Volume 92 Issue 17 by The Fordham Ram

ONLINE-ONLY: TIERNEY HALL TO BECOME UPPERCLASS DORM, MANRESA PROGRAM MOVING TO SOUTH OR MARTYRS’ SERVING THE FORDHAM UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY FOR OVER 90 YEARS

1918-2010

OCTOBER 27, 2010

VOLUME 92, ISSUE 17

Fox News’s Juan Williams Speaks at Fordham Veteran News Analyst Gives First Lecture After Firing from National Public Radio; Focuses on Education, Age and Class in American Society By PATRICK DEROCHER NEWS EDITOR

Fox News analyst and commentator Juan Williams spoke at an Academia Hispania and ASILI cosponsored event in Tognino Hall in Duane Library on Oct. 21 in his first speaking engagement since being fired by National Public Radio on Oct. 20. Williams, whose recent ouster came after remarks on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor” were taken as offensive to Muslims, acknowledged the controversy early in his lecture. “It has been an interesting few days,” he said. “It is quite the experience, being in the center of a controversy like this.” Williams’ firing came in response to a discussion with “O’Reilly Factor” host Bill O’Reilly in which he expressed concern over airline passengers dressed in “Muslim garb” “When I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried,” he said, “I get nervous.” Although he did not directly address the controversy during his main lecture, he fielded multiple audience questions regarding the matter. At each question, Williams emphasized the context in which the remark was framed. In his interview with O’Reilly, Williams

noted on multiple times that his past work and involvement in the history of the civil rights movement indicated his unwillingness to let racial prejudice and preconceptions affect his decision-making: “I’m not a bigot,” he said in his interview with O’Reilly. “You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country.” Elsewhere in the program, Williams specifically decried such responses to the proposed mosque as Koran burning and other backlashes. “It was not even an opinion I was describing,” he said at Fordham. “It was a gut reaction, an irrational fear.” Although Williams did not specifically disown what he said on “The O’Reilly Factor,” he nevertheless said that he regretted any offense anyone had taken at the remark. When asked directly about the matter of political correctness invading and, as he put it, “paralyzing” discourse, Williams said that he believed that NPR’s response to his remarks was indeed an example of that “paralysis.” In keeping with his main body of work and research, Williams dedicated his lecture to talking about the role of race, class and other social divisions in American life, a topic to which audience members SEE WILLIAMS ON PAGE 3

PHOTO BY CAROLINE DAHLGREN/ THE RAM

Speaking at Tognino Hall in Duane Library on Oct. 21, former NPR news analyst Juan Williams, in his first appearance since being let go from that position, discussed matters of prejudice, preconception and demographics in America.

Loyola Chair Discusses Poetry and Spirituality at Lecture By EMILY ARATA CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Easter, according to Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, is a verb that means allowing the empowering spirit of Christ to come alive in the minds, hearts and souls of followers. This is the basis of the lecture “Let Him Easter In Us: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Ignatius Loyola, and the Spiritual Consolations of Poetry,” given by Dr. Rev. Francis X. McAloon, S.J., on Monday evening. McAloon is currently associate professor of Christian spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University in addition to Fordham University’s fall 2010 Loyola Chair. He has spent the last 10 years studying poetry as a religious medium. McAloon focused on the consolatory poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins as a mode of non-Biblical prayer in contemporary life. He believes that, by working poetry into prayer, Christians open themselves to an entirely new spiritual experience, which he referred to as “reading for transformation.” In fact, Hopkins himself spent his life as a Jesuit priest. Born in 1844, the Victorian poet composed poetry that was stylistically far ahead of his time. None was published during his lifetime for fear it would not be well received. The first book of Hopkins’ poetry was not published

until 1917. He was raised Anglican but converted, later studying at Oxford in addition to spending many years in parish work. He passed a great deal of his life struggling with his dual urges to be both a priest and a poet, since that was not a common occurrence at a time when rules for the ordained were extremely rigid. Hopkins’ consolatory poetry mainly focuses on the beauty of nature and the way it reflects the glory of God. McAloon took a moment to clarify this statement, saying that he often tells his students that, “the best way for a cow to bring glory to God is by simply being a cow.” The poet also parallels many creatures and objects in nature to art and music. His poems are a sensory experience, focusing on specific details rather than general ideas. The poet died from tuberculosis in 1889 at the age of 44. The first poem discussed was arguably Hopkins’ most popular piece, “Pied Beauty.” McAloon performed a reading of the poem, taking time to explain each line. The poem revels in the “dappled” quality of nature; namely, that all God’s creatures are beautiful in their imperfections and differences. It also refers to farm fields, which McAloon discussed as a reference to how even the simplest human work gives glory to God. He also spent time discussing the fact that Hopkins’ poetry “gives us words with which to find ourselves,”

acknowledging that creating our own prayers and meditations is far from easy. The daunting task can be made easier by using poetry to express intended feelings and praises. The second poem read was “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” a striking piece which begins with imagery of brilliantly colored creatures and moves on to the role of humans in creation yet again. After a reading of the poem, McAloon called the attention of his audience to Hopkins’ focus on action and movement. He struck a note with his listeners when likening the tolling bell in the poem to our very own bell in the University Church. McAloon discussed at length the sentiment at the very core of Hopkins’ poetry: humans created in the image of Christ. According to him, the just person is the one who realizes that the truest embodiment of self is Christ, since we are created in His image. Thus, the actions of Christ in the world are really based upon the actions of Christians in the world.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM.EDU

Francis X. McAloon, S.J., of Santa Clara University spoke about British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins at his Loyola Chair Lecture on Oct. 19.

McAloon concluded with a brief restatement of the fact that Hopkins’ poetry opens readers up to a whole new experience. Very often we overlook the fact that this simplest of human endeavors brings great glory to God. Hopkins, well ahead of his con-

temporaries, was one of the first to acknowledge this view. The cow still brings glory to its Creator just by being a cow, much as the student brings glory just by being a student. In the opinions of McAcloon and Gerard Manley Hopkins, God is easily accessible to all of us.

Sports PAGE 24

Opinions PAGE 6

Culture PAGE 13

Football wins Family Weekend game over Lafayette.

An argument for caffeine options near the library.

Haunted places on Fordham’s campus.

INSIDE

NEWS

PAGE 2 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 27, 2010

SECURITY

BRIEFS

Oct. 20, Southern Boulevard, 4-9 p.m. Two students, both parked between Bedford Park Boulevard and the main University entrance, separately reported windows being broken on their cars. In one case, a student’s Panasonic car stereo was stolen, and a police report was filed. For the other student, there was an unsuccessful attempt to steal her radio. Oct. 22, O’Hare Hall, 4 a.m. Wires to the alarm in the doorway leading to Stairway W were cut on two separate occasions, presumably to circumvent normal sign-in procedures. Facilities was notified and repaired the alarm. Oct. 23, E. 189th Street and Cambreleng Avenue, 1 a.m. A student and his friend engaged a group of local residents and began playing football with them. One of their new acquanitances asked to use the student’s Blackberry. When the student gave it to him, the man fled the scene. Another male engaged the student and his friend in a game of slap boxing, which escalated into punches being thrown. One of the students suffered a small welt over his eye. Oct. 23, Loschert Hall, 2 a.m. A student accidentally stumbled into the hose station on the first floor, activating the fire alarm. The building was evacuated and the fire alarm reset.

Exterior Work Begins on Hughes Hall Excavation, Rerouting of Utilities Begins as Work Progresses in Renovation for Gabelli School of Business Headquarters By PATRICK DEROCHER NEWS EDITOR

The construction equipment and subsequent excavation that has appeared alongside Hughes Hall and nearby buildings in the past several days have been the first outwardly visible signs of the construction work that will transform the former dormitory into a new headquarters for the University’s Gabelli School of Business. Although various representatives of GSB and the wider University have discussed the renovation process at much length, and the Sept. 25 rededication of the school included ceremonial interior demolition, this is the first time the Fordham community at large has seen work actively being done on the building. “We are currently rerouting some pipes that are under the building,” Marc Valera, vice president of facilities management, said. “These utilities will now be going around the building.” Another major part of this excavation, according to Valera, is the placement of a 50 foot box containing all necessary electrical connections for the building and its construction. Valera said that he anticipates the current process of realigning steam pipes, electrical lines and other utilities to take about two or three months, during which time the temporary fencing that surrounds the site right now will become permanent. The next step in the Hughes renovation will be to perform a “soft demolition,” wherein the non-structural parts of the building’s interior will be removed. Because the current structure is more than 100 years old and built with a wooden structure, the reconstruc-

tion will involve placing a new, steel frame in the building, thus assuring its future structural integrity. “We will be lowering the new frame in through the roof,” Valera said, adding that, although the new frame will be physically close to the current frame, it will not be in the exact same place. This, according to Valera, is largely because of the building’s new intended uses. “This will be a classroom building, and we obviously cannot have support beams in the middle of a classroom,” he said. Once the new steel structure is in place, there will be a “hard demolition,” entirely eliminating the old frame. Work on these processes will start in late winter and continue into the spring. Valera said that, while weather is always a concern during major building projects, the timing of this particular project means that it may be a bigger concern than usual. However, he also noted that the project’s expected fall 2012 completion date anticipates the possibility of some delays. “We’ve built in some slack time, some contingency time,” he said. “So there is some room in that schedule.” The final major work on Hughes Hall’s exterior, once structural and demolition work are finished, will be its new roof. This roof will include a penthouse containing electric, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment. Having said in the past that the roof will be composed of either glass or metal, Valera did not at this point specify which material will be used. In addition to the aforementioned structural changes, Valera said that time will be devoted toward the end of

A student reported that another student punched him in the nose for being a Yankees fan. Oct. 23, 2357 Hughes Avenue, 11 p.m.

COURTESY OF REBECCA HORNE

Students representing Fordham Smart Women’s Securities met with leaders at J.P. Morgan to discuss opportunities for women in the world of finance.

Oct. 24, Southern Blvd. and Bedford Park Blvd., 1:15 a.m.

By REBECCA HORNE

A student reported that two males in their early 20s approached and attempted to rob him; he ran to the security gate, and no property was taken.

For Smart Woman Securities, one of Fordham’s newest clubs, last Friday marked a new beginning in the organization’s professional development. Four representatives from the SWS Fordham chapter joined almost 100 delegates from SWS National at J.P. Morgan’s Manhattan offices for a day of personal attention from banking professionals. Though SWS National has claimed an official partnership with J.P. Morgan since this past summer, Fordham’s chapter finally reaped the benefits of this relationship at Friday’s J.P. Morgan Mentorship

Oct. 24, Salice-Conley Hall, 4:12 p.m. An elevator containing two students became stuck; FDNY responded, removing the students unharmed. The elevator company responded and fi xed it. -COMPILED BY PATRICK DEROCHER

the project to landscaping and interior furnishings, much in the same way as with Campbell and Salice-Conley Halls. Comparing this project to the new dormitories, Valera conceded that its effect on the student body would be rather different from the Campbell and Salice-Conley project. “This will be right in the middle of campus,” he said. “With the dorms, it was really off in a corner of campus, and only people in Martyrs’ or the library were affected. With Hughes, just about everybody will see and hear what we will be doing there.”

He did, however, say that facilities management would be working to ensure that the renovation affects student life as little as possible. Finally, in keeping with the University’s recent efforts at improving its environmental-friendliness, Valera said that the greenness of the Hughes Hall project was a major concern. “We are building it within sustainable guidelines and making the building energy-efficient,” he said, adding that, although the University will likely be seeking LEED certification, he was not yet sure which level of certification the building would qualify to receive.

Smart Women’s Securities Meets with J.P. Morgan

Oct. 23, Finlay Hall, 4 a.m.

A student reported that he left his apartment around midnight and shortly thereafter found his phone missing. On Oct. 25, he called his number, and the man who answered claimed to have paid $200 for the phone and refused to identify himself or return the phone until he was compensated. Security is investigating.

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/ THE RAM

Holes that have been appearing around Hughes Hall in recent days are being dug to allow rerouting of utilities and pipe systems around the building.

STAFF WRITER

Launch. From a pool of over 200 applicants, which included SWS members at Harvard, Yale and Columbia, six Fordham women were selected to receive a personal J.P. Morgan mentor from a banking division that interested them. Of these six, four made the trip to the launch event to meet their mentors and tour two of J.P. Morgan’s Midtown office buildings. “The J.P. Morgan event was an amazing networking opportunity and it also gave me a great insight into the company and the different segments it is comprised of,” Bisera Todorovic, GSB ’12, said. The all-day event began with breakfast in a J.P. Morgan confer-

ence room and opening remarks from an associate in the bank’s social finance group. The attendees, which numbered approximately 100 women from Ivy League universities and Boston College, were then paired off with their mentors and treated to over an hour of personal job shadowing. Mentors’ roles varied from first-year analyst positions in special equities to multi-year veterans in debt capital markets. After getting a micro-level perspective of J.P. Morgan’s day-to-day operations, the SWS representatives were directed back to the conference room where they listened to presentations from J.P. Morgan professionals. These panel discussions covered such topics as women’s roles in the firm, how one should construct her candidacy for a position at the firm and how SWS has helped its alumnae to achieve analyst positions there. Angela Terra, CBA ’10, is one such SWS alumna who is now serving as a special equities analyst since her founding of Fordham’s SWS chapter last year. “The panel speakers were great, and I learned tremendously about the culture of J.P. Morgan,” Todorovic said. In the future, Fordham’s SWS mentees will be responsible for continuing a positive relationship with their J.P. Morgan mentors. SWS National’s ultimate goal is that the firm will motivate young women to pursue careers in finance and have an active network already working

in the industry. In addition to the J.P. Morgan Mentorship Launch, Fordham’s SWS chapter recently sponsored a lecture by Terence Begley, CEO of corporate banking at PNC. Upcoming events for the organization include seminars on financial valuation and the campus-level SWS investment project.

weekTHISat

FORDHAM Fri., Oct. 29 Laennec Society Masquerade for Cancer, O’Keefe Commons, 8 p.m.-12 a.m. Sat., Oct. 30 Yoga, Keating B 23, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Sun., Oct. 31 OSL&CD Sunday Night Football, Student Lounge, 8 p.m.-11:30 p.m. Mon., Nov. 1 Irish Dance Practice, Rose Hill Commons 234, 8-9 p.m. Tues., Nov. 2 Cinevents: Inception, Keating 1st Auditorium, 8:30-11:30 p.m. Wed., Nov. 3 ASILI Weekly Meeting, KE B21, 2:30-4:30 p.m. — COMPILED BY ABIGAIL FORGET

NEWS WILLIAMS, FROM PAGE 1

tended to respond well. “Overall, I thought that Juan Williams’ talk was very interesting,” Catherine McNamara, FCRH ’12 said. “Through his lecture, Williams brought those of us in the audience along with him in his research experience, letting us know that he was just as surprised as we were to find that race is not the hot-button political issue that we all believe it to be anymore.” Immigrants and the contributions of immigration to American society and population growth formed a sort of jumping-off point for Williams’ lecture. “You look at the birth rate among white women and see that it is falling,” he said. “For black women it is flattening out and starting to fall and for Hispanic women, it is beginning to flatten out.” The United States’s population growth, he went on to say, can be attributed to recent immigrants and first-generation Americans. “They are changing the way we think about being American,” he said. According to Williams, these recent Americans represent future opportunities in the United States, in addition to future conflicts and injustices. As a corollary to the large immigration rate and immigrant birthrate, Williams noted, the population of the United States is increasingly youthful, with a full 25 percent (or about 75 million people) being under the age of 18. He also said that, as an aftereffect of the Baby Boom that saw nearly 80 million births between 1946 and 1964, a large segment of the population is aging at the same time as a historically high number are below voting age. “Right now, almost 20 percent of Americans are 65 or older,” he said. “Next year, the first of the Baby

Boomers will start turning 65, and so that demographic is going to become even larger.” Although Williams said that this age group is indeed very active and involved politically, it is often disconnected with the realities of the opposing demographic shift toward a younger, more ethnically diverse American population. “They see these new, younger Americans and think, ‘I don’t like their music, or the way they dress,’ because it is something uncomfortable for them,” he said. In particular, Williams noted that the elderly population in the area surrounding Orlando, Fla., while unexpectedly youthful in their actions and active in their politics (he specifically mentioned one retirement home’s rock band), often voted against long-term projects in which they saw little value for themselves. Senior citizens, he said, were largely responsible for the defeat of proposals including rail transportation, subdivision development and school budgets. When asked about how he saw this dichotomy playing out in the near future, Williams said that, while he does not see persons under the age of 18 being granted the right to vote to offset the graying population, he believed that young adults would be increasingly motivated to vote for such measures as the aforementioned school budgets. These opposing demographic shifts were cited as part of what Williams called a shift in conflict and prejudices from racially and ethnically motivated to education- and class-based. Another aspect of this shift that Williams discussed was the movement of the educated class away from men and toward women. He talked about a visit he made to a high school in Minneapolis as an example of this movement. “I went in expecting a more eth-

OCTOBER 27, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 3

PHOTO BY CAROLINE DAHLGREN/ THE RAM

In an event sponsored by Fordham clubs Academia Hispania and ASILI, Juan WIlliams of FOX News spoke for on matters of race, class and education in his first speech after being let go from his long-term post at National Public Radio.

nically diverse population,” he said, but he noted that there was a different change a veteran teacher at that school pointed out to him. “She said that among student leaders, nine out of 10 were young women […] eight out of 10 of the brightest students […] and five out of 10 of the school’s star athletes were all young women.” Going on to discuss the increasing gap in higher education between men and women, including the fact that now, women outnumber men in all graduate degree programs except for physics and engineering, Williams stated that women were increasingly becoming the better-off, educated class in the United States.

“Young men simply cannot keep up right now,” he said, moving on to the third and final major component of his lecture. Discussing the matter of dissolving family structures, Williams directly brought up the matter of race and its relationship with emerging prejudices and challenges in American culture. “The family unit itself is in flux,” he said. “Seventy percent of black children are born out of wedlock. These children are being raised by their grandmother, their neighbors or street gangs,” a phenomenon that he linked to increases in violent behavior and criminal offenses by young black men.

It is this breakdown of the family to which Williams most directly attributed the problems plaguing American youth and young men and women in racial minority groups in particular. Speaking somewhat more optimistically, Williams challenged his audience, whom he praised on multiple occasions as more concerned with national and global events and problems, to stand against prejudices and preconceptions impeding free and open thought and discussion. “Looking at you here, I know you are all going to be successful,” he said. “And it will be you who solves these problems.”

USG, Kugel Address Increasing Intoxication Transport Concerns Student Safety a Major Talking Point Regarding Alcohol Consumption; First-Ever Fordham College at Rose Hill Dean’s Council Honored, Inaugurated By VICTORIA RAU ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Increased Transports Fordham University Emergency Medical Service had 36 intoxication-related student transports in September, up from 25 in Sept. 2009, Sara Kugel, FCRH ’11, executive president of United Student Government, told USG members, bringing to their attention an issue that Christopher Rodgers, dean of students, raised to the Student Life Council executive board. “These statistics are very concerning,” Kugel said. “Clearly we need to do more as a school to make sure students are drinking responsibly.” Senators discussed possible reasons that these figures are on the rise, identifying increasingly academically talented freshman classes, which might include students with less experience drinking, and the popularity of potentially dangerous drinks such as the alcoholic energy drink Four Loko as possible factors. Regardless of the cause, Kugel stressed that the increased number of transports merits USG’s attention, especially because the number of transports does not include intoxicated students who received medial attention from FUEMS

but were not transported. “These aren’t just numbers, this is real life and I hope students see this as a wake-up call,” Kugel said. “The greater that number becomes, the greater chance we lose a student to alcohol poisoning.” “We are in the process of creating a comprehensive survey to pinpoint where the problem lies which will help us develop a smart marketing plan,” Kugel said of USG’s planned efforts to raise awareness of the dangers of drinking to such excess. “The culture is what it is on campus; we’re a college,” Kugel said in acknowledging the social realities of the situation and the fact that the way advisory information is presented makes a difference in its reception by students. “We take this seriously because it is serious,” Kugel said. “I hope every student and group on campus understands this and helps alleviate the problem.”

Dean’s Council USG honored the newly instated Fordham College academic dean’s council at their meeting on Oct. 21. Sandie Habib, FCRH ’12, vice president of Fordham College, will lead the council as chairperson while Sean Radomski, president of FCRH ’11, will serve as vice-chair, Angelo La-

bate, FCRH ’12, vice president of health and security, will serve as associate chair and Alison Daly, vice president of FCRH ’12, will serve as secretary of the council. The Fordham College at Rose Hill Academic Dean’s Council, whose counterpart in the Gabelli School of Business works with Dr. Donna Rapaccioli, dean of GSB, will meet periodically with Michael Latham, dean of FCRH, to discuss academic issues and provide feedback for specific major programs. Habib said that the council as a whole will tackle one or two overall goals for FCRH, and the individual representatives to each major department that compose the council will work on initiatives within that department. “For this year, our long-term goal will be to launch a Fordham College Career Fair in conjecture with career services,” Habib said. “This will primarily be a discipline-based career fair where students will work with each of their departments in order to better understand the type of career placements them and their peers would want present.” Radomski stressed that it is crucial that council members reach out to professors in their major departments.

“As vice chair, I hope to direct fellow council members to the correct faculty and administration officials in order to help them bring positive changes to their majors’ curriculum,” Radomski said. “I believe that this council will result in changes in major requirements both this year and in years to come.” In order to facilitate dialogue and transparency between the student body and deans with regard to academics, the council will also help Latham to put on a “Dine with the Dean” event, such as the one USG held last year, in addition to town-hall style meetings with the dean. Habib proposed the creation of a dean’s council for FCRH last May and worked with Latham throughout the summer to get the council approved in August, she said. Applications were due toward the end of September, and Radomski, Labate and Habib held interviews for dean’s council applicants in early October. “Students should have a say in their education, and it was apparent that Fordham College students had some complaints about their education,” Habib said in reflecting on her reasons for pursuing the formation of a dean’s council for FCRH.

“We thought ‘what better way to address these problems [than to] create a council that could work alongside the academic dean of Fordham College and really make changes,’” Habib said. “This way, students are taking the initiative to really get involved in their education and work alongside their peers. This is a huge step in Fordham College in both student involvement and transparency.”

New VP 2011 The senate voted to name Chelsea Becher the new vice president of FCRH ’11 to replace Elisabeth DeBeus, who had to resign from the position for personal reasons. Becher and Christopher Gannon, FCRH ’11, former USG senator, presented their qualifications to the senate and took questions relating to senior nights in addition to other initiatives they might want to pursue as part of a senior senate. Becher, a double major in French literature and art history who has never been involved with USG but actively participates in other clubs on campus such as New Student Orientation and the French Club, emphasized international student issues in her pitch to the senate. She promptly joined the senior senate after the vote.

NEWS

PAGE 4 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 27, 2010

Fordham in Brief Fordham Hosts U.N. Fellows to Discuss New Media The Internet has fundamentally changed how reporters cover international journalism, Dr. Jonathan Sanders, visiting assistant professor in the communication and media studies department, told 10 foreign journalists from the United Nations’ Reham Al-Farra Memorial Journalists Fellowship Program at a workshop on Oct. 14. The graduate program in public communications hosted the workshop at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus, entitled “International Affairs and Journalism on the Internet,” and has hosted it for the past three years. “I was thrilled when members from the U.N.’s Advocacy and Special Events and the Department of Public Information opened a discussion about partnering with their journalism fellowship program three years ago,” Dr. Robin Andersen, professor of communication and media studies and associate chair of the graduate program in public communications, said. “We provide the journalists with two days of intense professional training in covering global affairs.”

Sanders, an innovator in the telecommunications industry and an international journalist who served as CBS News Moscow correspondent, used the New York Times as an example of a publication “no longer thinking in columns” and moving forward with new media technology. The New York Times, which is arguable the single best newspaper in international reporting, they are turning to more video,” Sanders said. “This [field] is changing. The Times even streams a newsroom planning discussion every day at 1:30 p.m., called ‘TimesCast,’ in which they show their decisionmaking process for the next day’s paper. This sets a lot of agendas in the world.” Sanders praised the way video allows viewers to connect to international events on a more personal level. “This technology seems like magic,” he said. “It allows us to transfer images from one side of the world to another at a very low cost.” Some of the journalists, such as Anika Kentish, a radio reporter for Observer Radio from Antigua and Barbuda, have already been putting the technology Sanders emphasized to good use. Kentish used

Skype video to interview Haitians that had Internet access on Observer Radio in the wake of January’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake in that country. The journalists attending the workshop, from countries such as Bahrain, Mozambique and Togo, are in the midst of a six-week trip during which they have attended several events at the U.N. and toured major media outlets and pertinent non-governmental organizations in New York City. A trip to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. is also on the agenda. Topics such as “Photojournalism, Conflict and Crisis” and “Mass Media Law in the U.S.” comprised the workshops, led by members of Fordham’s faculty. The participants attended workshops over a two-day period.

Exports Emphasized as Crucial at Tribute Dinner The United States Department of State is actively promoting American companies abroad as part of an effort to increase exports, which the State Department sees as the key to triggering job growth, according to Robert D. Hormats, un-

der secretary for economic, energy and agricultural affairs at the State Department. Hormats spoke to dignitaries and business representatives as part of a reception and dinner event at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. “We understand that you just can’t leave it to companies alone,” Hormats said. “You need highlevel advocacy. One of the things that we’re trying to do is to demonstrate that the federal government is engaged in that advocacy.” “When the president goes out, he has two or three or four companies on a list, and he raises them with the president of China, with a number of others, where he identifies particular projects,” he said. The Business Council for International Understanding sponsored the event in order to honor ambassadors from Libya, Tunisia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Oman, Egypt and Saudi Arabia as part of the U.S.-Middle East Business & Export Promotion Tour. Chairman of the Fordham Board of Trustees John Tognino individually acknowledged each of the ambassadors in his opening remarks. “Fordham is proud to say we are the Jesuit University of New York,

but I think we can safely say for that this evening, we’re the Jesuit University of the world,” he said. President Barack Obama commenced the tour, the first under the National Export Initiate that is sending ambassadors to cities such as New York, Chicago, Houston and Seattle, in conjunction with his goal to double U.S. exports and create two million American jobs in the next five years. Hormats said he sees ambassadors as important factors in fostering trade and development in their countries for both big and small businesses. The focus on the tour is Middle Eastern countries because the focus on and profit from oil in those countries leaves much room for development in other industries. “The countries of the region are buzzing with new projects aimed at diversifying their economies and providing job opportunities for what is a very young population,” Hormats said. “Those kids want to get jobs [. . .] and if they don’t have the opportunities to get jobs, not only is it seriously frustrating for them, but it will also have serious social and political implications, and that’s of course an important part of helping them strengthen their development capabilities.”

Fordham Celebrates Family Weekend By PATRICK DEROCHER NEWS EDITOR

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/ THE RAM

PHOTO BY CAROLINE DAHLGREN/ THE RAM

Fordham University hosted parents, siblings and other family members from around the country as it held its annual Family Weekend festivities from Oct. 22 to Oct. 24. Kicking off with a Welcome Reception in the McGinley Center Ballroom on the afternoon of Oct. 22, the weekend was built around giving University students’ families a taste of what life is like at Fordham. “I want to thank all of the families who are here today,” Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, said during the Family Weekend Mass. “And I want to thank you for sending your children to us.” The Mass, which was on Oct. 23, came immediately after the Fordham Rams beat the Lafayette Leopards 14-10 in the Family Weekend football game. “Notre Dame lost to Navy. Georgetown lost,” McShane said at the Mass. “It is a good

day.” The weekend’s activities were designed so that family members of all ages, interests and backgrounds would find something to do. Besides the football game and the Mass, some well-attended events included a concert put on by the Fordham University Choir and Women’s Choir held shortly after Saturday’s Mass; Parent’s University, a program wherein selected Fordham faculty taught sample classes to students’ parents and the multiple-night Sibling Sleepover Program. This last program gave students’ siblings, mostly younger, the opportunity to experience college dormitory life. It also included such activities as a movie night, arts and crafts, and an ice cream social. In addition to these programs, Fordham provided full-price and discount theatre tickets, a performance by stand-up comedian Max Silvestri and several meals for family members in attendance.

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/ THE RAM

PHOTO BY CAROLINE DAHLGREN/ THE RAM

PHOTO BY MIKE REZIN/ THE RAM

OCTOBER 27, 2010

PAGE 5

Point-Counterpoint: Residence Stereotypes

RAM ARCHIVES

Fordham’s emphasis on Integrated Learning Communities tends to make residence halls have dramatically different atmospheres, to the apparent delight or annoyance of different Fordham students.

Dorm Stereotypes Let Students Choose Buildings to Suit Their Lifestyles By CHRISTINE BARCELLONA OPINIONS EDITOR

Being placed with the roommate from Hell is every college freshman’s worst nightmare. The idea of living with someone who has conflicting tastes and interests haunts freshmen, but Fordham’s emphasis on Integrated Learning Communities and specifically focused living situations helps narrow down students’ residence hall selection process. This increases the likelihood that students will end up living with and those who are more compatible with them. Different residence halls have different stereotypes and tend to attract certain residents. This is ideal, since students can choose to live in whichever hall matches their goals and interests best. On tours, many prospective students’ parents seem confused after hearing about the freshman residence halls. The different programming that Queen’s Court, Tierney Hall and the Science Integrated Learning Community in Alumni Court South offer, as opposed to traditional residence halls like Loschert, South and Martyrs’, baffle them at first. More than one parent has asked, “How are we supposed to know which dorm is better?” They seem unwilling to accept my answer that no dorm is “better” than the others, though there are differences between them. If their child is studious and likes a community setting, in addition to scheduled group activities, Queen’s Court might be the best fit. If their child is a dedicated science major who enjoys a quiet study environment, maybe SILC would be best. Tierney Hall has some of the best facilities and lounges on campus, and it is also good for students who want some kind of community living without Queen’s Court’s rigidity. I explain that each hall is targeted toward different students with different interests. This helps the chances of their child being placed with a roommate and hall mates with whom he or she may become good friends. Rightly, the University sought to highlight the distinctive features of each residence hall at the Oct. 17 Senior Open House event for prospective students. One of Fordham’s selling points is the targeted ILCs, such as Queen’s Court, that Fordham offers. The short information session that greeted students and parents when and if their tour guide brought them by Queen’s Court underscored some of the differences between the residence hall and the other options. However, this kind of resident director-run information session might have been more beneficial if there was information about the other options, especially when the focus is on a small community, such as Queen’s Court, where about 150 freshmen reside. The other 90 percent of the freshman class may not want be able to live in Queen’s Court. Therefore, it is important that the University highlights the basic distinguishing features of the other residence halls. ILCs are important, but just as important are the characteristics of the non-ILC living situations. One simple change that would help underscore the different residence halls’ reputations and goals would be to update and elaborate on the information on the Office of Residential Life’s Web site.

For example, the Web site only contains information regarding the room rates, sizes and history of Queen’s Court, in addition to the notion that it “is a tightly knit community of 150 students.” Also, if ResLife added some of the information on the separate ILC page of the Web site to the standard room rate pages for the different ILCs, prospective students would be able to compare different residence halls more easily. In addition, the University could more fully demonstrate the benefits of having specialized residence halls. While the University has latched on to ILCs as a recruiting tool, the different atmospheres and stereotypes of the residence halls also help upperclassmen navigate the housing lottery process. Again, the Web site should be updated to list upperclassman ILC options along with freshman options, on the dedicated ILC page. Luckily, most students do know some of the stereotypes that abound regarding different living situations. The Wellness Wing attracts many former Queen’s Court residents who have an inclination toward camping out in O’Hare’s sleek study lounges on Tuesday nights instead of playing beer pong. Politically and globally minded students might choose to inhabit the West Wing. The Campbell and Salice-Conley community attracts every senior still on campus who wants modern rooms, but as an ILC, it does encourage seniors and juniors to attend sessions about graduate school, internships and career paths. Having these ILCs helps upperclassmen find their niche and hopefully live in a community of compatible people. There have been a few complications over the past two years, however, that have complicated upperclassman living options. As a result, the residence halls’ reputations have been in flux. Changing the lottery system to be random by year instead of based on credits changed the make-up and reputations of several halls, especially the “party” sophomore residence, Martyrs’ Court, and the more reserved sophomore dorms like Finlay. According to some students, these residence halls’ tones have flipflopped. As a result, residents were surprised at those unexpected changes in reputation. Again this year, additional changes have been made, including the closing of Hughes Hall, the opening of CSC and the renovation and reallocation of Martyrs’ Court. The traditionally quiet O’Hare Hall has, by some reports, taken on some of Martyrs’ traditional “party” atmosphere. Some students who lived there last year were surprised by its apparent change in character. This surprise on the part of students suggests the usefulness of having targeted residence halls with certain expectations for residents. Hopefully, after this year of switching residence halls, people will again know what to expect when they sign up to live in a certain place. As long as students know what they can expect from different buildings, and as long as their lottery numbers are good enough, they can actually choose the residence hall where they think they will be happiest and feel the most at home. Christine Barcellona, FCRH ’12, is an English major from Dallas, Texas. She can be reached at cbarcellona@fordham.edu.

Residence Halls Should Not Have Such Dramatically Different Reputations By BRIAN KRAKER ASSISTANT OPINIONS EDITOR

Not all dorms are created equal. Each residence hall on the Rose Hill campus provides its inhabitants a unique living experience. Finlay Hall supplies residents with the long-soughtafter loft, while Walsh Hall has picturesque views of the Manhattan skyline. Campbell and Salice-Conley provide lackadaisical students the hallowed dishwasher. Martyrs’ rooms are so small that Mini-Me would suffer from claustrophobia. Beyond these physical differences, Fordham dorms also possess distinct personas. Queen’s Court holds the stigma of housing the isolationist freshmen, consumed with textbooks and oblivious to the outside world. O’Hare has earned the slogan “Hotel O’Hare,” with eerily silent halls and desolate social lounges, reminiscent of a Hitchcock horror flick. Martyrs’ deviates from these serene dormitories with constant documenting of residents and a party culture that makes “Jersey Shore” look like a wine tasting. Yet, these stark contrasts between dormitories should not exist on campus. Fordham should not promote library-like silence for studying in one dorm and permit others to resemble Animal House. The Office of Residential Life should provide a consistent identity in all dorms, rather than allowing students to run amuck in one dorm while sponsoring a walk over to the Botanical Gardens in another. In past years, Martyrs’ was unofficially the sophomore dorm, often holding up to 80 percent of the class. With the dorm built over Hell now converted into predominantly freshman housing, the dynamics of underclassmen housing have shifted. O’Hare has become a predominantly sophomore dorm, with a minimal number of juniors retaining their rooms from last year, or actively seeking rooms this year. However, it appears that the sophomore class has brought with it the same mob mentality that plagued Martyrs’. “O’Hare was relatively calm and quiet last year,” Rachel Malinowski, FCRH ’12, said. “This year, though, you can walk down the hall and hear loud music coming from several rooms.” In past years, O’Hare Hall lived up to the stereotype of a four-star hotel, with ResLife enacting a “Fight Hotel O’Hare” campaign. RAs went as far as positively documenting students for merely leaving their dorm room doors ajar, but this semester, returning residents have observed a significant shift. “People also don’t seem to take care of the building as well as they did last year,” Malinowski said. “On a Sunday morning, I often walk out of my room and find trash in the hallway from the night before. A friend of mine commented that it seems like the new buildings stole O’Hare’s calmness, and I think he may be right.” These differences begin with the funding allotted to each dorm. By providing particular dorms with more money for programming, the attitude within each dorm is shaped by the gap

in available activities. Resident assistants living in Tierney Hall are allotted a pool of $30,000 per year to run programs, while RAs in O’Hare are given thousands to mold communities on their floors. Non-specialized dorms, such as Walsh or Finlay, receive minimal funding for programming, leading to a lack of dorm pride. This discrepancy in available programming produces stronger Integrated Learning Communities and residential colleges, while students in other dorms can hardly identify fellow residents on their floors. ResLife should allot funding for programming equally among all freshman dorms, proportional to the number of students there. This funding should also equate to the budgets of ILCs. Fordham should continue to build communities in each dorm, regardless of whether inhabitants are freshmen or seniors. When this sense of community breaks down, students are more likely to disrespect their dormitories and ultimately promote a party culture. Fordham also permits these differences to exist with inconsistent policing of the drinking policy. While Queen’s Court residents commit to a year of sobriety, most other dorms essentially give their residents a wink of approval when reminding them of the drinking policy. While residents of some dorms and ILCs are held to a higher standard with regards to substance abuse, halls that maintain stigmas of being party dorms consistently see hordes of inebriated students returning from Tri-Bar every weekend. Students can be documented for being visibly intoxicated, but as RAs turn a blind eye to this underage drinking, ResLife allows for party cultures to exist in dorms. With ResLife’s current lottery system, a student’s dorm assignment is literally the luck of the draw. However, with a student’s housing fate determined by the all-powerful ResLife lottery system, dorm personas should not differ so greatly. A reserved student should not be thrown into the bowels of Martyrs’ Court, nor should a student with the drinking habits of Mel Gibson be brought into an O’Hare ILC setting. If a student wishes not to be governed by ResLife, they always have the choice to move off campus, but Fordham should not concede to students’ desires to wreak havoc in dorms simply to maintain a residential population. Fordham cannot simply concede to these dorm stereotypes; it must proactively conform each residence hall to the community it should be. ResLife cannot allow dorms to remain as party dorms and students should not be hindered from enjoying their Fordham experience simply because their lottery numbers are too high. ResLife needs to confront the inconsistency between funding and dorm personas, providing students with adequate housing, regardless of the hall in which they live. Brian Kraker, FCRH ’12, is an English and computer science major from Pompton Lakes, N.J. He can be reached at kraker@fordham.edu. Staff Poll: When The Ram was polled, 11 staff members thought residence halls having different stereotypes was good; 4 staff members did not.

OPINIONS

PAGE 6 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 27, 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 Editors Jen Cacchioli Sandy McKenzie Sports Editors Danny Atkinson Nick Carroll Assistant Sports Editor Jonathon Smith Copy Chief Claire Borders Copy Team Mary Alcaro Tara Cannon Tom Haskin Julia McCane Sean McGonigle Sandy McKenzie Olivia Monaco Jenna Petranglo Sarah Ramirez Hussein Safa Veronica Torok Ryan Vale Photo Editor Simon Sulit Operations and Outreach Mike Burkart Web Editor Kelly Caggiano Assistant 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 Ryan Vale, Copy Editor I hadn’t seen the top of my desk in weeks. Somewhere under the mess of papers, textbooks and my dwindling collection of black ballpoint pens, it had to be there, right? Unfortunately, a clean desk wasn’t currently the only sight for sore eyes. As my life-sustaining “to-do” list magically created three new tasks for each one I finished, I began to bury myself in volunteer work, classroom assignments, club commitments, graduate school applications and the daunting post-grad job search. Friends and family presumed I had disappeared into some unknown abyss, and I was feeling the sharp pangs of loneliness despite the fact that some of my dearest friends were less than a room away. I eventually caught myself having to “pencil in” time with my roommates and, needless to say, was sufficiently disgusted. This could not be allowed to continue. This was my final semester at Fordham and I could not allow it to slip by. My roommates wouldn’t let me miss out on my senior year experience either. Last weekend, instead of

being holed up somewhere on the fourth floor of Walsh Library for an unconscionable amount of time, I am happy to say I relaxed. After enjoying a home-cooked meal, shopping at the Palisades Center and an evening of watching old episodes of our favorite television show, I remembered what it was like to have a “real” social life. I also realized that I should spend more time with the people I care about – not just for the sake of my own guilty conscience, but also because sharing experiences like this makes everyone involved much happier than competing for the “I have more work than you do” prize. The mistake I made was thinking that this year was no different from any other apart from its higher stakes: my objective was to find a job that paid the bills, gain admission into a prestigious graduate program and graduate with the most pristine academic record possible. I had completely missed the point. If senior year has taught me one lesson, it has been to appreciate this time of my life, so it’s naturally a message

I’d like to share. Appreciate the friends you make, because chances are, the memories you make with them will last longer than your displeasure over midterm grades. Appreciate the professors who challenged and inspired you, because even though you probably cursed their names during finals week, they helped you become who you are. Finally, appreciate Fordham, because chances are, you’ll wish you could stay when it comes time to graduate. I know I will. After my last final, which is admittedly too close to Christmas Eve for my own liking, I will leave Rose Hill’s campus for the last time as an undergraduate student. I’m still not sure I’ve come to terms with this reality quite yet. On the other hand, I am certain that my Fordham experience has positively affected my life. From forcing me to confront my identity as “Southern other” in New York City to supporting my participation in summer fellowships and helping me refine my ultimate career goals in the field of education, Fordham has been the catalyst for much of my personal

growth. Deciding to spend the last four years in the Bronx has thus far been one of the best decisions of my young adult life. Call me cliché. Tell me I’m not doing anything besides pacifying my uncertainty with fleeting contentment. I am not afraid. At the end of the day, I can look myself in the mirror and say my time at Fordham was well-spent. Not just in the classroom, in internships or volunteer work, but also with the people with whom I share my experiences. In this moment, all I can do is offer thanks and look forward to the months ahead, knowing that no matter where I call home come January 2011, Fordham has changed me for the better. Now about that messy desk …

Service-Learning a Valuable Experience By VERONICA TOROK COPY EDITOR

Last week, several friends and I were walking near campus when we passed a group of Bronx locals. I was struck by the significance of one man’s words. “We live in the same world you do!” he called out. We kept walking, pretending not to have heard. “No, you don’t,” my friend said under her breath. Both statements are true. Physical and cultural barriers separate the University from the rest of the Bronx, making it difficult for some at Fordham to feel that they are part of the Bronx community. Through service-learning, however, the richness of solidarity with our neighbors can unfold. I recently met with Patty, an activist for the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, to talk about the work I would be doing for my Religion in the Modern World class. We went to a diner in the North Bronx, where a shabbily dressed woman stood in the doorway. The woman asked me for money, and I averted my eyes while

shaking my head slightly, a technique I am ashamed to say I have cultivated as a way to both ignore and refuse people at the same time. About 10 minutes later, the woman reappeared in the doorway of the diner, rasping something unintelligible my way. I continued drinking my tea as if nothing had happened, until I saw Patty’s eyes widen in alarm. The woman had approached our table. Surely she was about to harass me for not giving her money. “It’s okay, honey. I just wanted you to know that the mail lady gave me money for food. I know. I know you don’t got it,” she said instead. She was showing me the compassion that I had refused her. Patty and I held a meeting last week to help tenants understand how to lobby for basic needs, such as heat and hot water. All but one of the tenants spoke Spanish, so Patty conducted the meeting in Spanish. She asked me to translate for the English speaker. I found myself standing on my tiptoes whispering a summary to an older black man I had just met, trying to

comprehend a language I only partially know. I was conscious not only of my poor Spanish, but also of being the only white and well-to-do person in the room. These things were unimportant to the man. “Do you live in this building too?” he asked me empathetically. I did a double-take. In his eyes, I was simply another human being with struggles of her own. Until this point, I had only been thinking of the ways in which I was different from the tenants around me. This man was instead focused on our common humanity. At last, I was beginning to understand solidarity when it was shown to me by others. Experiences such as my own are an important part of a Jesuit education. They enable students to step out of the classroom and put what they learn into action. In doing so, students also step outside of themselves, broadening their understanding of the world. “At Fordham, students seek to tap the full potential of mind and heart while leading a life beyond self,” the Fordham Web site states. Students who want to embody this goal have a

number of options at Fordham, which can be explored at the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice. While students can make almost any class a service-learning class with professor permission, they should also consider taking classes where the curriculum is integrated with service. In classes such as these, students can discuss together the ethical and moral concerns that arise as a result of their experience in the community. Service-integrated classes can be identified in the course catalogue by “SL1,” which appears at the end of the course section code. It is not necessary to travel to a developing country to gain insight about poverty; it is right in our backyard. Interacting with the Bronx community is a beautiful way to learn more about humanity. What students learn in the classroom is of little value if they do not practice it in the world. Servicelearning helps Fordham students put solidarity into action, the only way it can be truly understood. Veronica Torok, FCRH ’12, is a communication and Spanish major from Johnson City, Tenn.

Staying Caffeinated at Walsh Library By SHEILA SENNETT STAFF WRITER

As the midterm period drags to a close, one sees bone-tired students clutch Thermoses as they stumble to class. More likely, you are a prime specimen of the combination of a Jesuit education and sleep deprivation. In that case, you know this to be true: coffee is an all-nighter’s best friend. In the small hours of the morning, there are few things that give students the ability to resist the siren of sleep other than the combination of caffeine and sheer willpower. While studying in the library, however, students face obstacles to coffee access. One issue that students experience while studying in the library is the policy restricting beverages in the library, a problem exacerbated by the hours of Jazzman’s Café. Jazzman’s is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, closed on Saturdays, and open from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays. The Walsh Library, on

the other hand, is open from 8:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays, and noon to 2 a.m. on Sundays. In other words, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., students have no access to coffee within the library itself. Once Campbell Café closes at 10 p.m., the Student Deli is the nearest location that offers coffee, and it is open until midnight. The hours they are closed are precisely the hours in which students rely most heavily on the bitter nectar of coffee to support them as they memorize Mill’s rule of Utilitarianism or attempt to conjure six-page essays on Aquinas’ explanation of the doctrine of transubstantiation out of thin air. Particularly during midterms, when students are studying, they tend to bring their laptops, their notes and six to 10 pounds worth of textbooks to the library, where they must locate an open space and sprawl out their belongings as they create a personal study habitat. After an hour or two, students often realize that they require

caffeine, a revelation often reached when they wake from an unintentional nap on their theology notes. Much to the chagrin of library users, the beverage policy in the library means that when students require coffee, they must either pack up their notes, laptop and books, (inconvenient and fraught with the risk of losing the carrel) or abandon their belongings while they embark on a caffeine quest (risking theft). For many students, Walsh Library is the only quiet study space to which they have access. The quality of study lounges varies widely depending on students’ living situations, and many residence halls are not equipped with adequate study spaces. Martyrs’ Court, O’Hare Hall, Queen’s Court and Tierney Hall have study lounges that range from decent to good. On the other hand, Salice-Conley, Campbell, Walsh and Finlay have public study spaces that are inadequate relative to the number of residents, or do not offer traditional study lounges

with tabletops and desks. Coffee and other beverages should be allowed in the study areas in the library in an appropriate container, for instance, a water bottle with a screwtop lid or a Thermos with a snap-on lid designed to minimize spills. As common sense dictates, beverages should not be allowed in the Electronic Information Center or in archival areas. The beverage policy shows an understandable concern for maintaining a clean environment for all library users to work in. However, the focus of the policy should be upon the personal responsibility of students and should reflect the reality that an important part of working in the library is the comfort of the users. Walsh Library should reconsider the beverage policy, taking into account the needs of library patrons and realities of the habits of students studying within the library. Sheila Sennett, FCRH ’12, is a history major from West Hartford, Conn.

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OPINIONS

OCTOBER 27, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 9

Student Loans Fighting Cholera in Haiti Out of Control By CHRISTINA BARREIRO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Fordham students understand that college is expensive. Current students spend nearly $40,000 each year for their annual Fordham academic experience, and even more if they live and dine on campus. This money is well spent; nothing could be more important than an education. However, financing college education can become problematic. Private loan practices and student debt have been major areas of contention in recent years, since the rising cost of college has been marked by rising levels of recent-graduate debt. Stories about graduates owing hundreds of thousands of dollars abound online, and I cannot count the number of commercials I see daily advertising “fast cash” for students. It would appear that student debt has become a pandemic, and everyone is searching for a cure. One area in which some people see hope is government regulation of loan practices. In 2007, the New York Times reported outcry against university financial officers receiving payment from lenders for recommending their services to students. These payments took the form of travel and entertainment gifts in addition to staffing for college aid offices. In response to these revelations, the government modified its framework for granting loans and required colleges and universities to include at least three lending institutions in their recommendations to students; however, these modifications were only applied to federal loans. While these efforts may have added some degree of transparency to the loaning process, I propose a solution to this debt crisis that has the potential to wipe out the problem entirely: people must stop borrowing money that they do not have. Yes, each and every student wants to graduate from a prestigious school that can open doors for his or her future, but is it worth the cost? Should people be trading four years of collegiate bliss for a lifetime of financial dependence? These are questions that too few students and parents consider during that grueling college application process, and it needs to change. On a personal level, devoting over $100,000 of a student’s fu-

ture earnings before most people even know what major to choose is just ludicrous, especially when there are so many alternatives for students. Community colleges are respectable and costconscious resources that can get students on their way to a fouryear degree at a fraction of the cost. State colleges and universities also cut down the costs of a college education monumentally. Students should not feel the need to subject themselves to a lifetime of debt when these affordable alternatives exist. On a social level, if more students were to invest in community colleges and state universities, then the price of private tuition would be driven down. Currently, private universities are in such high demand that they can afford to charge monstrous rates, and when they need more money, all they have to do is raise tuition and students with newly granted $50,000 loans will be able to pay. If we were to lower the demand for private universities by utilizing community and state colleges, private universities would be forced to become more efficient with the money they have and find innovative ways to lower costs. Right now these universities have no incentive to be cost-conscious or resource-efficient, but decreasing the demand for them – maybe even encouraging students to go abroad or get a job before heading to college – will result in more economical operations and lower tuition. This will result in fewer students taking on financial debt that they cannot support, since college will be more affordable. There are two possible solutions to this debt crisis facing many college students and graduates: one that relies on government action, and another that relies on student responsibility. While the government might be taking admirable steps to alleviate the problem, I challenge every student to make economically intelligent decisions regarding student loans that will benefit them as they graduate without debt and as they move forward in life. Good decisions now can inspire monetary independence upon graduation and foster positive financial habits throughout the rest of their lives. Christina Barreiro, FCRH ’12, is an international political economy major from Westchester County, NY.

Issue of the Week:

GovernmentFunded Media 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 defunding public media, including NPR and PBS.

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

A naval doctor attends to a Haitian child whose mother is seeking treatment for her child at a medical clinic in Haiti.

Cholera, a lethal disease that is transmitted by ingesting contaminated water, is rapidly infecting Haiti. The bacterium, Vibrio cholera, infiltrates a victim’s small intestines and causes rapid, severe diarrhea, dehydration and, if untreated, a potentially quick death. Cholera spreads primarily from poor sanitation and inadequate water supplies; it has been hypothesized that the outbreak in Artibonite, Haiti, an area approximately 60 miles north of Port-au-Prince, was caused from drinking contaminated water out of the Artibonite river. The United States has not seen a cholera epidemic in a hundred years; the infection has been effectively eliminated in developed nations while countries in Africa still report tens of thousands of cases a year. A cholera threat has become so remote that it is more likely to incite a fondness for Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez rather than a discussion on preventative measures. Fortunately, if diagnosed and treated early, fatalities from cholera can be near zero. A simple solution of water and electrolytes can stave off rapid dehydration and prevent death. However, at the time of writing, the death toll sits at 250 and is rising. Nearly 10 months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, most everyone is aware that death, disease and displacement are rampant in the Western hemisphere’s poorest country. Relief efforts concerned with clearing debris and rebuilding infrastructure have been slow, and hundreds of thou-

sands of Haitians are still without a home. The New York Times printed a story a few weeks ago about a community of homeless Haitians that settled on the Church of God’s (a United States-based Christian church) property headquarters just outside of the capital. Along with other land owners who have seen displaced Haitians freely settle on their property, the Church of God is not pleased. Despite “care for the poor, homeless and needy” being one of the church’s core values its project manager in church rebuilding efforts in Haiti, Jim Hudson, highlights “a beautiful place, but these people are tearing it up.” “They’re urinating on it” he said. “They’re bathing out in public. They’re stealing electricity. And they don’t work. They sit around all day, waiting for handouts.” These are handouts that he and fellow Church of God members feel they cannot be bothered with providing given their more pressing goals. The Church of God’s objectives are rife with quasi-imperialistic sentiments (“Encouraging every local church to increase a minimum of 10 percent per year through conversion growth” and “viewing all the nations of the world as our mission field”) that overshadow its humanitarian pretenses. The article goes on to mention that humanitarian organizations are trying to halt evictions and build facilities (like latrines) to stabilize the settlements. However, property owners like Joseph St. Fort said that the Haitian government had paid him only $25,000 to let the people stay until December, which was not enough because “he could have earned

$150,000 over the same period from evangelical conventions and political party assemblies.” St. Fort’s situation is exacerbated by the magnitude of tragedy in the country. It may seem impossible or inhumane to view his situation outside of Haiti’s condition, but I think most judgment toward his actions, especially ensconced in the New York Times’ article, will be unfairly harsh. His greed is evident, and labeling “political party assemblies” as some of his customers only further triggers a monetary obsession, but if you criticize him make sure to reconsider anyone that asserts a right to their own property in times of crisis. What is truly frightening, even more than the fact that I have, in a way, excused profiteering at the expense of morality, is the possible confluence and convergence of two of Haiti’s biggest problems: the cholera outbreak and unmitigated evictions. If property owners move to evict Haitian tent-camp communities, thus fragmenting those in need and splintering relief efforts, the spread of cholera could swell. More tent camps would result in a greater difficulty in providing services like bettersanitation and clean drinking water, two of the primary means by which the spread of cholera can be prevented. The Church of God can successfully re-beautify their property by evicting the “useless and dirty” tent camp members, but will have a lot of troubling expanding if their potential followers are all dead. Maybe they need to rethink their strategies . . . I mean values. Eric Horvath, FCRH ’11, is an English and economics major from Sayville, N.Y.

Timothy Karr, The Huffington Post

Ed Morrissey, Hot Air

Enoch Powell, British Politician

“[Republicans] have taken to the air, calling on Congress to wholly defund public broadcasting. Eliminating funds would kill‘Sesame Street’and ‘Dragon Tales.’ Their efforts to paint public broadcasting as the voice of encroaching socialism will fire up some Americans, a week before [they] head to the polls.”

“The issue with funding the NPR with tax dollars has nothing to do with Juan Williams. It has to do with the fact that we don’t have the money to waste on non-essentials, and that government has no business subsidizing broadcasters in a robust market with hundreds of choices for consumers.”

“For a politician to complain about the press is like a ship’s captain complaining about the sea.”

By ERIC HORVATH CONTRIBUTING WRITER

–COMPILED BY BRIAN KRAKER

Follow The Ram at twitter.com/ thefordhamram.

OPINIONS

PAGE 10 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 27, 2010

Family Weekend Enjoyable, Changes Still Needed

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/ THE RAM

Fans filled the stands of Jack Coffey Field to watch the Rams defeat Lafayette during the annual family weekend game.

By MIKE BURKART OPERATIONS EDITOR

This past Family Weekend, sponsored by Campus Activities Board, went as most things planned by CAB go: great events but with some oversights in the planning process. Although CAB has made progress in the last four years, it still has plenty to do. In terms of the actual events of the weekend, many were quite enjoyable. The chance to have betterthan-normal Sodexo food while mingling with faculty and administrators kicked off the weekend nicely, and surprisingly, the comedy night went well with Max Silvestri headlining along with two

other opening acts. Parents reported that the classroom experience with Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, was a nice treat as well. Surprisingly, Family Weekend also seemed to foster an unusual amount of interdepartmental cooperation: guest passes for siblings from the Office of Residential Life were already available upon check in at the registration table in McGinley Center, and members of both Academic Affairs and Student Affairs attended the same welcome event on Friday night. Normally, such cooperation between University departments requires a near-pontifical mandate from University higher-ups, but to

see it happen for Family Weekend gave many new faith in the school’s bureaucracy. Unfortunately, like with most Family Weekends past, certain elements of planning fell through the cracks. True, these gaffes do not approach the degree of mismanagement that took place when CAB failed to book certain acts even when they were handed to them on a proverbial silver platter, but many students might still consider the fact that their parents did not know about Family Weekend until the last minute embarrassing. For many families, this meant they could not attend. It would stand to reason that students who have traveled far from

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home to attend school are generally at a greater risk of experiencing homesickness as they adjust to life at school. Apparently, though, CAB and OSL&CD have not fully caught on to this fact. Barring exceptional circumstances, no parent or family from another part of the country would ever be able to make reasonable accommodations to visit New York after being notified just a few weeks beforehand. If CAB and the University would like to see a better turnout and see the student population with increasing regional diversity better served, it must reach out to parents directly. Indeed, while most things in college should be students’ responsibility, booking flights and hotels for their families still do not fall under their purview. According to CAB, it put the dates for Family Weekend on the New Student Orientation Web site and in the orientation packet distributed to incoming students. To its credit, both of these outreach efforts are new since four years ago, but they are nowhere close to being effective. To best show the need for things to change, perhaps an example might be fitting. During orientation, when students receive the orientation guidebook in which CAB includes information about Family Weekend, it would already be too late for parents to see this information firsthand, and more than likely, students have more important things on their mind, such as making friends and ensuring they

have their class schedule. Putting Family Weekend on NSO’s Web site is also ineffective. An informal survey of freshmen revealed that scarcely any of them paid attention to the NSO Web site, rendering CAB’s Family Weekend notice obsolete. The first time that many students found out about Family Weekend was when CAB sent out an e-mail on Sept. 28, less than one month before. By then, the window had passed on reasonable accommodations and flights, and the time frame in which parents who work must notify their employers for time off had elapsed as well. Accordingly, many families found themselves unable to come. A few lucky parents found out about Family Weekend by chance. My aunt, for instance, discovered that Fordham had a weekend for families only after my mother complained to her about how poorly students and families are notified of it. Before then, she had no idea to even look for such an event on the Fordham Web site. For upperclassmen, many of us can also remember friends from freshman year for whom Family Weekend represented just another disappointment among many that led them to transfer. If Fordham hopes to continue to improve itself, it must start with small things like Family Weekend. Mike Burkart, FCRH ’11, is an IPE and economics major from Greenfield, Wis. He can be reached at burkart@fordham.edu.

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OCTOBER 27, 2010

PAGE 13

Ghost-Infested Dorms and Other Campus Hauntings Finlay Hall, O’Hare Hall and Queen’s Court All House Their Own Otherworldly Residents By LAUREN HATHAWAY STAFF WRITER

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night unable to breathe, like someone was grabbing at your throat, or felt like you were being watched when you were studying alone in your dorm’s lounge? Or have you seen a stranger walk down the hall when you thought you were the only person around? If you chalked it up to too much caffeine or too little sleep, think again, because besides the thousands of students who live on campus, Fordham is also home to its fair share of ghosts – or at least ghost stories. Considered to be one of the most haunted buildings on campus, Queen’s Court is the setting of many paranormal encounters. Christian Monsalve, FCRH ’13, who lived in Queen’s Court his freshman year, was spooked by one ghost, in particular. “In John’s Third of Queen’s Court, where I dormed last year, there lives the ghost of a dead Jesuit,” he said. “Whenever I went to the bathroom at 4 a.m., I would be as quick as possible, just in case.” Queen’s Court’s haunts do not end there. RAs in charge of a certain floor of the dorm have found one room in particular to be haunted. In the summer during routine room checks before residents arrive, they often find the mattresses in this one room sitting straight up on their bed frames instead of lying flat, as they should be, and even if they readjust the mattresses, the

mattresses mysteriously return to sitting straight up. In 2003, the RA in charge of that floor, who assumed the other RAs were playing a trick on him, received a visit from an elderly Jesuit in the middle of the night. “Someone must have been praying pretty loudly if they got me up at this hour,” the Jesuit said. “Sorry about that, it normally stays at the other end of the hall, but it must have gotten out. Don’t worry, I took care of it.” From then on, the mattresses did not move, but the RA later discovered that the Jesuit he had seen had actually died 10 years earlier. Do not expect to find that Jesuit’s gravestone in the cemetery behind Collins Hall, however. Believe it or not, that cemetery is actually a fake. However, the story goes that beneath Collins lie the bodies of deceased Jesuits. Home to the Mimes and Mummers theater group, Collins is also said to be haunted by Father Collins himself, who supposedly moves important set pieces the night before productions. Rumor has it that Martyrs’ Court is home to a child ghost, a young girl with blonde hair. Residents have been startled upon pulling open the shower curtain to find this little girl standing there, staring straight ahead. Some students have even heard children’s laughter coming from the walls. Although it was built more recently, O’Hare Hall is not without its ghosts, either. While the building was under construction 10 years ago, a construction worker

suffered a heart attack on the job and fell from the roof. Ever since then, his ghost has been believed to haunt O’Hare and its residents, and the sound of hammers banging against nails often can be heard coming from above. Another haunted dorm is Finlay Hall, which is home to many Fordham upperclassmen living on campus. Years ago, Finlay was the site of the University’s medical school, and the lofts found in many rooms were where the medical students would stand to observe during cadaver labs. Many residents have claimed to wake up in the middle of the night and see students dressed in lab coats peering down at them from the loft. Kristin Guerin, FCRH ’12, and a Rose Hill Society ambassador, says that this story was a crowd favorite during the “Haunted Fordham” tour over Family Weekend. “The kids all had goose bumps as I described the many complaints of students being awoken [sic] in the middle of the night by feelings of strangulation and toe tagging (the latter was an easy way to keep track of cadavers) and looking up into the lofts to see students in lab coats watching them,” she said. However, Guerin’s favorite Finlay Hall story is not the students being haunted, but a security guard. “My personal favorite Finlay story is that of the security guard who was working in the basement when all the doors suddenly slammed shut and the chairs began to bang around,” she said. “He quit the following day.”

RAM ARCHIVES

Even though it is comparatively new, O’Hare Hall has its own ghosts.

A less eerie story comes from Duane Library, where rumor has it that the top floor is haunted by a deceased Latin professor. Do not be frightened away by him, however, since he seems to enjoy being of service to stressed college students. This friendly ghost has been known to help classics students with their homework.

Do not be surprised if some day, when you are walking through Keating or sitting in the auditorium of Collins, you suddenly feel you are not alone – even if you do not see anyone around. Whether or not you believe in ghosts, it seems the spirit of their stories is at least alive and thriving at Fordham.

Reality Television Tackles Mental Illness Hoarders, Addicts and Those with Eating Disorders All Appear on the Airwaves, Whether Appropriate or Not By CELESTE KMIOTEK CULTURE EDITOR

Hopefully, most people will agree that the cast members of “Jersey Shore” are not normal. There is something inherently wrong with being that tan, doing that many fist pumps and being so disruptive that judges openly comment on it. As big a train wreck as these quasi-celebrities are, however, they would pass a clean bill of health with a psychiatrist in regards to serious major mental illness; on a television landscape fraught with cases of hoarders, addicts and those with eating disorders, this is no longer something one can take for granted. Mental disorders have had an obviously long and disappointingly sad history as objects of fascination. Asylums were considered eerie, and those who suffered from mental illnesses were labeled witches or possessed. Through the aid of those such as Dorothea Dix and First Lady Rosalynn Carter (and many, many others), patients slowly began to be viewed as just that: patients.

Now, as shows ranging from the exploitive “Hoarders” to the classier “The United States of Tara” take up the air waves, have patients morphed back into spectacles? “I think there is a certain level of exploitation with these shows because networks are doing extremely well exposing and documenting these problems,” Katie Corrado, FCRH ’12, said. “That being said, I also think these shows educate and enlighten people about issues that they might not fully understand.” “I think very few people would want cameras following them around while going through rehab,” Bryan Matis, GSB ’12, said. “Most of us don’t need to watch someone work out their serious personal problems. TV producers (and viewers) should leave them alone and give them the privacy they deserve.” “The United States of Tara,” is the most obvious example of a scripted show on mental health, with protagonist Tara Gregson (Toni Collette, In Her Shoes) suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Other shows’ and movies’ premises, however, include everything from

Dr. House’s (Hugh Laurie, Sense and Sensibility) and Nurse Jackie’s (Edie Falco, “The Sopranos”) pillpopping habits to rehabilitation efforts on “Intervention” to life in an asylum in the new film It’s Kind of a Funny Story. The field widens when one gets into unscripted television, however. Addictions are featured on HBO’s documentary Addictions and on VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew.” Hoarders have TLC’s “Hoarding: Buried Alive,” A&E’s “Hoarders” and Animal Planet’s “Confessions: Animal Hoarding.” E!’s “What’s Eating You” and Oprah Winfrey Network’s future show “Inside Rehab” focus on eating disorders. What is more, the shows tend to choose extreme cases, focusing on the odd and the exaggerated. Addictions features a 10-year-old former drug addict and a 23-yearold who was addicted to heroin for seven years and did 12 stints in rehabilitation facilities. “Hoarders” profiled a family whose house emanated a stench (able to be smelled in the street) and that was so dilapidated that the

family was forced to sleep in cars, parks and low-income housing. It also featured a woman with terminal cancer who only had room to sleep on two-thirds of her couch and a woman who collected so many possessions that her diabetic husband was restricted to a single room with little food or water when she was not home to guide him. According to the Web site “Monsters and Critics,” the E! Channel announced that “What’s Eating You” will feature a woman who ate toilet paper dipped in pickle juice; a hermitic woman who ate twigs, superglue and erasers; and a model so skinny her body smelled because it was “eating itself alive.” With the exception of VH1 (and OWN, which has not yet launched), every channel provides links on treatment, help and further facts on the illnesses on their Web site. Does this attempt at aid, along with the attention provided to these individuals, mean these shows are actually helping the mental illness awareness movement which many celebrities advocate? So far, there seems to be little literature, or even commentary, on the subject.

That being said, it has certainly become a bigger issue of late. Notably, Glenn Close (Hamlet) has made awareness of mental illnesses one of her pet causes, starting the Bring Change 2 Mind Foundation. “About one in six people suffer from a mental illness,” she said at a gala for the Karla Smith foundation, which benefits those with mental health problems. “It’s part of being a human. It’s not a cool subject for a lot of people, it makes people uncomfortable.” Singer John Mayer and director Ron Howard (Apollo 13) have also aided the Bring 2 Mind Foundation, which aims to reduce the stigmas associated with mental illnesses and to get people discussing the problems in an appropriate manner. Though it will be far more difficult to tell the effect shows and movies will have on those who have been featured than it was to tell the effects reality television had on, say, Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, it is still a topic that should be looked into; luckily, it seems the topic is already beginning to provoke discussion.

CULTURE

PAGE 14 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 27, 2010

That’s So Po

Dining Out: Roberto Restaurant

MARY PORPORA Week 6: Twitter For a long time I resisted getting a Twitter. I was never fond of Facebook statuses that chronicle every action that a person has done or will do that day. From what I had heard, Twitter was basically just a bunch of Facebook statuses in a new format. My friends were always trying to get me to join, but none of their arguments were very convincing. The argument I got most frequently was that it allows you to follow celebrities. Sure, I enjoy getting the gossip on my favorite celebrities, but I do not need to know what socks they are wearing and how good they feel in their new boots. I was also weary of writing my own tweets because who cares what I’m doing? What do I do in my life that is so interesting that people would want to be frequently updated about my whereabouts? Eventually, I decided to make an account on a 30-day trial basis. In order to make it more interesting, I also decided to tweet only in haikus. That way it would take me longer to craft each tweet and I would do it less frequently. Unfortunately, I enjoyed my Twitter experience, and I am now firmly nestled under that little bird’s trendy wing. It turns out that my friends were right; one of the best parts of Twitter is following celebrities. It turns out that it is not as creepy as it sounds. I love when I find out that my favorite celebrities and I have mutual interests. Like the other day, I was so excited to hear that Paul Feig and I both thoroughly enjoy Nicki Minaj, probably for different reasons though. Then there are those times when I am completely uninterested in what these people have to say, especially when they are constantly promoting their products (see: all Kardashians). I do enjoy when celebrities suggest new music, books and films to their followers. If I already like the products these Twitter-users produce, odds are I am also going to like the various things they suggest. One of the things I love about Twitter is when people use their Twitter to publish their personal manifestos and philosophies. It is so fascinating to hear from random people about things you would never associate with them. My favorite person that I follow is Andrew WK. I do not even know how I started following him, but now his thumbnailed bloody picture will never leave my timeline. I’m not even a huge fan of his music, but his 140 characters or less “Party Tips” are unexpected and intriguing. One minute he is thoughtful and empowering with such statments as “Take yourself to the limit and then realize it’s only a starting point! I believe in you! You will keep going!” and other times he is telling you that hot nacho cheese, melted butter, beerball water and sweet berry wine all make sufficient beverages. I was resistant at first toward Twitter, but I have grown to appreciate it. Twitter allows its users to broaden their spectrum of interests with a few simple clicks. Twitter: now that’s so Po!

PHOTO BY JUSTIN LACOURSIERE/THE RAM

Roberto Restaurant is located off Arthur Avenue, at 603 Crescent Avenue.

By JUSTIN LaCOURSIERE STAFF WRITER

Roberto Restaurant, located at 603 Crescent Ave., just off of Arthur Avenue in the Little Italy section of the Bronx, is said to have some of the best Italian food in New York City. However, given the restaurant’s lofty reputation, the expectation was much higher than the delivery. From its small dining room to its stucco walls and hardwood tables, Roberto offers a rustic feel. The atmosphere is topped off with tile flooring and a good amount of seating, but it also sports gaudy chandeliers and dim lighting that may require restaurant goers to use the table’s candles in order to read the menu choices. The staff is friendly and attentive, but hard to understand at times given their heavy Italian accents. They were there when needed and not overbearing. The bread basket the waiter brought over was one of the better parts of the meal. This basket included an assortment of bread types, all top-notch. Nothing less was to be expected from a restaurant that carries such high prestige. Yet, the butter accompanying the bread was rock-hard, making it virtually impossible to spread, leaving those at the table to eat butter chunks with their Italian loaves. The Antipasti section of the Roberto menu allows for a variety of choices. The first of two appetizers for the evening was mozzarella e prosciutto di Parma ($17). This delicious dish with fresh mozzarella from casa della mozzarella was topped with prosciutto di Parma and roasted peppers. The meat could have been sliced a little thinner since large pieces of prosciutto are hard to cut. The cheese and roasted red pimiento peppers were served on a bed of radicchio, along with very fresh olives ripened just the right amount. The different textures on this plate were not anything too extraordinary, but came together nicely. The second starter was Cotechino con Fagioli e Broccoli de Rapa ($14).

This was made with Northern Italian sausage, cannellini beans and sautéed broccoli rabe. The sausage was thinly sliced, and quite tasty and was covered with slightly overcooked beans. The cannellinis were soft enough to be put on bread, able to be made into a hummus-like spread. Those who are not too familiar with broccoli rabe, the Roberto way of preparing it is a cross between broccoli and spinach. This dish was appetizing, but a little bland; it did not jump out at me. Because it was mildly seasoned, some added salt and garlic would have stepped this dish up a great deal. Roberto Restaurant divides its menu into multiple sections, and it seemed fit to order meals from different sections to get a full tasting of this highly regarded eatery. The three sections the owners decided to feature were vitello, manzo e coniglio and agnello – veal, beef and rabbit and lamb. Vitello Patate e Porcini ($26) started the main course for the night. This was a plate of veal scaloppini with sliced potatoes and porcini mushrooms. The sautéed veal should have been fork-tender, and it fell short from that standard. This is definitely a meal for mushroom lovers, however; more mushrooms came than the veal. The potatoes were sliced ever-so-thinly and were few. The sauce with this veal had a smooth consistency and enjoyable flavor. It was not too thick or too thin and not too spicy either. Fatter potatoes or a side of pasta would have been better to improve the dish. Overall Coniglio a doppia cottura ($24), Location Food Quality half of a rabbit on the grill, sautéed Atmosphere with rosemary, spinach, potatoes and Hospitality carrots came to the table next. Rabbits Price $$ do tend to have a fair amount of bones, but this particular rabbit dish was (Out of 4 ’s) more like bones with a side of rabbit. It is not a dish that calls for silverware, but more of a get-your-hands-dirty kind of meal. It turned out to be more work than eating a lobster. The rabbit itself was chewy, almost gummy, and its flavor disappeared. The thin sauce, which appeared to be chicken-stock based, lost its luster halfway through the meal. The carrots were overcooked, to the point where they were mushy, like baby food. However, the potatoes were delicious and flavorful, turning out to be the best part of the entire dish. With only three finger-length slices of potato on the plate, more would have been appreciated. The large amount of spinach, which acted as a side dish to the meal, was begging for seasoning. Ossobuco di agnello brasato ($26) was next on the list. This lamb shank was nicely braised in red wine to the point where it fell right off the bone, supposedly came with carrots and onions, and was served with risotto. The sauce was hardy and flavorful, but the cannelina risotto was exteremely plain. The dish could have used some vegetables because if the carrots were in the sauce, one could not see them. The chef brought out a complimentary plate of cheese-stuffed ravioli in a sage butter sauce that was scrumptious. Fig risotto with prosciutto was on the side, which was very good. Overall the meat dishes and sauces at Roberto Restaurant were bland, leaving diners wanting more. There were no big taste sensations in any of the dinner dishes, except the complimentary pasta dish at the end. Suggestion: stick with appetizers and pasta if dining out at Roberto. Also note that they offer an extensive wine-by-the-glass and signature cocktail menu. Food at this place is overpriced for what was anticipated, but if it were to deliver to the standards of expectation pricing would be far cheaper than any comparable Italian restaurant in Manhattan.

Editor’s Pick: ‘Skins’ TV Show By JEN CACCHIOLI

ASSISTANT CULTURE EDITOR

When it comes to a great teen drama, there is nothing on our television screens that even compares to “Skins.” Before a friend recommended this British television series to me, I was certain that the first seasons of “The O.C.” and “Gossip Girl” were the height of teen drama. The long-forgotten and prematurely cancelled ’90s series, “My So-Called Life,” is also up there as one of my favorites, starring a young, red-haired Claire Danes (The Family Stone, Shopgirl) hopelessly in love with the brooding Jordan Catalano ( Jared Leto, American Psycho). These classics are all television gold, but there is just something about “Skins” that makes you rethink the quality of American TV series. It takes risks in content, film technique and character development in ways that have never worked in our country. The show’s basic structure, while slightly reminiscent of “Degrassi,” is quite different from the norm. In the four seasons that have aired, the focus has been on two separate groups of

friends, one for every two seasons, and each season lasts a very minimal 8-10 episodes. Every episode is crafted to be a day in the life of one of those friends to get closer insight into each of their lives. This show has its off episodes and cheesy moments like all of the rest, but it has an undeniably powerful effect that elevates it above the typical trashy teen series that it could easily be. Its iconic and complex characters are at the root of its success. In the first season, Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man, About a Boy) plays the charming ringleader of the pack, Tony. It is fascinating to watch his character push the boundaries in all of his relationships, starting as the guy who gets away with everything and conniving his way into an reprehensible jerk abandoned by all his friends. There is also Cassie, played by Hannah Murray (Chatroom), and Eff y, played by Kaya Scodelario (Clash of the Titans) – my favorites – who live the most interesting, insane lives one can imagine. Cassie is an ethereal mess who works the phrase “How lovely, wow” into just about every sentence, but even this seemingly unsubstantial character

has real depth to her, as her unrequited love for nice-guy Sid (newcomer Mike Bailey) and struggle to overcome anorexia is revealed in between drug-induced black-outs. Eff y, Tony’s sister and main character of the last two seasons, spends her entire episode of the first season almost completely silent while breaking into warehouses and crashing raves. One of the most notorious aspects of this show is its explicit depiction of teens using drugs, having sex and saying outrageously inappropriate things. If you ever watch the show when it airs on BBC America, you will notice the censoring of certain language and scenes, proving the blatant contrast between American and British television. The kind of controversial material that appears in the show is often used as a cheap trick to get American viewers to tune in just to watch the spectacle of debauchery and see what barely makes the censors. However, “Skins” somehow weaves in drug use and sexuality in a way that seems anything but exploitive. While I am sure not every kid in England lives such a crazy

life, there is an overwhelming element of reality to the characters’ story lines. This is probably due to the fact that most of the actors were complete newcomers going into the job and were all around the same age as their characters. To put this in perspective, the actor Ben Mackenzie who played Ryan on “The O.C.,” was 26 years old at the time he was playing a 16-yearold boy. I think the closer in age an actor is to his or her heir character, the more believable his or her role is and, therefore, the more affected the viewer is by the show. If you tuned in to see the “Jersey Shore” season finale last Thursday night, you might have seen the clip of MTV’s adaptation of “Skins,” which premiered directly after the show. I was hoping to give this version a shot but, sadly, after seeing the short clip, it appears that the creators decided to simply use the first season’s script and fill in American actors. How they could be this unoriginal I do not know, but I am definitely not watching. I recommend ignoring MTV’s failed attempt at good television and watching the original four addictive seasons online instead.

CULTURE

OCTOBER 27, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 15

FOX Versus Cablevision By JEN CACCHIOLI ASSISTANT CULTURE EDITOR

The unresolved FOX vs. Cablevision debate has affected a relatively small number of viewers, yet grips the attention of the entire nation. This greed-fueled standoff between the two major companies remains fully intact, as another day without the FOX network goes by for Cablevision subscribers. Such a long blackout of a major station is rare and has attracted attention in the press over the last few weeks. This bitter feud began with the issue of Cablevision owing News Corporation, the owner of FOX and other local New York channels, retransmission fees. While both sides agree that money is owed, the amount of the multi-milliondollar sum is the matter of heated conflict, as the amount of money at stake is huge. Negotiators remain at a standstill because both companies still believe they have something to gain from holding out from a compromise. On one hand, the News Corporation sees its programming, which includes major sports broadcasts and popular shows like “Glee,” as being worth the higher fees. Cablevision will not comply with the higher price tag and clearly wants its irritated customers to blame News Corp. for the inconvenience. After its contract expired on Friday, Oct. 15 and FOX’s programming was pulled, Cablevision sent out an e-mail to its subscribers saying, “This is an unfortunate attempt to extort unreasonable and unfair fee increases from Cablevision and our customers.” Recently, the Federal Communications Commission has entered into the debacle, proving just how serious the matter has become. The agency gave the two companies until this Monday to provide them with a letter of proof that they have each been negotiating with “good faith.” If the FCC discovers one side is not negotiating under good terms, it can step in and penalize that company or direct them to a resolution. This

potential government intervention would mostly benefit Cablevision if the FCC assumed the authority to force News Corp. to put FOX back on the air. However, nothing is certain about how much of a part the FCC will take in this feud. The absence of FOX from the Cablevision channels seems to have mostly affected the sports fans within the three million New York and metropolitan area homes dependent on the cable provider. “My parents no longer receive FOX and cannot believe they are unable to watch the baseball and football games they look forward to,” Tara Malone, FCRH ’12, resident of Long Island said. Infuriated viewers have already endured missing a major football game which the Giants won and will inevitably be in an uproar over not being able to tune in for one of the most anticipated sports events of the year. Starting on Wednesday, the World Series will be broadcast on the FOX network, which means no game will be seen by those unlucky three million viewers. “Unfortunately, it’s becoming

clear that Cablevision believes FOX has very limited value to their customers,” the network said in a statement. “We urge those Cablevision subscribers who want to see the World Series (beginning Oct. 27) to switch providers or purchase an over-the-air antenna now.” With these fighting words, it is evident that FOX knows the conflict will heighten once viewers are blocked from seeing such a major sporting event. However, the network is refusing to back down by directing desperate viewers toward other cable providers and even the ridiculous-sounding alternative of getting an antenna. This corporate war seems to be progressing down one very ugly path. Underlying issues of how much a network is worth and how much power a cable provider has in deciding that amount are currently at play here. The combination of the FCC’s involvement and the upcoming World Series may end up being enough to drive the opposing sides into a forced resolution, one that the many FOX television fans affected by the feud await.

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

Going

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

THURSDAY

Starving Artists Halloween Ball Studio 42 332 Bleecker St. #E48

An open bar, raffles, celebrity-judged costume contests, gift bags, catering: this ball is the perfect way to start your Halloween festivities.

FRIDAY

The Addams Family Lunt-Fontanne Theatre 205 W. 46th St.

If you want a less creepy, but still seasonal, show to start off the weekend, do not miss this classic musical.

SATURDAY

Within the Land of Ash Four Warehouses & The Streets of Bushwick, Brooklyn 260 Meserole St.

Party into Halloween with this Brooklyn party, which will be so epic it will take three warehouses to contain.

SUNDAY Oh! You Pretty Things: The Rocky Horror Picture Show 35th Anniversary Bash Le Poisson Rouge 158 Bleecker St. This live performance is the perfect way to celebrate this iconic musical.

MONDAY

Psycho 50th Anniversary Screenings Film Forum 209 W. Houston St.

Continue the anniversary viewings with a screening of this iconic horror movie.

TUESDAY

Degas: Drawing and Sketchbooks The Morgan Library & Museum 225 Madison Ave.

Take a break from the Halloween festivities with this exhibit, which spans his entire career.

Nightmare: Superstition NoHo Event Center 623 Broadway

WEDNESDAY

It is never too late for a haunted house and this one, which is set in an insane asylum, is sure to give a good fright. BOB KING/MCT

— COMPILED BY CELESTE KMIOTEK

TV viewers are left in the cold in the recent FOX and Cablevision dispute.

Ram Reviews TELEVISION

ALBUM

TELEVISION

BOOK

ALBUM

“RUNNING WILDE”

WORDS WORDS WORDS

“30 ROCK” “REAGANING”

STAR ISLAND

WRITE ABOUT LOVE BELLE & SEBASTIAN

BO BURNHAM Mitchell Hurwitz, Jim Vallely and Will Arnett have joined forces once again to bring us an all-new comedy, “Running Wilde.” The show revolves around Arnett’s (“Arrested Development,” Despicable Me) character Steve Wilde, ultra-rich son of an oil tycoon who is completely disconnected from the real world. Feeling some sense of loneliness, he reunites with his high school sweetheart Emmy Kadubic, played by Keri Russell (“Felicity,” Waitress). She turns out to be the one thing this billionaire cannot have, though, as she has grown up to be an environmental activist who stands against everything Wilde is about. “Running Wilde” is a funny new sitcom that has failed to live up to expectations (at least when it comes to ratings).

Bo Burnham is one of the fastest rising stars in the comedy world. The 20-year old gained most of his notoriety from his YouTube channel. At 18, he released his first EP under Comedy Central Records. A year later, he released his first fulllength self-titled album. He hasn’t looked back since, and on Oct. 16, he released his second album called Words Words Words. The album is an hour-long performance of his unique brand of stand-up comedy. Actually, as he addresses in his act, he prefers to see himself as a “one-man show.” To be fair, that’s what he is. With his rising stardom, I expect many to follow suit and copy his style, but as of right now, I think he is in a league of his own. Definitely worth a listen if you want a good laugh.

I am not a regular television viewer, but “30 Rock” has always been one of the few shows I continually try to take time out of my schedule to watch. With short, fragmented scenes and blink-andyou-will-miss-them jokes, my limited attention span is actually able to stay focused for the full 22 minutes. This week’s episode was just as good as usual, revolving mainly around Jack Donaghy’s (Alec Baldwin, The Aviator) near-achievement of “reaganing,” that is, being able to fix all problems flawlessly within a 24-hour span. Of course, Liz Lemon’s (Tina Fey, “Saturday Night Live”) presence throws that idea down the tubes as she introduces her current conundrum. This may not have been a critical episode, but do not hesitate to watch it on NBC’s Web site.

I regularly commit the grievous sin of choosing books by their covers. Coming back to school this fall and realizing that I was dangerously low on non-educational reading material, I rifled through my parents’ bookcase and quickly chose what looked to be the most attractive. The result? Star Island by Carl Hiaasen, in all its turquoise glory. This is not the first time I have read Carl Hiaasen, and I am a pretty big fan of his rather twisted and black humor, his barely believable plot twists and his zany and overthe-top characters; unfortunately, this one fell a little short of the high standards to which I hold him. Even with unusually flat characters and a less-interesting plot than normal, it was still thoughtprovoking, clearly thought out and attention-grabbing.

They say coffee is an acquired taste. It is not something fit for all, but those who have taken a chance on it quickly come to realize its attraction and value. For me, the same can be said for Write About Love, Belle & Sebastian’s latest effort. On first listen, you may not be immediately satisfied. The subsequent listens however will open your ears and convert you to Belle & Sebastian fandom. Though the indie pop septet (yes, septet – that’s seven) from Glasgow has eight albums under its belt, it never received the widespread, mainstream success it probably deserves. Write About Love is a perfect album for autumn, the season of change. The songs are colorful and dynamic, just like the time of year. Perhaps you could listen to it while drinking your first cup of coffee.

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 27, 2010

CULTURE

Enjoying Sports for the Sports Illiterate Avoid Twiddling Your Thumbs and Twirling Your Hair the Next Time Some Boring Game Is Playing

RON JENKINS/MCT

See how angry they look? Avoid tension and maintain friendships by keeping your frustration to a minimum when you are either confused about the rules or rooting for the opposite team during a game.

By CLARA ENNIST STAFF WRITER

This time of year, it is a flurry of sports with the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB’s World Series all in action. Despite what die-hard sports fans think, not everyone cares about sports. However, sometimes it is impossible to avoid sporting events like the World Series, the Superbowl and the World Cup. Whether or not we like sports, they are a huge part of many people’s lives and they comprise a good part of social situations. Watching a game on television or live does not necessarily have to be miserable for a person who dislikes sports. First, respect the sport by knowing the basic rules of the game. Even if you have to pull up the Wikipedia page on football to understand what a “first down” is, knowing a little bit about the sport informs you about what you are watching. If you do not know the

rules, you will be utterly lost during the game. Respecting the sporting event itself goes further than just having a vague knowledge of the basic rules. There is nothing more irritating than trying to watch a crucial game with people who are doing nothing to mask their boredom. If you have decided to watch the World Series with people who actually care about the game, do not start making too much noise, talking about trivial matters or complaining about the length of the game. Likewise, if you’ve been invited to the game itself, try to counter your boredom by watching the crowd or even the players themselves. At any sporting event, the crowd itself is a rich source for entertainment. Having a basic understanding about the rules of a particular sport does not mean that you will understand all of the intricacies. If you are confused about what is going on, ask questions but always try

to keep them to a minimum, and only ask them when you will not be distracting anyone during a pivotal moment. Almost anyone can sense when other spectators are tense; they get quiet and intently watch the game. Do not ask questions at this time, but during any other point in the game, if you’re curious, ask. Typically, it is best to address your question to the person who is reacting the most emphatically. Normally, this is the fan whose knowledge outmatches that of the coach of the professional sports team, at least in his of her own opinion. This fan is just dying to go on a rant about the game, and you can be his or her entirely captive audience. You will normally receive a longer answer than you would like, but at least you will have an explanation. While it can be embarrassing to watch a sporting event when you have no idea what is going on and

you really do not care about the outcome, it can be extremely awkward when you do not support the team at all and you are watching the game with a group of dedicated fans. In this case, it is always best to be respectful, even if you are cheering for the opposing team. If it is just a regular season game, feel free to wear your team’s colors and cheer for their successes, but try not to obnoxiously rub it in. “A lot of it depends on who the team is and who the friend is,” Molly Thompson, FCRH ’12, said. “In general, it’s just friendly competition; but there’s always that one person and that one team.” While it may be alright during a regular season game, if you show up to watch Game 6 of the NLCS in a “Lincecum” T-shirt at an apartment filled with Phillies fans, you are no longer engaging in friendly competition. Finally, if you have zero interest in sports, do not try to make

yourself look better by using inappropriate sports jargon or discussing major sports moments that happened years ago. Unless you are juxtaposing something that occurred five years ago with a play made five seconds ago, it is irrelevant and it makes you look even more ignorant. The absolute worst is when people refer to things that happened either before they were born or before they were of an age to watch, understand and remember the game. Unless you preface these types of comments with, “So I was watching ESPN Classic last night,” you should not even attempt to bring up the “Immaculate Reception.” If you do bring up classic moments in sports history during a typical game, you have only proven that you can read Wikipedia, not that you are an actual sports fan. If you are not a sports fan, own it, accept it and try not to block the television.

WHO’S THAT KID? Ashley Meade A MEMBER OF GSB ‘13, WITH AN UNDECLARED MAJOR FROM MIDDLETOWN, N.J. Where have we seen you? I spend as much time as I can on Arthur Avenue, but you’ve most likely seen me lifeguarding at the Fordham pool.

want to meet. Someone who could make me laugh would be ideal, so when it came down to it I’d probably opt for Vince Vaughn.

Favorite childhood show and favorite current show? My favorite show will always be “Friends.” I’m a proud owner of all 10 seasons and yes, you can borrow them.

What would your ideal day in Manhattan consist of? Seeing a movie, walking around and having a nice dinner.

Who would play you in a movie and why? Jennifer Aniston – she’s my girl. If you could have a dinner with any historical person, who would it be and why? There are so many people I

If you could be anywhere and doing anything right now, what would it be? On a beach with my friends. What has been your favorite class at Fordham and favorite professor? My favorite class so far is Comp. II and my favorite professor is Professor Henry Borerro.

How do you blow off steam? I blow off steam by going to the gym or calling an old friend. What is the biggest misconception people have about you? Sometimes people take me too seriously; I’m usually just joking ... Stuck on an island, what would you need? A good book and a bathing suit. What is your dream job? Anything that will make me happy and allows me to travel. I want to go everywhere. What is your guilty pleasure? “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” although I rarely feel that guilty.

COURTESY OF ASHLEY MEADE

CULTURE

OCTOBER 27, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 17

They Are One of Us, Except in Regard to the Law Celebrities May Want to be Average Citizens, but When It Comes to Punishments, They Receive the Extreme By SCHARON HARDING STAFF WRITER

What do hip-hop stars, a socialite and a former New York State governor have in common? They are all in big trouble. Celebrities get more naughty every year, despite being under big spotlights where they are bound to get caught. Often, the misdeeds of stars become bigger news than their actual occupations. Actress Lindsay Lohan has not starred in a feature film since 2007, yet her name never escapes the headlines. After a pair of DUIs in May 2007, Lohan has been in and out of rehab and courthouses, attempting to avoid jail time. However, on July 20 she was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 30 days in rehab for violating probation. She was released early, under conditions of therapy and random alcohol and drug screenings. She was told that violation of her probation could lead to 30 days of jail per infraction. Soon after, Lohan failed a drug screening. She was, however, not sent to jail. The starlet was ordered to stay in rehab until Jan. 3, 2011. “I think she should pay her dues to society[…]but we should focus on rehabilitating her because she clearly has a drug addiction,” Amanda Ryland, FCRH ’12, said. The court system does not seem to feel the same way about rapper T.I. On March 27, 2008, he was sentenced to one year and one day in jail for federal weapon charges. On Sept. 1, 2010, T.I. was arrested

again, this time on drug charges. He was sentenced to 11 months in jail for violating his probation. The celebrity was in possession of ecstasy, tested positive for opiates and associated with a convicted felon. Although both celebrities appear to have drug problems, T.I. was not given a second chance like Lohan. It seemed that the court system thought Lohan needed help, while T.I. needed incarceration. What makes their situations different? Tommy Lewis, GSB ’11, said he thinks Lindsay Lohan’s status as a young, pretty female star plays a big factor. “T.I. got what he deserved,” he said. “Lindsay should have gone to jail too, but she got a lot of breaks because it’s Lindsay Lohan.” He also said that T.I.’s past record was more serious than Lohan’s, which led to his jail sentence. Is the court system putting more faith in Lohan since her record is a bit cleaner than T.I.’s? Or are judges more easily content with putting a rapper in jail than a young actress? It is a tough call. Considering T.I.’s past, maybe he actually needs more help than Lohan, but what happens to these stars after they have done wrong? Does society turn its back on them? For rap superstar Lil’ Wayne, the answer is no. On March 8, 2010, the star was sentenced to a year in jail for possession of marijuana and weapons. Since then, the “Free Weezy” campaign has been enormous. A Web site (weezythanxyou. com) publishes letters Lil’ Wayne writes in jail, keeping fans connect-

ed to the prisoner. Furthermore, his album I Am Not a Human Being was the No. 1 selling album last week, despite Lil’ Wayne’s imprisonment. Jail time did not seem to affect Lil’ Wayne’s fans’ loyalty or respect. If stars can still have fame and make money after their misdeeds, is their punishment still effective? Ryland said she thinks jail time is actually helpful for celebrities. “It keeps them in the public eye, creating more publicity and buzz,” she said. Former New York State governor Elliot Spitzer took advantage of buzz created by his bad behavior. On March 12, 2008, the Democrat announced his resignation as governor. This was in response to threats of impeachment following a scandal of him spending an estimated $80,000 for prostitutes during his term as New York State attorney general and governor. However, Spitzer has recently returned to the public eye. His new political debate show, “Spitzer/ Parker,” premiered on CNN earlier this month. The governor would not have this primetime slot if it were not for the publicity created by his earlier scandal. However, it calls into question the taste level of the network. Should a station as reputable as CNN be giving a microphone to a governor that admittedly failed to perform his duties? Lauren Sweeney, FCRH ’12 said she is not impressed with CNN’s decision. “It is such a shame that television

COURTESY SCREEN GEMS/MCT

T.I. may be in jail now, but he certainly does not look too guilty here.

seems to embrace the idea that no press is bad press,” she said. However, it is hard to say whether or not society should discard celebrities just because of bad deeds. After all, they are only human. “Elliot Spitzer was a politician for years,” John Thornhill, FCRH

’13, said. “Even though he messed up, he still knows a lot of valuable things.” Stars will continue to misbehave, but whether or not they should be punished is debatable. It is society’s prerogative to decide how to judge these criminal celebs.

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PAGE 18 • THE RAM • OCTOBER27, 2010

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OCTOBER 27, 2010

PAGE 19

Volleyball Comes Through with Wins Over Fairfield and Rhode Island By DANNY ATKINSON SPORTS EDITOR

Fordham volleyball snapped a four-match losing streak on Wednesday, Oct. 20 with a fiveset victory over Fairfield. Final set scores were 25-22, 24-26, 25-23, 19-25 and 15-11. Like in many of their recent matches, the Lady Rams experienced a contest where neither team was able to establish control over the action throughout. Set 1 saw nine tie scores before Fordham rallied for the final three points to take an initial lead, but the Stags turned the tables on the team in Set 2 by taking the final three points and tying the match. The Lady Rams shook off the loss by taking control of the third stanza late, but the tango continued when Fairfield won seven of the final eight points in the fourth set to knot the match at two-all. Fordham could have easily fallen in the final set. At home, having lost its grip on the previous set, the team had reason to be discouraged. There have been times this season when the Lady Rams fell in match ups when they should not have. However, the team was determined to end its losing streak and could not afford any more surprising losses and still make the Atlantic 10 Conference playoffs. This knowledge propelled Fordham to an impressive fifth-set victory, one in which the Lady Rams recorded five of the set’s final six points,

PHOTO BY MARK BECKER/THE RAM

Sophomore middle hitter Randi Ewing earned Atlantic 10 Volleyball Defensive Player of the Week for her fine play last weekend.

with the help of a few Fairfield errors. When the team’s back was up against the wall, it responded with a win that restored confidence in its play and showed that Fordham can still be one of the better teams in the A-10. For the Lady Rams, freshman setter Mary Diamantidis finished with 49 assists, three kills, five digs and three blocks. After a few days off, Fordham continued its winning ways with a key five-set victory over fellow A-10 member Rhode Island. Final set scores were 25-15, 23-25, 1625, 25-19 and 15-12. The Lady Rams demonstrated a strong ability to handle adversity in

the match, as the team was able to rebound from an inconsistent start to the contest. After posting an impressive first-set win, Fordham lost four of the final five points in the second set to allow Rhode Island to even the match, and then saw Rhode Island dominate in a third set where it hit .355 as a team. Instead of getting frustrated by their slow beginning and opponent’s large crowd, the Lady Rams pushed away any distractions and posted two of their best sets on the season. Behind sophomore middle hitter Randi Ewing, who had two kills and three blocks in the set, Fordham held Rhode Island to a

-.027 percentage in the fourth set and then posted a .571 percentage of its own in Set 5, easily closing out the match. For the Lady Rams, Daulton had 13 kills and nine digs, while Ewing set season-highs with nine kills and nine blocks. Fordham thoroughly outplayed Rhode Island in the match, hitting .230 to its opponents’ .161 and dishing out 57 digs to Rhode Island’s 43. Ewing was named A-10 volleyball Defensive Player of the Week on Tuesday for her 15 blocks in the two matches and .361 hitting percentage. “I was really happy with how we

played against Rhode Island,” Head Coach Peter Volkert said. “They had a great crowd and outplayed us at the beginning, but we were able to maintain our composure and play very well most of the match. I was especially happy with the team’s passing. This was a match we needed to win.” Fordham now has a .500 record for the season at 14-14 and is 4-5 in-conference. The team sits sixth in the A-10 standings with the last spot for the conference playoffs, holding a tiebreaker over Charlotte and a two-game advantage over the team in seventh place. The Lady Rams are in the stretch run of their conference season, with six games remaining in the next two and half weeks against opponents all over the conference standings. Fordham should be victorious against both Rhode Island and La Salle this weekend, two of the doormats in the A-10. Although the team may struggle to beat Saint Louis or Dayton, there are enough opportunities for wins left on the Lady Rams’ schedule for fans to expect Fordham to return to the conference tournament after a oneyear absence. “We expect our team to make the conference tournament,” Volkert said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to continue playing like this in the next few weeks. Our goal is to see if we can jump out of the sixth spot and beat some teams to get the fifth or maybe even fourth seed.”

Fordham Names Bryan Patterson Squash Head Coach By DANNY ATKINSON SPORTS EDITOR

For a long time, Fordham squash has filled a position of irrelevancy at our university. Squash was Fordham’s red-headed step-child, a team that struggled to be successful and received almost no attention from the community. Fortunately, those days may be changing with the hiring of Bryan Patterson. Patterson has many of the attributes a school should be looking for in an important head coaching hire. Patterson is experienced, intelligent and very familiar with Fordham. He is the man Fordham squash needs to become competitive again. Patterson, a native of England, has an extremely impressive and lengthy track record. As a player he represented England in a number of national and international championships and was ranked as high as No. 2 in England and No. 16 in the world in the late 1970s. Patterson was the assistant coach for the English Junior Squads for 20 years and served as the director of squash at both the prestigious Heights Casino in Brooklyn from 1994 until 2000 and the CHASS Squash Club in Philadelphia for seven years after that. While at the CHASS Squash Club, Patterson began the High Schools Team Championship, now the largest junior squash team event in the world. Finally, starting in 2007 and con-

tinuing until the present, Patterson has been the director of squash at CitySquash, the Bronx program though which he was introduced to Fordham’s program and its players and a position Patterson will still hold on to while he coaches at Fordham part-time. Patterson, who is taking over for Bob Hawthorne after Hawthorne led the Rams for three decades, says that he took the head coaching position due to his familiarity with Fordham from CitySquash. “I got to know these players from working with them for a while now, and I know how great of guys they are and how great of a school Fordham is,” Patterson said. “I really wanted this job, and the fact that Fordham allowed me to keep my position with CitySquash was very important to me.” While Patterson has a number of both short- and long-term goals he wants to accomplish in his time as head coach, his most immediate goal for the 2010 season is to teach Fordham’s players how to effectively play on the team’s four beautiful new regulation size squash courts, which will be geared toward the international style of play instead of the North American style that the old courts served. “This team needs to learn how to play the international style properly,” he said. “We’re going to spend a lot of time this year, both in practice and in games, working on

technique and strategy for success on international courts. This program will find success only when its members are well-versed in how to properly play the game.” No one could argue that Fordham squash has not been an abject failure for a long time now. The Rams have gone 9-29 in the last three years and it has been much longer since the program has seen any measurable success, partly due to the fact that it had an aging coach in place for way too long. The squash team receives little attention from the athletic department and from Fordham students and fans. It has also embarrassingly needed to recruit tennis players and other athletes to the team due to lack of interest in the program. Even with the extremely generous assistance of CitySquash, who basically saved our school’s program by building Fordham new facilities so they could make use of them and by helping to attract a new head coach to Rose Hill, the Rams seem to be a long way away from becoming a consistently competitive program. Luckily, Patterson is realistic about the challenges he is going to face at Fordham. “We want to win, but I know that might be hard to do for a little while,” he said. “I would just like to see our players learning the game this year and enjoying themselves out on the court. If we play our best

COURTESY OF UNIVERSALSQUASHSINCE86.COM

Head Coach Bryan Patterson has high expectations for the future of Fordham squash.

and still lose but enjoy ourselves, that’s all I can ask for.” Patterson recognizes the issues the squash program has had with recruiting in recent years but hopes the athletic department will allow him to recruit players for squash in the near future, believing that the benefits Fordham offers should attract players. “I have a relationship with a lot of talented players from my time coaching,” Patterson said. “Fordham’s a great academic school and it’s in New York City. It offers the best of both worlds. What talented athlete wouldn’t want to play here?” While Patterson has only been officially coaching for about two weeks, his players have already warmed up to him. “He’s had a very large impact,” ju-

nior Andrew Grosner said. “He has a likeable quality about him that he brings with him everywhere and makes all the guys listen to him and like him as well. Bryan has immediately made us work hard, work on squash-specific drills and has high hopes for us, if not this year, most definitely next year. The team will be very, very improved under him. If we are allowed to recruit players to play, I see us doing extremely well under Bryan Patterson and his coaching staff in the foreseeable future.” Patterson shares the optimism of Grosner and largely echoed the words of his young charge. “This program will be much improved very soon,” he said. “At some point, I see Fordham becoming one of the better squash programs in the country.”

PAGE 20 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 27, 2010

SPORTS

Men’s Soccer Splits Two Conference Games Over Weekend By RICH HOFMANN STAFF WRITER

Last weekend’s two road games were day and night for the men’s soccer team. After a resounding 3-0 win against George Washington on Friday, the Rams lost 1-0 to Richmond on Sunday. Even during the lopsided GW win on Friday, Fordham (8-6-0, 3-2-0) may have lost a little energy for Sunday’s game. Though the win was comfortable, the game still had 26, fouls which could have taken a toll on the team. “The game against GW was a good all-around performance and a team effort,” junior midfielder Matt Courtenay said. “No games are easy, though, and we got pretty banged up physically during Friday’s game” In a game played at the GWMount Vernon Athletic Complex, Fordham made itself right at home. The Rams struck early in a game that they controlled throughout. In the fifth minute, freshman forward Julian Nagel took a free kick that found junior midfielder John Niyonsaba. He then redirected the ball with his head to sophomore defender Marcus Axelsson, who scored on a header of his own. Axelsson, with a large frame at 6’2”, has become a dangerous player on set pieces for the Rams even though most of his time is spent playing defense. The second goal also came from a familiar face for the Rams. Junior

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/THE RAM

Sophomore defender Marcus Axelsson got the Rams off to a fast start against George Washington, earning a 3-0 victory.

forward John McHugh took a long pass from junior defender Phil Ferrantello and chipped it over the goalkeeper’s head. McHugh, to whom the team looks to play the ball in behind the defense, now leads the team with four goals.

“After Phil played the nice long ball to me, the keeper came out [to challenge],” McHugh said. “I was able to flick it over him into the goal.” Junior midfielder Adam DesRoches added his first collegiate goal

to make the score 3-0 and junior and senior goalkeepers Ryan Meara and Jon Bratincevic combined for the clean sheet. With a 10 a.m. start on Sunday against Richmond, Fordham started out slow and Richmond capital-

ized early. Richmond sophomore midfielder Houston Oldham played a cross from the right side into the box and freshman midfielder Spencer Schiff climbed over a Fordham defender and placed a powerful header past Meara to make it a 1-0 lead for the Spiders. The lead held up over as Fordham managed to outshoot Richmond 17-0. The Rams were held without many good scoring chances, though, as they only recorded three shots on goal. “Going into Sunday we seemed fatigued and bruised and it showed when they scored first,” Courtenay said. Right now, Fordham’s place in the Atlantic 10 standings is unclear. The Rams sit in a six-way tie for fourth place in the conference, and only six teams make the playoffs. With teams having played a different number of games, Dayton sits in the third position, but has played one more game than Fordham and three other teams with nine points (Temple, La Salle and Richmond). Fordham could end up anywhere from third place to out of the playoffs. “We just have to focus on completing the weekend and getting maximum points this upcoming weekend to ensure a spot in the playoffs,” Courtenay said. Fordham heads back on the road this weekend to play second-place UMass and Rhode Island, which is winless in the conference.

Women’s Soccer Picks Up Two Big Wins in Late Season Push By ERIK PEDERSEN STAFF WRITER

The Fordham women’s soccer team picked up two very important wins this weekend, defeating George Washington 2-1 on Friday night, and beating Richmond 1-0 in overtime on Sunday. With the victories, the Lady Rams improved to 3-3-1 in the Atlantic 10 (7-9-1 overall), and moved into a tie with La Salle for sixth place in the conference. The top six teams make it to the conference tournament. The team got off to a great start on Friday, controlling the play for the first 15 minutes. The possession was eventually rewarded with a goal, as freshman forward Avilla Bergin found freshman midfielder Kelsey Dougherty Howard down the right side. Dougherty Howard then directed a cross to junior midfielder Mariella Romano, who left the ball for senior defender Lauren Nowakowski to shoot past junior goalkeeper Lindsey Rowe. The goal was Nowakowski’s first in her career at Fordham. “Nowakowski’s been playing defense since she came here, but I decided today to use her mobility and speed to be more active offensively,” Head Coach Ness Selmani said. “She has one of the strongest shots on the team, before the game I told her, ‘You’ve been punishing our goalkeepers in practice, I want you to punish the other team’s goalkeepers.’” G.W. gradually began to even out the possession, which led to a 64thminute goal off of a free kick by senior midfielder Michelle Aueron.

The goal was the Colonials’ only true scoring chance of the game. Fordham needed more than a tie to keep its playoff aspirations alive, and it was able to get a late goal nine minutes before the end of regulation. Senior midfielder Michelle Ancelj took a cross from Nowakowski near the top left side of the penalty box and drilled a low shot past Rowe for her team-leading fifth goal of the season. “That goal that they scored was very heartbreaking after being ahead, but Lauren found the perfect ball across and I was able to cut it back and hit it near post,” Ancelj said. Fordham’s defense then held strong over the last nine minutes to preserve the 2-1 victory. “We were focused, everybody gave their all and when everybody does their job we have one of the best teams in the conference,” Selmani said. Sunday’s game against Richmond began with a slow-moving first half in which both teams struggled to create chances. The action picked up eight minutes into the second half, when Dougherty Howard sent in senior midfielder Katie McDermott, but her shot went just over the goal. Richmond then had several scoring opportunities late in the half, but last-second challenges by freshman defenders Casey Nowakowski and Kaitlyn Carballeira prevented the Spiders from getting shots toward sophomore goalkeeper Sarah Zieman. The game remained scoreless at the end of regulation, with the Lady Rams again needing a win to remain in contention for the

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/THE RAM

Junior midfielder Mariella Romano scored a game-winning goal three minutes into overtime to get a big win over Richmond.

playoffs. They were able to get that win just three minutes into the first overtime, with Romano taking a pass from sophomore forward Annie Worden at the top of the box and lofting a shot into the top right-hand corner for the dramatic game-winning goal, her third of the season.

“It felt great to score,” Romano said. “Annie just passed me the ball and I took the shot and prayed that it would go in.” The Lady Rams are now halfway toward their goal of winning all four games on their home stand to close out the regular season. They finish up next weekend on Friday night against UMass and

Sunday afternoon versus Rhode Island. “We knew we had to win all four games [on the home stand],” Romano said. “We knew we had to take it one by one and that’s what we’ve been doing. Hopefully this week we’ll keep the momentum going in practice and next week we’ll see what happens.”

SPORTS

2010-11 NBA Preview Blog By AMIT BADLANI STAFF WRITER

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division 1. Boston Celtics (59-23) KG is coming off of his worst season since he was a rookie. Look for him to come out of the gates with more determination than ever before. Rondo will grow up a little more and become the second-best point guard after Chris Paul. The additions of the O’Neals, Shaquille and Jermaine (no relation), give the Celtics the best depth in the league. 2. New York Knicks (46-36) Despite not getting LeBron James over the offseason, Donnie Walsh did a great job putting a team together. Amar’e Stoudemire hasn’t let up after earning a max contract. He’s worked his butt off over the offseason. Gallinari will become that tall, outside sharp-shooter that opposing teams have feared that he would become. Raymond Felton is the first real point guard the Knicks have had since Charlie Ward. 3. New Jersey Nets (39-43) Avery Johnson will get this team to play very intense defense and immensely improve this team from only 12 wins last season. Brook Lopez will become an inside force. Derrick Favors will make an immediate impact. Devin Harris now has a coach who played the point. Don’t be surprised to see Melo here at the trade deadline. 4. Toronto Raptors (33-49) The loss of Chris Bosh to free agency destroyed the Raptors’ chances of being one of those fringe teams who get the No. 8 seed. Bosh was the only post presence they had. The European guys, Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon, should step up in his absence. The Hedo Turkoglu trade should be a breath of fresh air for their fans. 5. Philadelphia 76ers (27-55) Hey, Philadelphia has to suck in one sport. Andre Iguodala matured playing at Worlds with Kevin Durant and crew, but that won’t be enough to lift this team. Elton Brand has only played in 105 games since signing in Philly, and he only averaged 13 points last year. Central Division 1. Chicago Bulls (53-29) After signing Carlos Boozer, this team has tons of potential. Boozer broke his hand, so the Bulls will be out of sync for a short while when he steps on the floor. Derrick Rose is one of the top five point guards in the league. Joakim Noah has proven he can defend the big men down low. 2. Milwaukee Bucks (48-34) If Michael Redd can find a way to be healthy for a full season for the first time since 2005-2006, this team will win the central, but that’s not going to happen. Redd has played in 51 games in the past 2 seasons. Brandon Jennings proved that he’s a legit scorer last season, and his hand will grow hotter. Andrew Bogut averaged 2.5 blocks per game last season and John Salmons will be more integrated with the offense. 3. Indiana Pacers (36-46)

Danny Granger has averaged 25 points per game last season, so he’ll keep it up. Roy Hibbert averaged 15 points in April last season. Darren Collison is no longer a rookie. The Pacers depend on him maturing as quickly as possible. 4. Detroit Pistons (34-48) It seems like a long time since the Pistons had that great defensive team that took down the Lakers in the NBA Finals. Now they’re nothing but old scraps. Ben Gordon is the exception, so his scoring will keep the team alive. T-Mac wants to see if he can play at NBA level, so he’ll be motivated. 5. Cleveland Cavaliers (19-63) I’ll keep it simple: no LeBron.

and he’s going to be 38 years old at the end of the season. He’ll slow down and that assists average will decrease from 9 to around 7. 3. San Antonio Spurs (46-36) The core of arguably the most dominant team of the last decade is getting old. Tim Duncan’s knees are getting rusty, limiting him to 31 minutes per game last season, and that will decrease to under 30 this season. Tony Parker needs to stay healthy after missing 26 games last season. Manu Ginobli stepped up in Parker’s absence last year, he’ll do the same in a starting role. DeJuan Blair will start this year as well. Northwest Conference

Southeast Division 1. Miami Heat (63-19) If you asked me a month ago, I may have put this team at 70 wins, but since D-Wade didn’t play in the preseason, the new Big Three will be out of sync for the first three weeks of the season. There are some interesting pieces after the big three (Chalmers, Haslem, House, Big-Z and Mike Miller), but with the exception of Mike Miller, these guys are either too young or too old to serve any use for Miami. 2. Orlando Magic (57-25) Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, Rashard Lewis, Mickael Pietrus and Vince Carter still sounds like a great lineup to me. Dwight Howard is coming into this season with a new demeanor. He’s not doing any more impressions or shooting three pointers from the bench anymore. He’s motivated to best that other team in Florida. 3. Atlanta Hawks (48-34) After earning a max contract, Joe Johnson will take it easy like Gilbert Arenas has. Mike Bibby is getting older, so he’ll be less effective. Al Horford will make this his team since he’s entering the last year of his 4-year contract. Josh will continue to excite with his athleticism. 4. Washington Wizards (43-39) Despite having the player with the worst contract in sports (including the Mets’ Oliver Perez), the Wizards will be in the playoffs with No. 1 pick, John Wall leading the way. They have other interesting pieces including: Kirk Hinrich, Josh Howard, Andray Blatche and Yi Jianlian. This team could cause some waves in Arenas actually behaves. 5. Charlotte Bobcats (42-40) Michael Jordan will enter his first full season as an owner of an NBA team to the joy of his team. Western Conference Southwest Division 1. Memphis Grizzlies (51-31) There is always one team that seems to make a huge jump by maturing all at once. The Grizzlies have an excellent young core that includes: Rudy Gay, OJ Mayo, and Marc Gasol. Zach Randolph taught the young guys to play the post while improving his game as well. 2. Dallas Mavericks (49-33) The Mavericks are tied with the Spurs for the oldest team in the NBA. Dirk Nowitzki is entering his 13th season, but he’ll continue to put up 25 points per game. Jason Kidd is entering his 17th season

OCTOBER 27, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 21

Football LAF FOR First Downs Total Yards Rushing Passing Punt Returns Kick Returns Comp-Att-Int Punts Time of Poss.

Pacific Division 1. Los Angeles Lakers (55-27) Kobe Bryant struggled in the preseason, only averaging 13 points per game. Bryant said his surgically repaired knee is fine, but 28% shooting from the field shows something is obviously wrong. Despite his troubles, he’ll find his shot and lead the Lakers to the playoffs again. Andrew Bynum is returning near Thanksgiving. Pau Gasol needs to let the offense run through Kobe. 2. Phoenix Suns (48-34) Losing Amar’e Stoudemire to free agency means that that the Suns post presences are Channing Frye and Robin Lopez, neither of which play true post. Despite being 36 years old, Steve Nash has proven he’s extremely fit and can still average a double-double with points and assists. 3. Los Angeles Clippers (35-47) The Clippers will be a little bit better with last year’s #1 pick Blake Griffin recovered from knee surgery. Baron Davis’ experience will allow Eric Gordon and Griffin to mature further. *Editor’s Note: To see the rest of this story along with all of our other blogs, go to theramonline. com/sports where you can find Amit’s full Western Conference, playoff and award predictions for the 2010-11 NBA season.

2 7 0

3 4 F 3 0 10 0 6 14 LAF FU 17 19 300 351 91 166 209 185 2-0 0-0 4-72 4-69 18-35-1 19-32-1 7-26.9 7-38 30:58 29:02

Individual Statistics PASSING-Lafayette, KupecO’Neil 18-35-1 Fordham, Higgins 19-32-1 RUSHING-Lafayette, Mputu 13-74-0 Fordham, Whiting 29-112-1 RECEIVING-Lafayette, Hayes 6-81-0 Fordham, Caldwell 6-61-0

Volleyball Fordham Daulton May

1. Oklahoma City Thunder (55-27) The Thunder were the surprise team last season because Kevin Durant managed to score 30 per game. Look for him to improve even more and easily win a scoring title because LeBron doesn’t need to score alone any more. Russell Westbrook wouldn’t surprise me if he averaged a double-double with points and assists. 2. Portland Trail Blazers (52-30) If Greg Oden can stay healthy (and can still jump), the Blazers will have an inside-outside threat when combined with Brandon Roy. Roy also spent a month injured last season, so he’ll improve from 21 to 25 points per game. Andre Miller needs to get one more good year. 3. Utah Jazz (50-32) All the pieces around Deron Williams are one year older, one year slower. The loss of Kyle Korver to the Bulls gives them one less guy to shoot from the perimeter, Gordon Hayward needs some time to mature. Andrei Kirilenko can’t defend well anymore and isn’t worth the $17+ million he’ll be paid.

Men’s Soccer 1 0 8

Diamantidis Griffiths Atwood Ewings Fride Capicotto Rodenberg Wells Totals

URI Kolkka McIntosh Anderson Wilson Zarazan Baarstad Tennant Potts Scheiffer Totals

FOR URI

K BS BA 13 0 2 10 0 1 3 0 0 6 1 1 1 0 0 9 6 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 12 1 1 55 8 8

Pct BE .267 0 .061 0 .600 0 .158 0 1000 0 .350 0 .000 0 .000 0 .333 0 .261 0 .230 0

Dig PTS 9 15.0 4 12.5 5 4.0 5 8.5 13 1.0 0 16.5 5 0.0 1 0.0 15 1.0 0 13.5 57 72.0

K BS BA 0 0 1 5 1 2 8 3 2 14 2 2 13 1 1 6 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 48 7 8

Pct BE .000 0 .143 0 .250 0 .333 0 .216 0 -.030 0 .500 0 .000 0 -333 0 .161 0

Dig PTS 6 2.5 3 7.0 2 13.0 6 17.0 1 14.5 2 7.0 12 1.0 7 4.0 4 1.0 43 67.0

25 23 15 25

16 25

25 15 19 12

Women’s Soccer Richmond Pacheco Wicher Dale Baxter Schmitt Lescallett Russell ScheUrich Blair Wann Archer Subs Parisi Leclair Smith Layne Chandler Totals

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

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

G 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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

0 0 1 0 1 9

0 0 0 0 0 5

0 0 0 0 0 0

Min GA 92:51 1

Sav 3

Sh 0 0 1 0 0 0 5 0 1 0 0

SOG 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0

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

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

0 0 0 1 0 8

0 0 0 0 0 4

0 0 0 0 0 1

GK Zieman

RICH FOR

Fordham

Sh SOG G

Meara Ferrantello Niyonsaba Richardson Curran Axelsson McHugh Gimand Stalker Nagel Courtenay Subs Bratincevic Jolly Valencia Vigliotti Caputo Heyder Seidenthal DesRoches Corrao Gomez

0 0 0 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0

0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals

GK Meara Bratincevic GW

Min GA 81:57 0 8:03 0

Min GA 92:51 0 1 0 0

2 0 0

OT 0 1

Sav 3 0

Sh SOG G

LAFFERTY 0 LAFLEUR 2 SHABAN 0 RUDOLPH 3 CARR 0 BERHANU 2 ALUKO 0 ABAIE 0 DAVIS 0 MELILLO 1 RANNEY 0 Subs SANDLAND 0 EISENBUD 1 HINNERS 0 RANALLI 0 RIPPERGER-SUHL0 DERVISEVIC 0

0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals

GK Lafferty

FOR GW

Min GA 90:00 3 1 1 0

2 2 0

Sav 3

OT 0 0

TOT 3 0

Fordham 0-1Richmond Fordham

Sh SOG G

Meara Ferrantello Niyonsaba Richardson Curran Axelsson McHugh Gimand Stalker Nagel Courtenay Subs Jolly Markowitz Vigliotti Heyder Seidenthal DesRoches Corrao

0 2 0 4 2 0 2 0 2 2 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 1 2 0

0 0 0 0 1 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals

17 3

GK Pacheco Fordham Zieman Murphy Dougherty Worden Carballeira Bergin Ancelj Nowakowski Romano Nowakowski Ingram Subs Alpaugh Wah Solimine McDermott Brady Totals

Fordham 3-0 George Washington

Meara Richmond

Min GA

Sav

90:00 1

Sh SOG

TOMLINSON STEPHENSON HAUSER OLDHAM PEREZ FORSYTH RUSSELL HOERNER SCHIFF CRISTOBAL HIMELEIN Subs OVERTON CHEW BREWSTER JOHNSTON GROVE CRISTOBAL

0 0 0 1 0 0 3 1 2 1 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 2 0 0 0

0 0 1 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

Totals

10 4

Min GA

Sav 5

Tomlinson

90:00 0

TOT 0 1

FOR RICH

1 0 1

2 0 0

OT 0 0

Sav 3 TOT 0 1

PAGE 22 • THE RAM • OCTOBER 27, 2010

MATT MANUSZAK

The Smush Parker Project Dropping politics into a sports column is like unleashing Andy Reid on a post-wedding buffet or Ben Roethlisberger on a sorority party: there will be problems. Yet, with recent team activities in both the NFL and NBA, these two leagues are moving closer and closer in their competitive structures (though not necessarily their economic and labor structures) to embodying certain socioeconomic systems. The NFL, with its relatively even talent distribution, borderline incomprehensible parity and yearly upheaval at the top of the standings, is essentially a socialist sports league competitively (though ironically its workers have almost no rights). This season, any team can beat any other team any given week: Marx himself couldn’t have spread the wealth this well. No team embodies this spirit more than my beloved Browns: despite their God-awful 11-28 record over the last two-plus seasons, they have beaten the defending Super Bowl champs three times in a row. Even in a regular season with only 16 games, making each game exceedingly important, so many games this season have defied expectations. This isn’t the MLB, NHL or NBA, where season length necessitates that players pace themselves to conserve energy for the stretch run and playoffs. In the NFL, players go full bore each game; yet the disparity in talent between the 53 players on each team simply isn’t significant enough for very much dominance to occur. There are teams, like the Colts, Patriots and Steelers, who by virtue of their sound front office structure and elite quarterback play are contenders every year. Similarly, for teams like the Browns, Lions and 49ers, each season seems like an exercise in futility. Beyond that? It’s wide open. If the NFL is Marx, then the NBA might as well be Barry Goldwater. No professional sports league has as conservative a competitive structure as the NBA (though again, ironically, the NBA has a much stronger player’s union than the NFL). The gap between the haves and the have-nots is seemingly widening each year. For a team to get from worst to first, it essentially has to trade away all its good players and lose a depressing amount of games for about three years in order to replenish its roster with talent in the draft. Even then, the draft lottery makes it so that order of finish dictates only a team’s chances at a top pick; simply tanking doesn’t guarantee much. With the NBA being a star-driven league, teams will hitch their wagon to a top-of-the-draft star

and hope for a franchise talent that will keep them in the upper tax bracket. Think of teams like the Spurs, Lakers, Magic, Mavs, etc. Factors like the “Larry Bird Rule,” which allow a team to go over the salary cap to re-sign its own players, keep teams with star players at the top of the heap. Even more emblematic of this league’s conservative format are the amount of teams who are essentially in middle class no-man’s land. Teams like the Pacers, Raptors and Hawks, which tend to finish anywhere between fifth and 10th in their respective conferences, occupy a dangerous medium: they are mediocre or good enough to perhaps qualify for the playoffs, but simply aren’t talented enough to move into the upper class. Then there are the bottomfeeders, teams which literally play the lottery every year in hopes of scratching a stud for their franchise. The NFL is undoubtedly more popular than the NBA, and its system of parity is a big reason why. Casual fans enjoy close games and cheering for a team that has a chance at winning nearly every single week, regardless of record. I know I’m in the minority, but I actually prefer the NBA’s more republican system. Part of that reason is that for the last seven years, it’s been all champagne wishes and breakaway dunk dreams for this Cavs fan. It’s pretty easy to support a league’s system when you’re at the top, and the Cavs were legitimate contenders for each of the past four or five seasons because of LeBron. Now, with the Cavs poised to join the league’s bottom feeders after LeBron jumped ship to South Beach (it’d be like if Steve Jobs got his money stolen by the owner of the Fordham Plaza Best Buy, only that Best Buy probably has more fans than the Miami Heat), I’ve experienced the brutality of the NBA’s competitive system. Sure, when you’re riding high, notching win after win, year after year, it’s nice to be one of the rich guys. Still, I like the NBA’s system better. In the NFL, large amounts of success can be attributed to luck. Yes, luck plays an enormous role in all sports, but oftentimes in the NFL a team’s winning season happens for odd reasons: a certain player gets hot, rivals experience injuries, etc. Between the amount of times quality players not only switch teams (extremely high compared to the NBA) but also rise and fall in effectiveness (as I mentioned in a column a few weeks ago), the NFL season is a crapshoot. Craps is a popular-as-hell casino game for a reason: anyone can win, and no one knows who the winner is going to be. I’m still an NBA fan through and through. I appreciate how things have to be built in the NBA. Becoming a top-of-the-heap team takes time (unless you’re the Celtics or Heat), and sometimes the process is as intriguing to watch as the success itself. So if this view makes me the Glenn Beck of the NBA, so be it. Actually, screw that; Glenn Beck is a nut.

SPORTS

Senior Profile: Victor Bautista Medina went to school in California before transferring here my sophomore year, and I wanted to go to school on the East Coast with water polo, so that was my main reason for coming here. Fordham was a good school, and being in New York City was definitely a draw as well. TR: The team has improved drastically over the past few seasons. What do you have to say about that?

COURESY OF FORDHAMSPORTS.COM

Senior Victor Bautista Medina is hoping to get to the Eastern Championships in late November.

By JONATHON SMITH ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Victor Bautista Medina is a senior two-meter defenseman on the water polo team. He is from San Cristobal, Venezuela, and a member of the junior national team. He is a leader and a major contributor for the team on the defensive side of the pool, and is an economics major. The Ram: What made you want to come to Fordham? Victor Bautista Medina: I

VBM: Well first and foremost, our players have improved greatly. We have been getting very good transfers and freshmen coming here who have good work ethics and want to succeed. Our guys are skilled and we have been getting a great mix of speed and strength, which is best combination to have. TR: You had 35 steals last season to go along with five blocks, making for a solid defensive year. What did you try to do in order to improve yourself this season? VBM: I try to see myself mainly as a creator. This year I’m trying to look for better opportunities to set up my teammates. Defense is my No. 1 responsibility, but I definitely have been trying to contribute to the offense a bit more this year.

TR: This year, what were your goals for yourself and the team? Do you think you have done a good job of achieving them? VBM: As a team we wanted to get to the Eastern Championships. We thought that was a very achievable goal. We also wanted to improve our relationships with each other in order to communicate better in the pool. Personally I wanted to improve on my offensive game so I could become more of a complete player. TR: What are you post-graduate plans? VBM: I just want to get a job somewhere in America. Hopefully something to do with stocks or banking. TR: What are your best Fordham memories? VBM: Obviously the time spent with the guys on the team I will never forget. Hanging out on campus and in NYC will always be memorable as well. T he most memorable thing, though, definitely was the first time it snowed here. It was the first time I had seen snow so that was pretty special.

Water Polo Defense Gets Team to .500 with Two Weekend Wins By CHESTER BAKER STAFF WRITER

The water polo team took advantage of a rare home-field advantage and was able to sweep a pair of matches on Oct. 24. The Rams began the day by defeating Mercyhurst 9-7, and then closed out the weekend with an 11-9 win over Gannon. Early in the first quarter, Mercyhurst looked like it was poised to pull off the upset in Fordham’s own pool. It got off to a very strong start, striking for the first goal just seconds into the game and building a 4-1 lead. Fordham got two key late goals from graduate student two-meter man Ali Arat and senior two-meter man Mikey Edwards to cut the lead down to 5-4 right before the end of the first. Later in the second quarter, Fordham tied the game at five after Arat’s third goal of the game, and then knotted the game up at six on a blast from senior utilityman Ryan Hultman. In the third quarter, the two teams got locked up in a defensive struggle, and neither team was able to get on the board. Senior twometer man and defender Victor Bautista Medina attributes much of the team’s defensive success this year to be from communication and comraderie. “It’s so much easier to play with you guys when you know what they’re gonna do and you know what they’re gonna do,” he said. The Rams have used these defensive improvements to stifle teams all year long, and they did so throughout the third quarter

PHOTO BY MARK BECKER/THE RAM

Senior two-meter man Mikey Edwards shifted his focus to defense this week.

against Mercyhurst. Edwards also played a much more defensive game than he has been playing this year and traded in the goals for steals, finishing with four that day. Senior utilityman Martin de Jong finally broke the scoreless streak and fired one home to give the Rams the lead, which they would never relinquish. Mercyhurst cut the lead back to one after senior driver Daniel Munoz’s goal had given the Rams a two-goal lead, but Medina put home the back-breaker to give the Rams the 9-7 victory. Junior goalie Christian Flessner did enough to get the win and finished with five saves on the game. The beginning of the matchup against Gannon was almost the exact opposite of the Mercyhurst match, as this time Fordham held a 4-1 lead after the first. Edwards put two in back of the net, while Munoz and Bautista Medina each chipped in with one of their own. Arat and de Jong also got involved

and both got into the boxscore, and Fordham held a 6-2 lead going into halftime. Fordham built its lead up to 8-2 after a pair of goals early in the second half before Gannon started to mount a little bit of a comeback. It answered right back with two goals of its own to offset Fordham’s strong start. De Jong tried to slow down Gannon by scoring just seconds after, but Gannon scored another quick two right after that to cut the score to 9-6 by the end of the third. Hultman tried to close the door on the game by scoring two goals early in the fourth quarter, but Gannon refused to go down quietly and scored three consecutive goals to cut the Rams’ lead to two. Luckily for the Rams, two was as close as Gannon would get, and Fordham held on to win 11-9. With the wins on Sunday, Fordham evened its record to .500 at 13-13 going into a home match against Iona on Wednesday, Oct. 27.

OCTOBER 27, 2010 • THE RAM • PAGE 23

SPORTS

Rowing Finishes Second at the Head of the Charles By ALEXANDER VILARDO STAFF WRITER

Ted Bonanno, the head coach of the women’s rowing team, said he was happy with his team’s finishes at the Head of the Housatonic regatta a few weeks ago, and got an even bigger treat this week. The Club 8 boat, the team’s flagship, according to Bonanno, finished its race second, behind only Boston’s Riverside Boat Club. With a solid time of 17:51.696, the boat finished the approximately three-mile race more than 12 seconds ahead of third-place Yale. “It’s the best finish ever for the Fordham women at the Charles,” Bonanno said. “Yale finished second last year, but this year we were able to bump them down to third.” With crews coming from all over the globe, the Head of the Charles is the most competitive time-trial race in the world. The club events, however, have the most competition because it is not just colleges and universities that participate, but also rowing clubs. “We finished first of any school,” Bonanno said. “Those were really great results for us.” “These results definitely prove that we have some extremely strong and talented girls in the boat,” junior coxswain and cocaptain Abigail Paparo said. One rower said she was so excited about rowing in one of the biggest races in the world that she did not know where the boat had finished.

“I had no clue we placed,” senior stroke and co-captain Alyssa Sunofsky said. “And when [Bonanno] told me we placed second, I felt a bit choked up. I am very proud of my boat.” The team’s Club 4 boat also had a very strong race, as it finished 12th out of 51 boats and enjoyed a time of 20:53.733. It was also the fourth-finishing college or university boat in its race. According to Bonanno, a boat is assigned its starting position based on where it finished in the previous year’s race. Fordham, however, did not enter boats in the club events last year, so its boats were forced to start towards the end. “[The Club 8 and Club 4] passed several boats,” Bonanno said. “The Charles is a narrow and windy river; our coxswains did great jobs of getting their boats through traffic.” Fordham’s third boat, entered in the Championship 4 race, was not so lucky at the Charles, however, as it finished last out of 20 boats and posted a time of 20:42.221. Since the team had just one subpar race during the regatta, it remains highly optimistic for this weekend, when it will travel to Philadelphia to compete in the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta. “We were happy with the Housatonic results,” Bonanno said. “And [the results from the Charles] are clearly a step up from those.” “After the Charles the standards have been raised for not only the race this weekend, but for the whole year,” Paparo said.

Women’s Tennis Finishes Season at Northeast Regional Championship By NANCY BUCKLEY STAFF WRITER

The Fordham women’s tennis team had its final matches this weekend at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Northeast Regional Championship. Three women went to the matches in New Hampshire Oct. 22-24, but only two played. Sophomore Mia Fiocca played in the singles matches and freshman Angelika Dabu competed in singles matches and in doubles with Fiocca, while freshman Hanna Fritzinger went along for support. Fiocca opened her singles matches against Quinnipiac’s Sarah Viebrock, winning 7-6, 7-5. She advanced to the next round. “It was tough to lose in such a close match,” Fiocca said. “But it

was really fun to be a part of the tournament.” In the following round, Fiocca faced Della Taylor from Army. Fiocca was once again successful, winning straight sets 6-4 and 6-1. Fiocca advanced to the quarterfinals the next day. The following day, Fiocca finished her singles play with a loss against Hofstra’s Elena Ivanova. She lost her first set 7-5, but won the second 6-4. However, Ivanova won the tiebreaker in a close match of 7-6. Also on Saturday, Fiocca and Dabu fell in their first doubles matches to Binghamton’s Lauren Bates and Emma Leibowitz. Dabu also fell to Leonie-Charlotte Athanasiadis from Boston University 6-2, 6-4. The fall season is now over for the Lady Rams tennis team.

Visit theramonline.com for blogs, polls, video interviews and game-day football and men’s basketball stories.

By JONATHON SMITH ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Sports are all about risks. Great moments are defined during times of risk and chance. If a team refuses to take a leap of faith, put all its cards on the table and “go all in,” it will never achieve greatness. I was on the Metro-North last week and sat next to man named Rick from Wisconsin. Just trying to make conversation, we made small talk about sports and New York. When we were talking about sports, he started talking about the World Series and how it seems as if every fall there are moments that he described as “moments that really hit you, and make you say ‘wow’.” He cited Kirk Gibson’s home run in the 1988 World Series as one of those “wow” moments. We began talking about how risky it was for a manager to send a man who could barely walk to the plate, and that was when it dawned on me that in sports you cannot achieve greatness without taking risks. The Texas Rangers reaching the World Series is a perfect example of this. The Rangers began building their current team in 2007 when they acquired Josh Hamilton from the Reds in exchange for Edinson Volquez and Daniel Herrera. This deal alone has to be one of the riskiest trades in recent memory. We are all familiar with Hamilton’s story; his drug and alcohol problems and how he had tried to come back and relapsed before. We are also all aware of his raw talent and how he is clearly one of the greatest players in the game right now. The Rangers took that vital leap of faith by giving up a topnotch pitching prospect in Volquez for the former No. 1 pick in the draft with a very haunted past. While Volquez has turned into a great pitcher, without Hamilton, the Rangers would not have made it to the World Series. This was not the only risk that Texas took with its roster. In 2007, the Rangers traded their best player, Mark Teixeira, to Atlanta for four minor leaguers. They were trading the face of their organization, a young man

who was already one of the best players in the league, for four relatively unknown players, two of them being Elvis Andrus and Neftali Feliz (possibly the best young shortstop and closer in the game, respectively). This was seen as a cost-cutting and rebuilding move at the time, but General Manager Jon Daniels had a plan, and his plan to build a young, World Series-caliber team has clearly paid off. This Rangers team is full of examples of risks, from the young pitching staff being told to throw for as long and hard as they can, to the new ownership, who only took over midseason. While every team takes risks that pay off, for every risk that pays off, there is one, if not more, that do not. Being from New England, my mind goes straight to Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS when Red Sox manager Grady Little left a tired Pedro Martinez in the game to try to finish off the eighth inning. Instead, Pedro gave up two runs and the Sox ended up losing the game. While this risk did not pay off for the Red Sox, it led to one those moments that, as Rick said, “make you say ‘wow’.” The Sox took Pedro out of the game, and after two more innings of scoreless ball, Aaron Boone hit an 11th-inning home run off of Tim Wakefield. This home run brought Aaron Boone fame in New York, and it is a moment that baseball fans will surely never forget. Had the Red Sox’s risk paid off, the game would not have gotten to this point, and Boone’s home run never would have happened. This “wow” moment never would have happened. Perhaps the biggest risk that has paid off in recent memory is last year’s Super Bowl when the Saints began the second half with an onside kick. This unheard-of move gave them the ball back and gave them the momentum they needed to win the game. Had Head Coach Sean Payton not done this, perhaps the Colts would have driven down the field and scored a touchdown and increased their lead even more. If the Colts had recovered the kick sure-

ly they would have scored some points. Payton would have been called names, his intelligence as a head coach would be questioned and fans would probably be calling for him to be fired, but the risk paid off, and now he is seen as a hero in New Orleans. What makes risks so special is the element of the unknown. There is something that attracts us to risky situations and something that makes us watch sports much more intently when the game is on the line. People do not watch sports to see what happens when a team is winning by a wide margin; they watch because they do not know what is going to happen. This is what attracts us to most things in life, such as a new relationship or moving away from home – we do not know what is going to happen, yet we still take the leap. Maybe this is why risks in sports are so popular among fans, because they are a reflection of the risks in our own lives while we do not have to deal with the consequences of failing. When the game is on the line, we want our teams to take risks; we want to see what will happen. As fans we want our teams to take a page out of Nike’s book, and “just do it.” All of the risks that I have mentioned, the Rangers, Kirk Gibson, Pedro Martinez and the Saints, have something in common. The people taking the risks were not satisfied with the current situation, whether it was the Rangers and their roster or the Saints and the score of the game. People say that “good enough” is the enemy of great. In order to become great, risks are necessary: you do not know what is going to happen, or if you will be great. In sports, a coach may take a risk such as substituting a player or calling a risky play and his decision will fail. The team may even end up losing because of the decision, but if the risk pays off, glory is achieved. This is why sports captivate so many, because while teams may fail and lose, every now and then we get to see something special – something that makes us say “wow.”

Upcoming Varsity Schedule CAPS=HOME lowercase=away

Thursday Oct. 28

Friday Oct. 29

Saturday Oct. 30

Sunday Oct. 31

Tuesday Nov. 2

Wednesday Nov. 3

GEORGETOWN 1:00 p.m.

Football

Atlantic 10 Championships Pittsburgh

Cross Country

FDU Invitational Upper Montclair Country Club-Clifton, N.J.

Golf

Men’s Soccer

UMASS 2:30 p.m.

RHODE ISLAND 1:00 p.m.

Women’s Soccer

at La Salle 7:00 p.m.

at Rhode Island 1:00 p.m.

Volleyball

at RHODE ISLAND 7:00 p.m.

at La Salle 2:00 p.m.

Women’s Rowing

Monday Nov. 1

Head of the Schuylkill Philadelphia

NJIT 1:00 p.m.

OCTOBER 27, 2010

PAGE 24

Fordham Drives to Victory Despite Two Key Injuries Higgins Drive, Whiting Score on Rams’ Final Possession Break Four-Game Losing Streak and Get Fordham Win against Lafayette By NICK CARROLL SPORTS EDITOR

After going eight straight quarters without getting into the end zone, Fordham picked the perfect time to break through. After leading for most of the afternoon, Fordham and a lackluster offense allowed Lafayette to fight its way back into the game and eventually take the lead late in the third quarter. However, with their backs against the wall, the Rams came through with an 80-yard drive in the final two minutes and 28 seconds, capped off by a 7-yard touchdown by junior running back Darryl Whiting, to seal the win. “That’s the way our season’s been,” Head Coach Tom Masella said. Fordham got off to a fast start and looked like it could dominate the game. After setting a strong defensive tone early by forcing a quick Lafayette three-and-out to start the game, the Rams took a 2-0 lead on a high snap on a punt that went out of the back of the end zone for a safety. “Defense for the last three weeks has been outstanding,” Masella said. “We’re getting some guys back. In this game you need players. We haven’t changed a thing on defense. [The defense] is making plays. They’re making teams throw and do things they don’t want to do and become one dimensional.” The Rams took advantage of the good field position after the ensuing punt, when they started at the Lafayette 49. The Fordham offense quickly went to work with senior running back Xavier Martin. However, after picking up 15 yards on three carries on the opening drive, Martin went down with what Masella said was probably a lower leg injury. After Martin went down, the Rams failed to move the ball much further and had to settle for a 39yard field goal that sophomore kicker Patrick Murray made to put Fordham up 5-0. Fordham had another opportunity to put the Leopards in a big hole early on. Following a threeand-out, senior punter Tom Kondash set up the Rams with a short punt that only traveled 28 yards and gave Fordham the ball at the Lafayette 47. Sophomore quarterback Ryan Higgins, starting in place of injured classmate Blake Wayne, quickly put the Rams in field goal range with a 21-yard pass to senior wide receiver Aaron Mays to the Lafayette 26. The combination of Whiting and sophomore running back Carlton Koonce got the Rams inside the Lafayette 10 before the drive stalled, and Murray made it 8-0 with a 30-yard field goal. Fordham had another big opportunity to blow the game open. After another three-and-out, senior running back Nnamdi Onyeabor blocked the punt and Fordham recovered the ball at the Lafayette 33. Fordham failed to capitalize on

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/THE RAM

Sophomore linebacker Mike Martin sealed the game with an interception on Lafayette’s final drive to secure the victory.

the opportunity, though. Three plays later, Higgins rolled right and threw back across his body to the middle of the field, where he was intercepted by junior defensive back Kyle Simmons. After having numerous opportunities early, Fordham struggled to muster much of a threat for the rest of the game and allowed Lafayette right back in. The Fordham defense finally budged in the second quarter, after getting through the first quarter allowing only one first down. Lafayette started the second quarter by putting together a long drive, getting it all the way to the Fordham 17, before senior kicker Davis Rodriguez missed a 34-yard field goal wide right. This did not kill the Lafayette momentum, though, as it got a quick three-and-out and quickly went back to work offensively. After a 30-yard punt by Murray gave the Leopards the ball at the Fordham 48, junior quarterback Ryan O’Neil found senior wide receiver Mark Layton deep down the left sideline. Layton avoided sophomore defensive back Brendan Melanophy and went 48 yards for a touchdown, making the score 8-7. Fordham threatened to open up the lead one more time before the half. After freshman defensive lineman Justin Yancy stopped freshman fullback Pat Creahan on fourth-and-1 to give Fordham the ball at the Lafayette 49, the Rams had great field position. Higgins started the drive with a 26-yard pass to senior wide receiver Jason Caldwell on a cross to get down to the Lafayette 23. Penalties quickly forced the Rams into a first-and-25, but they were bailed out on third-and-23 when pass interference was called on junior defensive back Brandon Ellis to give Fordham new life. Higgins almost took advantage when he found Caldwell in the back of the end zone on third-and-15 from the Lafayette 19; however Caldwell

failed to get his foot down in the end zone. Murray then missed the 36-yard field goal wide left and Fordham went into the half leading 8-7. Discipline issues caught up with the Rams again early in the third quarter. After putting together a drive to get all the way down to the Lafayette 23, senior tight end Stephen Skelton was called for offensive pass interference, pushing Fordham back to the Lafayette 38, where the drive stalled and led to a Murray punt that was downed at the 2. Despite the poor field position, Lafayette worked its way downfield. The Leopards used a 20-yard run by freshman running back Patrick Mputu to get out of the shadows of the uprights. Mixing the run and the pass, Lafayette soon found itself inside the Fordham 20 before the drive stalled. This time, however, Rodriguez made the 32-yard field goal to put Lafayette on top, 10-8. Fordham quickly came back with a 30-yard pass to senior wide receiver David Moore, where Moore came back to the ball and caught it at its highest point along the sideline. However, Fordham’s shortyardage problems resurfaced at the Lafayette 10. After Whiting ran for nine to get Fordham there, the Rams were stuffed on three straight plays, turning the ball over on downs. “That’s been our Achilles heel all year,” Masella said. “We have a young offensive line that sometimes gets manhandled.” The two teams went on to trade three-and-outs until midway through the fourth quarter, when Lafayette drove on the stellar Fordham defense. However, with the game on the line, the Rams came up with a big stop when the Leopards reached their 33, giving Fordham one last shot from its own 20 with 2:28 left. Higgins started the drive by de-

livering a strike to Skelton, who picked up 21 yards on the catchand-run. After a five-yard out to junior tight end Brad Pierre, Higgins made a big throw to senior wide receiver Patrick Miller up the sideline for 19 yards all the way to the Lafayette 35. Higgins kept the momentum going with another completion, good for eight, to Moore on a comeback. Fordham, now in field goal range, went conservative and started to run the ball. Whiting took the ball up the middle for 19 yards and a first down at the Lafayette 8. Then, two plays later, Whiting finished the drive with a 7-yard touchdown to give Fordham a 14-10 lead. “Thought [Higgins] let his natu-

ral abilities take over,” Masella said. “He gets all the credit in the world. He managed the game for us, and then he won it late.” “Once we get going, it’s hard to stop us,” Higgins said. “Teams can’t line up and they had some issues with that. As the game progressed I felt a lot more comfortable.” After an unsuccessful two-point conversion, Lafayette had one last shot with 47 seconds left. However, after a short completion, O’Neil threw an interception to sophomore linebacker Mike Martin, who undercut an out route, to ice the Fordham victory. “I was playing underneath three,” Martin said. “Either he jumps it and he catches it or it’s an interception – thankfully I caught it.” With the win Fordham now stands at 3-5 having broken a fourgame losing streak. The loss drops Lafayette to 1-6 on the season, with four of its losses coming by five points or less. “Today it was their game,” Lafayette Head Coach Frank Tavani said. “It’s kind of the way it’s been for us.” “We know we can play,” Martin said. “Confidence goes up with last drives.” “This is a mentally tough team,” Higgins said. “We were determined in practice all week and it paid off.” Next up for the Rams is Georgetown, who is 3-5 on the season and has lost four straight games. Going into next week, Masella said that he is unsure of the status of Wayne, who injured his leg at the end of the Yale game last week. “We don’t know where Blake is,” Masella said. “He needs his feet to play and if they’re not there he’s not going to.”

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/THE RAM

Junior running back Darryl Whiting finished off the game-winning drive with a 7-yard touchdown.