Volume 104 Issue 21

The Fordham Ram

Fordham Introduces New Sustainable Dining Program

By EMMA KIM ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

On Sept. 26, Fordham an nounced that all students, faculty and staff must receive a COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccination by Nov. 1. Before the deadline passed, there was pushback against the mandate from parents, students and faculty, but now, the deadline has passed. According to Bob Howe, associate vice president for communications, the vaccine mandate is not currently being enforced by gate guards and no body’s ID has been deactivated.

Instead, the enforcement starts by “individually con tacting everyone eligible for the bivalent booster who has not yet updated their vaccine records,” said Howe.

“The university hasn’t set a date yet [for when the enforce ment starts] — once it does, we will notify all faculty, students, staff and parents via email, the web and social media — likely multiple times before the dead line,” said Howe.

At the moment, the universi ty has not released any specific numbers on compliance. “We SEE BOOSTER, PAGE 3

OMA Celebrates Native and Indigenous Peoples Month

By YUKTA SANT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

During November, the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) celebrates Native and Indige nous People’s Month (NAIPM).

The Native American com munity has existed in the Americas for thousands of years, the country only recog nized the heritage month in the 1990s. In 1990, former President

George H. W. Bush adopted a joint resolution establishing No vember as “National American Indian Heritage Month.

Since 1994, similar procla mations have been made under different names (such as “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”). The process leading up to this formal recognition was gradual. Arthur C. Parker, Ph.D., a

member of the Seneca na tion and the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. started the recognition process.

He convinced the Boy Scouts of America to des ignate a day for the earliest Americans, and they did so for three years.

In 1915, an official plan for an “American Indian

By SOFIA DONOHUE DIGITAL PRODUCER

On Nov. 2, Fordham Dining announced on their Instagram that they were initiating a new sustainability program in both the Marketplace at Rose Hill and Community Dining at Lincoln Center. The program, “Cool Food Meals,” is an organization that aims to reduce the climate impact of food. “Cool Food” icons located above dishes will indicate that the food is climate friendly. Accord ing to the World Resources Insti tute (WRI), meals certified as a Cool Food meal have a low carbon footprint. WRI calculates the car bon footprint of Aramark recipes by analyzing the agricultural supply chain and land used to produce the meal. Meals whose carbon footprint falls below an established per-meal threshold, as well as meet nutritional stan dards, are certified as a Cool Food meal.

In June 2021, Aramark an nounced that it was the first food service company in the United States to sign WRI’s Cool Food Pledge.

Rachel Diaz, marketing man ager for Aramark, said, “The purpose of this program is to of fer meals that have a lower car bon footprint as a result of the way they are produced and the ingredients they are composed of. Cool Foods makes it easy for students to identify and choose climate-friendly meals which in turn will help the planet one plate at a time.”

Fordham Hosts Programs for

By ISABEL DANZIS NEWS EDITOR

Nov. 8 marked “National First-Generation Day.” The day is meant to celebrate college stu dents, staff and faculty who are the first in their families to complete a four-year undergraduate degree.

Fordham hosted two events during the week aimed at showing sup port for Fordham’s first-generation community and highlighting issues that affect them.

The university hosted a panel on Nov. 8 that discussed impostor syndrome. Impostor syndrome is a feeling of self-doubt and not

belonging, despite one’s achieve ments. While impostor syndrome is not exclusive to first-generation students, it is especially common among them.

“There’s no reason to think that people who are not first-gen don’t SEE FIRST-GEN, PAGE 4

By SAMANTHA MINEAR ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

The votes are still rolling in for the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

Students Talk Voter Participation Opinion

As of Nov. 15, the Democrats have control of the Senate, the Republicans will likely get the House and Georgia’s Senate race is going into a runoff. The Guardian describes the re cent election as “Republicans [scrambling] to climb [the] blue wall,” a play on words from the so-called “red wave” that was expected to drown the legislative branch of government.

Madison Cost, FCRH ’24, voted by mail for the state of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, a historically swing state, made headlines for its noteworthy Senate race, which included Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, a television personality known for “The Dr. Oz Show.”

Dishes that qualify as a Cool Food Meal are marked with a Cool Food badge so that students can easily identify Cool Food meals within their dining halls. The Cool Food Meals badge will appear on over 350 menu items. Some ex amples of Cool Food Meals that will be available at both cam puses are Mediterranean Falafel

Billionaires are Society’s Big Bad Sports

“Tartuffe” is Hysterical Production You Don't Want to Miss

COURTESY OF PATRICIO MENESES FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

Students participate in conversations regarding being a first-generation student at Fordham University.

OMA featured a festival in the McShane Campus Center to highlight Native American and Indigenous businesses.

PUBLIC SAFETY BRIEFS

Nov. 11

E Fordham Rd & Belmont 3:50 a.m.

A Fordham student was robbed on the northeast corner of E. Fordham Rd and Belmont Ave.

The student was returning to campus from the Rams Deli Plus and as he was crossing Fordham Road at Belmont Avenue, a white car with four men in ski masks inside was traveling westbound on Fordham Road and stopped in front of him. A man wearing a ski mask got out of the car and de manded everything. The student surrendered an iPhone 11 and a wallet. His assailant demanded the cell phone code and the stu dent’s ATM card PIN, threaten ing to find the student later and shoot him if he did not give the correct PIN number. The assailant did not display a weapon during the robbery and the student was not injured.

Nov. 12

Dagger John’s 6:30 a.m.

A patrol leader discovered a water leak inside Dagger John’s. Upon further investi gation, it was discovered the leak was coming from a soda machine in the Marketplace dining area. Custodial ser vices were notified to clean the leak.

Nov. 15

Lowenstein Building 12:35 p.m.

The parent of a Fordham student reported that she was the victim of a forcible touching incident as she entered Lowenstein building. While entering, an unknown man walked up behind her and grabbed her buttocks. The man then fled south on Columbus Avenue.

Campus Ministry Holds Conversation About Food Insecurity

By MICHELA FAHY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

By SAMANTHA MINEAR ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

On Nov. 8, 2022, Campus Ministry held a Common Grounds conversation about the topic of food insecurity in New York City, particularly in the context of the ongoing housing crisis.

The office was joined by Jack Marth of Part of the Solution (POTS), from the Bronx and Cassandra Agredo of Xavier Mission, from Chelsea two charities that actively work to combat food insecurity in their lo cal communities.

“One in four people in the Bronx face food insecurity,” said Marth. “That’s 1.7 times the state average.”

The Bronx is home to the poor est congressional district in the nation. Concerns over food inse curity and housing grew tremen dously during the pandemic as ac cess to many food banks, such as City Meals on Wheels, became re stricted. POTS saw this first hand as “need in numbers grew sig nificantly” despite aid from local and federal governments growing scarce. Marth stated that people as far as Long Island were traveling to POTS because they did not turn anyone away.

“We ensured core services re mained available,” said Marth. “In 2022, we have distributed more than 3 million meals.”

POTS — as well as being a soup kitchen and food pantry — also provides legal assistance to help people evade eviction. Marth, alongside two others lawyers, have helped 240 people beat their evic tion cases in 2021.

Marth placed an emphasis on the current housing crisis as the root problem. According to NY1, the average rent in Manhattan is $5,246, and New York must build 560,000 housing units by 2030 to accommodate population growth. These numbers seem severe, but they are made worse when consid ering how the issue started with the 1981 cut to federal subsidies for public housing. The budgets for public housing and Section 8 housing were cut in half and — ac cording to Marth — the city has been playing catch up ever since.

“We have never recovered,” said Marth. “The waiting list for public housing is 19 years long. The peo ple who come to POTS are some times spending up to 90% of their income on rent.”

Applicants have a 1 in 592

chance of winning the housing lot tery. There are millions of appli cations every year; there is even a waiting process to get on the wait list, which remains closed for most of the year.

Agredo of Xavier Mission echoed many of Martin’s statements. Like POTS, Xavier Mission is both a soup kitchen and a food pantry, but Xavier Mission has a background as a Jesuit church. They also pro vide financial assistance to those struggling to make ends meet and do not ask about income or citizenship status.

“It all boils down to housing af fordability,” said Agredo. “We have enough housing and food for every one in the city, but it’s about acces sibility and affordability.”

In 2021, 4.54% of the city’s hous ing units were vacant; one in 10 rentstabilized apartments remained empty, far more than the figure re ported to the city by landlords. There is no law stating that these vacant units must be rented out.

“Every time there’s a hurricane or economic spiral, things get a little worse — and they do not recover,” said Agredo. “During the 2008 re cession, need doubled in a month. The numbers never really went back to normal. After [Hurricane] Sandy, our neighbors in the Lower East Side were left devastated, so their people came to us.”

There is another thing that

complicates the situation: the current migrant crisis. As of Oct. 26, 2022, 21,700 migrants have ar rived in the city. Many of them do not have jobs, housing, or health insurance. Some do not speak English. However, Xavier Mission and other neighboring charities have welcomed them with open arms, providing food and assis tance to those who need it.

“Housing, healthcare, food costs, increasing inflation — it’s all con nected,” said Agredo. “It’s a cycle; it never stops.”

This Week at Fordham

Wednesday Nov. 16

Wednesday Nov. 16

Dealy 207

1 p.m. – 2 p.m.

Join the IPED program in the Graduate School of Arts for a lecture on Religious Literacy in International Affairs. The lec ture aims to advance religious literacy across a range of fields at a professional level.

McShane Campus Center 112 6 p.m. – 7:15 p.m.

Join the Office of Mission Integration and Ministry. Three members of the Fordham community will share how they live the Jesuit mission. It will be moderated by Fr. John Cecero, S.J.

Thursday Nov. 17

Thursday Nov. 17

Outside McShane Campus Center 12 p.m.

Campus Dining will be having a Farmers Market outside of McShane Campus Center. There will be a wide selection of fresh fruits and vegetables. It is just $5 to fill up a bag with the produce of your choice.

Bepler Commons 1 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

Join CSS for Colorful Jars of Gratitude on Thursday from 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. in Bepler Commons. Decorate your very own gratitude jar for yourself or for a friend. There will also be food provided for attendees.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of thousands of charities and nonprofits across the city, food insecurity isn’t going anywhere. With the pandemic still looming overhead, the threat of a recession, and an increased need from layoffs and immigration, thousands of New Yorkers remain in need. Despite these challenges, Xavier Mission, POTS, and their partners remain confident that they will help every one who walks through their doors.

Both charities accept donations online.

Saturday Nov. 19

Jack Coffey Field 1 p.m.

Fordham faces Colgate this Saturday with tailgates start ing at 11 a.m. in Parking Lot A and the game at 1 p.m. on Jack Coffey Field. Colgate is in 5th place with Fordham in 2nd currently. Go Rams!

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Fordham’s Campus Ministry did a food drive to help combat food insecurity in New York City, which is a growing problem.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Campus Ministry hosted a conversation about the topic of food insecurity.

A Look at Fordham’ s Booster Mandate

FROM BOOSTER, PAGE 1

are still working with the student community on compliance with the COVID-19 vaccine policy and don’t have any specific numbers to share at this time,” said Keith Eldredge, assistant vice president and dean of student services.

Additionally, the university has granted extensions and exemp tions for the vaccine.

“Students requested exten sions for many reasons. The most common was from students who have a positive test within the past 90 days, which is accom modated when they upload doc umentation of that positive test

via the link on the VitalCheck dai ly questionnaire,” said Eldredge. “Other students who have other minor medical issues (such as a cold, virus or the flu) are receiving the vaccine when it is medically advisable for them to do so.”

Eldredge said the new require ment as being very effective. “I think the update to Fordham’s COVID-19 vaccine policy to include the new bivalent booster in accord ance with the change in the CDC definition of being up to date was very effective,” said Eldredge.

“Of course, we know that research shows that being fully vaccinated and boosted helps protect students, faculty and staff. We wish that it

would prevent all transmission and know that is not the case, but increasing the protection in our community is important,” said Eldredge. “The policy update also seems to have reminded stu dents of the importance of their health and the continuing im pact that the COVID-19 virus can have on their personal health, as well as, the health of others on campus, in the community adjacent to campus, and in their home community.”

Olivia Griffin, FCRH ’25, says she agrees with the booster re quirement, but she feels like the time window was not ideal. “While I feel that the booster is

necessary for the university’s and surrounding area’s health, I wish that Fordham would have more accessible options for vaccination times and extended the deadline,” said Griffin. She added, “Many students had to juggle their sched ules with booster side effects with midterm season.”

Alexa Davidson, FCRH ’25, also says she is happy with the uni versity’s decision. “I’m really glad that Fordham decided to make the bivalent booster mandatory. I feel safer on campus knowing that we are all taking the extra precau tion,” said Davidson.

Eldredge added that not every one was aware of the benefits of

the booster before the require ment. “Some students seemed unaware of the new booster and the benefits it can provide and seemed grateful for the awareness we brought,” said Eldredge.

“I hope the conversation around the policy has reminded students of the important lessons they are learning in and out of the classroom about the importance of seeking answers to difficult questions from reliable sources. Debate and disagreement can provide opportunity to learn and grow provided all parties ap proach the conversation with an open mind and a willingness to listen,” said Eldredge.

Fordham Students Discuss Voting in Midterm Elections

FROM VOTING, PAGE 1

“Utter polarity does not begin to describe the candidates in PA’s midterm elections this year,” said Cost. “With issues like abortion rights, the candidates were either pro-reproductive rights or com pletely against any and all repro ductive freedom.”

Pennsylvania stayed blue, how ever, with John Shapiro winning the gubernatorial race and Fetter man defeating Oz.

“I think it’s been cool to be a Pennsylvania voter in the past presidential and midterm elec tions, especially as a relatively new voter,” said Cost. “Since it’s a pretty intense swing state, many of PA’s recent elections have been crucial in the losses of candidates who’d be considerably harmful to the nation’s well-being.”

Donovan Miner, FCRH ’24, also voted by mail in the swing state of Georgia. Georgia’s Senate seat is going into a runoff race between

Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker, a former NFL player.

Miner said when he voted, he considered the topics of civil rights, gun control and access to healthcare.

In addition, he stated that “I think substance reform overall is important, like marijuana legaliza tion. However, the Republicans got a lot of seats in the Senate, so it’s unlikely.” Georgia is one of 19 re maining states that impose jail time for simple cannabis possession.

Even some firmly blue states, such as Maryland, felt uncertain for some democrats. Daniel Melia, FCRH ’25, voted for the first time in this election.

“I was certainly anxious about this election and was so relieved to see the Democrats prevail in a sense,” said Melia. “The single most important issue is the in tegrity of our democracy and the safeguarding of our democratic

norms and systems.”

Larry Hogan, a Republican, is due to be replaced by Wes Moore, a Democrat, who will be the first Black governor of Maryland. The New York Times called this midterm election a “bad showing for the GOP” and attributed it to “extreme candidates and posi tions” which turned off some swing voters. In fact, many traditionally libral news out lets all across the nation are claiming that the “extrem ity” of the Republican party is pushing more and more voters to the left.

What Biden will do with this midterm turnout, however, is left to be seen. His student debt relief was recently blocked by a court and the Supreme Court may overturn affirmative action. It seems as though politics will remain contentious, even as re sults continue to pour in.

USG Discusses Bringing Robots to Campus

By SOFIA SEMPER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Thursday, Nov. 10, the Fordham Rose Hill United Student Government (USG) met to discuss new proposals and public concerns.

Senator Andy Diaz, FCRH ’25, stated that he wants to send out a survey to the Fordham commu nity to make sure that students know how to use the CARE Connect Hotline. He wants to make sure that the students know how to report issues and that they know what resources they have available to them.

A Fordham Rose Hill stu dent presented the idea of bringing the Starship Food Delivery service to the Rose Hill campus. This food deliv ery service would essentially use robots to pick up students’ Grubhub orders and then the robots would deliver the or ders to the students’ location.

Senator Dan Sponseller,

FCRH ’25, brought up the con cern of the robots hitting stu dents. The student stated that many other college campuses have begun using this food deliv ery service and have not had any issues with the robots hitting stu dents. Sponseller also expressed his concern about the cost of this delivery service.

The student explained that Starship Food Delivery is in part nership with Grubhub and, since Fordham also has a partnership with Grubhub, the cost would be lower than originally anticipated.

Vice President of the Committee of International Integration Luisa Rosa, FCRH ’24, presented the new committee bylaws and they were approved by the Senate.

Assistant Dean for Student Involvement Catherine McGlade, Ed.D., said that they are still in terviewing for open positions in the Office of Student Involvement (OSI). McGlade also stated that she has seen a significant increase in student engagement and cred ited that to the USG.

Senator Nicky D’Abundo, FCRH ’26, stated that he is work ing with the accessibility commit tee about increasing braille and deaf accommodations on campus.

Gaby Simporios, FCRH ’24, vice president of Fordham College Rose Hill, said that she is working on getting a biochemistry major at Fordham.

She is still working on sending out the STEM survey to all of the STEM students and said that, by completing the survey, students will have a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.

Senator Reese Dains, FCRH ’26, asked if students who are undeclared STEM majors will still be sent the survey. Simporios said that they will still be sent the survey.

Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Briana Al-Omoush, FCRH ’24, said that a student suggested having optional classes on election day so that more stu dents can vote. Vidal said that that could cause issues with cred it hours for classes.

COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

USG talked about making sure all students knew about the CARE Hotline.

Students talk about their experiences voting in-person and by mail.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Fordham Hosts First-Generation Panel

Fordham’s Graduate Program.

experience impostor syn drome, but certainly people who are first-generation seem prone to impostor syndrome,” said Patricio Meneses, Ph.D., interim associate dean of stu dent success and academic in tegrity. “Many of the [first gen eration] students that we spoke to didn’t even know what im postor syndrome was. They just knew that they maybe didn’t feel a sense of belonging, but they didn’t know it was actu ally a thing, a syndrome that you can identify, talk about and learn from other’s experi ences.”

The panel featured speak ers from Fordham College Rose Hill and Lincoln Center, Gabelli School of Business, Fordham Law School and Fordham Athletics. According to Meneses, discuss ing impostor syndrome and other struggles students face is impor tant to spread awareness.

“I think it’s important to talk about it because we have to let others know, first-generation or non- first generation, that impos tor syndrome is a real thing that we all encounter. I’m a full pro fessor, but even if you’re a dean, a coach or a staff member, it hap pens to all of us,” said Meneses.

On Nov. 10, a conversation was hosted called “We are Fordham’s First Generation Students.”

The conversation featured students from FCRH, Gabelli and

The discussion was moderated by Patricia Peek, Ph.D., dean of undergraduate admission and as sociate vice president. During the discussion, students spoke about their experiences at Fordham as first-generation college students.

The participants spoke about higher education being an “experience of unknowns.” They talked about the difficul ties of having a lack of guidance when it comes to applying to col lege, graduate school or even just preparing for college.

“There are things we just don’t know that our peers know,” said one panelist.

The student panel also ad dressed that many first-gen col lege students’ families do not un derstand how college works. They do not always understand accom plishments or the difficulties that college students face, which can make many first-generation stu dents feel isolated.

According to Meneses, edu cating the student body about the struggles of first-generation students is important. He said that he thinks that there is a lack of understanding among Fordham’s non-first-generation students about how being the first in your family to attend col lege can affect them.

“The person who is sitting right next to you in class may be very quiet because she or he might be a first generation who doesn’t really feel comfortable in

the space or doesn’t know how to behave because [college has] nev er been a part of their family life or history,” said Meneses.

Meneses said that the num ber of first-generation students attending higher education is growing.

He said this makes looking at first-generation student issues and making them feel welcome even more important. In the first-year class of 2026, Meneses said approximately 600 students across Fordham’s schools identi fied as first-generation.

Throughout these events, Meneses said that he hopes to show students that Fordham is an inclusive place for all stu dents. According to Meneses, the entire university is trying to address Fordham’s first-gener ation students.

“This is an initiative that's been taken by the whole university. If you listen to President Tetlow, she mentions first-generation [students] all the time. We all see that the numbers are growing and the support they need is a little different,” said Meneses.

Meneses said that the university has hosted events with prospective first-generation students to show them the university's resources. Additionally, the university will introduce a first-generation sym posium in the spring semester. The course will be one credit and will try to help first-generation students maneuver college.

Fordham Honors NAIPM Culture Throughout November

FROM NAIPM, PAGE 1 Day” was accepted at the annual Congress of the American Indian Association in Lawrence, Kan. It instructed its Arapahoe pres ident, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, to urge the nation to recognize such a day. On Sept. 28, 1915, Coolidge signed a proclamation declaring the second Saturday of May as American Indian Day and containing the first official call for American Indians to be recognized as citizens. Following this proclamation, the governor of New York proclaimed the first American Indian Day on the sec ond Saturday in May, 1916.

Then, legislators in other states began to recognize this day, such as Illinois which first recognized it in 1919. Currently, Columbus Day is recognized as Native American Day in a num ber of states, but it is still not des ignated a national legal holiday.

The Fordham community cele brates Native American Heritage Month each November. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the uni versity honored Native American Heritage with big events, includ ing everyone from students at Fordham to others in the broader New York community. OMA said that these events used to consist of cultural activities such as face painting. However, things have since needed to be scaled back to keep people safe from the

virus. This year, OMA is host ing a variety of events such as a Native American arts night, a group trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a screening of the documentary “Powerlands,” which explores the displacement of Indigenous people in the U.S. in relation to environmental de struction. One event that OMA hosted was a festival that pro moted Native American busi nesses in the McShane Campus Center. Students were able to browse the variety of products arranged on each table and sample food products.

Some students said that the maple syrup drops shaped like maple leaves and created by the Passamaquoddy Maple Company were their favorite product. They are owned by the Passamaquoddy people and use sustainable maple harvesting.

Ayesha, a student worker in OMA, explained that since there are so few Native American com munities remaining in the United States, it is important to under stand the contemporary reality of Native American life and culture instead of the historical images of Native American involvement that prevail in people’s minds. She said that most tend to think of Native Americans within historical nar ratives, such as Thanksgiving, but they don’t recognize how Native Americans are relevant today.

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

Events were held at both the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses to show off NAIPM culture.

Students were invited to engage with tabling events throughout the month to learn more about NAIPM culture.

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

COURTESY OF TWITTER

A panel of professionals and students gather, to discuss impostor syndrome.

Campus Ministry Hosts Thanksgiving Give-Away

By GRACE GALBREATH STAFF WRITER

The Office of Campus Ministry is accepting mon etary donations for its annu al Thanksgiving Food Drive through the end of November.

Several organizations have partnered with Campus Minis try and will receive the collected donations. Donations made to the Rose Hill campus will be giv en to The Church of Our Lady of Mercy, Part of the Solution and the Creston Avenue Baptist Soup Kitchen. Donations made to the Lincoln Center campus will benefit The Church of St. Paul, the Apostle Soup Kitchen and the Xavier Mission.

The drive is held each year around Thanksgiving to help struggling families.

Director of Operations, Budget and Community Engagement at Campus Ministry, Gilda Seve riano, emphasized the impor tance of providing monetary support for others during the holiday season.

“It is a perfect time to bring up the issue of food insecurity. Food insecurity is something that is permeating all levels of soci ety, especially after COVID-19. It [the drive] is something that

we have done for many years and became especially important after COVID-19 because food was hard to come by for many people,” said Severiano.

The annual Thanksgiving Food Drive has been running in some capacity for the last 20 years. Last year, about $6,000 were collect ed. Canned and non-perishable foods were accepted donations in the early years of the drive, but for the last five years, Campus Ministry has only accepted mon etary donations. Severiano cited the cause of the change to receiv ing expired foods and culturally inappropriate selections.

“In speaking to our community partners, they asked that we give them monetary donations so they could buy in bulk and they could buy the food that was culturally ap propriate for their particular com munity. We are a very diverse area in the Bronx, so it’s not like every community partner is going to be buying rice and beans. Some will be buying stuffing,” said Severiano.

Severiano also highlighted work done by Fordham’s Pedro Arrupe Volunteers to fight the growing problem of food insecurity in the Bronx. The organization plans fre quent visits to the Creston Avenue Baptist Soup Kitchen, allowing

Fordham students to help indi viduals in the surrounding com munity directly.

“It is one of the best ways for students and staff to go out into the community and actually meet people that are experienc ing food insecurity and talk to them directly,” said Severiano.

Emily Koch, GSB ’25, assisted in the Creston Avenue Baptist Soup Kitchen last week.

“I had never volunteered at a soup kitchen before, so didn’t really know what to expect. Although my contact with the

individuals coming by to get food was limited, having the oppor tunity to learn from and spend time with the local women dedicating their Saturday to cooking the food was really special,” said Koch.

Severiano also mentioned an other Campus Ministry initia tive: Swipe Out Hunger, a pro gram dedicated to ending food insecurity on campus. Through the program, students can fill out a form and choose any number of guest meal swipes to donate to their fellow students.

Severiano said she encourag es students to take advantage of Campus Ministry events like the Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive and to take the time to make a positive impact in their community.

“Not everyone can rely on having three meals a day, seven days a week. It is a good time to think about that. Especially at Thanksgiving, it is a good time to be grateful for our privilege, but also grateful to have the op portunity to positively impact another family,” said Severiano.

Marilyn Martone Gives the 2022 Gannon Lecture

By EMMA KIM ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

On Nov. 9, Fordham hosted the 2022 Gannon Lecture and Reception in the Great Hall of the McShane Campus Center. The event featured Marilyn Martone, Ph.D., who presented “From Trauma to Disability: Ex amining Our Cultural Values.”

The Gannon Lecture is named after Rev. Robert I. Gannon, S.J., president of Fordham University from 1936 to 1949.

The lecture originated in fall 1980, and since then, it has had many distinguished speakers lecture on important issues in their area of expertise.

Martone is a retired asso ciate professor at St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y.

She taught moral theology of health care for many years at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Martone also represented the Holy See at the United Nations on women’s is sues for seven years.

In addition, she has served on multiple hospital ethics commit tees. In 2002, she was the recipi ent of an NEH grant on “Justice, Equality and the Challenge of Disability,” and in 2007, she was one of the two recipients of a fel lowship on disability ethics.

She is also the author of “Over the Waterfall,” a memoir about a traumatic accident that her daughter, Michelle, went through in 1998. With her own personal experience, she is able to advocate for and discuss the marginaliza tion of those with disabilities.

The event began with the lecture at 5:30 p.m., and it started with a clip from the PBS documentary, “Your Health: A Sacred Matter,” in which Martone and her daugh ter were featured.

It explained the background of what happened to Michelle and the aftermath of her daughter’s accident.

Since the accident, Martone has advocated for her daugh ter’s health and brought up many relevant issues in the healthcare system. She ex amines the effect that trauma can have on peoples’ lives and subsequently what it is like to be processed through a frag mented healthcare system that focuses on acute care.

Martone said that people

with disabilities are marginal ized in our society today and how cultural attitudes toward vulnerability affect the people who need help the most. “Our culture influences the way we think. In this culture, you do not want to appear vulnerable,” said Martone during the lecture.

Martone relates vulnerability to how we view caregivers too. While caregivers provide a much-needed service, they are undervalued in our culture that emphasizes inde pendence, explained Martone.

One of Martone’s main points during her lecture was that the healthcare system is not proper ly set up for people with disabili ties. Instead of accommodating people for their different needs, the healthcare system tries to get people out as soon as pos sible. “The system is set up to re store someone to independence or discharge them to a lower lev el facility where they receive less care,” said Martone. Instead of a system that puts vast resources into “fixing” people, Martone believes that the system needs to teach them how to live with a chronic illness. Martone believes that these attitudes about vulner ability and independence come from our own society and culture, and it emphasizes the fact that we don’t live in a gifting society.

“In gifting societies, gifts are meant to be passed on to make us a community of givers. Gifts are central to fostering relationships,”

said Martone. “We begin life in a relationship, and we depend on others for care. When we receive care, we should take it. When we can give care, we should give it.”

Because of how the system was set up, Martone experi enced firsthand what it was like when she was taking care of her daughter.

After her daughter was dis charged from the system, she had a hard time getting at-home care. “After leaving the hospi tal, there are large disparities that are there,” said Martone.

While Michelle’s experience was better than most because she had insurance and her mother was fighting for her, most people experience a sys tem where they are left with minimal care.

Martone highlighted that many people don’t understand the role that dependency plays in our society, especially when it comes to people with dis abilities — such as assuming they have no individuality or wants. “We need to do more than accommodate people with disabilities. We need to make them know they belong,” said Martone. “We need to recog nize our interdependence.”

Martone ended on the point that the whole experience has taught her what it is like to be truly human. “Persons with disabilities teach us what is truly valuable,” said Martone.

COURTESY OF UNSPLASH

Campus Ministry's food drive takes monetary donations to give to the Bronx community for Thanksgiving.

Marilyn Martone gave the 2022 Gannon Lecture about the ways that trauma can affect culture and our lives.

Fordham Starts “Cool Foods” Dining Program

FROM COOL FOODS, PAGE 1

Plate, Five Spice Sesame Tofu Salad Bowl, Shawarma Chicken Ciabatta and Spinach Artichoke Panini. Cool Food meals are the newest addition to Fordham’s previous commitments to the environment and stability such as Babylon, a micro-farm display and the 100% waste free Lincoln Center campus.

“From LED lighting installed years ago, to reduction of food waste and being 100% waste free at the Lincoln Center campus. Every project we do includes a re view of how to move forward on this initiative,” said Diaz.

“Fordham’s commitment to sustainability began in 2007 as an early participant in the NYC Carbon Challenge program and has been supportive of other programs that can reduce the use of carbon on our campuses. What is exciting about the Cool Foods program is its potential be yond our borders to encourage a

shift towards more environmen tally-sensitive forms of food pro duction,” said Vincent Burke, director of sustainability at Fordham in the Cool Food meals official press release.

Diaz said, “It’s important to take this step because climate has an ef fect on our everyday lives and our future. Being able to implement programs where we can reduce our impact on the environment and improve our sustainability ef forts is a goal of ours.”

“In keeping with the Jesuit tra ditions of the pursuit of wisdom and learning, education of the whole person, and respect for the environment, the university rec ognizes the value of minimizing its environmental impact and en deavors to pursue best practices throughout all aspects of its activi ties,'” said Diaz. “Through this new initiative, our hope is to empower students to make their own sus tainable decisions and do their part in helping our planet.”

Junior Studies the Root of the Word “ Camp” and its Importance

by the public.

By ALICE GAALSWYK STAFF WRITER

Payton Hunt, FCRH ’24, is working on a research proj ect investigating the concept of “camp” in fashion. She is looking into how this idea has been taken over by heteronor mative, mainstream media, even though the concept has roots in Black, queer com munities. Specifically, Hunt wanted to examine the impact of the 2019 Met Gala, one of the fashion world’s most im portant events, on the idea of camp and how it was perceived

Camp can be a difficult concept to pin down the exact meaning of, but through her research, Hunt has come to define camp primarily as a form of personal expression.

“As used by the queer and the Black community, it’s mostly a way to escape boundaries and boxes that the members of these communities were forced into,” said Hunt.

According to Hunt, engaging in camp is a way of rejecting the cultural and social norms that one is forced into through cloth ing, fashion and behavior. There is a distinct performance element

that is key to understanding the nature of camp. To Hunt, the idea of camp as an action and also within the fashion world is best exemplified through the drag balls that took place around the 1980s and and 1990s in New York City. These balls functioned as a safe space for Black and queer individuals to express themselves through their performance.

With this background of the idea of camp in mind, Hunt examined the 2019 Met Gala, which had the theme of “camp” and was led by celebrities like Harry Styles and Karlie Kloss. While Hunt says that this event can be considered camp in essence because everyone participating is intentionally dressing up to put on a show of their fashion and personal style, she notes that this is the heteronormative version of camp.

This version of camp takes away from its original roots and intentions because the Met Gala failed to acknowl edge where camp originated and who it was intended for, said Hunt.

In her research essay, Hunt discusses an essay written by American writer Susan Sontag, entitled “Notes on Camp” that served as inspiration for the theme for the 2019 Met Gala. Hunt notes that throughout the entire essay, there is not one mention of the Black com munity, and only a few men tions of specifically gay men. In doing this, the essay fails to

recognize the influence of the Black community and other members of the queer commu nity, like transgender people and queer women, on the con cept of camp.

“What I want to show … is why camp fashion is so im portant to these marginalized communities and how this type of gentrification is per petuated,” said Hunt.

Hunt notes that Sontag’s es say is often used as a bench mark for determining what camp is, and this essentially ignores camp’s origins as a retaliation against oppression that these marginalized com munities have faced.

Hunt was inspired to re search this topic more in depth after Styles’ well-known Vogue cover was published in which he was wearing a dress. While Hunt acknowledged that this was a landmark mo ment as he was the first man to be featured solo on a Vogue cover and he was wearing a dress, she noted that many other famous people, music artists in particular, have been doing this exact same thing for years but have not received the amount of attention that Styles garnered.

Artists like Prince, Michael Jackson and David Bowie broke gender norms within their fashion choices, but Hunt said that this has not been talked about as much because they are all either members of the Black commu

nity, the queer community or both. This bothered Hunt and sparked her desire to discuss the groundbreaking nature of camp in these marginalized communities.

Throughout the research process, Hunt was advised by Jennifer Moorman, Ph.D., of Fordham’s Communications Department. The first two months of her research, Hunt spent the majority of her time reading books, trying to learn as much information as pos sible about the idea of camp and the different aspects of it within the world of fashion. She also spent a lot of time analyzing the Met Gala specifically, trying to form judgements about the out fits because the idea of camp is fluid and is constantly changing for Hunt. Now, she is working on her research paper, which she hopes to eventually publish in the Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal.

Overall in her research, Hunt’s goal was to educate herself more about this issue and to also give clarity to what camp is and remind people of the importance of marginalized communities in culture today.

“Marginalized communities are often the ones who create these kinds of social move ments, these kinds of things that you want to be a part of, and credit should be given where credit is due, and I think this is a great example of where credit isn’t given where it should be due,” said Hunt.

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

Fordham’s participation in the Cool Foods programs aims to improve Fordham Dining’s sustainability.

COURTESY OF PAYTON HUNT FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

Hunt’s research focuses on the theme “ camp ” in the Met Gala in 2o19.

R OPINION

From the Desk | Hanif Amanullah

I Promise I’ll Think of a Headline By Tuesday...

Serving the Fordham University campus and community since 1918

The Fordham Ram is the univer sity journal of record. The mission of The Fordham Ram is to provide a forum for the free and open ex change of ideas in service to the community and to act as a student advocate. The Fordham Ram is published every Wednesday during the academic year to all campuses.

Website

TheFordhamRam.com

Email Address theram@fordham.edu

Editor in Chief

Ava Erickson

Managing Editor

Hanif Amanullah

Editorial Director

Sebastian Diaz Production Editor

Michael Sluck

Multimedia Director

Pia Fischetti Business Director

Matthew Colucci Copy Chief

Amanda Yarolin

Assistant Copy Chief

Hannah Boring News Editor

Isabel Danzis Assistant News Editors

Emma Kim Samantha Minear Opinion Editors

Nicole Braun

Taylor Herzlich Assistant Opinion Editor

Michela Fahy Culture Editors

Kari White Ilaina Kim

Assistant Culture Editor

Elisabeth Murray Sports Editor

Nick Guzman

Assistant Sports Editors

Thomas Aiello

Maddie Bimonte

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Frances Schnepff

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Ava Carreiro Justin Charles

Sofia Donohue

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Nicoleta Papavasilakis

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Nick DeSilva

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Cory Bork

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Beth Knobel

Editorial Policy

The Fordham Ram’s edito rial reflects the editorial board’s opinions or views.

Opinion Policy

The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the au thors. They do not necessarily re flect the opinions or views of The Fordham Ram.

Submissions Policy

The Fordham Ram reserves the right to reject or edit any submis sion for any reason, without no tice. Submissions become the ex clusive property of The Fordham Ram. No part of the The Fordham Ram may be reproduced without written consent.

Despite deliberating constantly over the past two weeks on ways to write my final From the Desk, it’s only at 11:03 p.m. the day before it’s due that I’ve decided what to put on the page.

During my stint at the Ram, which has been a strange and won derfully fulfilling two and a half years, I’ve determined the three most common types of goodbye From the Desk articles (FTDs). My goal here is to choose one to emulate.

Dylan Balsamo’s — the previ ous managing editor and a man of startlingly-accurate Kermit the Frog impressions — exemplifies the first. His final FTD was an epic: chronicling his rise through the paper’s ranks, the students and characters he met along the way and finished with his signature catchphrase.

I don’t have a catchphrase, so that option’s out.

There’s the route former opinion editor Emma Lipkind took during the Ram’s Volume 103, in what she expected would be her final FTD. Emma is a radiant friend and ba sically the certified French corre spondent for The Fordham Ram this semester; her writing is usu ally topical, but her final FTD was on the “Irresistibility of Crochet in the Modern Age.” It’s a fascinating article, and it has exactly nothing to do with leaving the Ram. It’s effort lessly chill and so nonchalant it’s intimidating.

But I don’t crochet, so this op tion’s out, too.

So far there’s the world-building option and the insouciant rebel op tion, and neither are a fit.

Finally, there’s what our wellread previous production edi tor Vanessa DeJesús did. Before encouraging me to apply for the

managing editor position in 2021, Vanessa wrote her final lovely FTD. It’s a moving portrait of the Ram and the importance of journalism.

But writing about the impor tance of journalism feels awfully stressful, so I’m going to have to pass on that option too.

Clearly, none of those options are working for me. I guess I won’t conform to the usual FTD formula. No sappy flashbacks or namedropping from me! Instead, for my final FTD, I’m going to brainstorm activities for next year. After all, I’ve got to decide what to do with my newfound free time.

First, an explanation: See, I’m leaving the Ram to study abroad. My time here has been shorter than most who join the staff their fresh man year, but I knew I wanted to join the Ram’s Volume 102 as soon as I decided to come to Fordham. I wrote for the opinion section that first semester of college and copy edited under Vanessa and thenassistant copy chief Ginny Belt, who each brought a bit of humor to a gloomy virtual freshman year.

The following semester I became the assistant culture editor. Though every meeting was conducted on Zoom, I cherished the teamwork — that of the Ram’s, as well as my sec tion, which comprised myself, Sara Tsugranis (Sara, I still have to re turn your plate!) and Ava Erickson for volume 103. I didn’t even meet Ava until fall 2021, but she would later become Volume 104’s Editor in Chief (EIC) and one of the most dedicated leaders I’ve ever worked with.

When the Ram finally began inperson production during the sec ond half of Volume 103, things just got better. B-52 smells of mold and sweaty writers and it gets so hot in there. Even so, I loved it then, like I

do now. Despite the climate, I was sharing pizza and absurd conver sation with some of the most intel ligent and hardworking people I’d ever met. Rachel, Hasna, Taylor, Michela, Abbey, Collette: You all were my first full Ram staff, and you’ve each inspired me greatly.

Volume 104 eventually rolled around, and this past year has been one of our busiest yet: The Week, the USG debacle, breaking the news of Tetlow’s presidency, the volleyball team, the 4:00 a.m. commencement issue and kicking off the new Ram video series … all memorable moments, either for the struggle or the joy or both.

None of it would have been possible without this year’s staff (my favorite staff, though I’m bi ased). Seb, Amanda, Nicole, Kari, Hannah and those who I can’t name for fear of slamming into the word limit: thank you for coming together to sustain this paper with full force.

I seem to have gotten carried away. Look at me name-dropping. I can’t let this become sentimental! Getting back to the point of this article, what am I going to do with all that free time next year? I was thinking about juggling; I’ve heard it’s difficult but I can always start out with just one or two oranges. I could also become a bike guy — like one of those people who’s always riding, or talking about rid ing or fixing up bikes. Or maybe I’ll start collecting succulents.

Editorial | Career Center

Whichever new thing I go for, I can only hope it’s half as fulfilling as The Fordham Ram has been. I’ll miss budget meetings and the ex citement that comes from receiving a new article submission. I’ll miss seeing friends mill about B-52, comparing playlists and delivering page layouts between rooms. I’ll miss having “Managing Editor” in my email signature (I’m certain it prompts faster responses). I’ll miss the process, in its simultaneous turbulence and normalcy.

Yet, I know this paper, which has stood the test of time for al most 105 years now, will continue to flourish. And I guess this article just goes to show the power of the Ram. I might as well lean into the mushy goodbye. So: Thank you Michael, for being a great produc tion editor and a better friend. I hope your pizzas are always warm, and that you mention me in your FTD next year. Thank you Ava, for being a continuously calm and collected leader in the face of B-52 shenanigans and the Fordham Parents Facebook group. May your inbox be devoid of “and more” and other pointless phraseologies. To the Ram’s new EIC Isabel, I know you will lead with poise. To the re turning staff of Volume 105, I know you’ll all continue to serve the Ram and the Fordham community with perspicacity and wit.

It has been a pleasure managing you editors. But there are bikes to fix and oranges that need juggling.

Career Center Should Cater More to Liberal Arts Majors

In expanding the McGinley Student Center into the McShane Campus Center, one of the de partments that received a boost in infrastructure and amenities was Fordham’s career services depart ment, which was transformed into the brand-new Career Center, lo cated on McShane’s second story.

With the expansion, the Career Center bolstered its resources, al lowing for better experiences when students reach out for assistance in their post-Fordham career. That being said, for the most part, there is a noticeable lack of career assis tance available for students who are not focused on finance or tech nology-based industries.

Yes, baseline career assistance is available and helpful for students just entering the job field. Resumébuilding, advising and reviews provide crucial information for students who are just beginning to delve into the world of job applica tions and networking. Seminars on how to apply for internships, writ ing cover letters and learning inter view skills are important and wellcovered by the Career Center for all students of any career focus. How ever, many Fordham College Rose Hill students, including members of the Ram staff, seeking advice from the Career Center found that, while they could provide beneficial information about resumés and

cover letters, they lacked special ized industry knowledge.

When examining the opportuni ties, workshops and general ser vices for specialized careers, the services show a strong lean away from arts and humanities students and a tendency toward finance and tech industries.

During the first two months of this semester, the Career Center hosted four career fairs. The first fair was the Accounting and Finance Career Fair, followed by the Tech, Cybersecurity and Data Science Micro-Fair. These two fairs were followed by the Government, Law and Public Service Micro-Fair and the Arts, Media and Fashion Micro-Fairs.

What is most important to note about these fairs is the distinction between a standard “Fair” and a “Micro-Fair.” Of the four, the only one that is not advertised as a “Micro-Fair” is the Accounting and Finance Career Fair, suggesting it to be the most robust and expan sive of the four events.

After a brief investigation, this turns out to be true. Compar ing the Accounting and Finance Career Fair with the Arts, Media and Fashion Micro-Fair makes this distinction apparent.

In the Accounting and Finance Fair, over 40 employers attended to seek prospective employees out

of Fordham students. S&P Global, Wealth Advisory Group LLC, GP Bullhound Investment Banking and HSBC Bank USA Commercial Banking were all among the doz ens of companies in attendance.

Compare that to the Arts, Media and Fashion Micro-Fair held in October. As opposed to the 40 or so employers at the pre viously discussed fair, less than half were in attendance. With only nineteen employers seeking pro spective employees, the size of the Micro-Fair for arts and media is significantly smaller than the size of the regular fair for accounting and finance.

Plus, the industries represented at the Micro-Fair disproportion ately favored “Advertising, PR and Marketing,” again focusing on more finance-focused careers in arts and media industries.

Even the labels of “Fair” and “Micro-Fair” show how one should expect the latter to be smaller, the fact that there is no regular “Fair” for arts and media shows that ca reer opportunities for students are mostly geared towards those look ing for a career in economics and industry.

This preference goes beyond just career fairs. One of the most recent major events promoted by the Career Center was the KPMG Ideation Challenge, a national

challenge that invited Fordham University students to “create a team, develop creative solutions to real-world problems and chal lenge other students from around the world.” KPMG, the organiza tion that was in charge of the event (and an employer featured in the “Accounting and Finance Career Fair”), is a professional firm that focuses on business solutions and “audit, tax and advisory services to many of the world’s largest and most prestigious organizations,” according to the employer de scription on the KPMG Ideation Handshake page. While the event was not hosted or organized by Fordham University, the Career Center promoted the event and is one of the few employment oppor tunity events promoted, but not organized, by the university.

The Fordham Ram believes that, if the university wants to assist students in finding a career after they’ve graduated, its career ser vices should be expanded.

It isn’t enough to provide ample sources for students seeking ca reers in finance and economicfocused industries when there are thousands of liberal arts stu dents on Fordham’s campuses that are in need of similar career assistance, and who are under represented by the offerings of Fordham’s Career Center.

Jesse Rutherford Should Know Better — But We Should, Too

By SOPHIA FORLENZA STAFF WRITER

Speculations about a rela tionship between 20-year-old pop singer Billie Eilish and Jesse Rutherford, the 31-yearold lead vocalist of indie-rock band “The Neighbourhood,” started circulating on the in ternet in mid-October. Social media platforms erupted with conversations about Eilish and Rutherford’s age gap. The cou ple finally confirmed the dating rumors with a controversial Halloween couple’s costume. Rutherford dressed up as an elderly man and Eilish fol lowed suit with a baby cos tume using dramatic, doll-like makeup, obviously making fun of people concerned with their age difference.

People condemned both Eilish and Rutherford for the costumes and their cynical response to the outcry. Yes, the costumes were definitely weird, and this criticism is absolutely valid, but we need to be careful not to place the blame on Eilish. Her view of this relationship is undoubt edly influenced by a power im balance and also likely swayed by Rutherford’s manipulation.

Thanks to the #MeToo movement, our society has made huge strides in under standing and supporting vic tims of abuse. We’ve also be gun to publicly recognize the damaging and painful effects of power dynamics in relation ships. Women have become more empowered to call out both their abusers and the imbalance of power that of ten leads to this abuse. How ever, victim-blaming is still so

deep-rooted in our culture that even feminists and selfproclaimed supporters may inadvertently fall victim to the use of harmful rhetoric.

To be perfectly clear, I’m not trying to imply that Eilish’s relationship with Rutherford is abusive. I understand that their relationship is legal and that Eilish is not a child. But that legality does not make their relationship ethical or, at the bare minimum, healthy.

Eilish’s “adult” age doesn’t automatically mean she is ca pable of understanding the harms of her relationship.

Victims often don’t under stand how damaging these relationships with large age gaps are until years later.

Taylor Swift is well-known for speaking out about the emotional manipulation she endured from John Mayer when he was 32 and she was 19. Swift released the song “Dear John” on an album in 2010 soon after they broke up, and released another song called “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” on her most recent album, “Midnights,” that ref erences the painful toll this re lationship still has on her over a decade later.

Likewise, Demi Lovato re cently released a song called “29” about their relationship with Wilmer Valderrama when he was 29 and they were 17.

Lovato’s song echoes Swift’s heartbreaking demand for societal recognition of insidi ous relationship power imbal ances that victims often only recognize in hindsight.

We should, without a doubt, be concerned for Eilish. We should be cautious when

talking about her relationship so we do not place the blame on her for what is likely the effects of Rutherford’s clever convinc ing that those costumes are edgy. The bottom line is that he knows better; she doesn’t.

Let’s take a deeper look at the timeline of Eilish and Rutherford’s relationship as well as their own personal his tories. Eilish and Rutherford met at a Halloween party in 2017 when Eilish was either 15 or newly 16 — her age isn’t exactly clear, but we know she was certainly a minor.

At the time, Rutherford was dating Devon Lee Carlson. Though they didn’t start dat ing until soon after they both graduated high school, they met when Rutherford was a senior and Carlson was a fresh man. After dating for six years, the pair split in 2021.

While their relationship was not a crime, it is most definitely creepy and gross, and it could be considered grooming, mak ing Rutherford’s song “Single” especially disconcerting. The song is more than likely about Carlson because it was released when they first started dating in 2015 and he references her father, Dave, by name in the song. Rutherford sings “[she’s] just a baby, but she’s growing up so fast / and I’m allergic to the waiting.” Yes, you read that right. Try not to vomit. He is quite literally singing about how he has to wait to be with a young girl, and though he doesn’t explicitly say why, the lyrics obviously imply that he’s waiting for her to turn 18.

Notably, Eilish was in an abusive relationship when she was 16 years old, referenced

in her song “Your Power,” in which she describes her expe rience with emotional abuse from predatory and manipula tive men in the music industry. People online have been using this song as a reason for why Eilish should “know better” by now.

We are quick to criticize women when they don’t act like the “perfect” victims who have already healed from abuse. Why should Eilish know better? Victims of emotional abuse are likely to seek out the same manipulative qualities in relationships that often lead to more abuse. Why should Eilish know better when we as a so ciety have been telling girls for years that they’re more mature than boys their age?

The narrative that girls mature faster than boys is a cleverly-concealed inversion of the damaging adage “boys will be boys,” and lacks any biolog ical basis. When we tell young girls that they are simply more mature, we are also telling them that they should accept all forms of mistreatment from men because that’s their inher ent “nature,” even when our instincts tell us their behaviors

are patently wrong, hurtful, diminishing, demeaning. So when older men prey on young girls with the always persua sive, age-old flattery “you’re just so mature for your age,” these girls have been primed for years to take the bait. But women in their early twenties are not that mature yet, and that’s okay. That’s normal.

While social media’s ability to amplify marginalized voices is valuable and necessary for meaningful change, this capa bility holds the potential to do much more harm than good for victims if we aren’t careful. We need to be more mindful than ever with precisely what we say and how we speak to victims of abusive and manip ulative relationships.

The public’s response to Eilish’s relationship reflects a broader cultural tendency to ward wrong-minded and poi sonous victim-blaming that we still haven’t eradicated. Blame Rutherford. He’s the one who should know better.

Sophia Forlenza, FCRH ’24, is a digital technologies and emerg ing media major from Brookfield, Conn.

New Labor Laws Are Needed to Protect Child Influencers

By OLIVIA TEARE STAFF WRITER

Behind the glowing ring lights, TikTok dance crazes and over-edited Instagram pictures, lies a growing ethical concern for the privacy of child influenc ers. As child labor laws do little to protect their rights, there is certainly a gray area regarding social media stardom.

Coogan’s Law, also known as The California Child Actor’s Bill, mandates that 15% of their income must enter a trust that is protected and inaccessible until they reach the age of 18. However, this law only exists within certain states.

The law notwithstanding, managers and parental figures are entrusted with handling their children’s finances. It leaves room for adults to abuse the lack of legal protection; those actively running social media accounts behind their young employees can exploit this loophole for profit.

For instance, brand deals are generally not announced by child influencer accounts. The ad revenue from these

contracts is commonly left in the control of a parental figure as safety measures on YouTube, Instagram and other social media platforms prohib it children under 13 years old from ownership of their ac counts. It hinders child influ encers’ access to their pictures and data, leaving their privacy in the hands of managers.

After surveying some moth ers across Europe, North America, Australia and Japan, the internet security company AVG discovered that the av erage “digital birth,” or first exposure to the Internet, for children occurs at around six months old.

AVG’s CEO JR Smith says, “A quarter of babies have scans posted online before they have even physically come into the world.” He asks parents to consider that they’re creating a digital footprint for their chil dren without formal consent.

The company’s research points to the violation of privacy that follows today’s youth from before birth to when they become legal adults. Parents and adults who

run children’s accounts should be thoroughly regulated. Once minors fall into the public spotlight, there’s little to guard them against potentially harm ful exposure to the world.

The issue of children’s emo tional and mental well-being arises from the invasive nature of a social media presence. Li censed clinical child psycholo gist Lindsey Cooley addressed this issue in an interview with ABC News. “I think what we’re going to see is a lot of fracturing of identity on some level where kids will be even more disjoint ed when it comes to who they are,” Cooley stated.

Over time, they can become so conditioned to the presence of cameras and phones that the divide between their on line personas and real person alities evaporates. This poses a danger to children’s cognitive growth since the constant pres sure to perform with a virtual facade can weaken a develop ing identity.

Without authentic self-ex pression, child influencers risk falling prey to the adolescent belief of an “invisible audience.”

The term refers to the anxiety of being regularly watched and ridiculed, one that most teen agers age out of as they mature. However, Cooley hypothesizes that child stars find it difficult to let go of their grasp on this belief while their time in the spotlight rapidly leaks into their personal lives. Social me dia’s inability to modulate the privacy of child influencers has become increasingly damag ing to their psyche and violates the individual rights to which American citizens are entitled.

Minors under the control of social media accounts on plat forms that they do not have access to directly contradicts the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). Also known as child labor laws, the FLSA is de signed to protect youth rights, including education and the prohibition of careers deemed hazardous to their health. How ever, there is uncertainty in the legal world concerning wheth er or not a child influencer qualifies as an occupation.

The misclassification of these accounts as adult-run rather than under the ownership of a

child is inherently unethical. It leaves excessive space for man agers to abuse the revenue and power that they derive from young influencers. Not only is this unlawful, but it also fore shadows the increasing danger of online personas. If these parents-turned-employers can continue to successfully jeop ardize the well-being of chil dren by placing them in the gray area of the workforce, it can undermine the fabric of their development.

Kids with thousands or mil lions of followers are deprived of the opportunity to grow up in a normal environment, with no room to experience the true innocence of childhood. Adults and parents who exploit their children’s privacy for financial gain should also help to expose the harm that comes from a lack of regulation, and this needs to become a larger con cern in our society.

Olivia Teare, FCRH ’26, is an an thropology major and linguistics minor from Duxbury,Mass.

#MeToo changed the way we look at age gap relationships — but not enough.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Billionaires Are Society’s Big Bad

dollars per year to feed all of the world’s hungry people and end global hunger by 2030.” With 2030 merely eight years away, this means that only $320 billion is needed. While this is a massive number, it’s only a mere 2% of the total wealth accumulated by the 2,668 billionaires. If we be lieve that there is any level of so cial responsibility expected from the most powerful people on the planet, how do we justify the fact that a small dip into global wealth would solve a major global issue and, yet, the issue continues to exist?

upon themselves to share their wealth? What about charity? How do we morally qualify those billionaires who, with their mas sive concentration of wealth, have dedicated a portion of that wealth to underserved populations and social, political or environmental issues across the globe?

By SEBASTIAN DIAZ EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

According to a Forbes evalu ation from April 2022, there are 2,668 billionaires on the planet. These billionaires, collectively, have amassed nearly $13 trillion globally. As the article explains, western countries, especially the United States, are seeing a rise in the number of billionaires from year to year.

Thankfully, the depths of Hell are an infinite abyss.

To put it simply, there is no eth ical way for someone to become a billionaire. In fact, this goes be yond just billionaires, but to any figure with notable amounts of wealth as that wealth is generated through capitalist production.

Let’s first examine how such wealth is accumulated. Capital ist structure demands that every individual try to accumulate as much wealth as possible. Using an example of a restaurant, let’s examine how this wealth accu mulation is structured in modern capitalist society.

For this argument, let’s say that the restaurant sells sand wiches. The cost of produc ing the sandwich (gathering the necessary ingredients of one sandwich, not counting the

already-spent-and-recovered cost of kitchen equipment) is around $1. This restaurant sells each sandwich for $10. With ev ery sandwich sold, the restaurant makes $9 of profit. Every hour, one employee makes 15 sand wiches. The restaurant sells these sandwiches and generates a profit of $135 in a single hour. Assum ing that one employee makes the United States minimum wage, the worker receives only $7.25 despite producing $135 worth of labor. The remaining $127.75 is paid to the restaurant owner who produced virtually no labor in the generation of that money.

This is an incredibly reduc tive and basic summary of the capitalist system, but it is the baseline function that operates at a global scale in every indus try. Billionaires accumulate their wealth through the labor of their employees. There is a direct cor relation between the success of billionaires and the wealthy and the misfortune of the working class. It’s an old Marx adage that the accumulation of wealth glob ally will only lead to the concen tration of that wealth in fewer and fewer hands. The adage is only proven stronger as time goes on.

In 2020, the Economic Policy Institute found that CEO pay has

increased by 1,322% since 1978. The report also found an incred ibly high CEO-to-worker pay ra tio; for every dollar that a worker makes, their CEO makes $351.

Earlier this year, Amazon raised wages for warehouse workers and delivery drivers to $19 per hour. Compare this to Jeff Bezos, who, when he was CEO in 2019, was calculated to make roughly $9 million per hour. An Amazon laborer would have to work for 24 hours consecutively for 68 years to make what Bezos made in a single hour.

For sake of brevity, I don’t even have the space to discuss how billionaires perpetuate global violence, imperialism and colo nialism as a system for wealth accumulation.

We must also examine the social responsibilities assigned to billionaires. We assign re sponsibility to those in places of governmental power to provide assistance to those that they pre side over. In the same culture, why do we not force these kinds of responsibilities on billionaires in a world where an excess in wealth is equivalent to an excess in power?

The United Nations’ World Food Program USA (WFP USA) says that “[w]e need $40 billion

The conclusion of the WFP USA analysis insists that, through little contribution from every in dividual on the planet, ending global hunger is an achievable goal. It alleviates the responsibil ity from those wealthy enough to fix the problem to the individual working-class citizen, implicitly suggesting that we, despite being in significantly lower positions of power and wealth, have a greater responsibility to help global com munities than those with the real istic means to actually do so.

The perpetuation of billion aires, of wealth accumulation, can only exclusively exist along side the narrative that billionaires have less social responsibility than the average American citi zen. As the number of billion aires grows each year, the narra tive grows stronger.

Think, for example, about the ways that issues like edu cation and healthcare are po liticized in the United States. While social outcry from more progressive electorates calls for funds to be pulled from warprofiting defense industries or from increased taxes of wealthy Americans and channeled into social services, the political so lution established and repeated each year is to increase taxes for American citizens whose wealth is virtually nonexistent com pared to the 1%.

But how do we discuss those billionaires who have taken it

Charity is the bare minimum. It is not a moral success that these billionaires participate in the bare minimum. In fact, the con cept of charity, nestled within the global neoliberal structures, only continues to strengthen the foun dations of capitalism, especially as it forces impoverished nations and global citizens to be fed from the hands of capitalists.

Beyond making the wealthy feel better about themselves and giving the unwealthy a reason to defend those who continue to amass capital, charity also serves as an ideological tool to convince the working masses that capital ism is a successful global system.

Charity lends itself to a Randian fantasy that wealth is generated morally and those who are able to amass billions of dollars within their lifetimes are paragons of virtue willing to spend their money on those less fortunate. With this as a guid ing mindset, it leads the way for the abolition of social services and collective action in favor of an imagined trickle-down effect from wealthy individuals at the top to those at the bottom of the economic food chain.

The truth is, billionaires are simply not that charitable.

Not only is the accumulation of wealth (especially to the point of billionaire-ship) unethical and theft, but the billionaires that exist on the planet have shown themselves to be more akin to economic parasites than any kind of benevolent force.

Sebastian Diaz, FCRH ’24, is a film & television and journalism major from Chapel Hill, N.C.

COURTESY OF PIA FISCHETTI/THE FORDHAM RAM

Western countries are seeing a rise in the number of billionaires from year to year.

OPINION

Election Day Should Be a Holiday at Fordham

By MICHAEL SLUCK PRODUCTION EDITOR

On Tuesday, Nov. 8, I trav eled home to New Jersey to vote. For whatever reason, my request for a mail-in ballot never went through, so my only option was to vote in-person. Thankfully, my hometown is relatively close to Fordham, so I was able to make the trip there and back in a single day, fulfilling my civic obligation to participate in our democracy.

The journey, however, was still time-consuming; I had to take multiple trains, and it took me about an hour and a half to get home. It was made even more difficult by the fact that I had to balance my schedule to fit my travels in with my classes.

I was lucky this year because my Tuesday schedule is rela tively light. Some of my friends, however, weren’t so fortunate. Some people traveled home on Monday night, in order to wake up, vote and rush back to Fordham to attend classes. But several of my friends — even those who come from the Tri-State area — had such busy schedules, they couldn’t make it home at all.

If you had a busy Tuesday, you may not have had the time to get home to vote in-person. You may have been forced to choose between voting and skipping a class, with all the negative repercussions missing class entails. In a video created for The Fordham Ram, stu dents were asked if they voted, with several saying they lived close enough to be able to travel home to vote, but were unable to because of hectic schedules.

The Fordham administration should make Election Day an official school holiday with no classes, allowing students time to travel home to vote.

A large portion of Fordham’s student population is from the Tri-State Area, meaning it’s feasible for many of them to be able to vote in person. While mail-in ballots are an alterna tive (and the only option for those who live too far to travel home), the mail-in ballot sys tem is much more compli cated than in-person voting. There are deadlines to request ballots that students might miss. There are forms to fill out that students might complete incorrectly. The ballot might be mailed incorrectly or lost in

the mail entirely. If a student lives close enough to Fordham to travel home on Election Day, then that might be the prefer able option.

While young people have his torically voted less than other age groups, this trend has been changing in recent years. Some polls have suggested that Gen Z’s participation in the 2022 midterms was one of the high est turn-outs of youth voters in decades, second only to 2018. Gen Z clearly wants to par ticipate and have their voices heard. Fordham should do ev erything they can to make this process as easy as possible.

In an email to the Fordham community on Monday, Nov. 7, President Tania Tetlow re minded students about the im portance of voting, stating that Election Day is “the moment we each decide whether to earn our democracy or squander it.”

She also asked the faculty to “be flexible with those colleagues and students needing extra time to travel home or stand in longer lines.” While this re quest is admirable, wouldn’t it just be easier to give everyone the entire day off? An official school holiday would reaf

firm Fordham’s commitment to civic participation.

Doing so wouldn’t only ben efit students, either. Fordham faculty would also be allowed more time to vote. For all those students who live too far away to travel home to vote, the day off would just serve as a nice day-long break after the stress of midterms.

Fordham continually stresses the importance of being “men and women for others” and that “of whom much is given, much is expected.” Civic participation — whether through volunteer service, or some other form — is often held up as one of the pil lars of the Fordham communi ty, one of the things that makes this school different from all the others. Voting is one of the sim

plest and most important ways that people can make a differ ence in their communities.

If President Tetlow really wants students to “[m]ake your voice heard,” to “[v]ote to hon or those who still do not have the privilege,” then the admin istration should make it as easy as possible for students to vote.

In the future, Fordham University should cancel classes on Election Day. If the Fordham administration really believes that voting is crucial to our society, then they should commit to that princi ple in more than just words.

Michael Sluck, FCRH ’24, is a political science and computer science major is from Verona, N.J.

Next NATO Leader Should Be a Show of Support to Ukraine

By CLAIRE BICKEL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Jens Stoltenberg, former Prime Minister of Norway, is the current Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He has served in this position since October 2014 and is expected to step down next September. It is vital for the diplomatic head of the most significant military treaty in the world, the largest power check on Russia, to have experience in leading complex govern ments. Subsequently, it could not be more critical to quickly select an experienced candi date, who is a strong leader with good communication skills, and who has a clear stance against Russia.

While NATO is, first and foremost, a military treaty, it is also an important political and values alliance. During a time when the world moves further away from democracy and closer to authoritarian ism, this alliance could not be more important.

When Donald Trump was president of the United States, his statements and actions brought considerable uncertainty to NATO. Nev ertheless, with Stoltenberg’s calm and disciplined leader ship, NATO stayed the politi cal course, with pro-democracy and anti-authoritarian leader ship ideals. Because of this as pect of the diplomatic alliance, the Secretary General posi tion is not a military post, but a civilian one.

The importance of the posi tion of Secretary General at this time cannot be under stated. As the war in Ukraine approaches its ninth year, and a full-scale Russian in vasion approaches its ninth month, NATO cannot afford to be careless with the re placement for this position.

Although Ukraine is not a part of the NATO alliance, it is a close NATO ally and a former Soviet country that gained its independence and turned towards democracy. NATO is heavily involved and invested in the war on a polit ical and diplomatic level, not just a military level. This means that the Secretary General is in charge of NATO’s current response and political strategy regarding Russia.

In addition to the impor tance of the Secretary General regarding Ukraine, there are also the pending admissions of Sweden and Finland. This represents the rising tensions with Russia as more coun tries seek NATO admittance in fear of Russian aggres sion. This severely limits the extent to which Russia can rebuild its empire, which it is attempting to do in Ukraine.

With Sweden and Finland’s admittance, all countries on Russia’s Eastern border will have become a part of NATO, except Belarus and Ukraine. If Russia attacks any of these border NATO members, ac cording to Article 5, the full force of NATO will come to their defense.

Troops have already amassed

in border NATO countries such as Poland and Romania. While troop deployment is a duty of the Supreme Allied Commander, the admittance of new countries and address ing of the political climate is a duty of the Secretary General.

As for who should be the next NATO Secretary General, it should be a wom an. In the 73-year history of the treaty, only men have led the alliance. Beyond that, as the current leading contend ers become clear there are more qualified women can didates on this list than there are men.

NATO’s next Secretary General should also be from an eastern European country to emphasize the alliance’s commitment to the sover eignty of the nations most in danger of Russian expansion. Lastly, this person should have previously served in a high government position and have extensive experi ence with foreign policy.

The first candidate that stands out is Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister and finance min ister of Canada. Freeland is Canadian-Ukrainian, which would send a message of solidarity to Ukraine. While Ukraine is not, as of now, a part of NATO, this would en sure their interests are being considered. As for Russia, it would send a similar message that NATO’s power is behind Ukraine. Freeland also speaks English, French, Ukrainian, Italian and Russian, has run

complicated ministries and handles news conferences well.

One problem that could arise if she became Secretary General is Canada’s GDP. Canada has yet to reach the 2% of GDP threshold for de fense contribution to NATO — they are currently at 1.36%.

In practice, Canada’s con tribution to Europe’s secu rity is minimal, which puts the prospect of Freeland as Secretary General in ques tion.

The second candidate that stands out is Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Estonia, which borders Russia. She has been highly vocal about the atrocities committed in Ukraine by Russia, and under her leadership, Estonia has done more for Ukraine, rela tive to its size, than any other country in the world, provid ing the equivalent of 1% of its GDP. On top of this spending, Estonia contributes 2.28% of its GDP to NATO defense spending, unlike Canada.

Kallas has also expertly artic ulated parallels between her country’s ordeal under Soviet occupation and Ukraine’s ag ony now.

Many consider Kallas as too anti-Russian and believe any one from the Baltic nations or Poland would be too fiercely anti-Russian to properly lead NATO. However, this align ment should not be a deter rent. While avoiding war with Russia is vital, we should not fool ourselves into believing that relations with Russia

and NATO will ever revert to more peaceful times until there is a significant change in Russia.

A third candidate is former Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. She was Croatia’s ambassador to Washington and worked at NATO as Assistant Secretary General of Public Diplomacy.

While Grabar-Kitarovic is more than adequately credentialed for the role as Secretary General of NATO, would set a danger ous course. In her 2019 reelection bid for president, she turned to the far-right. In a world where democracy is being attacked, and NATO prides itself on being a source of democratic values, it would be damaging to select GrabarKitarovic. Additionally, there have been numerous accusa tions that she is too close to Putin and Russia.

Whoever becomes the new Secretary General will have to continue the diplomatic and political work of NATO in an ever-evolving world climate while pushing back against Russia and an increase in au thoritarianism. It is vital that this new leader has exten sive experience in a govern ment leadership position, is a strong communicator and has a clear stance against Russia.

Claire Bickel, FCRH ’24, is a political science and interna tional political economy major from Branford, Conn.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Students shouldn’t have to change their schedules to perform their civic duty.

OPINION

Surveillance Cameras Prompt Privacy Concerns

Francisco, there is a new ordinance allowing police officers to tempo rarily access live footage of cam eras not owned by the city.

ally a neighbor returning a pack age, and then sent out a notifica tion that prompted the owners to retrieve their handguns and shoot.

ing violent crimes.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Surveillance cameras and Ring doorbell cameras are increasing in popularity.

By SAISHA ISLAM CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Indoor surveillance cameras and outdoor Ring doorbell cameras are increasing in popularity across the United States. While I think that surveillance cameras like Ring doorbell cameras have positive effects in deterring some minor crimes and aiding police investiga tions, people should also be made more aware of the direction sur veillance camera technology may be headed in and the consequences that can arise from it.

Although I don’t have a Ring doorbell camera, I do have sur veillance cameras in my home, and this is common throughout my neighborhood. When some one crashed into a neighbor’s car at night, it was surveillance cam eras that helped determine what

happened. Surveillance cameras inspire feelings of safety and secu rity. There is also a sense that you are being proactive in preventing a crime from occurring, or in the worst case, that you at least have recorded footage in order to aid in investigations when a crime is not preventable. This is a widelyheld chain of thought. Research has shown that surveillance cam eras like closed-circuit television (CCTV), which is installed in cit ies, reduce minor crimes like car burglaries and property theft, but they have little impact on deterring more violent crimes.

While there are some positive effects of home surveillance cam eras, there are also some privacy issues to consider. Although the technology to access live footage hasn’t been created yet, in San

Surveillance footage from home cameras has been posted on vari ous apps such as the Neighbors app and the Citizen app. Police officers can request footage from Ring doorbell users. Amazon has also sent out Ring camera footage to police officers “without notifi cation or warrants,” and worked with the police to promote Ama zon products in a quid pro quo situation.

Additionally, home surveillance cameras have also contributed to an increasing culture of people watching each other, which is dan gerous to normalize. Amazon Ring sends notifications to your device, akin to social media, which grabs your attention. Amazon even has a TV show where viral or comedic camera footage is shown, further normalizing the idea of people watching others. Delivery work ers have also been affected as their falls and accidents are surveilled and recorded, contributing to their humiliation.

There have also been safety concerns regarding home surveil lance cameras since they can eas ily be hacked into. In one incident, Amazon Ring detected what was thought to be a threat but was re

Although no one was hurt, this incident shows how Ring tech nology can be defective and go in the complete opposite direction of their goal of safety. Addition ally, in Ring’s complement app Neighbors, people of color are often listed more as suspicious, which promotes racial bias.

Surveillance cameras and Ring doorbell cameras are so common in today’s world. I’ve even seen comedic videos on the Internet of people’s failures or unusual hap penings which were recorded on home surveillance cameras. Learn ing more about how home surveil lance cameras can invade your pri vacy or the privacy of others gives me something to think about in re gards to getting or using something like a Ring doorbell camera.

Other than a more balanced point of view concerning privacy, learning about home surveillance also makes me think more about its relationship to deterring crime. While home surveillance and gen eral surveillance can be benefi cial for individuals, their families and neighbors, they should not be thought of as the only solution for crime deterrent, especially since they are not as effective in prevent

More effective methods which infringe less on privacy and can target reduction of violent crimes include adding new streetlights in neighborhoods where violent crime is more familiar. In one study, it was found that adding new street lights reduced “seri ous felony crimes that includes murder, robbery and aggravated assault, as well as certain prop erty crimes.” Perhaps the concept of reducing crime should not be left up to residents, and instead should be pushed by city and town representatives.

Overall, while home surveil lance and Ring doorbell cameras do offer benefits in making people feel safer, deterring small crimes and aiding in investigations, it is also important to consider how they may invade your privacy along with the privacy of oth ers. In a culture where surveilling and people-watching is becoming more common, it is important to find the distinction between safety and privacy. The next time you consider getting home surveil lance or a doorbell camera, bal ance the positives alongside your need for privacy.

Saisha Islam, FCRH ’25, is a biology major from Bronx, N.Y.

Liberal Brainwashing and the Need for Left-leaning Teachings

By SOFIKA LEVYTSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

College campuses are not cen ters of “liberal brainwashing” but of innovative thought. In fact, to improve our community, we should embrace even more leftist and liberal ideas, such as critical race theory, in educational environments.

Critical race theory is “a set of concepts seeking to explain the structural underpinnings of in equality and racism in the United States.” This theory has recently become prevalent in daily discus sions and, subsequently, contro versial. Many argue that the the ory is necessary to combat racism in America and address our ugly past, a past that still affects people of color today. On the other hand, many Americans fear critical race theory blames white people for societal ills. This viewpoint, however, is a misrepresentation of critical race theory and its aims.

Critical race theory addresses the privilege that white people have had historically, and any dis comfort the theory causes should not be taken personally. Instead,

individuals should use Critical race theory to reflect on their be liefs and societal position. As stat ed by one New Hampshire teacher, “discomfort and dissonance often accompan[y] growth and learn ing; this is something I strive to normalize for my students.” Dis comfort is necessary for growth and should not be used to discredit critical race theory.

Critical race theory is important in countering racism and other bigoted mindsets. Our methods of teaching slavery and race within public history classes are not uni form and often include problem atic wording and assumptions. For example, North Carolina uses the term “immigration” to describe African American enslavement.

By implying that enslaved Af rican Americans were like “im migrants,” these teachings grossly understate thse enslaved peoples’ forced deportation to America.

Teaching methods like criti cal race theory are necessary. Encouraging students to address their prejudices could help prevent other systematic issues caused by blatant racism. For instance, issues like racism in the medical field

could be addressed through doc tors’ proper education on social and cultural topics. By incorporat ing liberal ideas within educational environments, students in scien tific fields that often enforce rac ist, sexist and homophobic beliefs could better comprehend social issues.

Despite critical race theory’s obvious benefit to American edu cation, it is still not largely taught. When the idea of critical race the ory initially arose, there were in tense fear mongering campaigns. The fear by mostly white AngloSaxon Americans over critical race theory grew to the point where a Texan bill passed limiting critical race theory in schools, despite its already small presence. While this rise may appear to be the result of a few bigoted beliefs run-wild, I would argue that it is consistent with a trend of anti-intellectualism in America.

Anti-intellectualism is funda mentally rooted in our Evangelical Protestant world.

Anti-intellectualism stems from our origin as a largely Protestant nation — a religion that empha sizes anti-rationalism. This back ground has caused years of distrust toward logical thought, as empha sized in historical controversies such as the Butler Act of 1925, which limited science-based evo lutionary teachings. As such, it is not surprising that we continue to distrust educational institutions. In comparison to other nations, the American “Republican Party leans much farther right than most tradi tional conservative parties in West ern Europe and Canada,” accord ing to The New York Times. This trend continues despite college professors’ increasing bias towards

leftist and liberal ideologies, with “liberal professors outnumber[ing] conservatives 12 to 1.” As aca demia leans toward leftist thought, it is important that we recognize our bias as a nation and do not im mediately discredit leftist centers.

Even within our campus, there is work to do in order to create a more welcoming, inclusive and informed environment. While I am still only a first-year, I have already had many different experiences re garding our colleges’ accessibility to left-leaning ideology, and have not found Fordham to be a liberal school. I base this argument on the school’s treatment of left-leaning spaces and restrictive policies, and this conclusion came initial ly from Fordham’s treatment of Rodrigue’s Coffee House (Rod’s).

Within just a few weeks of my time here, the administration tem porarily closed the coffee shop, a predominantly queer and artistic space, against the wishes of Rod’s members.

The university administration’s actions showed a general lack of respect toward one of the few leftleaning spaces on campus. In my eyes, the take-down of Rod’s art and then its extended time with out coffee, when its purpose is to be a coffee shop, seemed to be a new administration’s need to exert influence over previously accepted and respected communities. This viewpoint of mine becomes rein forced when I regard Rod’s past, where it has been a generally un touched and respected community, with some of its artwork dating back to the 1980s. Once I even found a student ID from that time in Rod’s.

Along with this decision, Fordham University has an un

doubtedly odd relationship with sex. For instance, Fordham policy states that “while personal posses sion of contraceptives, contracep tive devices and/or birth control, in any form, is not prohibited, dis tribution is prohibited on Fordham University property, using [school resources and at school-sponsored events.]”

The school’s limitation of con traceptive access directly increases the risk of pregnancy and un safe sex. In these ways, Fordham fails as a welcoming space for left-leaning thought.

How can schools combat this disregard for left-leaning thought? Within our school’s policies, I would most definitely get rid of our odd treatment of sex on campus. I would also love to see the school become more accessible to people of color. Perhaps we could do this by hiring more faculty members of color or by increasing our effort to offer scholarships to underprivi leged groups.

Regarding the big picture, we need to address fundamental struc tural inequalities. For instance, there are a lot of funding gaps within minority communities, with these communities receiving about “13% less per-student funding than other school districts.” In gen eral, there are also not many posi tions of power given to educators of color, with around 80% of K-12 public school teachers being white. By slowly but surely addressing these inequities and providing a platform to underrepresented groups, we can create a fair and welcoming environment for all.

Sofika Levytsky, FCRH ’26, is undecided from Parsippany, N.J.

K-12 schools and colleges are being accused of “liberal brainwashing.” COURTESY OF UNSPLASH

Kroger-Albertsons Merger Is a $4 Billion Moral Sin OPINION

supply chain can be. Is their pri mary goal truly to serve communi ties, or to have a better fiscal year than Walmart?

By SARAH KENNY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Grocery stores are essential to society. On the surface, they pro vide communities with a local source of food. However, they also act as a quasi-public space where people gather and interact. Think of the times when you awk wardly bumped into your teacher while grocery shopping with a parent and then the proceeding 20-minute conversation. Access to that engagement with fellow com munity members is under threat.

Kroger and Albertsons, two gro cery store rivals with a major share of stores across the United States, are poised to merge together in a deal worth $25 million. Kroger operates stores under the brands of Kroger, Harris Teeter and Fred Meyer and has a strong presence in the Midwest, South, Southeast and Northwest regions of the country.

Albertsons operates stores under the brands of Safeway, Acme, Kings Food Market, Shaw’s, Star Market and Jewel-Osco and has a strong presence in the Northeast,

Southwest and Northwest.

The deal, set to be finalized in 2024, could mean higher prices because of less compe tition and store closures. The most controversial aspect of the merger is the $4 billion special dividend Albertsons is paying to shareholders.

As someone who previously worked at Safeway, I am appalled by this merger and view it as a di saster for the country.

The first reason this merger is a mistake is that it has the potential to raise food prices. Albertsons and Kroger occupy a large portion of the grocery store market with approximately 5,000 stores com bined. They argue that a merger allows for lower prices, a simpler supply chain and better competi tion with other big grocers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon. However, with more power over pricing and a now much more complicated supply chain, con sumers will become more depen dent on their prices. The pandemic recently exposed just how costly a complex and interdependent

Secondly, this merger is a mis take because of the number of stores that would close. In order to get the merger approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Kroger and Albertsons will have to close stores in areas where there are multiple stores in close prox imity. While this may not sound like a big deal, upon a closer look, Kroger and Albertsons stores oper ate closely to one another in many areas across the country including states like Washington, California, Texas, Illinois and D.C.

These stores would be put into a separate Albertsons-operated com pany called Spinco with the even tual goal being to sell them off to other buyers. The problem is that the merger assumes there are vi able vendors willing to buy these stores. Sure, a significant amount of them could be bought up by lo cal chains, but should a merging strategy really be bought off such a big “what if?” If Albertsons cannot find any buyers to purchase these stores, they will close.

This is a huge issue and leads to the third reason this merger is a mistake: This deal has the potential of decreasing communities’ access to a nearby grocery store. In gen eral, this merger means consumers have less options to choose from. Where do you go if the only store nearby is out of baby formula or does not have affordably priced bread or eggs? This merger is fur ther consolidating the power of the grocery store market into the hands of a few corporations with con

sumers at their mercy. The merger also has the potential to create food deserts in communities with only one Kroger or Albertsons store. If that store closes, people will have to travel farther for fresh food.

Albertsons and Kroger stores are fixtures of my community. In the greater Seattle area alone, they run four different stores: Fred Meyer, QFC, Safeway and Albertsons.

In fact, I live right down the street from a Fred Meyer, a QFC and a Safeway. In the areas of the country where there is so much overlap between Kroger and Albertsons stores, a majority of these stores closing would mean thousands of employees across the country becoming unemployed or choosing to retire early to sal vage their pension. As a former Safeway employee, I know that this shift will likely cause my for mer coworkers to lose their jobs; to me, that is catastrophic.

The part that angers me the most is that the leaders of the Albertsons corporation are choos ing to abandon the ship rather than go down with their crew. Even before the merger began be ing hashed out in court in hopes of being approved by the FTC, Albertsons was prepared to pay its shareholders $5 billion as soon as late October, right after the merger was first announced. This meant that even before planning a strategy to keep their stores afloat until the merger is finalized in late 2024 or ensuring that employees’ pension plans were protected, the Albertsons corporation sharehold ers were going to pay themselves first. While shareholders receiv

ing money as part of any large merger is standard, Albertsons is operating on shaky moral ground in their payout sum. Albertsons has $7.5 billion in debt, $4.9 in pensions to pay and is borrowing $1.5 billion to afford their share holder payouts, all while knowing the high likelihood of many stores closing and employees being left unemployed. Albertsons argues that they have a payment plan for pensions that is funded until 2051 and maintains that this payout will not affect its financial capa bility to operate stores until the merger happens. Unfortunately for Albertsons, their words cannot mask the truth their numbers tell.

Businesses, especially grocery stores that serve a public good, have a duty to prioritize their con sumers and their employees above their shareholders. While they are owned by private corporations that have the authority to run their business as they want, to an extent they also have a responsibility to the communities they operate in.

Currently, the $5 billion pay ment to Albertsons shareholders has not happened due to a lawsuit by the Washington state attorney general who sued on account of the payment’s legality. The merger itself will be an ongoing process and could face more roadblocks as the FTC determines if it breaks an titrust laws. I hope companies lis ten to the community and stop the merger. It would be a moral crime not to do so.

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

Conspiracies Aren’t the Problem; It’s Our People

By EMMA FOLEY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Are conspiracy theories truly harmful?

All one has to do is browse the news to witness the effects of con spiracy theories. Most familiar is the case of Alex Jones, who made (and subsequently lost) millions of dollars by calling the Sandy Hook shooting a “hoax.” There was also the infamous Capitol raid on Jan. 6 enacted by election deniers. Most recently, Nancy Pelosi’s husband was brutally attacked in late Oc tober by an assailant linked to farright, extremist conspiracies. Em pirically speaking, it seems as if conspiracy theories are extremely harmful. However, I argue that this is not the case.

To be honest, I enjoy conspiracy theories. I find the debates about 9/11, Jeffrey Epstein and even the moon landing fascinating. Of course, I always use discretion in deciding which theories to really believe in. When sitting around a table with friends, sharing bits of theories we’ve read on the in ternet, these conversations seem harmless. As I just mentioned, this same type of action has led to vio lence. However, I don’t think this violence is directly correlated to the theories themselves. Instead, I believe most of the blame should

be put on the internet, its algo rithms and a nationwide mental health crisis.

Conspiracy theories have not always existed in far-right inter net forums. They’ve been used countless times by groups of dif ferent opinions to question the political zeitgeist. This is because, by nature, they question author ity and place politicians in hot water. Groups like the Weather Underground in the mid-20th cen tury used conspiracy ideas to pro test the Vietnam War. Additional ly, even 19th century groups of the Democrats, National Republicans, Anti-Masons and Whigs are cited to have used conspiracy theories as a tactic to thwart opposing campaigns.

However, conspiracy theories (like most other things) shouldn’t be placed in a black-and-white, good-or-bad sort of argument. Es pecially when looking at the case of 42-year-old David DePape, their ambiguities and external ties become more apparent. DePape was reported to have experienced homelessness and spent many hours on the internet when he wasn’t working. His avid reading of things like QAnon and other far-right theories became a point of obsession, according to his for mer boss. It isn’t hard to see that DePape was suffering and likely

filling a void by participating in the positive feedback loop of extrem ism. He’s an example of conspira cy theories turning sour as a result of them being used as an unhealthy coping mechanism. I think he’s also representative of a certain de mographic that is often targeted by conspiracy theory groups.

As I originally stated, I truly don’t think conspiracy theories are harmful. I instead view them as a necessary and probably inevitable reaction to government. However, I think we are seeing an increas ing amount of problems due to the poisonous obsession that the farright has inspired in its followers. For instance, I think technology has both increased the rapidity in which people absorb these theo ries and exaggerated their cred ibility. This last part is crucial, as algorithms can easily gather what would be considered people with niche, obscure or extreme view points into one community, falsely attributing their beliefs with the mainstream opinion. In this way, the internet quickly normalizes ex treme behaviors. Combined with a population of lonely and pur poseless internet-users who also happen to be frustrated with the democratic party, this dangerous potential can become weapon ized. Thus, something like QAnon is born and someone like DePape

is given inspiration for a bloody attack.

So while the concept of a con spiracy theory has resided in murky morality waters recently, I still defend them. There is some thing fun and exciting about trad ing ideas, and it’s our right to chal lenge whatever messages are fed to us by politicians. I also think that to ban conspiracy theories or deem them as intrinsically bad is worthless, as they seem like natu ral parts of humanity in their truest form. Instead, I think the prob lem lies in a question of why the United States has a population that is so chronically online, and

so chronically angry.

I’m against the violence that the far-right has incited through their various theories, but I be lieve that one should be free to theorize, and that it’s unavoid able. I’m not saying that an older man deserves to be bludgeoned in the middle of the night, but clearly there’s some meaning be hind the exhibited distrust and dissatisfaction of citizens toward the democratic establishment.

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

Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked by an assailant linked to conspiracies.

Kroger and Albertsons, two grocery store rivals, are poised to merge together. COURTESY OF TWITTER

Fame and Vulnerability in “My Mind & Me”

By MARIBELLE GORDON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Practically anyone who grew up in the 2000s and 2010s was raised alongside Selena Gomez’s career as her bright artistic personality spanned across television, movies and music. She is a defining artist of Gen Z pop culture and has been a role model for millions since the late 2000s. Despite her massive success in sev eral artistic fields, Gomez has

endured suffering in several corners of her life through out every stage of her journey through stardom.

Gomez has been under the spotlight for 20 years now and has had several bouts with scrutiny from the press and general public, so a documen tary on the trials and tribula tions of her incredible career is long overdue. “My Mind & Me” is intensely raw and hon est as it explores her journey with fame, relationships and

health with a particular focus on her recent struggles with mental illness.

The documentary dives spe cifically into the years 2016, 2019 and 2020, all of which were very significant to her ca reer and life. The main themes surround her battle with lupus, bipolar diagnosis, lifesaving kidney transplant and rocky relationships, as well as how all of these challenges affected her music career.

She’s been outspoken in the

past about her fight with lu pus, but this film showed the grim reality that she faces when the disease flares up. A chillingly casual conversation within the first 15 minutes of the documentary details how the effects of lupus on her reg ularly puts her at high risk of having a stroke.

Although she has been open about some of her physical health issues in the past, this film exposes the world to a side of her life that she hasn’t made so accessible before. In the late 2010s, while the star was suffering from depression, anxiety and panic attacks, the press painted Gomez as an unstable and ungrateful artist who simply couldn’t handle the pressure of fame. How ever, raw footage and inti mate diary excerpts are used throughout the movie to paint a full picture of the mental agony that Gomez has faced in the last six years.

Director Alex Keshishian is experienced in creating a nuanced picture of an artist through film. He also directed Madonna’s “Truth or Dare.”

In “My Mind & Me,” he con structed a sympathetic image of a superstar who has faced tremendous, and often un warranted, criticism and been given no room in the media to simply exist as an imperfect human. The powerful intimacy of this documentary is pivotal

Studying Abroad | London, England

for understanding the true ef fects of fame, especially with how they clash with preexist ing struggles independent of one’s industry status.

In addition to all of the heartbreaking moments cov ered in Gomez’s documentary, there are also many bittersweet and revelatory moments that show how philanthropy has been a source of great relief for the singer. Gomez has been very involved in uplifting the conversation on mental health and has big plans for change that she hopes to help facili tate. She’s working with the U.S. government to construct a mental health curriculum that would be implemented in schools, an idea she’s been passionate about since begin ning recovery from mental health struggles.

Gomez’s film isn’t a run-ofthe-mill celebrity documen tary or some sort of publicity grab. This movie beautifully portrays the complex reality of mental illness and its farreaching impacts. Its poignant honesty encourages a better understanding of what men tal health is and how we can work to foster it well as a so ciety. Ultimately, “My Mind & Me” is a crucial advocate for the importance of empa thy and compassion, a much needed reminder for a world that grows more apathetic and self-absorbed by the day.

People We Meet When Studying Abroad

By JAMISON RODGERS COLUMNIST

“For me, traveling is about wandering, meeting people you don’t expect, doing things you’ve never done.” This quote, and the inspiration for this article’s topic, comes from Emily Henry’s novel, “People We Meet on Vacation.”

The book follows two best friends who travel the world together and the people they meet along the way. This article is about the peo ple I have met along the way of my journeys while abroad.

One of the things I was most excited for when I applied to the study abroad program last fall was the opportunity to meet new people. I knew many of my classmates in the program would be fellow Fordham stu dents, but I was excited to figure out who I would meet along the way of my travels.

The Fordham London Centre has afforded me with some of my closest friends. I met Abbey on the first day of orientation and af ter knowing each other for only 10 days we booked a non-refund able, three day trip to Amsterdam together. Whether it was the tem porality of the study abroad pro gram that pushed us to become so close in such a short amount of time or something else, I now have a friend I wouldn’t have met without this program.

Meeting people who would have otherwise been strang ers while traveling is always interesting to think about. You spend a day, an afternoon, an hour with people you just met and within that time you talk about everything from where you’re from to what your as pirations are. Then, at the end of your time together, you part ways, strangers once more.

The people I have met while traveling have made the world feel a little less intimidatingly big and helped bring a new perspec tive into my life. These are just a few of those whose paths have crossed with mine.

The group of Americans I met while waiting in line for the cafe car on a train in Inverness, Scotland. They brought a douse of familiar ity with them as we chatted and waited to warm up with some hot chocolate as views of the Scottish Highlands rolled by.

The family from Florida that traveled around the Douro Valley in Portugal tasting port wine with my parents and myself. We heard about the places they have traveled to and how they were doing in the wake of Hurricane Ian. The guide for the trip also shared his story of first working in social services aiding in a re habilitation program for drug ad dicts and then his transition into the tourism industry.

The Scottish couple my dad and I met while taking a cooking class in Lisbon, Portugal who shared stories about their farm and their travels. We spent a leisurely rainy day in the city making good food and having great conversations.

The professional stand up comedian who also doubled as Abbey and my river boat guide in Amsterdam who infused hu mor into his retelling of the city of Amsterdam’s history. Or the bartender later that night that kept the laughs going as he kept Abbey and me company while we ate dinner.

The last example is my most favorite and makes me believe that there is at least a small amount of magic infused in traveling. It was Abbey and my last day in Amsterdam and we found a little bagel shop a short walk from our hostel. Naturally, as a New York transplant, I had to try their rendition of a bagel. As Abbey and I are waiting to order after the group in front of us, I hear someone exclaim “Oh my god.” When I turn to see what happened, I come face to face with none other than Emma Lipkind, a friend who

worked on the Ram with me last semester and who happens to be co-writing the study abroad column with me this semester. It was quite literally a small world moment for me.

All these people that I have met, or accidentally bumped into, while traveling abroad have made the world feel a little smaller and more con nected. Whether we just spend an afternoon together or form a long lasting friendship, the magic of travel brings people together in a way that doesn’t always happen in “real life.”

One of the pleasures of studying abroad is meeting people from all over the world and hearing their stories.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Selena Gomez opens up about her experiences growing up in the spotlight in her new documentary.

“Tartuffe” is a Hysterical Production You Don’t Want to Miss

By NICOLE DiPIETRO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Thursday, Nov. 10, the Fordham University Theater delivered a hilarious perfor mance of the 1664 theatrical comedy “Tartuffe.” Written by Molière and adapted by Ranjit Bolt, the story follows Orgon, the wealthy father of a house hold who opens his doors and shares his wealth to the religious hypocrite, Tartuffe. Orgon and his mother, Madame Pernelle, are both blinded by the fraudu lent fronts put up by Tartuffe, as the rest of the family spends the duration of the play doing anything they can to get their father and grandmother to see the man he really is.

The Mainstage production put on at Fordham Lincoln Center, directed by Terrence I. Mosely, left me, and the rest of the audience, hysterical. The in credible comedic delivery of the entire cast felt as if I were watching a two and a half hour long “SNL” skit. Specifically, the performances put on by Trystan Edwards FCLC ’23, playing Madame Pernelle, and Raekwon Fuller, FCLC ’23, who effortlessly portrayed the family’s housemaid, Dorine, were the highlights of the show.

Throughout the play, Edwards showed the audience his abso lutely jaw-dropping ability to perfect the mannerisms of an irksome grandmother, along side Fuller, who put forth a great representation of a sassy and loving housemaid that ends up taking on a maternal role for

the kids in the family. The devi ent Tartuffe, played by Tyler Isaiah Bey FCLC ’24, knew just how to make his character appear dumbfounded and mis chievous in all the right ways.

In addition to the acting, the production quality of the play was excellent. From the set,

lighting, costumes and sound, it all made the show just that much better. While the set didn’t change for the duration of the play and remained an ele gant room in Orgon’s mansion, the use of hallways, curtains and doorways made the show feel much more dynamic. The

lighting emphasized the mood of the characters on stage, defi nitely helping those who might have been lost. As for the cos tumes, the actors were dressed well for who they were portray ing. There was a classic grand motherly skirt, knit sweater and gray wig for the character of

Madame Pernelle. Orgon sport ed a sophisticated brown suit and his wife, Elimire, a sleek purple cocktail dress. The rest of the characters were all dressed ac cordingly, besides housemaid Dorine. She wore jeans, an or ange tank and a bulky denim jacket. This set her character aside from the rest and em phasized Dorine’s importance to the plot. Finally, the use of different sound effects and mu sic added to the quality of the production as well. In between each scene, a song would play as the actors geared up for their next lines. There was also use of a radio on stage during vari ous scenes that was ultimately used to open and close the show that symbolized Dorine’s power in the play.

While I did enjoy the show overall, the story itself was slightly difficult to follow at first. Even having read the first few acts of the play prior to seeing it — many thanks to my Invitation to Theater class — it took a little bit for me to put together who was who due to the extensive amount of char acters on stage during the open ing scene. Though, I do digress because once I did learn who was who, it was smooth sailing from there.

The theatrical performances at Fordham Lincoln Center began Thursday, Nov. 10, and there are upcoming performanc es on Nov. 16, 17, 18 and 19. If you happened to miss showings of “Dance Nation,” the last show put on by Fordham Mainstage, “Tartuffe” is a performance you definitely don’t want to miss.

“All Rhodes Lead Here” Explores the Importance of Roots

By PAOLA GALIANO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“People cried over endings, but sometimes you had to cry over new beginnings. I wouldn’t forget what I’d left. But I was going to be excited — at least as much as I could be — about this start and however it would end.”

For Aurora De La Torre, her voice would be found in her songs — measly words written on a page in her songbook, itching to be played against a strumming melody. Aurora’s songs were how she communicated with the world, how she processed how its kindness and cruelty affected her in ways that spoken words could never properly explain. It was how she grieved the loss of her mother, the divorce that she never saw coming.

Over the years, many have exploited that voice, making it so that the words that previous ly came so naturally to Aurora eventually began to trickle in slowly.

Until they stopped altogether.

Deciding she needed a change of pace and scenery, Aurora packed her bags and took a chance, renting a garage apartment

in the only place she had called home many years ago: Pagosa, Colorado.

Little does Aurora know that the landlord of said garage apart ment had no idea she was rent ing his property — those missing details were filled in by the land lord’s sheepish son who wanted some extra cash without his dad knowing. Even so, Aurora was determined to stay. She proudly brought with her more than a mil lion bags and a megawatt smile.

It was a shame that Tobias Rhodes was not impressed. Yet.

The greatest point I can start with about this book is its setting and how perfectly it made each scene and character interaction that much better. Set against a backdrop of Colorado mountain trails and camping and hiking, closing this book made me want to put on my hiking boots and chill with mother nature for hours on end.

Not only was the setting nicely described, but it felt comfortable, like it was purposeful for the heavier topics that “All Rhodes Lead Here” ultimately dealt with.

There was a lot that was not immediately noticeable about what Aurora was dealing with when she arrived in Pagosa. Aside

from hints of previous trauma, Aurora presented a front filled with sunshine smiles and hilari ous jokes that made even the surliest crack up with her. This is a girl that screamed when

she found out that bats like her bedroom, who absolutely lost it when she thought she might have damaged the wings of a bird large enough to eat her whole. However, even though

her past remained mysterious for much of the book, I didn’t find myself growing irritated at how the pacing of the book re mained slow and steady. It was a purposeful and brilliant choice. Zapata structured her novel to be more about the journey than the destination.

I loved hearing about Aurora’s retrospective inner monologue and the thoughts that randomly popped into her head. Being shown rather than told how Aurora’s change of scenery helped her grieve the life she had was the most rewarding part of this book. She’s an opti mist, constantly looking for ways to make other people smile, how to make herself smile.

“All Rhodes Lead Here” is mar keted as a romance, but honestly, that might be the least important part of everything that happens to Aurora. I argue that the friend ship that slowly develops between Aurora and Rhodes is even more beautiful and visibly important to how Aurora finally started to re alize that it was okay to put down roots — to stay in one place for more than mere fleeting moments.

“Life didn’t have to be perfect for you to be happy,” Aurora nar rates for us, “Because what was perfect really, anyway?”

“All Rhodes Lead Here” explores different facets of the romance genre.

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

“Tartuffe,” directed by Terrence I. Mosely, left the audience hysterical with great performances from its leads.

“MM...FOOD” and the Unique Sound of MF DOOM

By MATTHEW COLUCCI BUSINESS DIRECTOR

“MM…FOOD” is an anagram of the artist MF DOOM’s name and the album’s title, which was released 18 years ago on Nov. 16, 2004. The album’s title is the per fect representation of the double entendres, metaphors and sev eral food-related samples that are utilized throughout the tracklist. The titles of the songs are all food related, but the messages go far beyond the artist’s favorite foods, as they touch upon topics such as the exploitation of drama for pop ularity in “Beef Rapp,” and the true meaning of friendships in “Deep Fried Frenz.”

Before analyzing the album, it’s important to know a little more about Daniel Dumile. Du mile (A.K.A. MF DOOM, Metal Face, Metal Fingers, The Villain, Viktor Vaughn, Zev Love X), is the famous underground emcee behind the notorious metal mask. The artist was born in 1971 in London. However, he grew up in various parts of New York, such as Long Beach, Long Island and Manhattan. From 1997-2001, Daniel Dumile spent a majority of his time freestyling in under ground open-mics under his alter ego, MF DOOM. Dumile was equipped with a metal mask simi lar to the Marvel Comic of Doctor Doom, and in his rhymes he ref erenced his alter-ego as a villain alongside other cast members in the MF DOOM/Doctor Doom universe such as Mr. Fantastik, the rival of MF DOOM. Through his creation of these characters, MF DOOM effectively formed an untapped area of rap that is only

limited by his imagination. Un fortunately, the reality of Daniel Dumile’s life consisted of living from bench-to-bench in various parts of Manhattan. He men tions his near-homeless experi ence through the backstory of the MF DOOM character, who had a scarred face and was taking time to recover. Luckily, one of the oth er artists at the open-mics found Daniel Dumile to be particularly interesting and gave him the op portunity to sign with Fondle Em’ Records. This opportunity allowed Dumile to release the full-length EP, “Operation: Doomsday,” un der the alter-ego of MF DOOM. The success of the EP allowed Daniel Dumile to focus on his music career to make a living. In 2020, Daniel Dumile passed away in his birthplace with no cause of death provided. The perfect way for the villain to disappear.

“Beef Rap,” the first song on the album, contains a multitude of samples from films that MF DOOM felt related to his experi ence as a homeless person. The first skit in the song contains a sample from the movie, “Wild Style,” which contains a conver sation between substance abus ers who are tight on money after spending it on paraphernalia. The next skit contains a conver sation from a 1942 horror film, “Bowery at Midnight,” which contains a peculiar conversation between two men at dinner. The first man asks for soup, but the second man ignores the question and asks about what happened to his hand. The second man, the owner of the hospital, orders the nurse to attend to the man with the disfigured hand. After that the man with the disfigured

hand receives medication and no longer wants any soup. This con versation directly correlates to the previous skit because they both include Daniel Dumile’s thoughts on the current systems related to substance abuse. Following the first two skits are four more skits containing random voice lines and scenes from movies and shows related to superheroes and comic books that Dumile remembers from his childhood. This theme of Dumile’s memories and how he uses them as a scapegoat to avoid the “crooked system” occurs throughout the entire album. The samples used in the skits through out the album seem to subtly tell a story that relate to the thought pro cess of Daniel Dumile during his time on the streets. His limitless creativity and passion for comic books all contribute to the success of the character MF DOOM.

In the first verse of Beef Rap, MF DOOM delivers some of his clever double entendres. In the first bar MF DOOM says, “Beef rap, could lead to getting your teeth capped.” Around the time that the album was written, the documentary, “Beef,” containing the evolution of rap battles to street violence popularized the

term “beef” which is used for the tension between certain groups and people became a popular turn in the rap community after the release of the documentary. In the line used by MF DOOM, the slang term “beef” is used to dis suade other emcees from using his name in a negative context as it might lead to them losing teeth. The other meaning of beef, which is the literal meaning, implies that eating too much greasy beef could lead to a need for dental work. MF DOOM uses these double enten dres throughout the album and one of his staples. His ability to use the double meanings related to what is occurring in pop culture and the rap community has paved a path for other artists to use. The emphasis on deeper lyricism has led to the rise of popular rap art ists such as Kendrick Lamar, who has stated that he took inspiration from MF DOOM. However, MF DOOM’s biggest strength is his seamless flow and unique style. At a first listen, it may seem like some of MF DOOM’s lines contain simple rhyme schemes. However, fans and music critics have found MF DOOM’s intricate use of complex rhyme schemes and lyrical timing to be genius.

For example, the song, “Rapp Snitch Knishes,” contains a line that reads as follows, “Hitting on many trees, feel real linen. Spit ting on enemies, get the steel for tin men.” At a glance these two bars may seem as if they are sim ply connected by rhyming the last words of each bar, but upon closer observation, MF DOOM uses inter nal rhymes with the words “trees” and “enemies” which was com mon practice for many of the larger artists to use at the time, like The Notorious B.I.G. and Eminem. It doesn’t stop there. In the beginning part of each bar, MF DOOM uses words with more syllables to make it feel longer, and words with less syl lables to make it feel shorter at the end. The incredibly me ticulousness of this style allows for MF DOOM to incorporate setups and punchlines into his lyrics. This same style of timing was used by Mozart, one of the greatest composers of all time. MF DOOM’s externally simplistic and internally complicated style al lows for any type of audience to enjoy his legendary music.

“MM…FOOD” is a fantastic album for anyone who wants to explore MF DOOM and his unique sound, style and flow. It’s 15 songs and only around 49 minutes long, which makes it an easy listen. Songs such as “Rapp Snitch Knishes,” “One Beer” and “Deep Fried Frenz” are some of my favorites, but there are so many more songs on this track that I have in my playlists. Overall, MF DOOM is one of the greatest emcees of all time, and everyone should give him a chance. And remember, all caps when you spell the man’s name.

Yo La Tengo’s “Fallout” and the Undulating Emotions of Time

By ILAINA KIM CULTURE EDITOR

I had the unforgettable expe rience of seeing Yo La Tengo perform live for Central Park’s SummerStage last fall, an event that felt more like a backyard music session than a largescale outdoor concert. Come to the end of their set, front man Ira Kaplan brought his mother onstage to perform an endearing rendition of one of their most popular songs, “My Little Corner of the World.” His fellow bandmates, Georgia Hubley and James McNew, adorned her vocals with glit tering showers of piano and guitar. The crowd looked on with clasped hands, swaying along with undulating sound waves that floated up and dispersed into the October air. With graceful artistry, Yo La Tengo bottles up this very feel ing and imbues it into hushed vocals and noise-rock to create a sound that is deeply eclectic, cathartic and melodic.

“Fallout,” the latest single from an upcoming album “This Stupid World,” bears familiar

thematic fruits of their richly de veloped discography. Over pro pellant guitar chords and blurred bass, Kaplan laments the present while pleading to revisit the past and “fallout” of time. The rhyth mic guitar line begins to resem ble a beating heart as the song progresses, effectively creating a paradoxical sense of com fort and uncertainty. Similarly, the lyrics suggest both a desire for catharsis and escape from anxieties of the ever-looming “now.” Though plaintive in his words, Kaplan sings rather prag matically: “I won’t tell you what it’s gonna be/I don’t have what you want from me/I want to fall out of time.”

Simultaneously fuzzy and pulsing, Yo La Tengo dances along the threshold of many genres to create an indepen dent fusion of drone pop and indie rock. While some crave plasticity and experimenta tion in new releases, there is something beautifully seam less about the predictability of “Fallout” — it is exactly what one would expect and hope for in a Yo La Tengo single. Exist ing in the center of their musical sweet spot, the song captures a

fleeting thought, threading it through an elongated guitar lick and repetitively poetic background vocals.

Channeling the understat ed melodicism of The Velvet Underground and the suburban sweetness of the Silver Jews’ lyricism, Yo La Tengo exhibits various highlights from their broad genre while maintaining an irresistible sense of indepen dence. As I eagerly anticipate the release of their 16th studio album in February, I plan to lis ten to “Fallout” as incessantly as I did “Nowhere Near” last au tumn. Just as their sound is an amalgamation of inspirations, this single is an amalgamation of rhythmic feelings: the wind brushing my face as I drive through my hometown back roads, the feeling of my father’s heartbeat as we embrace before a flight back to New York, the bellowing roar of the subway as two trains pass by one another. Existing over a string of time, these moments are easily over looked if you don’t pay atten tion. The subtle beauty of Yo La Tengo shares the same delicacy, and you might miss it if you fail to listen closely enough.

Yo La Tengo’s “This Stupid World,” is set to be released in February.

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

“MM ... FOOD” is the perfect introductory album for MF DOOM.

Kick Your Way Through Life with Krav Maga

By KASSITY GARRETT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Nov. 8, Fordham Self Defense Club had Krav Maga instructor, Avi Abraham from Active Krav Maga, come to teach students techniques for self de fense. The first session opened with an introduction and safe ty tips from Public Safety’s Deputy Emergency Manager, Mike McGinn. He said that the purpose of this training was to teach students to “fight the way you train” and to “take quick decisive action.”

Abraham then took over and had students move all of the ta bles and chairs to the side of the McShane Campus Center ball room. Most were unaware of exactly what they were getting into and were shocked when Abraham enlisted the students in a fast pace warm-up includ ing lap running, partner wheelbarrels, push-ups and loud coaching, as if it were a mini boot camp.

Spread out throughout the ballroom, students stood ready to learn self defense. Abraham called for volunteers to come to the middle of the floor in order

to show ways to protect your self in various situations. Some included being strangled from the front and behind, a shirt grab and knife to the throat, typically including the demand “GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!” which Abraham would yell in a scary, yet humorous, manner, keeping the intense subject matter still light for the students.

Having partnered up, students were instructed to practice the move with the scenario they had been given. Abraham went around the room, observing, ready to pro vide help to any group that may have needed it. This typically included Abraham instructing the students to “ATTACK!” and creating a more life-like scenario to what one may encounter in the real world.

The essentials of a Krav Maga move typically include around five steps. A tough turn, either away or towards the attacker to loosen their grip on you. This is typically followed by a “ham mer” to the face, which is a hit from the side of your fist, rather than a normal punch. Then with your hammer hand, you grab your attacker and … kick them in the balls! Regardless of sex,

Abraham explained the sim plicity and importance of this move, and specifically the im portance of kicking twice. He asked, “Why do we kick twice?” to which the students answered “Because there are two balls!” Each move ends with two hands up towards the attacker as the universal signal for “stop,” while keeping the hands ready to de fend in the event the attacker continues to attack. The mix of humor with important skills cre ated a fun and effective environ ment for students to learn about the art of defending yourself.

It is Fordham Self Defense

Club’s first year as an official club, with Krav Maga being their first official event. I spoke with club leader, Juliana Di Rende, GSB ’23, who first had the idea for the club with her friend fresh man year, “Since COVID-19 hit, this year we were finally able to go through with it … we reached out to Public Safety, they loved the idea and now they are work ing with us.”

Di Rende described her ex perience with self defense prior to Fordham and the importance of providing students with these opportunities, “When I came here and received Public

Safety emails about students getting robbed and mugged, we thought this club might be beneficial to anyone who might feel unsafe.” The club aims to empower students through self defense and give back to the community. Juliana describes it as a “way to bring people to gether with a common goal of bettering yourself both men tally and physically.” The club leaders hope to grow the club through social media and word of mouth in order to share the art of self defense further amongst the student body and keep the community safe.

Todd Fields’“TÁR” Cancels the Conductor’s Cruelty

By ALYSSA CAMPBELL CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On a Manhattan stage at the New Yorker Festival, staff writ er Adam Gopnik delineates a resumé-like introduction to the “TÁR” star. Meet Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett), world-renowned con ductor and composer, who as cended from humble beginnings in Cleveland to Boston, New York and now the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic. Her credentials sat isfy her lofty career, the Harvardeducated maestro mentored by Leonard Bernstein is also a mem ber of the ultra-exclusive EGOT club, as she has been awarded an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. She has recorded all of the Mahler symphonies but one, and prior to her coveted conversation with Gopnik, she just released her memoir, “Tár on Tár.”

After a roar of applause, Tár

finally blesses the stage with her powerful presence and genius, and begins her interview. The opening scene engages in a con versation with the classically trained and educated, seemingly catered to a high-brow audience. But Lydia’s grandiose and appar ent genius, thanks to Blanchett’s gripping performance, leaves every viewer absolutely ob sessed and enthralled with the character of Tár.

Similar to her professional ca reer as a conductor, much about Tár’s life is controlled and meticu lously choreographed. She wears only bespoke, tailor-made suits. She drives a pristine Porsche Taycan, and lives in a breathtaking Berlin apartment with Brutalist interiors. She speaks in perfect German, as revealed in a scene that is both horrifying and elec trifying, where she confronts her grade school daughter’s bully,

looking down upon the child, mut tering, “Ich bin Petra’s Vater (I am Petra’s father).”

Aesthetically, the muted hues integrated with simple, yet pro found cinematography (Florian Hoffmeister) create a clean back drop for the character of Lydia to obtrude against, which establish es a stark and intriguing contrast. The soundtrack produces a simi lar, suspenseful effect, compos ing quiet and tense scenes that are interrupted by noisy, orchestral entrances — it is as unsettling as it is jarring. Writer-director Todd Field has so perfectly crafted the world and character of Tár that the film has often been mistaken for a biopic, and Lydia for a real person. But unlike biopics that follow an incredible road to success along side a victorious rise to fame, “TÁR” follows an anti-heroine’s fall from grace, much to the tune of a Shakespearean tragedy.

As the film progresses, the con ductor’s relationships reveal to be complicated. We quickly learn of Lydia’s domestic troubles, as her wife, Sharon (Nina Hoss), always appears tired and some what resentful towards her. She is first violinist at the Berlin Philharmonic and her relation ship with Lydia shortly began after her appointment as conduc tor. Lydia’s assistant, Francesca (Noémie Merlant), is fearful, ob sessed and enraged by her boss. She has trouble stepping out of her submissive role to advocate for her own musical career, while she hopes to be appointed as the Philharmonic’s new second con ductor. Halfway through the tor tuous plot, we meet Lydia’s new est “project,” a young Russian cellist, Olga (Sophie Kauer), who peaks Lydia’s interest both on and off the stage, whilst snubbing a solo from the conductor’s wife, disappointing her accordingly. However, Field has given Tár bigger fish to fry than dramas in the home and in the workplace. The film has been advertised to tackle the twenty-first century topic of “cancel culture,” and personally I think Field has done so in a way that proactively stirs the pot without taking a rash stance that turns a conversation into disrespectful satire. From the onset of the plot, it is hinted that there are rumors surrounding Lydia and her young female col laborators and mentees, focusing in on that of her former student, Krista Taylor (Sylvia Flote), who is apparently suing the conduc tor for slander by dissuading other orchestras from hiring her. But rather than honing in on a particular stance, the film blurs narratives by rooting its own so

deeply in Lydia’s point of view that it eventually settles into a conversation more towards abuse of power.

But Lydia is nonetheless re sponsible for the consequences of her actions, and her legacy is forever ruined through the abuse of her position. Perhaps the con versation Fields engages is about something separate entirely, with the possibility of being a cri tique of modern third-wave white “#girlboss” feminism. Tár’s story was never one of “triumph over adversity,” as she was always set up to fail in the male-dominated arena of Western-classical mu sic, with the extra barrier of her status as an openly lesbian wom an eventually subjugating her to stereotypical judgement.

In the aggregate, the film is so committed to its noncom mittal position on all aspects of political conversation that it serves better as a movie theater lobby conversation starter than evidence for a film studies the sis. The abrupt, non-satisfactory ending provides the exact con clusion that Blanchett and Field wanted to give us: nothing. The 1967 essay by French liter ary critic Roland Barthes,“The Death of the Author,” argues against relying on the intentions of the author to find a definitive explanation for the “ultimate meaning” of a text. “TÁR” in and of itself is a rejection of an ultimate meaning or argument, as any impressions from the film upon the audience should be subjective. Art is art for the sake of being art, and the art of this film is Blanchett’s magnif icent performance, and Todd Field’s convoluted character study of a screenplay.

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Fordham’s Self Defense Club invited Active Krav Maga to teach students self defense techniques.

Fields creates a masterclass in character study, exploring the corruptive influence of power, love and fame.

Senior Fights for LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Catholic Spaces

By MICHELA FAHY ASST. OPINION EDITOR

Benedict Reilly, FCRH ’23, is a senior you can likely find active on Gmail or GroupMe at any given time, promoting the latest opportu nity for engagement and commu nity at Fordham. Though, there is a chance that at any moment, you could likely find Reilly anywhere on either Fordham campuses. De spite his many faithful commit ments to the Fordham community, if you know him, you also likely know that getting him to divulge any information about himself or his accomplishments is actually

a difficult pursuit, his disposition elusive and self-effacing. Commit ted to several different aspects of the Fordham community, Reilly is involved in Campus Ministry, the Center for Community Engaged Learning, the Rose Hill Society and the Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal, to name a few. Upon meeting with Reilly, there are many paths I can take to high light some of the incredible work this Fordham fixture has done in spiritual inclusion in his four years here.

Fordham truly started to feel like home for Reilly while he was serv ing as an Urban Plunge Assistant

his junior year. Urban Plunge, a preorientation program for first-years entering Fordham, is designed to orient students to the uniquely rel evant needs of the people of New York City. The program, which Reilly participated in as a first-year and then in subsequent years as an Urban Plunge Assistant and a Reflections Captain, helped him fi nally feel at home in promoting the intersections of faith and justice. Following this experience, Reilly reflected on the Ignatian idiom “bothered excellence” to ponder how he could create “interfaith harmony and queer inclusion,” two aspects of life at Fordham that he felt needed to be enhanced.

At the heart of pursuing greater interfaith and queer inclusion at Fordham, Reilly reflected on the lack of “home” for students who don’t necessarily identify with the Roman Catholic traditions that Fordham is founded in. Namely, he sought out to find a way to promote faith traditions. “Tradi tion is an important resource for Fordham, yet there are an infinite number of ways tradition is charac terized. It’s important for people to feel connected to the past, present and future in whatever way works for them,” said Reilly. This notion of tradition and the power it has over the possibilities of our future is something that he ponders of ten. How can we respect tradition while simultaneously encouraging collective growth?

Treading this line of tradition and growth, Reilly set out to cre ate a space he longed for: a home

for queer students to explore their spirituality at Fordham. For Reilly, this has principally taken shape in the form of an initiative he started nearly a year ago, the Queer Prayer Project. This project is a collection of prayers and reflections that were submitted by LGBTQ+ members of the Fordham community. In the introduction of the prayer book, Reilly writes that the text aims to “push the boundaries of who is spiritual and who is part of Fordham’s spiritual community.”

This has been a profound experi ence for Reilly, who has worked with every individual to create a form of prayer that was rel evant and true to each contribu tor. An especially memorable moment in this creative process involved working with a fellow student, who wanted to reflect on Whitney Houston’s famous song “The Greatest Love of All.” Reilly remembers this collabora tion fondly, as the reflection and prayer only emerged after having a dance party to Houston’s song. The diversity of the prayers that have been included in the Queer Prayer Project only emphasizes the innate beauty and joy of love.

Since the book’s completion, Reilly has been able to present this emblem of queer inclusion at Fordham to multitudes of people at The Ignatian Family Teach-In For Justice, a confer ence for all Jesuit high schools, colleges and universities. The resounding support from peers and faculty members at other in stitutions only further affirms the

need for this slice of home to be cultivated and preserved.

Reilly’s next initiative for queer spirituality at Fordham is already on the horizon.

According to the Magis website, where all queer spirituality projects and events can be found, Reilly’s next endeavor will take place next spring. From April 21 to 23, Fordham will be hosting Ignatian Q, “a conference creating commu nity, developing spirituality, and affirming humanity for LGBTQ+ students at Jesuit schools.”

Following the success that his endeavors within queer spiritual visibility have seen, Reilly has also been working to build a more tan gible interfaith body on campus. “Campus Ministry is an important resource, but making it more ac cessible is important; all students deserve access to the resources made available for Catholic stu dents,” explains Reilly. Along with other student interfaith leaders on campus, Reilly holds an inter faith dialogue group biweekly on Wednesdays at 7 p.m.

The Gritty, Gruesome Realities of World War I

By NORA LEACH STAFF WRITER

While director Edward Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” is not an easy film to sit through, its brilliance lies in its portrayal of World War I as hor rifying and heartbreaking. Re leased on Netflix on Oct. 28, the German film is an adaptation of the 1929 anti-war novel by Erich Maria Remarque. The plot fol lows a young German soldier named Paul (Felix Kammerer) who is excited to fight in the “Great War” for the pride of his country. Once he arrives in the trenches, his youthful innocence disappears, forcing him and his friend Kat (Albrecht Schuch) to grapple with the realities of the war. Additionally, a subplot follows German official Matthias Erzberger’s (Daniel Brühl) peace talks that culminate in the sign ing of the armistice.

The beauty of the film lies in its cinematography, with an em phasis on grisly shots. The film opens in silence, save for the tranquil sounds of nature, and shows mountains, forests and a family of foxes before cutting to a shot of dispersing fog that reveals dozens of corpses on a blood-soaked battlefield. This opening gave only a taste of the brutality that was to come.

I had to look away during many scenes because I was un comfortable and terrified, partic ularly when they showed bloody faces and severed limbs of the soldiers’ corpses. However, I ap preciate the film for not shying away from the violence, because it helped me understand the suf ferings of both the living and the dead. I was also angry that these soldiers had to witness such painful deaths. In this sense, the cinematography is integral in making the story’s antiwar mes sage effective.

Complementing the brilliant cinematography are the actors’ performances. Kammerer’s por trayal of Paul’s transformation from a naive boy to a trauma tized man is a highlight of the film. In one of his first scenes, Paul signs up for the war with a proud, excited smile on his face. In contrast, his most memorable scene occurs on the battlefield after a fight with an enemy French soldier. Paul’s tears fall down his mud-soaked face, his breath shakes and he whimpers in desperation as he scrambles to save the soldier from a pain ful death. Kammerer succeeds in his performance by encapsulat ing the conflicting dilemma of a soldier: Is fighting for one’s country worth the sacrifice of human compassion?

Schuch’s performance is just as excellent. Kat’s scenes with Paul are highlights of the film, and his strongest moments take place off of the battlefield and in peaceful fields and forests as his bond with Paul strengthens. In one scene, Paul reads out a letter from Kat’s wife, and when he finishes, you can tell how much Kat misses his home as he gulps and sniffles to hold back his tears. While tonally different from the scenes in the trenches, I found moments like this one just as effective because of their ability to humanize the characters outside of their identi ties as soldiers. By establishing this meaningful relationship, I found myself holding my breath during the battle scenes and pray ing that they make it out alive.

The only weak aspect of the film was the subplot surround ing the armistice. After spending so much time with the soldiers I had grown to care about, the shift to focus on government and military officials was jarring. As the film progressed, however, I understood Berger’s decision to include these scenes; it was not to necessarily learn more about the subplot’s characters, but to show the inequalities of the war. In contrast with the soldiers’ des perate efforts to find scraps of dirty food and water, the officials comfortably sit in chairs as they

feast on colorful and bounti ful meals. Instead of feeling sympathy for their struggle to end the war, I could only feel anger that they can struggle in luxury and comfort while sol diers like Paul and Kat live in a bloodbath. The subplot was uninteresting, but I appreciate Berger for providing another perspective beyond the battles

With overwhelming sup port from Fordham faculty and staff, namely Joan Cavanaugh, Fr. Bryan Massingale, Michael Lee, Ph.D. and Vanessa Rotondo, Reilly has felt supported and moti vated to continue to foster a sense of community for queer students at Fordham, though it is certainly not easy to sustain. In all that he does, Reilly is passionate about leading with a “bothered excel lence,” encouraging his peers to do the same. to show how cruel and unfair the war was.

“All Quiet on the Western Front” is a raw, emotional snap shot of World War I that proves no amount of national pride is worth the sufferings of millions. It is not for the faint of heart, but if you can make it through the blood and gore, you will be nothing short of impressed.

Berger’s film embraces the full horror of the original, 1929 novel.

Benedict Reilly strives to make the Jesuit community more inclusive.

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Rangers’ Inconsistency is Cause for Concern

By ALLIE COPPOLA CONTRIBUTING WRITER

After a three-game losing streak, the New York Rangers bounced back with an 8-2 statement win against the Detroit Red Wings, only to post a 2-1 loss against the Nashville Predators on Saturday night. Before flying out for a West Coast road trip, they defeated the Arizona Coyotes 4-1 on Sunday night. Igor Shesterkin returned to his Vezina-winning form against the Yotes, almost recording a shutout with 31 saves on 32 shots. Yet the Rangers find themselves in a precarious spot: inconsisten cies on both sides of the puck are preventing them from playing at the highest level.

Before the explosive win against the Red Wings, the losing streak forced head coach Gerard Gallant to shake up the core lineup for the first time this season. A no table change was Chris Kreider’s removal from the first line and placement on the third line, break ing up the Kreider-Mika Zibanejad chemistry. Gallant put them back together in the very next game, but had Jimmy Vesey slot in at the right wing position instead of Kaapo Kakko. The Rangers’ five-on-five play has been medio cre at best this season, and Gallant hopes that the lineup changes will uncover some potential chemistry between players that don’t usually play together on a daily basis.

Frustration on the defensive end continues, though there isn’t much wiggle room when it comes to the defensive pairs. Zac Jones has been unable to cement a posi tion in the third pair, with Libor Hajek consistently starting along side Braden Schneider.

Ryan Lindgren was out with an in jury for two games, making his return in the losing streak-snapping game against the Wings. The Blueshirts’ newly-minted captain Jacob Trouba is reportedly playing through inju ries, and his partner K’Andre Miller has been largely absent defensively and has made minimal offensive

contributions all season long.

Adam Fox is clearly the Rang ers’ MVP on defense so far, with a consistent offensive outpouring and fairly average defense. Incon sistency on defense end is without a doubt the Rangers’ most glaring issue.

On a more positive note, eight Rangers players had multi-point games in the blowout win. Fox scored four points and Zibanejad tallied two goals in the rout, while youngsters Filip Chytil and Vitali Kravstov capitalized on the abun dant offense opportunities with three combined points. The matchup against the Predators wasn’t nearly as exciting, with the lone goal coming off of Chytil’s stick. Backup goalie Jaroslav Halak posted anoth er loss and has yet to tally a win this season. His save percentage of .883 sits among the worst in the league.

Juuse Saros, the opposing goalie, made 34 saves on the Rangers’ 35 shots, a stellar performance in the low-scoring game.

Star forward Artemi Panarin has 22 points through 17 games, the most of any player on the team, but has a negative eight plus/minus rat ing, which is the difference between how many goals and goals against the player has been on the ice for. This rating is three points worse than any other Ranger, with five other players at negative five. His negative eight rating is among the worst in the entire league this sea son. Panarin is not known for his defense, but this level of play is det rimental to the team.

Though it’s still early in the sea son, there’s no time like the present to sort out these issues and make changes in order to raise the bar for the rest of the year. Falling be hind early can come back to bite the Rangers, especially as they are look ing for a better result compared to their Eastern Conference Final loss last season. The expectation this year is to win the Stanley Cup, and a significant improvement needs to be made to reach that goal.

Athletes of the Week

The fifth-year graduate student is off to a hot start in Fordham’s first three games. Beyond her 18 points per game and 46% shooting, Dingle broke the pro gram’s single game steals record with 10 in a 81-39 destruction of the Saint Peter’s University Peacocks last week. She also shot 7-14 from the field to finish with 19 points against the peacocks. Against the University of Maryland, Dingle finished with 16 points and nailed her first three long balls of the year. Dingle is currently third in the country in total steals and 12th in steals per game.

With senior quarterback Tim DeMorat’s throwing abilities, there is a receiver who has to catch the dots. Graduate Student Fotis Kokosioulious has surpassed the 1,000 yards receiving mark this season. His game against Lafayette College last weekend included 117 yards receiving and two scores, with his longest being 35 yards for the day.

Each week, The Fordham Ram’s Sports section honors two athletes for their on-field performances as their “Athletes of the Week.”

Pejouan Leads Rams to a 2-0 Senior Weekend

By MILES GROSSMAN STAFF WRITER

Fordham Volleyball finished their 2022 campaign on a high note, notching two wins over the George Mason University Patriots. Of the four seniors who wrapped up their college careers on this memorable Saturday, Chloe Pejouan in partic ular put on quite a show. With her family in attendance, she posted 15 kills, 15 blocks and 1.67 blocks per set. This weekend’s performance was enough to earn her Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the Week.

Apart from libero Mallory Lipksi, all seniors will graduate out of head coach Ian Choi’s program, including Aria De La Rosa, Megan Brzozski, Pejouan and Analisa Cartledge. While losing all of those regular starters will leave considerable holes in the lineup to begin 2023, there is still a lot of returning tal ent to be excited about. Perhaps the best news is that Lipski decided to take advantage of her fifth and final year of eligibility to work alongside Whitley Moody in what will be her senior campaign. Outside of the leaders in Moody and Lipski, Fordham will also return the young and explosive pair of outside hitters

from this season’s freshman class in Audrey Brown and Zoe Talabong. With veteran leadership in place to guide the young talent on Rose Hill, the Rams are poised for greater suc cess in conference play throughout fall of 2023.

To recap this final weekend of 2022, the Rams rolled past George Mason on Friday and Saturday with well-diversified offensive at tacks. On Friday, both Moody and De La Rosa accrued 17 kills while Brown also made a solid contri bution with 14 of her own. Friday night’s match was a real back and forth thriller, but a timely run to close the decisive fifth set fueled by the largest home crowd of the year led the Rams to victory. Then, 18 hours later, the Rams hosted

their senior day ceremony before finishing their season with a satis fying 3-1 victory over the Patriots. Saturday’s win featured an even more well-diversified attack led by Moody with 12 kills and the pair of ascendant freshmen in Brown and Talabong with nine kills apiece. On the defensive side, Pejouan was a re lentless presence with seven blocks on Friday and eight on Saturday.

The Rams finished the year with arguably an underachieving 7-11 mark in Atlantic 10 play and a 13-16 record overall. But this past week end’s sweep bodes well for this bal ance of young and athletic freshmen and sophomores and veteran upper class leadership heading confidently into a promising 2023.

Squash Competes at the Navy Round Robin

By NICK GUZMAN SPORTS EDITOR

Fordham Squash competed at the Navy Round Robin this past week end in Annapolis, Md., playing in four matches from Friday to Sunday. The Rams went 2-2, picking up wins against Bucknell University and the Navy club team, but falling to the Navy varsity team and Denison University. Competition began for the Rams on Friday against Navy’s varsity team. The Midshipmen dominated Fordham, winning the match by a score of 8-1. Junior Nicholas Choo delivered Fordham their only vic tory in the ninth position, as he de feated Shankar Jambunathan 11-5, 11-4, 11-5. Navy came away with sweeps in positions 1-7 as they swept the round robin to improve to 10-1 on the season.

Fordham rebounded on Saturday with a 6-3 win over Bucknell. The

Rams struggled at the top of their lineup but got things going towards the bottom, picking up wins in posi tions 5-9. Some key performances from the Rams came from sopho more Bennett Van Liew in fifth po sition and freshman Jack Stanley in sixth position. Van Liew defeated Harrison Sotir 11-5, 11-4, 11-9, while Stanley got the better of Will Vincent 11-7, 11-8, 13-11.

The Rams kept things rolling later that day with a 9-0 sweep over the Navy club team. While Navy only had five players available to com pete, Fordham managed to sweep each of these matches and win by default in the other four. Freshman Adham Nassar and sophomore Sofia Arseniev were dominant in first and second positions, with Nassar topping Alexandre Toner 114, 11-4, 11-8 and Arseniev getting the better of Alexander Hoot 11-3, 11-1,

11-0. In the five matches that were contested, Fordham defeated Navy club by a combined score of 165-54.

To close the round robin on Sunday, the Rams were faced with a tough test against a very talented Denison team. Denison came out on top 8-1, with Fordham’s sole victory coming from Van Liew in fourth po sition. He defeated Lucas Piller in four sets, 3-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5.

With their 2-2 performance at the Navy Round Robin, the Rams move to 7-3 on the season. They are back in action this weekend with four more contests, beginning on Friday with a home matchup against the University of California, Berkeley.

Fordham will then play Washington University in St. Louis and George Washington University on Satur day, before concluding the weekend on Sunday with a big showdown against Northeastern University.

Varsity Calendar

AWAY

Men’s Swim and Dive

Women’s Swim and Dive

Water Polo

Men’s Basketball

Women’s Basketball

Asiah Dingle Graduate Student Women’s Basketball

Fotis Kokosioulis

Senior Football

Squash

Fordham Volleyball honored five seniors before Saturday’s match.

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Overtime: The Qatar Dilemma

By NICK GUZMAN SPORTS EDITOR

On Sunday, the 2022 FIFA World Cup will kick off in Qatar. The 22nd edition of the quadren nial tournament will be the first to be held in the Middle East and the first to not take place in May, June or July. While this World Cup is historic for many reasons, it is controversial for just as many, if not more.

Qatar’s World Cup has been shrouded in controversy since the moment they were awarded the tournament 12 years ago. Allega tions of corruption and bribery during the bidding process led to a U.S. federal investigation that resulted in the arrests of several top-ranking FIFA officials.

Beyond that, the rights of migrant workers have been cent ral to the lead up to the tourna ment. According to a 2021 ar ticle from The Guardian, 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since they were named as hosts in 2010.

And now, as we approach kic koff in Qatar, questions still remain about the safety of LGBTQ+ fans. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, leading to concerns about how LGBTQ+ fans will be treated if they choose to attend the tournament.

The official Qatari stance on this matter remains vague. In an interview with Sky Sports, World Cup Chief Nasser Al Khater was asked about LGBTQ+ fans trave ling to Qatar, saying, “Everybody is welcome here and everybody will feel safe when they come to Qatar… all we ask is for people to be respectful of the culture.”

No one knows where Qatar will decide to draw this line of “respect,”

causing some fans to make the dif ficult decision of staying home en tirely. Even if Qatari spokespeople say all fans are welcome, how can they know for sure, especially con sidering the laws that are in place?

That’s where we sit, less than a week from the opening ceremony. So how can I, an American college student, justify being excited for this tournament? The answer is fairly simple: I can’t. But I’m going to watch anyway.

I’m aware of how out-of-touch and privileged that may sound. But it isn’t that easy to just look away. I’ve been waiting for this tournament for eight years. The United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) missed the World Cup in 2018, meaning I was just 12 years old the last time I got to see them compete on the world’s big gest stage. This is my thing, and I was robbed of it four years ago. Maybe if I were a better person, I would boycott the tournament. But in a selfish way, I need this World Cup.

I need to know that all the time and effort I’ve put into following our national team for most of my life has led somewhere. That’s a lame excuse, I know. But it’s hard when something you love rubs up against your moral fiber. This time, my morals lose.

I care deeply about the growth of soccer in the United States. It’s a sport that unites the world and one that we are still a few steps

behind in on the men’s side of the game. A positive performance from the USMNT at this tourna ment could prove incredibly va luable towards the future of the sport in this country.

Of course, none of that excuses Qatar’s behavior in preparation for this tournament, or the laws they have that prohibit people from being themselves. No one should have to fear governmen tal consequences for being who they are, and no one should have to face the inhumane conditions that migrant workers experienced while building the infrastructure for this tournament.

Sure, you could say I’m just one person whose contribution to the profits of this World Cup are mi niscule on the grand scheme of things. But I don’t think that’s a sound defense either. If everyone thinks that way, injustice will con tinue to run rampant.

In fact, I don’t really think the re’s a sound defense at all that isn’t inherently selfish or problematic. There is no way to justify my par ticipation in the 2022 World Cup. It is sad to admit it but it is true.

I think this is all just a way for me to cope with my excitement for the World Cup tournament. The re’s no excusing the inexcusable. But I can’t look away. Not after waiting eight years.

I know I should, but I just can’t. I’m not sure what that makes me, but it probably isn’t good.

The New York Jets Are For Real

By JUSTIN RUTLEDGE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The New York Jets shocked just about everyone this season with a 6-3 record heading into their bye week. Many people predicted the Jets season to be over before the bye week, with CBS Sports analyst Brady Quinn forecasting them to start the season 0-9. The Jets, co ming off their biggest win of the season against the Buffalo Bills, head into their bye week looking stronger than ever with true hopes of making the playoffs for the first time since 2010.

Now the real question is, are the New York Jets legit? The answer is yes. General Manager Joe Douglas has nailed each pick from the past two NFL drafts, adding players such as quarterback Zach Wilson, right guard/right tackle Alijah Vera-Tucker, cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner and running back Breece Hall. The Jets have one of the youngest cores in the entire league, yet they are not playing like a team full of rookies. They have a top 10 defense according to Pro Football Focus, along with an of fense that has been able to produce points against almost every team they have faced so far. Although Wilson’s stats have not been what many Jets fans have been looking

for, he still has a 5-1 record all while scoring points in the clutch when he has needed to. Gardner has already proven himself to be a top corner back in the league, holding notable wide receivers to season low stats when they’ve been matched up against him. He is the frontrunner for defensive rookie of the year and has been nothing else but a defen sive stud for the Jets’ secondary.

Head coach Robert Saleh brought a new attitude to the Jets which has seen the team winning games that they have constantly lost in the past. His defensive game plan has brought the best out of his players, including fourth-year defensive tackle Quinnen Williams who has a career-high seven sacks only nine weeks into the season. He has been a defensive force and leader for the Jets’ front line and has put himself in the same conversation as players like Aaron Donald.

These are not the “same old Jets.” Saleh and the team have shown that this season. Josh Allen, arguably the best quarterback in the league, had his worst game of the season against the Jets, only completing

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53% of his throws along with two interceptions. Not only did they contain Josh Allen, but they con tained the entire Bills offense to just 17 points, their lowest point total of the season. Along with their defense playing at such a high le vel against the Bills, Wilson had a quietly good game for the Jets of fense as well. He completed 72% of his passes along with a touchdown and no interceptions. Wilson was able to control the game with con sistent accurate throws, especially on third downs. After a rough week eight performance against the New England Patriots where he threw three interceptions, Wilson showed the team that he has what it takes to beat the top teams in the NFL.

With eight weeks left in the sea son, the Jets are looking to make their final push towards the playoffs.

The Jets still have many win nable games left on their schedu le, with matchups against the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars. Only time will tell if the Jets truly have what it takes to be a competitive playoff team in 2022.

Varsity Scores & Stats

Football Fordham 45 Lafayette 10

Women’s Basketball Fordham 81 St. Peter’s 39

Fordham 76 Maryland 83

Men’s Basketball Fordham 48 Arkansas 74 Fordham 61 New Hampshire 79

Men’s XC NCAA Northeast Regional 19th/33 teams

Squash Fordham 1 Navy 8

Fordham

Bucknell

Fordham 9 Navy (Club) 0

Fordham 1 Denison 8

Volleyball

Fordham 3 George Mason 2

Fordham 3 George Mason 1

Water Polo Fordham 11 St. Francis Brooklyn 14

Women’s XC NCAA Northeast Regional 33rd/37 teams

News & Notes

Volleyball Announces New Recruitment Class

Last week, Fordham Volleyball unveiled their new 2023 recruit ment class consisting of four incoming recruits: libero Lola Fernandez, middle blocker Tatum Holderied, outside/right side hitter Erynn Sweeney and setter Whitney Woodrow. For the 2023 recruitment class, the team brings in freshmen for every position.

Three Rams Win Atlantic 10 Accolades For Soccer

Three members of the Fordham Men’s Soccer team received A-10 accolades this past week for their tremendous efforts this past sea son. Graduate student Timo Hummrich was named to First Team All-A-10. Hummrich led the Rams as the team’s leading scorer with six goals. His teammate, freshman Nathan Simes was similarly named to the All-Rookie Team. Simes was a two-time recipient of the A-10 Rookie of the Week award. Senior Callum James also re ceived accolades, making the A-10 All-Academic Team. James has a 3.97 GPA and is a member of the A-10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll.

Fordham Rowing Competes at Metropolitan Championships

By NICK GUZMAN SPORTS EDITOR

Fordham Rowing concluded their fall 2022 season at the Metropolitan Championships this past weekend at Glen Island Park in New Rochelle, N.Y. Fordham set four boats onto the wa ter to finish off what has been a pretty successful first portion of the season for the Rams.

In the first Varsity Four, the Rams finished in fourth place with a time of 8:55.21. Fairfield University won the event, with the Long Island University Sharks coming in se cond and Marist College placing third overall in the standings.

In the second Varsity Four, the Fordham B boat came in first place with a time of 8:30.1. This was over a minute faster than Iona University in second place.

Next, the Rams set sail in the first Varsity Eight event. Unfor tunately, the Rams came in last place out of six boats with a time of 8:08.2. Marist took home the top prize at 7:16.9, with Fairfield and

Sacred Heart University not far behind in second and third.

The last Fordham entry was in the Novice Four event, where the Rams capped off the day with a third place finish out of four teams. Fordham came in at 9:09.44, com fortably behind Marist in second place and Fairfield in third.

With the fall season all wrapped up for the Rams, they will now turn their attention to the spring. Expect more solid showings for the Rams come the new year.

–Compiled by Maddie Bimonte

The Jets have shown major promise this year in the AFC East.

Rowing wraps up their season.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Caroline Garcia Wins 2022 WTA Finals

By ALEXANDER HOM CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The 2022 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals are now at an end, and the #1 female tennis player in all of France has swung her lasso of proof around the horns of the most presti gious title she’s earned to date.

Caroline Garcia emerged as the champion at this year’s sea son-ender tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, after one hour and 40 minutes, narrowly overpower ing Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in straight yet tight sets: 7-6 (4) and 6-4. The world #4 adds to her now four-pronged collection of titles in 2022, including Bad Homburg (grass), Warsaw (red clay), Cincinnati (outdoor hard court) and now the indoor hard court WTA Championship, ce menting her as the only woman with wins on every surface this year.

The WTA Finals is the special event held at the close of every calendar and professional ten nis year. A lauded round-robin exclusively featuring the interna tionally top-ranked octet of pro tennis players who accumulated the most points over the course of the season, these tournaments take into account a player’s perfor mance since January and not just individual competitions, culminat ing in an elimination bracket of the winningest players of the year. While not regarded as being the most prestigious and noteworthy tournament — that honor is shared by the four Major tournaments of the Australian Open (Melbourne), French Open (Paris), Wimbledon (London) and U.S. Open (New York City) — the WTA finals are a wonderfully unique celebration in their own right, akin to the MLB/ NBA/NFL Postseasons, yet being a World Series/Super Bowl mashup that doesn’t overshadow the ac complishments of the athletes

earlier in that year.

If everything is truly bigger in Texas, so were both ladies’ per formances. The first set was fi ery and fierce, with both players closely holding service games all the way to the tiebreak, let alone practically never threatening each other with any break points. Dou ble faults were also rarely seen, with Sabalenka making three and Garcia producing only one. Their entire match even saw their pris tine service game record of 11-10, with Garcia edging out the only break of service for the evening in the opening game of the second set.

After securing the crucial break, Garcia’s blistering highspeed and highly acute-angle crosscourt winners diluted the sparse moments of desperation erupting from Sabalenka, hand ily wearing down the increasingly discouraged Belarusian. The Frenchwoman’s shot consistency surged even further, making few errors and sending her opponent frustratedly scrambling for veri table moonbeams of deep and untouchable ball placements.

Both players traded massive serves and astounding pointnabbing winner shots, but Garcia just managed to give that little bit more to take the treasured Billie Jean King trophy and $820,000 bonus check. Their points were of ten short and rapid, yet undeniably explosive.

“It was a lot of aces — some times not too many rallies,” Garcia laughed to the crowd during the trophy presentation ceremony. “But that’s our game style, and I hope you enjoyed it.”

At the end of the night’s clash, their overall game record was 13-10. Garcia’s 11 aces outshone Sabalenka’s mere four, though they were closer in effective serv ings; their respective percentages being a massive 79% and 69% points won on first serves. First serve percentages alone were an

intriguingly similar 62% and 52% for the Frenchwoman and Belarusian.

“I just dropped my level for a little bit,” noted Sabalenka postmatch. “On the tiebreak and the first game of the second set. That’s it… I did my best, [Garcia] played incredible tennis.”

Garcia’s confidence, momentum and near-perfection simply ex ploded with exponential combus tion until she eventually remained the ultimate competitor. Her mon umental achievement granted her a WTA-leading 36th match win since June 1, when she was inter nationally ranked 79th in stark contrast to her soaring new career high slot of #4.

“I think it’s super important to keep improving,” Garcia later reflected. “If you don’t move for wards you move backwards.”

As for the next biggest step of winning a major tournament, Garcia’s victory brings a fresh wave of immense hope and pos sibility that opens the door for future Grand Slam titles. Her best major result was at this year’s U.S. Open semifinals, where her run in Flushing was stopped by Tunisian Ons Jabeur, who would later fall to WTA and world #1 Iga Swiatek of Poland.

“Today was a solid match,” Garcia continued. “A few mis takes here and there, but not too many.” On the future: “There are things I can still improve. It’s a challenge, you always want to challenge yourself in the sport.”

Garcia aims to maintain her me teoric perpetuity that might propel her to finally hoist the trophy at one of the multimillion-dollar tour naments, perhaps next year. With her tennis tenacity from a level of play that is the best she’s ever for mulated, the time could be ripe for her to do more of what she’s never done before, yet may be soon to ac complish as early as this coming January in Melbourne.

The End of a Season

By NICOLETA PAPAVASILAKIS VISUAL DIRECTOR

Cross country season is fi nally over, and honestly, I am more at ease than I have been in a while. For those who haven’t read my previous student ath lete columns, a calf injury put me out for the entirety of my senior cross country season. Although I supported my team from the sidelines, as a compet itor, I felt deflated having to sit out. In those moments, I was a stranger to the sport.

For me, running is year round. Over the summers, I build up mileage in prepara tion for cross country in the fall. Then there is indoor track in the winter and outdoor in the spring, taking one rest week be tween seasons. But years of this hard work and dedication were diminished by the few months I couldn’t run.

With indoor track on the horizon, I’m approaching this new season like a clean slate, with a more positive mindset than I’ve had. After weeks of aqua jogging, biking and re hab, I’m slowly getting back into running. In the time I couldn’t run, I focused on all the little things that I often

ignored — stretching more, sleeping more, drinking more water. These all sound like el emental things that I should be doing for my well being be yond running. But with class es, work and extracurriculars, it put taking care of myself on the backburner. That’s prob ably what got me injured in the first place.

I’ve noticed since I began run ning again, I lost the aerobic endurance that I had from the summer and the calf thing hasn’t completely vanished. This is not me being negative. I’d be ly ing to myself if said that things were going back to normal just like that. The reality is, healing takes time. Time that I would have to carve out for myself. Being positive doesn’t mean pretending like everything is good and fine. Rather, it’s ac cepting what’s at present and, instead of expecting the worse or becoming stuck in self pity, envisioning a better future.

I have three months until my first race of the indoor track sea son, giving me plenty of time to get strong and rebuild my endur ance. This is me being positive.

The Case for Re-Signing Daniel Jones

By ZANE CLERKE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

After the conclusion of the 2022 NFL season, the New York Giants will be faced with many tough choices on the direction they want to go for the future of the franchise.

With quarterback Daniel Jones and star running back Saquon Barkley both becoming free agents this winter, general manager Joe Schoen will be faced with some diffi cult decisions. They could make one of these offseason decisions easier by extending Jones to a short-term contract before the season ends.

After 15 seasons of having Eli Manning serve as the starting quar terback, the Giants decided to move towards a new chapter of the fran chise in the 2019 draft. They took Jones with their first-round pick at number six overall. After this, it did not take long for him to take over the starting role. With Manning getting off to a slow start, they had already named Jones the starter by week three. During his rookie year, he showed flashes of becoming the Giants next franchise quarterback with some very good performances,

including a 352-yard, five-touch down game against the Washington Commanders. Although there were some bright moments in Jones’ rookie year, there was one glaring issue in his game: turnovers. Jones threw 12 interceptions and fumbled 19 times, losing 11 of them, both of which led the NFL. This was obvi ously a concern, but understand able as he was a rookie and still ad justing to the league.

Unfortunately, Jones did not fix this problem the following sea son. In 2020, he was second in the league with 10 fumbles. On top of this, whenever the team started to gain any momentum, he struggled to stay on the field in both 2020 and 2021. In 2020, the Giants were making an unexpected playoff chase due to the NFC East being one of the worst divisions of all-time that year, and Jones missed two critical games at the end of the sea son with an ankle sprain. In 2021, he missed five games with issues to both his ankle (again) and his neck at the end of the season.

2022 has been a much-improved season for Jones as he tries to prove that he is a future starting

quarterback in the league. He has had a lot to prove as the Giants declined his fifth-year option on his rookie contract, making him a free agent at the end of the year. In the 2022 season, Jones has stayed on the field for every game so far. He has also limited his turnovers, becoming one of the league lead ers for fewest turnovers. Through the first nine games of the season, he has only thrown two intercep tions, which is tied for the least interceptions by qualified quar terbacks in the league. He has also fumbled only three times, with just one of them being recovered by the defense.

Jones’ ability to limit turnovers along with his great mobility has made him a good quarterback this year with great potential. He is still working with an extremely depleted receiving core that has dealt with injuries to Sterling Shephard and Wan’dale Robinson, off the field drama from Kadarius Toney who barely played at all before getting traded and extremely poor play from expensive 2021 free agent signing Kenny Golladay. Jones’ ability to manage the game well and

be efficient enough to win a lot of games has been very impressive. Although his total yards and touch downs have not been that high, this is due to the offense being very run based. In the throwing opportuni ties he’s had, Jones has performed well. He has the highest comple tion percentage of his career even with a lot of drops from receivers and is ranked eighth in the league in quarterback rating. The longer Jones continues this level of play, the more expensive he will become. As of now, Jones would still not require an expensive contract compared to a lot of other free agent quarterbacks. Signing him to a two-year, $40 million con tract would be low risk and give him the opportunity to establish himself as a star quarterback and

become the future franchise quar terback. If he underperforms, he is not locked up to a long expensive contract, and the Giants could de cide to draft a new quarterback or sign a free agent in the next year or two. Signing Jones instead of an already established star quar terback also saves a lot of money that can be used in areas that the Giants need more than quarter back. With this money, New York could sign a better receiving core, deepen their offensive line and po tentially sign a new running back if Saquon does not get re-signed. Re-signing Jones to a short-term contract would give the Giants the best chance to improve their team, while still having the potential of Jones developing into one of the NFL’s better quarterbacks.

Daniel Jones has shown significant signs of improvement in 2022.

F1: Brazil Kicks Tensions Into Overdrive

By MICHAEL HERNANDEZ ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR EMIRITUS

Over the weekend, Formula 1 (F1) continued its 2022 season in Sao Paulo for the Brazilian Grand Prix and the penultimate round of the year. This was the final sprint race of the season, which changed the normal race weekend. As a re minder, there are only two prac tice sessions instead of three with qualifying moved to Friday, the sprint race taking place on Saturday and the full race still being held on Sunday. Qualifying set the order for the sprint race, with the subsequent results of the sprint setting the grid for the full race.

When it came time for qualify ing, the conditions on the track were mixed. It began to rain in the final part of qualifying, mean ing that everyone went out on the track to set a time with dry tires which were much quicker than wet tires. In these tricky condi tions, Kevin Magnussen put his Haas onto provisional pole. With the track leaving little room for error, George Russell took his Mercedes off the track and got it stuck in the gravel, bringing out the red flag and preventing anyone from setting a lap. As the track was being cleared, it started to rain even harder, and everyone realized that Magnussen would get his first ever pole position.

When the green flag was shown, everyone went out on the track to see the conditions and saw that it was worse than before. As the che quered flag was shown, Magnussen grabbed pole, the first in his career and the first in the history of Haas. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was

second with Russell in third.

On Saturday, when it was time for the sprint race, Magnussen kept the lead with Verstappen and Russell maintaining their positions. It didn’t take long for the lead to change. On lap three, Verstappen overtook Magnussen for the lead of the sprint race with Russell following suit on the fol lowing lap. Now it was Russell who was hunting Verstappen down. Eventually, on lap 13, Russell took the lead from Verstappen and started to build a gap. Verstappen was struggling and lost even more places to Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton. Russell won the sprint race with Sainz in second and Hamilton in third. Verstappen finished fourth with his teammate, Sergio Perez, in fifth and Sainz’s teammate, Charles Leclerc, in sixth for the race. However, Sainz was given a five place grid drop for taking a new engine part that ex ceeded his allocation, promoting Hamilton into second to make it a Mercedes front row with Red Bull locking out the second row.

When the lights went out on Sunday, Russell got a good start and was able to stay in the lead ahead of Hamilton, Verstappen and Perez. Halfway through the first lap, the safety car was called out due to the retirements of Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren. Ricciardo tried to make a move on the inside but tagged the back of the Haas, forcing him to spin out and hit the barrier, end ing his and Magnussen’s race. When the race resumed, Russell kept the lead while Verstappen tried to pass Hamilton but the pair collided with Verstappen coming

off worse. Hamilton fell down to eighth with Verstappen receiv ing a five-second time penalty for “causing a collision.” In the same lap, Ricciardo’s teammate Lando Norris was involved in an incident with Leclerc. Leclerc tried to pass Norris on the outside but ended up colliding with Norris, sending his Ferrari into the barrier. He was able to keep the car running and resumed. With all of this chaos, Russell was able to stay in the front and build a gap to secondplaced Perez with Sainz up into third place overall.

As the race continued, Hamilton started to pick his way through the pack and got into fourth on lap 14.

On lap 17, Sainz blinked first and pitted for tires. Perez then pitted on lap 23 with Russell pitting a lap later, promoting Hamilton into first for the time being. On lap 29, Hamilton relinquished the lead by pitting and came out in fourth with Russell leading ahead of Perez in second and Sainz in third. Hamilton was chasing Sainz and on lap 38, Sainz pit ted again, promoting Hamilton into the podium places. Mean while, Perez started to drop back from Russell, giving Mercedes a chance to win their first race of the season. On lap 45, Hamilton breezed past Perez to make it a Mercedes 1-2 order.

Perez pitted again on lap 47 for new tires. Mercedes then made the call to pit Hamilton on the

following lap in order to protect him from the undercut. Hamilton pitted and emerged just ahead of Perez, ensuring that they didn’t lose position. But now, both Hamilton and Perez were behind Sainz, who moved up into second. Russell also pitted on lap 49 but was able to emerge from the pits still in first.

On lap 52, the virtual safety car was called out due to Norris retir ing from the race from engine fail ure, causing a flurry of activity in the pit lane with Sainz taking ad vantage and pitting for soft tires.

On lap 55, the virtual safety car was replaced with the full safety car, causing all of the cars to bunch up. This set up a sprint to the finish with 16 laps remaining. The order was now Russell, Ham ilton, Perez and Sainz with Leclerc in fifth. Perez was the only one in the top five to be on medium tires with the rest of the drivers being on quicker soft tires.

On lap 60, racing resumed with Russell getting away cleanly but Hamilton hot on his trail. Sainz was all over Perez and was finally able to pass the Red Bull on lap 63 with Leclerc passing Perez on lap 64. Perez continued to fall down the order, losing the place to Fernando Alonso’s Alpine. He was even overtaken by Verstappen who was having a brilliant recovery drive after the collision and penalty.

After 71 laps, Russell crossed the finish line to win the Brazil

Grand Prix, giving him his first career win and Mercedes’ first win of the season, an incredible achievement based on where they started back in Bahrain. Hamilton finished second with Sainz in third, Leclerc in fourth and Alonso in fifth. Verstappen was told to give the position back to Perez, who was fighting for second in the drivers’ standings but didn’t do so, crossing the fin ish line in sixth ahead of Perez. Perez was furious with this, since Verstappen already has the title sewn up and Perez is fighting Leclerc for second where every point counts. Verstappen said that he had his reasons for not letting Perez through, with team principal Christian Horner say ing that the team will fully sup port Perez as he tries to finish second in the driver’s standings.

With one race remaining, atten tion turns to the Yas Marina cir cuit for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which served up last year’s major titanic title decider.

With the win, Mercedes cut down the gap to Ferrari to 19 points. As for the drivers, Perez and Leclerc are deadlocked for second place with Leclerc ahead due to winning more races in the season with three wins compared to Perez’s two. It may not be as dramatic as last year, but expect the teams and drivers to give it their all to conclude their seasons on a high note.

Two New Champions Crowned at UFC 281

By ZAC CORDOVA CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Over the weekend, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 281 took place at Madison Square Garden in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,845. There were two championship bouts, the retire ment of a UFC legend and an ex plosive matchup between two of the sport’s most exciting lightweights.

Frankie Edgar, the former UFC lightweight champion, made his final walk to the octagon as fans gave him a standing ovation and chanted his name. In the final bout of Edgar’s career, he took on rising bantamweight Chris Gutierrez. The fans hoped for Edgar to turn back the clock for one last great perfor mance. But the fight ended in the first round after Gutierrez landed a knee to the chin of Edgar, sending him to the canvas and into retire ment with a knockout. Before leaving the octagon, Edgar said in his post-fight interview, “I love this sport man, didn’t wanna go out like that.” He also expressed his love and appreciation for all the support from the fans. It is the end of a legendary career for Frankie Edgar that included nine UFC title fights, which will no doubt earn him a spot in the UFC Hall of Fame soon.

In the third fight of the main card, top-ranked lightweight con tenders Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler faced off in a bout that promised to bring fireworks to the Garden, something Chandler did last year when he took on Justin Gaethje at UFC 268.

The opening round began with Chandler landing big and knock ing Poirier back against the cage in a flurry of strikes. Although, the experience and resilience of Dustin Poirier helped him re gain control and answer back with some big shots of his own, knocking down Chandler with 30 seconds to go in the round and nearly finishing the fight just as the horn sounded.

It was about as loud as the Garden could get after such an explosive round, and the following rounds were no different as Poirier and Chandler are no strangers to be ing in exciting fights.

In the third round, Chandler attempted to take down Poirier by lifting him up over his shoulder, but in a scramble on the ground Poirier ended up on Chandler’s back, a dangerous position to be in with a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt like Poirier. This gave Poirier the opportunity to sink in a choke, which forced Chandler to tap out, ending what could be a potential fight-of-the-year candidate. The

fight was awarded “fight of the night,” earning the two light weights a well-deserved bonus.

In the first title fight of the night, reigning champion American Carla Esparza took on former champion Zhang Weili for the women’s strawweight title. In a bout sched uled for five rounds, Weili was a major favorite to reclaim her title that she won back in 2019 to be come the first ever Chinese UFC champion. Esparza won the title back in May after defeating thenchampion Rose Namajunas in a fight that was just as close as it was uneventful. Weili has been known to bring high doses of en ergy to every fight, and this one was no different.

It was a one-sided affair as Weili dominated the fight on the feet with her lightning-quick striking and even seemed to out wrestle Esparza in what should have been the champion’s way to victory. Weili had the full support of the crowd as they cheered her on against the American.

It was apparent that Weili had worked a lot on her ground game, as she was able to counter all of the champion’s takedown at tempts, which is what ultimately won her the fight. After a scram ble on the ground, Weili was able to secure a rear-naked choke causing Esparza to tap and forfeit

her belt. “Every day I dreamed of this, my belt would come back,” said Weili in a post-fight inter view. It was yet another incredible performance by the Chinese-born fighter to once again assert herself as the best in the division.

In the final fight of the evening, the UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya took on challeng er Alex Pereira, in a long-awaited rematch from the two fighters’ kickboxing days that ended with Pereira knocking out Adesanya.

Adesanya had successfully de fended his belt five times since he claimed the title in October 2019.

Pereira has only fought in the MMA octagon a handful of times but the Brazilian-born fighter is no stranger to big fights, as he was a multi-divisional champion back when he was fighting in the Glory Kickboxing promotion. Af ter a back-and-forth first round, Adesanya landed a big punch that stumbled Pereira right before the horn sounded. Pereira recovered quickly as he looked unfazed en tering into the next round.

Shockingly, both men attempt ed and landed takedowns in the fight despite neither of them having any background in grap pling. Adesanya made the most of the time on the ground, secur ing over six minutes of control time. Coming into the fifth round,

it was apparent that Adesanya was winning the fight and only needed to hold on until the fi nal horn. Pereira’s corner told him, “One round for you to be a world champion,” advising him that he had to hunt down a fin ish if he wanted to win the fight. In the closing minutes of the final round, Pereira landed a combi nation of punches that wobbled the champion, causing Adesanya to retreat. Pereira’s relentless ness didn’t allow Adesanya to recover, as Pereira kept landing punches until the referee stepped in and ended the fight, putting an end to Adesanya’s reign and shocking the MMA world. In a post-fight interview, Adesanya said, “It’s another great story for him, but it’s not over, this is still war.” After a very active title reign, Adesanya seems deserving of an immediate rematch, a pos sibility that UFC president Dana White said that he is definetly not going to rule out.

What is next for the newly crowned champion is yet to be seen, although the rematch seems to be on the horizon. UFC 281 was definitely one for the his tory books, as the stacked card delivered in every way, bringing a ton of excitement to a sold-out Madison Square Garden and UFC fans around the world.

Men’s Basketball Annihilated at Arkansas; Dominates New Hampshire

By THOMAS AIELLO ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Everything that you see in col lege basketball is unordinary, where the abnormal is normal. That phrase couldn’t have been further from the truth for the Rams when they traveled to the University of Arkansas last Friday.

Going into a Southeastern Conference (SEC) environment is enough added pressure for a team that plays in a 3,200 capac ity gym. The fire only grows when the Razorbacks just so happen to be the 10th ranked team in the na tion heading into the game with 19,000 crazy fans.

Headlined by two of their three top 20 recruits, Jordan Walsh and Anthony Black, the Razorbacks rolled over Fordham 74-48 at Bud Walton Arena. Fordham got out to a very brief 7-2 lead in the opening minutes thanks to junior Antrell Charlton, but Arkansas stole the lead and didn’t let Fordham get a sniff of a single digit deficit.

Arkansas’ Ricky Council led the way with 15 points and a monster dunk, as he gave the Rams all sorts of problems. Beyond those three, 10 Razorbacks scored in the contest which was highlighted by a huge second half run to balloon the lead to over 20.

Fordham’s efforts were led by graduate student Darius Quisenberry and freshman Elijah Gray, both of whom posted 10 points each. Gray

played his best game as a Ram thus far, unlike the rest of the team.

The Rams chalked up 30 turn overs in the game, which obvi ously isn’t ideal, but those things happen against a team where they were clearly overmatched.

Charlton didn’t play his best, which was highlighted by nine turnovers. Arkansas’ overwhelm ing length and physicality dis rupted any chance for Fordham’s main facilitator to distribute for open shooters.

Khalid Moore only tallied seven points on 3-7 shooting, grabbing one board and dishing out two assists. Freshman Romad Dean played another decent game off the bench, adding five points and two rebounds in 21 minutes. Fel low freshman Will Richardson dropped one assist and stole two rebounds, but came up empty with his scoring numbers.

Not everything was horrible for Fordham; they held Arkansas to 12.5% from three, were only out rebounded on the defensive end

by two and didn’t allow one guy to man-handle the team with a big scoring night.

The team also played 40 min utes at full speed, not throwing in the towel at any point, which is something head coach Keith Urgo stresses to the players every day.

The first half was punctuated by a 30-11 run for Arkansas, but Fordham showed some life with a 10-2 run to end the first half to go down 11. The final result is obviously not what Urgo and the Rams drew up, but as associate head coach Tray Woodall said in the post game interview, “we beat ourselves with the turnovers, we have to clean those up.”

As aforementioned, rolling into an SEC environment against a top 10 team in the country is not easy for a team still in “rebuild” mode. It marked a stern test of mental will for the Rams, but big picture this game was a learning experi ence to have positive effects when the Rams travel to places like Vir ginia Commonwealth University, Davidson College or any other

Women’s Hoops Rolls Past Yale, Falters Against Maryland

By COLIN LOUGHRAN STAFF WRITER

Fordham Women’s Basketball continued their season last week and saw two contests that show cased nuanced aspects of college competition. They rolled to a dom inant 81-39 win over the St. Peter’s University Peacocks and fell to the University of Maryland Terrapins with a final score of 83-76 on the road just three days later.

Surprisingly, the affair against St. Peters was close for a quarter. The final score won’t show that the Peacocks benefitted from a strong opening frame from Jazmine Carter. The 6’1” graduate student center provided key baskets in the first period that allowed her squad to only trail by five points by its conclusion.

Quarters two and three were dominated by the women in ma roon. Fordham outscored the Peacocks 23-9 and 24-7, respec tively. Once the Rams got cooking, they never looked back. Graduate student Asiah Dingle led all scor ers with 19 points. Senior Anna DeWolfe and graduate student Kaitlyn Downey were not far be hind. They contributed 13 and 10 points, respectively. Also criti cal to Fordham’s winning effort against St. Peters were key contri butions from sophomore Colleen McQuillen and graduate student Jada Dapaa. McQuillen posted nine points and two steals, and

Dapaa excelled with eight points and nine boards. Team basket ball is most effective when bench players can find ways to add to the unit. Fordham has benefitted from this kind of team basketball all year, and last Tuesday’s 81-39 win against the Peacock was no excep tion.

Fordham’s Sunday matchup in Maryland against the Terrapins had a much different feel than any of their other early season affairs. Maryland Women’s Bas ketball is a ranked team, and a part of the Big 10, one of college athletics most prestigious confer ences. Even with all of the appar ent optics, the scrappy bunch from the Atlantic 10 hung in the game. In fact, Fordham only trailed by four with four minutes remain ing in the second quarter. Further, the maroon led at the start of the final frame. Strong outings from DeWolfe, Downey and gradu ate student Megan Jonassen all

performed wonderfully. DeWolfe posted a game high of 24 points, Downey finished her evening with 17 points and three made baskets from behind the arc and Jonassen grabbed nine key re bounds. Also critical, the Rams went a strong 7-13 from down town in the third quarter. The spurt helped Fordham keep up with Maryland’s offensive attack. Ultimately however, Diamond Miller, Shyanne Sellers and the Terrapin attack was too much to bear. Miller put up a double-dou ble en route to a 83-76 win over the Rams, and showed exactly the kind of pedigree that Maryland boasts. All things considered, Fordham gave a strong showing against a terrific opponent.

Fordham Women’s Basket ball will look to grab two more wins on Wednesday, Nov. 16 and Sunday, Nov. 20, when they travel to Princeton University and then host Wagner College.

hostile environments in the Atlantic 10.

A trip home to regroup for the Rams was desperately needed to right the ship when Fordham welcomed New Hampshire to the Rose Hill Gym, a team they had not seen since 2008.

Fordham began Tuesday night with a 14-2 opening run thanks in large part to a bombardment from three. They never relinquished the lead after that despite letting New Hampshire get within three points.

The Rams had four players in double figures: Quisenberry (17), Moore (16), Rose (12) and Charlton (15). Quisenberry and Charlton opened the game with multiple threes, both of whom were incredibly efficient from the field. Percentages of 3/6, 2/4 and 2/4 from three-point land are promising sights for Urgo and the staff, which totaled a 7961 destruction of the Wildcats.

Fordham’s overall splits were by far the best they’ve seen under the new regime (including Kyle

Neptune last year). Fordham shot 20-27 on free throws, 11-26 from range and 24-54 overall from the field. If they can keep splits like those at above average percent ages, the Rams will be more than equipped to keep up with the best of the A-10.

The rebounding was para mount for the Rams as well. Junior Abdou Tsimbila and senior Rostik Noyvitskyi held down the glass grabbing nine and six boards, respectively. The team won the rebounding battle against a smaller, faster New Hampshire team.

We also saw a signature game for Richardson in his young ca reer, as he totaled seven points and a rebound. His impact how ever, came on defense, picking up players at 94 feet with hounding on ball defense.

Contrary to their performance in Arkansas, the Rams commit ted only 15 turnovers against New Hampshire. 15 still is a large num ber, but the team took better care of the ball in a game where they went full speed the whole night. The pace intensified offensively, and the Rams were also extremely physical both on the perimeter and in the paint.

The last two games produced mixed results, especially in Arkansas with 30 turnovers, but Fordham’s domination of New Hampshire lift ed the team’s spirits back up to get ready for the Tom Konchalski classic this coming Saturday.

Cross Country Concludes Season at NCAA Regionals

By MADDIE BIMONTE ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

After a long and arduous sea son, Fordham Cross Country wrapped up their year at the NCAA Northeast Regional at home in the Bronx.

The Fordham men’s squad rounded out their season with a final score of 571 points, placing them 19th out of 33 teams overall.

For the men’s 10K race, it was junior Steven Zucca leading the pack, finishing with a time of 31:44.5 in 102nd place. Two Rams followed close behind Zucca, as senior Ryan Fahey finished with a time of 31:51.9 and graduate stu dent Christopher Strzelinski with a time of 31:57.4, finishing 108th and 114th, respectively.

The rest of the Rams came in succinctly after with sophomore Nathan Bezuneh coming in at 125th with a time of 32:03.9. Fellow soph omore Rodolpho Sanchez was next in 127th place in 32:04.4, with the final Ram, senior Colin Flood, fin ishing in 142nd at 32:26.8.

On the women’s side, the wom en competed in the 6K race. The Rams were led by sophomore Caroline McDonagh, who finished 152nd overall in 23:09.3. Follow ing her, four Rams finished in tan dem — senior Alexandra Thomas, sophomore Madeleine Ryan, ju nior Marin Bogulski and senior Nathania Tan.

Thomas led the pack at 190th

place, finishing in 23:50.3. Af ter that, Ryan finished in 191st at 23:55.5. Bogulski finished 198th overall in 24:00.1, while Tan closed out in 200th place with a time of 24:00.8.

Lastly, seniors Taylor Mascetta and Mary Kathryn Underwood wrapped things up for the team in 218th and 221st place, respec tively. Mascetta finished with a time of 24:29.4 and Underwood in 24:36.8.

The women’s team secured 33rd place out of 37 teams.

While it may not have been the finish the Rams wanted, Fordham Cross Country hopes to turn their attention to the future, as many runners will now take part in the Indoor Track season beginning in just a few weeks.

Darius Quisenberry and Fordham rebounded in a big way with a home win against New Hampshire.

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Women’s Basketball hung tough against a strong Maryland team.

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COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS Steven Zucca in action.

Fordham Water Polo Looks to Repeat as MAWPC Champions

By LOU ORLANDO STAFF WRITER

Few things are better than win ning a championship in front of your home fans. The Fordham Rams will have that special oppor tunity this weekend as the Francis B. Messmore Aquatic Center will be the host for the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Championship. Boasting an unde feated record in conference play and the #1 seed in the tournament, head coach Brian Bacharach and his group will look to accomplish something never before achieved in program history: consecutive league championships.

Fordham ends the regular sea son with a 23-7 record, eerily similar to their 23-6 record at the end of last year’s regular season. It was not, however, the picture perfect ending to the season they might have envisioned. Riding a 15-game winning streak, the lon gest in program history, Fordham had just one game left on the schedule. Squaring off against a St. Francis Brooklyn College team ranked 20th in the nation, the #18 Fordham Rams saw their winning streak ended in a 14-11 loss.

Sophomore Jacopo Parrella sur passed the 70-goal mark, scoring four goals in the contest, but the Rams came up short. This is now the second year in a row that St. Francis Brooklyn has handed Fordham a loss in their final regular season game. “We didn’t play very well on Friday,” said Bacharach, noting that there were a lot of aspects of their game that needed to be tidied up. “I’m hopeful and confident

that we can correct those things going into the championship this weekend.”

Even coming off a loss, Fordham enters the championship in an ex cellent position. The 15-game win ning streak was an unexpected turn in a season that, at one point, looked concerning. Fordham was 8-6 be fore the win streak. Coming back from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Invitational in California, Bacharach noted that the team was dropping winnable games and struggling to close leads. What followed was a month and a half long stretch of domi nance. Fordham outscored oppo nents 268-130 over the course of the winning streak, holding oppo nents to just 8.7 points per game as their own offense flourished. To put it simply, Fordham flipped the switch.

It seems crazy to say, but this year’s team might be even bet ter constructed for a champion ship run than last year’s was. The offense is better than ever. Sophomores Parrella, George Papanikolaou and Lucas Nieto Jasny have continued to lead

the charge, but new additions like graduate student Nir Gross, sophomore Luca Silvestri and freshman Balazs Berenyi have provided the Rams with a wealth of weapons. Last year, Fordham relied heavily on their top four of Parrella, Papanikolaou and Nieto Jasny alongside Hans Zdolsek for their scoring. This year, Fordham is spreading the wealth, to the delight of Bacharach. “I’ve been very happy with the widespread distribution of our offensive at tack.” Fordham’s top scorers are still contributing, but they’re also seeing greater production from auxiliary pieces like junior Christos Loupakis and senior Nacho Ariste. “There’s a chance we’re gonna have 10-11 guys with over 20 goals by the end of the year. We’ve never been anywhere near that.”

The defense has shined as well. Last year’s playoff run saw Thomas Lercari thrown into the fire, being named the starting goalkeeper as a freshman due to an injury to alltime saves leader Bailey O’Mara. Now with a year under his belt, Lercari has taken a leap, winning MAWPC

Week twice in the past month. “Goalkeeping is a huge part of the game,” said Bacharach, who attri butes part of Lercari’s success to the defense. “I think the goalie and defense being in sync and under standing one another is a key part to being successful in the cage.”

To make things even sweeter, the championship will be played at home, where Fordham has domi nated over the last two years, losing just two games. Bacharach abso lutely sees it as an advantage. “I love hosting at home. We’re familiar with the surroundings, the walls, the sounds, the cages, everything.”

On top of everything else, Bacharach’s Fordham Rams are known for their dominance in con ference play. Dating back to last year, Fordham is a whopping 30-1 in league contests. If you’re won dering what their secret is, the key is preparation: “We put a lot of fo cus on our conference. We prepare extensively for those conference games, and we want our guys to know the conference like the back of their hand.” The stats speak for themselves. At 16-0, Fordham is undefeated in conference play

this season. Bacharach echoed something he said at the begin ning of the year. “You don’t go to NCAAs without winning those conference games.” You want to hear Bacharach talk about the NCAA tournament, particularly with the MAWPC championship coming up this week, but rest as sured he knows the importance of these games.

With the #1 seed, home pool ad vantage, and an undefeated confer ence record, Fordham appears to be the clear favorite. At the same time, they also have a massive tar get on their back. “Other teams are gonna throw everything at us, and we’re gonna throw everything at them.” Particularly with Fordham’s projected matchups in the first two rounds, all signs point to a rematch between Fordham and George Washington University in the MAWPC Championship. But Bacharach isn’t willing to entertain that thought until it happens. “We’ve got a long way to go until Sunday, we’ll just take our first game and go from there.”

Fordham’s first game will take place on Friday, Nov. 18 at 4:20 p.m. They’ll play the win ner of Gannon University and McKendree University, two teams Fordham swept with ease during the regular season. Still, Bacharach will treat every game with utmost focus. “Having gone undefeated in the league, I think people expect us to repeat. I continue to say the team, and anyone who will listen to me, there’s a lot of good teams in our league. In any given game, we can be in a dogfight and lose if we aren’t playing at a sharp and top level.”

Football Slams Lafayette, Improves to 8-2

By NICK GUZMAN SPORTS EDITOR

Fordham Football kept their impressive 2022 season rolling this past Saturday with a 45-10 win over Lafayette College at Jack Coffey Field. The win moves the Rams to 8-2 overall and 4-1 in Patriot League play.

Led by another strong effort from senior quarterback Tim DeMorat, Fordham’s offense once again eclipsed the 40-point mark, something they have done in each of their 10 games so far this season.

DeMorat finished the day with 482 yards on 32/45 passing and six total touchdowns. The Florida native continues to lead the entire Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in both passing yards (4,107) and passing touchdowns (47).

Supporting DeMorat offen sively were three of his main re ceiving targets, all of whom had big games. Seniors MJ Wright, Fotis Kokosioulis and Dequece Carter each eclipsed the century mark in receiving yards, with Kokosioulis and Carter adding two touchdowns each. With his 117 yards on the day, Kokosiou lis surpassed 1,000 yards for the season, becoming just the sixth Fordham player to do so.

Early in the season, the nar rative surrounding Fordham Football was that they possessed an elite offense but a lackluster

defense. This led to some highscoring thrillers, including a 5249 win over Monmouth University and a narrow 59-52 loss to Ohio University.

Half of this narrative seems to be true with one game remain ing in regular season play. While Fordham’s offense has continued to operate at a historic pace, their defense has stepped up in recent weeks. They held Bucknell Uni versity to 17 points last week and allowed just 10 to Lafayette on Saturday. In fact, the Leopards generated just 180 yards of total offense and turned the ball over twice thanks to a stout perfor mance from defensive coordina tor Mark Powell’s squad.

Sophomore linebacker James Conway was front-and-center once again for the Rams defense, record ing a team high nine tackles in ad dition to a sack. Graduate student Ryan Greenhagen and senior B.J. Ferguson were right behind with

seven tackles each, while senior Stephen Williams II chipped in with an interception.

After the game, Fordham head coach Joe Conlin said he was proud of the effort from his defense. “I thought they played great. They really stood up to the run game … What we did this week better than any was get to the quarterback. We were able to sack [Lafayette quarterback Ah-Shaun Davis] five times. If you can do that, that’s re ally helpful.”

While we have seen several slow starts from Fordham in the first quarter this season, the Rams asserted their dominance over Lafayette right from the jump on Saturday. After both teams exchanged punts to be gin the game, Fordham’s sec ond possession started with a 59-yard bomb from DeMorat to junior Mekai Felton to set the Rams up deep in Lafayette terri tory. DeMorat then punched the

ball in from one yard out to give Fordham an early 7-0 lead. After a short field goal from junior Brandon Peskin late in the first, Fordham continued their strong play into the second quarter. The interception from Williams and a key fourth down stop from the Fordham defense kept Lafayette off the board. Af ter the stop, DeMorat capped off an eight play, 77-yard drive with another rushing score, extending Fordham’s lead to 17-0. Lafayette got on the board late in the first half with a field goal, but the Rams answered right back with a 30yard touchdown from DeMorat to Carter to send Fordham into the halftime break up 24-3.

Lafayette began the scoring in the third after a failed fourth down conversion gave the Leopards the ball inside Fordham territory, with Davis finding Chris Carasia for the 14-yard score. But the Rams had a quick and immediate response on

their ensuing possession. In just four plays, the Rams moved the ball 72 yards for the touchdown as Carter hauled in another touch down from DeMorat.

Another long 33-yard touch down pass from DeMorat to Ko kosioulis gave the Rams a comfort able 38-10 lead to begin the fourth quarter. That same duo struck again midway through the fourth for the final touchdown of the day before Fordham’s starters made way for the second unit. The Rams were able to see out the rest of the game, topping Lafayette 45-10.

Fordham have now won two in a row after their heartbreak ing loss against the College of the Holy Cross on Oct. 29 to improve to 8-2 on the year. With just one week remaining in the regular sea son, Fordham needs a win against Colgate University this Saturday to keep their FCS Playoff hopes alive. The Rams are likely in line for an at-large bid as things stand, but a win Saturday is essential to make that a certainty.

Colgate has had a down season at 3-7, although the Raiders did defeat Fordham in last year’s regu lar season finale 45-31. That game was in Hamilton, but the Raiders will have to make the trip south to Jack Coffey Field this year to try and cause the upset. Fordham and Colgate are set to kick off on Saturday at 1 p.m. The game can be streamed live on ESPN+ or lis tened to on WFUV 90.7 FM.

Defensive Player of the

Fordham Water Polo will enter the MAWPC tournament as the top overall seed this Friday.

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The Rams picked up another key victory Saturday on their quest to earn an FCS Playoff Berth.

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