Vol. 101 Issue 4

The Fordham Ram Volume 101, Issue 4

Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 FordhamRam.com

February 13, 2019

University Allows Access to MWH

By ERICA SCALISE and HELEN STEVENSON In a statement by Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the university, the administration reversed its decision to bar student volunteering in Murray-Weigel Hall.

McShane said he made the decision to allow students on the premises based on the Northeast Province's assurance that all Jesuits currently living in Murray-Weigel are not “restricted,” and are therefore completely free and innocent of any accusations of abuse.

McShane also confirmed there will be no restricted Jesuits living in Murray-Weigel in the future.

“Upon his return from a pastoral visit to the members of the Province assigned to schools and parishes in Micronesia, Fr. John Cecero, S.J., the Provincial Superior of the USA Northeast Province, acceded to my request that no restricted Jesuits be assigned to the Murray Weigel Hall Community for any reason for any period of time in the future,” he said.

Additionally, McShane said the men living in Murray-Weigel will now have “the freedom of the campus.”

“That is to say, they are completely free to walk on the campus, to celebrate Mass in the University’s chapels and to hear confessions on the campus,” he said.

Bob Howe, director of communications for the university, previously said the university never had control over Murray-Weigel Hall or a regular flow of information concerning its tenants and any allegations of misconduct that may have been made against them.

However, some abuse cases that involved priests at Fordham have gained national attention.

Rev. Roy Drake, S.J., was previously a science teacher at Fordham Prep in the late 1960s and then lived in Murray-Weigel Hall from 1994 to 2006 according to bishopaccountability.org, a website that tracks and records credible incidents of clergy abuse.

Drake was accused of molesting the friend of a Fordham Prep student while on a ski trip in 1968. Drake lived in Murray-Weigel Hall until 2006, when he was transferred to a treatment center for troubled priests.

His history of abuse has been documented both by The Ram and The New York Times.

SEE MWH, PAGE 6

JULIA COMERFORD/ THE FORDHAM RAM

Pugsley Pizza is offering "love pies," pizza in the shape of a heart, to celebrate Valentine's Day.

University Spreads Love for Valentine's Day

By HELEN STEVENSON NEWS EDITOR

Love is in the air at Fordham as Valentine's Day approaches this Thursday, Feb. 14, and Rose Hill has a number of events to celebrate.

Campus Activities Board (CAB) will be hosting two free

events this Wednesday, Feb. 13 in the McGinley Lobby: "Cards and Candy," and "Dating Profile Picture Photo Shoot."

“Every year, CAB spends the week surrounding Valentine’s Day celebrating relationships that make us better,” said Kathryn Teaney, FCRH ’19, presi-

dent of CAB. The "Dating Profile Picture Photo Shoot," hosted by the CAB Comedy Committee, is catered toward students that are single. It is a photo shoot aimed to provide students with the perfect first picture for a dating profile.

SEE VALENTINE, PAGE 5

USG Releases Midyear Report

By HELEN STEVENSON NEWS EDITOR

SARAH HUFFMAN/THE FORDHAM RAM

Volunteers with Tzu Chi Collegiate Association participated in a homeless canvassing event in Manhattan.

TCCA Hosted Homeless Canvassing in Manhattan

By SARAH HUFFMAN

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Fordham Tzu Chi Collegiate Association (TCCA) participated in a homeless canvassing event on Sunday, Feb. 10. Students from Fordham, students from other colleges and members of the Tzu Chi

Foundation went out to various parts of Manhattan and brought supplies to homeless individuals.

Attendees rode the subway to the Tzu Chi Center on East 60th Street at 9 a.m. Sunday morning. The Fordham students were joined by members of other chapters from schools such as Stonybrook University and

New York University. Fordham TCCA President Abby Tse, FCRH ’20, said they had 12 students from Fordham and 20 people from other chapters signed up. She said she would consider this a successful turnout rate.

Students packed drawstring bags SEE HOMELESSNESS, PAGE 3

This week, the United Student Government (USG) released its midyear report, highlighting USG committee accomplishments in the Fall 2018 semester. The 40-page report also addressed budget allocations, student concerns and interests, club collaboration and internal affairs.

The Budget Committee, chaired by Vice President of Finance Elizabeth Bjorklund, FCRH ’21, allocated $69,895.45 to clubs throughout the Fall 2018 semester. This number is in addition to the $529,568.32 allocated on Budget Day last semester, bringing the total allocated funds to clubs and organizations to $599,463.77.

In November 2018, the Budget Committee allocated $517,310 to clubs and organizations for the Spring 2019 semester as well as the remaining $6,186 from Fall 2018.

In a joint introductory statement, Executive President Connor Sullivan, FCRH ’19, and Executive Vice President Kaylee Wong, GSB ’20, said that the report aims to address their accom-

plishments and ensure transparency within and outside of USG. “A successful student government is one that fully represents the student body, but full representation means that students need to be aware of the actions of their elected representatives,” they said.

In an effort to increase transparency, USG established the Marketing and Communications Committee in order to communicate information to the university community.

Sullivan and Wong also said USG is writing a new constitution SEE REPORT, PAGE 3

in this issue

Opinion

Page 7

Debunking Fordham's Class Size

Sports

Page 24 Women's Basketball Teals Win Over George Mason

Culture

Page 17

Cardi B, The Democratic Party's Secret Weapon

NEWS

Page 2

PUBLIC SAFETY BRIEFS

Democratic Candidates Announce for 2020 Fordham Political Organizations Comment

By ELIOT SCHIAPARELLI ASSISSTANT NEWS EDITOR

Feb. 9 O'Hare Hall 3:15 a.m.

A student attempted to sneak a friend into O'Hare Hall through the bookstore. They were stopped and removed. They left without incident.

Feb. 9 E. Fordham Road 7:45 p.m.

A student possibly lost her wallet at Ram's Deli Plus. Charges were made on her credit card.

Feb. 10 Finlay Hall 9:40 a.m.

There was a water leak in the basement of Finlay Hall. It was caused by a faulty valve in the fire pump room. Facilities came and repaired the valve.

Feb. 11 Queen's Court 12:08 a.m.

The fire alarm system was activated in Queen's Court due to steam conditions in P.O.D. when cleaning the hot grill. The fire department responded.

Feb. 11 Moshulu Parkway 5:50 p.m.

There was a Ram Van accident on Moshulu Parkway and Jerome Avenue. The Ram Van was rear ended by another car on the way to Lincoln Center. There were no injuries. The van was put out of service, and the students were transferred to a new van.

-Compiled by Sarah Huffman

Follow us on Twitter! @TheFordhamRam

February 13, 2019

The first presidential primaries and caucuses will not be held in Iowa and New Hampshire until early next year, but presidential hopefuls are already officially announcing their candidacies.

For now, Republican incumbent President Donald Trump will carry the banner for the GOP, since none have declared intentions to run for the party, but many Democrats currently have no idea who their nominee is likely to be in 2020.

As of February 2019, the most notable candidates to announce their campaigns include Senators Kamala Harris (Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (MA). Julian Castro, the secretary of housing and urban development under President Barack Obama, has also announced his candidacy.

Other noteworthy figures, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders (Vt.) have been weighing a potential presidential run, but have not yet officially announced their intentions.

Mike Fissinger, FCRH ’21, is the vice president of Fordham College Democrats. He said candidates like Sanders and Biden have the luxury of waiting to enter the race because they already have national name recognition.

“At this early point, name recognition really comes into play,” Fissinger said. “The point of a campaign for many lesser known candidates is to do away with that, but everyone knows who Joe Biden is and that gives him a big advantage.”

Fissinger also said fundraising is key to a successful campaign. He pointed to Harris as an example of impressive fundraising.

After Harris announced her bid for the presidency on Jan. 21, coinciding with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, she raised $1.5 million in donations from individuals in all 50 states.

The number of Democratic candidates participating in the 2020 primary could potentially be in the double digits, and the Democratic National Committee has already started planning debates.

In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, the Republicans had a similarly crowded field and chose to split their debates into two sessions – an “undercard” for the longshots followed by a second

“primetime” debate for the candidates leading in the polls.

This was done to ensure that everyone would get enough time to speak and differentiate themselves and their positions from the other candidates.

Rick Santorum talked about the format during an undercard debate.

“It wasn't advertised significantly.

In fact, the entire hour leading up to this there was no conversation about any of the four people on this debate stage, and that is the chronic situation,” he said.

According to a DNC press release, the first Democratic debates will be held in June and July 2019.

If the field is big enough, the party said it would hold its debates on two consecutive nights. If debates are held over consecutive nights, the line-up for each will be chosen randomly rather than based on polling.

Fissinger said he believes the high number of candidates will make the race interesting.

“The Republican field was like this in 2016, and it will probably be about the same size," Fissinger said.

“So how the candidates differentiate themselves will be very intriguing. A lot of them have similar policy issues and focuses.”

Qualifications for the debates themselves will be based on objective measures such as polling and grassroots funding.

Over the next year, candidates will visit early primary states like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, and they will be working hard to raise money for their campaigns.

Fordham College Republicans secretary Tim Kyle, FCRH ’21, said Democrats need to be wary of a split in their party between the moderate and progressive wings.

“I think there’s the possibility — if the Democrats do what they did in 2016 and support one candidate obviously over another — you might see a lot of Democratic voters staying home,” Kyle said. “I think if the primary is particularly bruising, you also might see some more Democratic voters staying home.”

Kyle also said President Trump will be keeping an eye on the Democratic candidates.

“I think Trump would do best against someone with personal foibles. President Trump loves attacking people personally, so someone he could paint someone as a liar or a crook,” Kyle stated.

Fissinger said he thought Democrats were off to a good start when it came to civility.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FLICKR

Four senators have announced their candidacy as of Feb. 12, 2019

“As of now, the candidates who have already announced are doing a great job of being very civil and friendly toward one another,” Fissinger said. “When one candidate hops into the race there seems to be a Twitter or social media response from all the other candidates, saying ‘good luck.’ A lot of them are friends from being in the Senate together and everything, so I think we’re off to a good start and I hope it doesn’t become divisive or anything.”

Fissinger also said issues like gun control, healthcare and climate change will play a big role in the primary. According to Fissinger, which issues candidates choose to champion and bring to the forefront of their campaign could make or break them. He also said candidates will have to show authenticity and have a good answer as to why they are running.

He said Warren has already started to do this.

“Elizabeth Warren is setting herself up as someone able to stand up to corruption,” Fissinger said.

“Warren has made a career out of it and seems to be making her campaign about fighting against corruption in government and against a revolving door of lobbyists. So she has a very clear message from her career and campaign.”

Kyle said he thinks Trump would do best against a more radical Democratic nominee who fails to win the support of the whole party base. “The Republican party will be focusing on the economic growth we have seen under President Trump,” Kyle said. “I think a lot of the Democratic candidates

are running more as progressives, and people who would be considered far left by many Americans.”

According to Kyle, the most dangerous candidate for Trump to face would be someone more moderate. Both Kyle and Fissinger agreed that their parties need to unite behind their respective nominees.

“There’s clearly some dissent in the Republican Party," Kyle said.

“President Trump hasn’t pleased everyone. But I think the party understands it’s important to remain united behind one candidate. If the vote is fractured, then there’s no chance of winning reelection in 2020.”

“I think in light of the past two or three years of the Trump administration, I’m hoping and I have faith in the Democratic Party that regardless of who wins the primary, the candidates will be able to come together and bring their supporters with them to unite around whoever the nominee is so we can beat Trump," said Fissinger.

For the time being, each club will monitor and discuss the primaries. “We’re just going to wait and watch,” Kyle said. “We hope to engage in some good debate and conversation with our college Democratic counterparts and see what they think. Pick apart some policy issues and help forward the discussion about some hot button politics.”

During the primary, the College Democrats said they will not endorse a specific presidential candidate, but they will hold debate watch parties and support whoever becomes the Democratic nominee come 2020.

This Week at Fordham Wednesday Feb. 13

Wednesday Feb. 13

Friday Feb. 15

Saturday Feb. 16

Tuesday Feb. 19

CPR Day

FDM Auction

Black Sheep Performance Poetry Show

WAC Love Pies Pugsley's Pizza 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Fordham Flea

McGinley Lobby 12:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Join Black Sheep Performance Poetry for their first show of the year in a blast to the past as they celebrate first crushes, old-school jams, cringey selfies, identity-formative moments and pure nostalgia. The line starts at 7:30 p.m.

Campus Activites Board Weekend Activites Committee will be taking students to Pugsley's to make heartshaped pizzas to celebrate Valentine's Day. The event will be from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and will take place at Pugsley's Pizza.

Fordham Flea is Rose Hill's very own flea market and sustainability celebration. Those who donated some gently-worn threads at their tables in McGinley on Jan. 21-22 and Feb 11-12th will receive a $1 credit for every item they donated.

McGinley Ballroom 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

McGinley Ballroom 7:30 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.

FUEMS will co-program with MAPS and USG's VP of Health and Safety to educate the campus on the importance of heart health, as well as the basic steps of hands-only CPR. The event will be in McGinley Ballroom on Wednesday.

FDM and RHA are hosting the 25th annual benefit auction. There are raffle and live auction portions to the event. All the proceeds will benefit Fordham Dance Marathon and The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation.

Blackbox Theater 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

NEWS

February 13, 2019

Page 3

Tzu Chi Hosts Homeless Canvassing Event Brings Supplies to Homeless Individuals SEE HOMELESSNESS, PAGE 1

filled with blankets, socks, scarves, hand warmers, water bottles, sandwiches and various other snacks to distribute people who are homeless. The blankets and scarves were donated by an entrepreneur who makes them out of recycled water bottles. Volunteers and a local baker donated all the food.

Members of the Tzu Chi Foundation presented an orientation slideshow including a video of all the charity work that the Tzu Chi Foundation does around the world. The slideshow also explained the proper method for approaching people experiencing homelessness.

They said canvassers should meet those experiencing homelessness at eye level and crouch down if needed. They should then show them everything in the bag and try to have a short conversation with them.

The members of the foundation emphasized that if an individual acted hostile or angry, no one should react in response; participants' safety was the number one priority.

Foundation leaders concluded the orientation by reminding everyone that they are trying to bring love, hope and relief to the community and to remember that the homeless are people, too.

They emphasized that everyone should think about why they are volunteering for this event and

they should appreciate the opportunity to give, learn and practice kindness.

The larger group split into four smaller groups made up of five or six people. The areas targeted included Grand Central Station, Penn Station, Union Square Park and Port Authority. Each group was assigned a different area.

The groups then departed to their assigned areas and gave out 10 to12 bags to homeless individuals on the street. The homeless individuals were generally receptive to the supply bags.

There were a few instances where individuals did not want to take anything that they did not need. For example, one man could not eat sweets, so he gave a bag of cookies back to the canvassers. A Tzu Chi foundation member commented that homeless individuals often will not take things they do not need because they would rather someone who needs it receive it.

Another Tzu Chi Foundation member said it was important to remember that it is not about who deserves the supplies more, but rather helping anyone they can.

“We don’t think about the homeless day-to-day but we need to," said an attendee from Parsons School of Design.

A member of the foundation said helping the homeless is not just one event and people should think about it all the time.

Prior to the event, Fordham stu-

dent Matene Toure, FCRH ’20, said she was excited and nervous because she had never done anything similar to this before but she thought it would be heartbreaking to see those experiencing homelessness.

“I want to be more mindful about what is going on in the city that I’m living in. I’m from the Bronx and I went to school in the city. It's something that you always see but it’s never on your mind,” said Toure. “I really want it to be on my mind more often. There are people that are not as privileged as I am and it’s something I should be more mindful of and appreciate more what I have.”

Toure said it is important for Fordham to have events like this and engage in the wider NYC community. She said it gives students a better perspective of the wider community that we need to talk about.

“Clubs like this [TCCA] are spaces to have these conversations and we want Fordham to see that just doing things like this is not hard,” said Toure.

After the event, Alexa Lenore Tomas, FCRH ’20, said it was a very eye opening experience.

"Some of them don’t respond much, but you know you’re doing something for them," she said.

Tse said Fordham TCCA chose to hold this event because they empathized with the homeless population and recognized they could do something to help them. She said this is an annual event that the NYC Tzu Chi Foundation organizes

COURTESY OF FORDHAM TCCA

Volunteers delivered bags of supplies to people who are homeless.

and the Fordham TCCA chapter is proud to co-host this event for the first time.

“We hope that the homeless will be able to stay warm during this cold, harsh winter,” said Tse. “We also want to show the homeless that there are people who care and will treat them with respect and kindness.”

Before the event, she said she thinks the attendees will enjoy this event because it is meaningful and they are actively trying to make this world a better place.

The TCCA is the college chapter of the Tzu Chi Foundation. Local chapters other than Fordham include Columbia, Cornell, Stonybrook and NYU. TCCA also has

chapters across the United States and around the world.

The Tzu Chi Foundation is an international, non-profit humanitarian organization founded in 1966 by a Buddhist nun, Dharma Master Cheng Yen. They are focused on four missions: education, humanistic culture, medicine and charity and their goal is to alleviate suffering in the world through the practice of gratitude, love, respect and compassion.

“We hope that members across the college chapters would grow spiritually and mentally from their experiences with us and take the virtues that they have learned and practice it throughout their lives,” said Tse.

Annual USG Midyear Report Released Details Account of Fall 2018 Semester FROM REPORT, PAGE 1

and set of bylaws. They called the current constitution outdated, complex, unorganized and lengthy.

“This means that USG cannot effectively serve the student body, its constituents,” they said. “The student government’s constitution must outline a clear framework and path and ensure that the power remains as close with the student body as possible.”

Additionally, the report ad-

dresses 10 student concerns on campus.

Senator Brian Daaleman, FCRH ’19, wrote an official resolution that calls upon the university to close for all national election days and allow excused absences to students who wish to go home to vote in state or local elections.

Senators Debra Chieco, FCRH ’21, Carsyn Fisher, FCRH ’21, Katie Keane GSB ’21, Lauren Kiffer, GSB ’21, and Carlos Rico,

COURTESY OF RAM ARCHIVES

USG released its annual midyear report, detailing its Fall 2018 semester.

FCRH ’21 are working on a request to have water fountains with bottle fillers installed in all residence halls and other locations on campus. This is part of USG’s ongoing effort to increase campus sustainability.

Other concerns include adjusting hours at Walsh Library, increasing recycling in the library, the freshman “civility” program reform and the Belmont community housing welcome packet.

The document details USG’s collaboration with other clubs from the Fall 2018 semester.

In collaboration with Campus Activities Board, Commuting Students Association and Residence Hall Association, USG held “Rock the Block” on Aug. 21 as a welcome event.

USG also partnered with Every Vote Counts during the 2018 election cycle with the intent of encouraging students to vote.

Internally, USG held an election for five open freshman senate seats: Senators David D’Onofrio, FCRH ’22, Thomas Reuter, FCRH’22, Margaret Tattersfield, FCRH’22, Matthew Heutel FCRH ’22 and William Perlman GSB ’22 were ultimately elected to council.

On Sept. 15, Wong hosted the annual USG Fall Retreat. Senator Kevin McSorley, GSB ’20, partnered with Fordham Stu-

COURTESY OF USG

The USG report outlined the club's accomplishments during the Fall of 2018.

dent TV (FSTV) to create the Senator Series; so far, representatives from the Communications and Marketing Committee have guest starred.

The remaining sections are itemized by committee: the Budget Committee, Committee on Sexual Misconduct, Communications and Marketing Committee, Dining Committee, Diversity Action Coalition, GSB and FCRH Dean’s Councils, House Committee, Committee on International Integration, Operations Committee and Sustainability Committee.

The report highlights in detail the events organized by each distinct committee and their continuous effort to better the university.

Sullivan and Wong said the university community is welcome to reach out to their elected officials with any future concerns or questions.

“Never hesitate to reach out to USG or your elected leaders and never hesitate to propose or highlight an issue that USG should focus on,” they said.

NEWS

Page 4

February 13, 2019

Research Spotlight

USG Column

FCRH Dean’s Council Hosts Research Reception Faculty Present About Research Opportunities

By SARAH HUFFMAN

By KRISTEN MCNERNEY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

The Fordham College at Rose Hill Dean’s Council hosted its second annual research reception on Wednesday, Feb. 6. The event included formal presentations by faculty conducting research as well as opportunities for students to network with those professors.

Anna Lazaro, FCRH ‘21, expressed her interest in learning about the research opportunities available to students at the university.

“We’re trying to hear what all the professors are working on with research in all different fields,” said Lazaro. “Hopefully students can find research they are interested in and try to get involved.”

Audrey Felton, FCRH ‘22, was similarly interested in finding out about ongoing research efforts on campus.

“I’m really just here to see what research is all about,” said Audrey Felton, FCRH ’22. “My major is English, so I know there’s not that many opportunities with humanities majors, but I just wanted to see what it was like and network with different people.”

Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., associate dean for strategic initiatives, and Jonathan Crystal, Ph.D., vice provost, made brief introductory remarks.

“I’m here to lend my support to this program,” said Crystal. “This opportunity is for students to meet faculty and make those connections and find out how the can get involved in the research.”

Crystal said the event was a great way to support undergraduate research and those that help students pursue it.

“I think it’s a great idea and I’m really just happy to be here to be supportive and to welcome people, not just the students, but Dean Mast, Dean Annunziato, and all the people at FCRH who made this happen,” he said.

Photo of the Week:

USG Discusses Collins Hall CONTRIBUTING WRITER

SARAH HUFFMAN/ THE FORDHAM RAM

Dean Annunziato makes introductory remarks at the FCRH Dean’s Council Research Reception.

After introductions, each guest gave a five to seven minute presentation on their area of research. Patrick Fox, FCRH ’20, vice president of Fordham College Rose Hill, said they all highlighted the areas where they were looking for undergraduates, which is a new detail this year.

The faculty presenters included Damian Lyons, Ph.D., George Demacopoulos, Ph.D., Thaier Hayajneh, Ph.D., Joshua Schrier, Ph.D., Steven Franks, Ph.D. and J.D. Lewis, Ph.D. Hayajneh is a professor in the computer science department and works in cybersecurity. He is also the director of Fordham Center for Cyber Security.

His presentation focused on the projects the computer science department is currently working on, including social engineering and blockchain. He concluded by presenting a slide about a scholarship opportunity for students to pursue cybersecurity here at Fordham. Fox said most of his research is sponsored by the NSA. Demacopoulos, a professor of theology and co-director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center, was invited to speak about a pair of major

awards that the center won last year.

“We won over $600,000 in externally funded awards to study the intersection of Orthodox Christianity and human rights, and I’m here to talk about that project,” he said.

Lewis presented about Project TRUE (Teens Researching Urban Ecology). Fox said he spoke about how their focus is in botany but they are trying to expand it, especially toward teens.

Schrier presented on theoretical chemistry and Franks presented on system genomics. Franks’s work is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

“I think the people we brought in brought in these really cool ideas that I hadn’t even been aware were happening at Fordham,” said Fox. “I thought that was fantastic because there are all these scholarships and grants that these professors are willing to help you get and not a lot of people know about.”

After the professors presented, there were different tables for specific areas of research: one each for biology, theology, chemistry and computer information science. Stu-

MACKENZIE CRANNA/THE FORDHAM RAM

Fordham students had their classes canceled on Tuesday, Feb. 12 due to winter weather. While students took the day to rest or catch up on work, the snowfall covered the campus grounds, as seen above at the Queen’s Court residence hall.

dents were able to talk to professors about their research and research opportunities.

“I think we could have reached more students, but knowing how the event went, the Dean’s Council is ready to make it better next year,” said Fox. “This year’s event had a bigger event space and more presenters, but the turnout was less than the year before.”

Fox said he thinks some of that had to do with the Dean’s Council’s marketing.

He said next year they might try to move away from traditional S.T.E.M. research.

“People in humanities departments are doing work that no one knows about,” said Fox. “The research reception is an interesting opportunity for students to learn what their professors are doing.”

He said at the beginning of the year, the Dean’s Council highlighted different areas in the academic experience that could be improved upon. Fox said he brought up research because he thinks it is an area of the university not a lot of people know about and he wants to see more people get involved.

“I think the reason we put this kind of event on is because sometimes it can be intimidating to ask your professor that maybe you’ve known for a few weeks, ‘What kind of research are you working on?’ or ‘Can I assist you in the lab?’” said Fox. “With the research reception, it is a casual conversation over lunch where they have already introduced the idea to you in a formal setting, but now you have an open opportunity to talk to someone who has expressed interest to work with students,” said Fox. “It makes that process a lot less intimidating.”

The event was sponsored by the chief research officer Z. George Hong, Ph.D., who was one of the people that worked on the event last year. Fox said Hong was a really great resource and organized the presenters.

Fox said he introduced all of the members of the Dean’s Council to Hong because he is doing great work and wants to see other people do the same.

“It’s really fun to plan these kind of events because you get to meet a lot with people that as a typical student you wouldn’t really interact with,” said Fox. “The fun part of planning is getting to talk to people.”

During the United Student Government (USG) meeting on Thursday, Jan. 7, senators discussed the revamping of Blackbox Theater in Collins Hall.

Vice President of Student Life Ashley Qamar, GSB ’20, and Senator Kevin McSorley, GSB ’20, presented a petition titled, “Student Voices for Future Maintenance of a Beloved Space.” It was written in collaboration with The Mimes and Mummers, Theatrical Outreach Program and Fordham Experimental Theater.

The petition stated the various issues that students who use Collins Hall regularly face, and urged the administration to consider necessary renovations.

Some of the issues listed include: the construction of an elevator, the replacement of the main stage curtain, repainting of the theater, repairing of cracks in the walls and improved ventilation.

“The historic building we love so much can’t be left to decay,” the petition read.

Qamar said it was unreasonable to ask about the cost at this point, and that the petition was written to allow students who use the theater to express their feelings and concerns.

She said it will be sent to Jeffrey Gray, Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Student Life Council.

Senator Thomas Reuter, FCRH ’22, proposed placing a bulletin board displaying USG-related information in the first floor of McGinley. He said the board would share upcoming USG events, how to get involved and join committees, recently passed initiatives and a space for questions.

He said there are currently two USG cork boards on campus, but placing a board in McGinley would provide optimal accessibility for students.

The senate decided that three tickets to the Governor’s Ball will be auctioned off at the Fordham Dance Marathon on March 8.

The Fordham Ram was voted club of the month for its disclosure of information on the closing of Murray-Weigel Hall. Senators said the The Ram has helped to inform students about the situation.

Qamar reported that the House Committee is almost done writing bylaws for the new USG constitution.

Senator of the Month was awarded to Thomas Reuter by Executive President Connor Sullivan, FCRH ’19.

Vice President of Health and Security Nate Singh, FCRH ’19, reminded senators that Fordham University Emergency Medical Services (FUEMS) is hosting CPR Day on Wednesday Feb. 13.

The event will be held from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. in the McGinley Ballroom. Students will have the opportunity to learn CPR. Singh also said “Candy and Consent” will be held on Feb. 14 in McGinley, during which students can receive Hershey Kisses and information about consent.

NEWS

February 13, 2019

Page 5

Students to Celebrate Valentine's Day at Rose Hill FROM VALENTINE PAGE 1

“Comedy wanted to give Fordham students a chance to live in the limelight and get some nice photos taken of them,” Teaney said. “Use them for your dating profiles, or just for fun.”

Emily Malacane, FCRH ’21, is planning on going to the Dating Profile Photo Shoot event and said it is a great opportunity for all the single people at the university.

“A lot of my friends are on CAB and they put on great events for the student body,” she said. “So I am going to support them but also to get a Tinder or a LinkedIn profile photo."

Cards and Candy, hosted by the CAB Speaker Series committee, is catered toward students in a relationship who are seeking gift assistance. At the card workshop, students can come by to make a last minute Valentine's card for their loved one.

“Speaker Series wanted to give Fordham students a chance to send an encouraging message to your valentine,” Teaney said.

“Everyone deserves a little love!”

According to Teaney, CAB is expecting a large turnout for both events.

“Who wouldn’t want an easy chance to write a card and get a glamour shot?” she asked.

The Ramblers, the university’s all-male a capella group, is offering singing Valentines or “Ramblergrams” to send to your loved one on Thursday. The offer

includes a choice of the following songs: “Afternoon Delight,” “Accidentally in Love,” “American Girl,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” “Let’s Get It On” and “Treasure.”

Kevin Koulopoulos, a member of The Ramblers and FCRH ’19, said that in-person Ramblergrams are $10 each and always sell out quickly.

He said the group also offers a pre-recorded Ramblergrams for $5, where they record a message and a song to send out on Valentine’s Day. “This has been a tradition for the Ramblers for 15 or 20 years, maybe more,” he said. “Every Valentine’s Day we go to dorms, faculty offices, off-campus apartments and even interrupt classes to sing a quick love song. As a senior I can say it’s one of my favorite traditions in the club.”

Koulopoulos said so far, this year’s Ramblergram sale has been successful.

“I think we’ve sold around 35 so far this year, mostly to students but some to faculty members,” he said.

Fordham Marketing Association (FMA) sold carnations that are set to deliver today, Feb. 13.

For a $2 donation students could send one flower to their dorm, for a $5 donation, students could send a bundle of three flowers and for a $10 donation flowers could be hand delivered by “cupid himself.”

Grace Wellman, GSB ’21 and

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Natale, owner and founder of Pugsley Pizza, mades a "love pie" to celebrate Valentine's Day.

FMA’s fundraising chair, said that the carnation sale is an annual fundraising event for the club.

“We do it every year because it has been successful and is relatively easy to organize,” she said.

“A lot of students send them to friends because it is a cute, simple gesture of appreciation.”

The Bronx Zoo, just a block outside of the Rose Hill gates, offered the chance to name one of their 50,000 Madagascar cockroaches after a significant other (or ex-significant other) this Valentines day for a $15 donation.

With the purchase, buyers received a certificate with the name of the cockroach. The promotion also offered a $75 package that included the printed certificate, a

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beanie, a mug and a pin: all printed with images of cockroaches.

John F. Calvelli, Wildlife Conservation Society executive vice president of public affairs adressed the promotions in a press release.

“The Bronx Zoo’s NameA-Roach promotion is a lighthearted, fun way to reach out to someone on Valentine’s Day to let them know that you are thinking about them.” he said. “Nothing lasts longer than a roach, so it could be sent as a symbolic gesture about how long your love will last or exactly the opposite.

Some might say that love is like a roach – elusive, resilient, and sometimes very scary.”

The beloved Pugsley Pizza’s

slogan is “Love is it,” so of course the joint is celebrating Valentine’s day. For $10, Pugsley’s is offering ‘love pies,’ a small pizza pie in the shape of a heart.

Sal Natale, owner and creator of the pizza shop, said this offer is a long running tradition and stems from his love for love.

“It’s Valentine’s Day!” he said.

“It’s a fun way to celebrate, at Pugsley’s ‘love is it’ – it says it all over.”

And it is: the slogan is etched in the bricks on the floor, on signs all over the restaurant and even on the pizza oven peel.

Natale said whether you are single or in a relationship this Thursday, know you can always find love in Pugsley’s Pizza.

NEWS

Page 6

February 13,2019

University to Allow Volunteers in MWH Restricted Jesuits Banned from Residence FROM MWH, PAGE 1

The New York Times.

In response to questions on the university’s ability to identify alleged abusers living in MurrayWeigel whose cases were well-documented, Howe said the university could have done more and the situation has been corrected.

“Was the university as rigorous as it should have been in tracking who was housed in Murray-Weigel, and of their histories? Unfortunately, we were not and we are horrified that Jesuits against whom there are credible allegations of abuse were in such close proximity to our students,” said Howe.

Prior to the removal of alleged abusers, The Ram found there were three priests living in MurrayWeigel Hall in 2018 with credible allegations brought against them.

These priests were not listed in the Feb. 12 statement or in the university-wide email sent on Jan. 15 by McShane and Robert Daleo, chairman of the board of trustees, that detailed names of priests affiliated with the university who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

Howe said since the three priests were never assigned to the university or Fordham Prep, they were not included on the Jan. 15 list.

“We used the lists from the Northeast and other Jesuit Provinces to compile our list of Jesuits against whom there were credible allegations of abuse of minors and who, over the past six decades,

were assigned to the university or Fordham Prep,” said Howe.

Of the 72 priests listed in the 2018 Jesuit catalog, Rev. James C. Gould, S.J., Rev. William Scanlon, S.J. and Rev. Thomas Denny, S.J., had credible allegations brought against them.

According to the 2018 catalog, which details the names of Jesuit priests, their dates of birth, when they entered and left the Society of Jesus and where they live, Gould lived in Murray-Weigel in 2018 and served as assistant to the database coordinator for data management and assistant to the archivist.

Allegations were brought against Gould when church records obtained by WKBW revealed the diocese has known about Gould’s alleged abuse since 2012.

Gould did not comment and directed The Ram to Michael Gabriele, director of communications for the Northeast Province. Gabriele did not respond to The Ram's requests for comment.

Scanlon served as the chaplain at Murray-Weigel Hall according to the 2018 catalog. He is pictured distributing communion during Mass at the New York Province Health Care Center in the Bronx in a Fall/Winter 2010 issue of JESUITS magazine.

According to WKBW, he allegedly abused minors from 1985-94.

Scanlon did not respond to requests for comment.

Rev. Thomas Denny, S.J., was accused of abusing minors in separate

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

The university reversed its decision to bar students from volunteering in Murray-Weigel Hall.

cases in the 1960s and the 1970s, according to WBFO. The accusations were found credible after investigations in 2002 and 2012 respectively.

Denny did not respond to requests for comment.

According to Therese Fink Meyerhoff, director of communications for the Central and Southern Province, when Jesuits are removed from ministry after credible accusations of abuse, they are placed on a safety plan, which means they live in a Jesuit community under supervision.

Those decisions are made by the province of which they are a member.

Gabriele verified that any Je-

suit with an accusation of sexual abuse against them is immediately pulled from ministry during the investigation.

“Those with credible or established allegations who are on Safety Plans reside in a strictly monitored environment,” he said.

The Jesuit Order detailed these safety plans in a frequently asked questions document that specifies priests with credible allegations against them will avoid contact with minors.

Rev. Lito Salazar, S.J., executive director of campus ministry, said that the decision to reinstate the volunteer program and allow Murray-Weigel’s residents access to the university campus will help to heal

Check out the Ramcast, the official podcast of The Fordham Ram, on SoundCloud and iTunes!

in the wake of clerical abuse allegations.

“While this resumption of ties and the assurances of safety for our students may not ‘solve’ the underlying abuse scandal in the Church, they contribute to its healing in a small way, like the soft light of one candle in the surrounding gloom,” he said.

McShane said the university’s main concern remains the victims and survivors of clerical abuse.

“They have suffered much at the hands of priests whom they trusted and who took advantage of them,” said McShane. “They have shown remarkable courage in speaking out. Let us continue to pray for them.”

February 13, 2019

OPINION

Page 7

The Fordham Ram

Why Governor Northam Should Not Resign

By NICHOLAS ZAROMATIDIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Gov. Ralph Northam is the current governor of Virginia and, despite the current news, has an impressive track record. Prior to taking office in 2018, Northam served in the Virginia State Senate and as the Lieutenant Governor.

He has been working in the political sphere for over a decade and has been socially progressive for the state of Virginia. However, pictures of Northam have been released that depict him in black face, and he is seen standing next to a person dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member.

Initially, Northam denied the allegations, claiming that the image did not depict himself; however, these changed quickly as people researched more in depth.

Northam was wise and accepted the accusation in an attempt to begin damage control. In part, this demonstrates an ethical dilemma facing the Democratic Party.

It is tasked with either following the party or sticking up for a colleague. Unfortunately, Northam’s Democratic colleagues have unanimously called for his resignation. From Northam’s position, a resignation is synonymous with an admission of guilt, which could demolish his political reputation.

However, it is important to contemplate if the images reflect Governor Northam presently.

Should we risk an individual losing his job based on a picture taken over 35 years ago? By holding

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Gov. Ralph Northam’s past misdeeds should not disqualify him from continuing to serve as governor of Virginia.

Governor Northam responsible and condemning him for this image, as a society, we are making a broader statement that humans cannot grow. Now, I am not suggesting that acts of racism should go without consequences, but this is not worth destroying a man’s livelihood.

In 1984, racism was much more overtly embedded in the fabric of our nation. Everybody learns about the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which allows African Americans to vote. What we focus less on is the troubled discourse that followed throughout the 1970s to 1990s over racial tensions in the U.S. Given that Gov. Northam

committed the action at a time when what was considered politically correct differed greatly from today, his 1984 actions should not be held to 2019’s standards. Blackface was not acceptable in 1984 but it was not as condemned as it is now, as evidenced by it getting into a medical school yearbook.

Northam’s PR statement offers this defense: “[t]his behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career in the military, in medicine and in public service. But I want to be clear, I understand how this decision shakes Virginians’ faith in that commitment.”

I have to agree with Northam that this image is wildly outdated, stemming from a period in American history that many believe we have to forget. However, I challenge Americans to remember this time period.

We cannot condemn Northam for his actions in a time of lesser understanding of today’s rubric of social responsibility. What holds greater weight is Northam’s present actions in respect how he views his past transgressions.

We must look at the wider implications of accusing Governor Northam for taking this image. By accusing him, we aim accusations of racism, sexism and homophobia

at individuals in a time when these notions as we understand them today were not present among the populations, a time when most individuals were unaware of the importance of diverse populations and mutual inclusivity. Northam and the entire population of the United States has grown since that time in America.

Northam has dedicated large sums of money from state funds that were divested in the form of grants to create more job opportunities in counties where African Americans of low to mid socioeconomic status make up the majority of the population. In addition, Northam has been a strong advocate for diversity in Virginia with respect to job hiring practices.

We must not let a 35 year old mistake ruin the reputation of a man who has done much good for society. I understand that even good people can make mistakes, but shouldn’t we leave them as mistakes rather than the demise of one’s entire reputation?

For those who still believe that Northam should be held responsible and accountable for this image, I understand the frustration with him and the thought process, but I would like you to reflect on every photo you have taken, and whether you would be comfortable showing them to your future children, let alone the entire country.

Nicholas Zaromatidis, GSB ’21, is an applied accounting and finance major from Franklin Square, New York.

Debunking Fordham’s Class Sizes

By NICHOLAS ZAROMATIDIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

We all know the feeling of arriving to a 10 a.m. in Dealy at exactly 10 a.m. You tried to arrive early, but the Starbucks barista was still making your Tapingo drink, your alarm clock went off slightly late or it was just an off day.

Whatever the excuse may be, you are standing at the front of the classroom looking at the random person sitting in your unassigned assigned seat. You scour the classroom for a seat, and, if you are lucky enough to get one, it is all the way in the back of the class. You have an obstacle course of desks, legs, jackets and backpacks to wade through, but you break a sweat and finally get there.

All the way in the back, squinting at the board to read the professor’s notes, you likely had one of the most ineffective classes of your life.

For those not so lucky, you have to deal with the walk of shame from the classroom to drag a desk from a different room into your classroom. Then, you probably had an extremely effective class sitting face to face with the professor in spite of all the embarrassment. We have all experienced this difficulty, but the reasoning behind it sometimes

baffles us.

Often, students will attribute this issue to class sizes being too big. Cramping too many students into a classroom is detrimental to the learning process. It also poses a fire hazard. Fire codes are perhaps a less pressing matter, since Fordham University abides by fire safety regulations, but the greater issue lies in the distribution and placement of classrooms. Have you ever had class in a room with a round table where one was unnecessary? The reverse is also true.

According to U.S. News, 51.6 percent of classes at Fordham have less than 20 students, and 47.4 percent of classes have between 20 and 49 students. Only a mere 1 percent of classes at Fordham have over 50 students. These statistics, for the most part, make sense.

The largest classes we have are large symposiums, biology and chemistry labs, and specific classes needed to satisfy the core curriculum like Philosophy of Human Nature, Philosophical Ethics and Faith and Critical Reason.

There are anywhere between 15 to 25 sections of these classes, as Fordham requires students to fulfill them. Afterwards, specific classes toward various majors are typically

smaller, as the information is more dense and students require more attention from professors.

Moreover, Fordham only has a few lecture halls. Some classrooms in Keating Hall and Freeman Hall can seat a large number of students, but all the classrooms in Dealy Hall, Faculty Memorial Hall and Hughes Hall can only seat about 30 to 40 students. However, there are some rooms with round tables that are not appropriate to different classes.

When classrooms are poorly as-

signed to seat the amount of students in the class, it polarizes the classroom environment to be either extremely spacious or congested.

The type of classroom can heavily impact a student’s ability to learn; whether it be through the distribution of desks, the size of the overall classroom or the technology that the classroom is equipped with. The room should accommodate different styles of teaching and learning.

Obviously, a math or economics class would not work well with a

seminar table, but most English classes would greatly benefit from this assignment.

Professors must advocate for their particular classrooms strongly and those at the university in charge of classroom sizes should take time to evaluate class size and style when selecting classrooms.

Nicholas Zaromatidis, GSB ’21, is an applied accounting and finance major from Franklin Square, New York.

MATT MASSARO/THE FORDAM RAM

Overcrowded classrooms, like the one above, have become a consistent issue on Fordham’s Rose Hill campus.

OPINION

Page 8

February 13, 2019

Congestion Pricing Will Promote Reform

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Congestion pricing is a progressive plan that will benefit both the subway system and the environment.

By SEAN FRANKLIN STAFF WRITER

This week, New York City implemented a congestion pricing scheme for vehicles travelling south of 96th Street in Manhattan. For the uninitiated, congestion pricing is a policy that charges drivers for driving into a certain area—usually the central business district of a city, where traffic is the worst.

For now, the scheme only applies to for-hire vehicles—taxis, Uber, Lyft, Juno and the like. All for-hire vehicle trips that travel into the designated zone will in-

cur a $2.75 surcharge. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s congestion pricing plan also includes much higher surcharges on private vehicles and trucks, presumably to be implemented. The money collected from these changes could then potentially be used to fund improvements to the subway system, which we all know is in dire need.

The implementation of this policy drew predictable howls of condemnation from all corners.

People were unsurprisingly upset that they had to pay more to drive around Manhattan. Taxi drivers were afraid that the tax would push away customers. However,

complaints like these seem to miss the point. Congestion pricing is a terrific policy for New York City. Here’s why.

First, it will reduce traffic.

Public goods, like roads, tend to be overused when they’re free.

If people have to pay to drive in Manhattan, they will likely do it less often. This means fewer cars on the road, resulting in less traffic. Congestion pricing is the only proven way of reducing urban traffic—contrary to popular belief, building new roads actually makes traffic worse.

Cities in Europe, such as London and Stockholm, have imple-

mented congestion pricing to great effect. In London, for example, the number of private cars entering the city center decreased 39 percent between 2002, when the charge was implemented, and 2014.

Congestion pricing is also a very progressive form of taxation.

It offers much-needed funding for the subway without increasing the financial burden of the city’s lower or middle-class residents. It takes its revenue from people who drive in Manhattan, who tend to be wealthier than the average. Additionally, it uses the money to fund public transit, which benefits lower-income people.

Unlike raising subway fares, which disproportionately places the cost burden of subway improvements upon the city’s poorest, congestion pricing only affects those with the affluence to get around the island in a car.

Furthermore, this will not affect middle-class outer-borough drivers who rely on automobile transportation. A study from the TriState Transportation Committee projected that only four percent of outer-borough drivers would be affected by the policy.

Finally, congestion pricing is a forward-thinking plan that will pay dividends for both the city’s mobility and the environment.

New York City is growing, and fast. In a region as dense as our own, using cars as the primary

means of transportation is untenable. Manhattan was not, and never will be, built for cars. Public transit is the only practical way of keeping the city moving, and we need to make sure we design policy to promote it.

Public transit is also far better for the environment; it is efficient in that it uses far less energy per person than cars, and since it runs on electricity, eventually it has the potential to go carbonfree. New York City has already felt the effects of climate change with Hurricane Sandy’s flooding of the region in 2012. If we don’t take action now, things will only get worse. We should be doing everything we can to reduce the city’s environmental impact, and getting cars off the roads is a great place to start.

Congestion pricing is a policy that strikes the heart of the issues it’s trying to solve. It will encourage New Yorkers to drive less, and it will provide money for a much more efficient and environmentally-conscious form of transportation in the subway. Sure, it might cause us a little pain in the short term. But in the long term, it will shift New York away from the automobile and towards a more equitable, sustainable future.

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

The U.S. Must Take Action Against Chinese Espionage

By TIMOTHY KYLE STAFF WRITER

Intellectual theft. Espionage.

Hacking. In the public eye, these words may be more associated with Cold War drama than the world of modern geopolitics. What many don’t know, however, is that a Second Cold War exists —but only one side is fighting it.

The People’s Republic of China is the closest thing the United States has to a rival. America is the protector of the world order over the last 80 years — a world order based on adherence to international law and established precedent. However, China sees a rules-based international order

as detrimental to its interests. Over the years, the PRC has revealed its disdain for the global norm. Masked behind the dual curtains of the president’s loutish rhetoric and media and public disinterest, the very real threat of China lurks, abusing the naive trust of the West to strengthen itself at the expense of the rest of the world.

Nothing puts this into sharper contrast than the recent twin indictments of Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant that recently has become a global pariah. Huawei has a long and troubled history in Western markets, wracked with arrests, indictments and charges of industrial espionage. In 2011, Huawei was sued by Motorola for theft

of trade secrets, settling out of court for an undisclosed amount. In 2014, T-Mobile accused Huawei of ordering its employees to physically steal T-Mobile technology. Huawei was found guilty and ordered to pay $5 million in damages. In 2018, the U.S. military banned Huawei products from being sold to troops, fearing they were a tool for Chinese military intelligence.

In January 2019, the Department of Justice announced sweeping indictments of Huawei, for abusing security clearances to steal technology and using shell companies to sidestep U.S. sanctions on Iran. Huawei’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Canada and awaits extradition

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The recent indictments of Huawei should serve as a wake-up call to the threat China poses to American interests.

to the U.S. to answer for financial crimes of her own, unrelated to the company-wide indictments. Make no mistake — despite its appearance of independence, Huawei is financed by state-owned banks.

These commercial indictments paint a clear-enough picture of Chinese misconduct in the United States, to say nothing of the espionage committed against our national defense apparatus. As early as 1999, Chinese intelligence had stolen classified information on every single thermonuclear warhead in our inventory. More recently, beginning in 2006 and continuing until 2018, a Chinese initiative called Stone Panda stole the personal information of 100,000 U.S. Navy personnel, including Social Security numbers.

Again in 2018, hackers breached the databases of U.S. Navy contractors and stole everything from ship maintenance logs to missile plans.

Despite this obvious and repeated interference in classified U.S. affairs, China has escaped largely unscathed.

Unlike other common geopolitical foes of the U.S. such as Russia, Iran and North Korea, there are no crippling sanctions on the Chinese economy or officials. When a prominent politician like Senator Dianne Feinstein was found to have a literal spy retained on her staff, it was swept under the rug and never heard of again.

One could reasonably state that the inaction on our part is due to the

interdependence of the Chinese and U.S. economies, but that fact does not stop the Chinese government from taking hostile action towards the US constantly. The PRC continues to act the way it does because we let them — there is never any serious retaliation. They rely on our naivete to allow their misconduct to go unpunished.

It is therefore crucial that the U.S. take drastic steps to curb Chinese spying. The first step should be an aggressive restructuring of defenserelated cybersecurity, potentially by utilizing private experts and ensuring funding for new, more secure computer systems to replace the dated ones often used in the military.

Second, norms for retaliation must be established. This includes sanctioning Chinese companies that engage in espionage, such as Huawei, and the Chinese government-owned banks that fund and partially control them.

Make no mistake: the People’s Republic of China sees the United States as a competitor, not a partner.

It is important the U.S. wakes up to this threat and reciprocates. China is already fighting the Second Cold War. It’s time we join to defend the rules-based world order we have worked so hard to build.

Timothy Kyle, FCRH ’21, is a political science major from West Hartford, Connecticut.

February 13, 2019

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The Ram

Page 9

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 Ramoffice is located in the basement of the McGinley Center, room B-52.

Website FordhamRam.com Email Address theram@fordham.edu

Editor-in-Chief Aislinn Keely Managing Editor Hannah Gonzalez Business Director Donald Dugan Operations Director Briana Scalia Editorial Director Lindsay Grippo Executive Director Colette Nolan Copy Chief Vanessa DeJesus Maggie Rothfus News Editor Helen Stevenson Projects Editor Erica Scalise Assistant News Editors Eliot Schiaparelli Sarah Huffman Opinion Editors Briana Scalia Collin Bonnell Culture Editors Rachel Gow Kieran Press-Reynolds Sports Editor Jack McLoone Assistant Sports Editors Andrew Posadas Dylan Balsamo Digital Producers Kristen Egan Katherine Morris Photo Editor Julia Comerford Visual Director Bojeung Leung Faculty Advisor Beth Knobel Editorial Page Policy

The Fordham Ram’s editorial is se-

lected on a weekly basis and reflects the editorial board’s view on a campus issue.

Opinions Policy The Fordham Ramaccepts submissions to fordhamramopinions@gmail. com. Commentaries are printed on a space available basis. The Fordham Ram reserves the right to reject any submission for any reason, without notice. Submissions become the exclusive property of The Fordham Ram .

The Fordham Ram reserves the right to edit any submissions. The opinions in The Fordham Ram’s editorials are those of the editorial board; those expressed in articles, letters, commentaries, cartoons or graphics are those of the individual author. No part of The Fordham Ram may be reproduced without written consent.

February 13, 2019

From the Desk | Collin Bonnell

The End of the American Dream A recent study by the economist Gabriel Zucman drew attention when it revealed that the 400 richest Americans now possess more wealth than the collective bottom 150 million. While much of the reaction to this trend has focused on the morality of such a wealth concentration, I think it is important to specify what this means for my generation, which is coming of age during a time of unprecedented economic growth, yet can expect to benefit little from this growth.

It is a sad fact that millennials are the first generation since World War II which can expect to make less money than their parents. Despite being better educated, millennials on average make 20 percent less than their parents did at their age, have a 56 percent smaller net worth and much higher debt in the form of student loans. These economic stresses mean home ownership has also fallen among younger Americans.

Additionally, while national unemployment is nearing record lows, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates is rising, and 75 percent of college seniors do not have a job lined up for when they graduate college.

To further worsen the situation, college students now graduate with an average of $37,172 in student loan debt, which often forces recent col-

lege graduates to move back in with their parents after graduation, delaying their entry into the professional workforce. At the same time, the wages current students can expect to receive upon graduation are far lower than was the case for their parents.

Despite massive increases in productivity and immense economic growth, wages for the typical American worker have been stagnant for the past 40 years, and this trend is partially due to corporate consolidation. Since the 1980s, American antitrust laws have been restrained in such a way that many industries in the United States — including air travel, beverage production, pesticide and agricultural products, mobile app markets, food brands, travel agencies, internet providers, Wall Street and online retail — are all dominated by a handful of brands which act as effective monopolies.

This long-term trend of corporate consolidation and relaxed enforcement of antitrust laws means that the vast majority of Americans have not experienced the massive growth that the American economy has experienced since the 1980s.

Corporate consolidation also means that my generation is entering the workforce during a time of unprecedented income and wealth inequality and has developed a negative perception of capitalism. Many po-

litical pundits were shocked when a Gallup poll in 2018 found that under 45 percent of young Americans view capitalism in a positive light while 51 percent viewed socialism positively, but I found it unsurprising. After all, my generation has witnessed all of the excesses of capitalism yet has experienced few of its benefits.

Corporate greed, for example, has had a massive impact on our daily lives. Perhaps the most prominent example of this is the opioid epidemic.

While the opioid epidemic has several causes, the largest and most well-known was that of the dishonest business practices of the Sackler family which owns Purdue Pharma. During the late 2000s and early 2010s, the Sacklers made billions pushing opioid painkillers which they knew were extremely addictive, yet claimed had little potential for abuse.

Later, when the prescription opioid abuse crisis became apparent, Purdue publically repeated its claims that its products were not addictive, yet internally sought ways to profit from the crisis. When Purdue decided to invest in the booming market for addiction treatment, they chose a drug, Suboxone, which they knew was ineffective, predicting that 40-60 percent of patients on the drug would relapse and purchase more of Purdue’s opioids.

Since the Reagan administration,

American economic policy has pursued relentless growth, deregulation and self-interest; the American voter has been led along with the false promises of “trickle-down” economics. While these priorities have resulted in unprecedented economic growth and increases in productivity, they have also carried few benefits for the vast majority of Americans.

Indeed, they have ensured that the incomes of the very rich continue.

Our parents’ generation made the mistake of worshipping growth and the free market to the detriment of wealth equality, and as a result Americans coming of age today can expect lower wages, higher debt and a delayed entry into the professional workforce. Their mistake has robbed my generation of its right to experience the American Dream.

Editorial | Holidays

Reenvisioning the Value of Valentine’s Day The mention of Feb. 14 is often met with either rosy cheeks, cool indifference or a firm grimace. It is not often that a singular day evokes such a wide breadth of emotion, ranging from utter infatuation to bitter resentment.

Yet, year after year, Valentine’s Day – the international holiday dedicated to romantic love and overpriced gifts – rolls around and stirs the pot (of melted chocolate, for covering strawberries, of course).

This Valentine’s Day, The Fordham Ram is calling for a rebrand.

The heteronormative and idealistic romance traditionally associated with the holiday fails to capture so much of the love that deserves to be celebrated in the world, and we should champion all types as wholeheartedly as we do the former.

The inspiration for Valentine’s Day is thought to come from the ancient pagan festival of Lupercalia, during which Romans aimed to commemorate the coming of spring with animal sacrifice, fertility rites and random matchmaking through a lottery process.

The spectacle, held annually on Feb. 15, was gory, violent and sexually-charged, an almost unrecognizable precursor to the lovey-dovey festivities of today.

Pope Gelasius I eliminated Lupercalia during the fifth century and instead dedicated the 14th of February to the Christian saint Valentine.

Though accounts of his identity are inconsistent, St. Valentine is believed to have been martyred in the third century. One legend tells that the Roman emperor Claudius II executed the saint for aiding persecuted Christians and secretly marrying Christian lovers to spare the husbands from war.

The long-held idea that biblically approved marriage is between a man and a woman laid the foundation for the heteronormativity that plagues the holiday today.

Another strand of the tale tells that during his imprisonment, St. Valentine healed his jailer’s blind daughter and left her a note signed “Your Valentine” on the day of his execution.

As a result of the saint’s evidently intimate involvement with matters of the heart, his feast day came to be associated with love, devotion and romance. Notes called “Valentines” began to appear in the public during the 1500s and became commercially printed by the mid-1800s.

Though the modern celebration of Valentine’s Day continues to place romantic love at its core, the general ethos surrounding the day has since changed quite a bit.

The holiday has become increasingly commercialized and the idea of romantic love increasingly exploited for profit over the past few decades.

Fewer people are celebrating the holiday, but the individuals who do are spending much more.

Though 51 percent of Americans plan to celebrate (the lowest percentage in over a decade), this year’s total expected Valentine’s Day spending is at a whopping $20.7 billion.

While gift-giving might be the preferred love language of some who believe a token of appreciation symbolizes love, thoughtfulness and effort, others find the overly-commercialized tone of the holiday to be too materialistic.

There is a beautiful sentiment in the intentions of Valentine’s Day that can get lost when the success of the day depends solely on the exchange of elaborate gifts or expensive gestures.

Similarly, the heteronormative traditions of the holiday can lead to discomfort among many in the queer community.

Many depictions of Valentine’s Day in advertisements and movies center around the romantic relationship between two cisgender and heterosexual individuals. There are fewer generic valentine cards sold in stores that use gender-neutral language such as “partner” than those that use gender-specific language.

People who simply lack romantic love in their lives – voluntarily, involuntarily or otherwise – tend to feel excluded from the celebration as well.

Some single people come to resent the holiday for the overly sentimental, couple-centric and sappy hue it has taken on over the years.

Others believe that the vocalization of our appreciation for each other should not be restricted to a single day and, therefore, perhaps counterintuitively, choose to not participate in festivities at all.

During the increasingly polarized era in which we find ourselves, Valentine’s Day has the potential to be a beautiful and much-needed reminder of the endless love that exists in the world. However, some things must change before this vision can be realized.

Romantic love is just a singular aspect of one’s emotional fulfillment.

Platonic love, familial love, spiritual love and self-love must be celebrated as equally and as thoroughly as romantic love, on this holiday and always.

Some already have begun to embrace this shift. The Fordham community is hosting a variety of events that all students can participate in this Feb. 14.

Fordham Marketing Association

is holding its annual carnation sale, delivering flowers to students on campus who want to make a “cute, simple gesture of appreciation” to a significant other or friend.

Pugsley’s Pizza is offering heartshaped pizzas. Campus Activity Board (CAB) has scheduled an entire week of activities ranging from Broken Hearted Open Mic at Rodrigue’s on Tuesday to the CAB Build-A-Bear in McGinley on Thursday.

This expansion of celebration is not only occurring within the gates of Fordham.

“The vast majority of Valentine’s Day dollars are still spent on significant others,” according to Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation. “But there’s a big increase this year in consumers spreading the love to children, parents, friends and coworkers.”

So this year, join The Fordham Ram in reclaiming Valentine’s Day and spread all forms of love.

Make your own non-romantic valentine cards and give them to the bus driver, your favorite professor, your internship supervisor or anyone else you want to show appreciation for.

Pull a Leslie Knope and throw an informal Galentine’s Day party with your close friends or talk on the phone with your parents for longer than you usually would.

Valentine’s Day should be a celebration of universal compassion, an annual embracement of unconditional appreciation for everyone and anyone, including yourself.

There are endless types of love in this world, and we should acknowledge and cherish them all.

Though we cannot be sure, The Ram believes St. Valentine would approve of these modifications to his special day.

OPINION

February 13, 2019

Page 11

Israel Must Withdraw From West Bank

By JACK McCLATCHY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian teenager at a checkpoint last week. Israeli settlers shot and killed a Palestinian father of four in late January. A Palestinian shooter killed two Israelis and wounded two others at a bus stop in December after Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians.

Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is not new, but it has escalated in the past months.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 295 Palestinians died, and over 29,000 were injured in 2018, 105 of which were killed in the West Bank, whom comprises the territory of the historic British Mandate in Palestine on the west bank of the Jordan River.

Tensions have escalated since the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by the United States. The status of Jerusalem, which is claimed as the capital of both Israel and Palestine, is a thorny issue to say the least, and President Trump’s recognition of Israeli control of Jerusalem set off a wave of unrest throughout the region.

Since Israel’s founding in 1948, it has been in conflict with the Arab world, fighting off coalitions of various Arab states in 1948, 1967 and 1973. After the 1967 war, Israel took control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem and declared the entire city its capital, which largely went unrecognized until last year, as most countries have their embassies in Tel Aviv, which was the provisional capital of Israel before it moved to Jerusalem.

With the West Bank under Israeli control, settlers moved in and pushed out Palestinians that were previously living there.

Over 500,000 settlers live in the

FIONA DANYKO FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

The Israeli occupation of the West Bank, which has resulted in a perpetual cycle of civil unrest, must end.

West Bank, further complicating chances of a resolution to the conflict.

These settlements in the West Bank are illegal as declared by the U.N. Security Council, which asserts that any incursion made by Israel past the borders established after 1967 “had no legal validity, constituting a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the vision of two States living side-by-side in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders.”

The escalating violence in the West Bank in the past year, along with the incredibly deadly Great March of Return where Israeli soldiers killed over 214 Palestinian protesters, shows that something needs to be done to root out the violence and death. Things cannot continue as they are now, or else more and more people will die senselessly.

The main challenger to take Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s job, former Chief-of-Staff of the Israeli Army Benny Gantz, breathed new life into discussions on the West Bank recently when he suggested that Israel take the lessons of the 2005 Gaza withdrawal and “enact them elsewhere.”

While he didn’t explicitly mention the West Bank, there aren’t many other places where Israel can apply what it learned in 2005 when it withdrew military forces and closed all settlements.

Gantz further clarified what he meant after he came under fire from right wing parties, saying that “a Gantz government will not take any unilateral steps related to the evacuation of communities.”

While Gantz said that there are no plans for withdrawing the settlements in the West Bank and reaffirmed that Israel would

hold onto the Golan Heights and all of Jerusalem, Israel needs to withdraw from the West Bank to inspire confidence in peace negotiations.

Settlements are a main sticking point in negotiations and are used as evidence by Palestinian activists that Israel is a colonial project in the Middle East that seeks to establish an exclusively Jewish state. Removing the settlements will take a lot of wind off the sails for that argument, and allow affected Palestinian communities to start the healing process.

Withdrawing from the West Bank isn’t going to be easy. If it was, it would have been done already. There are many things standing in the way of a withdrawal, from security concerns to lack of political will to vote on it in the Knesset.

If Israel continues to sponsor settlements in the West Bank,

hopes of a two-state solution to the conflict, in which Israel is a Jewish state and Palestine an Arab one, will be harder and harder to achieve as Israel already controls over sixty percent of the West Bank and has systematically separated zones of Palestinian control according to Obama advisor Ben Rhodes.

At the end of the day, Israeli politicians can express a desire to end the conflict and to be secure in its borders, but Israel cannot seriously desire peace if it continues to support the settlements in the West Bank and assert control over East Jerusalem. It needs to reinstate the 1967 borders to show good faith in negotiations that have all but fallen apart.

If it doesn’t take these steps to restore peace, the conflict will only intensify as Palestinian militants seize on the hardline Netanyahu government and the incompetence of the Trump administration in finding peace while at the same time recognizing Jerusalem as the rightful capital of Israel.

As Israel continues to encroach on land that is rightfully Palestinian, resistance will continue.

Palestine cannot be a functioning state if it is sliced up and constricted by patterns of Israeli settlement and discriminatory laws banning Palestinian economic development.

While not all actions taken by Palestinians are excusable, it is understandable that they would respond violently when all other options have been exhausted.

The only way to peacefully end this conflict is to return to internationally recognized borders.

The suggestion by Gantz is the only way to begin to end this conflict, whether or not it is politically expedient.

Jack McClatchy, FCRH ’21, is a political science major from Wayne, Pennsylania.

Disagree with our takes?

Write in to us at fordhamramopinions@gmail.com!

OPINION

Page 12

February 13, 2019

Do Not Romanticize Serial Killers

COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

The trailer for “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile” does a poor job of reflecting the atrocities Bundy committed.

By JILLIAN KENNY

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Netflix recently bought the rights to a new film, “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile,” starring Zac Efron. The film is about the life of Ted Bundy, an infamous serial killer who murdered at least 30 women.

He had a tremendous effect on the lives of these women’s families and friends. While the film’s title reminds the viewer of his evil actions, the trailer does not have the same effect. The trailer spends far too much time focusing on Bundy’s charm and personal relationships rather than illuminating his violent murders.

While some people find the casting of Zac Efron to be problematic, I

find this choice appropriate. Casting Efron as Ted Bundy makes sense; he is charismatic and charming, just like Bundy was known to be.

If done correctly, the film will make the viewers see how serial killers can blend into society just like anyone else. Part of what made Bundy so terrifying was that people were in disbelief that someone so attractive and well-spoken could commit these atrocities.

It is important to remember that, although serial killers are wicked, evil and vile, they can also appear to be surprisingly normal.

While Efron may be a fitting choice for the role, the trailer horribly romanticizes Bundy by focusing on his relationships with his family and on his charm.

Watching the trailer, I felt as though I was watching a preview for an action movie, not for a movie based on a real serial killer who brutally killed dozens of women and destroyed the lives of many more people.

The trailer opens up with Efron as Ted Bundy, meeting his girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, played by Lily Collins. For the first 20 seconds of the trailer, they focus on the attraction Kloepfer feels toward Bundy.

Charm is important to Bundy’s character, since he was genuinely an attractive and charismatic man, but it should not be the first thing the viewer sees about him.

It is unclear what events the film will include, but it is likely, based on the trailer, that it will give an over-

whelming amount of screen time to Bundy’s charm rather than his brutal killings. If this is true, this is a huge disservice to all of his victims.

The trailer should have focused on the fact that he hurt dozens of women, not on how he employed his charisma. He often pretended to need help with a task, making his targets extremely vulnerable. This was evident when he asked Janice Ann Ott for help with his boat. Bundy then kidnapped her and another woman, Denise Naslund, forcing one to watch as he murdered the other. This psychotic behavior was not anywhere to be seen in the new trailer, and the disturbingly upbeat music playing in the background left no trace of someone who committed horrible atrocities.

Viewers with a limited knowledge of Bundy likely would be confused about the nature of his crimes. The trailer focuses on scenes of Efron smiling, running and kissing women, while there is nothing that shows Bundy’s character actually committing atrocities.

It focuses on Bundy’s relationships with his girlfriend and her child rather than on his killings. The only trace of his violent behavior is an extremely brief scene toward the end of the trailer in which he is seen dragging a female body, but no real violence is ever displayed throughout the entire trailer.

The film could handle it differently, but if the film reflects the trailer, it will be problematic for those reasons.

A typical defense of the trailer’s interpretation is that Bundy’s portrayal in the public was skewed positively during the time of his trial. The problem with what has been revealed for the film, though, is that the trailer focuses so heavily on Bundy’s charm and relationships that his inhumane, disgusting actions are not focused on in the trailer.

Regardless of whether people believed it at the time, he killed real women with real lives. This is all the more reason to emphasize Bundy as the monster he really was, rather than place so much emphasis on his supposedly stellar personality.

Hollywood should not perpetuate this fascination with serial killers, especially ones who were considered attractive. This is just another example of how Americans are so fixated on murderers and criminals, rather than learning about the stories of victims.

By continuing to put Ted Bundy in the spotlight instead of his victims, it gives him the satisfaction of fame and turns him into a household name. It is unacceptable to continue to focus on Bundy and other criminals, giving them the attention they desire. Instead of focusing on murderers, Hollywood should focus on the dozens of lives that Bundy ruined with his despicable actions.

Jillian Kenny, FCRH ’21, is an international studies and environmental studies major from Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Serial Killers Kill at the Box Office

By EDWARD SHEEHAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A few days ago, the first trailer for “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile,” a biopic of infamous serial killer Ted Bundy starring Zac Efron, received outcry from many corners of the internet. Some individuals found the trailer to be in bad taste, arguing that it seemed to romanticize Bundy, showing him as a charming, charismatic man rather than a cold-blooded monster that killed at least 28 young women. I, however, am not sure this is an appropriate response to the trailer.

First, remember that no one has seen the movie yet. Trailers are, after all, an advertisement designed to draw in viewers and often mischaracterize the content of the movie itself. Joe Berlinger, director of the film, and several leading actors all have stated outright that the film itself does not glorify Bundy.

Granted, few filmmakers would admit to such a thing, but at this point, they themselves would know better than everyone online offering hot takes about it. But, of course, the real controversy seems to be the cast.

A lot of the anger seems to have arisen from the fact that Bundy is played by “High School Musical” heartthrob, Zac Efron.

To many viewers, the choice of a good-looking actor like Efron

to play Bundy tipped the trailer over the edge into, for lack of a better term, making a serial killer hot. But Bundy was a reasonably good-looking, charismatic guy.

Bundy was known as better looking and more charismatic than other serial killers in public memory. Jeffrey Dahmer, Ed Gein and John Wayne Gacy, to name a few, were generally people with long records of substance abuse, petty crime and inconsis-

tent employment.

The fact is the handsome and charismatic can get away with a lot. It is doubtful that Bundy would have been able to lure in nearly as many victims had he been a glassy-eyed, isolated moron like Ed Gein.

Now, perhaps he was not “teen idol” attractive, but this is Hollywood. People, historical figures very much included, tend to be portrayed as more attractive than

they actually are. To name a couple of recent examples, the young Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn’t look like Felicity Jones, and Robert the Bruce was a shorter, older, biggernosed man than Chris Pine.

Our popular culture has been doing that for a long time now. In the ‘80s, the tabloid press thrived off of the general discovery of serial killers (before then, serial murder was an under-researched, poorly investigated phenom-

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Patrick Bates, protagonist of the classic “American Psycho,” is just one of many psychopathic characters audiences love.

enon).

This culture has been consuming true crime fiction voraciously.

We’ve had handsome serial killers grace our screens before, from Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman to Michael C. Hall’s Dexter Morgan. Society has been saturated in true crime for decades. The idea that this is suddenly a bad thing is over the top.

It seems that the fervor was the product of a slow news week in the film media world, the lull of early February, with the Oscars weeks away and studios dumping their worst movies where nobody will notice them. After all, controversy gets clicks, and clicks are the one thing standing between a lot of journalists and the same fate of the hundreds of Buzzfeed and Huffington Post journalists laid off just a few days before.

Now, this is not a defense of “Extremely Wicked” itself. I haven’t seen it, and there’s a very real chance that it’s a bad movie (it does have an exquisite title, though).

And if it does glorify Bundy, or underplay how extremely wicked, shockingly evil and vile he was, then I’ll be the first to criticize it.

But for now, I will not play into this silly controversy. We can judge the film on its own merits when it comes out.

Edward Sheehan, FCRH ’22, is a history major from Needham, Massachusetts.

CULTURE

February 13, 2019

Page 13

Who's That Kid?| It's Jessica Cozzi, FCRH '20

Junior Lives Life Cover to Cover

By MAGGIE ROTHFUS COPY CHIEF

Students constantly complain that they do not have time to read for pleasure because of their classes. For Jessica Cozzi, FCRH ’20, this problem seems easy to work around.

Between her commitments, she finds the time to read and write for pleasure and personal gain. She even reads two to three books a week on occasion.

She plans to go into publicity and marketing with a publishing

house, all while writing novels of her own. With a book, a blog and a pen, Cozzi gives the term “bookworm” a whole new meaning.

This creative writing major has always known that her future lies in books, but she never realized her dream until she started sharing her love for literature online. At 14, she and two friends started their own book blog, The Book Bratz, through which they review young adult (YA) novels.

They never expected it to become what it has; they just reached 5.5 thousand followers on Twitter, and

COURTESY OF JESSICA COZZI

Cozzi is a creative writing major who knows her future lies in books.

their site has had a total of 400 thousand views since they started. On a typical day, Cozzi says the blog gets somewhere from one to two thousand unique views.

When asked how it got to be so popular, Cozzi said that engagement with other readers, who form a huge community on Twitter, has been a significant help.

The girls are also able to host book giveaways because publishers and authors reach out to them with free books to review.

Cozzi has even worked with John Green, her “idol,” more than once.

Despite the blog’s connections to well-known authors, agents and publishers, the goal for 2019 is to highlight and promote authors making their debuts.

“We’re helping give them publicity and doing interviews and doing giveaways with them to get the word out since they don’t have the marketing value that significant, established authors already have,” Cozzi said.

This promotion of new writers is not far from the work Cozzi has done at Fordham. She finds the intersection of her book interests and her student life in the Ampersand. She has been involved with the literary magazine since she came to Fordham and is now their secretary.

The Ampersand accepts many new writers into every one of

its magazines. Leading up to each submission deadline, the club hosts workshops on Wednesdays.

Cozzi loves these workshops as club members positively critique and help each other develop their skills while preparing to submit their own pieces.

Cozzi’s favorite aspect of the magazine is the community of writers. "Especially when you’re in school all the time, you don’t really have time to sit down and focus on your own poetry and writing," Cozzi said. "A lot of people read the same kind of books I read, which was not very common. I don’t know a lot of college students who read young adult because they see it as ‘younger’… so it was nice to find that kind of environment where people read and wrote the same way I did. It felt very comfortable.”

The Ampersand community includes not only fellow English and creative writing majors, but also students from all around Rose Hill, even those in Gabelli.

Cozzi appreciates that the Ampersand is a space for every student to get creative. She recommends that anyone come to their Wednesday meetings regardless of whether they have been in the club or if the submission deadline has already passed.

Members are always working on writing and putting together the publication. The magazine is, perhaps, the most involved in publishing that Cozzi can be at Fordham. She said she has yet to

seek Career Services’ help during her time here — partially because of her blog connections and partially because of Fordham’s lack of connections to publishing houses.

While she acknowledged that the university recently has added publishing events with companies such as Simon & Schuster and Hachette Book Group, she believes that there is little representation at career fairs.

“They don’t even have small publishers,” Cozzi said.

A benefit of attending a New York City college or university is the amount of companies headquartered here.

Cozzi voiced her frustration with the lack of opportunities that Fordham offers to its English majors and publishing career-seekers.

"We live in New York, the publishing capital of the world; there’s no excuse for that,” she said.

Cozzi’s parting advice to writers and those with similar goals to hers is to “engage yourself in the community that you want to be a part of… There are hundreds of agents in publishing houses that you could follow and interact with. Just make sure they know your name.

Keep going out there, because it does work for you in the long run.”

The Ampersand is accepting submissions sent to ampersand. submission@gmail.com up until Friday, Feb. 15. Prose, poetry, photography and artwork are accepted. Cozzi’s book reviews can be found at thebookbratz. blogspot.com.

YouTuber Shane Dawson Questions the World

By KATHRYN SCHULTE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“Hey, what’s up you guys and welcome back,” Shane Dawson says.

Sit down and grab a meal, because Dawson’s first installment of the "Conspiracy Theories" docuseries is a long one.

Despite the length of the video, fans anxiously refreshed YouTube on Jan. 30, 2019, until the highly anticipated docuseries finally uploaded. The trailer teased a powerful combination of the YouTuber’s popular conspiracy videos with his revolutionary docuseries format, which took off in the summer of 2018 when he first covered Tana Mongeau’s failed TanaCon. The first of two videos in this series covers a few different topics: Apple glitches, deep fakes, the Woolsey, California fire and subliminal messages in advertising and kids’ shows. Going into it, especially knowing his other videos where he discusses topics such as the eerie disappearance of the Malaysian Airline, audiences were fully expecting the video to make them want to pack up their bags and move off the grid forever.

However, most of what he covered was not a conspiracy, but rather real, scary truths. For example, most users know that their iPhones are always listening and watching, as Dawson demonstrated through the iPhone call glitch, live photos and

location tracking in apps like Zepeto.

In fact, Apple is open about listening with such applications like Siri, which require the device to always listen.

Apple is also relatively open about live photos, pictures that take a video recording before and after the photo is taken. However, what is more unknown to the public is what is done with our information. Even scarier is the fact that the general population knows, but as said in the video, is too dependent on Apple products to give them up now — or switch to Android, at least.

The same goes for deep fakes, which are essentially digital masks that can be created from analyzing stills of any person’s face, whether it be Nicolas Cage or your best friend.

Other apps, which Dawson previewed in his second video, also allow people’s voices to be stolen. Consequently, people’s lives have already been ruined.

Dawson also predicts political turmoil could result, and with fake news being so prominent, it is definitely not a stretch. Unfortunately, it is no surprise that people are manipulating technology to steal people’s identities, and it appears taking social security numbers is no longer a cool way to do it.

The subliminal messaging in children’s shows is an interesting take, since horrifying children’s shows are a relatively known idea. Dawson discusses the possibility that the government or big pharmaceutical

companies want to weaken a society not only to control them, but also exploit their health needs by planting detrimental mental health hazards in shows like Mickey Mouse and Spongebob.

As distrust for institutions grows, dark messages behind children’s shows are analyzed in different ways. Could it be manipulation, society’s general disregard for the severity of mental health or both?

Dawson’s theory muddies that distinction.

The Woosley Fire comes closest to a conspiracy. Were the fires a result of the wind, the plant with nuclear waste, the government targeting houses or insurance fraud? The most logical explanation would appear to be the insurance fraud or the winds, but due to the nature of the disaster, it is impossible to be entirely sure.

Even though most of the information he shared was not quite as shocking as promised, 29 million people have watched the video thus far. This is all thanks to Dawson’s style — the editing makes it impossible to click away. He ties in other clips and audio in creepy and over-dramatic ways, but in many respects, this is exactly the draw of his conspiracy videos.

At the start of each video, he acknowledges that these are just theories… or are they?

What sets this series apart from the typical conspiracy video is

how he switches between topics and ventures out of the typical format he uses for his other videos. He sits directly in front of the camera in a darker room.

He also brings his boyfriend, Ryland, and friends into it, adding a bit of comedy amongst the seriousness.

He and Ryland drive around the areas affected by the fires and are heart-broken by the aftermath.

This issue hit home for them and they genuinely want to know why it happened: could it be more than the winds? And if so, why? The documentary style makes you feel as if you are there with them, leaving you wanting answers as the music drops off and the screen turns black.

Dawson’s brand throughout his

decade-long career on the site has always relied on his relatability. He has been open and honest with his fans, which allowed him to build a connection and, as a result, build his following. Since 2008, his content has certainly evolved, but his fans have essentially grown up with him. He has amassed over 20 million subscribers and over four billion views.

The next video dropped Feb. 11. Originally, it was supposed to come a week after the first, but Dawson changed it after getting last minute inspiration. Though there may be a change in direction, his main message for both videos remains the same: “Don’t believe everything you see.”

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Shane Dawson's new conspiracy theory docuseries is streaming on YouTube.

CULTURE

Page 14

February 13, 2019

Comethazine and the Rise of Anti-Melody

By KIERAN PRESS-REYNOLDS CULTURE EDITOR

If you have been following the underground hip-hop scene this past year, you probably stumbled upon one or two songs that sounded a bit “empty.” By that, I mean structurally malnourished: no melody, only bass, kicks and sometimes hi-hats. What usually supplants the melody is an angry vocal performance that feels uncontained, which fits the mood.

These tracks are like undercooked beef: raw and flaming red.

The trend started back in 2015, when XXXTentacion released his signature screamo cuts like “TAKE A STEP BACK” and “RIP ROACH.” They are hard to listen to precisely because each track is an ear-pummeling, unorganized onslaught.

Since then, the sound has developed. In place of relentless bass pulses, newer artists have opted for a groovy spaciousness. The chords are laid out carefully and patterned, so tracks find their melody (antimelody) in the moments between each jarring bass blare, instead of solely relying on the bass to provide

the bump. It is a tuneful minimalism.

One of the best tracks that use this style is Texas-based Quin NFN’s “Talkin’ My S--t.” It is a positively intoxicating rap song, and yet it sounds more like a freestyle than anything else. Quin NFN seems to dissolve into the bass over time, as if his hoarse voice and each ad-lib and vocal tic is just a programmed extension of the metronomic instrumental.

Similarly, “Intro Part 2” by Splurge — also from Texas — is very much anti-melody. After a certain point, you begin to wonder how much time the artists really spent on this beat because it is basically the same hathat-hat-clap-bass structure, with no variation, for two-and-a-half minutes.

One of the more mainstream proponents of anti-melody is Comethazine, a SoundCloud upstart from St. Louis. In the past, Comethazine has been denigrated thoroughly for his unoriginality. Everything on his debut album “Bawskee” felt like a blatant ripoff of other trap artists like Playboi Carti and Tay-K. But on his newest album, “Bawskee 2,” he makes a pivot towards antimelody and creates his best and most

original track yet, “ONMYGRANNYKIDS.” The song revolves around a consistent three-note bass pattern that acts as the groove, which becomes hypnotic over time. The pattern is repeated sparingly enough that it is never overbearing and instead feels like the soundscape lurching forward each time.

On top of that, Comethazine has created a brand for himself with profane, inane vocal tics: the squeaky “B--h!,” the shrieking “boom!,” the disgusted “BYE,” the “no” and the “ew!”

It is a collage of atrocious sound vomit that constitutes a sort of language in itself, and like other famous ad-libbers such as Playboi Carti and Sheck Wes, adds to the infectiousness of the already-infectious song.

Finally, the reverb brings it all together. As far as I know, Comethazine is one of the first to integrate reverb seriously into an anti-melody track. The reverb extends each vocal into a ghostly echo, emphasizing the emaciation of the track in a druggy way.

Ghostly and psychedelic, “ONMYGRANNYKIDS” at once sounds

Fashion Column | Isiah Magsino

Dyne Combines Fashion and Tech New York weather never ceases to amaze me with how unpredictable it can be. Polar vortex one week, springtime the next. What is it going to be? Though I was braving the outdoors with five layers on a few days ago, sweat annoyingly began to form on my forehead as I waited in line for Dyne’s fall/winter presentation earlier today.

In a very large glass convention center room at the Fashion Institute of Technology, Dyne presented its fall/winter collection.

Surrounded by an overwhelming amount of people, mannequins were dispersed in each corner of the square floor plan. The center of the room had literal junk in the middle — well, junk but “make it fashion,” a “make it fashion” that also reminded people of the apocalyptic junk world Wall-E was living in until the super chic Eve came into his life.

On these mannequins, Nylon and other tech-y fabrics were molded into shapes that alluded to the futuristic fashion audiences can see on the Sci-Fi network. However, unlike the “Tron” allusions found in Kim Jones’ latest Dior menswear collection, this collection seemed to take place in a future not too distant from now, as the combination of styling and clothes created a hybrid of chic space outfits and gym clothes (has Equinox gone too far?).

Pertaining to the current neon trend found on every fashion model’s Instagram, neon greens and blues were found on the piping and detail of many of the primarily black and gray garments.

The entire collection focused on technology, as the dystopian technological future was also found on the faces of the mannequins, which wore sunglasses paired with various scraps of aluminums and electrical wires.

Perhaps this was a move by Christopher Bevans, Dyne’s creative director, to exemplify the overbearing use of

technology in our everyday life, or perhaps it was a move to symbolize a harmonious relationship. Either way, viewers were faced with the reality of how our obsession with technology has become naturalized (within the fashion world).

Initially, there was no feeling of the punctum that philosopher Roland Barthes wrote about. This punctum ultimately refers to the extreme spark of interest that is felt after looking at an image. I may be biased in this statement, as I am more of a Valentino and McQueen guy, but fashion is ultimately subjective, and I am allowed to feel the way I do.

Though I continued to study the clothing with discontent, it was only after learning about the interactive component of the collection that I concluded Dyne has done something incredibly interesting this season.

Dyne’s fall/winter collection is composed of more than simple pieces of fabrics put together. Instead, there is a relationship between technology and apparel within the small collection. When one of the staff members placed their phones against

what seemed to be a barcode, information on the components about the clothes were then translated onto the phone screen.

Though to some this might seem menial, the potential of technology’s influence on clothing is seemingly exponential. Who needs an Apple Watch when your jacket can monitor the miles you’ve run? Though the aesthetic was not there for me, and incorporating technology into fashion is something completely foreign to me, I’m interested in seeing the progression Dyne makes in the future.

Before this collection, I had thought of fashion as being limited to advancements in fabrics. This collection showed me that there are many other components, such as the interactive technology I discovered today, that can push clothing in new, unique and unconventional directions. If technology is evolving, why not clothing?

Keeping Dyne on my radar, I will be completely sold the day the technology in their clothes includes free flights and UberEats services.

ISIAH MAGSINO FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

Dyne combines fashion and technology in its New York Fashion Week show.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

Comethazine's recent album "Bawskee 2" features an exciting new trap sound.

ironic and pure genius. The first time I heard it, I thought Comethazine was trying too hard to be “hard” or aggressive. But once I started paying attention to the ad-libs and the reverb effects, I could not stop listening.

Anti-melody is the perfect counterpoint to pop-trap, which has found mainstream success through artists like Juice WRLD. Where poptrap opts for melody and emotional vocal performances, anti-melody seeks to expunge as much humanity as possible. It is a sort of reaction to the proliferation of Auto-Tune,

which has blurred the distinction between rapping and singing and is especially prevalent in pop-trap.

In this way, anti-melody appears to be an attempt to seem “real” and reclaim gangsta rap from the clutches of candy-colored vocalists like the aforementioned Juice or Travis Scott. But I do not think so. In fact, I do not think these new-wave rappers care much about what sounds gansta or “street.” They are simply appealing to the times and attempting to be creative. It is pure hedonism and certainly worth a listen.

"Cold Pursuit" Cannot Escape Itself

By MATTHEW DILLON STAFF WRITER

“Cold Pursuit” is the latest Liam Neeson revenge flick, though it has a very different approach from his previous movies.

The film is surrounded by intense controversy ignited by the racially charged comments Neeson made in interviews leading up to the release, in which he admitted when he was younger he once thought about killing a random black man after a female friend told him she was raped.

Despite controversy, “Cold Pursuit” is a largely forgettable movie.

Deep in the Rocky Mountains, Nelson Coxman (Liam Neeson) is a snowplow driver that ends up seeking revenge against drug dealers that killed his son. In contrast with other Neeson vehicles like “Taken” and “Nonstop,” “Cold Pursuit” presents itself as a self-aware black comedy.

Tricks like every onscreen death being followed by a title card bearing the deceased’s name, nickname and religion dot the film. The movie also tries its hand at subverting the revenge genre, as Coxman finds himself too busy hunting down people with nicknames like “Limbo” and “Viking” to confront the fact that he barely knew the son he lost.

These aspects distinguished “Cold Pursuit” from the largely identical, myopic revenge films that characterize the latter part of Neeson’s career.

Unfortunately, none of it is executed well enough to make the film anything more than average.

In its attempts to show the complexity and human cost of revenge, the plot of “Cold Pursuit" ends up in disarray. Running at nearly 2 hours, a few plotlines feel unnecessary enough to be removed entirely or have such a small payoff that they could be cut down considerably. The film’s insistence on showing that even the most

abhorrent villains in revenge movies are still human beings is interesting.

Most best “Cold Pursuit" moments stem from this premise when it can get it to work effectively.

Unfortunately, the approach is very much quantity over quality, to the point where Neeson has little presence outside of the opening and closing portions of the movie.

His interactions with the main antagonist’s son are the highlight of the film. However, Neeson spends most of “Cold Pursuit” as the rage-driven justice-seeker we already have seen him play in close to a dozen other revenge flicks.

The film’s tone and humor ranges from subdued to simply not funny.

The problems of “Cold Pursuit" with committing to its premise can also be seen in how it handles the Native American gangsters that dominate its second half. The film uses them to introduce themes about colonialism and racism awkwardly.

However, “Cold Pursuit” fails to explore these topics in a meaningful way. It does not even give enough time or effort to those complex issues to justify their inclusion.

The film’s visuals and sound design match the jumbled approach everything else has. While most of “Cold Pursuit” has a consistent style reminiscent of filmmaker Wes Anderson, it will occasionally switch to something more fitting for an action movie.

At times it is easy to suspect there was a version of the movie that was closer to overt parody than the final product. The movie largely avoids the worst excesses of Neeson’s post“Taken” work, while offering some effective moments.

But that is not enough to save it from mediocrity. “Cold Pursuit” may mock the standard, nihilistic revenge flick, but it still feels like one for most of its running time.

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February 13, 2019

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Jefferson Mays Steps into the Mind of a Murderer

By RYAN DI CORPO

CULTURE EDITOR EMERITUS

Jefferson Mays welcomes confrontation, at least in his roles.

In 2003, Mays starred in the Broadway production of “I Am My Own Wife,” a solo play by Pulitzer Prize-winner Doug Wright.

The production, which won Mays the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, saw him portray — along with 34 other characters — a transgender woman living in Nazi Germany.

In the 2013 Broadway production of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” Mays performed nine separate parts and earned a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical.

Mays recently completed another television role: physician and murder suspect George Hodel in the current TNT limited series “I Am the Night.”

Directed by Patty Jenkins, most recently known for her work on “Wonder Woman,” the show explores the wild, unsolved caper of the widely-discussed 1947 Black Dahlia murder through the eyes of a young girl (India Eisley) and a journalist (Chris Pine).

The series, which airs the fourth of its six episodes this Sunday, provides a new experience and unique challenge for Mays. He is stepping into the life of a man who may have committed one of the most disturbing murders of the 20th century. The Fordham Ram spoke with Mays on how he chooses his roles and how he approached Jenkins’ new series.

“I try to leave myself open to roles that are looking for me,” Mays said.

It is apparent, based on his previous work, that Mays has little reservation in tackling difficult, or even unsavory, characters. Yet these are not necessarily parts for which Mays searches.

“I much prefer to be ambushed or mugged by a project,” he said.

Accordingly, Mays detailed the process of being ambushed by the unsettling mystery of “Night.”

“I was approached to do it about a year ago,” he said. While Mays had some awareness of the Black Dahlia murder — he had viewed the horrific crime scene photographs at a young age — before accepting the role of Hodel, there was more work for him to do.

“I had cursory knowledge of the Black Dahlia case,” said Mays. He conducted research on Hodel and the crime using Steve Hodel’s book “Black Dahlia Avenger” as a reference. “[I] tried to steep myself as much as I could in [George Hodel’s] life,” said Mays. He explained, with some unease, how he came to view the frightening exploits of Hodel,.“They don’t seem… villainous at the time — they seem necessary and right.”

The Ram asked Mays if he was hesitant to embody a man accused of such inhumane actions. “It did trouble me initially,” said Mays.

He also expressed concern regarding the emotional toll the role might take on him, but found comfort in director Patty Jenkins. Jenkins is no stranger to directing actors in challenging roles; she directed Charlize Theron as a prostitute-turned-serial killer in the Academy Award-winning

“Monster.”

Ultimately, Mays said he found playing Hodel to be a type of catharsis. “If you get an opportunity, play a villain,” said Mays, explaining that portraying sinister characters may help one “exorcise [their] own demons.”

Despite his initial hesitance to view “Wonder Woman,” Mays has nothing but praise for Jenkins.

At his first screening of the film, Mays began to weep less than fifteen minutes from the start, finding the film “so joyful and hopeful and good.” “[Jenkins] is very permissive,” said Mays. “She lets you try anything you want to try.”

In his performance, Mays honed in on the minutiae — such as Hodel’s stance and his pronunciation of “Los Angeles” — to craft a more accurate portrait of the man.

Mays discovered his attention to detail was mirrored by Jenkins’ direction.

“She’s also one of the rare directors for whom everything is important,” said Mays.

While Chris Pine leads the cast, Mays worked most closely with India Eisley, who stars as Fauna Hodel. Eisley, daughter of musician David Glen Eisley and screen legend Olivia Hussey, is also known for ABC Family’s “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”

“[Eisley] was a revelation to me,” said Mays. He mentioned how Eisley possesses “this extraordinary face across which emotions… pass like cloud shadow.”

No stranger to television himself, Mays appreciates the six-episode length of “Night.” “It’s like being in a novel,” he said.

Further, Mays enjoys the elements of true crime that mark the show. “True crime has a special appeal to me,” said Mays, who understands the genre as bereft of clear explanations.

“With true crime — it’s sloppy, it’s grey, it’s unexplained,” he said.

“I Am the Night” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on TNT.

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Jefferson Mays stars as George Hodel in "I Am The Night," which airs Monday nights at 9 p.m. on TNT.

Mental Health Column | Kelly Christ

Analyzing the Current Self-Care Trend If you’ve been to a mall recently, you were probably bombarded with advertisements in stores like Bath and Body Works and Lush, promoting “self-care” products.

Or perhaps you’ve been to your local bookstore, and you have seen shelves stacked with books promising self-help tips and guides. Maybe you have even bought into these trends yourself.

As the popularity of wellness and self-love trends have sky-rocketed in recent years, it has brought more attention to the importance of mental health. However, are these trends really helpful for the awareness of mental health? Or do they obstruct seeking effective and necessary treatment for mental illness?

At the end of 2018, self-care was announced by Apple as the biggest App trend of the year. Of course, selfcare is not a new concept.

As Psychology Today defines it, self-care is “a continuous process of proactively considering and tending to your needs and maintaining your wellness.” Intrinsically, self-care is a positive trend for mental health.

However, the massive popularity of #selflove on the Internet, as well as the commodification of it by many companies, has raised questions about whether this trend is actually good for spreading awareness and understanding of mental health.

Unfortunately, mental illness is

very prevalent in the world. In 2016, reports showed that 275 million people had experienced an anxiety disorder of some kind, and 268 million had suffered from depression globally.

With mental illness so common, it should not be surprising that self-care has become as popular as it has. However, it certainly seems problematic, at least to some degree, that businesses are profiting off the idea that face masks and candles can reduce the symptoms of mental illness.

A major flaw in the treatment of mental health is that more than half of those suffering from a mental disorder do not seek treatment for it. This is due to a combination of factors. Often, patients will hesitate to seek help as they fear judgment or shame. Other times, mental health treatments like therapy are too expensive or inaccessible.

As a result, we must wonder whether these self-care products have become a more accessible replacement for actual mental health treatment.

Of course, it cannot be assumed that everyone using these products suffers from a mental disorder. Even if they do, they may also be seeking treatment and use the products for mere luxury.

Neither of these is inherently wrong, but the preexisting difficulties of accessing mental healthcare need to be understood in the context of these businesses. There are many reasons why effective mental health care has been so difficult to institute.

Mental illnesses are complicated and often long-term, and as a result can be expensive to maintain continuous treatment for. There is almost never a one-size-fits-all solution for mental illness. “For psychiatric conditions, there wasn’t a broken bone to fix, or a cancerous cell to target," reports Shayla Love of Vice Magazine.

The endeavor often seems too costly and long-term for doctors to provide. Despite the obstacles, mental health treatment remains just as important as physical health treatment.

After all, mental health can become a matter of life and death, as more than 90 percent of suicide victims suffered from a mental health condition.

Mental health conditions can often interfere with the ability to function effectively in society. Depression may leave someone in bed for days, and anxiety can cloud one’s mind from being able to focus on anything.

The effects of mental health cannot be overstated. This is an industry that requires immediate attention.

It is comforting to know that people do want help. They want to improve their circumstances, and they often look to trendy self-care to achieve that. Many of the marketed self-care applications avail-

able from Apple provide meditation and mindfulness exercises for users.

While meditation is not a cureall for anxiety disorders, it has been shown to have some positive impacts on the mental health of those who take part, including reduced activity in the amygdala (responsible for the fight-or-flight response) and lower levels of blood biomarkers that indicate high levels of stress, says Charlotte Lieberman in a Harvard Business Review article.

Despite this, it is important to remember that it is easy to get hooked on many of these self-improvement applications.

Users may quickly feel that a great deal of their self-esteem comes from whether they are able to achieve the goals they set for themselves. One study reported by the Sydney Morning Herald focused on the popular Fitbit accessory, which is used to measure and track exercise performance. Users wore the bracelets almost constantly and felt that if they were not wearing it while they exercised, their efforts had been “wasted.”

These findings show that we often become obsessed with our own progress in reaching our self-care goals.

Our self-esteem becomes further dependent on outside validation. As we put more and more focus into these applications, which are supposed to better our sense of selves, we find that we are actually moving

further and further away.

The self-improvement business has grown into an $11 billion industry. The drive to improve ourselves and our lives is intrinsic to human nature. However, we need to recognize when we are falling too far into the marketing schemes of many of these large corporations. Mental health still needs more awareness.

It is great to see applications and products offering assistance to those struggling with anxiety, but it must be understood that they are not a cure. Consumers should still seek the advice of mental health professionals if they find themselves struggling with their self-esteem or other issues. Self-care does not always mean staying inside to rest; it can sometimes mean taking a risk and trying new experiences. If we become too obsessed with the ideas behind the self-care trend, we may find ourselves stuck in our own heads far more than we were before.

If you are struggling with mental health issues, please do not hesitate to reach out to the following resources: Fordham University Counseling and Psychological Services (Rose Hill): 718-817-3725 Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255 Crisis Textline: text START to 741-741

February 13, 2019

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February 13, 2019

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Cardi B, the Democratic Party’s Secret Weapon?

By MIA TOMMINS

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

You might be hearing a little more than “OKUR” from Cardi B this presidential season.

The 26-year-old rap artist from the Bronx is making her voice heard, creating buzz by weighing in on political events, and people are listening.

Polk County Democrats invited Cardi B to speak in Des Moines, Iowa while she is in town for her upcoming concert tour in May. Iowa will kick off the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination process with the nation’s first caucus, scheduled to begin on Feb. 3, 2020.

The caucus season is just around the corner, and many politicians are scheduled to make appearances at events; now, so is Cardi B. It is not new for Cardi B to be political. She has been quite direct with her opposition to President Donald Trump. Back in 2016, Cardi B posted a video in the midst of Trump chatter during the primary elections, telling fans to “vote for Daddy Bernie, b---h.”

In the summer of 2016, Cardi B voiced her opinion again in an Instagram video. In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, the artist provided no solution to the situation; rather she told her viewers, “One thing we can do for sure is

pray.”

In this video, Cardi B expressed her love for being an American.

Cardi B captured the public eye in 2017 as she rose to fame. She started by debuting her second mixtape, “Gangsta B---h Vol. 2,” in January, which immediately jumped into the number two slot on the iTunes HipHop/Rap album chart.

Later that year, in September 2017, Cardi B’s album “Bodak Yellow” hit number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 list. At just 24 years old, she made history by becoming the second female rapper to lead the chart without a feature.

As “Cardi B from the Bronx” continued to attract public notice, she did not back down on her political involvement.

On Sept. 26, 2017, Cardi spoke with Billboard about the president’s attack against football players taking a knee during the national anthem.

She slammed the NFL for saying they wanted to release statements of support for their players, claiming these actions fell short. “But Colin Kaepernick … he still don’t got a job,” Cardi B said in a video, also referencing Trump as “Carrot Face.”

Cardi B also voiced her concern in an Instagram post, saying “the government is taking 40 percent of my tax money, and Uncle Sam, I want to know what you’re doing with my f-----g tax money.”

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Cardi B, pictured above, uses social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram to exspress her political frustrations with Trump.

It turns out, 24 percent of Cardi B’s tax money was going to Social Security, as of 2017. Shortly after she posted the video, Cardi B voiced that FDR was the real “Make America Great Again” president, which caught Bernie Sanders’ attention.

Since then, the public acknowledged Cardi B for her political presence on various occasions. In an interview with Jimmy Fallon, he asked her what she would do if elected mayor of New York.

Her response included “fixing the subways” and “economic reform.”

More recently, on Jan. 16, Cardi B called for an end to the government shutdown in another Instagram post. “I just wanna remind you that

it’s been a little bit over three weeks,” she told followers in the video.

“Trump is now ordering ... federal government workers to go back to work without getting paid ... This is serious. Our country is in a hellhole right now. All for a ... wall.”

Cardi B also expressed concern and anxiety as the shutdown reached its final day. “I feel like we need to take some action,” she said.

“I don’t know what type of action.. because this is not what I do. But...

I’m scared.”

Cardi B grabbed the attention of many senators, including Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz and Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who joked about retweeting her government

shutdown video.

However, Cardi B has also faced some backlash. Opposers include Fox News host Tomi Lahren, who attacked her on Twitter.

It is not unusual for right-wing specialists to comment on entertainment stars like Cardi B for getting involved in politics.

However, there are also people coming to defend her. Joan Hill, who claims to have taught the rapper at Renaissance High School for Musical Theater and the Arts in the Bronx, is one of many who defended Cardi B on Facebook.

Cardi B’s visit to Iowa is definitely setting off buzz, and it is clear that she will not just stick to rapping.

Editor’s Pick | Podcast

Join the Campaign, Watch “Critical Role”

By BRIANA SCALIA OPINION EDITOR

“Critical Role” is a weekly web show centered around famous voice actors playing a personal campaign of Dungeons and Dragons.

Liam O’Brien, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, Marisha Ray and Ashley Johnson star in the show, with Matthew Mercer as the dungeon master, or DM. For those unaware (or just not as

nerdy as I), Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game focused on campaigns, or stories, crafted by the DM and acted out by characters created by the players.

Each minute decision, each major character choice, can only be thought of by the players with next to no guidance from the elusive DM. “Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons,” is how

Mercer begins each week’s show.

After a brief rundown of announcements, including an always stellar advertisement created by Emmy-winner Sam Riegel, the game picks up where it last left off.

As soon as the game is in play, each actor fully becomes their character, including everything from slight accents to distinct physical tics. Every character has their own distinct backstory, which in turn affects the decisions they make in their adventure.

Each week follows the ragtag

COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

“Critical Roll,” a weekly web show, stars a number of voice actors, pictured above, playing the game Dungeon and Dragons.

group The Mighty Nein (named after the German translation for “no,” as there are only seven members currently) as characters pursue their respective destinies; every character has both short and long-term goals, as most people in the real world do.

Similarly to everyday people, most of these goals originate from experiences the characters went through prior to the campaign’s start.

For instance, the group’s resident wizard Caleb (spoiler alert) is searching the fictional continent for a way to turn back time in order to reverse his greatest regret burning his mother and father alive.

Of course, there is more to this story than meets the eye, including tropes such as an abusive mentor, tortorous training methods and the occasional bout of brainwashing, which combined to create the PTSD-riddled fan-favorite of the group.

Fortunately, not every member has such a tragic background as the squishy wizard. Backstories range from slight misfortunes to drastic downfalls, and each is crucial to the makings of the character involved.

Each week’s episode can consist of two modes: the first (and my preferred) focuses heavily on the role-playing aspect of the game, featuring small but significant moments between characters, which often contribute to their development as people. These moments also remind the audience that

most of the players are professional voice actors who thrive in a theatrical environment.

In contrast, the second mode is played as more of a game, centering on in-game encounters with enemies, which in turn could potentially lead to hours-long battles.

This aspect of the game is much more stressful, as everyone watching is reminded that, at any moment, a character could be killed in combat and, if not quickly healed or revived, would die in the campaign. This unfortunate chain of events leads to a player having to “roll up” a completely new character, parting with their original choice.

I will warn any of you potentially interested in tuning in: the show is currently on episode 50 of its second campaign (or season, if you will), and the first campaign has over 100 episodes, each spanning about four hours.

Though it takes quite a while to catch up, I highly recommend this show for anyone, regardless of their experience with Dungeons and Dragons. When I began the show, I knew almost nothing about the game, and to this day there are probably dozens of rules I don’t even know exist.

However, the beauty of “Critical Role” is that the show isn’t about a group of professional players speeding their way through a campaign. It’s about eight good friends having fun together by going on a fantasy adventure that only Dungeons and Dragons could provide.

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February 13, 2019

“Happy Death Day 2 U” Refreshes Formula

By RACHEL GOW CULTURE EDITOR

This Wednesday Jessica Rothe, playing Tree Gelbman, and Israel Brossard, playing Carter Davis, will grace the big screen again in “Happy Death Day 2 U,” the thrilling sequel to “Happy Death Day.” The film, produced by the same company that gave us the smash successes “Get Out” and “Split,” centers on Tree Gelbman, described by Rothe in an interview with The Ram as a “selfcentered, b---hy sorority girl” who is forced to live the same day over and over.

A horrifying twist sets "Happy Death Day" apart from other time loop films: each day Tree is brutally murdered by someone in a baby mask.

In the first movie, audiences watch as Tree, originally in a state of bewilderment concerning her predicament, comes to somewhat embrace it (as much as anyone can embrace being repeatedly murdered).

She makes a list of potential suspects and observes one each day until his or her innocence is confirmed. During this process, Tree transforms into what Rothe called “a total bada--,” sporting pink hair and walking across campus naked.

This pattern of guess and check continues until Tree discovers her killer and preemptively murders them, effectively ending the cycle.

Along the way she falls in love with Carter, an innocent college kid who took her home the night before.

Carter provides much-needed emotional support throughout Tree’s

traumatic experience.

However, neither Tree nor fans of the film get to bask in this relief for long. The second movie picks up exactly where the previous one left off, immediately throwing Tree into a similar, albeit worse, quandary. She is again stuck in a time loop, forced to relive her birthday continuously until she can somehow find an escape.

However, this time, aspects of Tree’s world, such as her family dynamics, are drastically altered and escape seems both harder to find and to accept for the character.

While the film may frustrate fans with Tree’s short-lived grace period, it satisfies a number of inquiries

“Happy Death Day” left unanswered, such as the cause of the time loop and Tree’s family issues.

“Happy Death Day 2 U” does a fantastic job of maintaining the integral plot points that made the first movie such a success while simultaneously adding new twists that will likely preserve this interest.

These subtle twists are especially remarkable when considering the film’s repetitive set up. Rothe and Braussard continue to act out relatively similar scenes, yet bring a fresh spark each time.

Broussard credits this dynamism to the film’s director and screen writer, Chris Landon.

“Landon brought in so much new

COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

“Happy Death Day 2 U,” starring Jessica Rothe comes out this Wednesday.

energy to each wake up,” he said.

Broussard also explained that the actors took the liberty of interpreting each day and changing their behavior accordingly. “[Landon] gave us a lot of freedom to kind of go around and find our pockets, find our moments with each [day],” he said.

Sometimes the actors’ mix-ups or mistakes would get incorporated into the final scenes, helping to generate subtle novelties that allowed Broussard to overcome what he described as a somewhat arduous process. “There’s just a lot you can play around with,” he said.

The time loop also provides a unique opportunity to showcase Tree’s character arc, which evolves seamlessly from the first film to the second.

“The funny thing is, even though the scenes are the same thing over and over again, every time Tree learns something new and slightly adjusts herself,” said Rothe.

These subtle changes also result in alterations to other characters.

“It’s going to change how Carter will respond or how Danielle [Rachel Mathews] will respond,” said Rothe.

She said this helps to weave in “tiny little nuances that kept it fresh and alive.”

In this way, Tree undergoes a unique transformation that also pushes the characters around her to be dynamic. In the time loop, she is solely responsible for her fate, and she must reflect on previous wrongdoings and learn to seek out the help of others.

Watching her slowly abandon her

sorority girl ways and confront family demons over the course of two films helps foster a connection between Tree and the audience.

The second movie also finds success in its mixing of genres. While officially classified as a horror film, "Happy Death 2 U" is also wildly emotional and humorous at times, something Rothe believes strengthens the film.

“I kind of feel like this genre meshing, bending actually serves each of the genres incredibly well,” said Rothe. “I found the horror moments made the comedy moments more hysterical, the sci-fi moments made the emotional moments land more, that our director Chris really did an incredible job weaving everything together.”

Instead of utilizing separate acting styles in the dichotomous scenes, Rothe played into the similarities between horror and comedy.

“The setup of a scare and the setup of a joke are incredibly similar," she said. "You have to make sure the timing is right and there’s a punch line whether it’s a scream or a laugh.”

Rothe does a great job of hitting all of these punch lines, leaving the audience of “Happy Death Day 2 U” on the edge of their seats during certain scenes and in hysterics during others.

If you are in the mood to laugh, cry, shout or do all three simultaneously, hit the theaters this Wednesday to see what “Happy Death Day 2 U” has in store. Better yet, bring your Valentine and ask yourself: would they survive dying over and over again?

The Fordham Ram Crossword: Conversation Starters 1. A couple, say 5. Like Judi Dench 9. “Lady ____,” starring Saoirse Ronan 13. Stitch’s partner 14. Raise 15. To have (Sp.) 16. CTRL+Z on a PC 17. The largest continent 18. Yellow rose relationship 19. Competes, often for atten tion 20. Pros opponent 21. Famous Greensboro Civil Rights protest 22. Score that wouldn’t count to-

wards 57-Down (Abbv.)

23. Woody’s would-be valentine 25. Kind 26. Derogatory word 28. Platonic forms 30. Duck, for example 31. An over-the-top valentine, say 34. Neighborhood btw China town, Little Italy, and the East Vil lage 35. Flatter 38. Dissociative drug, briefly 41. Dating ____, like eHarmony and Christian Mingle 42. Vaguely short amount of time

45. Emotional ______ coaster 47. Not any 48. Cookie with seasonal pink filling 49. Hillary’s “downfall” 54. Hypothalamus hormone (Abbv.)

56. Merida’s movie 58. Green Gables girl 59. Machu Picchu location 60. 0.26 gallons 61. A break up, say 62. Eager 63. Swelling, medically 64. Skyline obscurer 65. 80s ‘do 66. Baked or built 67. “Any man who does his job” in Mulaney’s New York Post vocabu lary 68. 14-Across, in England Down

ANSWERS TO ISSUE 3

1. Text to an SO 2. The runt, say 3. Aged 4. Cow sounds 5. Pansy’s Slytherin valentine 6. Famous fableist 7. New Hampshire neighbor 8. What you should do to you ex’s number 9. “I’ll be yours and you’ll _____” 10. Part of a pair carved into a tree 11. Lines on a telescope lens

CREATED BY CLAIRE POLACHEK , JACK MCLOONE AND GABBY GILLESPEE

Across

ANSWERS IN ISSUE 5

12. Winter skin problem 15. Prof. helpers 23. Peruse 24. Four-stringed Chinese in strument 27. “What can brown do for you” sloganeers 29. Sprouse and O’Brien 31. List for a concert 32. Consumed 33. You get six for a TD (Abbv.)

36. Ireland, in Irish 37. League for the Nexen He roes and Kia Tigers (Abbv.)

38. One of 99, for Jay-Z

39. Spanish bullfight 40. School uniform skirt style 43. Whole number 44. Toddlers, at times 46. “_____ ______ say that you _____” - The Cardigans 50. Wetland 51. Miyazaki’s artform 52. “What are you _____?” one prisoner to another 53. What you need to do with your ex 55. “____ brotha!” - Josh, to Drake 57. Pitcher’s stat 59. One of the three bears

February 13, 2019

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February 13, 2019

Track & Field Prepares for A10s at Beyond the Scoreboard: David Hemery Valentine Invite Loyalty, Loyalty, Loyalty

By EMMANUEL BERBARI

By ANDREW POSADAS

Fordham Track and Field tuned up for the Atlantic 10 Championship this past weekend at the 2019 David Hemery Valentine Invitational, hosted by the Boston University Track & Tennis Center, adding further ECAC qualification to an already impressive collective resumé.

On the men’s side, the Rams boasted ECAC qualification and four season-best efforts on Saturday. Junior Sean Sullivan picked up his second IC4A qualifier of the season, finishing the 800 meter run in a season-best time of 1:53.94 and ranking 46th among competitors.

In the mile, freshman Brandon Hall led the charge at 4:20.40 (135th), sophomore Will Whelan posted 4:22.28 (157th) and sophomore Christopher Strzelinski crossed in 4:22.47 (162nd).

Senior Jared Benn cracked the top 100 in the 200 meter dash, finishing in a season-best 22.39.

In the 500 meter, sophomore Kyle Mack turned in one of Fordham’s best showings of the day, placing 21st in 1:05.46.

Meanwhile, freshman Jeremiah LaDuca sped to the tune of 2:30.75, good enough for 34th place in the 1,000 meter. In the 3,000 meter, junior Ryan Kutch showed his dissatisfaction with “good enough,” topping his already IC4A-qualifying time, clocking in at 8:07.91 (15th).

The Rams performed best collectively, with Kyle Mack, Jared Benn, Jack Keegan and Arthur Gooden thriving in the 4x400 relay, they came in 11th in 3:18.72, topping their previous ECAC-

Loyalty seems simple enough in context to the NBA. A franchise is expected to show good faith to its star players by constructing the best team possible. In return, star players are called upon to show allegiance to their franchises by staying long-term.

Unfortunately, this is all conjecture.

Take what’s been going on in the NBA so far this season and what’s to come. New Orleans Pelicans superstar, power forward Anthony Davis officially requested a trade on Jan. 28.

When he finally spoke to the media on Feb. 1, Davis said that after everything he’s given the Pelicans organization, he feels it is time to “move on.”

Davis went on to say he wanted this to happen sooner rather than later. He explained the trade request was not just for him, saying that it was out of respect for the Pelicans organization and tbe owner, Mrs. Benson.

“They’ve done everything for me,” he said. “The fans, the community.”

Truth be told, Davis lied about one thing: the Pelicans did NOT do everything for him. New Orleans missed the playoffs in four of Davis’ first six years in the league. The best player New Orleans has signed or traded for in that time is guard Jrue Holiday.

Granted, Holiday is a former allstar and one of the best defenders at the guard position. However, is he the second best player on a championship caliber team? Probably not.

Other than Holiday and Davis, the other three positions on the court have seen a revolving door of players in the last six years.

I mentioned New Orleans missed the playoffs four times. One may assume the team could have built around Davis through the draft.

Since drafting Davis number one overall in 2012, the Pelicans have drafted 10 players in the last six NBA drafts.

All 10 players are no longer with the team.

As far as I’m concerned, the Pelicans showed little to no faith in building a contender for Davis. I’d even argue Davis made the playoffs two times in spite of New Orleans’ front office ineptitude. If he’s ready to move on, allow him the opportunity to continue his career elsewhere.

If the franchise really exhausted all options to keep Davis happy, he would not risk over 50 million dollars by entering free agency unrestricted.

Davis stands to make over 205 million dollars in his next contract if he stays in New Orleans or gets traded to an ideal team. However, should Davis wait until 2020 to become a free agent or is traded somewhere he does not want to stay long-term,

STAFF WRITER

ASST SPORTS EDITOR

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Fordham Track and Field now sets its eyes on the A-10 Championship.

qualifying time.

Sophomore Ryan McGraw finished off the day by posting respectable marks in the long jump and triple jump, stacking up 19th at 21’ ¾” and 34th at 41’ 5”, respectively.

The women’s competition on Friday, featured one ECAC qualifier and five season-best performances for the Rams.

The highlight of the day was by senior Aidan Moroz, who placed 33rd in the 1000 meter run in an ECAC-qualifying 2:55.63.

With that said, sophomore Kathryn Kelly stole the show.

In the field events, she recorded 17’ 9 ½” (13th) in the long jump and a season-best 36’ 6 ¾” (18th) in the triple jump.

Kelly did not stop there, taking on part in the 4x400 relay, which

also included Moroz and sophomores Sarinnagh Budris and Dana Beggins, helping Fordham to 15th place and season-best 3:52.88 clip.

When the longer distance competitions came around, two standouts came to play. In the mile run, junior Katarzyna Krzyzanowski placed 61st in 5:01.52, good for 61st overall, the best time by a Ram this season. In the meantime, senior Angelina Grebe impressed in the 3,000 meter to the tune of a season-best 9:57.46 (64th).

Fordham is next in action at the Atlantic 10 Championship, hosted

by George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, coming up Feb. 23-24, where they will look to build on a dominant showing at Metros and an encouraging tuneup in Boston.

Women’s Tennis Loses Close Match Against the Highlanders

By GIGI SPEER STAFF WRITER

Across the Hudson in Newark, Fordham Women’s Tennis had a close match against New Jersey Institute of Technology on Friday, losing 4-3. The team is looking forward to conference play against Seton Hall at home next Friday, and NJIT was a staunch competitor and good preparation for the upcoming Atlantic 10 play.

Freshmen third doubles duo Genevieve Quenville and Nicole Li won the only doubles victory for the Rams, besting Shamika Dhar and Adara Omar 6-4.

Li commented on her doubles performance, “We played a good doubles match. I’m really glad that we were able to use strategies that we have been working on during practices, and I can believe how effective it was.”

In first singles, sophomore Arina Taluyenko lost to Joleta Budiman 6-3 in the first set, but came back to win the next two 7-5 and 6-1. In third singles, junior Maia Balce won 6-3, 7-5; in fourth singles, Quenville beat Dhar 7-5, 6-3; and in fifth singles, Li won the first set against Mayar Eltony 6-2, but lost the next two sets 6-3, 6-4.

Li recognized her opponent’s

the maximum contract he could sign would be for a little over 150 million dollars.

If a professional basketball player is willing to lose a massive amount of money to be elsewhere, what does that say about the franchise?

The blame, however, is not always on the team. I explained earlier that when a team builds a championship contender, front office management expects their star players to sign a long-term contract. What happens when the situation flips?

Enter Boston Celtics superstar, point guard Kyrie Irving.

Before the season began, popular opinion in the Eastern Conference was that the Celtics clearly had the highest ceiling. They missed a potential NBA Finals appearance last season without their two biggest acquisitions, Irving and former all-star small forward Gordon Hayward. Adding both automatically made Boston the deepest team in the league.

Irving himself said back in October , he planned on re-signing with Boston this summer. Fast forward to the beginning of February, and Irving’s tone has changed. Talking to reporters, the all-star guard explained how everyone else’s influence has affected him in making NBA decisions over the last eight years.

Ultimately, Irving concluded his answer by declaring, “And I don’t owe anybody s--t.”

What could President of Basketball Operations, Danny Ainge, be thinking? He made the trade for Irving prior to last season. Through smart trades and solid draft choices, Boston is set up to compete for NBA titles better than perhaps every team not named the Golden State Warriors.

With a 35-21 record, Boston disappointingly finds itself at fifth place in the Eastern Conference. Irving has been outspoken in trying to teach the young Celtics how to win. The response he’s gotten from the team this season is far from optimistic.

After a loss to the Lakers last Thursday, Celtics forward Marcus Morris said, “It hasn’t been fun for a long time.”

Could Morris be saying it has not been fun since Irving came into the fold? Only time will tell. For now, Boston will have to hope this season culminates in a championship or risk losing their superstar player. It does not make logical sense for Irving to want to leave. His best chance at a title may be with Boston.

It is not a fact that NBA franchises will build the best team for superstar players. It is also not factual that superstar players will stay with teams long-term if everything is ideal.

These are merely opinions based on uncertain and incomplete pieces of information. Like I said, loyalty in the NBA is purely conjecture.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Fordham Women’s Tennis lost a close match against NJIT last Friday..

change in strategy, “In singles, everything went so well in the first set, but I quickly lost my dominance and aggressiveness when my opponent changed her strategy to start moon-balling me and attacking my backhand.”

However, the freshman was still optimistic about the match.

“Even though I lost and it wasn’t the best match I’ve played, I never gave up coming back in the third set and I’m happy about the way I fought until the end,” she said.

The Rams’ next match is at the Cary Leeds Tennis Center this Friday, Feb. 15 at 12:00 p.m as they take on Seton Hall.

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Anthony Davis, pictured above, faces scrutiny for requesting a trade.

SPORTS

February 13, 2019

Page 21

Student Athlete Column: Spring Is Coming

By KALEY BELL

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Feb. 2, the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil predicted that spring would come early this year, which means preparations for the new season should begin now. Along with the warmth that spring brings, it is also a time for growth. For a track athlete, spring signifies the start of the outdoor season, which is arguably its best.

Even though the spring season is about to start, we still have to close out the indoor season strong. These past couple of months we have been working hard to make sure we are able to perform well during these last few weeks and pushing ourselves to do the best we can.

While I have not competed in these past couple of meets, I have been very proud to watch from the sidelines as my teammates showcase their talent. In the Metropolitan Championships on Feb. 1, the men and women placed second and third, respectively, in one of the most competitive conferences in our area. This was their highest finish in a while. I am so proud of these successes even though I have not been directly involved in them. I am proud of everything we have accomplished so far as a team and everything that we will accomplish in the near future.

In the next couple of weeks, we have a last chance meet, A-10 Championships and ECAC Championships. We have a lot to look forward to in terms of per-

formance and scoring, and I am excited for everyone to see what we can do.

For those of us not competing in the championship meets, we are getting ready for the outdoor season: my favorite part of track.

In high school, I always looked forward to the outdoor season because indoor does not have the events that I am used to.

There are many reasons why the outdoor season is better than indoor, one being that the weather is much better. Additionally, as I stated earlier, the events are also better. I enjoyed running the 200-meter and the 4x100 in high school outdoor, but we never had them in indoor. In college, I have only run the 200-meter once and the 60-meter three times. I never ran the 60-meter in high school, so this is my first experience with such a short event. This is also my first season not long jumping.

I am learning to adjust to these changes being asked of me. During the outdoor season I am prepared to adjust again.

I asked my teammates which season they thought was better just to compare the results. “The meets are more fun outdoors,” said freshman Zalen Nelson. “I do better during indoor though.”

Freshman Dominique Valentine said that she prefers outdoor as well. “I always had a lot more fun during the outdoor season.”

Spring season is for growth, so evidently, I am ready to grow in my event experience and improve my times.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Kaley Bell says the spring season is a time for growth and a chance to gain experience.

By JIMMY SULLIVAN SPORTS EDITOR

Americans don’t have a very high tolerance for bad football.

When Vince McMahon’s XFL kicked off on Feb. 3, 2001, many were eager to see what it would bring to the table. Many others were suffering from football withdrawal in the days after the Super Bowl and needed their weekly hit. The league’s opening game between the New York/New Jersey Hitmen and the Las Vegas Outlaws drew a 9.5 Nielsen rating, which was considered a smashing success and even scored higher than that year’s Pro Bowl.

However, the quality of play lagged far behind the viewership within minutes. The XFL quickly became the Fyre Festival of sports leagues, with everything from camera shots objectifying cheerleaders to Jesse Ventura sideline interviews and — worst of all for the league’s ratings — horrendous quality of play. The league was a gimmick, and it didn’t take very long for most of the country to realize this. Some wanted to see a legitimate competitor to the NFL, but instead, the league was a complete joke. The league will be making a comeback next year, but its original iteration was cancelled after one season.

18 years later, there are still no direct competitors to the NFL throne.

However, there is a new league for those same people who are currently looking to mollify their football withdrawal syndrome.

The Alliance of American Football (AAF) kicked off this past weekend, with the league’s eight teams playing four games between Saturday and Sunday. At a minimum, the league brings intrigue with its head coaches, with notables such as Steve Spurrier, Mike Martz, Mike Singletary and Dennis Erickson. All of them coached in college, the NFL or both at various points in their careers.

There are a handful of former NFL players in the league, and while they didn’t constitute the best of the best when they played in the league, they do grant the AAF some immediate legitimacy. Also playing in the league is former Fordham quarterback Kevin Anderson, who serves as a reserve quarterback for the Orlando Apollos.

Of course, I heard about all of this

before the league kicked off. So, on Saturday, I decided to see what this new league was all about.

The game I watched featured the San Diego Fleet and the San Antonio Commanders. It aired on CBS, the league’s television rightsholder.

The game’s quality was not great, and to be honest, it looked like an earlyAugust NFL preseason game. San Antonio won 15-6, but the result was immaterial to some other aspects of the game.

One play that went viral early in the San Antonio v. San Diego slugfest was a hit on Fleet quarterback Mike Bercovici. On the play, Bercovici dropped back to throw and never saw San Antonio’s Shawn Washington coming on a blitz. Washington promptly drilled Bercovici with a hit that stripped him of the ball and his helmet. No penalty was called, and San Diego recovered the fumble.

Inevitably, comparisons to the recent state of the NFL rolled in.

Many pointed out that Washington’s hit could be called a penalty in the NFL. For reference, the Chiefs earned a roughing the passer penalty in the AFC Championship Game for touching Tom Brady. These comparisons are slightly unfair; there were penalties called in this weekend’s games and many of them were similar to ones that would be called in the NFL. Moreover, when Bercovici took his tumble, he never went to the sidelines to get his head examined for a possible concussion, which isn’t a good practice. But the point is clear: people want to see a physical (A.K.A. violent) game. On that front, the AAF delivered.

There are perfectly legitimate

questions about what the league will become going forward. Will the AAF continue to house former NFL players and coaches, acting as an alternative spring league to the NFL? Will it make a move toward high school graduates that don’t want to spend three years in college, where they won’t be paid and must risk potential injury while working for free? Will it be a developmental league for younger players and a feeder league for the NFL? Or will it be a combination of some, if not all, of these things?

All of this remains to be seen, and it may be years before we figure it out.

Initially, this new venture reminds me of the United States Football League, which ran from 1982 to 1986. That league has several alumni in the NFL Hall of Fame — Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker and Reggie White, among others — and was a legitimate competitor to the NFL. Unfortunately, the league tried to make a move from the spring to the fall to compete with football’s top league, and it hilariously went under after it won an antitrust lawsuit for all of $3 against the NFL. The attempt to compete directly with the NFL was spearheaded by the New Jersey Generals’ owner, who now works as the owner of the United States’ nuclear codes.

The AAF should avoid such a mistake, as it would be impossible to compete with the NFL and all eight teams are owned centrally by the league itself. However, there’s no shame in being the antidote to football fans’ cravings for the sport in the months after the Super Bowl. That’s the perfect goal for a league that just might pull it off.

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Former Jets quarterback Christian Hackenberg is looking for a second chance in the AAF.

Varsity Calendar HOME AWAY

Follow us on Twitter at @theram_sports

Thursday Feb. 14

Friday Feb. 15

Saturday Feb. 16

Men’s Basketball

Rhode Island 2 p.m.

Women’s Basketball

St. Bonaventure

Softball Baseball

Sunday Feb. 17

Wednesday Feb. 20

1 p.m.

BYU/ UNLV 4/6 p.m.

Seattle/ Utah Valley Hawaii 2 p.m.

12/4:30 p.m.

Texas Texas A&M A&M 7:05 p.m.

3:05 p.m.

Texas A&M 1:05 p.m.

Seton Hall 12 p.m.

Track Squash

Tuesday Feb. 19

Richmond 7 p.m.

Swimming Women’s Tennis

Monday Feb. 18

CSA Team Championship (Fri. vs. NYU)

1:15 p.m. Fri./TBD Sat. and Sun.

Atlantic 10 Championship All Day

SPORTS

February 13, 2019

Softball Starts 2019 With Three Wins in Louisiana

Page 22

Men’s Tennis Success Continues Against Sacred Heart

By DYLAN BALSAMO

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Molly Roark and Madie Auginbaugh led the way for Fordham Softball this past weekend.

By EMMANUEL BERBARI STAFF WRITER

Following a rare second-place preseason selection for six-time defending Atlantic 10 champion Fordham Softball, the Rams opened their season 3-2 at the competitive Ragin’ Cajuns Classic in Louisiana.

Following a loss to 15th-ranked Louisiana on Friday, Fordham notched dominant victories over Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Incarnate Word on Saturday and another win over Incarnate on Sunday before falling flat against California to close out the weekend.

“This weekend gave us a good idea of where we’re at, some good things and things we need to work on,” head coach Melissa Inouye told Fordham Athletics. “We’re looking forward to a few days of practice to work out some kinks before we hit the road again.”

After being one-hit on Friday in a 4-0 loss to Louisiana, the Ram bats came to play in a 10-2 trouncing of Texas A&M Corpus Christi and 7-1 victory over Incarnate Word that was highlighted by a 6-8 combined performance at the dish from junior Madie Aughinbaugh, plus three home runs and eight runs batted in on the day out of senior Molly Roark.

Junior Chelsea Skrepenak and freshman Rachel Hubertus went deep as well to support sophomore Anne Marie Prentiss, who made her first career start in Game 1, tallying an impressive complete game win. Prentiss scattered two runs over five strong innings, fanning three. A six-run fourth inning was good enough to provide the margin for an abbreviated victory in the daycap.

On the other hand, Game 2 belonged to Aughinbaugh, as a three-run first inning that culminated with her two-run double provided the spark. The personal insurance was welcomed by the effective hurler, who went the distance, walked none, struck out seven and permitted one unearned run for her 35th career win.

Roark’s magical front-to-back Saturday effort was capped off in the fourth inning, as she planted a two-out, two-run blast, scoring none other than Aughinbaugh to

put the icing on the cake.

“Two good team wins,” Inouye told Fordham Athletics after her first wins leading the maroon and white. “Anne Marie battled and got out of some jams early and, offensively, we did a good job giving her some breathing room in the third. Molly came up big with the grand slam, but it’s a credit to the players who got on base before her to give her that opportunity. Aughie was in control all game long, as her and Kylie worked well together.”

Prentiss started again in Sunday’s 10-2 tally over Incarnate Word, but was only out there for innings, setting the pace by allowing a lone run on one hit. Freshman Makencie McGrath cruised the Rams to a third straight win, striking out two and allowing only four hits over four-innings of one-run ball.

Backed by a 6-1 lead when she entered, command of the strike zone enabled a dominant win in relief.

Fellow freshman Sarah Taffet had a breakout game, going 3-4 with three runs scored, while sophomore Rachel Hubertus went 2-4 with an RBI, Aughinbaugh drove in four runs in the midst of a two-hit performance and senior Jordy Storm collected two hits and an RBI. The potent offensive attack produced two runs in the first, four in the second, two in the third and two again in the seventh to continue its dominance of Incarnate.

Aughinaugh did not have the same luck in Game 2, surrendering seven runs (six earned) over six innings to RV/RV California.

Fordham’s offense only collected two hits, two from Skrepenak and one from Hubertus, overpowered by a steady attack from one of the nation’s best.

After what should be characterized as a mostly positive weekend, the Rams stay on the road and head to Las Vegas for the Rebel Classic, beginning Thursday against BYU. “Our competitive preseason schedule will definitely help prepare us for conference play,” said Inouye regarding Fordham’s placement in the preseason rankings. “I look forward to our team’s journey this season.”

Fordham Men’s Tennis has made incredible strides since beginning of the spring, and that streak continued this weekend with another victory against Sacred Heart University. The squad entered knowing this meet was an important one, as junior Fabian Hansch Mauritzson has said that this would be an “important match” for them. He called Sacred Heart an “extremely tough opponent” and said the Rams needed “to continue their stride” this weekend. And so they did.

The match began slowly for Fordham as they dropped the doubles point in the opening.

After sophomore Max Green and junior Finn Kemper defeated Omar Abdo and Seiji Hosokowa 7-5, Sacred Heart took the other two matches, with Mauritzson and sophomore Lutwin de Macar dropping to Lucca Casalduc Pla and William Wibmer 7-5 and junior Allen Thornes and freshman Jofre Segarra dropping their bout with Chris Sause and Francisco Del Valle 6-2.

Singles began sluggishly for Fordham as well; after Mauritzson beat Hosokowa 6-2, 7-5, Green lost to Wibmer 6-4, 6-4.

Then, the Rams took control.

De Macar’s 6-2, 5-7, 11-9 defeat of Casalduc Pla evened the score, and the Rams took every match that followed. Kemper

RODERICK PEREZ/THE FORDHAM RAM

Fordham Men’s Tennis continued its hot start to the spring season this past weekend.

shut out Sause with a clean sweep of 6-0, 6-0, and sophomore Alex Makatsaria’s win over Bryan Einstoss clinched the Rams’ win over Sacred Heart. The exclamation point came when junior Jeremy Chung’s 6-3, 6-1 win over Abdo

capped off another successful evening for Fordham.

Up next: a week off for the Rams. They hope to stay on their hot streak, as the week after comes another tough battle with Hofstra comes the week after.

Squash Drops Two of Three in Weekend Before Nationals

By JIMMY SULLIVAN SPORTS EDITOR

The Fordham squash team’s weekend started much better than it finished.

The team defeated New York University before dropping two matches on Sunday to Connecticut College and Wesleyan University to finish the regular season at 17-7. The team struggled in its final tune-up before the College Squash Association team championship next weekend at Yale University.

The weekend started on a high note, as the Rams sent their seniors off in style in their last match of the year on the Lombardi Squash Courts. Fordham toppled NYU 7-2 in a much more hard-fought match than the final tally would suggest.

Fordham fell behind early, as the Violets’ Gabe Bassil defeated Fordham junior William Douglass in three sets in the day’s first individual match. However, freshman Patrick Rodden stepped up and took home a thrilling five-set victory over Ashad Hajela. Rodden’s nail-biter changed the momentum for the Rams, and Sahel Anwar’s squad took the next six individual matches to coast to a 7-2 victory.

As Fordham headed away from home for Sunday’s matches, the team was unable to sustain the success it had achieved the day prior.

Sunday’s match with Connecticut College was only briefly competitive, as Douglass’s opening match went to five sets before he succumbed to Connecticut’s M.D. Jawad. No other Ram came that close to a victory, and the Camels walked to a 9-0 win. Out

WILL JONES/THE FORDHAM RAM

Fordham Squash didn’t have the tune-up it wanted for nationals this past weekend.

of Fordham’s seven losses, four of them came without a Rams player winning his individual match.

And while the second half of Sunday’s doubleheader went slightly better, Fordham did not get a better result. The Rams dropped their second match of the day by a score of 7-2 to Wesleyan University. The news was not all bad for Fordham, as senior Will Pantle and freshman Winthrop Reed both got wins in their individual matches over Yahya Ladiwala and Alex Dreyfus, respectively. But the Rams weren’t able to muster any more individual victories, and the team finished the regular season on a sour note.

“The two losses on Sunday against Connecticut College and Wesleyan were a tough way to end the regular season,” senior Justin Esposito said.

“But I’m proud of how the team played in those matches despite one of our top players being out with an

injury.”

Overall, the performance was a slightly disappointing one, if only because the Rams will be competing in the CSA Team Championship next weekend. It’s also very possible that the team was looking ahead to next weekend, which can be difficult to avoid as the season winds down.

“I think the most important thing for us going into nationals this weekend is to make sure everyone is physically healthy and ready to compete at their highest level,” Esposito said.

“Hopefully we can bring the same intensity and focus we brought to the NYU match Saturday, as it looks like we’ll be playing them again next weekend.”

That being said, Fordham ended its season slightly inauspiciously.

Let’s see how the Rams can rebound at nationals, as their first match is on Friday at 1:15 p.m. against NYU, the team they beat on Saturday.

SPORTS

February 13, 2019

Griffin LaMarche League of Disappointment From Worlds finalist Fnatic coming second to last in the LEC, to World champions Gen.G running 2-4, to the disappointing starts to the season from 100 Thieves, Golden Guardians and Team Solo Mid, the 2019 Spring Split has been off to a rocky start for these teams. With a wild offseason of trades, imports and new teams in the league, Esports’ new guard has swept the rug under the old.

In Europe, all-star team and 2018 Worlds finalist Fnatic have suffered from a very poor beginning to their season, currently sitting at 2-6. The only roster swap they made over the season was bringing in former MAD Lions mid-laner Tim “Nemesis” Lipovšek to replace Rasmus “Caps” Winther. Although it seemed that Nemesis was going to be a downgrade from Caps, that wasn’t the issue that plagued Fnatic.

Overall, the team’s synergy has not met expectations, highlighted by a game where star AD Carry Martin “Rekkles” Larsson went 1/8/4 in a match against FC Schalke 04. While Fnatic has won games against Rogue and exceL Esports, they still could not hold a candle to top teams like G2 Esports, Misfits Gaming, FC Schalke 04 or Team Vitality. Unless Fnatic can turn things around, it is likely they might miss playoffs.

While Korea has been the dawn of Griffin, SANDBOX Gaming and the revitalization of SK Telecom T1, other star teams such as KT Rolster and Gen.G have not been able to keep up with the new guard of the LCK. KT Rolster traded away their star bot laner Kim “Deft” Hyuk-kyu to Kingzone Dragon-X and Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong to SK Telecom T1. Since then, KT Rolster has not had the pressure needed in the bot lane to succeed. Gen.G lost both midlaner Lee “Crown” Min-ho and support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in to North American teams OpTic Gaming and Team Liquid. While Gen.G did acquire jungler Han “Peanut” Wang-ho, Gen.G has not found any success in team fights, and team synergy is at an all time low.

When it was announced that Golden Guardians were to acquire top laner Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell and Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung, high hopes were placed on the team to finish in the top four of the Spring Split. Yet after Week 3, the team sits in eighth place with a record of 2-4.

While Golden Guardians did face off against higher-tier teams such as 100 Thieves and Cloud 9, losses to both Echo Fox and FlyQuest raise red flags about the team. However, GGS did finish Week 3 2-0, beating both OpTic Gaming and upsetting Team Solo Mid, possibly leading to a strong turnaround for the rest of the split. 100 Thieves were another team expected to finish in the Top 3 with two-time World champion Bae “Bang” Jun-sik joining the team, but team synergy is still at a low. 100 Thieves started the season 0-3, and though they turned around their record to sit 3-3 after Week 3, all winning team fights and victories felt indecisive and not clean.

With failure, of course, comes success. G2 Esports, Team Liquid and Griffin remain undefeated in their respective leagues, and new teams and roster swaps on SANDBOX Gaming, Counter Logic Gaming, Misfits Gaming and Origen have added a fresh new breath for the 2019 season.

Page 23

Chris Hennessy

Varsity Scores & Stats Men’s Basketball Fordham UMass (FOR) Portley: 22 PTS, 8 FG, 6 3PT

85 67

Duquesne Fordham (FOR) Honor: 18 PTS, 7 FG, 3 3FG

74 66

Davidson Fordham (FOR) Cobb: 16 PTS, 5 FG, 3 3FG

79 69

Women’s Basketball Saint Louis Fordham (FOR) Downey: 16 PTS, 6 FG, 4 3PT

51 54

George Mason Fordham (FOR) Cavanaugh: 22 PTS, 8 FG, 4 3FG

53 64

Squash NYU Fordham (FOR) Pantle: 11-9, 11-6, 11-4

2 7

Fordham Connecticut College

0 9

Fordham Wesleyan (FOR) Reed: 4-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-7

2 7

Women’s Track David Hemery Valentine Invitational (Individual Results Only) (FOR) Moroz: 1,000m - 2:55.63 - 33rd

Softball Fordham #15 Louisiana W: Ellyson (1-0) L: Aughinbaugh (0-1) (FOR) Aughinbaugh: 1-3, 1 H

Men’s Track David Hemery Valentine Invitational (Individual Results Only) (FOR) Sullivan: 800m - 1:53.94 - 46th

Fordham A&M Corpus-Christi W: Prentiss (1-0) L: Ruel (0-1) (FOR): Roark: 2-4, 2 HR, 6 RBI

Women’s Swimming & Diving NYU Invitational (FOR) Theodoulou: 100 Freestyle - 54.08 - 1st 500 Freestyle - 5:18.17 - 4th Men’s Tennis Fordham Penn Sacred Heart Fordham (FOR) Kemper: 6-0, 6-0 Women’s Tennis Fordham NJIT (FOR) Quenville: 7-5, 6-3

Incarnate Word Fordham W: Aughinbaugh (1-1) L: Hoffma (0-1) (FOR): Skrepenak: 2-4, HR, SB, RBI 0 7 2 5

3 4

9 0

Freshman

Junior

Men’s Basketball

Softball In Softball’s opening week, Roark stood out, hitting a whopping .313 over the 5 games with a .875 slugging percentage. In 16 at bats, she had 5 hits, 3 of them being home runs. She also scored four runs while driving in another 8.

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

• Li Earns Recognition for Tennis

The A-10 Women’s Tennis Rookie of the Week honors for the first week of February were announced on Feb. 6 and awarded to outstanding Fordham freshman Nicole Li. The team had one match over the week’s span, a 7-0 victory over Quinnipiac, and Li led the way for the squad in both singles and doubles play. The fifth set of singles saw her defeat Layla Rodriguez 6-3, 6-0, and in doubles Li teamed up with fresman Genevieve Quenville to win third doubles 6-4 over Stephanie Yanosov and Alexandra Mircea.

1 7

California Fordham W: Conley (1-0) L: Aughinbaugh (1-2) (FOR) Skrepenak: 2-3

Molly Roark

Fordham University recognized and honored 416 student-athletes this weekend with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher at their annual Breakfast of Champions. The 416 invited and in attendance represented more than 79 percent of Fordham’s student-athletes.

The event was held in the McGinley Center and was sponsored by the Fordham Athletic Department with assistance from the Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) and the Office of Academic Advising.

10 2

10 2

Nick Honor

• Breakfast for Student-Athletes

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Fordham Incarnate Word W: McGrath (1-0) L: Rodr (0-1) (FOR) Taffet: 3-4, 2B, 3 R

Athletes of the Week

Earning the A-10’s Men’s Basketball Rookie of the Week, Honor scored 36 points, had 11 assists and even made 7 buckets from beyond the arc in a week’s span, playing in Fordham’s Wednesday win against Massachusetts and their Saturday loss to Duquesne.

Trade Deadline Targets for

• Goulding Named A-10 Honoree

Mary Goulding, a senior and captain of Women’s Basketball, was this week named A-10 Player of the Week. This is her second time winning it in this season and in her career. In the Ram’s two games this week, Goulding stood out individually, averaging a double-double with 15.5 points, 10.0 rebounds (6.0 offensive), 2.0 assists, 2.0 steals and 0.5 blocks. Head coach Stephanie Gaitley said of the honor, “Mary is having an incredible senior year. Team success equals individual recognition and Mary deserves it!”

• Honor Honored Again

For the fourth time this season, Men’s Basketball freshman guard Nick Honor, a graduate of Lake Highland in Orlando, Fla., was named the Atlantic 10’s Rookie of the Week. This week saw the Rams play two games, and Honor shined in both. In their win over Massachusetts on Wednesday, he had 18 points, going 4-5 from three and assisting on six other buckets. Honor also had 18 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in the team’s loss to Duquesne on Saturday.

– Compiled by Dylan Balsamo

New York Area Teams The NHL trade deadline is less than two weeks away, and all local teams find themselves in a unique position as Feb. 25 approaches.

Islanders: Let’s start at the top of the standings with the first-place New York Islanders. To this point, there have been no names connected to the Islanders as trade targets, but they need to be buyers if they want this season to extend deep into the spring. The Islanders have found themselves with a much better record than they anticipated at this stage of the season, and general manager Lou Lamoriello most likely did not anticipate buying at the deadline, but he has to.

For years, the Islanders have been the definition of mediocrity, with a few bright seasons mixed in where they did not make significant deals at the deadline. The power play has been putrid recently and adding a player like Wayne Simmonds from Philadelphia would be a welcomed fresh face to the front line of the Islanders. They must buy.

Rangers: Mats Zuccarello’s and Kevin Hayes’ Rangers careers are winding down. Everyone has known that this would be the end for the fan favorites, as the rebuilding Rangers look to gain prospects and draft picks for two forwards in their prime. This is not up for discussion, but what is debatable is whether forward Chris Kreider will be traded. While Hayes and Zuccarello will be free agents come season’s end, Kreider will not hit the open market until after the 2019-20 season. Kreider likely will be looked at by teams who need a goal scoring forward, but the Rangers by no means have to trade him.

While general manager Jeff Gorton and ownership have stressed the importance of developing the younger players on the roster and in the system, they should not just trade Kreider to the best offer they have this time around. If they do not get the package they want, Kreider will likely remain a Ranger until either the summer or next trade deadline.

Devils: The Devils have followed up a playoff appearance with a dreadful season, finding themselves in the basement of the Metropolitan division and second to last in the East. They have already traded Brian Boyle to Nashville, and it is unlikely that he will be the only departure. Forwards Marcus Johansson and Drew Stafford, as well as goalie Keith Kinkaid, will all garner calls from teams currently in the playoff race. Kinkaid is the least likely to get moved, as teams don’t find themselves in the playoff race this late in the season without solid goaltending. If a team was looking for a goalie, he would be the second option behind Sergei Bobrovsky of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Rumors have Johansson connected to his former team, the Washington Capitals, but Stafford does not have any potential suitors yet. The Devils will most definitely be the least active local team at the deadline, as reigning MVP Taylor Hall has been injured and the team hopes that his return brings back the spark they had last year.

The deadline should be an exciting time in the NHL with potential moves that will change the playoff picture, including in the metro area.

Page 24

SPORTS

February 13, 2019

The Fordham Ram Fordham Women’s Basketball Steals Win Over George Mason

By JACK MCLOONE

SPORTS EDITOR EMERITUS

Stealing a win implies snatching a late victory that you maybe do not deserve. This was not the case for Fordham Women’s Basketball on Sunday against the George Mason Patriots. In that instance, it meant generating 15 steals — the most since 2013 — en route to a 64-53 Fordham win. It was the fourth straight win for the Rams, who are now 17-8, including 8-3 in Atlantic 10 play. They are now third in the conference.

All but one of the Rams who appeared in this game recorded at least one steal, and the Patriots overall committed 20 turnovers.

The stat sheet for the Rams is a weird one in comparison: they had fewer turnovers (10), assists (13), fouls (13) and just as many defensive rebounds as they did steals. They scored 21 points off of said turnovers.

Despite the impressive turnover numbers, the Rams struggled when it came to actually defending shot attempts, with George Mason getting a number of open looks.

The Patriots shot over 46 percent from the field. However, they still scored 10 points below their season average, a goal head coach Stephanie Gaitley has for her team every game. Ever the defensive perfectionist, she was not completely happy with the performance “We were not as locked into individual strengths and weaknesses as we should have been, which attributed to high shooting percentages,” said Gaitley. “However, our team

MACKENZIE CRANNA/THE FORDHAM RAM

Junior guard Bre Cavanaugh scored a game-high 22 points for the Rams en route to a 64-53 win over George Mason. defense in the half court was outstanding which resulted in 15 steals.”

The Rams started the game behind, with the Patriots hitting their first four shots in the first two minutes, taking an 8-4 lead. A minute later, the Rams tied it at 10. Two minutes after that, senior forward Mary Goulding hit a jumper in the paint to put the Rams up 12-11.

The game never tied again after that, and it was the start of a 9-0 run to close the quarter up 19-11.

With three minutes left in the second quarter, the Patriots whittled the Rams’ lead down to three, 26-23. The Rams answered with a barrage of threes, hitting four of five attempts from deep and holding the Patriots to just three points over that span to take a 38-27 lead into the half.

Three of those deep balls came from redshirt sophomore guard Bre Cavanaugh, who seems to have finally snapped out of a long funk. She scored a game-high of 22 points on 8-19 shooting, including 4-11 from three. While it still was not a particularly efficient outing, she played with much more confidence than she has in the past few weeks, driving with authority and not hesitating to shoot.

“It was great to see Bre playing with her normal high level of confidence. We had a few talks and she did some extra shooting to help her with getting lots of repetition,” said Gaitley. “Hey, when you have college courses you need to study to be successful. It’s no different with a sport; you need to put in extra time to your craft as well.”

The second half was a more even affair, quite literally, with both sides scoring 26 points over the final two quarters, allowing the Rams to take the doubledigit win, their third of this winning streak and sixth in A-10 play.

Goulding continued her recent offensive outburst, scoring a season-high 19 points, also trying her career-high and pulling down seven rebounds. She also notched four steals, a team high. Goulding averaged a double-double over the Rams last two games, earning her A-10 Player of the Week honors for the second time this season.

The Rams played in front of a full and pink crowd thanks to the intersection of three different events: Alumni Day, International Women in Sports Day and Think Pink Day.

“I think the kids are motivated for game day in general but between Alumni Day, Women in Sports day and playing for loved ones battling cancer, the team had much to be motivated for,” said Gaitley.

After rebounding from a skid where they lost three out of four with their recent three-game homestand, the Rams are headed back on the road starting Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Davidson. The Rams lost a close game at home against the Wildcats on Jan. 27, 60-56, thanks to a 23-point fourth quarter for the visiting team. Davidson is currently second in the A-10.

The Rams will follow-up that game with another road game on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 1 p.m. against St. Bonaventure. The Bonnies are currently 10th in the A-10.

Men’s Basketball Gets First Conference Win of Season, Loses to Davidson

By ANDREW POSADAS

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Coming into last night’s game against Davidson College, Fordham Men’s Basketball had finally won their first Atlantic 10 conference game last Wednesday. Dubbed the “Amherst Assault,” Fordham dominated the University of Massachusetts, 85-67. Junior guard Antwon Portley led the way with 22 points in a much needed victory.

The Rams went on to host Duquesne University this past weekend. It looked like Fordham was on the verge of their second straight conference win. Sophomore forward Ivan Raut made a three-pointer in the corner and was fouled before halftime, which resulted in a four-point play. Fordham took full momentum of the game and extended their lead to 16 at halftime, 40-24.

Up 51-33 with a little over 14 minutes remaining, the Dukes responded with two huge runs in the second half. Duquesne went on a 17-3 run in a five-minute span, cutting Fordham’s lead down to four, 54-50. The Rams would regain their composure to extend their lead back to nine, but their offense would suffer a late drought.

Through the final seven minutes of regulation, Duquesne outscored Fordham 24-7.

Fordham did not recover and

MACKENZIE CRANNA/THE FORDHAM RAM

Despite losing two straight games, Fordham finally won its first Atlantic 10 conference game against UMass. would ultimately fall to Duquesne, 74-66. In the postgame press conference, head coach Jeff Neubauer said that while their win against UMass was “the best we’ve played all year,” the team played even better in its first half against Duquesne.

Neubauer credited Duquesne’s press defense in the second half for Fordham’s offensive struggles

down the stretch.

Despite the close loss, Fordham looked to continue their solid play against Davidson at home on Tuesday night. It was a defensive battle at the start, with both teams needing almost three minutes to score its first points. A layup by Freshman Nick Honor with a little over 10 minutes gave Fordham a 14-12

lead.

It would be the last time the Rams would lead for the rest of the game.

Davidson star guard Kellen Grady led all scorers with 15 first half points while Ivan Raut had a team-high nine points for the Rams.

Only down single digits in the

final minute before halftime, Davidson guard Luke Frampton hit two three-pointers in the final 40 seconds to extend their lead at the half, 36-25.

The Rams shot under 40 percent in the first half and were outrebounded by Davidson, 19-15.

In the second half, Fordham seemed to find a rhythm on both sides of the court. Freshman guard Jalen Cobb made a layup to cut Davidson’s lead to five with 15 minutes remaining, 38-33.

Unexpectedly, junior forward Chuba Ohams was ejected shortly after receiving two technical fouls in the following minute. Davidson would take advantage of Ohams’ absence in the paint and held a double-digit lead throughout.

Fordham would make one last stand, going on a 10-0 run to decrease Davidson’s lead to seven heading into the final four minutes.

However, the run would be for naught. The Wildcats were able to close out a conference road victory, beating Fordham 77-69. Honor and fellow freshman Jalen Cobb both scored 16 points, in a losing effort.

The loss now drops Fordham to 10-14 and 1-10 in the Atlantic 10 conference. On the bright side, Men’s Basketball has officially won more games this season than they did last. The Rams continue conference play this Saturday afternoon at the University of Rhode Island.