Issue 4

The Fordham Ram Volume 100, Issue 4

Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 FordhamRam.com

See centennial spread, pages 13-14.

February 14, 2018

Intl.

Mid-Year Student Report Increase Released

By ERICA SCALISE

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM RAM

The Communications and Media Studies deparment is providing Fordham Student TV will new equipment to broadcast.

Fordham Student Television Returns to Rose Hill

By HANNAH GONZALEZ ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

This semester, a student-run television program is returning to campus under the Communications and Media Studies (CMS) department. CMS will provide Fordham Student TV with new equipment and space to broadcast, filling the space left by Fordham

Nightly News (FNN).

Unlike FNN, the new student television program will be housed under the umbrella of CMS. This will help the new program avoid problems that FNN faced, according to Kelsey Micklas, FCRH ’18, previously a reporter and anchor for FNN. “Now with Student TV under the department, I think it will be a

little more organized,” said Micklas. “It will also give the students the opportunity to become more familiar with the equipment because communications classes can use the studio.”

The communications department has provided the student television program with studio space in the basement of KeatSEE TV, PAGE 5

Despite a nationwide decrease in international student enrollment, Fordham has seen a steady increase in both undergraduate and graduate international enrollment.

175 universities provided data to the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) for the Fall 2016 and Fall 2017 admission cycles. The CGS survey reported a 5.5 percent decline in international graduate enrollment.

In Fall 2008, Fordham had 473 international graduate students.

From Fall 2011 to Fall 2012, an increase in 285 students was reported and by Fall 2016, 1,540 international graduate students were enrolled at Fordham.

In the Gabelli School of Business (GSB) graduate program, slight increases in international enrollments occurred, namely those in finance and analytics portfolios, according to Lawrence J. Mur’ray, senior assistant dean of the Gabelli School of Business graduate program. Mur’ray said the university’s SEE ENROLL, PAGE 3

Women Lead in STEM

By HELEN STEVENSON FEATURES EDITOR

While women make up less than one fourth of STEM-related careers across the U.S., women make up the majority of STEM majors at Fordham’s undergraduate level.

While women only 24 percent of STEM-related careers, according to the US Department of Commerce, 56 percent of stem majors at Fordham are women.

At Fordham, undergraduate STEM majors in the fall of 2017 were 56 percent women and 44 percent men, according to institutional research provided by Peter Feigenbaum, Ph.D, director of the Office of Institutional Research.

Of those pursuing STEM degrees, more women tended to study life sciences such as Environmental Studies.

Of this major, 71 percent were women, biological science was 61 percent female and natural science with 64 percent female. In contrast, more men tend to study areas related to Information and SEE STEM, PAGE 3

KEVIN STOLTENBERG/THE FORDHAM RAM

Fordham is encouraging coursework that takes students outside of Fordham’s gates to engage with the community.

Report Submitted on Community Engagement

By JOE ESPOSITO FEATURES EDITOR

The university is trying to encourage students to engage with the community through their coursework. The Faculty Task Force on Community-Engaged Learning at Fordham released a report recommending steps to increase undergraduate participation in communi-

ty-engaged learning courses.

The task force’s role is to make recommendations to the Provost regarding the structure of community-engaged learning for undergraduates.

“Community-engaged learning is any kind of learning of an experiential nature where a student advances in his or her knowledge and understanding through some form

of community engagement,” said Fr. Michael McCarthy, S.J., vice president for mission integration and planning. He’s also part of the task force.

Fordham currently has community-engaged learning programs, including course-work, but these courses have not been organized on a university-wide level, accordSEE COMMUNITY, PAGE 6

By THERESA SCHLIEP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

United Student Government (USG) released its midyear report highlighting their work from the first half of the 2017-18 academic year. The 36 page document also looks toward the Spring 2018 semester.

Connor Sullivan, FCRH ’19, vice president of communications for USG, said the packet is partly an effort to be transparent.

“As a directly elected body, it is important for the United Student Government to be transparent and let the students who elected us to know what we accomplished in the first half of the year, and our future plans,” said Sullivan to The Fordham Ram. “In doing this, the student body is updated on the projects of USG and informed on how to reach out and use USG as a resource for change at Fordham.”

The budget committee allocated $491,519.65 to clubs and organizations for the fall 2017 semester, according to the report. This left $32,306.31, which the budget committee allocated at the start of the spring 2018 semester. Of the 90 operations packet submissions, 60 percent received a sanction for a late submission. Club leaders are responsible for completing operations packets to receive funding and verify their status as an active organization on campus.

Lalinda Xu, vice president of operations, said she worked with Elizabeth Crennan, FCRH ’19, then vice president of finance, to organize and hold several information sessions. They are working to increase publicity to increase attendance at these sessions. Xu said she is considering holding drop-in hours to work one on one with club leaders.

During the Fall 2017 semester, the house committee hosted a variety of student-oriented events.

They worked with athletics to organize Ramtown to kick off the basketball season. They also hosted the McGinley Art Show, SEE USG, PAGE 5

in this issue

Opinion

Page 8 Apple’s Music Has an Unfair Advantage

Sports

Page 21

Fordham’s Own Takes Center Ice at Pyeongchang

Culture Page 14 Fr. Schroth Aims to Give “Voice to the Voiceless”

NEWS

Page 2

PUBLIC SAFETY BRIEFS

Money Matters

Humanities Majors See Opportunity

Feb. 6 3rd Ave. 1 p.m.

A student reported that while shopping on Fordham Road, she dropped her wallet on the corner of Fordham Road and 3rd Avenue. After realizing she dropped it she turned around, but by then the wallet was gone. The wallet has not been recovered.

Feb. 6 Keating Hall 6 p.m.

A student reported that an iPhone 7 was left in the Keating basement longue. She returned while on her way home and did not find it. The area was searched with negative results.

Feb. 10 Salice/Conley 6 p.m.

A cooking student caused the fire alarm to activate in Salice/ Conley. FDNY responded. The building was aired out and the students safely returned.

Feb. 12 Faculty Memorial Hall 9 a.m.

There was a report of a foul burning odor at FMH. Further investigation revealed that it was caused by a broken seal on a water pump in the first floor mechanical room. Facilities responded and remedied the situation.

Feb. 13 Queens Court 1 a.m.

There was a power outage on 1st floor of Queens Court in Roberts Hall. Facilities personnel responded and corrected the problem.

- Compiled by Joergen Ostensen

February 14, 2018

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM RAM

Students can wait for walk-in appointments at Career Services.

By AISLINN KEELY NEWS EDITOR

Humanities majors at Fordham may see increasing opportunity and high satisfaction in career fields as companies shift their sights towards students who have developed strategic thinking skills in their undergraduate years. In the organization’s 2018 State of the Humanities Report, 87 percent of humanities majors surveyed by Humanities Indicators reported they were satisfied with their careers.

At Fordham, career data for all majors are surveyed through Career Services using a recruiting analytics platform, Career Insights. The database tracks reported entry level position and internship analytics, including starting salary.

For many Fordham humanities majors, median starting salaries for the past five years have hovered between $35,000 and $45,000, with majors like English, history and philosophy reporting median post-graduate starting salaries of $35,750, $42,500 and $38,200 respectively.

Gabelli School of Business majors, such as accounting, finance and marketing saw a greater range of median starting salaries, the range is from marketing's $42,997 to finance's $65,000.

STEM majors at Fordham also saw a variety of median starting salaries, with majors like mathematics, computer science and

biological sciences seeing median salaries of $54,080, $60,500 and $33,000 respectively.

Carolyn Funke, an on-campus recruiting administrator with the Office of Career Services, said she has seen a shift in bigger financebased recruiters towards a wider focus that includes all majors outside of traditional “vocational” majors, like finance or accounting.

“They’re looking for broader knowledge base outside of just traditional vocational education, they want to know that you can think,” said Funke.

Humanities students are also taking a more personal path towards their careers, according to Funke.

“It depends on that student and I don’t think there’s as much of that straight line career-path,” she said.

A major does not necessarily correlate to a career in the humanities. Humanities Indicators reported that more than a third of humanities majors did not see a correlation between their job and their degree.

To accommodate this difference in degree and career, Career Services has adjusted its programming, according to Funke. In lieu of widespread career fairs, the office has switched its focus to smaller, interest-related fairs, as well as greater marketing to clubs as opposed to academic departments.

Daniel Contreras, Associate Chair of Rose Hill Undergraduate Studies, said he is confident that a Fordham English degree equips students with a variety of skills that will be indispensable in the workplace.

“They will be able to read just about anything from the simplest memo to the most complex text with assurance and deep comprehension,” he said. “They will be able to confidently write just about anything and to excel in all forms of communication. They will also have a keen appreciation

of the written word and this is a gift that lasts a lifetime.”

Gabrielle Gillespie FCRH ’19, an English major, said she noticed these benefits while interning.

“At my first internship, I felt like I had much stronger writing skills than the other interns who were all different majors. Being able to do well something as simple as an e-mail was an asset,” she said.

Maggie Rodriguez, FCRH ’19, said she feels her English major has helped her reading comprehension skills.

“I feel that the problem solving skills and my ability to decipher dense texts gained from pursuing my English major will definitely give me an advantage in pursuing higher education at law school,” she said.

Humanities graduates experience satisfaction comparable to graduates in arts, social sciences, business, education, engineering, health and medical sciences and physical sciences, with a satisfaction rate of 87 percent, according to the 2018 Humanities State of the Union Report.

Contreras said he is confident the skills cultivated in an undergraduate humanities degree will lead to both employment and a satisfying life.

“I do think that a majority of students who graduate with a degree in English will find employment and a life that they will treasure,” he said.

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM RAM

Career Services, pictured above, connects students with internship and job opportunities based on interest.

This Week at Fordham Wednesday Feb. 14

Wednesday Feb. 14

Thursday Feb. 15

Friday Feb. 16

CAB Movie Night: Crazy, Stupid Love

Fordham Flea: New Year, New Threads

FDM Benefit Auction

Kosova Night

Keating Third 9 p.m.

McGinley Lobby 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.

McGinley Ballroom 4 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Campbell Multipurpose Room 12 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Collins Auditorium 7 p.m.

CAB will be hosting a movie night on Valentine’s Day with a showing of Crazy, Stupid, Love. All are welcomed to watch the romantic comedy being shown at 9 p.m. Admission is free.

Join the Students for Environmental Awareness and Justice in helping protect the environment. Donate your gently-worn threads on Wednesday to receive a credit which can be used on Thursday.

Residence Hall Association will be hosting its annual dinner and auction to benefit the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation. There will be a raffle with prizes, featuring an auction for the first housing slot .

Join the Albanian Club in commemorating Kosovo's 10th year of Independence and aiming to host Albanian-American community organizations to celebrate Albanian history and culture.

The episodic play will be performed this Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Topics include body image, reproduction and consent from a variety of voices. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Friday Feb. 16 The Vagina Monologues

NEWS

February 14, 2018

International Enrollment Increases, Despite National Decreases

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM RAM

International students participate in a Global Transition program.

FROM INT, PAGE 1

location largely contributes to this.

“There is no doubt that our location in New York City, as well as a long history of international partnerships and global education have allowed us to maintain our place as a destination for international education,” said Mur’ray.

Jodi Hunt, director of admissions

for the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education at Fordham, said that the university has seen international enrollment increase for a variety of reasons.

“We are steady in our international numbers due to the option of online learning,” said Hunt. “Our students who cannot get visas or have difficulty leaving their place of

Page 3

ministry can study where they are, anywhere in the world.”

In the case of the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, Hunt said that it is common for international students to seek out Fordham.

“This is not unusual for a ministry school like ours as ordained religious [personnel] come to our school from all over the world and take our courses online,” said Hunt.

“We also have on campus international students as well who often are able to live and work in NYC as visiting religious [personnel] or priests while they study with us. Most find work within the Archdiocese of New York.”

The Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education has seen a slight decrease in international applications over the past three years.

Twenty five students applied in Fall 2016, 22 in Fall 2017 and 10 in Fall 2018.

The JD program at Fordham Law School has also seen consistent enrollment of international students over the last three years according to Kathryn Espiritu, director of admissions at Fordham Law. The number of international students in the 2015-2017 classes has stayed

between 22 and 24 students since the year 2015, maintaining steady enrollment.

According to the Office of Institutional Research, undergraduate international enrollment is also increasing steadily. There were 365 international students enrolled in 2011. By the fall of 2016 the number had nearly doubled to 716 students.

In May of 2017, The Ram reported an increase in geographical diversity.

According to John Buckley, associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment, the Class of 2020 had 192 international students. Last year, the university admitted 2,814 international students from more than 100 countries.

There has also been a steady increase in enrollment of Chinese and Indonesian students and consistent enrollment in the past three years of Canadian, Filipino, Italian and South Korean students.

Chinese students comprise the majority of international graduate and undergraduate students with 1,138 graduate and 375 undergraduate students enrolled in Fall 2016.

Compared to 15 graduate and 18 undergraduate students from the Philippines and 53 graduate and 15 undergraduate students from India

enrolled in 2016, the number of Chinese students is larger.

Certain countries have less than five students enrolled at Fordham yearly. In Fall 2016, three students from countries such as Argentina, Belgium and Kazakhstan were enrolled. Singular students from places such as Bulgaria, Syria and Croatia were also enrolled in 2016.

According to Mur’ray, it still too early to make predictions on what enrollments will look like for the 2018-2019 school year.

Like Mur’ray, Hunt said that the university’s location in New York City as well as the uniqueness of Fordham, contributes to enrollment increase.

“One reason why Fordham has not seen this [nationwide trend of decrease] is that we are Jesuit,” said Hunt. “A Jesuit education holds a great weight in the world and we offer a pretty good one.”

Hunt said Fordham’s faculty and international student service department contribute to the increase.

“We also have very well known faculty and a wonderful international student service department— those really make a difference for our students and that reputation draws more students to us,” said Hunt.

along the number of women gets lower,” she said. “At this particular stage in my area, when I go to a conference there is usually only about 10 percent women, but you do get used to it. I’ve had very little issues with any gender discrimination.”

Breiner said she witnessed a slight upward trend of female attendance in high-level mathematics courses.

“I do feel encouraged to see that there are a lot of women taking challenging courses and succeeding,” she said. “Since I have been here, it seems that there are more women now taking upper-level courses than they did 5 years ago.”

Mast said over time, there has been a strong increase of women in STEM in the past 50 years.

“Women were always involved, but it really has changed over the

past 50 years. In life sciences, it is about 50/50 men and women,” said Mast. “That’s how dramatically it’s changed. Physics and mathematics and computer science… we are not there yet. And that’s the challenge. There is still more to do.”

It was just over 50 years ago that the first class of women graduated from Thomas Moore College, the women’s school in association with Fordham University. The college opened in 1964 and taught women until 1974, when Fordham College Rose Hill went coeducational, according to Fordham Library Archives.

Although women have been offered STEM classes since the school’s origin, Mast has noted the significant shift in the cultural climate of these fields.

Mast said she wants to attract

more people to the field.

“My hope is that all students can see the beauty that’s there and the intriguing questions then it attracts more people into mathematics,” she said.

Part of this challenge is the need to create opportunities that bring people into mathematics in different ways, according to Mast. She said it is related to how schools teach and what they teach. More specifically, Mast said that there is a need to create programs that specifically encourage women and girls in mathematics.

“There is some great programs now that provide mentoring, travel support, ways to bring people to certain conferences,” said Mast.

“Women need to be with other women who are doing mathematics. When we see each other, it is another form of support.”

Women Increase Representation in STEM FROM STEM, PAGE 1

Tech Systems, with men making up 86 percent of the major’s students, Computer Science with 66 percent men and Engineering Physics with 65 percent men.

Carla Romney, associate dean of STEM and Director of Pre-Health Education said there are no Fordham-specific challenges for women pursuing STEM. “There are no barriers that prevent women from getting involved in STEM that are specific to Fordham,” said Romney. “At Fordham, we encourage students to participate in undergraduate research so that they can become part of the process of creating new knowledge.”

Madison Shyer, FCRH ’20, secretary of the Women in STEM club, said the university has always been active in supporting women and men in STEM fields.

“It’s incredible to be offered so many opportunities and to be able to create a strong community of Women in STEM here in New York City,” said Shyer.

She said that at Fordham there are many opportunities for women to succeed in STEM. “I feel like Fordham is one of the few places that I can confidently say there is equal opportunity for women and men in the STEM fields,” said Shyer. “It is reassuring to see so many females on top of their class and working hard alongside their male counterparts in areas of study that have previously been male-dominated.”

The university continues to see increases in the number of students who are interested in the STEM fields, according to Romney. She said Fordham works to build a community culture in which research is a central experience for all students.

Romney said it is important for women to see a level of representa-

tion in fields that are often dominated by men.

“I’d love to see more events that bring together female faculty and students in STEM- maybe a series of lunch gatherings - to allow women students to meet women faculty,” said Romney.

Romney cited Maura Mast, Ph.D., dean of Fordham College Rose Hill, as an excellent role model for women students in STEM-related studies.

Mast has a Ph.D. in mathematics and published her book, Women in Mathematics: Celebrating the Centennial of the Mathematical Association of America, in 2017.

Mast also served as secretary and executive board member of the Association for Women in Mathematics.

Mast said her research showed the involvement of women with mathematics really began in the mid 20th century. “[Involvement of women in mathematics] did not start to take off until the 1940s,” said Mast.

“There were prominent women before then, but very few.”

Mast said that the current percentage of women in mathematics declines from the undergraduate level to the graduate level, and that this drop off could be influenced by society’s implicit messages that are sent to young women pursuing STEM-related fields.

“We know that women and girls get a lot of messages in middle school, in particular, that they cannot do math… and that math is not a woman’s field,” said Mast.

“I completely disagree. I think anyone can do math.”

Christine Breiner, professor of mathematics at Fordham, said she understands the effect of representation in her field of study.

“What has happened in mathematics in the past, what people have observed, is that as you move

KYRA FULEIHAN FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

Contrary to national trends, there are more women than men in STEM majors at Fordham.

NEWS

Page 4

February 14, 2018

Research Spotlight

USG Column

Student Studies Foreign Social Enterprises

By TEREZA SHKURTAJ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rosalyn Kutsch, FCRH ’19, a student in Fordham University’s Honors Program, is using her very first research grant to explore her growing interests in International Political Economy and Latin American studies and uncover the impact of foreign social enterprises on female Mayan artisans in the Lake Atitlán region of Guatemala.

Kutsch applied for a Fordham research grant in the spring of 2017 in order to supplement her experience as a summer intern with a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Panajachel, Guatemala.

“It was really cool that Fordham had the confidence in me to be like, ‘Here’s the money, go see what you can do!’ and for that I am really grateful,” said Kutsch.

She turned to the support of faculty members Eve Keller, director of the Honors Program, Barbara Mundy and Rachel Annunziato, associate dean for strategic initiatives at FCRH, to better hone her interests and determine the focus of the research project. She said it was easy for her to venture out and to build on topics learned within the classroom because of Fordham’s many opportunities to pursue individual interests.

Kutsch worked closely with two of the social enterprises, the names of which Kutsch said she cannot disclose at this time. These organizations located in Guatemala strive to use profits to maximize social well-being, in hopes of studying the dynamic between the organizations and the female Mayan artisans of the region.

With the help of a local translator, Kutsch interviewed the indigenous artisan women using a demographic survey, then com-

Photo of the Week:

Stride for College Approved

By SARAH HUFFMAN COLUMNIST

COURTESY OF ROSALYN KUTSCH

Kutsch, pictured above, studies the work of female artisans in Guatemala and their relationships with local companies.

pared the data collected between the two companies and multiple indigenous communities. She said she wanted to figure out if working with these companies was truly beneficial for the Lake Atitlán region of Guatemala.

“I just wanted to see if they were doing what they say they do, which is supporting these indigenous artisans in a way that increases their standard of living,” said Kutsch.

The first company she worked with is fairly new and has around four times more revenue than other companies due to its strategic marketing tactics. Its goal is to reach female consumers who are

socially conscious and want to be aware of harmful global sourcing practices. The company has partnered with around 190 women and intends on increasing that number to almost a thousand, yet from her study, Kutsch discovered that only eight percent of women have worked with the company since its founding and the attrition rate of artisan partners is low.

The second company she shadowed, founded in the 90s, works with around 60 artisan women.

Although as a company it did not have an equally aggressive marketing strategy and was very often reliant on donors, it was much more deliberate about building

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM

Julia Lawlor, FCRH ‘21 soaks up the sun outside of Martyrs Court. Martyrs Court is the largest of the freshman dorms located on the Rose Hill campus.

strong relationships with its artisan partners, which is why 51 percent of women have worked continually with the organization since its founding 26 years ago.

Due to the existing discrimination against indigenous people in the area and growing health and education concerns, Kutsch said she believes that these companies help create access for local artisans.

“These companies are important because they allow these indigenous artisans to have access to the international market, something that due to language and cultural barriers is not feasible,” she said.

Companies in the area, such as the two she worked with, help produce products which can be sold to the United States and Europe for profit, since tourism alone does not bring enough revenue to help these women and their families prosper, according to Kutsch.

These companies and their efforts to use the standard business model to address the lack of education and health problems in highland Guatemala are evidence of the positive benefits of globalization, according to Kutsch.

She said she hopes buyers become more concerned with what they are buying and where it is coming from.

“With this project I realized how much of an impact a sale can have on the well-being of just one person…there truly is a face behind every product,” said Kutsch.

Kutsch will be presenting her research at the National Conference of Undergraduate Research this April. She urges students to get involved, as she did, and to pursue their interests, whether it be by traveling, through research or even a combination of both.

“Taking one step towards pursuing an interest, even if you are not sure of the final outcome, is a defining moment in the self-discovery journey that is the undergraduate experience,” said Kutsch. “It challenges you and opens you up to new experiences that shape your future.”

The club Strive for College was approved at the United Student Government (USG) meeting this past Thursday. A representative from the Fordham chapter was unable to attend the meeting, but the club sent a statement to the Senate explaining why they wanted to be approved. Strive for College is a national nonprofit organization that helps kids in local high school have equal college opportunities.

Fordham’s chapter has already worked with various high schools in the area, including the Bronx High School for the Arts and the High School for Energy and Technology. The group said it hopes that USG funding will help bring in speakers and bring in new recruits for the program.

Kevin Knightes, FCRH ’17, the president of Fordham’s Veterans Association, came to speak with the Senate. Knightes said he wanted members of FVA to get more involved with other clubs around campus. Currently, there are some issues with veterans joining other clubs due to student activity fees, according to Knightes. He said the club is trying to resolve any issues.

Knightes mentioned a collaboration between the club Students for Wounded Veterans and said the FVA would like to become more involved with traditional students, especially in USG. “We’re looking to forge a relationship,” he said. “We have about 450 student veterans here at Fordham across the campuses and what we really want to do is become more involved with the traditional students and get involved in government, perhaps run for some positions. We just want to become more integrated.”

The position of Vice President of Health and Security is currently open. The Senate said it encourages anyone interested to run. The election will be held at next week’s meeting on Feb. 15 at 5:30 p.m.

Executive President Brian Reardon, FCRH ’18, recognized Ignatian Week in his update. He encouraged the Senate to look at its Ignatian identity and to get involved in the rest of the Ignatian week events.

Vice President of Sustainability Arielle Brender, FCRH ’18, updated the Senate about an initiative to add a new eco-representative to the Residence Housing Association (RHA) boards of each residence hall.

Brender said that the head of the initiative is meeting with RHA and they are discussing the possibility of a pilot program in some residence halls this semester before expanding to all of the residence halls in later semesters.

Brender also mentioned that Fordham Flea is having its pop up on Thursday, Feb. 15th. Students can donate any item of clothing and receive one dollar credit towards purchasing another item, according to Brender.

NEWS

February 14, 2018

Student TV Set to Start Replaces Previous FNN FROM TV, PAGE 1

ing Hall. According to Jacqueline Reich, chair of the department of communications and media studies, Student Affairs has allowed the dance studio in Keating to be outfitted as a broadcast studio.

“Although the student broadcasters will have to share the space with dance groups, they are being given several hours per day for Student TV activities,” Reich said.

In addition to space, the Communications Department has also provided the student television program with all-new equipment.

“We have invested over $25,000 in this new facility, including cameras, lighting, and broadcasting equipment,” said Reich.

The updated equipment will allow for live broadcasts online, according to Reich.

The student television groups will produce sections ranging from news to sports to entertainment, with sights on future expansion into new programming, according to Reich. After a period of organization over the next few weeks, Reich said the program will be ready to officially begin broadcasting.

“Our Student TV operation should now have everything it needs in terms of equipment and space to get going again,” said Reich.

The communications depart-

ment-sponsored student television program will replace the independent FNN, which had an on-and-off history before its most recent hiatus in 2016.

In Sept. 2015, The Fordham Ram reported that FNN had been placed on an indefinite hiatus, as students had been denied access to the FNN email account as well as their studio in the basement of the Walsh Library.

“The FNN cancellation is still a mystery to us all,” said Micklas.

“In 2015, we got an email from the then-Student President of FNN saying he was locked out of the studio and the library gave him no explanation as to why.”

FNN returned a month later, albeit with diminished studio time.

Then, in Nov. 2016, The Ram reported that FNN had been once again been pulled from the air as a result of scheduling conflicts and a lack of manpower.

“Maybe it’s best that we [left the library studio] entirely and can move on to something new and better, that we create and control for ourselves,” said Christopher Spinelli, FCRH ‘18, formerly an anchor for FNN. Previous members of FNN said they hope to be involved in the new program.

“Obviously, as a first semester sophomore I wasn’t exactly in a position of leadership and didn’t

have much to do with producing, so I think that’s what I’m most excited to take on this time around with the re-launch of student TV,” said Spinelli.

Micklas also said the prospect of producing contributed to her desire to return to student television.

“I love being on-air, and with the new Student TV station I hope to fine tune my reporting skills as well as get some experience producing the shows,” said Micklas.

New students are also looking to develop their broadcasting skills through the various opportunities provided by the program.

“I want to work behind the scenes in production at student television,” said Kaylee Kurkierewicz, FCRH ’20, a film and television major. “I aim to pursue television as a career, so I’d love to work with the cameras and help produce, maybe even write for a program.”

In the coming weeks, they will be trained by professionals and fellow students with broadcasting experience.

“I still remember how fulfilling and exciting and challenging and rewarding it was to go to FNN and read the headlines you wrote, play the package you made and interview the person you chose,” said Spinelli. He said his goal this semester is to pass this feeling on to the next generation of students.

Passionate about politics?

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Visit fordham.edu/elections to learn more.

One-year program with evening courses offered at Lincoln Center and Rose Hill.

Early admission available for Fordham juniors with a GPA of 3.2 or higher.

Page 5

Mid-Year Report FROM USG, PAGE 1

themed “This is my City: The Skyline is the Limit.”

The mid-year report also laid out various initiatives both started and completed by senators, committees and executive board members.

John Kuyat, FCRH ’19, vice president of FCRH, said the FCRH Dean’s Council held a successful Town Hall with Maura Mast, P.h.D., dean of FCRH. He said the FCRH Dean’s Council also increased its social media presence. Last semester, the FCRH Dean’s Council held its first Research Reception, connecting students and faculty with similar research interests. Kuyat said the Dean’s Council also looks forward to meeting with administrators regarding Student Course Evaluations.

Sullivan said USG’s website received increased web traffic in Fall 2017. Likewise, he said USG’s Facebook has received an average of 2,000 views per post. Looking towards this semester, Sullivan proposed a Marketing and Communications Committee. USG will vote on this committee this semester.

GSB Dean’s Council added a new freshman class in the Fall 2017 semester. It has also chosen three TedX speakers for the upcoming TedX event this semester.

Amanda D’Antone, GSB ’19, said GSB Dean Council’s goals for

the semester include hosting the TedX event, establishing a student to student mentorship program for GSB students.

The Sustainability Committee hosted an Environmental Justice Panel, a Fall Flea thrifting event, and a concert at St. Rose’s Garden.

Arielle Brender, vice president of the Sustainability Committee, said the committee looks forward to the implementation of EcoRepresentatives in the residential halls. She said these individuals will be a new Residence Hall Association (RHA) position in which an elected student will teach their dorm about sustainability.

The Dining Committee helped introduce the new Pod convenience store under Queen’s Court.

Dominic Setaro, chairman of the dining committee, said they’re working on gradually decreasing the use of plastic bags on campus.

The Diversity Action Coalition is looking to open a dialogue with students regarding a campus multicultural center. Brian Daaleman, FCRH ’19, and Anya Patterson, FCRH ’19, co-chairs of the DAC, have conducted research on multicultural centers at peer institutions and met with administrators to discuss the possibility.

They are also going to meet with Public Safety to confront possible profiling at the gates when a student forgets their I.D. The DAC is also planning an event to celebrate first-generation college students.

NEWS

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February 14, 2018

Fordham Encourages Community Engagment FROM COMMUNITY, PAGE 1

ing to McCarthy.

“Community-engaged learning courses are academic, unit-bearing courses that have some form of community-engaged learning as part of the course,” McCarthy.

A 2014 faculty survey found that 15.5 percent of those surveyed had taught courses of the nature before.

Of those who had not, 39 percent indicated an interest in doing so.

Both groups of people said they felt they did not have the knowledge and expertise to take on these types of courses.

The task force said improving these programs is a university priority.

The report discussed which courses would be regarded as community-engaged learning, as well as criteria and learning objectives for these courses. According to the report, the guidelines require a community-engaged course to include 20-30 hours of direct community engagement and to guide students toward specific learning outcomes.

The report recommends how to organize this priority as a university-wide effort, taking faculty, students and community partners

into account.

The task force recommended the university adopt a structure to grow the undergraduate community-engaged learning program in the next three to five years, beginning in the 2018-2019 academic year. It plans to bring together various representatives, committees and groups which would work together to effectively enhance these programs. One such recommendation is the establishment of a center to help implement this type of learning, similar to other universities, including Jesuit ones.

Carey Kasten, associate professor of Spanish and a member of the task force, is experienced in teaching these types of courses.

“I think the question of civic engagement is important to faculty and students. I want these programs to be continued to be based on antiracist principles and be sensitive to community needs, but I am worried that scaling up makes this more challenging.”

The report discusses faculty support, noting that they play a major role in the potential success in increasing this effort. The report noted the recruitment and training of faculty are key elements in this process.

The task force provides target goals for the future. Because the number of students that have chosen to engage in these types of courses, was lower than expected, the task force has set a goal of enrolling 10 percent of undergraduates across the three campuses in

these courses. The report said it hopes to meet this goal within four years.

“The goal is to provide more students with the opportunity to engage in the local and global community in ways that really do expand their understanding

of themselves as members of this community that we find ourselves in, and do that in a disciplined way that links it to what they are studying in class,” he said. “In doing so, we become much more truly the Jesuit University of New York than we are currently.”

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM RAM

Fordham is encouraging coursework that takes students outside of its gates to engage with the community.

Journalism Professor Pulls from Varied Experience

By BAILEY HOSFELT

MULTIMEDIA/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Professor Luisita Torregrosa has had a far-reaching career in journalism outside of her Lincoln Center classrooms. Torregrosa has traveled all over with her reporting, writing everything from long-form magazine articles to nonfiction novels.

But before she saw any bylines in big-name publications like Vanity Fair, Washington Post Magazine or Conde Nast Traveler, Torregrosa was an aspiring writer who could not get her foot past the reception desk, let alone in the door.

“I couldn’t get a job anywhere,” said Torregrosa. “I had no idea, no contacts – I didn’t know anything.”

Originally from Puerto Rico, Torregrosa first came to the United States at age 14 to attend Linden Hall Academy, an all-girls prep school near Philadelphia.

From there she went to Winthrop University in South Carolina at just 16 years-old, majoring in journalism “on paper,” but also studying English literature and philosophy.

She contributed to Winthrop’s on-campus newspaper, mostly writing reviews about theater.

When it came time to graduate, Torregrosa was 19.

Many women around her wanted to be teachers, settle down and start a family. While she was unsure exactly what she wanted to do next, she knew where. “[I wanted to] get out of there as soon as possible, take the train and come to New York City,” she said.

Torregrosa grew up hearing about The New York Times and had a family that was engrossed with newspapers as well as law and politics. Her aunt worked as

a columnist in San Juan, and, as a child, Torregrosa became fascinated by the lifestyle of a writer.

“I inherited and absorbed all of that,” said Torregrosa.

But the city that held so much value to Torregrosa also gave her great difficulty when trying to find work.

After doing menial jobs that she “wouldn’t wish on any [of her] students,” Torregrosa came to the realization that she would have to leave New York City first in order to make a name for herself in journalism.

She applied for newspaper positions in South Carolina (a place where her degree provided more traction) and soon thereafter so-

lidified a position as a clerk for the city editor at The State. She brought coffee and opened mail, but she said she was grateful to start somewhere.

“The proximity to being in the newsroom was great in of itself because I got to know editors and reporters,” said Torregrosa.

She later moved to the copy desk at The State, which was where she first learned to be an editor. Torregrosa went on to work at The Charlotte Observer in North Carolina, starting as a copy editor and ending up as assistant managing editor.

But Torregrosa did not intend to stay in the South forever.

“I still had my eye on New

York,” she said.

The next step was The Philadelphia Inquirer where Torregrosa was an editor. She was doing quite well and enjoyed the position, but decided to walk away.

“I wanted to go write,” Torregrosa said. “I thought, if I stay here, I can keep going up as an editor, but I’m not writing.”

With a fascination for the revolution in the Philippines and a desire for a change of pace outside of the editing desk, Torregrossa went to Manila. She ended up staying for two-and-a-half years, reporting for The San Francisco Chronicle while there.

And then, in a full circle kind of way, The New York Times was the

BAILEY HOSFELT/THE FORDHAM RAM

Luisita Torregrosa, pictured above, has written for Vanity Fair, Washington Post Magazine and Conde Nast Traveler.

one who wanted Torregrosa: not because she applied, but because they had seen her work.

“So I went to The Times,” Torregrosa said.

But, she said her job at The Times was not all she hoped it would be.

“I hated it – totally hated it,” she said. “I had been out in Asia covering coup de tetes and revolutions and I come back and I’m sitting in a desk.”

On another whim, Torregrosa followed her gut. She left what she once thought was the apex of newspaper publication for Tokyo with a friend who was named to Newsweek’s bureau there.

She eventually returned to The New York Times to “keep the wolves at bay,” citing money as a main concern in her decision.

Torregrosa was there for another nine years until, once again, she thought to herself, I have to get out.

“I just said if I stay here, I’m never going to write. I’m never going to really see what I can do,” she said.

Despite having no savings, no contracts and no job, Torregrosa stood by her decision. She continued writing in the following years for outlets such as Politics Daily and the International Herald Tribune. Today, she regularly contributes to The New York Times, TimeMagazine and NBC News.

Torregrosa’s full-time teaching position at Fordham came to her in 2015, and she has been with the university ever since.

In the classroom, Torregrosa teaches her students her trade without a single textbook, drawing on her years of experience in the field.

“If I have to put a value in what I do here, it’s that I bring a world of experience, both the good and bad,” she said.

February 14, 2018

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OPINION

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February 14, 2018

The Fordham Ram

Apple Music Has an Unfair Advantage

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Apple Music has developed a substantial following from adult subscribers who had previously purchased Apple products.

By SEAN FRANKLIN STAFF WRITER

This week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple Music was on track to overtake Spotify in U.S. subscriptions. Apple Music’s American subscriber base has been growing at about five percent a month, while Spotify’s growth sits at two percent.

When I first read this, I was very surprised. Almost all of my friends use Spotify. I know almost no one who uses Apple Music – the idea that there are about to be more Apple Music than Spotify users seemed crazy to me. The people I do know who use it are mostly older people in my parents’ generation or people who are on their parents’ family

plans.

This got me thinking. Why are older, less tech-savvy people using Apple Music as their streaming service of choice? After I pondered it for a little while, the answer seemed clear.

The main advantage that Apple Music has over Spotify is that it’s baked into the Apple ecosystem. If you buy an iPhone, Apple Music is preinstalled as part of the Music app.

I remember the days when the Music app was just for the music that you had downloaded to your phone.

Now, all of your own music is packed into one tab, while the other four are for Apple Music and related services.

It’s unavoidable. Even if you want

to use the Music app just to listen to your own music, Apple is subtly nudging you towards Apple Music by making it the main focus. Less informed iPhone owners might not know about Spotify, but they’ll know about Apple Music because it’s already on their phones when they buy them.

I think the fact that Apple Music comes preinstalled on every iPhone is the only way to explain its rapid growth rate. Apple Music and Spotify are very similar services. They both cost the same – $9.99 a month.

They both offer a free trial of sorts – Apple Music has a three-month trial period, while Spotify offers free usage indefinitely, albeit with ads.

They both offer you unlimited

access to a massive library of music, and they’re both available on iPhone, Android, PC and Mac. There’s really no way to objectively justify Apple Music’s much higher growth rate. Something else must be going on.

That something else is what antitrust law calls “anti-competitive practices.” Apple Music is not gaining ground because it’s a better service than Spotify, it’s gaining ground because Apple is giving it an unfair advantage by bundling it with every iPhone.

This whole situation is very reminiscent of something that Microsoft did in the 1990s, something that eventually led to a lawsuit by the Department of Justice. Microsoft was accused of abusing its monopolistic power by bundling Internet Explorer, its own web browser, with every copy of Windows crowding out competition from other web browsers, like Netscape.

The DOJ ruled that Microsoft had abused its dominant position in the software industry to give Internet Explorer an unfair advantage over its rivals, and a federal judge ruled that the company should be split up. Microsoft narrowly escaped a breakup by appealing its case, but penalties were still imposed to make sure that they couldn’t use their position to game the market.

Apple is doing something very similar with Apple Music. By bun-

dling it with every iPhone they sells, the company is giving it an unfair leg up over its competitors. This isn’t even the first time that Apple has done this. Google Maps used to be the dominant navigation app on iPhones, but then Apple started preinstalling Apple Maps.

Even more insidious is iMessage, which is built on top of the texting app and engages automatically when Apple sees you texting a phone number that’s associated with an iPhone.

Ever wonder why no one on iPhone uses WhatsApp? It’s because iMessage is built in – why bother downloading another messaging service when you can just use the one that Apple put there? Apple is no stranger to anti-competitive practices. In fact, it’s been doing it for years.

In this age of increasing monopolization in the tech industry, trustbusters should be especially vigilant for this kind of behavior.

It is far too easy for an Apple, a Google or an Amazon to abuse the dominant position that they’re in. Microsoft wasn’t allowed to get away with it, and Apple shouldn’t either. Competition is the soul of the market, and if companies try to stifle it, they should be punished accordingly.

Sean Franklin, FCRH ‘21, is an urban studies major from Alexandria, Virginia.

Feminism Will Not Be Trumped in 2018

By JANA TEHFE

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Thursday, Jan. 25, Piers Morgan was interviewing President Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, when he finally posed the question, “Do you identify as a feminist?” The British TV host later tweeted, “BREAKING NEWS: Trump is not a feminist.” In an obvious tone, Morgan clarified by adding that Trump stated, “No, I wouldn’t say I’m a feminist. I mean, I think that would be, maybe, going too far.

I’m for women, I’m for men, I’m for everyone. I think people have to go out, they have to go out and really do it, and they have to win. And women are doing great, and I’m happy about that.”

The fact that our President was frank and unreserved in claiming he is not a feminist has become a major concern to some, as our country is in the midst of the #MeToo revolution and holds annual Women’s Marches. How worrisome is it that Trump claimed he is not a feminist?

Trump’s comment should not be as concerning as the fourth-wave feminists believe it to be.

According to Oxford English Dictionary, feminism is “equality of the sexes and the establishment of the political, social and economic rights of the female sex.” In today’s society, the meaning has gone beyond the dictionary definition. Feminism has taken on a negative connotation because of, dare I say it, extremists.

Many people believe that men

and women should have equal rights, but they are hesitant to call themselves feminists in fear of being associated with the people who man-hate or the ones who take their actions and words one step too far.

Now, we know that not all feminists illustrate this stereotype, but nonetheless, this is the image people conjure up in their minds when the word feminism is brought up.

Trump’s first claim is that he is not a feminist, but his explanation says otherwise, at least according to the dictionary definition. People are too focused on the beginning of Trump’s statement, disregarding his explanation for why. He does say that he is for both women and men, and that he is happy for women because they are putting themselves out there and succeeding.

According to the literal meaning of feminism and his explanation, Trump does believe in equality, but he would not call himself a “feminist” because it would be “… going too far.” This shows that Trump, like many others, sees the word feminist and shies away from the label because of the negative implication around it. However, his explanation does identify him as supporting feminist philosophy. Feminism’s main concern is that Trump is not supporting them because of his declaration, but if people listen to his full claim, they will see his statement does support feminist ideals.

Even if Trump did claim he was a feminist, how would that change the movement? The fourth wave of feminism is in full swing, whether peo-

KEVIN STOLTONBERG/THE FORDHAM RAM

The feminist movement will continue to gain ground regardless of whether or not the president supports the cause.

ple like it or not, and Trump knows this. Trump’s stance, whether for the movement or against, will not stop the movement from taking place.

It is understandable that feminists would like someone with influential political power to be on their side, but Trump would do nothing else for the movement than provide moral support.

This idea is backed up by past presidents. In Sep. 2016, President Barack Obama called himself a feminist in an essay written in Glamour Magazine. While yes, the statement may have been a confidence boost to the feminist movement, that was all it was. Nothing changed simply because Obama identified himself as a feminist. If anything positive happened for the movement, it was not because of one man’s claim.

On the other hand, there have

also been presidents who opposed social movements of the time, and the nation saw change regardless, but we have still seen change in the nation. Woodrow Wilson was not completely for the women’s suffrage movement at the beginning of his presidency. His support was indifferent at best. Yet, a few years later, women earned the right to vote.

During the Vietnam War, President Dwight Eisenhower pledged his support to South Vietnam, even amidst all the protests against the war in the United States. This action did not stop the Vietnam War from eventually ending and our troops from returning home.

The opinion of the president should not be as big of a concern as people may think. One opinion is not going to alter the full course of a social and political movement.

However, the unified actions of many will. The feminist movement should concern itself with convincing the rest of the nation to unify for its cause. Trump’s claim will not be a barrier to doing so, just as Eisenhower’s support for the Vietnam War did not stop it from ending or Wilson’s opposition did not stop women from gaining the right to vote.

At the end of the day, people’s biggest concern should not be whether the President is for or against the movement, but it should be how to convince a full country to back up our cause in order to get something done. One man’s opinion, even the President’s, will not be the barrier that prevents change.

Jana Tehfe, FCRH ’21, is a political science major from Brooklyn, New York.

OPINION

February 14, 2018

Page 9

Venezuela’s Inflation: The Price of Socialism

By PAULA HERNANDEZ GARAYCOA CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A mother of two waits in line for six hours to buy rice and flour she desperately needs to feed her family.

That is, if there’s even any left by the time she makes it to the front. She and her two sons are severely malnourished and getting sicker every day.

Toilet paper, diapers and cooking oil are nowhere to be found; the black market “bachaqueros” buy up the cheap, but limited, government subsidized items and resell them at a much higher price.

This is not a faraway, imaginary anecdote. For millions of Venezuelans, struggling to meet their basic needs, this is a harsh daily reality.

Venezuela’s currency, the bolivar, has “lost 98 percent of its value against the dollar in the past year” and economists predict that the situation will continue to deteriorate.

Inflation has been following an upward trend since 2014, and I’d argue that Venezuela has been on its way to crisis since 1958, when Rómulo Betancourt actively worked to nationalize Venezuela’s oil industry during his presidency.

This socialization was only made worse in 1998, when Hugo Chávez was elected president by promising an end to corruption and an end to poverty. During his 14-year reign, Chávez worked to eliminate the government’s checks and balances.

He also further nationalized the oil, agricultural and financial industries.

It was only the pre-2014 high oil prices and production that allowed

COURTESY OF FLICKR

One prospective solution to combat inflation in Venezuela is to dramatically reduce the printing of Venezuelan currency.

Venezuela to maintain the illusion of prosperity and stability.

The current president Nicolás Maduro, has upheld Chávez’s totalitarian policies and further implemented policies that have increased government control and essentially made him a dictator. Maduro is almost universally despised in Venezuela, and has maintained his power amidst massive and violent protests only through changes to the constitution and military force.

The common thread between these men? Government control.

Each one of their socialist agendas has left Venezuela vulnerable.

Although there was a time that this vulnerability was masked by the global oil market, the policies that each of these individuals put in place have made it possible for Venezuela to sink as low as it has today.

Socialism does not work. Ven-

ezuela is just one of many examples of how detrimental socialist systems can be because of how clear “the US media of smearing Venezuela’s socialist president” (according to Sean Penn and others) in 2010 was justified.

Large, centralized governments are consistently less effective at redistributing wealth than the individuals that the government overlooks.

In addition, being a government approved form of theft is not conducive to furthering economic growth.

Inevitably, socialist systems collapse as industry competition dies out, creating economic stagnation and the government no longer has the funds to support its population.

The solutions to Venezuela’s crisis are complex and imperfect. Most of what has been proposed is a BandAid covering a bullet wound and that risk is making the crisis worse

and/or increase government involvement in private industry. However, there are three things that must happen to alleviate the situation.

First, the government needs to stop controlling prices. Although these controls are what make it possible for many people to afford food, the actions of bachaqueros and the limited supplies are creating a vacuum, where the government loses revenue.

These “low” prices are an artificial government creation and contribute to the lack of supplies available at stores.

Secondly, the Venezuelan government needs to remove legislation that regulates imports and exports. Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have been growing more distant since Hugo Chávez’s presidency. His public villanization of the U.S. is largely to blame for the

nature of this relation. It can remove currency exchange requirements and/or the bureaucratic checks placed on a variety of products before they are approved to import.

Lastly, Venezuela needs to stop printing more Bolivares. Printing more money does not add to the economy, but rather encourages an increase in prices. Considering, that historically this method has not worked and that Maduro is replacing old 100 Bolivar bills with bills worth between 500 and 20,000 bolivares to try and meet the demand of the already high prices did not improve the situation.

All this being said, these solutions all depend on the morality of the men in government who have repeatedly and obviously shown signs of being not only corrupt, but nefarious. It’s unlikely that Venezuela will return to its previous illusory glory, but solving this situation is literally a matter of life and death.

The crisis in Venezuela is nothing less than a crime against human dignity. The poor quality of life in what was once one of the richest oilcountries in the world is not something to take lightly.

While many deny the role that the country’s socialist government has played in the current state of affairs, I’d urge you to consider the struggles the fathers, mothers and children of Venezuela face the next time someone talks about the “benefits” or the “morality” of socialism.

Paula Hernandez Garaycoa, FCRH ’21, is an English major from Miami, Florida.

A 5G Network is Worth Sprinting After

By EMILY THOMPSON STAFF WRITER

When I first heard about Sprint releasing a 5G network, my first thoughts included: 1.) My 4G doesn’t even work properly.

2.) Does increasing the number make it better?

3.) What the heck is 5G? I am not the most technological person, so the idea of a 5G network sounds like gibberish. I do not expect much from my phone network, although I think we all know the frustration when our cellular data fails us. It’s a sinking feeling. Ev-

ery time I am on the subway and I watch my signal bars go down, I actually get nervous. It feels like I am Tom Hanks in Castaway. So if this is my life under 4G, what exactly is 5G and will it solve my subwayisolation?

5G stands for fifth generation, meaning that it is the fifth wave of wireless technology. National Geographic breaks down the generations quite simply: “In the early 1990s, when wireless phone technology emerged, the first-generation network (1G) carried voice only.

When text between two cellular devices became possible, 2G was

born. With 3G came the ability to make calls, send text and surf the web from a wireless device deemed ‘smart.’

Even smarter, and more entertaining, the 4G network allowed us to make calls, send texts, browse the internet and both download and upload video files with relative ease.” If it already feels like we are holding the world in our hands under 4G, what could conceptually be achieved under 5G is astounding.

What’s next, teleportation?

Sprint believes that its unveiling of the 5G network will solve much more than just my subway blues. It has described its 5G network as be-

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Sprint hopes to become the first service network to run on 5G, giving it an edge over competitors, like Verizon.

ing useful for much more than just cellphones. In fact, they advertise it as being great for just about everything. The Wall Street Journal states that “...5G networks have implications for other machines and devices, such as self-driving cars. Sprint said the 5G network will benefit its parent company SoftBank Group Corp…which—in addition to owning Sprint—also has a major investment in Uber Technologies Inc.” Imagine: one day when you Uber in or out of the city, you may be experiencing the futuristic power of 5G! Our world is morphing into something out of Meet the Robinsons.

So what does this mean for Sprint users and the company’s status?

Sprint has stated that its 5G will allow for longer-distance calling. The Wall Street Journal adds, “Sprint said its 5G network would be superior because it relies on airwaves at the 2.5 GHz frequency, which covers greater distances than some rivals.”

It focuses on mobile devices, which could potentially put it ahead of its competitors. Other companies such as AT&T and Verizon are also looking to improve their networks and introduce 5G. The difference is that Sprint is focusing on a purely mobile network, while many of its competitors are looking to also fix their system.

Analyst Will Townsend of Forbes warns that this move is what will put

Sprint ahead, since trying to make a mobile and fixed 5G network might be too much for other companies to handle successfully.

I believe that there is always room for improvement in the realm of technology. Right when you think you are living the plot of a futuristic sci-fi film, more improvements are made before you get used to the old ones.

Being able to Google on-the-go and access the Internet almost everywhere makes it obvious that so much of our lives revolve around our internet access-especially at college, where communication about classes, friends and family members are a major priority.

While I believe that 5G permits better communication by allowing more reliable long-distance service, it puts me on edge to think about just how much we rely on internet service. If the day came that everything crashed, and everything, including Uber were useless, it is scary if all aspects of our lives rely on wireless networks working properly.

Needless to say, we spend our days with our heads stuck in our phones.

If this is our reality, it is comforting to know that the companies we rely on so heavily are always looking to the future.

Emily Thompson, FCRH ’21, is an art history major from Norwalk, Connecticut.

OPINION

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R

Serving the Fordham University campus and community since 1918 The Fordham Ram is the university journal of record. The mission of The Fordham Ram is to provide a forum for the free and open exchange of ideas in service to the community and to act as a student advocate. The Fordham Ram is published and distributed free of charge every Wednesday during the academic year to the Rose Hill, Lincoln Center and Westchester campuses with a readership of over 12,000 and a web readership of over 300,000. The Fordham Ram office is located in the basement of the McGinley Center, room B-52.

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February 14, 2018

From the Desk | Joergen Ostensen

MLK: Radical Pacifist, Not Car Salesman When most Americans think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they think of a civil rights leader who decried racism on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. They think of the abstract concept of a dream where blacks and whites live together in harmony. They think of him as someone who brought about change in American society, paving the way for the presidency of Barack Obama. Dr. King has been sanitized into a symbol for social progress in America.

Dr. King’s voice recently appeared in a Super Bowl advertisement for Dodge Ram trucks, which is a clear misappropriation of what he stood for. Americans have come to perceive King in a form inconsistent with his message. As Cornel West points out, “He undergoes Santa Clauseification. That’s one of the ways which [they] domesticate people who are on fire for justice.”

The ad featuring King equates his message with materialism, evidence it is being stripped of its intended meaning.

In reality, King was one of the most radical voices of dissent in the 1960s. He believed that love for one’s neighbor should be the basis of human society. His conception of love is perhaps his most radical and important idea, but it does not enter into the normal discourse about his message. In his controversial “Beyond Vietnam” speech, King said, “When I speak of love I am not

speaking of some sentimental and weak response…Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.”

The application of King’s notion of love to politics is perhaps best summed up by what Cornel West once said, “Justice is what love looks like in public.”

That meant he was far from content with merely attaining legal equality for African Americans.

He was the leader of a non-violent campaign against the existence of poverty. He reinterpreted scripture and applied that to politics. “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see than an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring,” he said.

King did not believe that such a society could coexist with the militarism of the Vietnam era. The war undermined social progress. In “Beyond Vietnam,” King explained his opposition to the war, “This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love,” he said.

Opposition to the war put King in directly against Lyndon Johnson and many others who had support-

ed King with respect to civil rights.

King’s opposition to the Vietnam War is often conveniently left out of contemporary discourse. Similarly, so is his opposition to materialism.

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered,” he said.

Given that, it is very likely that Dr. King would have been incensed if he were alive to see the Super Bowl commercial where one of his sermons was used to sell Dodge Ram trucks.

People forget that King was surveilled by the FBI because they considered him to be a threat to national security. Most people do not even know that at the end of his life Americans did not approve of Dr. King. After he gave the “Beyond Vietnam” speech, he was accused of being a communist and someone who had overstepped by expanding beyond the Civil Rights Movement.

According to Politico, in 1967 less than a third of Americans rated King favorably.

If Americans want to consider King one of our national heroes, then it is necessary to confront the fact that he would more than likely still be in the streets protesting.

In “Beyond Vietnam,” which was

delivered at the Riverside Church one year to the day before he was killed, King issued an indictment of American society. “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” The United States continues to spend exorbitant amounts of money on the military-$611 billion in 2017.

Americans need to start asking themselves what King would say about what has happened recently, in the context of the connection he drew between militarism and the oppression of the poor. We need to ask: Would King have opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? The answer would invariably be no, and yet the issue is rarely raised.

Dr. King’s dream of a society based on love for each other is only a possibility if we accept all of what he stood for.

Editorial | New McGinley Center

Time to Revamp the McGinley Center The McGinley Center is to the Rose Hill campus what a living room is to a house. But Fordham students, like children in a family who grow up and no longer fit in a space that was once considered sufficient for them, are coming together to say it is about time for an upgrade.

An online petition is circulating around campus, urging Fordham to prioritize a reconstruction of the current McGinley Center as its next capital project.

In this case, Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J. president of the university, the Board of Trustees and those who have a say in Fordham’s infrastructural projects are the parents on the receiving end of this request.

The petition reads, “Resolved: We, the students of Fordham University, hold that all members of the community should have comfortable and accessible places to congregate outside of the residence halls, easy access to food at mealtimes, adequate fitness facilities, as well as multiple well-furnished spaces for clubs to meet.”

As a Fordham club that logs count-

less late nights in the basement of McGinley, the editorial board at The Fordham Ram is in agreement that significant changes to the preexisting space are not only in order, but long overdue.

The petition cites deficiencies – none of which are hyperbolic in nature – and reasonable requests to eradicate them in the future infrastructure. The university website brands the McGinley Center as “a place for students to socialize, attend events and truly enjoy their collegiate experience.” While they are not wrong that many do congregate in McGinley, very little do it in a comfortable fashion.

Commuters are quarantined into one small student lounge during winter months when Eddie’s is not yet an option for them to get together.

Without access to residence halls or alternate social spaces, commuters often feel isolated on their own campus.

Although commuters no longer account for the majority at Fordham, the university must still prioritize this group’s comfort and inclusion, just as they would evaluate and update liv-

ability of dorms for residents.

The Marketplace and Dagger John’s are over capacity at prime meal times. Getting food in an efficient manner and finding a place to eat during high-volume windows is increasingly difficult. In an environment where students are on a schedule, standing around in a line for upwards of 30 minutes is not acceptable.

The fitness center does not have the amount of equipment proportionate to the demand of students who use the facility. Similar to the dining spaces, it experiences overcrowding during peak times, leaving students waiting for exercise machines or free weights.

The 16 club suites in McGinley Center and five spots off-site are nowhere near enough for the estimated 130 clubs on campus. Those who are lucky enough to receive a space in McGinley basement must work in locations that often do not have enough room for all club members or natural light.

There is no way around it. A new and improved McGinley Center is necessary. The co-writers of the peti-

tion hope to table in the near future, which will allow the effort to reach a wider audience.

At The Fordham Ram, we believe that all members of the university community should strongly consider adding their names to the petition in order to bring about a more prosperous space on campus for all.

Similarly, the university must value the needs of its vibrant student body when considering its next constructional effort and listen to the concerns raised in this petition.

At its core, a college student center is meant to be a central hub for students. Fordham’s McGinley Center, though physically located in an equidistant spot from many places on campus, does not attract social activity and community in the way it could and should.

The current McGinley Center may have been good enough when it got its name in 1960, but it does not cut it anymore.

Just like a family of three becoming four, adjustments must be made. And at Fordham, we need a bigger and better living room.

Disagree with our opinions?

Send your thoughts to fordhamramopinions@gmail.com

OPINION

February 14, 2018

Page 11

Making Cents of the 2018 GOP Funding Bill

By MICHAEL MYLLEK CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Late last week, President Trump signed a bill into law to continue funding the government for another two years. This bill will raise government spending by close to a trillion dollars for both years of the bill.

Unfortunately, this bill demonstrates the sad reality that fiscal conservatism is dying as high government spending has become inevitable regardless of what party spearheads the policy making.

It is important to make a distinction here: this is not a budget. This is a funding bill. The broad details of the funding bill are that there are large spending hikes for both military and non-military spending and raised budget caps, which will allow the budget to be raised in the future.

Furthermore, the bill does not include anything regarding the state of DACA, though part of the reason the bill passed the senate was because of a promise by Majority Leader McConnell to bring a vote to the floor soon after the bill passed. This bill changes a lot, and I will do my best to unpack it, list its possible consequences and explain what it might mean going forward.

First off, the bill drastically increases spending by about $300 billion over the next two years and raises budget caps which will allow future budgets to increase, thus rendering the Budget Control Act of 2011 powerless. Delving further into this, the bill increases both military and non-military spending over the next two fiscal years. The bill also provides an additional $90 billion for disaster relief in response to the many wildfires and storms that have hit the U.S. over the last year.

The bill also affects Medicare, as it repeals the Independent Payment Advisor Board that is meant to keep Medicare spending in check, though the board has never been utilized because of unusually

slow rising Medicare costs. It also extends many subsidies to specific groups like rural hospitals, and increases discounts given to Medicare recipients by the pharmaceutical industry.

The bill also extends the very popular Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for an additional four years, on top of the sixyear extension already in place from the tax cuts, and extends funding for publicly funded Community Health Centers for another two years. Energy was another clear target of this bill, as it gives large tax breaks to renewable energy sources, nuclear energy providers and bio-fuel. Finally, the bill also included some miscellaneous provisions, such as favorable tax rates or tax credits for timber production, miner safety, racetracks and horse breeders.

Senate Republicans have dug themselves into a hole. This is not a budget, but rather a two-year long funding bill. This distinction matters because of the process of reconciliation. This process is how Republicans pass bills with only a slim majority and no Democratic support. Since this is a funding bill with no formal budget in place, this process will not be allowed to occur until an official budget is passed.

As Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator explains in his podcast, The Ben Shapiro Show, “…it’s not technically a budget, the reason that makes a difference is if you don’t pass a budget, you can’t use reconciliation processes to pass new bills…In order for you to pass a bill under reconciliation…you have to pass a bill that is budget neutral.

Well that doesn’t apply if there is no budget.”

Clearly, this could pose a quagmire for senate Republicans moving forward. Until they are able to pass a real budget, they won’t be able to pass any law that would affect the budget, which in government is almost any law, using reconciliation.

This means they would need 60

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The new bill greatly increases the spending for military operations but does not include any funding for DACA.

votes to pass a bill, which in today’s polarized politics is simply not feasible. Senate republicans have once again shown that they are politically incompetent, and if they aren’t able to pass a budget soon, it could finally come back to haunt them at the midterm elections when they have little to no meaningful legislation to point to as an accomplishment.

When looking at a bill like this, only one word comes to mind: disaster. It raises spending by $300 billion over the next two years and raises budget caps in the future so we can spend even more money.

On the surface, this may not seem like a very big deal. After all, the bill averted a government shutdown.

Besides, government spending usually increases, so why is this bill any different? This large increase in spending matters because this time, Republicans control the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Many of these “conservatives” are in office right now because they campaigned hard against the huge spending hikes by the Obama administration, giving a voice back to libertarian thinkers that wanted a smaller Federal

Government and to minimize the national debt under the “Tea Party” Movement.

However, last Friday proved that much of this message was a partisan lie: another opportunistic political maneuver to get elected and retain office in Congress for as long as the candidate would like. The same Republicans who campaigned on the platform that Obama’s government was too big voted “yea” on Friday’s funding bill. The bill goes against everything the “Tea Party” believes in except the reduction in military spending. This shows me, as someone who wants limited government, that these “Tea Partiers” are only for fiscal conservatism when it is politically expedient for them.

They hate spending when it’s healthcare and entitlements under a Democrat, but when the same things are funded with the military under a Republican, their tunes change and are all for spending.

Therefore, this bill matters because it is proof that the era of both parties spending big is upon us.

Further, budget caps being raised means that the deficit will be allowed to grow at a faster pace than

previous caps would’ve allowed. I know most people are tired of hearing about the deficit, but it is now at over $20.5 trillion.

Our Gross Debt to Gross Domestic Product ratio is now at 104.2 percent, meaning we owe more money than we take in over an entire year.

Most economists will tell you that this is an extremely unhealthy number and will eventually be a real problem that we may not be able to solve. As Veronique de Rugy of George Mason University explains, “Last but not least, the government must reduce our debt-to-G.D.P. ratio…” The answer here is probably spending cuts. Fiscal adjustment packages made mostly of spending cuts are more likely than tax increases to lead to lasting debt reduction.

Clearly this is a problem that we will have to face as a nation one day, it just appears that neither Congressional Democrats nor Republicans want to make that day today.

Michael Myllek, FCRH ’19, is an economics and political science major from White Plains, New York.

Disagree with these opinions?

Want your voice heard?

Send your thoughts to fordhamramopinions@gmail.com

Page 12

CENTENNIAL

February 14, 2018

Dodransbicentennial, Minus the Dodrans

Fordham University’s student leaders were featured creatively on a front page, 100 years after the university was founded (Vol. 21, Issue 19).

February 14, 2018

CENTENNIAL

Page 13

By THE FORDHAM RAM STAFF In an effort to commemorate 100 years of student journalism on campus, The Fordham Ram will be including moments in history through its archives each week. This week’s selections are concentrated in the early months of 1941, the year of Fordham University’s 100th birthday.

Students on campus over the 2016-2017 academic year were provided with a new word to add to their vocabulary: dodransbicentennial. In 1941, the centennial was all the rage.

Much like last year, Fordham University celebrated the anniversary through a variety of events — from fundraising, to editorials, to enthusiastic university presidents — it was a time to reflect upon Fordham’s accomplishments.

In the months leading up to the United States’ involvement in WWII, The Fordham Ram kept its coverage close to the heart, and observed the centennial with pride.

The Fordham Ram weighed in on the centenary fundraiser, with accompanied illustration to left (Vol. 21, Issue 14).

Like the students of the dodransbicentennial, the students of the centennial class were celebrated (Vol. 21, Issue 25).

Valentine’s Day never goes out of style (Vol. 21, Issue 14).

$685 may not seem like a big number now, but it was headline-worthy (Vol. 21, Issue 14).

1941’s president was enthusiastic about the historic landmark (Vol. 21, Issue 14).

Students on The Ram initiated fundraising for Fordham (Vol. 21, Issue 14).

The centenary class voiced opinions on participation in the war prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor (Vol. 21, Issue 20).

Fordham University’s year-long excitement came to a close (Vol 22, Issue 1).

CULTURE

Page 14

February 14, 2018

The Fordham Ram

Father Schroth Aims to Give “Voice to the Voiceless” Through Journalism

By RYAN DI CORPO CULTURE EDITOR

The Rev. Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. wants to tell you his stories. They are all there: in pictorial form, scattered about the hallway and on the walls of his third-floor room at the Murray-Weigel Hall Jesuit Infirmary.

There is a picture of his mother and father, a button which reads “BOYCOTT GRAPES,” a press pass from the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and a framed drawing — or perhaps scribbling — done by a young relative but which looks like the work of an aging Cy Twombly.

As his walls would suggest, Fr. Schroth, FCRH ‘55, has plenty of stories to tell — and good ones, too.

Now editor emeritus of America and former associate editor of Commonweal, Fr. Schroth continues to write, as he has for The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and the Columbia Journalism Review.

He has written books on Robert “Bob” Drinan and Eric Sevareid, and has interviewed Saul Alinsky, Richard Ford and Fulton J. Sheen, among others.

He attended the 1967 March on Washington, where he became impressed by Norman Mailer’s ability to accurately spell “Schroth.” He surveyed the destruction in Newark and Detroit after their respective riots in 1967. He witnessed a policeman strike a protestor in Chicago’s Grant Park after the 1968 Democratic National Convention, where Schroth was tear-gassed.

He found himself disgusted in Iraq by the wreckage of a bomb shelter, and the fate of the civilians, attacked

by American forces — “This makes

me ashamed to be an American,” he wrote in the shelter’s guestbook.

And now he sits in a moderatelysized room — featuring a piano, various artifacts, and just about as many books as a small-town library — reliving once again those earthshattering events with a young reporter who was not alive for most of them.

Fr. Schroth began his non-professional journalistic career writing for The Fordham Ram. During Fr. Schroth’s junior year, he served as the “foreign correspondent” for the newspaper, documenting his experiences while studying abroad in Paris.

From 1954 to 1955, after having returned from France by way of a several day boat trip, Fr. Schroth served as both the editor of the editorial section and as a columnist. His column, titled “Between the Lines,” was a collection of writings about “whatever I wanted.”

He speaks with a great fondness for his days at The Fordham Ram, a publication that Fr. Schroth would later credit with helping him keep his professorship. He speaks with great admiration for the paper’s mentor, the late Edward A. Walsh.

From 1955 to 1957, Fr. Schroth served in the U.S. Army stationed in Mannheim, Germany, where his title was first lieutenant and his orders were to be a killer — so he describes it. Fr. Schroth never saw combat, and later wrote an article on how a man could be “a good Catholic and a good solider at the same time.”

Fr. Schroth, who joined the Jesuits in 1957 and was ordained in 1967, further stated that he previously operated under the idea of “presumed righteousness” regarding American wars. That is, until Vietnam.

RYAN DI CORPO/THE FORDHAM RAM

Father Schroth, who graduated from Fordham in 1955, received his B.A. in American Studies.

Fr. Schroth began teaching journalism at Fordham in 1969. The climate on campus, as he described it, was “hot” — not in terms of temperature, but in terms of people and politics as anti-war sentiment swept like an ideological tidal wave across the nation’s college campuses. Fordham students staged their own protests – both against the Vietnam War and Fordham’s administration. One protest – which involved the firebombing of the Campus Center in 1970 – sent Fr. Schroth running into an inferno.

On Nov. 12, 1969, several members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Committee to Abolish ROTC — some of whom were students of Fr. Schroth — staged an occupation of the Administration Building, forcing out thenFordham president Michael P. Walsh, S.J. Several Fordham members of the SDS, a national leftist organization founded in 1960, were also students

in Fr. Schroth’s class “The History of American Violence,” a class he created.

Fr. Walsh, whom Fr. Schroth described as “a genius” and as “one of the greatest presidents in the history of American Jesuit education,” did not fight the protestors once they gained entrance to the building. Six students were later arrested, prompting Fr. Schroth to don his Roman collar and visit the “Fordham Six” in prison.

Fr. Schroth’s support of the protestors and his prison visit caught the ire of “a handful of Jesuits” who identified him as the cause of the students’ radical behavior. In Apr. 1970, when then-USG President Robert Reger, and according to The Fordham Ram, “approximately 250 students” occupied the Administration Building to demand tenure for English professor Dr. Ronald Friedland, Fr. Schroth once again supported the students. In our conver-

sation, he described the occupation during as having been “all done in a very gentlemanly way.”

Despite the umbrage of certain Jesuits, Fr. Walsh stood by Fr. Schroth, just as later Fordham president Fr. James C. Finlay, S.J. would support him during a tenure battle which once again placed his job in jeopardy.

Fr. Schroth’s defense of the student protestors, and his own stalwart opposition to war and oppression, inform his overall understanding of what journalism ought to be. He describes journalism as “perhaps the greatest civic educational […] tool to spread democracy and to give voice to the voiceless.”

Fr. Schroth, now 84, has not relented in his mission to tell people’s stories. He is currently in the process of writing a new book on persons who have exhibited that rare quality called courage. Perhaps he should include himself in this project. Perhaps he should look at his walls.

Winchester Fails to Stand Out From the Crowd

By MATTHEW DILLON STAFF WRITER

Winchester is an Australian horror film based on one of the more famous real-world ghost stories, another entry in the long-dormant “haunted house” subgenre. Taking place in the early 20th century, the film follows Eric Prince ( Jason Clarke), a therapist sent to the bizarre Winchester House to examine its owner and architect, Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren).

He does so at behest of the famous Winchester Repeating Arms company, who grows concerned with the reclusive owner’s behavior. Once there, Prince is forced to confront not only the ghosts drawn there, but also his own teetering sanity.

Even if you do not buy into the supernatural elements, the real life story of Lady Winchester and her labyrinthine house is more than enough for a feature film. Unfortunately, Winchester fails to harness the source material or even distinguish itself from an overcrowded genre.

Winchester is distinctly average in almost every capacity, whether

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Helen Mirren plays Sarah Winchester, who inherited approximately $20 million following the death of her husband.

it be technical or narrative. The characters are lifeless, the lighting is strangely bright and direction is so weak even Helen Mirren fails to leave a mark.

The film mixes some quaint practical effects with some very plasticlooking animation, something that becomes especially apparent during the climax. Winchester relies almost entirely on jump scares, the most overused trick in the horror genre arsenal.

The film’s few attempts at building tension or atmosphere fall flat,

mainly due to a repetitive plot. In a time when the horror genre has begun to explore old stories with new perspectives with films like It Follows, Get Out and It, a film as unimaginative as Winchester is just boring.

Despite the haunted house subgenre’s major role in establishing horror films as a cinematic fixture, there is a reason it has tapered out over the years. Modern audiences are more frightened by a relentless, unstoppable force than a static object that happens to be cursed.

Winchester seems to realize that, as it quickly abandons its greatest strength, the bizarre Winchester House itself, in favor of a halfbaked revenge-from-beyond-grave plotline that has a downright cartoonish resolution. If you are going to make a haunted house film in the 21st century, the real-world Winchester House is probably your best bet.

The strange architecture, with nailed off rooms and stairways leading to nowhere, is creepy enough without adding the re-

cently departed. However, the lessthan-stellar filmmaking has made the mansion feel pedestrian and it progressively ignore more and more as the film goes on.

Winchester tries to be both a horror film and a character drama.

Admittedly, the real life story could execute both pretty well. It could work as a film where the supernatural elements are left ambiguous, leaving the audience and the characters to wonder if the Winchester House really is a supernatural conduit or just the product of a grieving mind.

Alternatively, they could have done a conventional horror film, turning the house into a magnet for the tragedy and rage caused by the guns used to fund its construction.

However, the film insists on doing both, which theoretically should not be impossible, but the production falls short of making that kind of hybrid work.

The real-life inspiration behind Winchester has a lot of potential, but the film just does not know how to use it. Even horror fans should pass on Winchester, as it offers nothing they have not seen before.

CULTURE

February 14, 2018

Review | Food

What’s Cooking at Fordham

By JULIA BORON

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When Joe Zoyhofski, GSB ’21, came to Fordham from Buffalo, he missed the Bills, the chicken wings and, most importantly, home cooking. He came to Fordham not knowing anybody.

“It’s an interesting feeling being lonely in the biggest city in the world," he said while at dinner.

After his first week of eating campus food, he craved a home-cooked meal and missed the family aspect of everybody coming together to talk about their day. He wanted to find a way to unite those two things: and so, What’s Cooking was born.

Zoyhofski created a website for What’s Cooking Fordham with the idea that people could come together to share meals and stories.

“Even though the food is great, it’s more about coming together and connecting communities,” Zoyhofski said.

On the website, you can sign up either to attend or host a dinner.

When signing up, you will be able to see what is being cooked for the evening, how much it costs and where you will be going.

The dinner on Feb. 10 was hosted

by Reyna Wang, FCRH ’18, in her apartment. She heard about What’s Cooking from a friend and was interested in the idea, so she used a family recipe to make vegetarian dumplings that she grew up eating on special occasions. In celebration of the upcoming Lunar New Year, she wanted to share this meal with the group of students that attended the dinner. She charged $5.50 for

her meal, a fair price to be able to eat a home cooked meal and connect with others. This was only the second dinner for What’s Cooking, and so far, both dinners have been sold out at about nine people each.

When I arrived at Reyna’s apartment, guests and I helped her prepare the dinner. As strangers, we stuffed and wrapped the dumplings together. It was definitely one of the highlights of the evening and what I think Zoyhofski had in mind when he started What’s Cooking. We got to do something that most of us had never done before, while also learning about each other.

“I think this is how we were meant to eat food,” Zoyhofski said.

I had the opportunity to meet people who I had never seen on campus before and learn about their

interests and what they aspire to achieve in the future. For example, Zoyhofski dreams of having his own 1001 Arabian nights of meals and stories by going around the world to 1001 different places, staying in a different place and eating a different meal each night. His goal is that these 1001 meals will each tell a different story and be his own version of 1001 Arabian Nights.

Overall, What’s Cooking is a really exciting concept and such a great experience. I loved being able to connect with other students. I would definitely attend another dinner, and I recommend that you sign up with your friends, or even go on your own. Meeting new people and having a family dinner away from home is what What’s Cooking is all about.

MAHLON HANIFAN/THE FORDHAM RAM

Joe Zoyhofski, GSB ‘21, creates a homecooking business.

Page 15

Love Is Not A Game

By ISHA KHAWAJA CULTURE EDITOR

Within hook-up culture, it can be difficult for college students to draw the ambiguous line between friend and lover. However, for black college students, racism can complicate things This past Thursday, ASILI, the black student union at Fordham University, invited Na’Im Najieb to inform the community at Fordham on how to have healthy and loving relationships in honor of Black History Month at an event titled Love in the Black Community.

Na’Im embodied the essence of a strong black man because he had his most important women right beside him. His mother was supportively recording in the audience, as was his wife. Tyomi energetically guided the discussion session, which truly shows that you are only as strong as your support network around you.

Guiding the lecture from his book, Love is Not a Game, Najieb went over several concepts that actively engage people to carve out unhealthy behaviors in their relationships. Below are the four most important concepts from this lecture.

1. Setting a goal Setting the goal is the foundation of the entire relationship. It can be awkward asking your boyfriend or girlfriend, “what are we doing?," but it is vital that you two are on the same page. Whether you two are friends with benefits or decide to be in a serious relationship, it is critical to be on the same terms and to set a goal to en-

able clear communication.

2. Stand Together Na’Im and his wife highlighted the importance of standing together and working as a team.

Na’Im describes it best with this analogy: “You would not have a member of your basketball team go and shoot a ball for the opposing side. So why allow yourself to be in a toxic relationship?”

3. Fear and love are not compatible Fear can sabotage a relationship. A relationship can go south once a partner confuses the particular elements between love and fear. Paranoia and worrying are not components of a healthy relationship. If your partner gets paranoid of your faithfulness when you are hanging out with your friends you need to move on.

4. Relationships are a reflection of yourself Whether your relationship is romantic or platonic, they are all a reflection of yourself. So look at your relationships and see how your friends serve you. What element of yourself are your friends fulfilling for you? Do they make you laugh? Do they encourage you to work on your passions?

Or are they just people you like to waste time with? If there are some people who you need to cut off, it may be because you have outgrown that part of yourself in which your friends no longer serve you.

If you want to engage in more concepts of what a loving relationship is, you can read Na’Im Najieb’s manual on loving relationships: Love is Not a Game on Amazon.

Portnow Calls for Women to “Step Up” at Grammys

By GAYATHRI THELAKATT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

As a result of the recent rise in women's empowerment movements, like Time’s Up and #MeToo, the role of women in the entertainment industry is under scrutiny.

Wage gaps and underrepresentation are only a few of the elements that contribute to the imbalanced power dynamic between men and women within the industry.

At the 60th annual Grammy Awards Ceremony, Neil Portnow, president of the the Recording Academy, commented that female artists and executives need to “step up” if they want to be included within the music industry. Portnow’s comment was received with angry backlash from the public.

With Alessia Cara being the only female recipient of a major award.

Even prominent female artists like Katy Perry, Halsey and Charli XCX have spoken out, criticizing Portnow for his Grammy comments. P!nk even uploaded an image to Twitter of a handwritten note which reads, “Women in music don’t need to 'step up'- women have been stepping up since the beginning of time.”

The awards show itself has also received major criticism for its lack of female winners. Pop star Lorde was also denied the opportunity for a solo performance. The show, however, did feature a perfor-

mance by Kesha, in which she paid tribute to the #MeToo movement.

However, considering both David Portnow’s comments and the almost negligible amount of female winners, it is evident that the music industry needs to “step up” its ability to provide opportunities for female artists and producers.

Portnow’s comment was not well received due to his assumption that women are making no effort worthy of being recognized.

Rather, the problem lies within the industry. Countless hit albums and songs were released by female artists this year, including SZA’s CTRL and Lorde’s Melodrama.

Women have to work twice as hard to be recognized for their talents.

Lorde was the sole female artist to be nominated for Best Album, yet the Academy refused to give her a solo performance slot.

Portnow’s actions have taken a devastating toll on his career. The president of the Recording Academy has chosen not to attend the Pollstar Live! Conference in Los Angeles, where he was to appear on a panel called “Behind the Grammy Awards” due to recent criticisms of his job as president.

After his comment at the Grammys, a letter was addressed to the Recording Academy’s board of trustees stating, “The organization is woefully out of touch with today’s music, the music business and, even more significantly, soci-

ety." Six of the most powerful female executives within the industry signed the letter.

A petition titled “Academy President Must Step Down for Telling Female Musicians to ‘Step Up’ After Grammy’s” has reached nearly 10,000 signatures. The petition, originally created by Care2, received further attention after singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton tweeted the link stating, “Attention everyone, especially musicians: Step up. And sign the petition to have Neil Portnow, president of the Recording Academy/Grammys, to step down”. Although the petition will have no real sway over the decision of the Recording Academy to fire Portnow, it reflects the vast discontent from both the public and members of the industry with Portnow’s comment.

The backlash to Portnow’s comment is so severe because women in the industry have a long history of having to work twice as hard to reach the success of their male counterparts. NPR released a piece entitled “Hey Ladies: Being A Woman Musician Today,” in which they interviewed hundreds of women within the music industry on the obstacles they face because of their gender. Many of the interviewees pointed out that women in music are often sexualized, making it difficult for them to get their producers or audience

to focus on their talent rather than their appearance. Others mentioned that there is a preconceived notion that women possess less musical ability than their male counterparts.

Neil Portnow’s insensitive comments at the 60th annual Grammy awards came from a place of ignorance. As the president of the most influential organization in music in the country, Portnow should be

more aware of the strife of female musicians and producers, especially in the current climate surrounding the treatment of women in the entertainment industry.

Rather than calling for women to “step up," the Academy should be working towards providing more opportunities for women within the industry and creating an equal playing field between men and women.

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A petition against Portnow has now reached 10,000 signatues.

CULTURE

Page 16

February 14, 2018

Editor’s Pick | Film

The Emoji Movie Stumbles Through Message

By JULIA COMERFORD PHOTO EDITOR

The 2017 3D-animated movie, The Emoji Movie, is true to its title.

It is simply a movie about emojis. But why even make a movie about emojis? What could be so interesting about emojis that an entire movie can be made about it? The director and writer of the film, Tony Leondis, attempted to answer these questions and failed. He failed because he centered the film around the “meh” emoji, which expresses feelings of average mediocrity. This choice is one of his mistakes which contributed to the creation of one of the worst-ranked animated films of 2017, receiving 15th place on IMDB’s worst-ranked animated films of 2017 list and a nine percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the terrible reviews and uninteresting plot line, The Emoji Movie succeeds in opening the viewers’ eyes to how our society is so reliant on technology that we have not noticed the degree to which

this reliance has grown.

What could be so bad about a movie centered on emojis? There was a lot of hope for this movie, as emojis are a form of communication of the future. The introduction of the “meh” emoji as the protagonist in the beginning of the film immediately throws the viewer on a negative path. The “meh” emoji, named Gene, has a defect where he is able to make more faces than “meh.” He travels through the apps and inner world of the smart phone screen to find a way to become a normal emoji with a singular “meh” face.

The film brings the viewer into a physical place simulating the inner smart phone screen, we are able to directly see how people today rely so much on our phones, especially for communication, and how overwhelming technology can be. The cinematography makes the viewer feel like they are inside their own cellphone with the overpowering amount of different flashing colors, lights and sounds that distract us from real life. Being inside of the

COURTESY OF FLICKR

The Emoji Movie comments on our socio-techno dependency and the role of communication in society

virtual cellphone inspires the viewer to come outside of their cellphone and realize how involved we are in our phones.

When the characters enter the Facebook app, they hear people frantically saying "Look at my baby!", "This is what I ate for lunch!", "This is what I ate for dinner!", which imme-

Albüm Klüb | Adam Payne-Reichert

diately causes Gene to comment, "Wow, everybody is talking about themselves. How does he know so many people?" His comrade, the “high five” emoji, replies, “None of these people know him but they 'like him', and that’s what matters in this life." The Emoji Movie uses a widely used form of communication, emojis, to make

a direct reference to how people get carried away from their own lives into the world of technology and social media. It uses technology to show people how much we are using technology. Although the plot line of The Emoji Movie was “meh”, the message behind the plot was not so "meh" after all.

Review | Poetry

Death Grips Experiments FET’s Black Sheep Even as a college student, there’s still something attractive about listening to music that you know your parents would hate. It gives you a sense of independence, suggests that this group is speaking to your generation and creates a unique energy and mood. If you’re still chasing those feelings but have run out of groups that fit the bill, I highly recommend you check out Death Grips (DG).

This experimental hip-hop group’s previous releases have been characterized sonically by an unbridled intensity and lyrically by cryptic deep-dives into some of life’s darkest themes. In its double LP, it proves that it can go even deeper by turning everything up to 11 and inviting the listeners to watch the madness unfold.

The song N*ggas on the Moon is one of the more bizarre tunes included in this double album. For this LP, DG worked with Björk to record her vocal samples, which they then chopped, modulated and represented in various forms throughout the album. Fortunately, this reliance on Björk presents seemingly no creative limitations for the group. Take the album’s second track, “Billy Not Really.”

This track starts out as a high-energy EDM song, light and airy, but incredibly detailed and complex.

The song then progresses into a semi-groovy section, wherewhat seems to be Björk’s vocals sound like a set of pan flutes. This melody is backed by a beat that plays like Hill is drumming with sticks on a metal desk. Throughout the rest of the song, these and other palettes are offered and developed to their fullest extent, demonstrating the group’s ability to toe the line between chaos and monotony.

The Björk samples also serve to

underscore the centrality of the human voice in the album. Towards the end of the song “Voila,” vocal samples from MC Ride, the group’s singer, and Björk help fill the percussion for the song. Adding to this insanity, Ride simultaneously raps on top of these samples. Frequently criticized for his one-speed vocal delivery, Ride varies his dynamic range throughout the album and adds some punch to his louder sections. The human voice also supports the themes of the album in a variety of ways. For instance, in the opening track, Ride delivers his first lines and then interrupts and talks over himself, restarting the verse and suggesting his mentally disordered state, a notion present in much of DG’s lyrical canon.

After the admittedly somewhat abrupt ending of N*ggas on the Moon, the group rapidly accelerates into Jenny Death, the punkand-noise-rock LP of this album.

Benefiting from the addition of an electronic guitarist and an organ player, this LP also marks a significant departure from the sound profiles present in some of DG’s previous albums, N*ggas on the Moon included. For example, the song “Turned Off,” opens with a surprisingly sunny guitar riff that soon reveals its true, DG-influenced nature when the melody takes a sinister turn. The song destructures into an unadulterated fightor-flight-inducing section, which comprises a guitar part distorted nearly beyond recognition, Hill’s explosive crash cymbal and Ride’s screaming vocals. The song “On GP,” on the other hand, sounds like DG trying their hand at psychedelic rock.

This second LP also makes a strong case for understanding the two LPs as a cohesive project rather than two discs of material

thrown together. Like in N*ggas on the Moon, the group takes several creative risks on Jenny Death, such as allowing song structures to elongate and to breathe more than in previous albums. The trio also uses this disc to reintroduce and slightly reshape many of the tropes that they initially developed on N*ggas on the Moon. The tracks “Turned Off ” and “Why a B*tch Gotta Lie” on this LP remind me of “Say Hey Kid” and “Have a Sad Cum B.B.” from the first LP, with the former in each case being a high-energy, percussively-complex track and the latter being to some extent a reimagining of the song that preceded it.

Despite offering an often challenging listen even for longtime DG fans, these two discs represent a highly creative output from the trio. On N*ggas on the Moon, DG is able to skillfully balance loyalty to the Björk samples and the creation of a consistently engaging and dynamic sonically universe, and the result is incredibly unique and innovative. Jenny Death presents a high-energy, varied tour through the group’s successful effort at incorporating new instruments and musicians into the mix. Lyrically, both of the LPs are significantly more abstract than their previous albums and thus offer more room for interpretation. Although I’d recommend that new listeners first introduce themselves to DG by checking out The Money Store or No Love Deep Web, any fan of the group’s previous work would be remiss by letting this incredible album slip through the cracks.

Spreads Love

By ALEXANDRA MANDALAKIS STAFF WRITER

Fordham Experimental Theatre’s Black Sheep Performance Poetry Troupe performed its first show of the semester this past weekend. Their Valentine’s Day show, entitled “Spread the Love,” was a love-themed experience, the stage decorated for a romantic evening with paper hearts and lights.

Before entering the Black Box Theatre, the team provided tea and encouraged the audience members to write valentines and place them on stage before finding their seats. Between performances, co-captains Rowan Hornbeck, FCRH ’18, and Declan Murphy, FCRH ’18, shared the audience’s personalized notes - a great way to promote audience participation and add to the fun.

The troupe performed poems on various themes of love and what love means to them. There was a statement on self-love by Sophia Guidici, FCRH '19, a declaration of a war on love by Simon Rodriguez, GSB '20, and various poems on love not only between romantic interests, but between friends, families and strangers.

All present team members recited beautiful poems.

At the end of the show, Black Sheep introduced its two newest members, seniors Katelyn Slaney, FCRH ’18 and Will Charles, FCRH ’18. Both had notable performances, Slaney stating in her piece that love is a “thank you,” and Charles mentioning the power of music and the reminder

to give friends the love they deserve. Both gave very impressive first performances, and are great additions to the team.

FET's Black Sheep provides an opportunity for students to step outside their comfort zone. According to Murphy, Black Sheep is “a creative outlet unlike anything else I’ve ever done. The ability to grow as a writer, alongside other amazing writers, and to put on innovative shows is really unique.”

Black Sheep means a lot to Hornbeck as well. “I’ve been a part of Black Sheep for most of my time here at Fordham, and it’s where I’ve made some of my closest friends" said Hornbeck.

"There’s something just so amazing about connecting with different people who love the same art form you do”.

Black Sheep’s “Spread the Love” was one of the team’s best shows.

“We love doing Valentine’s shows. I think that really opens people up to poetry who are normally hesitant in coming to our shows” said Murphy.

Rowan also commented on the success of the Valentine’s weekend. “The energy was great and it was a super-fun show. Our new members did an amazing job, as did the rest of the team. This show made me really excited for what the rest of this semester has to bring.”

Check out Black Sheep Performance Poetry on Instagram at @ blacksheep_poetry for more information.

CULTURE

February 14, 2018

Page 17

A Look Back at Simon and Garfunkel at Fordham

By RYAN DI CORPO CULTURE EDITOR

As recent Fordham Spring Weekend performers have been viewed as rather lackluster or second-rate acts, a more respectable group graced Rose Hill’s campus in the past.Simon and Garfunkel twice performed at the Rose Hill Gym during the 1960s.

Founded by singer-songwriters Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, Simon and Garfunkel have risen to iconic status since their disbandment in 1970. The recipients of 10 Grammys Awards and inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Simon and Garfunkel wrote songs “that spoke to a generation,” according to James Taylor.

Yet, the duo initially faced challenges in finding an audience. Its 1964 début album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., sold few copies relative to the high sales of more popular British Invasion bands, such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Yet, Simon and Garfunkel found sudden success with the September 1965 release of the single “The Sounds of Silence.”

In support of their 1966 sophomore album Sounds of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel embarked on an international tour which included several stops at American colleges and universities, including

Fordham.

Simon and Garfunkel first performed at Rose Hill on December 3, 1966 as part of the “Junior Class’s Winter Weekend.” According to a Dec. 2, 1966 article in The Fordham Ram, Winter Weekend included a host of festivities which began with the four-hour “Hazy Shades of Winter” semi-formal dance in the Campus Center Ballroom, now known as the top floor of the McGinley Center.

The dance also provided an occasion for Fordham to relax its alcohol policy, allowing students to provide drinks “on a ‘bring your own’ basis,” according to The Fordham Ram. The next day’s concert, which was scheduled to run approximately 90 minutes in length, began at 8:30pm in the Rose Hill Gym and cost three dollars to attend. Prior to the concert, Fordham hosted an hour-long cocktail party serving “scotch, rye and gin cocktails” and requiring “proof of age…for girls.”

Simon and Garfunkel returned to Rose Hill on Oct. 13, 1967 for Homecoming Weekend. According to a Sept. 26, 1967 article in The Fordham Ram, Fordham’s “Concert Bureau made a two-thousand-dollar profit” on Simon and Garfunkel’s initial performance the year prior. Adjusted for inflation, that two-thousand-dollar profit equals approximately fifteen-thousand

.

Simon and Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence was preserved by the National Recording Registry in 2013.

dollars today.

According to then Concert Bureau Chairman John Valente, many attendees of the 1966 concert “were not from Fordham,” which likely aided the Bureau financially.

Simon and Garfunkel’s Homecoming performance was both an op-

portunity for those who missed the first concert to see “the best talent available for that date” and a way to help reduce the Bureau’s $9,700 (today $71,000) debt.

According to Valente, the Bureau had continued to incur debt because of Fordham’s need “to

COURTESY OF FLICKR

match [its] concerts against downtown Manhattan; a contest not easily won.” The Bureau had already booked its next concert to follow Simon and Garfunkel: a doublebill featuring Richie Havens and The Lovin’ Spoonful to be held on Dec. 9.

The Ram Culture Crossword: Keeping Up

By JACK MCLOONE and CLAIRE POLACHECK ACROSS 1. “YOU GUYS MADE ME ___” PEARL 4. ___ THE SEASON 7. TREE BY-PRODUCT 10. COD COMPETITOR 11. CTRL ___ DELETE 12. GOVERNING BODY FOR TIGER WOODS 13. HTTP:// ETC. 14. MARIANO RIVERA AND TREVOR HOFFMAN 16. MEMBER OF THE FERRET FAMILY

18. DUO LIPA HAS A BUNCH OF NEW ONES 19. MOTHER CHICKEN 20. PLENTIFUL 21. AMERICA’S MOST FAMOUS HERMIT FOR NINE MONTHS 23. JIM’S DEPARTMENT AT DUNDER MIFFLIN 25. MAGAZINE DETAILING THE LIVES OF THE KARJENNER CLAN, E.G. 28. COMPACT HAY 29. “WELL, THIS IS A STORY ALL _____ HOW” 31. CELEBRACIONES 33. MOTHER OF CHI, 2- AND 23DOWN 34. HEALTH AND WELLNESS CHAIN

35. A COMPONENT OF OSHA

3. THE REMAINING PREGNANT

ON THE BASKETBALL COURT

36. ALUMINUM NITRIDE

SISTER

20. LOU GEHRIG’S DISEASE, BRIEFLY

37. BOUGIE MANHATTAN STEAK-

4. SKILL IN DEALING WITH OTHERS

22. PREFIX TO DAY OR YEAR

HOUSES

5. COOL, IN 2003

23. PETER, PAUL OR WEST

38. “NATURE BOY” WRESTLER FLAIR

6. THE REAL WINNER ON SUPER

24. A WISE GUY (WITH “SMART”)

39. UNTIL NOW

BOWL SUNDAY

26. VERY ALRIGHT

7. WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA, E.G.

27. CUNNING, DEVIOUSNESS

DOWN

8. CONCUR

28. DAHL CREATURES

1. DON IN THE MORNING

9. RECEIVE A D OR HIGHER

29. AN ABBREVIATED GROUP

2. CHILD NAMED AFTER A CARDI-

15. WORD ON A GOLD STAR

30. HEROES IN A HALF SHELL

NAL DIRECTION

17. THEY’RE FREQUENTLY BROKEN

32. HAWAIIAN TUNA

CULTURE

Page 18

February 14, 2018

Who’s That Kid? | It’s John Furlong ’18

Senior Journalist Reports From Olympics

By JACK MCLOONE SPORTS EDITOR

Fordham students study abroad for a semester all the time. John Furlong’s, FCRH ‘18, semester abroad is not like any other Fordham students’.

Furlong is currently in Pyeongchang, South Korea to work the Winter Olympics as an intern with NBC Sports. A journalism major who has worked extensively at WFUV Sports, including winning the Bob Ahrens Award for Excellence in Sports Journalism, his experience falls right into this wheelhouse.

Furlong, a former swimmer at Fordham and lover of all niche and less-mainstream, sports has also always been a big fan of the Olympics. He was already planning to apply for the position when he received the application from one of his professors, Brian Brown, in his Sports Writing and Reporting Class. Brown worked on numerous Olympiads before teaching the class.

Furlong’s responsibilities in Pyeongchang have been almost as varied as the different events. He started as a logger with the Central Video Tape department, but now works in the Digital Archive.

“My main job right now is to take the files NBC gets from OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Service, the company that owns all the footage you see on TV) and edit the metadata so our producers/ editors can find them easier. And if there aren’t any clips coming in from OBS, I shadow/assist the

producers in the main control room,” said Furlong.

While there is obviously a lot going on, Furlong doesn’t have a lot of time to just purely experience the Olympics; he works 12-hour shifts from eight a.m. to eight p.m. However, he secured tickets for both Ski Jump and Bobsled, which start after he gets off work next week.

“It’s exhausting, but there’s great camaraderie amongst us because everyone who works here loves the Olympics and is therefore so happy to be here,” said Furlong.

The crazy schedule means he can’t even really see former WFUV coworker, Drew Casey, FCRH ‘17, who is also working for NBC Sports in Pyeongchang just down the hall from Furlong.

The obvious question when you spend about a month abroad during a semester is how that affects your class schedule. For Furlong, since he knew this was coming, he was able to plan accordingly.

“I’m not taking any ‘traditional’ classes this semester, just an independent study based on my work here in Korea. And even though it was a bit of a logistical nightmare, I will still be graduating on time this May,” said Furlong. “Coming into senior year, I needed only six classes to graduate because of my AP credits. So I got special permission to take five of them last semester, and am now taking the independent study as my sixth and final class.”

He gave a lot of credit to John

Dzieglewicz, S.J., senior class dean, and Dr. Beth Knobel, associate chair of the Communications and Media Studies department, for helping him organize his schedule.

While he may not have to worry about schoolwork, the time difference for the Olympics has him working wild hours, like a typical college students. Pyeongchang is 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, meaning primetime there does not line up with American primetime in the slightest.

“Broadcasting the Olympics is so different from any other event because it’s 24/7. When it’s over-

night here in Korea and there aren’t any events happening, it’s midday in America, so we’re on air recapping the events from the day before,” said Furlong.

Despite the long hours, Furlong said working the Olympics “ranks at the very top” of the list of events he has covered.

“Being at an Olympics is a dream come true for me. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve always been a huge fan of the Olympics and I made it my goal to work one at some point in my career.

To achieve that goal before I even graduate college is something I never could’ve imagined was pos-

sible,” said Furlong.

And while the Olympics are different than anything he’s ever worked on before, Furlong still credits WFUV with preparing him for the experience.

“Everything I’ve done at WFUV sports, whether it’s my on-air or off-air work, has prepared me for experiences like this and I can’t thank Bob Ahrens and my fellow FUV coworkers enough,” said Furlong.

So after the experience of a lifetime, what does Furlong do once his time in Pyeongchang is done?

The second semester-senior’s dream: “Just hang.”

COURTESY OF JOHN FURLONG

The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea are the first Olympics held in the country since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.

Buzzed and Abroad | Cat Swindal

A “Thank You” to the Global LGBT Community This past week, I spent five days in Morocco on a study-abroad program. The architecture was incredible, with buildings and ancient ruins older than anything I had ever seen. I got to ride a camel and it wasn’t even Hump Day (and thus concludes my only joke in this piece).

I had a lot of great times in Morocco, but for this week’s column, I am focusing on an unfortunate event that occurred there, which, and I want to say this up-front, does not reflect on how I feel about the beautiful country and its people as a whole.

I first will contextualize this article with one of my best memories in Morocco. Three days into my trip, our group met with students from Rabat and had a round-table discussion about different topics pertaining to life in Morocco and the U.S. We were told by our tour guide that no topic was off-limits.

So when the topic of “homosexuality” came up, I held my breath. I had been curious about what it was like Morocco, and though I am outand-proud in the U.S., I was nervous to even speak about it at all here, let alone ask a question about it.

The Moroccan students’ dialogue on the LGBT community surprised me in the best ways. Part of the answer was not surprising: yes, homosexuality is outlawed in Morocco and

people can, and have, gone to jail for homosexual acts.

Most LGBT Moroccans are not out to their families, especially not to their parents. However, the students said their LGBT friends have the space to be who they are among their chosen people, that they themselves had queer friends who they support and love and allow to be themselves.

This really moved me, and I thought back on those whom I trust to allow me to be myself. I raised my hand and thanked them for their support of their friends and told them how much that meant to me.

After the discussion, two of the Moroccan students asked to see pictures of me and my girlfriend and told me they loved my buzzcut. They even wanted to take a picture with what I’ve dubbed “Amy on a Stick”, which is just a picture of my girlfriend on an old plastic paint brush with which I take pictures. I was beaming with pride, as my community and world growing a little more.

But then, hours later, I was hit by some of the worst homophobia I have ever experienced when another student I met later in the day harassed me after finding out I have a girlfriend.

I won’t mince words: it was gross.

I felt so disgusted with myself to a

point that I had to remind myself that I was not at fault. It was all I could think about for days and I couldn’t get back that pleasant feeling from the round-table discussion.

Since then, I have opened up to a few people on the trip about what happened, including my tour guide, who said that the student would be spoken to and will not be invited back next year.

Though the words of my family and friends comforted me, something still felt wrong, like the student’s ridicule latched onto my being. That, combined with being diagnosed with a bacterial infection shortly after returning to Granada, has made my life pretty miserable for the past week.

And then, my host mom, Conchi, helped me turn everything around.

One afternoon I came home from class, exhausted with an unrelenting stomachache. Conchi entered my room as soon as I came home and told me I needed to clean up (I’m kind of a slob, admittedly). I’m not sure why, but this caused me to start crying. I felt inadequate, since I didn’t keep my room up to par. Conchi, who knew I was sick, was very patient with me and helped me to reorganize things, and then left me alone; where I just laid down on my bed and continued to sob.

A couple minutes later, Conchi reemerged, sat down on my roommate’s bed, and asked me if there was anything else on my mind, if anything else had been bothering me.

Surprising myself, I sat up and told her what happened in Morocco. And Conchi’s response, which I am going to translate best I can into English, was to let this one go. This student didn’t know anything about me, and probably didn’t know much about the LGBT community.

I was never going to see that person again. If my friend or my sibling or someone close to me had done something like that, it would be something to cry over. But the action of this person with the mind of, in her words, a mosquito, was not worth a second thought. Taking “Amy on a Stick” in her hand, Conchi pointed at the picture and said this person, whom you love, is whom you should be thinking about, and how happy she makes you. Not this mosquito brain.

And after absorbing what Conchi was saying, I stopped crying and began to laugh at the image of Conchi and “Amy on a Stick.” I listened to Conchi’s kind words for a long time and she gave me three hugs before leaving the room.

After this conversation, I quickly walked away from that situation in

Morocco. I now acknowledge that it happened, and I have moved on. I wondered from where Conchi’s wisdom had stemmed, and with some thinking, I realized that I am so accustomed to American, individualist culture; this person hurt me on an individual basis. But conversely, I should see myself as connected to those I love and disconnected from those who don’t know me and hurt me in their ignorance.

Just like the LGBT friends of those wonderful people I met in Morocco, I too am able to thrive and help others to thrive because of the connected community of people in my life, both those who identify as LGBT and those who identify as allies.

I hope that the student who harassed me someday finds their own way into their own community where they can learn how to love people who are different from them.

While they work on that, I am grateful for my family, my friends, my Amy and my new Spanish mama.

And the global LGBT community, including LGBT Moroccans, has a special place in my heart now more than ever. I am but one five-foottwo-inch queer 20-year-old American with a buzzcut, but to those who help me and others feel more themselves worldwide: thank you, thank you, thank you.

February 14, 2018

Squash Continues Its Domination

By JIMMY SULLIVAN

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

The Fordham men’s squash team is still rolling.

The squad won the Northeastern Round Robin this past weekend against Northeastern University, Brandeis College, Boston College and Boston University.

The team only lost a single game in Friday night’s match against Northeastern. These wins bought Fordham squash to 18-3 on the season as they can begin preparations for the College Squash Association team championship, which will be held Feb. 23-25 at Trinity College’s Kellner Squash Center. The team is hot heading into that tournament, as it has won 13 of its last 14 matches.

All of the usual suspects were in action and firing on all cylinders for the Rams this weekend. The only loser over the course of the three days was junior Will Pantle, and his loss at the start of Friday’s match put the Rams down one game to nothing. Then, Fordham reeled off 35 individual wins in a row to sweep the weekend and win the Northeastern Round Robin to close out the regular season. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.

After defeating Northeastern on Friday, the Rams took home victories against Boston College and Brandeis on Saturday, and closed the weekend with yet another 9-0 victory over Boston University. The team will now begin to set its sights upon Hartford, Connecticut as it participates in

the College Squash Association Team Championships at the end of the month.

Fordham’s year is particularly impressive when you consider that many individual contributions have come from freshmen.

The first-year trio of Justin Deckoff, Griffin Fitzgerald and Tommy White has combined to go 46-7 on the year, but Fordham’s individual success has run both ends of the experience gamut. The three Rams in their final season with the program ( Joseph Hughes, Peter Yuen and John Lennon) are a combined 41-13. In fact, the Rams have lost just 31 individual matches on the season, and were one win away from defeating Bryant two weekends ago, which would have put them at 19-2.

Another person who deserves immense credit for the Rams’ success is new head coach Sahel Anwar. Anwar, in his first season with the Rams, has led the team to their 18-3 mark after it went just 10-9 a season ago. Anwar is very familiar with Fordham, as he also serves as the head coach of the squash team at Fordham Prep.

That being said, Anwar deserves his share of the credit for helping the Rams move forward and into the CSA team championships with just three losses on a season, including just once after Veterans Day. The Fordham men’s squash team will need to maintain its momentum if it wishes to ascend to new heights as a team and a program. We’ll find out in a week and a half whether or not they do.

SPORTS

Women’s Tennis Starts Season On Three-Game Winning Streak

EMILY SAYEGH/THE FORDHAM RAM

The women’s tennis team has started the season by winning its first three matches.

By CHARLIE MAISANO MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Fordham Squash is on a roll as it heads into postseason play.

Page 19

The season is only three games deep for the Fordham women’s tennis team, but it have already started a winning streak, winning all three of its matches.

Last Friday, the Rams travelled to New Jersey to face the New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders, who were 1-1 entering the contest. The match drew familiar faces for both sides since some of the players faced each other only three weeks ago at the NJIT Winter Invitational.

Although the event was more individual based and the Rams had a recent history with the Highlanders, Head Coach BetteAnn Liguori didn’t want her team to underprepare.

“I try to encourage the players to play competitively over the winter break but some of them can’t,” Liguori said. “So, the NJIT Invite, which is an individual event with no team scoring, is meant to give them match play after a long winter break and thus determining who will make the starting line-up. We then can prepare better for our matches when we know what our line-up is, but with illnesses and injury it could change, so we must be ready to make adjustments.”

The Rams entered the match on Friday unexpectedly shorthanded, as junior Gianna Insogna was a late scratch due to injury.

To add insult to injury, junior Tatiana Grigoryan was kept out of practice all week due to an illness but made a game-time decision to play that afternoon.

With the subtraction of Insogna, Liguori bumped up junior Alexis Zobeideh from sixth to fifth singles and inserted senior Carolina Sa into the sixth singles spot. In doubles, Sa took Insogna’s spot again in the third team and partnered with sophomore Maia Balce.

Just like the first two matches, junior Carina Ma and senior Estelle Wong got things started for the Rams, as they both won their singles matches. In their doubles match they cruised past NJIT’s Mayar Eltony and Advaita Saravanan 6-1.

Liguori thinks the star duo’s chemistry is off the charts and attributed their brilliant singles play to the confidence they have in themselves.

“Carina and Estelle are really clicking in doubles and their chemistry is playing a huge part.

They actually really enjoy playing together and it gives them great confidence going into their singles matches,” said Ligouri.

Liguori also praised the two for stepping up individual in their singles play, where they have dominated as well.

As for the rest of the team, Balce picked up the Ram’s only other singles victory by defeating Highlanders junior Rafaella Sampaio in two sets 6-1, 6-3. Needing a sweep in the doubles matches for the victory, it was up to the second and third team to get the job done. After two hard fought matches, both teams pulled out a 7-6 victory and gave the Rams their third win in a row.

Liguori was ecstatic with her team’s hard fought and well-de-

served victory.

“Our win against NJIT was truly significant. Having to change the line-up minutes before the match started, put tremendous pressure on everyone. Tatiana and Lexi Zobeideh were down 4-1 in second doubles, but made an incredible comeback fending off two match points in the tie-breaker. Additionally, Maia Balce and Carolina Sa really picked up their game to close out the tie-breaker, having not played together since last year. We really came together as a team to win the doubles point and ultimately the match,” said Liguori.

After three straight games on the road, the Rams return home this week to battle the Saint John’s Red Storm on Friday at 7 p.m. When the two teams met last year, the Red Storm bested the Rams 5-2, snapping the team’s long 17 match winning streak.

Liguori knows this match will be a challenge, but believes her squad can still pull out a possible short-handed victory.

“With the possibility of not having one of my starters, I just want us to practice well this week and compete to our highest level and believe. If we can accomplish this, then I believe we can take them,” said Liguori.

The Rams use won’t have to dig deep in their memories to motivate themselves for the Saint John’s match; last year, the Red Storm snapped its historic winning streak last year. By using that as the fuel to their fire, the Rams could very well walk out of their match with the Red Storm as winners of four straight games.

SPORTS

Page 20

Track Turns Toward End of Indoor At Valentine Invite

By EMMANUEL BERBARI

Men’s Tennis Sweeps Weekend, Now 6-2

By ALEXANDRIA SEDLAK

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Boston University hosted the 2018 David Hemery Valentine Invite, this year’s holiday-tailored Track and Field event at its Track and Tennis Center. The Fordham women’s teams competed on Friday and the men on Saturday.

Fordham, fresh off another record-setting week fueled by junior Mary Kate Kenny’s redhot stretch, did not register the same prestigious results again, as the women’s side only saw two individuals—senior Laura Jaeger (60m dash—12th in 8.17 seconds) and freshman Kathryn Kelly (60m Invitational—18th in 7.19 seconds / 200m run—28th in 25.13 seconds)— post top30-caliber results.

“It feels good going into A10s this weekend knowing I have the potential to gain some extra points for the team,” said Kelly.

Despite falling short of their recently-set lofty standards, the Ram women competitively showcased five other finishes within the top 75. Jaeger motored through the 200-meter run in 25.4 seconds, good enough for 38th place, senior Brynna Harum finished the 1,000-meter run in 2:57.63, stacking up 33rd, junior Laurel Fisher and her 4:58.87 mile time earned a 55th-place nod and Kelly (5.12m) and freshman Sarinnagh Budris (4.84m) recorded impressive marks in the long jump, placing 34th and 41st,

February 14, 2018

STAFF WRITER

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

The women’s teams competed on Friday, with the men going on Saturday.

respectively.

“The team works really hard every day at practice,” said Kelly.

“It’s always exciting to see it pay off with a great performance at a meet.”

On Saturday, the men took their turn at setting a school mark. Senior Brian Cook made Fordham history, crossing the finish line of the 1,000-meter run in 2:24.97, good for ninth place and IC4A qualification. The time broke teammate Louis Santelli’s record from earlier this season, when the senior mid-distancerunner completed the same event in 2:25.80.

Santelli was not completely overshadowed in Boston, however, as he bested his already IC4Aqualifying time in the 800-meter,

clocking a season-best time of 1:50.91 and a 15th-place result.

Freshman Christopher Strzelinksi stood out in the same race as well, recording a personal-best clip of 1:54.85.

Junior Sean Phillips added another IC4A-qualifier to the Rams’ growing list, winning his mile run in 4:13.29. Senior Thomas Slattery and sophomores Ryan Kutch and Sean Sullivan came up just short of qualification by a combined eight seconds.

Fordham will return to action this weekend at the 2018 Atlantic Championship, which will be held in Kingston, Rhode Island.

“Our goal is to compete as a team,” said Kelly. “The focus is gaining as many points toward the team score as possible.”

Start planning to have a great summer now!

• More than 200 classes • Internship placement assistance • Study abroad options • Housing available Registration begins in March.

Session I: May 29–June 28 Session II: July 5–August 6

Learn more at fordham.edu/summer

SUMMER SESSION 2018

This past weekend was a successful weekend for the Fordham Rams. The men’s tennis team faced Hofstra University on Friday and La Salle University on Saturday. It started off the weekend strong, defeating Hofstra with a final score of 5-2.

It then followed this win with another win, defeating La Salle with the great score of 6-1.

On Friday, the Rams travelled to Bethpage, N.Y. to face Hofstra. For the doubles matches, Fordham lost the first doubles position 3-6. They came back and won the next two doubles matches, securing them the doubles point. Sophomores Finn Kemper and Jeremy Chung won the second doubles match with a score of 6-4. Freshman Max Green and sophomore Allen Thornes played the third doubles position, and they breezed through their set with a score of 6-1.

Fordham won four out of the six singles matches against Hofstra. The Rams dropped the first and second singles matches, but they came back to win the next four singles matches. In third singles, Green defeated his opponent 6-2, 6-4. Thornes won his fourth singles match with a score of 6-1, 6-3. Kemper, who played the fifth singles match, claimed a victory with a score of

6-4, 6-2. Finally, freshman Alex Makatsaria played the sixth singles position, winning the proset 8-3.

On Saturday, Fordham returned to its home courts in Harrison, N.Y. to play La Salle.

The Rams won two out of three doubles matches. Freshman Lutwin de Macar and sophomore Fabian Mauritzson won the first doubles match with a score of 6-2. Meanwhile, in the third doubles position, Green and Thornes took the hard-fought victory 7-5. This earned Fordham the doubles point.

The Rams proceeded to win five out of six singles matches.

Green won his match 6-3,6-1 at the second singles position.

Mauritzson, who played third singles, defeated his opponent with a score of 7-5, 2-6, 6-2. Being the last match to finish, this well-earned win gave Fordham its final point. In fourth singles, Thornes claimed a victory with a score of 7-5, 7-5. The fifth singles position was played by Kemper, who won 6-2, 6-1. Finally, Makatsaria played the sixth singles position, winning with a score of 6-1, 7-5, 6-3.

After this weekend of wins for Fordham, the team will be practicing for next weekend. The Rams will be traveling next to play St. Bonaventure University on Saturday and Niagara University on Sunday.

February 14, 2018

Alvin Halimwidjaya

SPORTS

Fordham’s Own Takes Center Ice at Pyeongchang

Catching Jazz Hands The past week has been populated with Isaiah Thomas memes and Cavaliers stat lines. Cleveland’s makeover has attracted the attention of the entire NBA news cycle, and after they spanked the Celtics on Sunday, that attention is currently well deserved.

However, one storyline that has floated under the radar has been the Utah Jazz’s recent success. After a 101-99 comeback win against the San Antonio Spurs, Salt Lake City’s win streak has reached 10 wins as the Jazz are rapidly catching up in the playoff race.

Their string of victories has included signature wins over the Spurs (two of them!), the Raptors and the Warriors. With Utah rolling as we pause the season at the All-Star break, they have a real chance to climb back into the top eight spots in a loaded Western Conference.

One of the main reasons the Jazz are storming back into contention is simply that they have most of their guys back; the team has only missed point guard Ricky Rubio from their core rotation recently, as he’s missed the past two games. With Rudy Gobert back in top form and working well with fellow behemoth Derrick Favors against all odds, Utah’s starting frontcourt has been able to do what they do best: protect the rim and grab rebounds.

Though the team only has five blocks per game, the threat of Gobert lurking around the rim changes more shots than the box score reveals; additionally, the Jazz are outrebounding their opponents by an average margin of nine boards per game throughout this win streak.

I would also like to point out that Jazz forward Joe Ingles is on a personal streak as hot as the scorching Australian outback he comes from: over the past 10 games, which have all been wins, he has poured in 16 points per game as opposed to his 10.8 points per game over the entire season. With an average plus/minus of 14.1, Ingles has shot 57 percent from both the field (!) and from beyond the arc (!!).

However, when talking about the Jazz this season, every discussion has come back to rookie standout Donovan Mitchell, aka the Salt Lake Savior, aka what would happen if dynamite was infused into a man’s bloodstream, aka… well, you get the point.

Mitchell’s season has been nothing short of spectacular; he leads all rookies in scoring with 19.4 points per game and has 121 long-range bombs on the season, setting a record pace for three-pointers made in a rookie season. Preseason pundits wondered where the Jazz would get offensive production from when Gordon Hayward left them in free agency, and Mitchell delivered for Utah in ways no one expected. His insane feats of athleticism are one thing; he jumps out of the building at least once a night, with putback slams and fastbreak tomahawks galore. However, his ability to be a passable long-range threat, coupled with his defensive prowess, has thrust him into the spotlight as he leads the upstart Jazz upwards in the standings.

Granted, the West is always unpredictable, and it is no guarantee that Utah can scrap their way into a playoff spot. With Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz playing this well, we can only hope that we’re blessed with yet another playoff underdog storyline come April.

Page 21

Evan Biancardi AL X-Factors

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Nicole Rajicova, a Gabelli graduate, will be competing in her second Olympics next week in Pyeongchang.

By JACK McLOONE SPORTS EDITOR

While she may have been known as Nicole Rajic while she was studying at Fordham, Nicole Rajicova is so well known that she has her own detailed Wikipedia page.

Rajicova is the Slovakian version of Rajic, so she uses that when she competes for her parents’ home nation as a figure skater.

While she may have majored in global finance and business (and minored in mathematics) at the Fordham Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center, Rajicova’s current sights are on a different global scale: the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

“My parents first put me on the ice when I was three years old because they thought it would help me with my balance,” said Rajicova.

“Ever since then I thought it was really fun and would always ask my parents to take me skating.”

From the age of three to 18, Rajicova developed from a girl needing some help with her balance into an Olympics-caliber athlete. And she did so living in New York City, which, as the Wall Street Journal recently covered, is a desert of Winter Olympics athletes.

Rajicova’s first Olympics were at Sochi in 2014. While you hear stories of kids knowing they were Olympic athletes from the time they were small, Rajicova’s story was a little different. She said it took until she was about halfway through the season leading into the Sochi Olympics that she realized she had a shot.

“I started competing for Slovakia about a year and a half before that, and never actually thought I’d make it to the Olympics,” she said. “All I can say is that hard work really did end up paying off, and ultimately I was nominated to represent Slovakia in Sochi.”

While she was born in the United States, Rajicova grew up in a very Slovakian household. Her parents met in Slovakia and moved to the US before she was born, but have kept the culture a part of both her and her younger sister’s lives, and counts herself as lucky to embrace

the cultural traditions she grew up with and where the rest of her extended family lives.

“It also means the world to my parents,” she said of competing under the Slovakian flag. “Luckily, they are now able to visit home significantly more often than they were able to before, because I usually have two competitions in Slovakia (or at least close to Slovakia) a season.”

Since she spoke Slovakian in her home, it also allowed her to quickly bond with other Slovak skaters and be accepted despite having always lived in the US. Rajicova took a gap year after high school, which happened to match up with her chance to represent Slovakia at the Sochi Olympics. That timing allowed her to focus solely on training for the Games.

“The Olympics in Sochi were absolutely incredible,” she said. “I had a wonderful time, but it was also very nerve-wracking and stressful.

I was only 18 years old so I didn’t know what to expect from such a big event.”

While Rajicova enjoyed training for the Olympics, she said the year off made her all the more exciting to start her academic career.

However, once she got to Fordham she needed to learn how to balance her hectic training schedule with her classwork. The ability to get ice time at a top-level facility factored heavily into her school choice.

When she decided that she wanted to continue to pursue skating heavily, she narrowed her search down to schools in New York and Boston, and ended up deciding to stay with her family in New York City.

A typical question we ask student athletes is how they balance school work and their sport. Those athletes have required study sessions and are in a constant team environment, much different than an athlete training independently. However, the answer for Rajicova was not all that different: “I decided that I did not want to give up either things in my life – meaning, I didn’t want to just skate and I didn’t want to just go to school.

So, I had no choice but to create a balance between the two. Knowing that succeeding in both school and

skating were my two main priorities, I had to stay very organized, responsible, and focused throughout each and every day. Once I got into each semester’s new schedule/routine, it wasn’t too difficult to manage.”

And what exactly that schedule look like? Rajicova describes it in one word: “hectic.”

A typical day started with class at 8 a.m. By 10:45 a.m., she would be on the ice in Hackensack, New Jersey for her first training session of the day. After about an hour on the ice, she would get a break until about 2, during which she tried to get some work done. At 2, she was back training until 3:20, when she would drive back home to do some “off-ice” training, such as strengthening, cardio and Pilates. Two of those days, she had 6 p.m. classes as well, so she would return to Lincoln Center.

So, you know, an easy life. Regular old college kid. I struggle to find time to “work out” in the gym even once a week.

Clearly, all of that training has paid off. Rajicova is coming off of her most successful season, finishing with her best continental result of her career at the 2017 European Championships (held in the Czech Republic, right next door to Slovakia). She placed sixth overall. And now, she will be competing as one of the 15 women representing Slovakia at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

“I am more excited than ever to be going to my second Olympics,” said Rajicova. “I have much more experience with big competitions, and I feel extremely well-trained for these games.”

Rajicova, who arrived in Pyeongchang on Tuesday, will be competing in the individual women’s figure skating competition. The individual women’s figure skating starts on Feb. 21 at 10 p.m. EST with the short program. If she scores high enough, she would continue onto the free skate portion on Feb. 23, again at 10 p.m. EST. While there are three US women competing as well, I think at least us Rams will also being keeping an eye out for Nicole Rajicova.

Angels This one is pretty obvious. Shohei Ohtani will be on everybody’s radar this season, but it’ll be interesting to see how the Halos utilize the game’s only hitting pitcher.

Astros The Astros are perhaps the most well-rounded team in baseball, but Ken Giles’ poor postseason performance has the team slightly concerned.

Athletics Matt Olson managed to slug 24 home runs in just 189 at-bats and has the potential to be one the game’s premier power hitters.

Blue Jays Aaron Sanchez had a breakout season in 2016 but saw four DL stints in 2017 due to finger related injuries. If he can return to form, the Jays may be able to hold off a complete rebuild for one more season.

Indians The loss of Carlos Santana makes the oft-injured Michael Brantley that much more crucial to this team’s success.

Mariners The health of starting pitching has been the M’s downfall in recent years, and nobody is more essential than Felix Hernandez.

Orioles The Orioles haven’t had much luck with their rotation, either. Aside from Dylan Bundy and Kevin Gausman, the O’s don’t have much to rely on this season.

Rangers This team has plenty of question marks, but it all comes down to Cole Hamels. If he can come anywhere close to pitching like the ace he once was, the Rangers may have a shot at contending for a wild card spot.

Rays With Longoria gone and Archer and Odorizzi likely to follow suit, the de facto ace will be Blake Snell. Snell has the makings of a premier starter, but his shaky 2017 season has many doubting his potential.

Red Sox David Price is the X-factor of all Xfactors. No longer regarded as one of the game’s top pitchers, he has plenty to prove this year.

Royals Both Alex Gordon and Jorge Soler carried high expectations heading into 2017, and both failed miserably: Gordon had his worst season in seven years and Soler was demoted in June.

Tigers Miguel Cabrera had the worst season of his career in 2017. If he can stay healthy and play close to Cabrera standards, he may be rewarded with a trade to a contending club.

Twins The Twins’ success rides or dies with Bryon Buxton. Not only is he enjoyable to watch, but a solid full season from Buxton could put the Twins in contention for the division title.

White Sox Like the A’s, the South Siders are depending on their young players, and nobody is more crucial to the team’s development than Yoan Moncada.

Yankees The Bombers have decided to give Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres a shot to play every day. They have just seven Major League at-bats between them, so the team certainly has a lot of faith in the two youngsters.

Page 22

Valentine’s Day for Soccer Fans

By ANDREW POSADAS STAFF WRITER

This year, Feb. 14 is not just another Valentine’s Day for me and other soccer fans. On the contrary, my initial thought wasn’t on the holiday. Not on elegant roses or superfluously written cards shaped in hearts. Not on plush teddy bears or boxes of chocolates in which the receiver ends up only eating half of it anyways. Feb. 14 has something else in store for me: an epic showdown in the UEFA Champions League between two powerhouse squads.

Tomorrow begins the round of 16 in Champions League play and continues until Wednesday. Out of the four games played Tuesday and Wednesday, one game unequivocally stands out among them: Real Madrid of Spain faces Paris SaintGermain of France.

Obviously, the primary theme of Valentine’s Day is love. You celebrate by giving and receiving tokens of affection from your significant other, family, secret admirers, etc.

Now answer me this: Doesn’t this also apply to things that we love? Namely sports?

What better way to enjoy Wednesday afternoon than watching the most anticipated game in the biggest soccer tournament outside of the World Cup? This match has everything we love about soccer: Skill and drama.

Skill? Check. We have two of the best footballers in the world at the forefront of this matchup — Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar. Ronaldo is the more experienced of the two in Champions League play. He holds the record for most goals in UCL history, amassing 114 career goals scored. Let’s also not forget the fact Ronaldo is attempting to lead Madrid to its third consecutive Champions League title. Ronaldo’s resume is filled to the brim with accomplishments.

What about Neymar?

The 26-year-old has had his own success in the Champions League.

Three years ago, Neymar scored the goal to ensure Barcelona’s 3-1 victory over Juventus of Italy in the 2015 UCL final. However, skeptics were not impressed, citing the fact that Superstar Lionel Messi was the driving force of their championship run. This time around, there is no Messi on his team. PSG will go as far as the Brazilian star takes them.

Now looms the question: How far can a Neymar-led squad go in the UCL tournament?

Drama? Add another check. My reaction upon seeing these two teams drawn against each other in the round of 16 was bitter sweet.

Sure, it’s an incredible matchup.

Something all soccer fans were hoping to see at some point. Just not right now. We’ll see two great games between Madrid and PSG to determine who moves on to the quarterfinals. Read the previous sentence again. The quarterfinals!

Most believed this was a matchup we’d see in the semi-finals or perhaps a potential UCL final, and both teams are favorites to win this year’s Champions League.

Now, whoever loses will be devastated. Both have aspirations of reaching the final and winning it all. To lose in the round of 16 can only be characterized as complete and utter catastrophe. Neither team can afford to be defeated. The element of desperation looks to bring out the best of both squads. Not to mention, there are rumors that tie Neymar to Real Madrid in a potential transfer move. If Neymar and PSG are eliminated by Madrid, would that entice Neymar to jump ship and join Ronaldo’s crew? The adage does say “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

So, to all soccer and sports fans around, be sure to tell your prospective Valentine that this Wednesday, you plan on giving them all your attention…right after the Real Madrid-PSG game ends.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

SPORTS

February 14, 2018

By JACK McLOONE SPORTS EDITOR

There’s no better example of the fallacy of “separate politics and sports” than the sheer existence of the Olympics (full disclosure: I am an intern at NBC Sports, who is broadcasting the Olympics).

In the past, I have written about how this flawed concept of “sticking to sports” has rightfully died, but I’m wondering if it really ever existed in the first place. How many of the people who got mad at Colin Kaepernick for “politicizing football” also cheered for the US to beat the Soviets in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics?

There has been some form of politics associated with the Olympics since even the Ancient Games in B.C. Greece. The Greek city-states, constantly at war with one another, would call a truce during the Olympics to allow athletes to travel to Athens unharmed.

When you put 100-plus countries together, you are bound to get politicization. That’s just a simple fact, and, more often than not, people are happy to see it.

Let’s go back to those 1980 Lake Placid games and the “Miracle on Ice.” At the time, the U.S. was in the middle of the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and our team was a true underdog story, made up of a bunch of college kids. The whole country wasn’t pulling because we loved the United States; we wanted to symbolically beat communism and the Soviets.

At this time, the Summer and Winter Olympics were still on the same schedule, instead of the current offsetting cycle where one occurs every two years. The United States and 65 other countries skipped the Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Not only did politics infiltrate sport, it went as far as to keep sport from happening (for some).

Or what about when Jessie Owens won four gold medals at “Hitler’s Olympics,” the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics? Or Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics? The Olympics are quite possibly the biggest stage in the world; of course they are politicized, and this isn’t something I have a problem with.

The current Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang are some of the most politically fraught in a long time.

However, the timing could not be more perfect, as it seems as though the games could renew talks between North and South Korea.

Standing in the way of a lot of potential progress is, of course, the United States, South Korean ally and current worldwide antagonist.

In one show of impressive unity, North and South Korea were introduced at the Olympics as just “Korea,” walking under a unified flag for the first time since 2006. They also are competing as one women’s hockey team (who got blown out in their debut, but the symbolism was still there).

When Korea was announced at the Opening Ceremonies, they were greeted with a standing ovation… except by Vice President Mike Pence and his wife. You know, the same Pence who allegedly was so disgusted at players kneeling during the National Anthem that he left a Colts game.

There is a certain irony in Pence participating in the exact form of protest that he decried just months earlier. I wonder if anyone turned the ceremony off.

The idea that sports should be separate from politics is blind. Those who want it to be separate are not uncomfortable with the marriage of sports and politics just disagree with the politics. In other words, they can shove it.

Sports is a great unifier in this world; that is what the Olympics represent.

The nature of most sports is the team, and in the Olympics, even the individual sports absorb a sort of team aspect. And if you trace back the thread of athlete protest, almost all of them come in the form of a fight for unity.

From Olympic athletes like Smith and Carlos to Kaepernick, these are not self-serving protests (though that’s

what some would have you believe).

They instead are amplifying the same message that sports ask us to adopt: teamwork and equality.

The last sentence was incredibly corny and probably three-quarters cliché but I stand by it. There is no separating the person from the athlete, nor should there be. If we’re going to pretend that sports exist as some sort of monolith of entertainment, without any sort of outside influence, why not play it with robots?

It’s a paradox, really. There is a long record of the political influence in sports being unity-driven, yet a certain sect of the population sees that message as offensive and thinks it drives a wedge between people. To those people, I again say: shove it.

Look, are the Olympics a perfect arena for political messages? No. For example, too much is being made of Kim Yo-jong, Kim Jong-un’s sister, who somewhat outshone Pence during the opening ceremonies. However, she’s just as complicit in the atrocities going on in North Korea as her brother.

But there is no perfect area for political messages. Have you seen who we elected as president? The “proper channels,” if they ever existed, do not anymore.

If we’re going to ask our athletes to be role models, if we’re going to label successful Olympians as heroes, then don’t step in their way when they look to achieve that goal in a more meaningful way than winning it on the ice or the field.

If the Olympics are truly about unity – and yeah, maybe that’s idealistic but let me have this – then yes, unity politics will be involved. Let our athletes be people, our role models be role models and tell our Pences to, repeat after me: shove it.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Mike Pence takes a seat when the Korea walks out under one flag.

Varsity Calendar HOME AWAY

Follow us on Twitter at @theram_sports

Thursday Feb. 15

Friday Feb. 16

Saturday Feb. 17

St. Bonaventure 10 a.m.

St. John’s 7 p.m.

Men’s Tennis Women’s Tennis

Evansville 12 p.m.

Baseball

Swimming

UCLA 9 p.m.

Wednesday Feb. 21

Duquesne 7 p.m.

Niagra TBD

Wofford 5 p.m.

USC Upstate 3 p.m.

Cal/UCSB 1:30/8:30 p.m.

Utah 3 p.m.

Atlantic 10 Championships 9 a.m.

Atlantic 10 Championships All Day

Tuesday Feb. 20

Davidson 7 p.m.

Dayton 2 p.m.

Women’s Basketball

Track

Monday Feb. 19

Dayton 7 p.m.

Men’s Basketball

Softball

Sunday Feb. 18

Arkansas 11:30 a.m.

SPORTS

February 14, 2018

Marc Anthony Costanza

Porzingis, Knicks Tumble On Feb. 6, the New York Knicks suffered one of their most devastating losses of the season…and it wasn’t to the Milwaukee Bucks.

In the Knicks 103-89 loss Tuesday night, All-Star forward Kristaps Porzingis tore the ACL in his left knee. The injury occurred in the second quarter, when Porzingis landed heavily on his left leg after dunking over Giannis Antetokounmpo.

As the Knicks All-Star was aided off the court that night, any hopes of making the playoffs left with him. Porzingis, now scheduled to have surgery on Feb. 13, will miss the rest of the season, leaving Knicks fans more deflated than a Tom Brady football (sorry, I had to do it).

With the All-Star forward out, what exactly are the Knicks losing?

First off, fans can kiss their point leader goodbye. This season, Porzingis was averaging 22.7 points per game. As the season progresses, I think we’re going to see the Knicks continually have low-scoring games. This type of scoring can already be seen in the games since the injury happened. Two nights after scoring only 89 points against the Bucks, the team was only able to manage 88 points in their loss against the Toronto Raptors.

On the other hand, the Knicks were able to put up 113 in their 121-113 loss Sunday night against the Indiana Pacers. However, I believe the main reason they were able to do so was because the Pacers have a sub-par defense, ranked 19th in defensive rating with 106.4.

Along with being their points leader, Porzingis is also the team and league leader in blocks, averaging 2.4 per game. Not only are the Knicks going to be potentially scoring less, they are also most likely going to allow more points going forward, especially in the paint. This has become evident already with the team giving up 113 points versus the Raptors and 121 against the Pacers.

When it comes to basketball, and most other sports, scoring less and allowing more points is usually not a good formula for winning.

Is there any hope for the Knicks this season?

Maybe, but probably not. I don't see how this team is going to recover and put on winning performances for the rest of the year.

Even in the games with Porzingis, the Knicks have lost eight out of their last 10, and are currently trying to snap a six-game losing streak. They are fourth in the Atlantic Division with a mediocre 23-34 record.

Unless Tim Hardaway Jr., Enes Kanter and Michael Beasley start carrying the team, the only hope I can see is perhaps the players using this situation as a way of unifying the squad. They could try to display to the fans and others that this team can do well even without its best player, making a point that they do not need to rely on one star in order to collect wins.

It’s a reach, but you never know.

Page 23

Liam McKeone

Varsity Scores & Stats Women's Basketball Davidson 45 Fordham 58 (FOR) Davis: 11 Pts, 21 Rebs (FOR) Cavanaugh: 19 Pts

Men's Track Valentine Invite

Fordham 66 La Salle 45 (FOR) Cavanaugh: 15 Pts, 8 Rebs, 4 Asts

800m (FOR) Santelli 15th - 1:50.91

Men's Tennis Fordham La Salle

6 1

Hofstra Fordham

2 5

Women's Tennis NJIT Fordham

3 4

Women's Track Valentine Invite

Squash Northeastern Fordham

1 8

60m dash (FOR) Jaeger 12th - 8.17

Fordham Brandeis

9 0

60m Invitational (FOR) Kelly 18th - 7.19

Fordham Boston College

9 0

Fordham Boston University

9 0

1000m run (FOR) Cook 9th - 2:24.97

Mile (FOR) Phillips 1st - 4:13.29

Men's Basketball Fordham 67 George Mason 66 (FOR) Slanina: 15 Pts, 4 Blks (FOR) Tavares: 11 Pts, 11 Rebs Fordham 80 George Mason 57 (FOR) Raut: 25 pts, 4-7 3pt (FOR) Tavares: 15 Pts, 10 Rebs, 4 Asts

Athletes of the Week Brian Cook

G'mrice Davis

Senior

Senior

Men's Track

Women's Basketball

The senior excelled during day two of the David Henery Valentine Invite at Boston University, making school history in the 1000-meter run. He placed ninth in a Fordham-record and IC4A-qualifying time of 2:24.97.

He bested the previous record set by teammate Louis Santelli.

In a win that exemplified grit, G'Mrice Davis helped the Rams overcome a poor shooting percentage (35.6) to defeat Davidson in North Carolina.

The senior registered her 13th consecutive double-double and 21st this season with an 11-point, 21-rebound performance.

Each week, The Fordham Ram’s sports editors honor one male athlete and one female athlete for their on-field performances as their “Athletes of the Week.”

News & Notes • Raut Earns A-10 Rookie of the Week

Freshman Ivan Raut had himself an impressive seven days for men's basketball, dominating en route to his second Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week award this season.

The Kotor, Montenegro native followed up a 16-point performance against George Mason with a career game at Duquesne.

Raut scored a season-high 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-7 from beyond the arc, in Fordham's astounding 80-57 trouncing of the Dukes. Overall, he shot 58.3 percent from the field and 47.1 from three-point range. Certainly awardworthy numbers out of the 6-foot-7 standout.

• Football Adds Four to Recruiting Class Head Coach Joe Conlin announced that the

team has signed four additional athletes for the 2018 season, joining the 11 other players who finalized their letters of intent two months ago. The new additions include Trimarea Charles (Cocoa), Natani Drati (Santa Barbara), Ryan Greenhagen (Pope John XXIII) and Anthony Tony-Itoyah (Denton). The recruiting class for this upcoming campaign now includes seven offensive and eight defensive players.

• Football Adds Three Assistant Coaches

First-year Head Coach Joe Conlin is beginning to finalize Fordham's new-look coaching staff. This past week, he announced Paul Rice as the defensive coordinator, Vincent Natali as the offensive line coach and Scott Vallone as the defensive line coach. The first inclusion is a carry-over from Conlin's time at Yale, where Rice served as an assistant coach for the past five years. Natali moves to Rose Hill from the University of New Mexico, where he spearheaded recruiting efforts for the past two seasons. Vallone will take a more specific role after holding the title of defensive coordinator at St. Lawrence University since the start of 2016.

• Baseball Ranked Eighth by A-10 Coaches The Atlantic 10 Conference announced its

preseason coaches poll for this upcoming season on Thursday, and Fordham found itself in the middle of the pack. Saint Louis was packed as the favorite, garnering 157 points and six first-place votes. Fordham finished eighth out of 13 teams.

-Compiled by Emmanuel Berbari

The New-Look Cavs Cavaliers GM Koby Altman singlehandedly saved Cleveland’s season, and maybe his job, during the trade deadline last week. The pre-deadline Cavs, despite coming off a big win against Minnesota where everyone played well, were left for dead by the rest of the NBA. They were playing uninspired, inefficient and low-effort basketball, sliding down the rankings further each day. Players were throwing shade towards each other via the media, and Kevin Love was blamed for everything, even though it was only mostly his fault. But, suddenly, Altman turned LeBron’s group of old bickering teammates on an athletic decline into three young, hungry players and a vet ready for a ring.

After their stomping of the Celtics on national television Sunday, the Cavs put the rest of the league on notice: they’re still the team to beat in the East.

Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr., acquired for Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye and the Cavs’ 2018 first-round pick from the Los Angeles Lakers, made their mark immediately on Sunday and look to be the two biggest takeaways from the trade deadline this year. Clarkson is an excellent scorer and can take the role Thomas was supposed to embrace as the sparkplug for the second unit. He’s not likely to start, but can play next to LeBron when he needs to; he’s less of a ball-dominant player than Thomas, although he still struggles with an inconsistent three-point shot. Defensively, he’ll be an upgrade over Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade or Thomas, although that’s not exactly difficult.

Nance is a completely different type of player, but will play equally as big a role as Clarkson in the upcoming months, and especially in the playoffs. He’s a versatile and athletic defender who can play center in a pinch and be able to switch on just about anyone for a possession or two. Offensively, he isn’t a shooter a la Kevin Love, but has shown himself to be a capable screener who can finish at the rim with some consistency, shooting nearly 60 percent within three feet of the rim. He won’t be filling up the stat sheet, but will probably end up taking minutes from Tristan Thompson as a high-energy big man who does the little things right. They’ll both play a big role in this year’s hunt for a title and beyond; both are only 25, and Cleveland will no doubt look to retain them if The Decision Part 2 materializes this summer.

Rodney Hood is perhaps the most intriguing player acquired by the team, with the Cavs only having to give up Jae Crowder and the remains of Derrick Rose for the 25-year-old shooting guard. Hood is a sharpshooter who has hit over 35 percent of his threes each season he’s been in the league, and is at nearly 40 percent in the 2017-2018 season. At 6’8”, he has the size and the shooting to help the Cavs compete come playoff time against the Warriors’ army of long-armed, sharpshooting wings..

The biggest thing for Hood is to stay healthy. He’s yet to play a full season in his six years in the league, and only played 40 games last year. But if he can, the combination of Hood and George Hill, acquired from the Kings on deadline day, will completely transform the Cavs’ backcourt. Hill has shot over 40 percent from three every season since 2015, plays good defense and has yet to win a title. He's ready to go, and so are the Cavs.

SPORTS

Page 24

February 14, 2018

The Fordham Ram

Men’s Basketball Finds Groove in Atlantic 10 Play

By ALVIN HALIMWIDJAYA STAFF WRITER

After a tough stretch of games, most involving losses, Fordham Men’s Basketball broke out and gained a little momentum with wins against George Mason and Duquesne this past week.

The Rams brought their record up to 4-8 in the A-10 conference and 9-15 overall.

Fordham started their week with a much-needed win in a 67-66 nailbiter over George Mason on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at the Rose Hill Gym. Junior forward Prokop Slanina was at the forefront of the team’s efforts, pouring in a game-high 17 points, snagging five rebounds and playing stalwart defense to boot, tallying four blocked shots and three steals. Freshman swingman Ivan Raut played second fiddle with 16 points, while senior guard Will Tavares and junior guard Joseph Chartouny each chipped in with 11 points. Tavares also grabbed 11 rebounds, a career-high, and posted the first double-double of his career, while Chartouny played his usual role of pickpocket with five steals. Sophomore guard Cavit Havsa also had a solid game with nine points and eight assists.

George Mason took control of the game in the early going, using a 21-0 run to blow the lead out to 17 points, as a bucket by Patriots guard Justin Kier pushed the score to 25-8 with just over six minutes left in the half.

However, the Rams struck back with seven points to end the first half, chipping away at the margin and heading to halftime with a 33-23 deficit.

The Patriots maintained their lead going into the second half, but after

harboring a 48-41 lead with 11:14 left in the game, Fordham exploded on offense with a 17-8 spurt. Fighting back, 10 of the Rams’ 13 made threepointers came in the second half, and they grabbed the lead from George Mason with a Raut bomb from downtown to take a 58-56 advantage with 6:06 left on the game clock.

After a back and forth struggle, the Patriots cut the lead to one, placing the score at 67-66 with 40 seconds remaining. The Rams turned the ball over on the other end of the court, giving George Mason a chance to take the game back, but Chartouny came through with a huge defensive stop, deflecting away a potential game-winning layup. Though Tavares missed a free throw to seal the win, George Mason’s half-court attempt fell short, giving the Rams a hard-fought comeback victory to add to their record.

“Being down 17 points at one point in the first half, nothing was going in our way,” Raut said. “Coach gave us a brief speech in the locker room, and told us that he believes that we can overcome any obstacle and come back in the second half and win the game. We just kept doing same things that we did in the first half, but with more energy and we were able to come back and get that important win on our home court.”

Going into their game against Duquesne on Saturday, Feb. 10, Fordham looked to capitalize on their win, and Raut delivered for them. In a contest without Chartouny, who sat out with an injury, the freshman marksman scored a career-high 25 points in an 80-57 blowout win over the Dukes. Raut went 8-11 from the field, knocking down 4-7 from long

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Fordham’s David Pekarek drives in the paint. Fordham has won three of its last four games.

distance and adding six rebounds to his stat line. Tavares added his second career double-double with 15 points and 11 points, while Slanina scored 13 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and swatted away four shots. Senior guard Perris Hicks rounded out the majority of the scoring with 13 points, and Havsa put in another solid performance with nine points and six assists.

However, the day belonged to Raut’s breakout performance, earning him an A-10 Rookie of the Week award.

“Duquesne is a really good defensive team,” Raut said. “They guard the perimeter pretty well. Coach [Neubauer] talked to me before the game and told me that I should play in the low post more. Our game plan in the beginning was to give me the ball in the low post and create from there. I was able to score a couple of easy baskets in the paint and [move] the ball to my teammates on the perimeter.

We had a really good shooting percentage, and that is also one of the reasons why we came up with the win.”

The Rams shot 59 percent from the field, splashing 8-18 three-pointers and nailing 22-26 free throws to round out their hot shooting night.

Fordham built a 17-9 lead to start the game, eventually using a 13-6 run to build a 30-18 lead with 2:04 left in the first half. After coming out of halftime with a 32-23 advantage, Raut knocked down consecutive threes to spark a 15-6 burst, pushing Fordham’s lead to 47-29 with just under 16 minutes left in the second half. The score ballooned to a 26-point margin in the Rams’ favor, as a Hicks basket from beyond the arc gave Fordham a 64-38 lead; their advantage would not drop to below 17 points for the rest of the game.

“At Duquesne, Ivan Raut was outstanding offensively,” head coach Jeff

Neubauer said. “Defensively, our perimeter players did a good job of keeping the ball away from Duquesne’s guards. The defensive efforts of Brenton Petty, [Thomas] Sanchez and Chris Downing were crucial.”

After these two victories, Fordham’s next game will be against Saint Joseph’s at the Rose Hill Gym on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 7:00 p.m.

“We are really happy and energized because we were able to get two wins in a row, even though our roster is shortened,” Raut said. “Our guys stepped up, and we are really confident coming into the next game against St.Joe’s.”

“Our team feels really proud of our effort at Duquesne,” Neubauer added. “[The game at Duquesne] was a terrific win. We know that we will be shorthanded the rest of the season and we are taking on the challenge.”

Women’s Basketball Wins 20th For 5th Time Under Gaitley

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Mary Goulding (above) makes a move to the basket. Fordham women’s basketball won its 20th game on Tuesday.

By JACK McLOONE SPORTS EDITOR

While no coach is going to say that they expect their team to do poorly, the odds were stacked against the Fordham women’s basketball team.

Full of freshmen and without three major contributors in Kate Kreslina, Anna Kelly and Asnate Fomina (to Latvian pro basketball, transfer and a concussion, respectively) and facing the hardest out-of-conference schedule in her 34-year career, head coach Stephanie Gaitley figured it would be a tough season. Instead, she’s secured her fifth 20-win season at Fordham

with a 58-45 road win over Davidson and a 66-45 drubbing of La Salle at home.

“It’s been a lot of juggling, but I credit the kids,” said Gaitley. “It’s the next man up mentality and they’ve done a great job fighting through adversity.”

The Rams’ defensive lockdown started in Ohio against Davidson.

In past seasons, going 3-13 from the field would have derailed senior forward G’mrice Davis’s game. But in Fordham Women’s Basketball’s 58-45 road win over Davidson, she contributed in other ways, namely 21 rebounds. That total ties her careerhigh. Davis also managed to still get

11 points, thanks to going 5-5 from the free throw line, giving her her 21st double-double on the season, and 13th straight.

“G has done a much better job this year of not letting one aspect of her game affect another,” said head coach Stephanie Gaitley. “It’s still a work in progress but as seen in the Davidson game, she can have a major impact without scoring.”

The Rams had five days between their home win over Rhode Island and the win at Davidson, and Gaitley used that time to give them team some rest. As covered last week, the starters for this team average over 30 minutes per game, so five days off

before hitting the stretch run was certainly big.

“It had been a long time since we had a good break so we gave them two days off and went ‘light’ the third day,” said Gaitley.

The well-rested Rams looked the part in the first quarter, doubling up the Wildcats 20-10. With the score 7-5 in the Wildcats’ favor with 6:54 left in the first quarter, Davis kicked off a 15-0 run with a three-point play.

However, that energy did not show itself in the second. The Rams scored just nine points to Davidson’s 14, putting the score at 29-24 at the half.

Junior point guard Lauren Holden, who has struggled with her shot for most of the season, had a stellar first half. She was 4-5 from deep in the half. She hit another three in the second half, tying her career-high in three pointers at five.

After an even third quarter, in which the Rams held onto their fivepoint lead, with both teams scoring 11, the high-energy group reemerged for the final 10 minutes.

Once again, the Ram defense held the Wildcats to just 10 points, while the offense put up 18 of its own to bring the game of its final score of 5845. This is the eighth time the Rams have held an opponent under 50 points, with all eight being wins.

Freshman point guard Bre Cavanaugh once again paced the Rams in scoring, putting up 19. She did so pretty inefficiently, going just 7-22

from the floor, including 2-8 from three, and another 3-4 from the line.

The Rams dominated the boards, pulling down 49 compared to the Wildcats’ 28.

When they returned home against the Explorers from La Salle, the Rams once again put on a defensive showcase. Outside of some lackluster defense from the deep end of the bench at the end of the fourth quarter, the Explorers did not score more than 11 points in a quarter.

The only negative for the Rams, if you wanted to say there was one, was that Davis lost her double-double streak with 18 points and only nine rebounds. With 5:54 left to play and up 29, Gaitley actually subbed Davis back in to give her a chance to corral the two rebounds she needed. However, after Davis scored back-to-back baskets Gaitley was uncomfortable with leaving in her star player and longer and took her out.

Holden also continued with her finally-hot hand, going 5-11 from the field, including 2-4 from three and 4-4 from the line for 16 points. And once again, Cavanaugh led all scorers with 19 points.

The Rams are hitting their stride heading into the home stretch, with just three games remaining. The first two are against the other top two teams in the A-10, both on the road. First they are at Dayton on Sunday, Feb. 18 at 2 p.m. and then at Duquesne at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 21.