Volume 104 Issue 17

OMA Celebrates Indigenous People's Week

By ISABEL DANZIS NEWS EDITOR

The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) is celebrating Indigenous People’s Week from Oct. 10-14. The week is being put on by OMA’s Native and Indigenous Peoples Committee (NAIPM). Indigenous People’s Week happens during the week following Columbus Day.

Columbus Day is celebrat ed on the second Monday in October, and commemorates Christopher Columbus.

He was an Italian explorer who came to North America in the 1490s. When he came to North America, he was responsible for the many deaths and atrocities committed against Indigenous people in the Americas.

As his legacy has been re-eval uated over recent years, many are calling to reconsider how the hol iday is celebrated. Many institu tions have even officially changed the name from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

According to NAIPM, the committee also aims to com memorate Indigenous culture throughout the week.

On Oct. 10, they started a

The Fordham Ram

OMA Celebrates LGBTQ+ History Month

By JULIANNA MORALES CONTRIBUTING WRITER

For the month of October, Fordham’s Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) is hosting events to celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month. LGBTQ+ History Month was started in 1994 by Rodney Wilson, a high school history teacher in Missouri.

Two important dates have al ways been celebrated during the

month: National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11 and the anniversary of the first march by LGBTQ+ peo ple in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 14. Since then, several other im portant dates have been added.

The third Thursday of each October is Spirit Day, an annual LGBTQ+ awareness day that is celebrated by wearing purple as a sign of support for queer youth.

Additionally, International

Pronouns Day is observed on Oct. 21. The month of October also includes the tragic anniver sary of Matthew Shepard’s mur der on Oct. 12, 1998. Shepard was a gay student at the University of Wyoming, and five days prior to his death he was attacked and left tied to a fence in Laramie, Wyo. His parents, Judy and Dennis Shepard, began the Matthew Shepard Foundation

Crowdfunding Raises Money for Fordham Projects

By SOFIA DONOHUE DIGITAL PRODUCER

Fordham’s crowdfunding platform enables students, faculty, staff and alumni to re ceive direct financial support for Fordham-related programs and projects. The university’s crowdfunding program made its debut in 2016 and is aimed towards clubs and organiza tions looking to make a differ ence in the community.

Hurricane Ian and the Link to Climate Change

By ISABEL DANZIS NEWS EDITOR

Hurricane Ian was a category four hurricane that hit Florida and the southern United States earlier this month. After pass ing over Florida, the hur ricane slowed to a category one storm, making landfall

in South Carolina. Those im pacted are still dealing with the mental, physical and financial effects of the hurricane’s de molition. At the time of the hur ricane, nearly 2.5 million people were under a type of evacuation order. As of Oct. 11, over 100 people were killed.

Fordham Junior Studies Peptide

By ALICE GAALSWYK STAFF WRITER

Ever since this past summer, Sophie Epstein, FCRH ’24, has been studying a particular pep tide, or part of a protein, called SNEW. SNEW is named for the first four letters of its amino acid chain. Epstein is studying both integrative neuroscience and so ciology and has been working on this research as a part of Nicholas Sawyer’s, Ph.D., lab on campus.

Epstein and her lab partner, Jessica Tennett, FCRH ’23, are studying how this peptide can be linked to preventing some types of brain and spinal cord can cers. When SNEW is overex pressed it can act as an inhibi tor for a system that can lead to these types of cancers.

“My job is to stabilize the structure of this peptide so that it can bind more easily to the target and therefore be a better inhibitor,” said Epstein.

Epstein explained that in the body the peptide binds to a poly proline two helix structure. The better that SNEW binds to that helix, the better job it will do of inhibiting this system of reac tions. To make SNEW bind bet ter, Epstein and Tennett used a process called cross-linking. Cross-linking is a process where two of the amino acids in the peptide structure are replaced with different amino acids that would hopefully serve as anchors for SNEW. The pair initially hypothesized that a 13 atom cross-linker would do the best job.

“It’s like if you had a Slinky and stretched it to fit an exact replica; if you made it smaller and tried to fit it, it wouldn’t. So this cross-linker should hold the Slinky so it’s exactly stretched, so that it doesn’t have to exert as much energy to bind properly,” said Epstein.

this

Opinion

Hurricane Ian is one of many extreme weather events that have happened over the last few weeks. Earlier in September, Hurricane Fiona caused destruction in parts of the United States, the Caribbean and Canada.

Beyond the United

The Office of Development and University Relations partners with GiveCampus, a fundraising platform for edu cation. As long as the project fulfills Fordham’s crowdfund ing requirements, anyone in the community can fill out an ap plication through GiveCampus. The application is a short form where applicants submit their name and email. After the appli cation is submitted, someone

Culture

Whales Make a Splash off the Coast on Queens

Subway Cameras Only Record Crimes — We Need to Stop Them Sports

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Hurricane Ian is the second large hurricane to make landfall and cause massive damages in the past few weeks.

Flags on the Lawn is one of the iconic and annual events that the LGBTQ+ History Month Committee puts on.

COURTESY OF PIA FISCHETTI/ THE FORDHAM RAM

SAFETY BRIEFS

Oct. 5 O’Hare Hall

10:14 p.m.

A student became stuck inside elevator car two in the lobby of O’Hare Hall.

FDNY responded and removed the student. The elevator car was taken out of service. The elevator company was notified and responded.

Oct. 6 Thebaud Hall

3:15 a.m.

Public Safety and FDNY responded to a fire alarm in Thebaud Hall. The building was inspected and no smoke or fire was discovered. The panel was reset and the alarm com pany responded.

Oct. 7 Belmont Ave

12:30 p.m.

Public Safety received a call about a gas leak on Belmont Avenue. Investi gation disclosed that a Con Edison outside contractor reported a gas leak in the meter bar. Facilities and a Con Edison supervisor responded and determined that there was no gas leak.

Oct. 8 Fitness Center

9:00 a.m.

A security officer as signed to the Fitness Center reported a water leak inside the telephone and elec tric closet. Facilities and Custodial responded. The leak appeared to be com ing from an upper floor. Facilities and employees are attempting to locate the source of the leak.

Fordham Students Look Toward A More Liberal Future

Wednesday

Oct. 12

Livestream 6 p.m.

The Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, in conjunction with the Lincoln Center Jazz Ensemble and oth er arts programs will be holding “The Movement, Melodrama, and Melodies of NYC.” It will be livestreamed online.

By SAMANTHA MINEAR

By MICHELA FAHY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Websites such as Niche and College Confidential, which pro vide information to prospective freshmen looking to find their new home for the next four years, tend to label Fordham University as “somewhat conservative” or “overwhelmingly moderate.”

However, as classes come and go and new students are wel comed into the fold, the political landscape of Fordham perpetually evolves. With the inauguration of the first female layperson, Tania Tetlow, to the presidency, it seems as though the university is poten tially more liberal than it appears at first glance.

Opinions vary amongst current students.

“I would say Fordham tries to keep a middle ground with a slight left-leaning overall. However, their stances on certain issues are on the complete opposite ends of the spectrum,” said Russell Goldmeer, GSB ’24. “Such as abortion rights and LGBTQ+ issues.”

Teagan Angell, FCRH ’24, agreed, stating that the school is “overall more liberal,” but that their “Jesuit identity abso lutely harms students on campus that have reproductive systems.” She continued by saying that “the inability to access birth control [and other contraceptives] is ex tremely inconvenient and back wards.”

According to the University Health Center, “neither contra ceptives nor birth control are dis tributed or prescribed on premises as a standard practice” due to the university’s status as a Jesuit insti tution. However, they do provide testing for sexually-transmit ted infections, as well as wom en’s wellness exams, both by appointment.

Similarly, Garleni Martinez, GSB ’23, said she feels as though there is a “pressure to be more conservative” because of this Jesuit status. She added that because Fordham has to an swer to the Church, as well as its alumni network, there is a sense of not wanting to “upset alumni or valuable donors” at the cost of inclusivity.

When speaking to the Office of Residential Life this past August, Tetlow stated that the inability to distribute contraceptives as resi dent assistants and directors will likely remain unchanged because

of the older, staunchly Catholic alumni and donors, according to resident assistants who attended the event.

It is inevitable that as a Christian institution of higher education, stu dents of religious backgrounds (and sometimes conservative views, which are connected) enroll, cre ating contrast between them and those who attend Fordham sim ply because they want to be in New York City.

Some students said they see a difference in political alignment be tween campuses and colleges. Diana CamposLeyva, FCRH ’26, stated that “Rose Hill is a little more on the conservative side,” an idea which is concurred by Ryan Nole, GSB ’25. He said that “Lincoln Center is way more left-leaning” and even distinguished that “as a Gabelli stu dent, it’s very noticeable that GSB is more right-leaning than FCRH.”

Mario Gabelli, class of ’65, the bil lionaire philanthropist the business school is named after, has made large political contributions to mostly conservative candidates. He is a registered Republican of Con necticut. There is also a Mario J. Gabelli School of Business at Roger Williams University, a primarily independent-identifying campus in Rhode Island where 55% of stu dents’ families earn $110k or more (Fordham, comparatively, is 53%).

When it comes to Fordham University’s responsibility to de nounce acts of terror, hate and in equality, Nole said he believes that the school must take a “stronger stance on political events.” Similar ly, Goldmeer acknowledged the star tling silence following the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. “They have not really taken a proactive stance praising or denouncing the decision,” he said, because the Cath olic Church strongly opposes abor tion, but announcing that would be ostracizing the school from its young, socially liberal, predomi nantly female community.

“They are very careful not to step on anyone’s toes and never re ally give their true opinion on any issues,” said Martinez. As a senior, she said she believes that “they’re always late on the issues they are addressing and don’t care to ad dress them when they really should be.” For example, the university has never released a statement on the Black Lives Matter movement, and only addressed George Floyd’s death after the conclusion of the trial. While they choose to respond

Despite its reputation, students claim Fordham is liberal. conduct and other types of rela tionship violence to Dean Rogers’ office.

to some world events, such as the rise in Asian American hate crimes and the Catholic Church clergy scandal, they also remain silent on others such as the New York City migrant crisis.

Additionally, the univer sity banned the student club Students for Justice in Palestine, which resulted in a four-year legal battle.

“I don’t see education on these [world] events and the [sic] continued fight against them,” said freshman CamposLeyva. The univer sity used to publish an an nual report from the Chief Diversity Officer, but it was last released in 2020. Also in 2020, Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S. J., president emeritus stated the university’s plan for “ad dressing racism,” which would include a multi-year pledge for education and justice. While some progress has been made — such as a dedicated space in the McShane Campus Center for the Office of Multicultural Affairs — many believe that Fordham is behind schedule.

“The continued power held by Dean Rodgers, a white cis gender man in charge of CARE — which pertains mainly to women and minorities who are disproportionately taken advantage of — is still concern ing and upsetting,” said Angell, who is a resident assistant at Faber Hall, a dorm which con sists exclusively of freshmen students. Resident assistants are responsible for reporting acts of sexual assault, mis

Inauguration Week

Friday Oct. 14 University Church 10 a.m.

This mass will “confirm President Tetlow’s mission as director of the apostolic work of Fordham University,” according to the school’s web site. It will also be livestreamed online for students and faculty.

Friday Oct. 14

Edward’s Parade 2 p.m.

The official inauguration of President Tania Tetlow will be on Edward’s Parade at 2 p.m. It will feature music from the Rose Hill Orchestra. Register online for more in formation.

Friday Oct. 14

Dean Rogers was under investiga tion for an inappropriate presenta tion on sexual assault while educating resident assistants in 2017. According to Teen Vogue, he “reportedly played a trailer for ‘The Hunting Ground,’ a 2015 documentary that aimed to shed light on the widespread problem of sexual assault on college campuses.”

According to statement by then-RA Rowan Hornbeck, FCRH ’18, Rogers said this was “the agenda of the po litical left” and showed a video from PragerU that claimed there is no evi dence of a national rape epidemic.

Several resident assistants such as Angell have expressed a distrust to ward Dean Rogers and his methods of handling CARE situations.

However, the student body large ly feels hopeful following the hire of Tetlow, the former director of Tulane’s Domestic Violence Clinic.

As an associate professor of law at Tulane University, she “[taught] stu dents to provide legal services to vic tims of domestic abuse, relationship violence, stalking and sexual assault,” according to Fordham News.

“[It shows] that the school val ues a person’s ability rather than their religion,” said Nole. “It’s really a step in the right direction.” The consensus is widespread: Goldmeer stated that “I firmly believe that having a woman as president was long overdue for Fordham.”

As President Tetlow begins to make changes during her tenure, students remain confident that her experience in advocacy for women and minority groups will positively impact a campus enshrined in Jesuit values and a tradi tion of cura personalis.

Saturday Oct. 15

PrezFest Fordham vs. Stony Brook

Edward’s Parade 4 p.m.

After the inauguration, PrezFest will feature food, games and features from WFUV, includ ing the Preservation Hall Jazz Band at 6 p.m. to cel ebrate WFUV’s 75th anniver sary and inauguration week.

Jack Coffey Field 6 p.m.

Fordham University Football will compete against Stony Brook University. There will be a special halftime birthday cel ebration for President Tetlow. Come to Jack Coffey Field at 6 p.m. for kickoff!

COURTESY OF PIA FISCHETTI/THE FORDHAM RAM

Crowdfunding Raises Money for Fordham Initiatives

within the department will reach out to review the application. Once the project is approved, project leaders are required to provide a short video describing the project, a text summary of the project, a thank you video to future donors and one to three campaign photos.

Fordham’s crowdfunding pro gram may be of particular inter est to undergraduate students seeking funds for clubs they’re involved in.

“Crowdfunding is available to student clubs — we work closely with our colleagues in the office of student involvement to see if crowdfunding is a good fit for the project,” said Michelle Nista, FCRH ’18, assistant director of the Fordham Fund.

Projects must be eligible for funding in order to apply for sup port from the university communi ty. There are various requirements a project must fulfill: the program must be affiliated with Fordham, be an approved Fordham club (or have a sponsoring Fordham center, department or program with a fund to receive donations), be non-profit

in nature, have committed leaders, a sponsoring Fordham center, depart ment or program and have specific goals which are attainable within a period of several weeks.

Fordham’s crowdfunding site varies from other similar websites. For example, 100% of all dona tions made through GiveCampus are directed towards the project.

On the other hand, similar web sites charge a fee which deducts funds from the project the donor intends to support.

Fordham’s crowdfunding site is sues full gift support. Additionally, donations are tax deductible and, by using the university’s platform, Fordham ensures that donors are recognized.

“Crowdfunding is great for supporting short term projects that have long term impacts on benefiting the Fordham com munity. A good example of this is the Fordham Experimental Theater (FET) lightboard cam paign from 2019. The blackbox needed an updated lightboard to help enhance their performanc es. The office of student involve ment was able to cover the cost

for about half of this project and donations from alumni, parents, friends and current students helped cover the re maining,” said Nista.

Crowdfunding initiatives have also been launched by various organizations in the Fordham community, not just student-run organizations.

“[Projects] include things like Global Outreach projects, the Bronx African American History Program, Bronx Italian American History Initiative, Military Ball, Gaelic Society, Alvin Ailey, Rose Hill Solar panels, Satin Dolls and more,” Nista said.

There have been numerous successful crowdfunding proj ects at Fordham.

Currently, there are five campaigns running and 807 active users on Fordham’s GiveCampus page.

Given the past success of Fordham’s projects on the crowdfunding platform, the program is likely to continue benefiting the greater Fordham community.

USG Discuses Fordham’s Vaccine Mandate and Columbus Day

By ISABEL DANZIS NEWS EDITOR

Fordham’s United Student Government (USG) hosted their weekly meeting on Thursday, Oct. 6, to discuss public concerns and agenda items. The meeting opened with Vice President of Fordham College Rose Hill, Gaby Simporios, FCRH ’24, raising the concern of the lack of study spaces open on the weekends. According to Simporios, students reported that Hughes Hall and other spaces are closed on the weekends, leaving students with limited choices. Vice President of the Gabelli School of Business, Natalia Kimmelshue, GSB ’23, said that she is work ing on a proposal to keep Hughes Hall open on the weekends, and is working with Public Safety to try and find funding to do so.

Senator Brian Inguanti, FCRH ’24, brought up concern about the lack of paper cups in the Marketplace.

Senator Andy Diaz, FCRH ’25, raised the point that there seems to be confu sion among Marketplace staff about whether or not to-go box es are allowed to be used this year. They were referred to the Student Experience Committee.

Senator Molly Ewing, FCRH ’25, raised concern about the aca demic calendar still referring to Oct. 10 as “Columbus Day” instead of “Indigenous People’s Day.”

She said that many other univer sities have changed the name of the day and inquired about the name-changing process at Ford

ham. Briana Al-Omoush, FCRH ’24, vice president of diversity and inclusion, said that she knew of a senator passing a movement to formally change the name a few years ago. Alex Chavez, GSB ’23, vice president of finance and bud gets, said that concern about the name was brought up at the most recent Student Life Council meet ing and the proposal was currently with the Board of Trustees.

Executive President Santiago Vidal, FCRH ’24, asked Dean of Students, Christopher Rodgers and Assistant Vice President and Dean of Student Services, Keith Eldredge, who were both present at the meeting, about the process of changing “Columbus Day” to “In digenous People’s Day.”

Rodgers suggested that USG talk to the Office of Multicultural Affairs to see where talks have gone. According to Rodgers, there is “diversity in opinion” about the name change at a uni versity level.

Eldredge attended the meeting to answer student questions about Fordham’s recent decision to re quire students, faculty and staff to get the new bivalent COVID-19 booster shot.

Senator Jamie Serruto, FCRH ’24, asked about the decision pro cess to create this new mandate. Eldredge said that the university mandates students, faculty and staff be “up to date” on COVID-19 vaccinations, per the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) recommendations. He said that the CDC now considers “up

to date” as including a bivalent booster, therefore Fordham now requires it. Simporios raised the concern about the Nov. 1 deadline. She said that many students are concerned about getting the vaccine dur ing midterms and feeling side effects from it. Eldredge said that individual students can reach out about getting time ex tensions. Vidal asked about the on-campus vaccination center, saying that all appointments are booked. Eldredge said they are working on extending hours of the clinic and adding more appointments; he also directed students to look off campus for immunization sites. When asked about the lack of oth er universities requiring the booster, Eldredge responded that Fordham did not look to other schools.

“We made a commitment to being up to date,” said Eldredge.

The questions were then opened up to student questions from the audience. Zachary Visconti, GSB ’25, said that he came with concerns about the mandate from parents and stu dents. He asked Eldredge if ath letes from opposing teams and food vendors would be required to have the booster.

Eldredge clarified that they would be required, but there is an exemption policy in place for student athletes. Visconti asked if there was enough push back from parents and students whether or not the mandate

Crowdfunding allows students to raise money for Fordham projects.

would be reconsidered. Eldredge said that there are policy makers at the university who made this decision and they would listen to any feedback provided but there is not necessarily a “tipping point” where a certain amount of criti cism would make them reevaluate.

A motion was started by Serruto to extend the time of questions about the mandate. The motion failed.

Two clubs, the Bengali Student Association and Girls Who Code, presented to USG for approval. Both were approved.

Vidal reopened the issue of the Jesuit Student Government Alliance’s letter to Congress. The letter would ask Congress to allow students to register to vote using only their college ID. The issue was brought up last week, but could not be resolved because there was no forum from the class of 2023 and 2024 GSB.

USG voted to join the letter. 13 were in favor, 10 against and 1 ab

staining. Both event budgets for Gabelli Explores and Commuter Chats were passed. The execu tive report stated there is no rain date yet for the Keating Steps performance.

On the day of Keating Steps, there was no inside location to move the event that could accom modate the audience.

FCRH Dean’s Council an nounced that they are looking for feedback from students about what resources would be help ful for the class of 2024. Dean’s Council is looking to work with the junior class dean to plan events for the class of 2024, as many students are still feeling the effects from a freshman year entirely online.

The Budget Committee reported that they still do not have funding to allocate, but hope to get it soon.

The Sustainability Committee re ported that they are working on a proposal to bring back the reus able cup policy in Starbucks.

COURTESY OF PIA FISCHETTI/ THE FORDHAM RAM

Junior Studies SNEW Peptide

Over the summer, Epstein and Tennett tested this hypothesis with a multitude of different mole cules and cross-linkers. From this work, Epstein moved into a differ ent hypothesis which she is cur rently working on. She thinks that instead of a 13 atom cross-linker, a more rigid cross-linker would do a better job. Her hypothesis came after she found that the two crosslinkers that did the best job didn’t necessarily have 13 atoms, but were extremely rigid and restrict ed the rotation of the molecule.

A major part of Epstein’s job on a daily basis involves synthesis, which is the creation of the pep tides. To do this, Epstein mea sures out the ingredients and how much she needs of each of them, and then she uses an automatic synthesizer. The automatic syn thesizer is able to create the pep tide in about one-eighth of the time it would take to do it by hand. After that, Epstein purifies the sample and uses high performance liquid chromatography and mass spec trometry to check her work.

“A lot of what we do is very or ganizational — if I go in without

a set hourly to minute plan, it won’t really go right — I learned that the hard way,” Epstein said.

Another important aspect of Epstein’s lab work is using ELISA, or the enzyme-linked im munosorbent assay. ELISA is a 96-well plate that is coated with metal ions. Epstein adds the pro tein that usually does the bind ing to the receptor, the receptor itself, an antibody and the SNEW peptide to ELISA. They can see whether the SNEW peptide beats out the naturally-occurring protein that they already put in by observing how yellow the sample is, which is the function that the antibody serves.

“The concentration at which 50% of the reaction is inhibited, which we call IC-50, has been a good metric for how functional these peptides are,” said Epstein.

Epstein initially heard about this lab when she had Sawyer as a chemistry professor and in terviewed him for the Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal. While she knew that working in a lab would be a beneficial reinforcement of what she was learning in the classroom, she

also valued that this project dealt with a neuroscience question.

“The end goal is doubleedged. We want this to become a drug someday that can hope fully treat cancer, but on the other hand, if we can find a gen eralizable approach to stabiliz ing polyproline two helices … it’s not just this particular sys tem; it’s polyproline two helices in hundreds of systems that are important,” said Epstein.

As for herself and her future plans, Epstein loves working in a lab and learning about the re search process. However, this project has reinforced her knowl edge of one of the reasons she wants to become a doctor. She wants to work with people and values the human aspect of medi cal care, like making sure a pa tient is comfortable, cared for and understands the inequality they might face in their healthcare.

“While research has the sci ence part that I love, it removes the people aspect in the immedi ate forefront … I think I’ll want to keep doing research, but I also know it’s not all I want to do,” said Epstein.

OMA Celebrates LGBTQ+ History Month

FROM LGBTQ, PAGE 1 after his death to help educate parents on how to help their chil dren navigate sexuality and find acceptance. This tragedy also brought nationwide attention to hate crimes and the need for pro tective measures.

Eventually, these conversations led to the creation of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

OMA appointed a LGBTQ+ History Month committee of students to plan how they will celebrate and observe this year.

“The LGBTQ History com mittee is dedicated to celebrate and raise awareness about the history of LGBTQ rights and related civil rights movements. We have a month … of events planned to celebrate LGBTQ his tory, which can be found in our OMA newsletter, Instagram, and posters around both campuses,” said Sayema Abedin, GSAS ’23, a graduate intern on OMA, over

seeing the committee.

One member of this commit tee is Dorothy Bogen, FCRH ’24, who is the Cultural Program ming Coordinator (CPC) for the second year in a row.

She explained how celebrat ing LGBTQ+ History Month pro vides an important opportunity for Fordham to acknowledge and support its LGBTQ+ com munity, especially since the academic year is not in session during pride month.

“At a Catholic school, it can be easy for LGBTQ students to feel hesitant about expressing their identity, but I hope these events show there is a place for every one on campus and the LGBTQ community is loud and proud at Fordham. And ultimately, I hope people have fun too. It’s sup posed to be a celebration for a reason,” said Bogen.

Additionally, Abedin said that celebrating the month is a

way to celebrate LGBTQ+ activ ists and the progress the com munity has made.

“The importance of having an LGBTQ history month is to rec ognize the impact the LGBTQ community and activists have had on a local, national, and international scale. Oftentimes, this aspect of one's identity is disregarded or omitted, which is why we want to highlight and commemorate it with pride, so that others feel empowered by their identity,” said Abedin.

There are a variety of activities planned during which students can join in on this celebration. The month launched on Oct. 3 with an opening luncheon.

On Oct. 7, the committee decorated Alpha Lawn with various pride flags in their Flags on the Lawn event.

Abedin said that the Flags on the Lawn event was her favor ite event of the month so far.

“We are giving students the opportunity to display their pride and commemorate the history behind pride flags by placing it into the lawn where everyone will see them. Stu dents [were] also able to deco rate their own flag if so they [wished], and we [handed] out pride flags ranging from prog ress pride, lesbian, bisexual, nonbinary, transgender, asex ual flags and more. LGBTQ activists have fought long and hard for these flags, and we in tend to showcase the colors to remember their hard earned achievements in the LGBTQ community,” said Abedin.

On Wednesday, Oct. 12, the committee is holding a spiri tuality discussion in Dealy 207 at 5 p.m. Then, on Friday, Oct. 21, the committee is collaborating with the Film Club for a screening of the movie “Jennifer’s Body” in Keating 3rd at 8 p.m.

The month of celebration will be concluded with a costume competition at the Halloween celebration on Friday, Oct. 28. More specifics on all of the events the committee is holding are available on their Instagram page, @fordhamlgbtq.

October is not the only time to celebrate LGBTQ+ people.

Bisexual Awareness Week oc curred from Sept. 16-23. Solidarity Week, previously called Ally Week, and Transgender Awareness Week shortly follow LGBTQ+ History Month, occurring from Nov. 7-11 and 13-19, respectively. In the spring, National LGBTQ+ Health Awareness Week occurs from Mar. 20-24 and, possibly the most known time of awareness, June is Pride Month. In October, OMA, with the help of their appointed committee, aims to provide the community with an opportunity to learn about and show their sup port for the LGBTQ+ community.

COURTESY OF SOPHIE EPSTEIN FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

Epstein looks at the connection between SNEW and preventing some cancers.

OMA Celebrates Indigenous People’ s Week

media campaign. Their posts are created in collaboration with other clubs on campus to spread information about Indigenous people and their culture. “With Indigenous Peoples’ Day being on Oct. 10 this year, the NAIP Committee’s Indigenous Peoples’ Week serves to expand the com memoration of Indigenous peo ples,” said Nicole Jara Andrade, a graduate intern in OMA. “It’s im portant to highlight Indigenous communities, historical truths that have long been romanticized and/or removed, and the work and resistance by Indigenous peo ples against settler colonialism.”

On Oct. 10, NAIPM posted an explanation about why cel ebrating Indigenous People’s Day is important.

They explained that both of Fordham’s campuses are locat ed on Lenape land. Within the same post, they included ways to honor Indigenous people.

Additionally on Oct. 10, the committee posted information about Afro-Indigenous People and Black Indigenous people in collaboration with OMA’s Black History Month Committee.

The post included informa tion clarifying what both terms mean as well as a history of Black Native Americans, common tribes of Black Native Americans and books recomendations about Afro-Indigenous people.

On Oct. 11, NAIPM teamed up with the LGBTQ+ History Month Committee. In their joint post, they talked about a “two-spirit

identity.” The term is used by many Native Americans to describe peo ple who have both a masculine and feminine spirit.

According to the post, the term exists outside of Western society’s social binaries and is “not inter changeable with LGBTQ+ iden tities and [nor should be used] to describe non-Indigenous people.”

According to Jara Andrade, the goal of collaborating with other groups is to teach people “about intersecting groups be tween Indigenous communities and other identity groups.” In addition to the social media cam paign, Jara Andrade said that the committee is having tabling events to recruit more members.

Jara Andrade also emphasized that students and Fordham com munity members should under stand the land that they are on was land taken from Native Americans and that Indigenous People’s Week is a good time to raise awareness.

“This week is especially im portant considering Fordham University is on Lenape land, so it’s important for students and all community members to hon or the Indigenous land we are on,” said Jara Andrade.

Jara Andrade encouraged all interested students to join the committee.

According to Jara Andrade, the committee is open to all under graduate students, regardless if they identify as Indigenous or not.

Students who are interested in joining NAIPM can sign up using their Google Form.

Hurricane Ian Wrecks Southern States

FROM IAN, PAGE 1

States, Pakistan is currently deal ing with extreme flooding. Many experts claim that Pakistan is ex periencing one of the worst envi ronmental disasters in the world, with about one-third of the entire country underwater.

Many attribute the increase in extreme weather to climate change and rising sea levels.

As climate change worsens, these extreme weather events will become more frequent and more intense.

The Ram spoke with leaders of climate change and awareness based clubs at Fordham to under stand the link between climate change and these weather events.

“The warming of the Earth con tributes to the warming of oceans, leading to more hurricanes,” said Isis Poulose, FCLC ’25, a mem ber of Fordham’s Climate Impact Initiative. “It causes drought and the death of plants, leading to

more dust storms and tornadoes.

There’s more flooding due to ris ing sea levels. So many disasters occur because of global warming, and they’re only getting worse with more inaction.”

Amelia Medved, FCRH ’23, presi dent of Students for Environmental Action and Justice (SEAJ) agreed with Poulose. Medved stated that extreme weather events are like ly to get worse over time as cli mate change progresses.

“All the science has identified warming global temperatures as a propellent of both stron ger and more frequent tropi cal storms, so Hurricane Ian is just one instance of the type of storms we will continue to see more and more of in the next few decades,” said Medved. “Again, we should all understand that extreme weather — and all the myriad symptoms of the climate crisis — are already becoming major threats to the status-quo of human society, and will get far

worse within our lifetimes.”

According to Poulose, seeing extreme weather events one af ter another can be discouraging.

“I just think about how people can still be in such denial about climate change when there is such a positive correlation be tween climate change and natu ral disasters,” said Poulose.

Poulose also believes that these natural disasters indi cate the need for people to come together before climate change becomes irreversible.

“These events are nature’s warning that we need to work together to not harm the Earth. I genuinely believe that at this rate, nature and natural disas ters are going to be the end of humanity before World War III. Maybe it will even be the catalyst of it,” said Poulose.

Medved also echoed some of the same sentiments as Poulose.

“Those of us working on envi ronmental activism don’t sound

alarm bells to create panic, but rather to call others to action. We all need to reorient our political consciousness to bring environ mental and climate issues to the center,” said Medved.

Medved also pointed out that climate change causes tangible and real effects on humans, especially within the context of Hurricane Ian and extreme weather events.

Medved said: “We’ve also al ready reached the point where we cannot only focus on target ing the causes (curbing green house gas emissions, decreasing waste, etc.) but also must orga nize around aiding those impact ed by climate disaster, including those who lost their homes and livelihoods to Hurricane Ian.”

Helping offset climate change and extreme weather effects can be localized. There are things that can be done at Fordham to help the environment. This is especially important because as

Poulose pointed out, extreme weather does not just affect southern and tropical regions.

“These natural disasters will become more frequent and dan gerous as the world gets warm er. Hurricanes are going further up to colder regions; this can be seen, for example, last year when school was closed because of the extreme flooding from the hurricane,” said Poulose.

Poulose recommended stu dents take an individualized approach to reducing their cli mate impact.

She advised students to start doing little things like consum ing less meat, avoiding fast fash ion brands, turning off lights and taking shorter showers, which can all help to offset cli mate change.

“We aren’t perfect, but ad dressing our mistakes and actively making a choice to be better is the best thing we can do,” said Poulose.

R

Serving the Fordham University campus and community since 1918

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When you’re on the brink of a painful growing period, you need to have assurance that things won’t collapse. There are days that are fine and dandy, days when you can fly a little closer to the sun, but if you get too comfortable, your wings may start to melt.

I would be remiss if I were to deny the fact that a fall from great heights is fast and painful. A crash to reality can hit home hard in ways you never thought possible, but at the same time, it’s the best possible thing for you to learn and grow as a person.

I used to hate cliches. I hated them for being easy outs, or what we in the sports world call chalk. But I never thought that the two most-used cliches would be the most important ones.

“Keep it simple, stupid.”

Breaking complex situations into simple ones is a huge help when it comes to not feeling overwhelmed. But you don’t realize how helpful this can be until you slow down.

Search my name on The Fordham Ram and read my biography. I am involved in a bunch of different activities that require significant time and focus. All of these activi ties require social interactions with others and teamwork. Of course, in a team-focused en vironment, mistakes happen. Sometimes, there is frustra

From the Desk | Thomas Aiello

OPINION Accountability Leads to Growth

tion. Maybe I don’t perform to my personal expectations, it happens. But everything boils down to one question:

Can you bounce back from it?

To answer that question, I want to mention John Chaney, one of the most successful col lege basketball coaches ever at the mid-major level with Temple University. I never met Chaney, but I saw him coach a few times when Temple basket ball played Fordham at Rose Hill back in the day. I was in troduced to Chaney’s philoso phies, though, on YouTube.

Chaney once told his audi ence that when you mess up, the winners are the ones who get back up faster.

It would be easy to sit here and write about all of my per sonal highs and lows, but it is important to acknowledge that everyone has bad days. We have to acknowledge that some tasks are harder than others. Some people need to be man aged more than others. The job of the soldier, though, is to deliver the best possible perfor mance, to execute all tasks well and to make the bosses’ job as simple as possible.

The little things that we let slide by have a tendency to be come problematic and some times they even snowball. But how do you get out of these situations?

We always need help in life – even the most independent

people. There should always be a space for learning, asking questions, seeking out advice and ultimately growing, as a professional and someone new to their field.

Here comes the second cli che: Nobody ever said things would be easy.

Sometimes you get tasks that make you want to swallow your eyeballs, or you hear of a prob lem and the alarm bells in your head start ringing even though it is an easy fix and doesn’t re quire all that stress. After all, it is human nature to be con cerned about these problems and to go into solution mode.

The only way you grow from mistakes, though, is to have a good attitude, be open to sug gestions and listen to the advice people give you. Finding a way to direct your frustrations is never easy, but doing it alone is definitely not the move.

Self corrections aren’t at all easy. They really aren’t. But to climb out of any rabbit hole you find yourself stuck in, you have to hold yourself accountable and put things into perspective.

And you need to believe in

yourself — everyday you should tell yourself that you can suc ceed, that you can become the most disciplined person you know. Once you start believing in yourself, then you can start to believe in others.

Between balancing work for The Fordham Ram, WFUV, Fordham Sports Information, school and having a personal life, keeping a positive mind set is a challenge, but it is a necessity.

This piece was definitely deep. It was heavy, but I want this article to serve as a salute to all my bosses, teammates, coworkers and administrators I have met at Fordham and my other ventures in life. They keep me in line, tell me when I need to step up my game, push me to the absolute limit and, most importantly, they hold me accountable.

My peers know who they are and they know that they do a good job. They’re all going to be amazing at their jobs and I know when I, and the rest of the class of 2023 leave, things are onward and upward from here.

I salute you. Let’s keep going.

The Danger of Telling Someone Else’s Story

By CAROLYN BRANIGAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Storytelling is a powerful tool that can be used to unite people from all different walks of life. Whether it be based on fact or purely fiction, people gain new world views and an overwhelm ing sense of unity when they lis ten to stories. Through writing, spoken word or film, storytell ing gives creators the chance to share parts of their culture and their ideologies to create representation for their ethnic and cultural groups. However, there are more and more cases in which storytelling creates a divide in communities.

Meg Smaker’s latest film to screen at Sundance is a perfect example of storytelling doing more harm than good. In her film, “Jihad Rehab,” Smaker interviews Muslim men incar cerated for terrorism. Howev er, Smaker makes a dangerous assumption and automatically assumes that they are crippled with guilt. Rather than looking at facts and examining each person’s unique circumstanc es. Smaker’s black and white view of their perceived guilt keeps them trapped in harmful stereotypes.

I do not believe that there is anything inherently wrong with telling a story from a communi ty you are not a part of. How ever, when it comes to works

of nonfiction, and when story telling concerns real cultural groups of which the storyteller is not a part of, things become much trickier.

In theory, there should be nothing wrong with a member of any ethnic group or race tell ing a story from the perspective of someone from a different group or race. It is human na ture to want to view experienc es through a different lens, and storytelling awards people this opportunity. Despite the fact that one’s intentions may be upstanding, racial, ethnic and class disparities make it neces sary for creators to take great care when telling a story about a community of which they are not members.

Though Smaker may have had good intentions with her film, wanting to shed light on an overlooked community, she offended Arab and Muslim filmmakers who saw her film as nothing more than American propaganda. Smaker perpeu tuated a harmful stereotype of Muslims as incarcerated terrorists.

With the success of her film and the support of Sundance, Smaker did yet another incred ibly damaging thing with her film: give her voice more power than someone who is actually in the Muslim community. As a Caucasian woman, her work and her point of view should

not have more merit and rec ognition in the film industry than actual Muslim creators. Her opinion should be just that, a mere opinion and nothing more. To have her be revered for her work is insensitive to those who truly live the expe rience she is trying to portray. Smaker’s film presents her bi ased opinion as a white woman as if it is fact.

What Smaker did is unfor tunately quite common in the world of content creation, and it shines light on a rather huge problem that doesn’t seem to be going away. The problem is that for marginalized groups to gain widespread recognition they must be portrayed by a mem ber of the dominant cultural group. Aside from Smaker’s work, another way in which this can be seen is through the spa water TikTok trend, which gained traction in early August of this year.

As a result of this trend, classic cultural Hispanic tra ditions were suddenly main stream, which in theory should be a good thing. Hundreds of

thousands of users were learn ing about a traditional drink that is emblematic to Mexican culture. However, the con tent creators distributing this knowledge were misinforming the public by ignoring the cul tural roots and renaming the classic drink from Agua Fresca to spa water. By amplifying their own voices, white creators thrust themselves into the spot light at the expense of a culture they supposedly respect. Just as Smaker did, these content creators display blatant disre gard for a culture they claim to be so enamored by, and with their seemingly innocent ac tions they continue to suppress marginalized voices.

It is possible for a storyteller to tell a story or participate in the storytelling of a group that they are not a part of, but it needs to be done with respect and reverence for the voices in that group, and that is just not happening on the large scale.

CarolynBranigan,FCRH’24,isan

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Meg Smaker’s latest film was criticized by Arab and Muslim filmmakers.

Fordham Gates Divide the Bronx & Student Opinions

Fordham University, for its location and status, is frequently referred to as an “Oasis in the Bronx,” and perhaps the most important factor in this metaphor is the nearly 1.75 miles of gate that surrounds Rose Hill’s campus on all sides.

The gates play a vital role in the university’s relation ship with its Bronx com munity. At a number of gate openings, only community members carrying active Fordham IDs are allowed past the iron bars, scanning their identification through installed security scanners. Each gate is overseen by se curity guards who are tasked with making sure that nonFordham University mem bers don’t make it through.

The university maintains strict vigilance, though excep tions are made for church goers, student families and friends of students. Some students have also mastered the art of sneaking their friends through, especial ly through the unmanned Walsh turnstyle.

For years the gates have been a topic of discussion at Fordham, with some stu dents and faculty members advocating that they be re moved or opened to the pub lic. The question at the heart of the gates’ existence is one that examines how exactly the university’s relationship with the Bronx community is affected by the barriers.

The question is one without a solid, singular answer.

When the Ram interviewed students on campus about whether the gates should stay closed or be opened to allow non-university com munity members to access campus grounds, students expressed a variety of opin ions and detailed numerous pros and cons.

Some students feel as though the barriers are pro tective and provide a feeling of reassurance and safety. They said that feelings of anxiety are often alleviated after entering the gates. Be cause of the university’s lo cation in the largest city in the country, having a space solely for Fordham students can give those on-campus peace-of-mind, not having to worry about chaotic so cial uncertainties. Living in a city comes with certain, in herent dangers, but having the gates can allow students to let their guard down some while on campus.

In addition to the safety aspects of the gates, they also create a sense of com munity for students in the midst of the chaos of New York. Many students choose Fordham because they are able to have the experience of going to an urban school, along with the intimate feel ing of a traditional college campus.

Other students disagreed, stating that the barriers’ great est effects are in the discon nection and distanciation between Fordham University and the Bronx neighborhood

it’s located in.

The barriers create a closed, locked environment that feels almost disrup tive to Bronx infrastructure. Though the city has devel oped around it, it can still be difficult to get from the cor ner of Southern Boulevard and Fordham Road to the opposite corner of Webster Avenue and 198th Street when you have to walk around the gated perim eter instead of through the shortest path, which goes through campus.

As a result, there is devel oped opposition to the Bronx community from within Fordham’s campus. More than literal physical barri ers, the gates act as a meta physical barrier that makes it difficult for students to feel fully integrated into the community around campus.

A heightened sense of fear and nervousness about what could be beyond the gates is manufactured by struc tures of concrete, stone and iron. The situation doesn’t integrate students into the community. In fact, the op posite effect is created: “us vs. them” prevails.

After posting the video to the Ram’s YouTube and so cial media accounts, parents, alumni and other non-stu dent community members also voiced their opinions through comments. For these people, the gates represent a positive force and they are in favor of Fordham remaining a gated university.

“Of course they should [keep the gates closed] ... that neighborhood is a war zone. Open the campus, I pull my kid right out,” com mented one parent.

The conversation among those interacting with the video allowed those of all opinions to respond.

“Who’s in danger?” replied a recent alum, their com ment suggesting that the perceived threat of danger off-campus is false.

As mentioned before, de ciding whether or not the gates should stay closed or be opened to the public is not a decision that can eas ily be made by one group of people. Interactions with the Ram’s video proved that both students, past and present, and parents have strongly differing views, not to mention the views and de cisions made by actual uni versity administrators.

In these conversations, an

other important and affected group is left out: What do Bronx residents think?

In a previous editorial, the Ram discussed the impact that Fordham students have on the Bronx, specifically the Belmont neighborhood. It’s clear that there is a physical, traceable impact that these students have on the devel opment of the neighborhood and, by extension, the nonuniversity residents that oc cupy it. Believing that these residents don’t have an im portant opinion on the uni versity’s gates rejects their autonomy.

The Fordham Ram be lieves that the next step in the gate discourse is to have an inclusive conversation instead of jumping to an immediate answer. There is no simple solution to the problem, but the journey to find one should involve ev eryone who is affected, not just a privileged subset.

Hurricane Ian Should Serve as a Forewarning of Climate Change

By EDEN COTTONE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Hurricane Ian left the west coast of Florida in ru ins. Houses, properties and lives were left deserted and destroyed. The hurricane swept through with great power and caught Florida residents extremely under prepared. As these storms continue to devastate, ig noring the impact of climate change is nearly impossible.

Hurricane Ian approached the west coast of Florida as a category 4, on the cusp of being a category 5. We were aware of the strength of this storm, but why were we so caught off guard by its impact?

Labeling Hurricane Ian as a “bad storm” is an egre gious understatement. This hurricane is a clear exam ple of how climate change is affecting our world. One factor that played a ma jor role in the devastating impact of Hurricane Ian is the rising water tempera tures, one of the effects of climate change. Hurricane

Ian became increasingly more powerful as it traveled over the Caribbean waters, which are currently 1.8 de grees Fahrenheit warmer than usual. The warmer wa ter temperature allows the storms to grow stronger and release more intense wind speeds and waves.

As each storm we face causes more damage in its wake, it is becoming much harder to turn a blind eye to the effects of climate change. A study conducted by a pro fessor at Stony Brook Uni versity found that Hurri cane Ian was 10% wetter due to climate change and the effects of greenhouse gasses trapping heat and increas ing ocean temperatures. Sci entists are predicting that we will continue to see more in tense storms like Hurricane Ian due to climate change.

Though climate change played a large role in this ru inous hurricane, some may conclude that the delayed response from the govern ment is also to blame. A few days before Hurricane Ian ar rived on the coast of Florida,

Governor Ron DeSantis called for an immediate shelter in place because it was no longer an option to safely evacuate. DeSantis waited too long to make a decision and had pushed off react ing to the warnings from the National Weather Service. As a result of his inaction, the death toll is now more than 120 people in Florida alone, due in part to poor preparation.

As Floridians try to piece their lives back together, the scary thought that this could become a frequent oc currence continues to creep into many people’s minds. It is crucial for us to be more prepared for future storms, especially considering cli mate change will only con tinue to have these effects.

As sad as it is, it is time to start preparing for the worst in order to prevent our lives being turned upside down by worsening storms. Surely climate change will continue to influence our weather mov ing forward, and we should ad just our preparation measures and strategies accordingly.

Hurricane preparation has become a matter of life and death. How much longer can we continue to ignore the problem of climate change, especially since it is becom ing more apparent with each new storm?

Moving forward, we would be fools to not adjust our ap proach to hurricane season in the future.

Climate change is going to

continue to play a major role in our lives whether we like it or not. We can either sit back and let it destroy our homes and lives or we can start to prepare better.

Eden Cottone, FCRH ’26, is a journalism major from Wilmington, Del.

Wihout proper preparation, Hurricane Ian left the coast of Florida in ruins.

Subway Cameras Only Record Crimes — We Need to Stop Them

attacks that have been hap pening on the subway.

In a news conference re garding the change, Hochul says “[our intent is] to get the message out that we’re going to be having surveil lance of activity on the sub way, and that’s going to give people great ease of mind.”

the root of the fear and un ease that New Yorkers have toward the subway. This frequent presence creates a sense of security that can’t be matched from cameras alone. Why have cameras to record the crime when you could have officers there to help prevent the crime?

police presence for ease of mind, but that doesn’t mean that problems on the subway will completely cease. New York City still has to grapple with homeless people using the subway as a refuge and factors that could lead to subway violence.

By SAMANTHA SCOTT STAFF WRITER

For New Yorkers, the subway system is vital. Convenient and reasonably priced, the subway has long been the method of transportation for New Yorkers, whether they are students headed to school, adults on their commute to work or individuals headed out for a night on the town.

Yet, in recent years, the subway system has begun to face a multitude of prob lems, with the primary con cern being crime.

The subway system has seen shocking attacks in the post-pandemic world, including a fatal shove and the Brooklyn subway shoot ing. These subway attacks

have led to unease for many people riding the subway. The proof is in the numbers: Ridership of the subway is only at 60% of its 2019 ridership. The amount of crimes happening at subway stops is roughly the same as in 2019, but since ridership has decreased, per capita crime rates are up. Clearly, something needs to be done to keep the subway safe and profitable for the city of New York.

The Metropolitan Trans portation Authority (MTA) would install two security cameras on every subway car to help mitigate crime, announced Governor Kathy Hochul earlier this month.

The cameras are meant to bring scrutiny to the random

The cameras, which are to be installed in each car by 2025, can’t be monitored live, but will be able to pro vide investigators with vid eo footage after the crime. Hochul believes that will be enough to coax frightened riders back to the subway sys tem. However, simply record ing the crime on the subway is not enough. To get riders back on the subway, Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams have to work on mitigating the problem of danger itself.

In January of this year, Hochul and Adams collabo rated on more measures to promote safety in the subway system. As a result of this ini tiative, New York City now requires police officers to conduct more frequent and regular sweeps of the sub way system and work with homeless outreach pro grams to provide services to homeless people living on the subway. These changes are far better steps than mere surveillance. Increased police presence is an actual effort that attempts to get to

Subway policing is not with out its own problems and con troversies. Racial bias and tar geting in law enforcement are key questions to be reckoned with. In 2019, when former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo attempted to deploy hundreds of additional of ficers to tackle fare evasion, he was met with pushback that he was unfairly tar geting poor New Yorkers.

A year later, state Attorney General Letitia James be gan an ongoing investigation into whether police were dis criminating against people of color when they were enforcing fare evasion on subways and buses. None theless, these situations are different. This type of police presence is about keeping all people safe rather than protecting the profitability of the MTA.

However, we must also consider the factors that lead to subway violence and rider insecurity when tackling the problem of how to reduce crime in the subway. Hochul and Adams can increase the

New York leaders must in vest in safe housing for the homeless to prevent home less people from living in the subway as a last resort. Leaders must invest in mental health services and community intervention programs that mitigate the indirect factors that could lead to the vio lence seen on the subway. Police presence can bring a temporary band-aid to rider security, but it won’t solve the long-term problems.

The subway is a long way from being perfect, but it is the lifeline of New York City and its people. Hochul and Adams must work together to create a comprehensive plan that goes beyond sim ply filming the crimes com mitted. They need to create a plan of action that will help riders today and look towards the future.

Samantha Scott, FCRH ’24, is an international political econ omy and political science major from Columbus, Ohio.

Russian Sanctions are America’s Best Option

By EVAN MCMANUS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The United States and its allies must continue sanc tioning Russia, or they will only be silently condoning President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury Depart ment announced on Sept. 30 an expansion of sanctions due to the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories. The sanctions will target Russian organizations and individuals involved in the weapons sup ply industry, financial services and Russian legislature. These recent actions are a continu ation of a massive effort by the United States, European Union and other allies to im pose crippling sanctions on the Russian economy to pun ish them for the Ukrainian conflict.

When the first round of sanctions was announced in February, the Russian ruble and the stock market crashed. The Russian economy went from a predicted growth of 2.5% in GDP this year to almost a 10% drop. However, many of the worst case scenarios have not come to pass. The Russian minister of economic develop ment has revised the original prediction of the economy to

4.2% GDP decline. Now the ruble has rebounded, and the Russian government has tak en actions to blunt the effect of the sanctions on its citi zens. Putin’s economic min isters have taken steps such as raising the minimum wage by 10%. The official unemploy ment rate in Russia is at a low level of 3.9%.

People may argue that the use of sanctions has not been effective because of the surprising resilience of the Russian economy. How ever, the potential long-term impact of the sanctions is sig nificant. Although the Russian economy is performing better than predicted, it would be inaccurate to say it is doing great.

An official Russian govern ment analysis has predicted the economic decline due to sanctions will accelerate to 8.5% GDP decline in an “in ertia” scenario and 11% GDP decline in a “stress” scenario.

In both cases, it will take the Russian economy the rest of the decade to recover to its pre-war state. Russian con sumers are bearing the effects of fewer imports, with many foreign brands no longer be ing sold. More importantly, industries across the economy like agriculture, aviation and

pharmaceuticals have lost ac cess to imports crucial to mak ing their products. There has been a brain drain, with some estimating that 200,000 IT workers will leave the country by 2025. New European oil sanctions starting next winter could further hurt the econ omy since 55% of oil exports from the past year were from these areas.

If the purpose of the sanc tions was to force Putin to stop the war, it has not worked.

He has escalated the war by holding sham elections in four Ukrainian regions and declar ing them controlled by Russia.

This past week, Russia has es calated its attacks, including an explosion that damaged the Kerch Strait bridge connecting Crimea to Russia and killed 73 people by firing missiles into Ukraine cities. Another concern is the effect sanctions have on regular Russian citi zens and if they should suffer the consequences of Putin’s actions.

These are valid concerns, but I still believe the sanctions are necessary. The United States and its allies do not have a lot of options to retaliate against Russia’s actions. It would be unwise to get the U.S. military involved for risk of escala tion, especially when Putin

seems eager to talk about nuclear weapons. However, it would be wrong for the United States to denounce the inva sion without taking any sort of action. If the Russian govern ment faced no consequences from the global community other than a verbal scolding, they would ignore it and carry on with their invasion while suffering no economic loss.

Although the sanctions may not stop the war, they are at least making the Russian economy ache to some degree. While the sanctions are harm ing everyday Russian citizens, I would argue that Putin is hurt ing them more by continuing this war. The recent extension of the draft and the protests

are just further burdens Putin is placing on his people. The longer the war continues, the more he prolongs the suffering of his citizens.

Actions have consequenc es. When a world leader like Putin believes that he can override the self-determination of Ukraine, fire missiles into their cities and have his army slaughter civilians in Ukraine, the world can’t just stand by and watch. If we deem sanc tions unnecessary, all the hor rific actions listed above will be silently condoned and Putin will continue his atrocities.

Evan McManus, FCRH ’25, is a political science major from Dover, M.A.

Russian sanctions.

Recent subway attacks have led to unease in many riding the subway.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

The 2023 Met Gala Theme Is a Great Opportunity — Will It Be Taken?

simply because he is controver sial. Instead, I think an exhibit on Lagerfeld’s work presents an ex cellent opportunity for a healthy dialogue on the fashion indus try’s history of excluding certain body types and the industry’s powerful role in what society considers “beautiful.” The Met Gala’s theme should stand as a testament as to why the art should not be separated from the artist, but instead, used as a productive conversation starter.

or wearing downright ugly out fits. However, as someone with a body shape implicated in his quote on curvy women, it’s hurt ful to know his past and see his legacy be celebrated anyway.

Despite feeling hurt though, I know artists and their art are in herently tied, and I think this fact should be used in the Lagerfeld exhibit to promote a larger con versation.

hero. It makes us feel like ac complishing the impossible is possible. But portraying such a flawed individual in a heroic manner is not moral. By leaving out the full picture, the person is no longer human in the mind of society, and it can get ugly when the truth comes out and their ped estal shatters.

By SARAH KENNY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Met Gala, an illustrious fundraiser for the Met Costume Exhibit held every May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is known for its guests’ creative outfits, often chosen to match the yearly theme and the introduction of the institute’s annual fashion exhibit at the museum. The gala’s 2023 theme was announced on Sept. 30. The event will pay trib ute to the legendary fashion de signer Karl Lagerfeld. Lagerfeld, a German designer who passed away in 2019, was the creative director of Chanel, Fendi and his own eponymous brand. Howev

er, while he had a long and im pactful career in fashion, he also has a controversial past regarding his views on plus size women in the fashion industry, refugees and the #MeToo movement.

Lagerfeld was unapologetic when it came to his opinions, with comments like “no one wants to see curvy women” and “if you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model.”

The Met Gala has been fac ing criticism over its decision to honor him in next year’s theme. While his comments are incredibly offensive and shock ing, I do not think the Met Gala should detract their theme choice

Even if the Met Gala’s theme was changed, the people in volved with the gala and the fashion industry in general would have a difficult time scrubbing Lagerfeld from its annals. He was the creative director of three major brands and was incredibly well-connected. Whether we like it or not, his work and influence is deeply ingrained into the fashion world. His views reflect the ugly and exclusionary side of fashion; he just happened to be unafraid to be direct about it.

It is very tempting to sepa rate the art from the artist in this instance and pretend that Lagerfeld’s work was created in a vacuum, that his views are out liers in the industry. After all, I love watching the Met Gala red carpet. It’s thrilling to see the creative masterpieces celebrities wear for the event, as equally entertaining as it is to critique celebrities not dressed to theme

Showcasing Lagerfeld’s im pressive work alongside his de rogatory views in the Met exhibit would create a different kind of art installation than one that sim ply shows off his design skills. It instead invites the viewer to think about fashion as an imperfect in dustry, one that can be so beauti ful yet at the same time so ugly.

This sort of exhibit will not be comfortable, especially since many of the celebrities and event leaders attending had personal friendships with Lagerfeld. We do not know what they thought about his views — whether they agreed with him that plus size women should not be models or if they disagreed and looked past his views because they shared a friendship of value. However, I imagine that his colleagues feel sad in a way, too, that someone so great and accomplished had such shortcomings.

It is natural for us, as humans, to want to glorify a significant figure and look up to them as a

Realistically, though, I do not foresee the Met Gala exhibit adopting this more nuanced por trayal of Lagerfeld in their ex hibit. He is far too ingrained in the fashion industry for a reck oning of his views to occur at an event attended by the who’s who of fashion. It is disappointing, but I must acknowledge the Met Gala is not really known for be ing the most in touch with reality — last year’s “Gilded Age” gala received a lot of criticism for oc curring in the midst of a bad pe riod of inflation during a global pandemic.

Still, the Met Gala is months away. After being hounded with criticism over an insensitive choice of theme for the second year in a row, Anna Wintour and the Metropolitan Museum have a lot to think about. Hopefully they will use these next months to ar range a more holistic exhibit of the person they are honoring.

Sarah Kenny, FCRH ’24, is a political science major from Seattle, Wash.

An Ode to Rods: Members Successfully Advocate for Reopening

By EMMA FOLEY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rodrigue’s Coffee House, or Rods, is one of my favorite places at Fordham. It’s where I found my friends and that long-promised concept of a collegiate community. That’s why I think so many people (including myself) were frus trated by its prolonged clo sure during the month of September.

Of course I don’t know you, so I don’t know whether you’ve ever been inside Rods. Maybe you’re a member, or maybe

you went to Rods once during your freshman year and decid ed the scene wasn’t for you. If you’re not familiar, Rods is best known as a student-run coffee house, but it’s also a venue for local bands, monthly open mics and occasional drag shows.

This summer, however, Rods was also home to some mainte nance issues. After allowing the coffeehouse to be fully open to students for one whole week, Fordham’s administration de cided to close Rods and refur bish the beloved building, just when things were really getting started again.

For nearly a month, Rods was closed at a time when it should’ve been welcoming a whole new class through its doors. Thankfully, we were still able to host a concert and open mic on the lawn outside the historic building, but being in view of confused, late-night P.O.D. customers doesn’t quite compare to the ambiance of Rods’ well-decorated interior.

Rods’ walls are lined with art and photographs from years before any of our times at this school, making it a sort of mu seum. Every year, new orna ments are added to the wall and

the display of memorabilia is expanded. Although it’s a no tably progressive place, there is a hefty value on its traditions, a detailed list of which could likely be its own article. Rods being closed “indefinitely” for maintenance was quite the de viation from custom.

I hope this background on Rods helps clarify why the tem porary closing is so uniquely upsetting. Rods has very re cently been allowed to re-open, but for most of September, Rods members had no word on when we’d be allowed to re turn to our sacred space. Our eboard members turned in their keys and after that, we were all largely left in the dark.

If you’re an athlete, imagine having your season postponed indefinitely. If you’re extreme ly involved in a school club, imagine having no idea when meetings would start back up again. After a few weeks, you would probably notice a differ ence in your mental health and daily routine. A third location — a space to go between home and work to build relationships and spend leisure time — is cer tainly something I missed dur ing Rods’ closure. I spent an in creasing amount of time in my apartment bedroom. Combined with the lack of communication from administration, my fellow members and I started to grow concerned by whether or not we’d be able to return to Rods in a timely manner. We brought

our anxieties to a USG meeting.

It was here, sitting face-toface with the adults in charge of Rods’ refurbishment, that we were finally able to demon strate the urgency of our feel ings. This isn’t some club that people signed up for to type out another line on their resu mé. This meeting might seem trivial, but I believe it is this push that catalyzed our reopen ing. Who knows how long we would have been stuck in limbo if we had sat tight in our bed rooms, twiddling our thumbs waiting for a verdict.

As much as this argument is a dig at the Fordham administra tion, it’s also a call to action for anyone who is hesitant to have their voice heard.

Speaking from experience, it doesn’t take some grand protest or dramatic speech to speed ac tion up. Concentrated, demon strated care seems enough to break free from a bureaucratic muddle.

Rods is back and open for business just in time for autumn. I am excited to put seasonal syrups in my lattes, and I’m thrilled to be back in side the Rods building. As the weather gets colder and we be come resigned to the indoors, there’s nowhere else I would prefer to relax than this cozy and historic building.

Emma Foley, FCRH ’24, is an English major from Burlington, Conn.

The 2023 Met Gala will pay tribute to legendary fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Young Women Don’t Need Dumbing Down OPINION

short amount of time, but Redkar uses everyday language, pop cul ture references and analogies that are geared toward her audience.

Of course, I think it’s great that women are banding together to help educate one another. How ever, I wonder if this is the right way to approach these topics, be cause I couldn’t help but notice that many of the analogies are re petitive and stereotypical. Scroll ing through her past few videos, there are two topics that continue to be mentioned: drinking and shopping.

young women understand cur rent events through stereotypi cally “girly” and childish com parisons, it makes it seem like this is the only way she thinks girls can understand politics.

One commenter shared this sentiment, explaining that they don’t appreciate her titling her videos “for the girls,” and pro ceeding to dumb the topic down.

In her response, she explains that she titles her videos this way because she talks to her audi ence like she would her friends.

By HANNAH DEVLIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

If you’ve been on TikTok re cently, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen videos explaining political topics “for the girls.”

Nikita Redkar, also known as @nikitadumptruck, creates con tent for young women to eas ily understand current events through a comical perspective. There are a wide range of topics displayed on Redkar’s page, in cluding abortion, climate change and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Her most watched video — ex plaining why the U.S. govern ment cannot print more money in times of economic crisis — has almost 2.6 million views, while her other videos continue to rack up hundreds of thousands.

Considering TikTok’s short video format, it’s no surprise that these videos are so easily ac cessible. Within a few minutes, Redkar’s audience has enough information to understand the basics of a plethora of complex topics. For some, it may be dif ficult to explain such topics in a

Since mid-June, the seven most recent “for the girls” videos explain a variety of timely top ics: the basics of the stock mar ket, the euro and U.S. dollar par ity, climate change, the British monarchy and economic reces sions. In more than half of these videos, Redkar talks about shop ping and fashion. She explains that we can’t print more money because it will make your daily $7 coffee more expensive and that climate change is just like when a girl has a mental break down and cuts her own bangs. She uses analogies about house parties and pre-games to teach her audience about the monar chy and recessions, and explains that economists treat the euro and dollar like two men they’re dating.

In and of itself, these analogies aren’t bad, and in many scenarios they may genuinely help young audiences understand the topic at hand. However, when her page is dedicated to specifically helping

She goes on to say that “You read ‘for the girls’ and assumed that because I was talking like a normal person and not a small d*** robot, that I was dumbing it down. You’re the one that thinks girls are dumb.”

This response doesn’t really get to the heart of the matter.

Redkar seems to misunderstand the commenter’s critique, who suggests her videos should be called “for people who don’t understand,” ensuring that these videos don’t generalize or mis represent women’s knowledge.

When Redkar talks about the way that she speaks, she seems to be referring to the cadence of her voice and the language she uses. Her language and usage of popular slang are important as pects that make her videos eas ily digestible. These are not what people consider to be problem atic. What is problematic is the way in which the information is presented.

Though Redkar attempts to allow women to break sexist

stereotypes by learning about topics that have historically been kept away from them, she ne gates her intention by relying on incredibly stereotypical analo gies to achieve her goal. For the most part, her videos are full of information that is explained in a succinct and accessible manner. However, when she constantly makes comments about Shein brand fashion, designer brands, iced coffee and cocktails, she feeds into assumptions about young women and reinforces these stereotypes.

By labeling these videos “for the girls,” Redkar speaks on be half of young women; this rep resentation can be dangerous if she generalizes her audience.

By relying on stereotypes for her explanations, she is enabling their existence. I worry that if the wrong person watches these videos, they will feel validated in their misogyny. It would be too easy for her content — meant to educate women — to be twisted into something harmful.

Women are capable of under standing difficult and complex topics. I do believe that it is important for women to have a space where they feel comfort able learning about new topics and asking questions. However, I’m not sure that Redkar’s page is the proper place to do that.

Hannah Devlin, FCRH ’24, is an English major and classical civilizations minor from Port Washington, N.Y.

Not Just Reagan — Celebrities Are America’s Newest Politicians

By OLIVIA TEARE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When referencing celebrity culture, The New York Times critic Amanda Hess stated, “The famous are ambassadors of the meritocracy; they represent the American pursuit of wealth through talent, charm and hard work.” I find her declaration to be indicative of the value that our society places upon fame. Considering the grip celebrity culture has on Americans, I be lieve they should not use their platforms to voice political views because they run the risk of distracting from the essence of a campaign and the message that politicians are trying to establish.

On Oct. 9, the casts of “Veep” and “The West Wing” united for a virtual fundraiser for Wisconsin Democrats. Dur ing the event, actors warned the audience that democracy may be at stake in the upcoming midterms. They emphasized the importance of investing in the future well-being of the U.S. and raised about $686,000 in the process.

“There is an anxiety, a great fear in the country, from coast to coast, in all levels of our so ciety about what we are faced with and how much responsi bility each one of us is meant

to carry,” said Martin Sheen, who played President Jed Barlett on “The West Wing.” I strongly disagree with Sheen’s statement concerning an indi vidual’s responsibility within society. It’s dangerous for ce lebrities to drift between the political spotlight and their sphere of influence as a fa mous person. They should be nonpartisan in the eyes of the public if they wish to retain their reputations and a positive public image.

To be fair, we can’t over look celebrities’ place within the American social hierar chy. Over time, they have be come more than role models and cultural icons. We regard stardom as the embodiment of power and prestige, whether or not we’d like to admit it. In a nationwide polling of 30,000 participants, 81% of people believe that celebrity opinions and endorsements influence public opinion. The main form of communication that these highly-regarded citizens use to sway the public is social media. Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms have become breeding grounds for the famous to spread their beliefs to large audiences.

Celebrities such as Cardi B and Meghan Markle seem will ing to put their reputations on

the line for the sake of politi cal support. These celebrities aren’t necessarily perfect po litical idols to look up to. In fact, in some ways they are just like the average citizen, with their own unique political opin ions. Nonetheless, the rich and famous are taking more of an interest in politics with every passing year.

For example, Taylor Swift endorsed Phil Bredesen, who is a Democratic candidate for Senate in her home state of Tennessee in 2018. On Oct. 7, 2018, she posted on Instagram with a caption stating, “I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress ap palls and terrifies me … [these] are not MY Tennessee values.”

Swift pointedly turned off the comment section for that post, likely in an effort to reduce on line backlash. Fast forward to 2020, and Swift tweeted that President Trump is “stoking the fires of white supremacy” during his presidency, claiming that she and her followers will band together to vote him out come the November elections. Celebrities like Swift have become increasingly opinion ated as they have found their way into the political spotlight, from simply endorsing politi cians to outright denouncing the former president in a heated

Twitter exchange.

After researching the driving force behind celebrity political activism, the majority of ce lebrities seem to take an active stance in controversial debates or politics if it directly affects them or their budding social empire. Sure, leaning right or left may stir up controversy, but it also could turn an indi vidual on the rise into a house hold name.

We also have to acknowledge that speaking out on politics could have detrimental effects on these celebrities’ careers. A politically conscious narra tive does not seem fitting for someone who’s trying to gain recognition and power within

their industry. Perhaps they are truly motivated by more than a marketing ploy.

It’s interesting to see celeb rities carefully curate their ca reers over a lifetime, only to put it at risk for someone else’s political campaign.

Celebrities should stick to the talent they are known for and leave campaigning to the politicians for fear of detract ing attention from what really matters: the policies.

Olivia Teare, FCRH ’26, is an anthropology major and peace and justice studies and linguistics minor from Duxbury, M.A.

The casts of “Veep” and

West Wing”

for a virtual fundraiser.

Nikita Redkar creates content for young women to understand current events.

COURTESY OF TIKTOK

Overcoming Inhibitions to Make a Splash in Wales

By JAMISON RODGERS COLUMNIST

One discussion that students engaged in during orientation week was how much of your self to change during the study abroad experience. Most advice offered by the London Centre staff was to not do a complete 180 on yourself. The experi ence of studying abroad was already so different from our routines that they warned try ing to change yourself com pletely might end up backfiring. From these words of warning it sounds as if some in the past took the phrase “new city, new me” a little too seriously. These discussions were brought back to front of mind after my adven ture weekend in Wales at the be ginning of October.

In yet another example of the spontaneity of travel, I was not originally planning on going to Wales. I did not know anyone also going on the trip, and I would not use the word “adventurous” to de scribe myself. But a few weeks before, I kept hearing people in the program talking about going and, in the end, it was the power force of FOMO that made me decide to go. I pulled the trigger and booked the trip feeling excited and nervous at

the same time. As the semes ter progressed and I met more people, I felt reassured in my choice to push myself out of my comfort zone and go on a weekend adventure.

When it came time to pick my adventurous activities, I chose two that I knew would be a success: hiking and sea kayaking. I had done both of these before and knew what to expect going in. The third activity I picked was the wild card: coasteering.

For those unfamiliar, which included myself right up un til I waded into the Atlantic Ocean in my wetsuit, coasteer ing is a combination of swim ming, climbing and jumping. You swim along the coast and through caves getting to ex perience the coastline in an entirely new way. Climbing, or traversing as the guides referred to it, can only be de scribed as clinging to a scrag gly rock wall and shimming your body across it. Then came time for the most an ticipated part: jumping. We climbed to different places along the cliffs and lept, free falling, into the Atlantic be low. It was exhilarating, ter rifying and completely out of character for me.

I usually stay firmly within

my comfort zone, stubbornly so at some points. But for some reason, I had the confidence to push myself to have this new experience. Due to the fleeting nature of the program, study ing abroad has given me the confidence to push myself out of my normal routine. I know I might not be back in Wales again on an adventure week end, and when else will I be able to coasteer?

While I agree that people should not tear down and re build their personalities be cause they are in a new city, I do think the experience allows people to try new things in the security of the program being temporary. What I mean by this is, I know I have a short window of time when I can participate in some of these experiences. I know when I go back to New York in the spring I will not have the opportunity to go coasteering in the city. I have this little bubble to try as much as I can that I normally would not do. That mentality is what gives me the confidence to go for it.

This mindset has given me the confidence to push myself outside of my comfort zone while staying true to myself. Some of these new experienc es include: staying in a hostel

for the first time, booking solo travel for later this semester and expanding my palate to try new foods in each city I have traveled to. All of these ex periences may not change me completely, but they do make me more comfortable saying yes to experiences I would have turned down in the past.

Is study abroad the time to

completely reinvent the wheel and become a whole new per son? Probably not. There is a lot to adjust to while studying abroad that the added layer of new city, new you, might not be necessary. But is study abroad a good time to push yourself outside of your com fort zone while remaining true to yourself? Absolutely.

“Our Selves:” Womanhood That Spans Genres and Generations

By NICOLE BRAUN OPINION EDITOR

In a room laden with the scent of sandalwood perfume and carved out of the hallway connecting galleries devoted to Monet and Picasso, was the exhi bition “Our Selves: Photographs by Women Artists from Helen Kornblum.”

The physical display of the photography exhibition, which ran at the Museum of Modern Art from April 16 and closed just this past Monday, was un derstated: no dramatic lighting or intricate layout, just canvases on crisp, blank walls. But the display of pictures spoke vol umes, portraying a world more interesting and contradictory than any physical design could have adequately conveyed.

“Our Selves” featured 90 pho tographs shot by women from a variety of disciplines, includ ing photojournalism, portraiture and advertising. In view of, and in dialogue with each other, the works, spanning over a hundred years, “reframe[d] restrictive notions of womanhood, explor ing the connections between photography, feminism, civil rights, Indigenous sovereignty and queer liberation.”

Of the exhibition, senior cu rator Roxana Marcoci says it “is very much conceived in the present-tense.” She explains that “Our Selves” is an opportunity to “consider the ways in which women artists, often operat ing on the margins of dominant

cultures, have rethought and reimagined artistic and social practices within the modern and contemporary worlds.”

All the photographs displayed as a part of “Our Selves” de picted a quiet intensity, and de manded its viewers to consider them not just as beautiful works hanging on a wall, but as relat ing to our modern understanding of intersectional feminism and womanhood. The plaque mark ing the entrance to the exhibition asked, “How have women artists used photography as a tool of resistance? As a way of unset tling established narratives? As a means of unfixing the canon?”

A partial answer to those lofty questions is that women photog raphers have engaged in reflec tion as a way of understanding our world, and consequently how to shatter it and remake it. One of the photographs in the exhibition that encapsulates such vision is Carrie Mae Weems’ “Untitled (Woman and daughter with makeup).” In this photo graph, not only is the young girl mirroring her mother’s action of carefully applying lipstick while gazing in their vanity mirrors, but it is a reflection of how our society keeps re-entrenching gender roles by teaching them to younger generations. It is also a critique of our penchant for thinking of larger society as the sole Big Bad: Sometimes constraints of self-expression are taught to us by the ones we love most.

Another photo that sparked

introspection and consideration of our modern understanding of womanhood is Cara Romero’s piece in her “First American Girl” series titled “Wakeah.” The pho tograph is meant to counter “over generalized pop-culture represen tations of Native Americans” and assert “the creative power of Native Women,” read the plac ard beside the photo. “Wakeah” reminded me of the American Girl Doll brand, which seemed to be the point, but also of the memes that dominated social media this summer. While those memes were meant to be comi cally self-aware and not incite any deep discussion, they did promote an unconscious, if sur face-level, exploration of what exactly it looks like and means

to be a modern and realistic “American girl.” “Our Selves” is a more serious contemplation of that question, as Marcoci believes that the photography collection is an opportunity to “affirm equity and diversity of voices.”

While there were many af fecting works on display, the photograph that elicited the most visceral reaction from me was “American Girl in Italy” by Ruth Orkin. “Our Selves” was an exhibition designed to spark dialogues that span time and space, and what is more univer sal to the experience of woman hood than being catcalled and leered at by men on the street?

“American Girl in Italy” has a palpable resonance with con temporary viewers; though the

photo was taken in 1951, the current of misogyny and objec tification is still active today, as more than a hundred male uni versity students in Spain leaned out their dorm windows and cat called female passersby.

To answer the questions posed above, “how do we use photography as a tool of resis tance?,” recognition of crosscultural and cross-generational shared experiences is also a part of the path forward.

“Our Selves” was not the first to consider the meaning of “womanhood.” Yet, it is a reminder of our responsibility to continue that conversation by looking at the art of the past and the present, as well as by looking at ourselves.

Pushing yourself past your boundaries can lead to great experiences.

COURTESY OF PRESELI VENTURE

“Blonde:” An Irresponsible and Violating Biopic

In the highly anticipated film, “Blonde,” the director Andrew Dominik, in conjunction with Netflix, offers a wildly violat ing representation of Marilyn Monroe’s life. The movie is based on the 1999 book titled the same. The book’s author, Joyce Carol Oates, called the production “a work of art” via Twitter.

Ana de Armas, a Cuban and Spanish actress, takes on the role

of Monroe, which I can appreci ate as a move towards inclusivity within Hollywood. Armas does an impeccable job with what she is given in the subpar production. However, while Monroe did suf fer a tragic life, the film goes to grotesque ends to paint the picture of her endless trauma. Although I can recognize that the film was in tended to be a fictionalized telling of Monroe’s life, the reoccurring exploitative scenes did nothing to contribute to her story other than degrade her femininity and

humanity, as if she didn’t receive enough of that in her lifetime.

Besides the film being entirely too horrific to watch all the way through without skipping, some of the explicit details were not even confirmed aspects of Mari lyn’s life. For example, towards the beginning of the film, Monroe (originally under the name Norma Jeane), is depicted living in a prob lematic household with her single mother, Gladys. While the child holds hope of her father return ing, a common theme throughout the movie, the two are left isolated to fend for themselves. Gladys, in a drunken-rage, yells in a slurred manner, “It’s because of you, you’re the reason he went away,” and takes her anger about her exhusband out on Norma, attempt ing to drown her in a bathtub. The chilling scene left me wondering if this really happened, and upon further research, there are no historical records that point to Monroe experiencing this event. The bathtub scene joins a wide va riety of others that are mere specu lation at the best. While Monroe’s troubling childhood of abuse has been confirmed by historical scholars, there were many other avenues available in portraying her tragic relationship with her mother. Again, as a fictional film there is some room for fabricated retelling to fill in gaps about the star’s life, but “Blonde” has no qualms with incorporating bent

truth to a very morbid degree.

An aspect of the film that felt timely insensitive was the dis course surrounding abortion.

“Blonde” depicts Monroe receiv ing two forced abortions and suf fering a miscarriage. However, there is yet again no evidence of the star experiencing even one abortion, especially against her will. This vivid inclusion of the procedure in the film sparked a wide range of controversy, con sidering the political climate we find ourselves in currently in terms of abortion. The doctors are depicted as malicious actors in providing this medical service, which is a very irresponsible move on the part of Dominik, contribut ing to anti-abortion propaganda.

According to Elle Magazine, Planned Parenthood even spoke out against the violent portrayal of abortion saying they “[re spect] artistic license and free dom. However, false images only serve to reinforce misinformation and perpetuate stigma around sexual and reproductive health care.” Not only are these abor tion scenes violating to Monroe and push a falsified narrative about reproductive health, but the film also goes as far to animate a CGI-talking fetus begging her to preserve its life. The fetus is depicted as a fully-formed baby while Monroe is not far into her pregnancy, painting abortion as a murderous act. Because films

and media have such an impactful hand in the public’s perception of the world around them, “Blonde” and its production team had the responsibility of portraying a more accurate representation of abortion and clearly did not take it seriously.

Marilyn Monroe will forever go down as one of the most memora ble faces of Hollywood for her im peccable rags-to-riches story. Her success does not undermine the traumatic events of her life, but rather serves as a testament to the perseverance she exhibited until her last tragic breaths. Media in dulged in the life of Monroe while she was alive, and even more so since her passing. While some de pictions have aimed at spotlight ing her endurance, “Blonde” can easily fall under the category of exploitation of her story. Riddled with inaccuracy and disrespect ful representation of the actress, the film would be Monroe’s worst nightmare.

The only saving grace of this film is the choice of Ana de Armas as Monroe, as she delivers inten sity in her work. Picking a wom an of Latinx background breaks the boundaries of white-washed Hollywood. Overall, in its nearly three-hour runtime “Blonde” entirely disrespected the life of Marilyn Monroe in the fictional ized delivery of her life, contrib uting to its sudden spiral out of Netflix’s Top 10.

The Best Italian Cuisine on Arthur Avenue

By AVA PASTORE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When it comes time to ven ture off campus for a bite to eat, there is one place I always have in mind: Tino’s Delicates sen. Being only a ten-minute walk away from campus, I find myself there almost too often. Whether you are in the mood for a flavorful sandwich, a plat ter of homemade pasta — or even gelato — Tino’s has some thing for everyone to enjoy. I think I can speak for myself, as well as my friends and fam ily, when I say that Tino’s has not only the best food but also the best customer service.

My go-to order at Tino’s is the Isabella: A delightful com bination of breaded chicken, fresh mozzarella, roasted pep pers and a coating of balsamic glaze. With the first bite of the sandwich, I notice nothing but perfection. As any fellow Italian would be able to realize, the quality of the mozzarella adds to the sublime taste of the sandwich. If the ingredients inside of this culinary master piece are not enough to satisfy your tastebuds, the outside of the sandwich is equally as ex quisite. The perfectly toasted ciabatta that encapsulates the sandwich allows every bite to be met with a crisp crunch. The portions offered at Tino’s are also very plentiful, as I find

myself faced with a challenge to finish the entire sandwich in one sitting (although I manage to every time). The large size along with the excellent taste of the sandwich make it worth the price, which comes in at $13 after tax. At Tino’s, one will completely forget about the money they spend at the register with the first bite of their meal. I can confidently say that most of my withdraw als of funds this month have taken place at Tino’s, and I do not regret any of them.

If sandwiches do not strike your fancy, don’t fret — the extensive menu at Tino’s of fers a wide variety of options. The large and diverse variations of pasta and wood-fired pizza will be enough to add a stop at Tino’s to your weekly itinerary. The assortment of food does not stop here: Tino’s offers dessert as well, with numerous flavors of gelato and cannolis, provid ing service to any sweet tooth. As an avid fan of gelato, I had to pay a visit to Tino’s gelato freezer, and I am extremely glad that I did. Upon the first spoonful of stracciatella gela to, I tasted nothing but perfec tion. With the ideal chocolate to vanilla ratio and its smooth consistency, I was instantly in a state of grace. The pure convenience factor of having sweet and savory options all within the same establishment

also makes Tino’s a no-brainer when I go out to eat with friends. Tino’s is also a great place to en gage in meals with friends and family because of the multiple seating options which allow you to indulge in your fresh platters as soon as possible.

The customer service at Tino’s is undoubtedly one of the best I have ever experienced. Upon entering, one is always greeted with a smile and a welcoming staff eager to provide one of the best meals you will have that day. Each time that I have visited Tino’s, my food has been deliv

ered in a timely manner with perfection — so if you are in a time crunch and need to make a quick stop, Tino’s is your spot.

If you are neither an Italian cuisine connoisseur nor a ge lato-loving foodie, feel free to stop into Tino’s to absorb the authentic Italian atmosphere or shop around the perimeter of the store for an assortment of imported Italian delica cies such as pastas, cookies, cheeses and sauces. The cozy and comforting environment of Tino’s makes it a pleasure to walk through and to take in

the diverse arrangements of authentic Italian commodities.

The wide array of sandwich es, Italian cuisine, imported goods and desserts available at Tino’s Delicatessen make it a weekly trip for many students, including myself.

As me and my brother both at tend Fordham University, there is always one place that my par ents want to go when they visit: Tino’s. This deli is quite the crowd pleaser, but don’t take it from my family. If you take the time to pay Tino’s Delicatessen a visit, I prom ise you will not be disappointed.

Tino’s Delicatessen promises a convenient, delicious meal that will keep students

“Blonde” turns Monroe into a fictionalized, tortured version of herself.

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

Bronx Business Highlight| Tino’s Delicatessen

The Self-Sabotage of “The Wife Guy”

By LAUREN LOMBARDI

WRITER

In a long turn of events, the detective work of Redditors and TikTokers alike proved to be based in fact: Ned Fulmer of The Try Guys is a cheater. If none of these words mean anything to you, do not fear; they don’t to most people. The Try Guys is a YouTube group that was original ly a branch of Buzzfeed and now has garnered almost eight million subscribers on their own channel. Their content consists of the four members, keeping with the name, trying things. Each member of the quartet (now trio) has created a persona for themselves that is un missable to viewers. In the spirit of this article, Fulmer has always been the “wife guy.” Another term that is easy to miss if not constantly online: a “wife guy” is, according to The New York Times, a “a man who has risen to prominence online by posting content about his wife.”

On a quick Google search of The Try Guys, it can be found that Fulmer is far and away the most successful financially, with an es timated net worth that is almost five times that of the second most successful member of the group. Fulmer’s activities outside of the group are in collaboration with his wife, Ariel. Whether it is their home restoration show “Try DIY,” their date night recipe inspired cookbook or their parental podcast “Baby Steps,” it is clear that in his efforts outside of The Try Guys, it has been Fulmer’s family man

persona that helped him reach this success, far surpassing those of his ex-group members. On top of ev erything else, at the center of the cheating scandal with Fulmer is another member of The Try Guys team. Fulmer’s audacity to break his facade and cheat with one of his own employees, also a coworker of his wife’s, has left many fans feel ing betrayed and angry on her be half and Fulmer unemployed.

While cheating scandals of the past entertainment world tended to leave celebrities unscathed by the general public (think Brad Pitt in the aughts), the sheer amount of them along with the way the men in the relationships have pre sented themselves, have resulted in people feeling more genuinely

disappointed than entertained by new gossip. While Adam Levine was exposed for sending Instagram DMs to Instagram model Sumner Stroh on TikTok, inferring his in fidelity toward his wife Behati Prinsloo, the cheating aspect of the situation was almost completely overshadowed online by Levine’s inadequate flirting skills depicted in the DMs. Not only did Levine’s lack of game lessen the public blow of him asking Stroh if he can name the baby he and Prinsloo are ex pecting after her, but most people do not immediately associate Levine with Prinsloo and in turn, they do not feel deceived.

This brings us to the kickoff of the entire downfall of the wife guy: John Mulaney. Mulaney is a

stand-up comedian who rose to fame for his work as a writer on “Saturday Night Live.” In each of his three comedy specials on Netflix, he mentions his now exwife, Anna Marie Tendler. His wife, his wife, his wife! In his special “The Comeback Kid,” he had a bit where he spoke about how much he loves saying “my wife.” Ironically, the woman who Mulaney called his “hero” is the one he divorced a decade into their marriage. Due to the sheer amount he mentioned her in his stand-up, fans became a little (a lot) attached to their relationship. Not only did they begin to love Tendler as well, but it made them like Mulaney a whole lot more; he presented him self as a doting husband, and so he came off as a great guy. Many fans turned on Mulaney when a baby with actress Olivia Munn arrived not long after his separation from Tendler. The drama that was bub bling under the surface surround ing the comedian blew up in his face, but is it only his fault? Or did fans disappoint themselves by giving into the charms of just an other wife guy?

Mulaney’s only job when on stage is to get fans to laugh. It’s true that he created this persona for himself, but fans continued enforcing it on their own terms as well, long after finishing a comedy special of Mulaney’s. Romanticiz ing a relationship one is not a part of is as good of an example of a parasocial relationship as any. The marriage of Tendler and Mulaney could have never ended without a slew of people being also deeply

upset by it, regardless of how or why it happened.

While the root of the problem among all this is Mulaney’s fa cade, leading to fans’ unneces sary investment in things that do not concern them personally, the whole situation calls for the de molition of the wife guy persona. One might ask after being told the definition of it: Isn’t that just a husband? This reveals the groundlevel standards that straight men are expected to comply with in relationships. There should not be any reason for people to praise a man they don’t know for saying he loves his wife in the first place. But unfortunately, the way society views men and women’s responsi bilities in heterosexual relationships often leaves the woman with the role of providing affection and flattery. This props up the men who are sim ply willing to say “I love my wife” in public to be seen as a unicorn.

Whether it is Ned Fulmer talking about his wife in the midst of bak ing a cake without a recipe or John Mulaney’s inability of finishing a stand-up show without professing his love for his 5 foot wife and their famed dog Petunia, we have to quit tricking ourselves into thinking that these random guys are at the peak of romance. Furthermore, they should stop centering their relation ships in their career if they don’t want to be at the forefront of the backlash. Especially if they know it is only a matter of time before it emerges that these personas may have been nothing but overcom pensation for something that they should feel guilty about.

Seniors Explore the World of Businesses and Beverages

By SOFIA DONOHUE DIGITAL PRODUCER

In 2020, Duncan Feldman, FCRH ’23, and Zheng Zhuang, GSB ’23, founded their own tea company. During their freshman year, roommates Feldman and Zhuang bonded over their pas sion for tea, and the pair’s love for tea became the foundation of the Mullein Tea Company.

“Our mantra is ‘the leaves tell the story.’ We want our tea to bring people together,” said Zhuang.

Feldman and Zhuang first had the idea for Mullein Tea Company during quarantine in spring 2020.

“The beginning of the idea came from him [Feldman] wanting to build me a website. He brought up the idea of tea and something just clicked,” said Zhuang.

Once COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, Feldman and Zhuang met up in-person to begin de signing prototypes. The goal was to create tea bags which would make the tea-making pro cess easier and less messy. The final result was a metal sachet designed to go over the cup and a vacuum-sealed package which would allow the loose-leaf tea to last longer. Dubbed “Mullein Tea Pods,” the pods hold full tea leaves, as opposed to ground

tea. Each pod makes three to five cups of tea.

Mullein Tea Pods are portable and can easily fit into a bag or pocket unlike products like tea pyramids, which are sold in un protected packaging. Additional ly, loose leaf tea has more flavor than traditional tea bags. With Mullein Tea Pods, all you need to make a cup of tea is hot water and a cup.

“This combines all the pro cesses to make loose leaf tea in one step; this is the first time you can drink loose leaf tea in one disposable step,” noted Feldman.

Once the prototype was final ized, Feldman and Zhuang sent the idea to companies so that profes sionals could model the prototype.

However, COVID-19 present ed unique challenges. When the pair were quarantined in differ ent states, the distance between them made communication dif ficult. Additionally, because the company’s tea is sourced direct ly from the tea fields of China, Feldman and Zhuang had to stay in constant contact with their Chinese distributors throughout the process.

“Because of COVID, we couldn’t always contact them. Supply chains were messed up, we’d have to call them during

crazy hours, etc.,” said Zhuang.

Despite the challenges which arose due to COVID-19, the en trepreneurs persevered. Mullein Tea Company is on Amazon and it offers a variety of tea fla vors such as peachy oolong, jasmine java and berry berry tea. In the future, the compa ny plans to donate a percent age of their profit to aid vari ous causes such as Ethical Tea Partnership, an organization which works to better the lives and incomes of tea workers, farmers and their families.

Although both Feldman and Zhuang are graduating this spring, they plan to continue building their company postgraduation. The pair have re cently hired five interns, all Fordham students. Additionally, they plan to eventually represent teas from Thailand and India as well as China and possibly open storefronts in the future.

“Being an entrepreneur is about creating. Ever since I was a little kid I liked building Legos, playing with clay, so this is like an adult version. You’re

molding, you’re shaping and you’re having so much fun do ing it,” said Zhuang.

Feldman and Zhuang’s dif ferent backgrounds and culture are what initially brought them together and they hope that their tea products will also bring people together.

“A part of our main mission is the fact that tea holds cul tures behind it. We want to con nect the world through those cultures and show what they can do when they’re brought together,” said Feldman.

Feldman and Zhuang began a joint venture in freshman year, which has grown into a successful tea company.

Who’s That Kid? | Duncan Feldman, FCRH ’23 & Zheng Zhuang, GSB ’23

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

Ned Fulmer pinned his online persona on his wife, then cheated on her.

Whales Make a Splash Off the Coast of Queens

By CLAIRE KRIEGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Oct. 8, the Outdoors Club sponsored the first ever trip to Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn for a whale watching excursion. So at 10 a.m., 13 other students and I board ed the Ram Van and commuted down to Pier 3 to board an Ameri can Princess Cruises ferry and em bark on a boat ride with the hopes of catching a glimpse of a whale.

The guide of the expedition ex plained that the waters of the North Atlantic Ocean near New York have been becoming increasingly cleaner in the past few years, lead ing to an increase in the amount of whales residing in the Brooklyn harbor. They reside in this area of the ocean while making their grad ual trip to their wintering grounds further South. The usual whale watching season spans from April to November, but some tours run as late as December.

The group of students truly lucked out for the day chosen to go whale watching. Bright and sunny with minimal clouds, it was the per fect day to spend, although bundled up, out on the waters of Jamaica Bay. After departing from the pier around noon, the boat began travel ing out onto the open waters. Not even in an hour into the trip, the first

two whales were spotted traveling together parallel to the boat. Ev eryone onboard rushed to the back left side of the boat, cameras and phones ready to capture any image of the Humpback whales that they could get.

After the first glimpse of them, the guide explained that it could be anywhere from three to thirty min utes before the whales decided to come back up for air. Luckily, we did not have to wait long. After a few minutes the whales reappeared and we were able to watch and they puffed sprays of water from their

blowholes and disappeared back into the depths. The boat followed the two whales for around 30 min utes before they decided to leave the pair and try to spot another whale further out.

After around an hour passed, a third whale was spotted on the right side of the boat. We all watched enraptured as the whale sporadi cally appeared out of the water. And when the whale’s tail breached and we caught a glimpse of the fluke (the black and white pattern on its stomach) we all collectively cheered in delight at being able to witness it.

I approached the trip apprehensive about seeing any whales and not quite sure if I wanted to commit to a whole day to the Outdoors Club activity. I had never been whale watching and did not know if you ever actually spotted any whales when embarking out onto the wa ter. But I was delighted to leave the trip having seen three whales – the first three I have ever seen.

When I spoke to Kate Laboda, FCRH ’24, the Logistics Coordinator of the Outdoors Club, she explained that this trip was planned to happen last year. However, unlike the

perfect weather conditions that we had on Saturday, they had to cancel due to bad weather. Laboda said, “We decided to do this trip because we want a variety of outdoor activities and experiences for the club.” She also is a personal avid fan of whales and advocated for this trip and was just as excited as the rest of us to be able to see whales so close.

This is not the only fun excursion the Outdoors Club is doing – they have a plethora of activities com ing up this year. For the fall season, there will be hikes, a catacombs trip, a walk on the highline and even apple picking coming up soon. The club tries to both embrace the nature in the city but also travel outside of New York City to get a wide variety of different outdoor experiences.

The Outdoors Club will also have weekly rock climbing that anyone can join even if you have never rock climbed before. Once it snows, they plan on having ski and snowboard trips, along with some ice skating adventures.

Be sure to get out of your com fort zone this year and try one of the club’s many activities. You can find them on Instagram or email to be on their mailing list at outdoorsclub@fordham.edu so you don’t miss out on any of the exciting opportunities in store.

What’s so Appealing About “Bookstagram”?

By ELENI BONIKOS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

It was around the peak of the pandemic – when every one was buying New Yorker puzzles and brushing up on their banana bread baking skills – that I had my epiphany. I opened the Instagram app and was greeted by the usual posts that litter my feed, but instead of my usual scrolling, I caught myself searching for the cou ple of book blogging accounts I followed to see if they had shared anything new. Finally, I saw one of them had posted a book review on “Frankenstein.”

It didn’t matter that the caption neared a mile in length, because I enjoyed every sentence of it. I enjoyed the tantalizing cozi ness of the picture, and even the featured battered book trig gered butterflies in my heart. It was the simple joy of having read something I connected with. Something with passion and substance rather than your typical captions that strive for quick cleverness. So with that rare intrepid feeling I began to chisel away at creating my own page.

I soon came to realize what most appealed to me about the environment of “bookstagram.”

Besides being obnoxiously bom barded with numerous book rec ommendations in the best way possible – I became immersed in the world of literature in the way I had craved. Sure, many blogs enjoy ranting, worshiping, demolishing and devouring any

innocent book they’ve read, but, more than that, it’s about access to diverse opinions. It’s not that one simply opens their Instagram to view a surge of book recommendations, it’s a way to expand your horizon not only in literature, but also be introduced to people from around the world who hold differing views from yourself.

Overall it’s a more educational experience than simply scroll ing through a social media plat form. It’s away to broaden your outlook on different cultures, writers and genres. My TBR (to be read) list has grown in length and confidence, but so has my knowledge on numer ous writers – both their lives and works – increased as well.

While it’s true that people go on social media for varying reasons it can be agreed that, to a certain degree, it is to briefly escape the world you are in. When you open social me dia – whether it is out of habit, boredom or sheer awkwardness – you are looking for an escape. Within the confines of a book community you are allowed

both a form of escapism and education. A statistic from 2019 reports that the “booksta gram” tag has been used over 35 million times and that some bloggers have over 100,000 followings.These numbers will only increase the more people realize books are not only men tally invigorating but visually beautiful. The true appeal of “bookstagram” is the dazzling display of diversity in both thought and representation of varying authors. There is also no denying the comfort one re ceives from the content of pale pastel stationary, mugs of tea, annotated chapters and pictur esque pastries.

When I first started my own page, it allowed me some se renity in a time of chaos. I soon learned that what other pages were doing for me, I was in turn doing for them. Over a couple of months I had re ceived over 57,000 likes on one of my posts. I was touched at the amount of people who were interested in my taste in litera ture. Through this medium of Instagram I’ve been able to discuss writers I admire with women from the U.K., Spain, Australia and Scotland. We recommend books to one an other while bonding over our love for the same stories. We view our pages as outlets where one has the freedom to rant and obsess over books as much as one desires. The appeal of the “bookstagram” phenomenon stems from education, diverse lit erature, comforting aesthetics and escapism through reading.

COURTESY

“Bookstagram” took social media by storm during the pandemic, c reating a community for all book lovers.

COURTESY OF CLAIRE KRIEGER/THE FORDHAM RAM

This past Saturday, the Outdoors Club traveled to Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn to go whale watching.

NYFF Brings Cinema to Lincoln Center and Beyond

By CALEB STINE

The 60th Annual New York Film Festival (NYFF) kicked off Sept. 30 and showcases an array of films from across the globe, welcoming new filmmakers to the prestigious festival along with familiar faces.

As most festival events are taking place at Lincoln Center, NYFF is holding events in all five boroughs. While Manhattan plays host to a second venue in the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, the Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Alamo Drafthouse in Staten Island are all included in festival proceedings this year.

NYFF’s “Main Slate,” one of five sections of the festival since 2020, includes 32 films from more than a dozen nations in 2022. The “Main Slate” acts as the staple program of the festival, while “Talks,” “Currents,” “Revivals” and “Spotlight” are also included in this year’s programming.

Headlining this portion of the festival is Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise.” The film made its world premiere at Lincoln Center on Sept. 30. An adaptation of Don DeLillo’s dystopian novel, the cast includes Greta Gerwig, Adam Driver and Don Cheadle.

The former two are frequent collaborators with Baumbach, as Driver has featured in four of Baumbach’s films prior to “White Noise” and Gerwig has appeared

in three. The two each appeared in Baumbach’s “Frances Ha,” which debuted during the 50th NYFF in 2012.

Participating in NYFF’s “Talks” portion at Lincoln Center, Noah Baumbach said in regards to cast ing such familiar faces, “I looked at it, in a sense, especially in re gards to Greta and Adam … like a repertory company and we’re now doing this play.”

Brooklyn-born Baumbach often produces films studying famil ial dynamics, and while “White Noise” is no different in that re gard, it is a departure from his past work in other ways.

Baumbach’s portfolio has been almost exclusively realistic fic tion, and this most recent endeav or adds a new element of dystopi an fantasy that Baumbach has not explored as directly in his films until now. “White Noise” is also Baumbach’s first book-to-film ad aptation done independently (he co-wrote “Fantastic Mr. Fox” with Wes Anderson in 2009).

Crime thriller “Decision to Leave” from Korean maverick Park Chan-wook opens at Lincoln Center on Oct. 19. While the premiere of the film was held in April during the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where director Park took home the Best Director award. Many critics are consid ering this the greatest film of the year thus far; The Guardian calls it a “gorgeously and grippingly made picture.”

South Korea’s official entry into the 95th Academy Awards, “Decision to Leave” currently sits at an 85 out of 100 rating

on the critic website, Metacritic. Adding to the allure of NYFF’s “Main Slate” are Joanna Hogg’s, “The Eternal Daughter” and Paul Schrader’s, “Master Gardener.” Both directors participated in “Talks” during the festival, with Schrader discussing his film on Oct. 1 and Hogg discussing her work on Oct. 9.

Hogg, known best for 2019’s “The Souvenir,” paints a mysteri ous picture of the English coun tryside in this drama starring Tilda Swinton. Exploring ideas of artis tic creation and parent-daughter relationships, the film is produced by famed indie company A24 and opened at the Venice Film Festival last month.

“The Eternal Daughter” will play at Lincoln Center on Oct. 16, after hosting talks by both Swinton and Hogg on Oct. 10 and 11.

“Master Gardener” made its North American premiere at Lincoln Center on Oct. 1, and fea tures acting veterans Sigourney Weaver and Joel Edgerton por traying an aristocrat and gardener, respectively. Elements of drama and crime are present in this film which also debuted in Venice.

“Currents,” designed to be a “more complete picture of con temporary cinema with an em phasis on new and innovative forms and voices” according to the festival, includes feature films and shorts in 2022. Virtually all of them are submissions from out side the United States, including “Coma” from France and “Dry Ground Burning” from Brazil.

“Revivals” contains restorations of past work from acclaimed

filmmakers past and present. This year’s slate includes a restored version of Claire Denis’ “No Fear No Die” in 4K. Denis, whose own film “Stars at Noon” made its North American premiere on Oct. 2 at NYFF, is known for such acclaimed works “High Life” and “Beau Travail.” Denis participated in a Q&A after the premiere at Lincoln Center.

Late Taiwanese director Edward Yang had his film, “A Confucian Confusion” restored through a grant from his widow.

One of the standouts from NYFF’s “Spotlight” includes Luca Guadagnino’s “Bones and All” starring Timothée Chalamet, which opened for NYFF this past Tuesday. “Bones” sets a love story against the backdrop of rural Virginia and features newcomer Taylor Russell oppo site Chalamet, along with Mark Rylance, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny.

“Till,” not as much explores the tragic story of Emmett Till, as it does the heartbreak and anger of

his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, played by Danielle Deadwyler. Di rected by “Clemency” filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu, “Till” made its world premiere at NYFF, and has since opened with a perfect 100 score on Rotten Tomatoes, despite a 70 on Metacritic.

Perhaps the biggest film mak ing its world premiere at NYFF during the festival’s final week is the much-anticipated “She Said” starring Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, as well as Fordham alum Patricia Clarkson. The film tells the tale of The New York Times reporters, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey who were instru mental in uncovering decades of sexual abuse in Hollywood. On Thursday, Oct. 13, the film pre mieres with a Q&A featuring director Maria Schrader, along with Mulligan, Kazan, Kantor and Twohey.

The festival concludes this coming Sunday with a full day of films, including encore screen ings of “Bones and All,” “She Said” and “White Noise.”

Lorde Provides Solace through Sound

By SAM MINEAR ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

“I’m 19 and I’m on fire,” sings Lorde, born Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor, author and art ist behind her sophomore album “Melodrama.”

The “Royals” singer became much of a celebrity recluse af ter the release of her criticallyacclaimed debut “Pure Heroine,” disillusioned by fame and her sud den popularity. When she returned to the spotlight almost five years later, she released “Melodrama,” an album exploring coming-ofage themes such as heartbreak, es capism and the transition between adolescence and adulthood.

I have been a fan of Lorde since her first album was released when I was 10, and became deeply at tached to her lyricism and heartfelt songwriting. As I grew into my teenagehood, “Pure Heroine” held my hand: She perfectly encapsu lated the feelings of loneliness and isolation I was experiencing in middle and high school, and my general inability to “fit in.”

Enter “Melodrama” when I was almost 15 and, initially, I wasn’t a fan. I struggled to relate to the themes, and the Jack Antonoff production style was something I was unfamiliar with and reluctant

to assimilate to. For years I never listened to “Melodrama,” clutch ing its timeless predecessor with both hands close to my chest.

Then, the COVID-19 pan demic hit. I was supposed to go to college, but my years of work felt moot in the face of a global shutdown and online school. I had grown so much in my last year of high school: I had found a solid friend group, commit ted to a school I thought I’d like and was finally taking classes I enjoyed. But then I was stuck at home, in the same bedroom I lis tened to “Pure Heroine” in for the first time, and I felt 10 years old all over again. I longed to escape and discover something new, even though I didn’t know what it was and I couldn’t put a name to it; all I wanted was to be someone and somewhere different.

I listened to Lorde’s sophomore album all the way through for another time while sitting on my bedroom floor and connected to it in a way I never had before. Sud denly, it was “Melodrama” that was holding me close as I worked through the difficult emotions of becoming an adult and leaving the only city I have ever called home to come to New York.

It has helped me during my de bilitating freshman year of college that I hated so much (“When you

see me, will you say I’ve changed? / I ride the subway, read the signs / I let the seasons change my mind”) to working through strange heart breaks and almost-lovers gone

awry (“‘Cause I remember the rush, when forever was us / Before all of the winds of regret and mis trust / Now we sit in the car and our love is a ghost”). Of course,

I can’t forget how “Liability” ba sically wrote the rulebook on the anxious-attachment style (“The truth is I am a toy that people enjoy / ’til all of the tricks don’t work anymore / And then they are bored of me”).

If I could pick one no-skip al bum from my library, it would undoubtedly be “Melodrama.” It is — in my eyes — a required listen for every almost-19-yearold that feels like they’re stum bling through life, clinging to the virtues of childhood as the threat of adulthood looms up ahead. It can be so easy to look back on life and think that it will never be as good, or at least any better, than it was before. I know I felt that way when I realized I had uprooted my life to pursue a so-called useless degree for thousands of dollars of debt; I would never say I was happier at home, but I certainly felt much more comfortable.

Ultimately, that is what Lorde is writing about: that feel ing of being ripped from the ground and left to plant your self somewhere else, some where new, a place filled with unfamiliarity. Discomfort is the byproduct of growth, Lorde is saying. It can only make us better.

Or, in “Melodrama”-speak: “But you’re not what you thought you were / Leave.”

The NYFF kicked off on Sept. 30 with a diverse array of films.

COURTESY

Men’s Soccer Ties Davidson, Falters Against St. Louis Cross Country Dominates Metropolitan Championship

By COLIN LOUGHRAN

After weeks of training and sev eral “tune up” events, Fordham Cross Country ran their way to the “top of the heap” at last weekend’s Metropolitan Championship. Both the men’s and women’s teams placed first in their respective fields thanks to strong individual performances and even stronger team grit.

The women were led by sopho more Caroline McDonagh. The sophomore placed second and ran the 5K Van Cortlandt Park course in a time of 19:25.6. The Rams also had four other runners place in the top 11. Sophomore Madeleine Ryan finished seventh with a time of 20:16.8, while se nior Alexandra Thomas ran a time of 20:18.2 and grabbed the eighth slot. Seniors Nathania Tan and Taylor Mascetta were 10th and 11th with times of 20:25.0 and 20:30.7, respectively. The win marks the fourth time in six years that the Fordham women have taken home the Metropolitan Championship. It is also the second time in school

history that the Rams have won the event in back-to-back seasons.

The men received a strong per formance from sophomore Nathan Bezuneh. The Virginia product ran the 8K course in a time of 26:35.9 and placed first overall. Fellow sophomore Rodolfo Sanchez was not far behind. He clocked in at 26:39.1 and finished second.

Fordham also had four runners place in the top ten. Graduate stu dent Christopher Strzelinski ran a time of 27:10.9 and took fourth place in the event. Freshman Nicolas Grabarz placed sixth with a time of 27:15.2. Senior Ryan Fahey claimed eighth thanks to a final time of 28:04.1, and freshman Ben Borchers stole tenth with a time of 28:23.0. The men’s victory this year marks the fifth title in the last eight Metropolitan Championships.

Cross Country will look to rep licate their championship perfor mance on Oct. 14 when they par ticipate in the ECAC/IC4A Cross Country Championship at the famil iar confines of Van Cortlandt Park.

SPORTS By MADDIE BIMONTE ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

After a tough week of matchups, Fordham Men’s Soccer gets a muchneeded break after tying Davidson College and losing in Atlantic 10 play for the first time this season against St. Louis University.

Starting off, the Rams traveled down to Davidson, N.C. for yet another A-10 contest. Davidson going into the match was 4-6-1, and in the first half of the match proved to be absolutely dominant compared to the Rams.

Unbeaten in their last four games at home, the Wildcats struck early in the third minute of play. On a free kick from freshman Jack Brown, the ball was free and fresh man Alonzo Clarke was ready for action, netting his first career goal.

Davidson was not done there, as they opened up the second half in the 53rd minute scoring goal number two. The play started with junior Luke Bryant getting the ball to the foot of sophomore Vincent Bennage. The 2021 A-10 All-Rookie selection hit that shot into the upper right corner, doubling Davidson’s advantage.

About 11 minutes later, the Rams bounced back with a goal of their own. Junior Florian Deletioglu start ed things off by passing the ball to graduate student Timo Hummrich. Next, Hummrich was able to find se nior Savvas Christoforou, who was sitting right around the penalty spot and knocked the ball past the keeper. This was the senior’s first career goal as a Ram.

and one red card, dished out to Bryant late in the game. Fordham was able to outshoot the Wildcats 18-14, showcasing some impres sive offense.

In net, Fordham’s senior goal keeper Callum James was on point in just his second start of the sea son. He made six saves while his opponent Giacomo Piccardo re corded five saves after missing the previous five games.

Then, the Rams turned their attention to St. Louis, who they squared off against back at Jack Coffey Field in the Bronx.

of sophomore Grady Easton, who whipped it past James for a 2-0 lead.

The Rams pushed back in the 88th minute to ensure they would not be shut out at home. Graduate student Daniel Espeleta flicked the ball forward to freshman for ward Nathan Simes, who then connected with Deletioglu. He went on a short breakaway, scor ing a left-footed shot to cut the lead in half.

Athletes of the Week

After a week that saw the Fordham Volleyball team get back on track with two key victories, Zoe Talabong was named Atlantic 10 Co-Rookie of the Week after a series of strong perfor mances. Across three matches this week, one against the University of Rhode Island and two against Virginia Commonwealth University, Talabong averaged an impressive 3.0 digs and 2.54 kills per set.

But the Rams were determined to tie the game. In the 77th minute, they got their chance. Fordham was awarded a penalty kick when freshman Bennett Leitner went down in the box. It was Hummrich who was tasked with getting the Rams the goal. He delivered, scor ing his second goal of the season to level the match.

Neither team was able to move past the tie even as multiple fouls occurred. Both sides played scrap py with a total of five yellow cards

These two teams have quite a bit of history as the Billikens eliminated the Rams from the A-10 Championship semifinals last season in a penalty shootout after double overtime. St. Louis was 2-1-1 in the A-10 conference going into this game.

Once again, the Rams conceded a goal before they netted their first of the game. In the 11th minute, freshman CJ Coppola scored a rebound after his teammate John Klein’s shot missed. This marked Coppola’s third goal in three games and his fourth of the season.

The ultimate game decider came way later into the match in the 72nd minute. St. Louis’s redshirt sopho more Christian Buendia lobbed the ball into the box, finding the head

While the Rams fought to add yet another tie to their record this season, they fell to the Billikens 2-1. This snaps Fordham’s 10 match unbeaten streak, after coming back in three straight contests to tie their opponents.

St. Louis was a particularly phys ical team for the Rams to face, col lecting 26 fouls over the match, to Fordham’s much cleaner five fouls. While Fordham dropped the contest, they did manage to out shoot the Billikens 6-5 for shots on goal.

Looking to turn it back around, the Rams are back in action on Oct. 15 in Philadelphia for an matchup against St. Joseph’s University. The Hawks are cur rently 2-4-6 on the year, and 1-1-3 in the A-10 conference. The game is set for a 5 p.m. start and can be livestreamed on ESPN+.

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Zoe Talabong Freshman

Parrella totaled 12 goals over four games this past weekend as Fordham Water Polo swept the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference crossover. Parrella now has 46 goals on the season which leads all Fordham players. He had 57 goals all of last season and is well on his way to sur passing that total.

Each week, The Fordham Ram’s Sports section honors two athletes for their on-field performances

their “Athletes of the Week.”

Women’s

AWAY Volleyball

Men’s

Men’s Soccer

Women’s

Water Polo

The

their

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Women’s Soccer Stumbles Against La Salle

By MICHAEL HERNANDEZ ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR EMERITUS

Over the weekend, Fordham Women’s Soccer continued their season with another home game in the Bronx where they faced La Salle University in an Atlantic 10 Conference match.

Heading into this game, the Rams’ conference record was an impressive 3-1-1. Fordham struggled early in the season in non-conference play, dropping six of their first seven matches to begin the season. However, six of these games were played on the road, including tough mat ches against Dartmouth College, Yale University and Quinnipiac University. Since A-10 play began, the Rams have experienced much more success, picking up big wins against St. Bonaventure Universi ty, George Mason University and the University of Rhode Island.

For the first 30 minutes of the game against La Salle, things were deadlocked with both sides unable to provide the opening goal. Howe ver, shortly after, La Salle took firm control with three goals scored in a seven-minute span: with one in the 34th minute, one in the 38th

minute and the final goal in the 41st minute. Each goal scored by Kelli McGroarty, who was able to secure the hat-trick and give La Salle a stronghold in the match. McGroarty delivered her fourth, fifth and sixth goals of the season to go along with four assists.

In the second half, Fordham was able to claw one back in the 79th minute via senior forward Kristen Cocozza. Junior midfielder Alexandra Taylor passed the ball to Cocozza, who shot the ball perfect ly into the top right corner of the net from 18 yards out to make it 3-1. This was her team leading fourth goal of the season. After

90 minutes, the final whistle blew with La Salle beating Fordham 3-1.

After this defeat, Fordham’s overall record is 4-8-1 with their conference record slightly faltering to 3-2-1. Fordham now faces two games in the next week. The Rams will hit the road to North Carolina to face Davidson College before re turning to Jack Coffey Field here in the Bronx to square off with Vir ginia Commonwealth University (VCU) for Fordham’s Senior Day. The Davidson match is this Thurs day at 7 p.m. and the VCU game this Sunday at 1 p.m. Both matches can be streamed live on ESPN+.

Tagovailoa Injury Should Serve as a Reminder for the NFL

By JOE MASTERS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Thursday Night Football, in front of a raucous Paycor Stadium crowd, Miami Dolphins quarter back Tua Tagovailoa silenced the nearly 65,000 fans in Cincinnati and millions watching at home. However, it wasn’t for a dazzling touchdown throw or a miraculous run. Rather, it was because the third-year quarterback had just been slammed to the ground and knocked unconscious. Tagovailoa, with his eyes shut and fingers fro zen in an abnormal position, wasn’t moving. As players from both teams surrounded, Tagovailoa was carted off the field strapped to a stretcher. Later he was transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation.

Typically, scary head injuries are viewed by fans and players alike as just an unfortunate side ef fect of the violence of the nature of the game. The case of Tagovailoa, however, is much different. Just that previous Sunday, CBS cam eras cut to the Dolphins quarter back getting thrown to the ground, unsteadily rising to feet and stum bling around, then wobbling and collapsing before his teammates came to his aid. Miraculously, Tagovailoa returned to the game and ended up leading his team to a convincing victory against a highly touted Buffalo Bills team.

When asked post-game about the injury, which was assumed to be a concussion, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel clarified that rather it was an injury to his back, not head, that forced Tua to leave the game.

“His legs got wobbly because his back was loose. As he described it, his lower back was like gumby,” McDaniel said.

Many around the league, how ever, were not buying this narrative.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter immediately

tweeted out that the NFLPA would be initiating a review of the league’s concussion protocols. Nonetheless, Tagovailoa was still able to suit up for a game just four days after the incident. These various fac tors in addition to the gruesome nature of Tagovailoa’s subsequent injury against the Bengals put the competitive aspect of the game on pause, instead shining a light on the flaws in the NFL’s concussion protocol for its players.

Shortly after he was stretch ered off the field, the NFLPA an nounced it would be investigat ing the handling of Tagovailoa’s health and the NFL protocols. It didn’t take long for those around the game to share their thoughts on the matter. Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who had just faced Tagovailoa weeks prior, was at a loss for words from the situation.

“I’ve been coaching for 40 years now in college and the NFL — almost 40, not quite — and I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Harbaugh. “A lot of times, players want to play. They want to go out there, and they want to play, and sometimes you just have to tell them, ‘No.’ You have to say, ‘No.’”

Players around the league rushed to social media to share their concern, as well as their out rage with the fact Tagovailoa was even in the game to begin with.

“It was no reason that man should of been in the game. SMH. Protect yourself because some

people only see you as a foot ball player,” Patriots linebacker Matthew Judon said on Twitter.

Former player and current Fox Sports analyst Emmanuel Acho also shared his anger with the league and its protocols.

“Truth be told, Tua should probably never have been play ing. He displayed neurological trauma last week, we disregarded it, labeled it a ‘back injury’ & let him back in the game. Now, the whole world watch as he lay on the field helpless. When will we put player safety FIRST!” Acho said.

In response, the NFLPA fired the independent neurological ex pert who cleared Tagovailoa to return in the Bills game. This past Friday, ahead of the next slate of NFL games, the NFLPA an nounced updated protocols that would immediately remove any player from the rest of the game who displayed “abnormal balance, stability or motor coordination.” Such guidelines, if they had been in place, would have kept Tago vailoa out of the Bills game and likely prevented the further dam age that occurred.

For the NFL, which is an en tertainment business, the health of their players should be at the forefront of their focus. With these new protocols, the NFLPA and NFL are hoping that the possible career ending and life altering injuries such as the one that Tagovailoa sustained are re moved from the game entirely.

Varsity Scores & Stats

Football Fordham 40

Lehigh 28

Rowing

Head of the Housitonic NTS (No Team Scoring)

Women’s Soccer

Fordham 2 La Salle 2

Men’s Soccer

Fordham 2 Davidson

Fordham 2 St. Louis 1

Men’s Cross Country Metropolitan Championship 1st/7 teams

Women’s Cross Country Metropolian Championship 1st/6 teams

Volleyball

Fordham

Rhode Island

Fordham

Fordham

Water Polo

Fordham

McKendree

Fordham

Fordham

Fordham

Mercyhurst

–Compiled by Maddie Bimonte

News & Notes

Women’s Softball Honored at Mets Game

Fordham Softball was honored at the New York Mets regular season finale after winning their ninth Atlantic 10 Champion ship alongside President Tania Tetlow and Athletic Director Ed Kull. Tetlow delivered the honorary first pitch while the softball team received a warm round of applause from Mets fans.

Fordham Adds New Assistant AD for Compliance

Fordham’s Athletic Department is adding another person to their staff, this time in the form of Ryan Harkins who now holds the position of Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance. Harkins comes off being the former Director of Men’s Basketball Opera tions at Quinnipiac University. He also served on staff at Villanova University and Siena College.

Rowing Hits the Water for the First Time this Fall

By ANDREW FALDUTO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Fordham Rowing made their return to the river on Saturday, Oct. 8, in the Head of the Housa tonic event in Shelton, Conn. to usher in the new rowing season. The race, held at Indian Well State Park, marks the first test for the team as they head into the 202223 season. The regatta featured seven other schools in the Wo men’s Collegiate Eight and six ot her schools in the Women’s Open Four+, both of which put forth a multitude of competitive boats in each event.

In the Four+, Fordham fielded five boats in the 4,350 meter race.

Out of the 17 boats in the race, Fordham’s premier boat placed second with a time of 18:30.4.

Four out of Fordham’s five entries finished within the top seven at the race, showing consistent suc cess across all boats. The Varsity Eight did not find quite as much success, but battled through the difficult and windy conditions of

the river to finish a respectable 17th out of 28 with a time of 17:14.9. This is a slight improvement from last year’s appearance, when the boat placed 17th out of a smaller field of 25 boats. The Fordham B boat finished in 25th, the Fordham C boat right behind in 26th and the Fordham D in 28th.

This race also marked the return of head coach Rebecca Gronsdahl, who stepped into the role during the summer of 2021. Considering the team’s improved performance from Gronsdahl’s first Housatonic outing, she seems to be taking the team in a positive direction. This was the first time the team has had a returning head coach in two years, meaning the group finally seems to have found some much desired stability and hopes to foster consistent progress as the season moves forward.

With the first major event of the fall behind them, Fordham looks ahead to the Head of the Charles, one of the most renowned regattas of the season, in Cambridge, Mass. The race will be held on Oct. 21.

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Coaches, players, trainers and officials hover around Tua Tagovailoa

Water Polo Dominates at MAWPC Crossover

By LOU ORLANDO STAFF WRITER

Fordham Water Polo flexed their muscles at the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Crossover, sweeping the weekend and outscoring their opponents 83-28. Averaging more than 20 points over the course of four games, Fordham’s offense once again proved itself to be an un stoppable force.

The MAWPC Crossover served as Fordham’s final tournament of the regular season, and the only one to solely feature con ference teams. Fordham was 4-0 in conference games head ing into the tournament and were coming off a 14-9 victory last Thursday over Wagner Col lege, the #5 ranked team in the MAWPC.

The opening game of the tournament was a sign of things to come as the Rams defeated McKendree University 25-3 to kick off play on Saturday. The Rams tallied 15 goals in the first half alone, boosted by an impressive 10-goal second quarter. Four Rams boasted hat tricks in the game, with sopho mores George Papanikolaou and Nacho Ariste tallying three goals and two assists while grad trans fer Paul Pittion and sophomore Mark Katsev each notched three goals and an assist. Sophomore goaltenders Thomas Lercari and Riccardo Di Giuseppe both saw

time in the blowout victory.

The Rams followed that up with a 17-14 victory over Salem University later that day in what ended up be ing the closest match of the week end. Sophomore Jacopo Parrella led the way for Fordham, scor ing five goals while sophomore transfer Luca Silvestri had him self a six point day behind three goals and three assists. Junior Christos Loupakis also notched a hat trick and sophomore Lucas Nieto Jasny posted two goals and an assist. Lercari made 14 saves in net as Fordham swept the sea son series against Salem.

Sunday’s first game would result in another season series sweep as the Rams took on

Gannon University. Fordham had previously played them in their season opening tourna ment, scoring 28 goals, a num ber that hadn’t been reached by the Rams since 1970. While they couldn’t quite replicate their record setting performance, Fordham still took care of busi ness, defeating Gannon 18-9. This time around, five Rams netted hat tricks. Parrella and Papanikolaou were the stars of the show, each tallying seven points with identical stat lines of three goals and four assists. Graduate student Nir Gross, freshman Balazs Berenyi and Nieto Jasny accounted for the other three hat tricks while Lercari

was excellent once again, making 13 saves.

Fordham capped off their week end with, you guessed it, another dominant victory, defeating Mercyhurst University 23-2.

Parrella and freshman Jagger McMannis each had four mark ers as the Rams dominated on both sides of the ball.

This weekend was a ridiculous showing for a Fordham offense loaded with weapons. Boasting 14 hat tricks over the span of just four games, the Rams are an of fensive juggernaut when they’re at their best. Parrella had an im pressive weekend, notching 12 goals. He now has four games with at least four or more goals

scored, the most on the team. His 46 goals leads Fordham and puts him on pace for 70 goals this season after he tallied 56 in his freshman year.

Fordham improves to 12-6 overall and 8-0 in conference play. Dating back to last sea son, Fordham is 22-1 against conference opponents.

Coming into the weekend ranked #18 in the nation, their lowest national ranking dat ing back to last year, Fordham made four statement wins over conference opponents. Hav ing been ranked the #1 team in the MAWPC per the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) conference polls since the start of the season, they are no doubt the team to beat moving for ward. They’ll be tested this week end with a Saturday conference double header at home against George Washington University and John Hopkins University.

George Washington stands out in particular as the #2 ranked team in the MAWPC and just one point behind Fordham in the CWPA polls. GW is 15-1 and riding a 15 game win ning streak with their only loss coming in their season opener to #11 Princeton University. Fordham has dominated con ference play so far this season, but they’ll face their toughest task against a George Washing ton team that looks to challenge them for the MAWPC throne.

Student Athlete Column: The Competition Within

By MARY KATHRYN UNDERWOOD CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The worst feeling that any runner can have is getting on the starting line and knowing that you’ve already lost. Al though you are confident in the countless hours of training and preparation you have put in to equip yourself for rac ing, doubt looms and sweeps all this hard work away like it is all nothing. Then, you unintentionally ask yourself the most challenging question right before the gun goes off: What if I’m not good enough?

That’s what racing with anx iety sounds like.

I never thought my anxiety would get so extreme that it would affect me in competi tion. It had always been a lingering, foreboding shadow that followed me around at all times. No matter how fre quently the negative thoughts and the constant fears infil trated my mind, I was always able to subside them. I could push these thoughts away be cause they only existed in my head — their lack of effect on my physical body allowed me to pretend that they were imag inary figments of some dark corner of my brain. That was all until they became somatic.

Last winter, I suffered from a terrifying public anxiety attack. I’m not ashamed to talk about it, as no one else should be. I was

hyperventilating for 30 minutes, trying to catch just one singu lar breath, but they all came out choppy. I couldn’t think or see straight, as if I’d been drugged, and all I wanted was to regain control of my mind. It left me with a pit in my stomach that I’m not sure I had ever felt before, one that had lasting repercussions.

I noticed its effects on my running as soon as the follow ing week. It was right before Christmas break, and I had to leave campus a few days early to go to my mom’s wedding in Colorado.

Because I was leaving early, I had to do our second workout

of the week alone. I remember that the workout was 12 x 400 at a decent pace with little rest — something that by no means was going to be easy but was something that should have felt manageable. I recall that my body felt great going into the workout but that my mind seemed all over the place and that I had a dull headache. I felt fine at the beginning, but com pletely fell apart about a third of the way through the workout. My throat started closing up in a way completely different from my asthma, and my legs had a strange numb, detached feeling. It felt like my body was shutting

down on me in a way similar to the week before until it eventual ly just stopped altogether. I im mediately went outside and just sat there in the cold, thinking about how mad I was at myself.

I knew that whatever was going on wasn’t my fault, but I was so furious at my inability to control it.

While the severity of my anxi ety decreased after Christmas break, it undoubtedly affected the rest of my track season. Al though I was probably in the best shape I had ever been in and felt great at practice, every thing fell apart on race day. Even if I was feeling great before the

race and trusted my body after months and months of train ing, my brain was in disagree ment. I felt at a complete loss of control. Before this, the fact that running was a predomi nantly mental sport filled me with confidence; however, this idea discouraged me last year. Although I had a great sup port system of teammates and coaches that believed in me and knew I was capable of suc cess, the pattern of my under performance dug me into a pit of doubt that seemed unshak able.

But there is no way that I would ever let these thoughts win. Since the end of our last track season, I have created a better relationship with my self both inside and outside of running. I no longer blame myself when things go wrong. I know that I have great po tential. I can feel it. I just have to do the right things and be patient.

Going into what is poten tially my last year of collegiate running, I will trust myself and believe that everything that I know I’m capable of is possible. One of my favorite quotes is a Buddhist saying, “The arrow that hits the bullseye is a result of 100 misses.” When applied to running, this quote can be a reminder to push forward towards your goals no matter what setbacks or challenges arise. I think I’m almost there.

Jacopo Parrella tallied 12 goals at the MAWPC Crossover this weekend, taking his season total to 46.

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In her first Student Athlete Column, Mary Kathryn Underwood talks about her mindset as a runner.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

MLB Playoffs: Divisional Series Preview

By NOAH HOFFMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The first round of the Major League Baseball (MLB) playoffs concluded on Sunday, with the Cleveland Guardians, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres surviving the Wild Card round and ad vancing to the Division Series.

The first three were able to take care of business in just two games with a sweep, while the latter came down to a decisive game three which ended with the Padres de feating the Mets.

Next up is the Division Series, with four intriguing matchups scheduled to commence on Tuesday.

There is history between these two teams, as it is a rematch of the 2020 Wild Card round and 2017 American League Division Series (ALDS).

The Guardians ended up losing both of those series, including the last five games after blowing a 2-0 lead in 2017 and getting swept 2-0 in 2020.

It’s a new team in Cleveland after trading away their star of those teams, Francisco Lindor, to the Mets. They are a hungry and young team led by one of the best all around players in the league in Jose Ramirez.

Cleveland will look to their pitch ing strength against the Yanks, as their top three starters Shane Bieber, Tristan McKenzie and Cal Quantrill all had a sub-3.50 ERA for the 2022 season. This, along with timely hitting, could propel them into the American League

Championship Series (ALCS).

The postseason is a regular event for the Bronx Bombers, as Aaron Boone’s club has made it to the dance in each season since 2017. However, it has been 13 years since the Yanks have made it to the World Series and their fans are get ting restless.

After winning the juggernaut that is the AL East, the Yankees were one of the favorites through out the season to get back to the Fall Classic.

Led by Aaron Judge and his record-breaking 62 home runs, the best offense in the Ameri can League and a pitching staff that only allowed three runs per game, the Yankees hope that this is enough to secure championship number 28.

Two division rivals will duke it out in the other ALDS series: The young Seattle Mariners trying to prove they belong against the de fending American League cham pion Houston Astros, who are still trying to right the wrong for their cheating scandal that propelled them to the 2017 World Series title.

The Mariners are back in the postseason for the first time in 21 years since the team’s recordbreaking 116 win group made it back in 2001.

This time led by a potential fu ture face of baseball in 21 year old center fielder Julio Rodriguez, the M’s will look to accomplish what no Seattle baseball team has ever done, hoist a World Series trophy.

After a promising 2021 season, they were able to be a consistent contender for the postseason now.

They will look to Rodriguez, a hungry young pitching staff led by deadline addition Luis Castillo and a lights out bullpen to push them over the edge.

Along with the Yankees, it is be ginning to become routine for the Astros to be in the postseason as they too have made it every year since 2017. After losing key pieces in George Springer, Carlos Correa and Gerrit Cole over the last few years, one would think it would have a lasting impact.

All it has done is drove them to a 106 win season this year, the best in the AL. Although key pieces have left, it is the main core of Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Justin Verlander that have kept the Astros as the team to beat in the AL.

After Tommy John Surgery sidelined Verlander for all of 2021, he was able to dip into the fountain of youth and provide his best year since winning the triple crown in 2011.

The ’Stros hope that this, along with their veteran leaders, can carry them to their second title in franchise history.

Two more division rivals will play in the National League. Philadelphia, in their first post season appearance since 2011, will square off against defending champion Atlanta Braves who snatched the NL East away from the New York Mets.

The Phillies signed Bryce Harper during the 2019 offseason, but it hasn’t led to much. They’ve wit nessed two rivals in Washington and Atlanta win championships.

The Phillies will hope that their

name will be the next NL East team to don that title.

After limping into the postseason with an abysmal September, they were able to fight off the St. Louis Cardinals in the Wild Card round.

The Phils will hope that the two headed pitching monster of Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola, along with reigning NL MVP in Harper and NL home run leader Kye Schwarber will be enough to topple Atlanta.

The Braves look to become the first team to win back-to-back championships since the Yankees three peat from 1998-2000.

With the majority of their young core signed to long-term deals, this is a real possibility, as well as cre ating a dynasty for years to come.

After replacing Freddie Freeman with Matt Olson, bringing up young talent such as right hander Spencer Strider and center fielder Michael Harris II, along with the star power of Ronald Acuña Jr., the Braves have more than enough to make a repeat a reality.

The pitching staff is as deadly as it was for the 1990’s Braves teams that made five World Series ap pearances, and the lineup is as bal anced and deadly as ever.

All this makes the Bravos a sure fire favorite to make it to another National League Championship Series (NLCS).

The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers will face off at least three more times this year after the Dodgers took 15 out 19 regular season meetings between the two, en route to winning the NL West by a whopping 22 games.

The Padres came into 2022 with out their star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., who later got suspended for the rest of the year for the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

However, this did not stop them from making a big splash at the deadline, as the Padres swooped up Juan Soto from the Nationals. With Soto, MVP candidate Manny Machado and a dominant pitching staff, the Padres will look to push past the big brother in Los Angeles and prove that the postseason is all that matters.

In order for this to happen, they will need closer Josh Hader to regain his dominance that made him the best in the league in Milwaukee, as well as their highend talent on offense to push them into the NLCS.

Last but certainly not least are the Dodgers, who won a franchise re cord 111 games in the regular season.

WIth a lineup that is composed of three former MVP’s, an allaround elite player in Trea Turner and depth that other teams could only dream of, their offense is what is going to need to show up for them.

The pitching was dominant all year, but injuries as well as a lack of right-handed starter depth could become a problem in an extended series.

All the Dodgers have to show for in their incredible success over the last ten years is a COVID-19 season World Series ring In 2020.

The clear favorites will try to put the choking label past them for 2022 and push for a championship, the second one in three years.

Overtime: The NWSL Is Not Protecting Its Athletes

By MADDIE BIMONTE ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Founded in 2012, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) served to be the primary organi zation in the United States to take women’s soccer to the next level.

Quickly put together after the United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) won the gold med al at the 2012 London Olympics, the shaky foundation of the orga nization and lack of management contributed to a larger systemic problem within the organization.

Last year, U.S. Soccer hired for mer U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to investigate claims of sexual harrasement, assault and misconduct within the NWSL.

This comes after complaints from members of the Portland Thorns related to former coach Paul Riley became public, detailing his verbal abuse, gross misconduct and harassment of the female play ers. Riley was fired in 2015, but went on to find new employment with the North Carolina Courage.

Once the information was made public in 2021, Yates looked into the allegations as well as claims against two other coaches: former Louisville Racing coach Christy Holly and former Chicago Red Stars coach Rory Dames.

Others included in the inves tigation were team owners who were responsible for dealing with

the initial complaints and chose to ignore them.

The firing of Riley from the Courage came about through an article in The Athletic being pub lished detailing Riley’s sexual harrasment and coercion of play ers on the Thorns back in 2015. He is also reported as being verbally abusive towards players. However, the scary thing about the Riley situ ation is that Mana Shim, the player who reported this information to the organization, would later see Riley be reinstated as head coach for another team in the league.

This is the hallmark for the fail ures of the NWSL and U.S. Soccer. Throughout many of these investi gations, the coaches were recom mended to other jobs as ownership decided to turn the other way.

Complaints even reached the ears of then USWNT head coach Jill Ellis and U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati. However, once again, no action was taken.

Holly also had similar allega tions against him from his time as coach at Sky Blue FC, now known as NJ/NY Gotham, and later at his

next job in Louisville. He was said to be combative and rude as well as potentially getting romantically involved with a player. When asked to resign in 2017, the organization went on to thank him for his service as coach.

The organization should have never allowed that message to be public. Those words serve as a re affirmation of the horrible behavior by coaches that should not be repli cated to any athlete ever. By allow ing this to continue, it perpetuates the cycle of abuse by coaches over these women.

The Yates report reveals scary information in regards to Riley and the complaints made by Shim. Specifically, while the Thorns did an investigation into Riley back in 2015, they did not fully investigate the claims made by Shim to the full est extent.

In their report, they never once used the words “sexual” or “harras ment” once, even with Shim pro viding illicit text messages from the former coach. Even further, the ownership for the Thorns gave Riley a positive job recommenda

tion ultimately leading to his hir ing at the Courage.

Dames was also accused of similar behavior, however the al legations against him date back all the way to 1998, spanning youth leagues to the Red Stars.

One of the more recognizable faces from the USWNT, Christen Press, also came forward, filing a formal complaint citing emotional and verbal abuse. It went nowhere.

It’s difficult to get through the 319-page report and absorb all the times these athletes were ignored.

So many of these women now have long lasting trauma from their time being coached by these men.

Unfortunately, this is the reality

for not just women, but all athletes, when people in positions of power believe they have the authority to do these things.

I can only hope that the NWSL can make massive strides to turn this around and shape an organiza tion that follows through on allega tions without influence of public opinion or ownership.

In a way, they have already started, with ownership from NJ/ NY Gotham, Thorns and Red Stars stepping away from their organiza tions.

However, until there is concrete change within the NWSL, I fear that women athletes will be failed once again after these events.

Volleyball Gets Back On Track in Atlantic 10 Play

By MILES GROSSMAN STAFF WRITER

After getting off on the wrong foot to begin conference play, Fordham Volleyball turned things around this week by collecting their first two Atlantic 10 wins of 2022.

Last Wednesday, head coach Ian Choi’s group traveled 147 miles northeast to Kingston, R.I. before returning home for a two-game weekend set against some different Rams: Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

The Rams were in a tough spot heading into last week, with four straight losses in conference play and the two most recent being road sweeps at Loyola Chicago.

But after making the three-hour journey to Kingston via sprinter van, the Rams showed some true resilience by rolling the University of Rhode Island in three sets.

All three were tight as Rhode Island fought for at least 20 points in each of them, but in the end, Fordham stayed poised while securing the sweep.

The solid performance in Rhode Island gave the Rams a serious confidence boost. Not only was this Fordham’s first conference win of the year, but it was also the first taste of win ning a pivotal match for the very

impactful freshmen, including Audrey Brown, Zoe Talabong and Mackenzie Colvin.

For the veterans of this team, Wednesday’s victory was noth ing new. But for the newcomers, it was an opportunity to prove to themselves that they can compete at this level, and they thoroughly capitalized.

Following their successful trip up north, the Rams prepared for a twogame set from Rose Hill vs. an A-10 opponent who swept Fordham in their two regular season matchups last season: the VCU Rams.

In the opening game, Fordham grabbed the first set before drop ping sets two and three in demoral izing fashion.

Then to begin the fourth, VCU rattled off a 14-8 run, dominating the action and putting the finish line in range.

But right when Fordham looked down and out, Brown went on a five-kill run of her own to knot the set up at 16.

From that point forward, the duo of junior Whitley Moody and the aforementioned Brown would put on a show and se cured the match in five sets for the Rams.

The five setter was clearly an emotional grind, but the Rams are certainly no stranger to going the distance. In Fordham’s 18 matches

so far this year, six have gone to a decisive fifth set, of which the Rams have won three.

Following Friday’s momentous come from behind victory, the pair of competing Ram squads were back in action less than 24 hours later.

To begin Saturday evening’s matchup on Rose Hill, Fordham was red hot, taking the first set handily at 25-17 and the second set in overtime, 27-25.

But VCU had a comeback in store as well, as they would go on to take the next three sets and the match in a manner equally as daz zling as Fordham’s the previous day.

Dropping a conference match after being up two sets to nil is about as heartbreaking as it gets in Division 1 volleyball, but Fordham surely gained a lot from this week end’s fierce competition.

Budding stars got in-conference

experience, and picking up their first A-10 win of the season certainly lifted a weight off the Rams’ shoulders. With a couple of A-10 victories finally under their belt, the Rams will now spend the next few weeks on the road.

First up is a for a showdown with Georgetown University in Washington D.C., before another trip south to North Carolina, to take on Davidson College.

Football Continues Winning Ways with Victory Over Lehigh

By NICK GUZMAN SPORTS EDITOR

Coming into Saturday’s con test against Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Penn., a casual viewer might have viewed it as an easy game for Fordham. The Rams entered with a 4-1 record, fresh off a steamrolling of Georgetown University by a score of 59-38.

Lehigh, on the other hand, were 1-4, with their only win coming against that same Hoyas team by a narrow margin of 21-19.

But in the Patriot League, each game is a tough one, especially those played away from home.

As every one of Fordham’s op ponents have this season, the Mountain Hawks showed up to play. After going into halftime trailing, the Rams came alive in the second half to defeat Lehigh 40-28 to improve to 5-1 on the season and 2-1 in Patriot League play.

More strong quarterback play from senior Tim DeMorat led the way for the Rams. The Florida

native totaled 499 yards passing and four touchdowns on the day, bringing his season totals up to 2,652 yards and 30 touchdowns in just six games played. These video game-esque numbers still lead the entire Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).

Although DeMorat typically steals the headlines, this Rams team is not a one-man wrecking crew. Senior receiver MJ Wright had a career day in Bethlehem, totaling 226 yards receiving and two touchdowns on just four catches. That’s a whopping 56.5 yards per reception, displaying the big play ability of Fordham’s offense.

And for the second straight week, the Rams’ rushing attack was alive and kicking through sophomore Julius Loughridge and graduate student Trey Sneed. Loughridge totaled 104 yards rushing with a score, while Sneed added another 60 yards in support of the Rams’ aerial attack.

But before the Fordham offense

even had a chance to step on the field Saturday, Lehigh took the lead. On the opening kick of the game, Jalen Burbage returned it 89 yards to the house, taking an early 7-0 advantage. More sloppy play immediately followed on the opening offensive drive; DeMorat was strip-sacked in Lehigh ter ritory by Stephon Bland. Dean Colton picked up the loose ball and returned it 39 yards for the touch down, doubling Lehigh’s lead to 14-0.

While the Fordham defense has received much criticism this year, the Rams fell behind 14-0 without defensive coordinator Mark Powell’s unit having an op portunity to do anything about it.

Needing to bounce back from the early special teams miscue and turnover, Fordham’s offense had the perfect response to the Mountain Hawk’s quick start. Loughridge took over on the sub sequent Fordham drive, breaking a 42-yard touchdown run to get the Rams back within seven. A

defensive stop got Fordham the ball right back, allowing DeMorat to hit Wright over the top for a 48yard score that leveled the game at 14.

That was the score heading into the second quarter of play, where Fordham failed to capitalize on the momentum they created in the first. A 24-yard field goal from Brandon Peskin put Fordham on top 17-14, but a long scoring drive from Lehigh immediately followed. Mountain Hawk’s quar terback Dante Perri found Eric Johnson for a six-yard touchdown to cap off an impressive 15-play, 75-yard drive.

More mistakes followed for the Fordham special teams unit, as senior receiver Fotis Kokosioulis fumbled the ensuing kickoff.

Lehigh recovered deep in Fordham territory, but the Rams’ defensive unit came up with a clutch fourth down stop to keep the score at 21-17 going into half time.

The Rams, looking to bounce back from an error-ridden first half, begin the second with the football. In just two plays, Fordham went 76 yards down the field to take the lead right back.

DeMorat first found Wright for 63 yards, followed immediately by a 13-yard score to junior Mekai Felton.

With the lead again, Fordham did not stop. The defense forced a quick three-and-out, giving DeMorat the chance to do more damage right away.

He did just that, finding senior Dequece Carter for a 40-yard touchdown. Fordham later added a field goal to make it 17 unan swered points in the third quarter.

Early in the fourth quarter, though, Lehigh answered back to make it a one score game again. Perri delivered a strike to receiver Connor Kennedy for a six-yard touchdown, making it a 34-28 game in favor of the Rams. A turnover-on-downs for the Rams gave Lehigh the ball back with a chance to take the lead, but the defense stood firm and forced a punt. The Rams took advantage of their next offensive possession, with DeMorat hitting Wright deep over the middle for an electric 79-yard touchdown. This put the Rams up 40-28, with that score remaining the same until the very end.

While the offense will once again take the plaudits for putting up 40 points, this was an under rated game from the Fordham defense. Thanks to turnovers and poor play on special teams, the Rams’ defense was consistently put in tough spots.

They came up with huge stops when they needed to, allowing the offense to quickly get back on the field. Sophomore linebacker James Conway led the way for the Rams with nine total tackles. He was named GEICO Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week for his performance.

Sitting at 5-1, Fordham have of ficially crossed the halfway point of their regular season. A non-con ference matchup with Stony Brook University at Jack Coffey Field awaits the Rams on Saturday, as they look to keep what has been an impressive season thus far rolling in the right direction.

That game is set for a 6 p.m. start, live on ESPN+ or listened to on WFUV 90.7 FM.

Junior Whitley Moody led the Rams to a comeback five set victory over VCU on Friday at the Rose Hill Gym.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Fordham’s offense awoke in the second half after napping in the first to complete the comeback.