen Williams dribbled around sophomore goalkeeper Rachel Suther to score her ninth goal of the season and give Dayton a 3-0 lead at halftime.

The second half was more of the same for the Lady Rams, as they struggled to get anything going offensively.

Sophomore forward Alexis Garcia finished out the scoring for Dayton with 13 minutes left to play, sliding the ball under sopho-

PHOTO BY MARK BECKER/THE RAM

Junior midfielder Mariella Romano assisted on the game-winning goal by Mary Solimine in Fordham’s win over Xavier.

more goalkeeper Sarah Zieman.

Zieman replaced Suther at halftime and made three saves in the second half. For the game, the Lady Rams were outshot 22-4, and the 4-0 loss was the largest margin of defeat for Fordham on the year.

Despite this, the team was able to quickly recover on Sunday against Xavier.

The offense appeared to be much improved from Friday, as the Lady Rams outshot Xavier 20-10 in the game. Sophomore forward Annie Worden led the Rams with five shots, with freshman midfielder/ defender Mary Solimine contrib-

uting four shots.

“We shuffled the roster a little bit to try to get a bit more firepower up front,” Selmani said. “I thought we totally dominated the game, it was certainly pleasing to see.”

Fordham broke the scoreless tie in the 70th minute, with Solimine taking a pass from junior midfielder Mariella Romano and driving a shot past senior goalkeeper Jenny Rosen for her first career collegiate goal.

Zieman, who remained in goal Sunday after replacing Suther halfway through Friday’s game, made seven saves, including three in the

last 13 minutes, to preserve the 1-0 victory for Fordham. The victory was Zieman’s first of the season, and her fourth career shutout. “[Zieman] did not have much work to do today, but she played well Friday so we stuck with her,” Selmani said. “The team responded well today and played the way they should have been playing all season.”

The Lady Rams will continue their five-game road trip Friday night, when they travel to Philadelphia to take on the La Salle Explorers for their only game over the Columbus Day weekend.

Women’s Tennis Splits Two Home Matches

By NANCY BUCKLEY STAFF WRITER

Fordham’s women’s tennis team took a break from its busy traveling tournament schedule this weekend to play two home matches. The Lady Rams hosted Manhattan on Oct. 2 and Rhode Island on Oct. 3.

Saturday, the Lady Rams shut out Manhattan 7-0 with several successful matches.

The day began with Fordham winning two out of the three doubles matches.

Junior Sarah Tremaine and sophomore Mia Fiocca won at first doubles against Manhattan sophomores Lilli Johnson and Christian Puleo, 8-5.

Freshmen Angelika Dabu and Hanna Fritzinger took second doubles 8-4 over Manhattan’s junior Hilary Valenzuela and sophomore Stephanie Tsao.

Junior Bethany Boyle and freshman Monika Chao fell to the Jasper’s junior Christina Ton and freshman Brianna Turano, 8-5.

The Lady Rams then swept all six singles matches. Fiocca played in first singles, the only match that resulted in a tiebreaker round.

Fiocca won her first set against Johnson, 6-4. However, Johnson

bounced back with a 7-6 win forcing a tiebreaker. Fiocca won the tie breaker 9-7.

“Playing non-tournament home matches is very different from playing tournaments away,” Tremaine said.

“It’s nice to have the familiar atmosphere to keep me relaxed and I like that friends are able to come watch me play.”

Sunday, Oct. 3, there was a “battle of the Rams” as the Fordham Lady Rams hosted the URI Rams.

After several exciting matches the URI Rams were victorious, beating Fordham 4-3.

The Lady Rams won three singles matches, but that was not enough to defeat URI, which won two out of the three doubles matches.

Fiocca, Dabu and Fritzinger all successfully defeated their URI opponent in the singles matches.

Fiocca was victorious over junior Pam Emery in first singles.

Emery forced a tiebreaker in the second set, but Fiocca was successful in a 13-11 win in the tiebreaker.

In second singles, Dabu defeated senior Christen Cadigan in straight sets 6-3, 6-2. Fritzinger won the fourth singles, after a tough first set, in a tiebreaker. Dabu and Fritzinger were the only winning pair in

PHOTO BY AARON MAYS/THE RAM

Junior Sarah Tremaine started hot, winning her doubles match against Manhattan.

the doubles rounds, winning their match 8-6.

“Saturday’s win has definitely helped us gain confidence,” Tremaine said. “We have a few tournaments left this fall and I think everyone is feeling good going into

our last few weekends of play.”

The Lady Rams have a busy Columbus Day weekend.

They will be in the Marist Invitational on Oct. 9 and 10 and a nontournament away match at UMass on Oct. 11.

MLB Playoff Preview

By DANNY ATKINSON SPORTS EDITOR

Texas Rangers Texas’s lineup is excellent. It has tons of power and the Rangers’ .757 team OPS is one of the best in baseball, but with black holes on offense at shortstop, catcher and first base, Texas could struggle in the first round against Tampa’s well-rounded staff. While Texas has a strong starting staff led by Cliff Lee, it doesn’t match up to the depth and experience found on the Rays’ staff or in their lineup. Without home field-advantage, I expect the Rangers to fall in the first round in four or five games. World Series Odds: 25-1 Tampa Bay Rays The Rays have no easy outs in their order. Their blend of power, speed and patience is impressive, and these contrasting styles should create a lineup that puts constant pressure on the Rangers in the division series. With David Price, James Shields and Matt Garza, Tampa Bay has three starting pitchers with tremendous stuff. The sheer number of talented flamethrowers on the Rays’ roster should take advantage of the holes in Texas’s lineup and carry the team in a series filled with pitcher duels. Expect it to be a different story, however, when Tampa Bay reaches the ALCS and faces an offense which features strong hitters top to bottom. World Series Odds: 6-1 New York Yankees It will be the Yankees offense that takes them to a second consecutive pennant. New York has a team onbase percentage of .350, and you know your offense is great when one of your best players (Brett Gardner) bats ninth. The Yankees starting rotation is a series of question marks behind CC Sabathia.

Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes could just as easily implode against their opponents as throw a complete game, but will be protected by a bullpen featuring Mariano Rivera and the rejuvenated Kerry Wood.

I see the Yankees riding their excellent offense and strong bullpen to tight victories over Minnesota and Tampa Bay. Another Yankees Fall Classic appearance, ho-hum.

World Series Odds: 10-1 Minnesota Twins Minnesota seems to have been forgotten by the rest of the league the last few months, which is a shame. This is the best outfit the Twins have featured in the last decade. Even without Justin Morneau, Jim Thome, Joe Mauer and Delmon Young are the powerhitting core for the best offense in the postseason. It is supported by a solid pitching staff led by Francisco Liriano, who has returned to being one of the hardest pitchers to hit in all of MLB. However, the Twins largely feature the same defects they have always had. They have specialists and not the strikeout pitchers Minnesota needs to get past the Yankees great offense.

With home field advantage, the Twins will stretch the division series to a fifth game, but they again will be unable to slow down New York. World Series Odds: 20-1

Cincinnati Reds Having the Reds in the playoffs is nice, but I do not see them lasting very long. Cincinnati has an outstanding offense with Joey Votto, Scott Rolen and company, and against the Giants I would give the Reds a decent shot to head to the NLCS. However, facing off against the best three-man rotation in modern history (the Phillies) is a challenge the team cannot compete with. When Edinson Volquez is the likely Game 1 starter and the remainder of the rotation features names like Bronson Arroyo and Johnny Cueto, your playoff rotation screams inconsistency. The Phillies will hit inconsistency, and the Reds will be dismissed in three or four games. World Series Odds: 40-1 Philadelphia Phillies The Phillies have established themselves as the best team in the game, going 42-19 since July 29, and I am sticking with them as my World Series pick. Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt, Philadelphia’s trio of aces, are a force that no team can match up with and one that the Reds and Giants should fall to easily. The Phillies support their staff with a bullpen filled with strikeout machines and some of the best players in baseball, including Chase Utley and Jayson Werth. Philadelphia is loaded from top to bottom and has a championship formula. Expect them to be lifting the World Series trophy in a few weeks. World Series Odds: 5-1 Atlanta Braves The Braves are just good enough.

They were just good enough to make the playoffs and they are just good enough to give the Giants a little bit of a challenge in the first round. Atlanta made the playoffs on the back of a rotation with four solid starters, but really do not have the one or two overpowering aces a team needs to make a run for the World Series. It is the same story in the lineup, where the Braves are largely consistent from top to bottom but do not feature the kind of players who can change the game with one swing of the bat. San Francisco should be able to shut down Atlanta in the NLDS, and the Braves do not have the wealth of arms to keep up and sustain pitchers’ duels. Another year, another early Braves exit. World Series Odds: 30-1 San Francisco Giants The Giants are the only team in my mind that can challenge the Phillies for the NL pennant. San Francisco’s top three are almost as strong as Philadelphia’s big boys, and the Giants’ Brian Wilson is the best closer in the playoffs not named Mariano Rivera. With an excellent rotation and closer, San Francisco is well on its way to the formula needed for making a World Series. Unfortunately, the team’s offense is putrid. Outside of a few big hitters like Aubrey Huff and Buster Posey, everyone is severely underperforming. The Phillies staff will feast on San Francisco’s offense and the Giants’ staff will not be able to completely pick up the slack. Maybe next year. World Series Odds: 15-1

SPORTS

OCTOBER 6, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 21

Volleyball

Football

Men’s Soccer

Fordham 31-36 Holy Cross

Marist 0-1 Fordham

1 2 3 4 F FOR 14 7 3 7 31 HC 7 16 7 6 36 FU HC First Downs 22 32 Total Yards 411 500 Rushing 169 173 Passing 242 327 Punt Returns 1-4 1-27 Kick Returns 7-109 3-42 Comp-Att-Int 19-30-0 30-44-0 Punts 2-32 2-33 Time of Poss. 27:35 32:25 Individual Statistics PASSING-Holy Cross, Taggart 27-37-0 Fordham, Wayne 19-30-0 RUSHING-Holy Cross, Taggart 12-75-1 Fordham, Wayne 12-114-1 RECEIVING-Assumption, Edger 8-119-1 Fordham, Caldwell 7-119-0

Women’s Soccer Xavier 0-1 Fordham Fordham Sh Zieman 0 Murphy 1 Dougherty 2 Worden 5 Carballeira 1 Solimine 4 Ancelj 2 NowakowskiC 0 Romano 1 NowakowskiL 0 McDermott 3 Subs Rooney 0 Wah 0 Bergin 1 Abrams 0 Brady 0 Ingram 0 Totals 20 GK MIN Zieman 90: 00

GA 0

SOG 0 0 1 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 0

G 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 6

0 0 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Sav 7

Fordham Sh Meara 0 Ferrantello 0 Bekoe 3 Richardson 3 Curran 0 Axelsson 4 Gimand 3 Stalker 0 Nagel 3 Seidenthal 0 Hanly 0 Subs Valencia 1 Niyonsaba 0 Markowitz 1 Vigliotti 0 McHugh 1 Courtenay 0 Corrao 0 Totals 19 GK Meara

McGowan Faga Osborne George Curley Subs Touloumis

2 1 0 0 1

Rozmus Nacca Morales Bronski Totals GK Pilla

Sh 1 2 0 0 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0

SOG 0 1 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0

GK Perri Rosen

MIN GA 45: 00 0 45: 00 1

F0R XAV

1 0 0

G 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Sav 4 1

A 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

F 1 0

G 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

A 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Sav 4

SOG G 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0

A 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0

0

0

0

0

0 0 0 0 9

0 0 0 0 4

0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0

MIN 99:56

GA 1

Sav 6

1 0 0

Fordham Marist

2 0 0

OT 1 0

0 0 0 0 0

F 1 0

Fordham BS

K BA

Hart

1 0 0 Dalton 5 0 1 May 5 1 0 Diamantidis1 1 Wells 8 0 2 Griffiths 4 2 2 Friede 0 0 0 Keathley 0 0 0 Rodenberg0 0 0 Atwood 0 0 0 Ewing4 1 2 Totals 28 4 8

PCT BE

DIG PTS

.000 0 .176 0 .050 1 .0008 0 .294 0 .176 0 .000 0 .000 0 .000 0 .000 0 .273 1 .158 2

2 1.0 8 5.5 6 6.0 1.5 1 9.0 0 7.0 4 0.0 0 0.0 6 0.0 1 0.0 0 6.0 36 36.0

Xavier BS

K BA

PCT BE

DIG PTS

Paszkiewicz 0 Traut 0 Maut 0 Campbell 0 Voors 1 Brown a 0 Wells 0 Vorheer a 0 Rougraff 0 Totals 1

2 3 11 2 10 3 10 1 9 0 8 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 51 10

.500 0 .350 1 .769 0 .250 1 .227 0 .120 0 .000 0 1.000 0 .000 0 .312 2

8 4.5 5 13.0 0 11.5 7 10.5 3 10.0 4 9.5 1 0.0 15 2.5 6 0.0 49 61.0

1 18 25

FOR XAV

2 13 25

3 23 25

Manhattan 0-1 Fordham

Fordham 0-3 Dayton

Manhattan

Sh

SOG

G

A

Lands Montinard Ostrov Donowick Giachino Festa Russell Howard Donowick Carlacci Dragovich Subs Renner Nassar Vuckovic Cirollo Totals

0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0

0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0

Fordham K BS BA Friede 0 0 0 Dalton 8 0 1 May 6 0 0 Diamantidis 1 0 1 Griffiths 5 0 0 Ewing 6 1 2 Keathley 0 0 0 Rodenberg 0 0 0 Wells 7 0 0 Atwood 0 0 0 Totals 33 1 4

0 0 0 0 4

MIN

GA

Sav

Landis 90:00

1

6

Fordham

Sh

SOG

G

A

Meara Ferrantello Bekoe Niyonsaba Richardson Curran Axelsson Gimand Stalker Courtenay

0 0 0 1 3 0 2 1 0 2

0 0 0 1 3 0 2 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

Seidenthal 0 Subs Jolly 1 Valencia 0 Vigliotti 0 McHugh 0 Caputo 0 Nagel 3 Corrao 0 Totals 13

0

0

0 0

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 8

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

GK Meara

2 1 0

SOG 0 0 2 2 0 2 1 0 1 0 0

GA 0

Marist Sh Pilla 0 Carreras 0 Lavorato 0 Brossard 2 Witkowski 1 Szabo 2

GK Xavier Brooks Tweheues Wenzel Meyer Heap Sweeney Boersma Perri Whitaker shull Sterling Subs Rosen Green Burns White Mason Fields

MIN 90:00

Fordham 0-3 Xavier

MIN

GA

Sav

90:00

0

1

Manhattan Fordham

1 0 1

2 0 0

F 0 1

Dayton K BS BA Yanz 3 0 1 Karbacker 9 0 2 Novacek 8 0 3 Marten 2 0 4 Fletemier 9 0 4 Cowdrey 8 0 1 Vargas 0 0 0 Broerman 0 0 0 Morey 0 0 0 Brown 0 0 0 Gaerke 5 0 1 Totals 44 16 0

FOR DAY

1 15 25

PCT BE .000 0 .143 0 .065 0 .500 0 .214 1 .143 0 .000 0 .000 0 .188 1 .000 0 .143 2

PCT BE .429 0 .261 0 .571 0 .000 0 .533 0 .467 0 .000 0 .000 0 .000 0 .000 0 .833 0 .425 0

2 15 25

DIG PTS 3 0.0 3 8.5 8 7.0 5 2.5 0 5.0 0 8.0 2 0.0 1 0.0 3 7.0 3 0.0 28 38.0

DIG PTS 5 3.5 11 12.0 0 9.5 0 4.0 0 11.0 9 9.5 6 0.0 2 0.0 1 2.0 2 0.0 0 5.5 36 57.0

3 17 25

PAGE 22 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 6, 2010

MATT MANUSZAK

The Smush Parker Project There is very little that is fluky or capricious about the NBA and its players in terms of performance. A player is what he is.

There aren’t very many cases of spectacular seasons from mediocre ballers or vice versa; a Jose Bautista 54-home run season, for example, just isn’t going to happen.

Yes, players can “break out,” but the change usually comes from a mixture of internal development, increased playing time and a higher usage rating.

Not very much comes out of the blue, and because of this, proper construction of one’s team is an absolute necessity to become a contender. Corey Brewer isn’t going to slap up a 20, 5 and 5 season, and (barring injury) Pau Gasol isn’t going to start sucking, just as the Minnesota Timberwolves are going to be bad and the Los Angeles Lakers are going to be good.

In football, players at skill positions tend to have a much smaller window of peak play, and the size of the rosters, lack of guaranteed contracts and brutality of the game’s nature often make players seem like parts in a machine.

It’s a league where running backs can go from setting records to being released (like Larry Johnson) and stars often come out of nowhere. In baseball, teams like the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets, among others, can essentially just buy smaller-market teams’ best players after they qualify for arbitration.

In basketball, there is a process for rebuilding, and my team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, is about to start.

To root for one’s team to lose is admittedly against everything sports are about, and I’m not necessarily going to be doing that this season.

Let’s just say that I would not be disappointed (in the long run) if the Cavs lose quite a bit this season. I can say this now, typing on my laptop at 8 a.m. on a Monday before the start of the season, knowing I’ll likely be pretty damn upset when the Cavs undoubtedly get blown out at home, but the losing needs to happen.

The NBA is a star-driven league, and though teammates matter a lot (see the career of Kevin Garnett), an individual player can still greatly swing his squad’s fortunes. This comes in the draft, usually from the first 10 picks.

NBA teams go into the draft knowing it’s a crapshoot in terms of talent, that if they’re picking anywhere outside of the lottery (top 14), the best they can hope for is a solid rotation player and maybe a starter. That franchise player, however, the one whose mug will be on the side of your home arena, who will put the fans in the seats, take the last second shots and lead your team to the finals?

That Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade or Kevin Durant? He’s

waiting at the top of the draft, and you have to lose to get him. Think about every team that’s been successful in this league the past decade: they’ve typically been led by a top-of-the-draft talent. Even Steve Nash, who looks like he belongs anywhere else but the basketball court (get it, because he’s white) was taken 15th overall.

To be a great team, it starts with the draft, and that starts with losing.

While a team is desperately losing, trying to find its Jordan, it also has to shed payroll like Drew Carey shed all his excess “Drew Carey Show”-era blubber.

This means avoiding long-term contracts, passing on over-priced free agents and the acquisition of expiring contracts for future financial flexibility.

Many general managers either can’t resist or can’t afford to not spend money (stay with me) because of the attendance implications and instead settle for constant mediocrity, year after year.

Since the ’04-’05 season, the Indiana Pacers and President of Basketball Operations (and General Manager since 2008) Larry Bird have won no more than 44 and lost no more than 50 games in a season. That typically puts them somewhere between seventh and 11th in the Eastern Conference; the team is just mediocre enough to maybe snag a playoff spot and have the pleasure of getting swept by a superior team in the first round. They never are bottom feeders, but because of that, the Pacers haven’t been able to sign that franchise player and do this thing right. Yes, maybe they’ll fall ass-backward into a playoff spot and scoop up the gate receipts for their two home-playoff losses, but to never give your fans a shot to see a real winner?

As someone who has seen the benefits of being able to draft a top-of-the-draft stud over the past seven years, I can say it’s so worth it to do this thing right.

Rebuilding takes time. After you draft your potential stud, you have to surround him with other solid talent through the draft.

Maybe by Year 2 or 3, if you’re lucky, your stud is starting to pan out, and you’ve hit on some other draft picks and you swing some of those expiring contracts for more talent.

Maybe a few years later your squad finally breaks into the top four and gets that crucial homecourt advantage, but there’s still that one team always in the way: Thomas’ Pistons, Bird’s Celtics or Duncan’s Spurs. That’s when you tinker, and add that final piece to put you over the hump, like Rasheed Wallace for Detroit in 2004, Pau Gasol for the Lakers or even someone like P.J. Brown for Boston in 2008.

And even then, when it’s all set?

All you have is a shot. Even then, nothing is certain, but, again, the shot is worth it.

All the losing (even on purpose at times) all the empty seats, the players who don’t pan out: to build the right way and have a shot at the Finals is better than never having a shot at all. So I’ll sit through 30-point losses to the Heat and Magic and Celtics this year, hoping like other NBA fans that we’ll have our shot again.

SPORTS

Senior Profile: Jason Caldwell

By NICK CARROLL SPORTS EDITOR

Redshirt senior wide receiver Jason Caldwell has been Fordham’s standout offensive player throughout the season. Coming off a senior season where he racked up 1,252 yards and nine touchdowns, earning himself All-American honors, Caldwell (a preseason All-American) has come back to the Rams with 511 yards through five games despite catching passes from a firstyear starting quarterback in sophomore Blake Wayne, earning him a second senior profile to check in on the star receiver.

The Ram: Why did you decide to come to Fordham?

Jason Caldwell: I played basketball all my life and I was looking at other schools. I didn’t know about Fordham at the time. The coaches who are here now recruited me to Central Connecticut. I loved the coaches but I wanted to play in New York, so I went to prep school.

After that, the coaches came here and asked me again. They knew I loved the coaches so they brought me here and I fell in love with the campus. You can’t beat New York.

I’m from a rough area, Baltimore City; I was never exposed to money with my parents. One of the parents of one of my teammates worked for Merrill Lynch. After seeing that and seeing the kind of money he made, I wanted to be on the trading floor. I wanted to be in New York.

TR: You mentioned that you grew up playing basketball. How’d you end up playing football?

JC: I always grew up the short guy, got picked on growing up.

Basketball was always my thing.

My middle school didn’t even have a football team and my high school was big into lacrosse. I know guys who are All-Americans, so basketball was always my thing. Sophomore year I was asked to come out for the football team. I’m a natural athlete and it worked out. I just had to learn how to catch and I have big hands so it wasn’t too hard. Also I’m not tall enough for basketball.

You look around and the shortest guy on the court is usually 6’, 6’1”.

I’m 5’11”. I got offers to a lot of D-II schools, but they offer less money and I could use more money, take some weight off my mom.

TR: Since you got a late start playing football, when did you become comfortable playing football?

PHOTO BY MARK BECKER/THE RAM

Redshirt senior Jason Caldwell leads Fordham in receiving yards, with 511.

JC: I still don’t feel comfortable.

The hardest part is the stuff behind the scenes. Playing is just like backyard ball, just like tossing the ball around with your dad. It’s the politicking behind the scenes that’s the toughest part, the coaching aspect.

The coaching aspect is the toughest part and being disciplined. I’m more of a “go” guy and I have to keep my responsibilities. It’s a lot of responsibilities. It’ll help me in the future, getting up every day at six in the morning for meetings, then practice. In the future, six will be nothing. Get to the trading desk and the rest of the afternoon is a break. The responsibilities are the best times and worst times.

TR: You’ve had a lot of success here at Fordham and have made an impact on and off the field. What are you most proud of?

JC: It has to be the connections I made with people on and off the field, looking out for my best interests. From the deans to the

custodians, a lot of people want to know where you are, go through a lot of tough times but also a lot of great times. A lot of people, from Francis to Nancy, are looking out for you. I’ve shaken hands with millionaires. The network of Fordham football gives me confidence.

I’ve interned every summer since sophomore year through football alums; it’s the network that I took from this and I’m proud to be a part of it.

TR: You’ve accomplished a lot on the field. You were an AllAmerican last year; you’re having another great season this year. Are there any thoughts of trying to go to the NFL? JC: Honestly, I’ve been playing football, I don’t think I’m good enough. People telling me, NFL teams have been interested, but I’m more interested in getting a career in my field of interest. It’s more realistic to be on Wall Street – that’s my NFL.

Golf Finishes 10th at MacDonald Cup

By JOHN DEMARZO STAFF WRITER

After placing 10th in the 14-team Cornell Invitational the previous weekend, the Fordham University men’s golf team travelled to New Haven, Conn. to partake in the MacDonald Cup, a two-day tournament held at the Course of Yale.

Entrants in the field included host Yale, Binghamton, Central Connecticut and St. John’s.

For the Rams, it was a different

weekend but the same result: finishing 10th out of 14 teams with a score of 600 (298-302). St. John’s was the winner with a score of a 565, 15 strokes ahead of runner-up Yale (580).

Right behind Yale were Binghamton (582) and Central Connecticut (584).

Sophomore Jason del Rosso was the top finisher on the day, carding a total of 149 (71-78).

Finishing right behind him was fellow sophomore Brody Nieporte,

who shot a 150 (76-74). Junior Devon O’Rourke (76-75) and sophomore Connor Monaghan (7576) finished in a tie for third for Fordham, both carding 151, while freshman Ryan Donahue (82-77) and junior Charles Smith (80-79) finished tied for fifth with a score of 159.

The golf team will next be in action at the Big 5 Classic on Saturday, Oct. 9 and Sunday, Oct. 10 at the Plymouth Country Club in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.

OCTOBER 6, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 23

SPORTS

Water Polo Staying Afloat

By DANNY ATKINSON SPORTS EDITOR

PHOTO BY AARON MAYS/THE RAM

Senior two-meter man Mikey Edwards could not match his career-high seven goals, which came against Central Connecticut last season.

By CHESTER BAKER STAFF WRITER

Fordham water polo split a pair of matches this weekend to keep its record at .500. Fordham hosted Brown and Connecticut College for a doubleheader at the Lombardi Center. The Rams ended the weekend with a record of 9-9 overall, and a 3-2 record in the division.

The Rams could not pull of the upset against the No. 19 Brown Bears in the first matchup of the day, as Fordham fell 16-8. Brown came in heavily favored against Fordham. Brown improved to 5-1 in the ECAC, placing atop the conference.

If anyone had left the match at halftime, he or she would have been shocked by the final score.

The Rams were giving the Bears everything they could handle, and trailed only 5-3 after two quarters, but Brown went off for 11 goals in the second half, and held the Rams to just five goals over the next two periods.

Brown jumped out to a 9-4 lead early in the third quarter, and looked ready to put the win in the books, but senior two-meter man Mikey Edwards did all he could to keep Fordham alive, scoring three straight goals to cut the Brown lead down to two. However, after the surge from Edwards, Brown was able to control the pace of play throughout the second half, and had Fordham looking like a fish out of water.

Fordham had no answer for freshman attacker James McNamara, who led the Bears with five goals. Senior driver Alex Powell chipped in with two goals. Graduate student two-meter man Ali Arat was held relatively quiet throughout the match, and was not much of a factor on offense.

The eight-goal defeat was the second-biggest defeat on the season for Fordham, but in the sec-

ond match of the day the team earned its biggest victory on the season. Fordham defeated Connecticut College by 18 goals, 24-6.

The Rams got off to a strong start, and put up seven goals in the first period, just one shy of their goal total in the entire match against Brown.

Any chance Conn College had at winning disappeared when Fordham went on a 9-0 run in the middle of the second period.

Freshman goalie Eric Mullery made saves on six consecutive possessions during the run, and ended with 13 saves on the day. Mullery started the game in the cage for the Rams and played all four periods, and earning the first win of his college career.

The Rams’ defense was so dominant during the match that they did not give up a single goal in the second period, and Connecticut had a goal drought of about 11 minutes.

Edwards set his career-high in goals last season against Conn College when he scored seven times, and had success again against the Camels. Had Edwards not been pulled for most of the second half, he may have reached that number again, but had to settle for two goals.

Arat, who was held to just one goal by the Brown defense in the first match of the day, exploded for seven goals on Conn College, equaling his career-high.

Not to be outdone, junior twometer man J.D. Shrewsbury also set career-highs for assists and points on the day, as he was able to penetrate the Camel defense and set up his teammates with five assists and seven total points. The sophomore pair of driver Danny Baron and utility man Cashel Barnett each had two goals.

Fordham will look to carry the momentum of the win over Conn College this weekend when the team competes in the Claremont Convergence Tournament in Claremont, Calif.

Fifty home runs – what is so special about 50 home runs? Hank Aaron never had a 50-homer season, though he had between 40 and 47 homers eight different times.

Albert Pujols has not hit 50 homers in a season and the list goes on and on, from Ted Williams to Frank Thomas. You can be a great home run hitter and still not reach the 50 homer milestone. In the end, it is just a statistic, albeit an extremely impressive one.

The general disgust over the huge offensive numbers put up during the steroid era has led to a strange school of thought in which most fans and writers can only seem to accept a 50-homer season from a Pujols or a Mark Teixeira, from a star who seems on his way to becoming an all-time great. The Toronto Blue Jays’ right fielder Jose Bautista certainly does not fit into this category. Who the heck is Jose Bautista, and what is he doing hitting 54 home runs?

Bautista’s breakout in 2010 was one of the best stories of the MLB season. His homer total was remarkable, the most for a hitter since Ryan Howard’s 58 in 2006.

Bautista slugged .617 for Toronto, had a OPS+ of 166 and should get some MVP consideration for carrying the Blue Jays to 85 wins in the AL East.

Bautista has followed a fascinating path, jumping from city to city before finally catching on with Toronto the past few years. Bautista has equally excited and frustrated supporters, displaying decent plate discipline along with inconsistent flashes of power. He was a top prospect that teams whiffed on, and nobody thought that he was going to explode in 2010. However, by changing his batting setup and swing mechanics in a few sig-

nificant ways (slightly closer to the plate with his back foot, starting his leg click sooner, raising his hands), Bautista altered his timing. This alteration has led to a power jump that ranks as one of the most interesting and unprecedented in MLB history. His jump from 16 homers in 2009 to 54 in ’10 deserves to be questioned, but Bautista’s amazing season also stands on its own.

Instead it is being questioned by those who cannot escape the sins of the steroid era and insist on seeing the world of sports in black and white.

It’s no surprise that Joey Bats has faced questions about steroids, despite never having any connections to performance enhancers and being part of the same testing program as every other major league slugger. It started near the end of August with Bautista’s hometown papers discussing how the issues of steroids needed to be raised due to Bautista’s homer total, and the speculation has not stopped, with baseball writers and bloggers from the New York Daily News, The Wall Street Journal and AOL Fanhouse crassly speculating on Bautista’s guilt or innocence.

I can understand why fans and reporters are apt to question Bautista’s accomplishments. He has come out of nowhere and they are weary of being burned. Bautista does not deserve all the public scrutiny he has gotten, and even more significantly he does not deserve the public ignorance. Turn on ESPN and you won’t hear any discussion of Joey Bats’ magnificent season, and coverage is not much better in the national media. It is like Bautista’s accomplishments have been wiped off the face of the Earth.

How many times will Bautista have to do this to get the recognition he deserves? Who knows, but with one peek at baseball history, one realizes Bautista is power numbers

have not been quite as atypical as they seem.

I cannot deny that Bautista’s home run output has been extremely unusual and yes, fluky. In a year in which pitching statistics are at their best since the early 1990s and no one else approached 50 homers, having someone smack 54 home runs who had never hit more than 16 before is pretty shocking.

Yet there have always been unusual, out-of-the-blue homer totals that could sometimes be explained and sometimes not, and never with the easy excuse of “steroids did it.” Cynics will point to Brady Anderson’s 50-homer season in 1996 and Luis Gonzalez’s 57-homer campaign in ’01, but both always hit their fair share of doubles and recorded these seasons at the height of the “steroids era,” when everyone’s numbers were up. Both legitimate power hitters and nonhome run threats can have seasons when their homer totals are unusually impressive.

Roger Maris was a very good power hitter, but while he held the single-season home run record for four decades, it was the only time he ever hit over 40 homers, and Maris only twice hit 30. Hall of Famer Wade Boggs had more of his doubles go over the wall in 1987 and hit 24 homers, but only one other time reached double-digits in home runs.

Bautista almost definitely won’t put up this kind of home run total again, but that does not mean he cannot. Bautista seems to have turned a corner and should be one of the best power hitters in baseball for the next few years. Fans and writers should embrace Bautista’s story and accomplishments.

Following sports should not be a black-and-white affair. If you cannot appreciate Bautista’s story, than maybe you should not be a baseball fan.

Upcoming Varsity Schedule CAPS=HOME lowercase=away

Thursday Oct. 7

Friday Oct. 8

Saturday Oct. 9

Sunday Oct. 10

Monday Oct. 11

Tuesday Oct. 12

at Yale 12:30 p.m.

Football Metropolitan Championship 2:00 p.m.

Cross Country

Big 5 Classic Plymouth Meeting, Pa.

Golf

Men’s Soccer

at La Salle 7:00 p.m.

Women’s Soccer

at La Salle 5:00 p.m.

NJIT 1:00 p.m.

Men’s Tennis Marist Invitational Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Women’s Tennis

Water Polo

Volleyball

Women’s Rowing

Wednesday Oct. 13

at California Baptist 10:00 p.m.

Concordia 1:00 p.m. at CMS 5:00 p.m.

CHARLOTTE 7:00 p.m.

at UMass 1:00 p.m.

Whittier 2:40 p.m. at La Verne 8:00 p.m.

G.W. 7:00 p.m.

Head of the Housatonic Hamden, Conn.

at St. Francis 8:00 p.m.

VILLANOVA 7:00 p.m.

OCTOBER 6, 2010

PAGE 24

Football Drops Second Straight at Holy Cross Fordham Surrenders 500 yards of Offense in 36-31 Loss, Losing the Ram-Crusader Cup

By NICK CARROLL SPORTS EDITOR

Just two weeks ago, it seemed like Fordham’s defense turned a corner. After holding Columbia to only 275 yards in a 16-9 win, it seemed like this year’s defense might be much improved over the defense that plagued last year’s 5-6 team.

However, after suffering injuries to senior defensive lineman Jordan Bledsoe, junior linebacker Nick Womack, junior defensive lineman Patrick McGee and sophomore defensive lineman Anthony Lubischer, Fordham is right where it was a year ago.

In addition to struggling last week against Division II Assumption, the lack of depth was evident against Holy Cross over the weekend, as Fordham fell 36-31 and allowed the Crusaders to pick up 500 yards of offense.

“It’s hard to replace a great player [Bledsoe], it’s even harder to replace three or four players,” Head Coach Tom Masella said. “The defense is outmanned right now.

They did a great job of executing.

We’re getting a little overwhelmed physically up front.”

The quarterbacks led the way in the offensive shootout. Senior quarterback Ryan Taggart threw for 289 yards and a touchdown and added another 75 yards and a rushing touchdown for Holy Cross, while Blake Wayne became the first Fordham quarterback to rush for 100 yards, accumulating 114 on the ground and a touchdown.

Wayne also had a big day passing, throwing for 242 yards and two touchdowns, while completing his third-straight game without an interception. “[Wayne]’s gotten better and better,” Masella said. “He made the right reads, he made good decisions in the run game, and hasn’t turned it over. He’s making plays, he’s doing great. The offense is getting better and better because he’s getting better.”

“I’m more comfortable but I’m still learning,” Wayne said.

Taggart fired the first shot in the shootout, leading Holy Cross to a score on its first drive, capping it with a sneak to put the Crusaders on top 7-0.

Wayne quickly responded with a touchdown of his own. After using runs of 15 and 16 yards and a 20yard pass to senior tight end Stephen Skelton to get down the field, Wayne finished the drive with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Skelton to tie the game.

Fordham followed up the score by quickly forcing one of its two stops of the day, leading to great offensive field position at the Fordham 47.

With the outstanding field position, the Rams went to work.

Wayne started the drive with a 42yard pass to senior wide receiver Jason Caldwell, taking the Rams down to the Holy Cross 11. On the

PHOTO BY STEPHEN MOCCIA/THE RAM

Senior tight end Stephen Skelton had his biggest game of the year, catching seven passes for 69 yards and two touchdowns.

following play, Wayne put Fordham on top with an 11-yard touchdown run.

“We’re still trying to figure [Wayne] out,” Caldwell said.

“We’re starting to and we’re starting to come around on offense.”

As has been the case for most of the season, the defense failed to hold the lead. On the ensuing possession, Holy Cross worked its way downfield, converting twice on third down to extend the drive and eventually allow senior kicker Rob Dornfield to nail a 41-yard field goal to cut the lead to 14-10.

Fordham failed to respond, moving to midfield before stalling; however, it was fourth down that proved to be most troublesome to the Rams. After a bad snap re-routed sophomore punter Patrick Murray, Murray was tackled for a loss of four at the Holy Cross 49.

Like Fordham did earlier in the game, Holy Cross quickly took advantage of the field position.

Only seven plays and a little over two minutes later, Holy Cross took the lead on a 26-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Kevin Watson to senior wide receiver Bill Edger.

Despite Holy Cross’ senior wide receiver fumbling on the punt return after a Fordham three-andout, the Rams failed to capitalize.

After working their way down to the Holy Cross 34, the Rams tried to convert on fourth-and-4; however, after Wayne picked up 15 yards scrambling, he fumbled and Holy Cross recovered the ball at its own 19.

“I just gotta hold on to the ball,” Wayne said. “I didn’t see the guy, I thought the hit was coming from the other way. That can’t happen.”

It did not take long for Holy Cross to take advantage of the turnover. Taggart started the drive with a 25-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Gerald Mistretta and Holy Cross was in business. After Taggart picked up 11 on the ground on third-and-8, the Crusaders expanded their lead with a 17-yard touchdown run by sophomore running

back Sam Auffant. However, the extra point was blocked, keeping the score at 23-14.

With only 1:36 remaining in the half, Fordham took to the air to try to get back in the game, and Wayne made up for his costly fumble on the previous possession. Wayne picked apart the Holy Cross defense for 61 yards on the drive, eventually finishing it off with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Skelton to cut the lead to 23-21 going into halftime.

The touchdown was Skelton’s second of the game and season, marking the first big game for the preseason All-American this season. On the day, Skelton ended up with 69 yards and two touchdowns.

“We figured if we’re going to start winning games we gotta get him the ball,” Wayne said. “Whenever he has the ball he can make plays, so we made it a priority to get him the ball. He made some plays and now I have a lot more trust that if I throw it up to him he can make plays, like he did.”

Despite the momentum going into halftime, Fordham failed to capitalize. Holy Cross had the ball first in the second half and went right back to work. The Crusaders successfully converted all three third downs they faced, and marched 80 yards in 15 plays, capped by a 1-yard touchdown by sophomore running back Eddie Houghton to make the score 3021.

“We were timid, afraid to make mistakes,” Caldwell said. “Guys just stuck to their roles. The past few weeks we were trying to do too much. We haven’t developed an identity so guys have been trying to do too much. The coaches yelled at us to stick to roles so the players just stuck to their roles.

We strayed from being players; we were robots and we didn’t make any plays.”

Despite the two-score lead, Fordham did have its opportunities to get back in the game. After a 39-yard Murray field goal cut the lead to 30-24, the Rams forced a

three-and-out and had the ball at their own 46.

However, after driving down to the Holy Cross 24, the drive stalled and Wayne was stopped twice for no gain on third-and-2 and fourthand-2, getting the Crusaders the ball and control of the game.

However Fordham still had its chances. On the following drive, Holy Cross faced third-and-4 at the Fordham 47, but Taggart ran for six yards and the first down.

Later on the drive, the Crusaders faced a fourth-and-4 at the Fordham 35; however, Taggart completed a 6-yard pass to Edger for another first down. Then, fittingly, Holy Cross finished off the drive with an 11-yard touchdown on third-and-5 to make the score 36-24 (once again, Dornfield failed to convert the extra point).

With just less than 10 minutes remaining, it seemed as if the Rams

still had a little bit of life. However, on the ensuing drive, Fordham struggled to move the ball down the field quickly and took over six minutes to get into the end zone, which the Rams eventually did on a 6-yard run by sophomore running back Carlton Koonce.

With the game on the line, Fordham desperately needed a quick stop to give its offense a chance to win the game. However, on thirdand-6, Taggart rushed for seven to the Holy Cross 39 to extend the drive with over three minutes left.

Later on the drive, when faced with a third-and-4 at their own 45, Holy Cross converted again, this time with a 6-yard run by Taggart that sealed the victory for the Crusaders.

“We’re struggling to find an identity,” Masella said. “We’re not making plays on third down. The kids are in position, just didn’t make plays.”

With the win, Holy Cross improved to 2-3 going into a matchup with 2-1 Brown.

The loss drops Fordham to 2-3 on the season, setting up another Patriot League showdown with 2-2 Lehigh, whose two losses have both come at the hands of ranked teams, in Villanova and New Hampshire.

“They’re very physical on defense,” Masella said. “They run the ball, very balanced, look for big plays. We have to play well on offense, defense and special teams.

They’re well-coached. The situation we’re in, we have to keep fighting. We’re pleased with the effort, not the results. We have to stop the run first of all. Then we have to get pressure and make the plays. We have to keep fighting on defense, hope they believe in themselves, because we believe in them.”

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/THE RAM

For his efforts against Holy Cross, sophomore quarterback Blake Wayne was an FCS honorable mention for Quarterback Performer of the Week.