Volume 95, Issue 6

The Fordham Ram Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 Volume 95, Issue 6

FordhamRam.com F dh R

Marchh 66, 2013 M

Former Ram Editor Earns Art McGinley Honor

Congresman Kucinich Goes Beyond ‘Just Politics’

By MICHAEL CAVANAUGH

By KRIS VENEZIA

CONTRIBUITING WRITER

STAFF WRITER

Fordham University alumnus Bob Ehalt, FCRH ’78, has been selected as this year's recipient of the Art McGinley award, which is given each year to a member of the Connecticut Sports Writers' Alliance for their contributions to the organization and to the craft of journalism.

Ehalt, who has been working in the competitive field of journalism for over 40 years, grew up in Queens, N.Y., but spent the latter half of his teenage years in the Bronx, receiving his high school education in the newly-renovated Hughes Hall, then the home of Fordham Preparatory School.

After graduating from "the Prep," Ehalt went on to attend Fordham University, a new school in a not-so-new environment.

His first impulse was to join the radio station, WFUV, but after being told that there were no available positions, he found his way into the offices of The Ram. His illustrious career as a mem-

Former Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich came to the Rose Hill Campus on Monday, and he had some inspiring words for students.

“You see something you want to get involved in, don't wait, and you don't have to wait because you're in your twenties or your late teens, go for it,” Kucinich said. “The magic is in you.”

Kucinich got off to an early start in his political career, running, unsuccessfully albeit, for election in the Cleveland City Council at the age of 21 while still enrolled at Cleveland State University. At the age of 23, however, he won a seat in the city council by a margin of 16 votes. He advised students interested in pursuing political careers to start by getting involved in small government before moving up the ladder.

“I started locally, and that prepared me to be involved nationally and globally because you learned the give and take,” he said. “People who come out of the box and start in Congress, that's a tough thing to do because the

SEE EHALT, PAGE 4

KATE DOHENY/THE RAM

Students participate in a live auction where they have the chance to bid on top prizes, such as housing lottery slots.

Annual RHA ‘Series’ Benefits Sandy Victims

By KELLY KULTYS NEWS EDITOR

Residence Halls Association’s (RHA) “A Series of Fortunate Events” came to a close late Saturday evening, March 2, as the final prize was auctioned off.

The auction was the final of five events that spanned approximately one month and included Poker Night, Quizzo, beer tasting and the Talent Showcase.

“It went well, not as well as other ones, with snow and the Greek Night, so not as many people as years past, but we still had a good

‘Habemus Papam’ Tackles Historic Time in the Church

By MARIA PAPPAS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Tuesday, Monsignor Quinn held a discussion regarding the process of selecting a new pope.

The event, “Habemus Papam,” literally translating to “We have a pope,” was held in the Ignatius Loyola Room and was attended by students of various religious backgrounds. These students expressed a common interest in learning about and discussing this historic time for the Roman Catholic Church.

The papal transition following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI is in this issue

Opinion

Page 7

Administration Limits Free Speech on Campus

Arts

Page 11

Athena Film Festival Celebrates Strong Women

Sports

See Insert

2013 Spring Sports Begin at Fordham

already in progress. It is speculated that a conclave will be announced in the next month. 115 cardinals are charged with choosing the next pope, and in the past have taken anywhere from a few days to three years to do so. The copious amount of media attention that the resignation has received in the past few weeks is due to the fact that the resignation is unparalleled — a pope has not resigned from this office for over six centuries.

In his discussion, Quinn brought up the canon of Christian law, which has surprisingly little written in it about the election of the pope.

Usually, elections follow the death of the previous pope; thus some of the laws regarding election include informing the public of the pope’s death and holding a funeral before the new pope can be elected. Msgr.

Quinn described pope Benedict’s resignation as a gift to the church because the election will not be surrounded by sadness.

During the discussion, many students expressed excitement at the fact that we are witnessing history in the making.

Robert Raffaele, FCRH ’15 expressed great interest in attending the event.

“I think it’s a historical time in the church and I think that talking about it is a way for us all to learn about it SEE POPE, PAGE 4

turnout and raised a lot of money,” Vice President of RHA, John Treseler, GSB ’14, said.

“A lot of alumni, especially RHA alumni attended the event,” Maria Buck, FCRH ’15, RHA treasurer in Finlay Hall, said.

The night included both a live and silent auction. In the live part, the most popular auction prize of the night was breakfast for four with Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, which sold for over $800.

Other top prizes were the top two spots in the housing lottery, which went for a few hundred dol-

lars each.

For the silent auction, many clubs and organizations on Arthur Avenue donated various prizes.

“There was a Windows Surface, which was being auctioned off and it had a ton of tickets in it,” Treseler said. “That one had clearly the most in it.”

Silent auction prizes included four tickets to a New York Yankees game from USG, items for Spring Weekend from CAB, tickets to Mimes and Mummers’ spring show and “cut the line” passes from FET. SEE RHA, PAGE 2

SEE KUNCINICH, PAGE 2

Hustling to Make Acting Dream a Reality, Landing Role on ‘Girls’ in the Process

By CONNOR RYAN EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Since appearing on a recentlyaired episode of the criticallyacclaimed HBO series “Girls,” Jeff O’Donnell, GSB ’14, has caught the eyes of many around campus.

“This week has been a little crazy,” O’Donnell said in an interview Monday evening. “I’ve gotten some phone calls from people who’ve seen the show.”

The scene O’Donnell may most be remembered for is one that could have come straight out of a cautionary commercial about the dangers of driving drunk or high.

It is a warm summer night and the car radio is booming. The road is windy and the boyish driver erratically swerves to the left and right as he teases the double-yellow line.

The car’s three other passengers innocently pass around an empty can of whipped cream in hopes of getting high.

Even the driver, Tyler, who is played by O’Donnell, sucks in some compressed air.

In the backseat are actors Lena Dunham (who created and stars in the show as Hannah) and Nick Lashaway (who plays Frank). Next to O’Donnell is actress Jemima Kirke (who plays Jessa).

“It was a little intimidating at first

ELIZABETH ZANGHI/THE RAM

Jeff O’Donnell, an aspiring actor, is studying marketing in the Gabelli School of Business.

because right when I got there, we did the car scene,” O’Donnell said.

“I was the leader of that scene, on my first day on set, with all these real, established actors and actresses.”

O’Donnell appeared on screen for roughly two minutes in two scenes of the half-hour episode, entitled “Video Games,” which first aired on Feb. 24. It was the seventh episode of season two. And it was the first time he appeared on “Girls.”

“This is probably the biggest thing I’ve done,” O’Donnell said.

He has appeared in over twenty

television commercials and print advertisements for companies such as MasterCard, Comcast, Disney and Powerade. O’Donnell has also appeared on MTV’s show, “Totally Clueless.”

Last summer, O’Donnell was on a train from his home in New Jersey to Manhattan to meet a friend and see Ghost the Musical when he found out that he had landed a role on “Girls.” It was June 27, a Wednesday.

Prior to that moment, O’Donnell had attended one audition and two callbacks with the show’s casting SEE GIRLS, PAGE 3

NEWS

Page 2

SECURITY BRIEFS Feb. 20 Alumni Court South 12-6 p.m.

A student placed a red Shipley Hamlos shirt with a monogram valued at $185 in an Alumni Court South Hall dryer. The student returned five hours later to discover the shirt missing. Security was promptly notified.

Feb. 22-24 Fordham Off-Campus Housing A student living in non-Fordham, off-campus housing reported that an unknown person damaged his bedroom door and that items were disturbed. The student further reported that he had a strained relationship with his roommates, but he discovered no theft and declined to report the case to the NYPD. Feb. 23 Hoffman St. 2:20 a.m.

As a student and his guest were walking down Hoffman Avenue, two males approached them and removed the guest’s silver watch.

The student and guest unsuccessfully fought the perpetrators, and the guest suffered minor injuries.

The student was left unharmed.

The NYPD is currently investigating the case.

Feb. 24 Jerome Ave & East Fordham Rd. 1:15 p.m.

A student left a northbound 4 subway train at the Fordham Road station located at the intersection of East Fordham Road and Jerome Avenue. She discovered that two males were following her but did not notice that her iPhone was taken from her shoulder bag, which she had believed to be zippered. She did not directly observe the pickpocketing incident.

March 2 Howl at the Moon Bar 3 a.m.

A student reported her black purse and coat, valued at $1,000, were stolen. The purse contained her credit card, Fordham ID, driver’s license and iPhone.

The student later found her coat but the purse had been taken by an unknown person. NYPD was notified and is investigating the case. The student also used the Find Your Phone application and tracked her phone to a location within the Bronx vicinity.

— Compiled by Girish Swaminath Assistant News Editor

March 6, 2013

Kucinich Offers Motivational Message of “Don’t Wait” FROM KUCINICH, PAGE 1

chances for mistakes when you are on that high wire are really great, and when you fall from there, you don't often recover.”

Kucinich went on to become mayor of Cleveland and then served as an Ohio Representative from 1997 to January of this year. The Cleveland native also ran in the Democratic Presidential Primary twice, in 2004 and 2008.

The Fordham University College Democrats invited Kucinich to come and speak as their annual keynote speaker.

Jack O’Rourke, FCRH ’15, member of the College Democrats, said he felt motivated by Kucinich’s presentation. “[Dennis Kucinich’s] whole message on how we can be the change that you want to see in the world is really appealing to me and other people,” O’Rourke said. “Not even just Democrats or Republicans, but just any young person looking to make a change.”

Kucinich touched on various hot political issues on Monday, including the Iraq War, the Federal Reserve’s role in the economy and the future for social security. As congressman, he voted against the Iraq War and, in 2008, he made efforts to impeach

LI YANG/THE RAM

Kucinich appealed to students who enjoyed his firm and unorthodox stances on controversial issues, like the Iraq War.

President George W. Bush for the invasion of the Gulf State.

Kucinich said he was against the war from the very beginning.

“I saw us moving towards a war that was based on lies,” he said. “I did my research like you guys would do for a term paper… I saw that Iraq had no involvement in 9/11 and there was no proof that Iraq was moving to attack the United States.”

O’Rourke said he was on the same page as the former Congressman.

“I agree with what [Dennis Kucinich] said, especially with what he said about the Iraq War being sold to us as a lie,” O’Rourke said. “Some people might think it is a terrible

fringe position, but I liked what he had to say.”

Gordon Lynch, FCRH’15, member of the Fordham University College Democrats, said he liked that Kucinich was open, honest and passionate.

“He was very energetic very emphatic about his stances and he was kind of unorthodox about his points of view for a Democrat,” Lynch said.

“He got really in-depth on the issues, and he took a side that is not usually taken.”

After the end of his term in January, Kucinich moved on to become a political analyst for FOX News. He is a regular contributor for programs

such as “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Your World with Neal Cavuto.”

FOX News has been labeled by some as a conservative network, but Kucinich said he enjoys the job because he gets to offer his opinion on the issues.

“I'm in a position where I can talk about a different view as to what is the ‘perceived wisdom’ that comes out of FOX,” he said. “I'm a person in national politics, if you can't go up against some of the best conservative right wingers, you don't deserve to be in the business.”

The Fordham University College Democrats hold meetings in Dealy Hall every Monday.

Beer Tasting, Talent Showcase Draw Large Crowds FROM RHA, PAGE 1

Some of the other events enjoyed even more success. Beer Tasting was one of the most popular of the RHA’s philanthropic activities of the month. Dagger John’s, the location of the event was at capacity. Students were even turned away at the door.

“It went great,” Treseler said.

“We had the guys from the Bronx Beer Hall come over. We tried six beers and raised close to $700 that night. It was a lot of fun.”

Another well-attended event was the Talent Showcase.

“How it works is you can pay for a vote; that’s how we raise money,” Treseler said.

The performances at the Showcase consisted of a wide variety of acts, many of which performed at the Sound Out Sandy Concert held in the fall.

Among those performing were the usual favorites, including Flava and the B-Sides. Others, including student performers, such as the improv team of Will Ganss, FCRH ’14, and Tara Minogue, FCRH ’15, also performed.

“I liked the bands and groups more than the individual [perfor-

KATE DOHENY/THE RAM

The band The Keating Steps took home the top prize in the Talent Showcase.

mances],” Erica DePalma, FCRH ’15, said.

“There was actually this group of seniors, Keating Steps, who won by one vote over Flava,” Treseler said. “It was a lot of fun to have the votes coming in. It looked really nice in there, especially with the lights. We had blue lights and purple lights around.”

“The talent was fierce at the Talent Showcase, but I voted for Keating Steps because they had a

great combination of artists,” Brittany Tobin, GSB ’15, said.

The Talent Showcase profits, however, went to a different organization, instead of the hurricane relief efforts.

“This one went to the B+ Foundation,” Treseler said. “It’s a group which works with pediatric cancer that Betsy Carter (FCRH ’13) put us in touch with.”

The rest of the proceeds were donated to the University’s Sandy

Relief Fund, which helps sponsor its Sandy Saturday outings and donations to the damaged communities.

Individual RHA residence hall boards also helped to raise money for Sandy relief.

“Queen’s Court did a candy gram sale, which was pretty big,” Treseler said. “They raised over $130. During the course of the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, you could write a note and attach it to a piece of candy. The RHA members delivered them on Valentine’s Day.” Another fundraiser coming up is one in Tierney Hall, run by “tri-board,” which is the RHA members from Finlay, O’Hare and Tierney Halls.

“They’re doing their own miniauction, which is like ‘spend a day with Jeff Coltin (FCRH ’15) at WFUV,’” Treseler said.

The proceeds from this event will also be donated to Sandy relief.

Next up on the agenda for RHA is the Under the Tent dance, held during Spring Weekend. The official theme will be announced within the coming weeks.

This Week at Fordham Wednesday March 6

Thursday March 7

Thursday March 7

Thursday March 7

Tuesday March 19

Career Services Diversity Networking Banquet

Immigration Court Observation Project Training

Fashion Panel and Networking Event

Good Spirits.

Good Cause.

Former U.S. Accounting Watchdog Presentation

McGinley Center Ballroom, 6 p.m.

Lincoln Center Campus, 12:30 p.m.

12th Floor Lounge, Lincoln Center, 6 p.m.

Edith Guldi Platt Atrium, Silent Auction, 6 p.m.

Live Auction, 7:30 p.m.

Keating Third, 5:15 p.m.

The banquet will feature top employers, and students will be able to meet and mingle with them while learning about and highlighting their own diversity. Seating and space are limited, so RSVP as soon as possible.

If you are interested in immigraStudents interested in fashion are tion or human rights, consider beFSSF’s 22nd Annual Public Serinvited to attend this networking coming an Immigration Court Obvice Auction will play a significant event and meet representatives from server. All are welcome to attend the role in raising money for student Gucci, Longchamp, Tommy Hilfiger training session and learn more about grants. To buy tickets online or doand more. Be sure to dress to imthe aims of the IOCP. Pizza will be nate items for auction, visit fssf.org. press! served.

For more campus events, visit FordhamRam.com

Tom Ray, a former high-ranking watchdog of the accounting industry for the U.S. government, is giving a talk about his work in making sure that the missteps of giant corporations get noticed. The event is free and the dress code is business casual.

NEWS

March 6, 2013

GSB Student Lands Role on HBO’s ‘Girls’ FROM GIRLS, PAGE 1

director of Jennifer Euston. On Thursday he was in costume fittings and on Friday he was on set in Long Island.

O’Donnell filmed both in Long Island and Westchester, for a total of one and a half weeks (with some days off ).

“They put us up in a hotel, so I was ordering room service,” O’Donnell said. “They had parties for us in the hotel bar with karaoke — it was fun.”

While working on set, O’Donnell said he greatly enjoyed talking with his castmates — particularly Dunham.

“She’s awesome,” O’Donnell said. “She is one of the coolest people I’ve ever met — totally creative, [she] totally let us do whatever we wanted to do with the part and the script. We were allowed to make up our own lines after the script was over. We did a lot of [improvisation], which they used in the show.”

Because his scenes were filmed so many times, O’Donnell said he was not sure what would ultimately be included in the episode and what would fall short of the final cut.

The first time he saw the episode was when he gathered 20 friends for a viewing party in his Salice-Conley dorm room when it premiered.

“I was actually really nervous watching it,” O’Donnell said. “I had never seen the final product so I didn’t know what edits and which cuts of takes they were going to use.

Very suspenseful.”

Brendan Francolini, GSB ’14 and vice president of Operations in Fordham’s United Student Government (USG), said he sees acting in O’Donnell’s future.

“Jeff is one of those people that, when you meet him, you just get this sense that he’s going to be famous,” Francolini said. “He just really fits being on camera and I am so proud of him.”

Aileen Reynolds, FCRH ’14 and executive vice president of USG, similarly expressed a sense of pride when talking about O’Donnell’s recent role.

“Thinking my friend who I went to Umai with on Arthur Avenue was also in upstate New York with Lena Dunham filming for HBO was really cool,” Reynolds said.

O’Donnell said that along with his friends, his family was excited that he scored the role, but given the sometimes explicit nature of the show, “my mom was a little worried about the content of what I’d have to do.” He later added, “She was happy I kept my clothes on.”

The Monday morning after the episode aired, producers from the soap opera “All My Children” called O’Donnell’s manager and he was in for an audition Monday afternoon.

O’Donnell said the producers from The Hangover had also called.

As he pursues his passion for acting, O’Donnell said it sometimes gets difficult balancing his classwork and auditions in Manhattan.

He commutes into the city for two or three auditions every week.

O’Donnell said last week was busy with four.

“Mondays I’m in class from 10 a.m. to 9:15 p.m. and for the past

Page 3 FORDHAM IN THE BRONX

President Diaz Ushers in a ‘New Bronx’

three or four weeks a lot of my auditions have been on Monday,” O’Donnell said. “I’ve been missing class and coming to class late, but I’ve been pretty good at juggling it.”

Despite his strong passion for the arts and his future goal of acting (on TV, on stage and in movies), O’Donnell is a marketing major in the Gabelli School of Business.

“I decided it was most practical

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz discussed job gains and increased tourism in his most recent Borough Address.

By JEFFREY COLTIN BRONX CORRESPONDENT

COURTESY OF JEFF O’DONNELL

O’Donnell with Lena Dunham on set.

to get a business degree in case [acting] doesn’t work out,” O’Donnell said. “I wanted a back-up plan so I’m not a starving artist. It’s really hard to work consistently and make it [as an actor], so I wanted something to fall back on.”

At one point last year, O’Donnell said, he had just been turned down roles on four big commercials (one for Best Buy, another for Comcast) and was questioning the future of his acting career.

“I didn’t get either [commercial role] and it was in the span of two weeks and I was just real frustrated, but the highs definitely make up for the lows.”

Despite the many rejections, O’Donnell said that he remains confident and optimistic in his acting abilities and hopes his “Girls” credit will prove to be valuable going forward.

“I’ve always had a pretty good amount of confidence — you need to in this business because there’s just so much rejection,” O’Donnell said. “But [my part on “Girls”] made it real. I still don’t think it’s a real thing sometimes.”

Aside from juggling auditions and homework, O’Donnell sings at Fordham’s 9 p.m. Sunday masses and has appeared on stage in various Fordham productions.

When asked what he will remember most about filming “Girls,” O’Donnell returned to his driving scene. “[During filming breaks] I had to reverse up this huge hill — multiple times,” O’Donnell said. “And I was like, ‘So help me God if anything happens or if I crash, I am in deep s--t.’”

Turns out, his driving skills did him proud.

“While I was doing it I made [the cast] laugh, which I think is a big accomplishment, especially making Lena laugh because she’s like the ‘Queen of Comedy’ these days,” he said. “It was a good night.”

Food cart vendors are not a particularly powerful group of people. Neither are human billboards, nor pedicab drivers.

So it was quite an insult when Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. ranked below all of them in the Village Voice’s list of “The 100 Most Powerless New Yorkers.” Diaz was even more powerless than “the graphic logo of the man on the bike in bike lanes,” according to the Voice.

Borough presidents in New York City do not hold much political power by most accounts, but they play important roles as top advocates for their boroughs.

Diaz loves the Bronx more than anyone, and was in full “cheerleader-in-chief ” mode for the State of the Borough Address on Feb. 19.

This was Diaz’s fourth State of the Borough, a yearly address highlighting the Bronx’s successes, pointing out its flaws and describing the next steps.

The address is similar to a hyper-localized version of the President’s annual State of the Union with slightly less clapping.

Diaz spoke at James Monroe High School in the Soundview

section of the Bronx, one block off the 6 train.

Diaz spoke of the Bronx “seeing significant progress” as the borough moves forward in every way. Diaz cited job gains as a part of this progress, pointing towards increased tourism as a way to swing jobs to the borough.

The Bronx has launched a new tourism publication aimed at bringing in visitors from across the region.

Diaz also proudly mentioned the construction of the Bronx’s first-ever name brand hotel: a Marriott Residence Inn opening at the Hutchinson Metro Center, located less than four miles from Rose Hill in the Morris Park neighborhood.

It is all part of Diaz’s dream of a “New Bronx.”

“At every turn, the ‘New Bronx’ has seen dramatic improvement,” Diaz said. “Yet we are still fighting the stereotypes of a previous generation. It is time we bury the idea that the Bronx is unsafe.”

Diaz said the Bronx has seen a dramatic reduction in violent crime. In 2012 the borough saw its lowest murder rate since 1963.

He continued with a call to all Bronxites: “When individuals or groups seek to invoke the past to describe our hometown, let them

know it is not the truth.”

Stephanie Colombini, FCRH ‘14, attended the State of the Borough address as a reporter for WFUV News, Fordham’s on-campus radio station. She said while Diaz never mentioned Fordham, he did focus heavily on education, and “really bringing the Bronx up to par with the other boroughs and the rest of the country… [by] getting test scores up, getting a higher graduation rate amongst high school students.”

“Fordham essentially is the success story of the Bronx; that is the perfect example of where there are people who are getting higher education, who are getting jobs, who are jumping into the technology world,” Colombini said.

Borough President Diaz, who plans to run for another four-year term this November, closed his speech with a pledge: “We must push forward. During the next four years we will — together as ‘One Bronx,’ as a ‘New Bronx’ — bring about meaningful change to our borough.”

Colombini agrees. Growing up in Yonkers, she said she has always been able to appreciate the Bronx in a positive light. Still, revamping the Bronx’s image is very much a “necessity.”

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

The Bronx Court House stands as a symbol for the “New Bronx” that was promised by Borough President Ruben Diaz.

NEWS

Page 4

March 6, 2013

Resignation Ehalt’s Background Paved Way for Award-Winning Career activity board to be completely lationship, warned him that the some professional sports. This exhausted. Shortly afterwards, administration planned to exexperience, according to Ehalt, of The Ram lasted from 1976 Shows Pope’s ber it was discovered that one of the pel each and every one of them gave him “a good foundation” for to 1978, during which time he assistant deans was taking loans should a new copy of The Ram be the rest of his career. acted as the political affairs ediHumanity from one of the workers in the printed.

He was later hired at the Stantor.

FROM EHALT, PAGE 1

FROM POPE, PAGE 1

together,” Raffaele said.

A portion of the discussion focused on the name of the pope.

Each cardinal who is appointed to the position chooses a new name for himself, usually taken from a previous pope whom he wishes to emulate. Pope Benedict XVI may change his name to Pope Benedict XVI Emeritus or simply return to his previous name, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Quinn, however, speculates that he will choose the name Pope Benedict XVI Emeritus in order to express his retirement.

The media attention that the resignation has garnered will undoubtedly continue until the new election.

Quinn, however, reminded the audience of the evolutionary nature of the church — rules change based on the situation. He also stressed the humanity of the Pope throughout his lecture.

Gabrielle Vella, GSB ’15, another student in attendance, agreed with this point.

“The pope’s resignation reminds people worldwide of his human nature,” Vella said. “He has blessed the church with his honesty and sincerity and taught not only Catholics, but also people of all religions, a lesson.”

Quinn closed by reminding the audience that a cardinal who goes into the election expecting to become a Pope will not become one, stressing the importance of humility for whoever may become the next Pontiff.

While his senior year was marked by greater duties as an editor and contributor to the school paper, Ehalt would also intern with The Trib, an opportunity he was given by the University itself.

“For me, it was very educational,” Ehalt said. “I was able to work with real professionals who really taught me a lot of stuff about the craft. I may not have gotten the name exposure of working for the Times, but I had real stories on a daily basis.”

Unfortunately, this opportunity was short-lived. The Trib arose in response to the threat of the newspaper union strike that was rampant in 1978. As a non-Union paper, The Trib, whose sports section (of which Ehalt was a part) consisted of only five writers to the 75 or 80 of the Daily News, hoped to stay in business while all the union papers closed up their print shops.

Despite the tumultuous relationship between the unions and executives, however, the newspaper strike never occurred, and The Trib closed shop that year.

It is not his internship with The Trib, however, that stands out most prominently in Ehalt’s scrapbook of senior year memories. Rather, at the forefront of these memories is another shortlived paper: The Lam. In 1978, the administration was afflicted by misappropriation of student funds, which inevitably caused the treasury of the student

student deli, but when the time came to pay back these loans, the University was unable to do so. As a result, all student activities were cancelled for the remainder of the semester. This was, of course, a great problem for The Ram, which relied on the University to fund its printing.

Luckily for The Ram, a friend of Ehalt’s, a Fordham Prep alumnus, had raised a substantial sum of money to go towards student activities the year before, and no one had yet claimed any of it.

In typical “man for others” fashion, he offered to fund the printing of another issue of The Ram on the basis that students deserved to know what was going on.

Despite this generous offer, the editors of The Ram had reached an impasse: The print shop, in accordance with the withholding of student activities, was to be locked up until student activities were reinstated the following semester.

After consulting the Student Handbook for inspiration, the editors came up with an idea: because the University controlled the rights to and means for printing The Ram, the editors would print a new paper. Thus, The Lam (a play on the phrase “to be on the lam”) was born.

When the administration began to grow suspicious of the editors, one of the assistant deans, with whom Ehalt had a good re-

“I swear to you,” Ehalt told him, “you will not see The Ram on this campus for the rest of the semester.”

He did not. Because the print shop was locked up, however, the editors had to figure out how to print The Lam. One of them ended up working out a deal with The Guardian, a communist daily newspaper in New York, and they were able to print the paper free of charge. The issue in question featured a comical picture of the assistant dean dressed up as the Fonz, pockets empty, on its cover.

“Let’s just say there was quite a reaction when The Lam appeared on campus,” Ehalt said with a chuckle. This story would soon reach numerous news outlets, including The New York Times, for whom one of the editors of The Ram was an intern.

Despite being undoubtedly nerve-wracking, it is this “incident” that Ehalt cites as a defining moment in his writing career.

“I mean, once you go through something like that...” Ehalt said, letting his sentence trail off.

With such a powerful start to his career as a journalist, it is little surprise that he would go on to win five “Top 5” awards in the national Associated Press Sports Editor writing competition.

On the way to these awards, Ehalt would spend six years at The Norwalk Hour immediately out of college, where he would cover high school, college and

ford Advocate, where he would spend the bulk (about 23 years) of his long career covering the New York Jets and horse racing.

After being laid off in 2007, Ehalt was hired by the New Haven Register, where he currently works as a copy-editor.

In addition to this position, he also covers professional horse racing for ESPN Sports and America’s Best Racing.

It is because of his numerous contributions across his impressive career that he was named the recipient of the Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance’s Art McGinley Award.

The Connecticut Sports Writers’ Alliance also sponsors the Bohdan “Bo” Kolinsky Memorial Journalism Scholarship, which offers financial aid each year to one Connecticut high school senior who has established him or herself as an up and coming.

Current Fordham University student Daniel Sixsmith, FCRH ’15, of Staples High School in Westport was the 2011 recipient of this award.

“You really need to have a love for the craft of writing, researching and creating something, and meeting people and doing something that has a value to society,” Ehalt said, when asked what advice he would give to college students who aspire to be journalists.

“You need to get personal satisfaction out of the fact that you’re doing something with a purpose.”

Admissions Uses Social Media to Entice Prospective Students

By GIRISH SWAMINATH ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Admissions departments in universities across the country are working toward improving outreach and marketing techniques to attract a larger applicant pool.

They are especially targeting the more widespread use of social media to recruit more students, due to its rising popularity and the rising competitiveness of college admissions marketing.

Through the past several years, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions has worked towards increasing its presence in blogging.

The office receives support from Rose Hill Society (RHS), a group of student ambassador volunteers who assist with admissions events, campus tours and even marketing. RHS Outreach Ambassadors (OA’s) are held responsible for maintaining the “I Am a Fordham Ram” blog on Blogspot, in which students share personal accounts about their academic and social experiences at Fordham and New York City. “[OA’s] goals are to reach out to every single student that may be interested in attending Fordham, especially those who cannot physically visit the school,” Michelle Ioannou, FCRH ’13, OA chair, said. “The blog provides insight into what it is like to be a student at Fordham.”

Ioannou further states that first-

hand personal accounts of Fordham students can help prospective students to learn best about the university, facilitating the college application and decision-making process.

“Prospective students are able to read [the blog] and see what the student life is really about, written by students themselves,” Ioannou said. “What better way to hear about the school?”

Ioannou discussed the importance of engaging in social media, due to its prominence in the current generation of high school students. “[Society] has become more into the social media bandwagon,” Ioannou said. “It’s a tool that this high school generation uses constantly and it’s an easy way for them to learn about Fordham and hopefully apply.”

The admissions office also uses Facebook and Instagram, since both forms of social media have increased in popularity over time.

“This past year, the Office of Admission implemented a new officewide system for the management of all aspects of the admission process,” Patricia Peek, director of undergraduate admissions, said.

“This new system has an enhanced communication module that has allowed us to increase our volume of electronic outreach.”

Peek also states that the new system has enabled the office to collaborate with other offices on com-

CHENLI YE/THE RAM

Chelsea Hicks and Cameron Hickson serve as admissions counselors who help attract prospective Fordham students.

munications to the applicant pool, so as to ensure applicants receive targeted content tailored towards their academic interests.

“The metrics on our open rates and delivery have been very positive,” Peek said. “The system also has a robust event management module that has its own communication component to invite, remind and follow up with visitors to our on and off campus events.”

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is especially targeting marketing tactics and promotional

materials towards increasing the presence of out-of-state students on both the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses.

“For the last two decades, we have increased our outreach nationally and internationally,” Peek said. “We have a targeted communication campaign coupled with travel all over the United States and abroad.”

Fordham admissions has developed an extensive direct marketing campaign to reach over 400,000 students annually, specifically

focusing on distinguishing the university from others and allowing prospective students to have a more personalized exposure to the Fordham community through involvement in Facebook, Instagram and Blogspot.

“The admissions team engages in regional activities with other offices of the University such as Alumni and Development,” Peek said. “The team also employs a balance of traditional recruitment practices with state-of-the-art outreach initiatives.”

NEWS

March 6, 2013

Page 5

Melendez Offers Advice on the Competitive Sports Business Field

By KATIE MEYER ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Early last Thursday morning, Feb. 28, a group of Fordham’s aspiring sports businessmen and women had the opportunity to eat breakfast with one of the most important men in the business: Lou Mendelez, senior advisor to the international baseball operations department in the Major League Baseball commissioner’s office. During his hour-long talk and subsequent Q&A session, Mendelez discussed his three-decade MLB career, the changing sports business industry and the best ways to get hired today.

Mendelez has been involved with Major League Baseball since 1983. He started out in the labor department, assisting in negotiating, administrating and enforcing the collective bargaining agreement between teams and players.

In 1999, he became vice president of international operations.

In his 14 years as vice president, Mendelez oversaw the growth of a brand new international branch of the MLB. 1999 was the first year that the MLB began signing players from outside of the U.S., and Mendelez, a part of the newborn International Operations Office, established a satellite office in the Dominican Republic in 2000. At that point, the office was a rented house in Santo Domingo operated by three people.

Responsibilities in the Dominican Republic included fixing the poor living conditions in the Dominican housing club, stamping out fraud (mainly misrepresentation of players’ ages) and establishing a means of educating potential recruits, many of whom have only a sixth or seventh grade education.

“For the most part we’ve gotten a handle on it,” Mendelez said.

The office in Santo Domingo has grown from three employees

ELIZABETH ZANGHI/THE RAM

Melendez offered advice to students while also cautioning them of the uncertain nature of the sports business field.

to 30, and there are plans to move the operation into an actual office building, which will hold anywhere from 30 to 50 employees. The poor conditions in the housing club were addressed, and now the accommodations are as nice as any spring training facilities in the U.S. Fraud has been largely stamped out, and there have been aggressive reforms in educating Dominican recruits so that those players who inevitably return to their communities will be able to better support themselves.

Mendelez anticipates even more positive changes on this front as time goes on.

As vice president, Mendelez was also involved in forming teams for non-MLB international events like the Olympics, regulating MLB teams’ activities outside of the U.S. and administering the Winter League Agreement between MLB and the four countries that make up the professional winter baseball leagues.

He moved from this position to senior advisor in January 2012.

Melendez also served as general

manager of Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classics in 2006 and 2009. This year he will serve in that capacity once again. Before 1983, he worked with both the National Labor Relations Board and the New York State Attorney General’s Office.

During his many years as a sports businessman, Mendelez has observed immense industry changes.

When he was an undergraduate at the City College of New York in the early ’70s, there were no sports business programs available; the specialization did not exist.

As a result, Mendelez pursued a law degree at Rutgers University of Law instead of business after graduating from CCNY in 1974.

He always had a great interest in and knowledge of baseball, but only considered a career in sports business after he formed a relationship with an MLB employee. The man got him an interview, which got him his labor department job.

However, this was in 1983. Mendelez stressed that it is considerably harder to get into the business to-

day. There is an enormous amount of competition, and as a result it is necessary for applicants to be highly qualified, experienced and specialized.

“Your education is critical,” Mendelez said. “How much you know, what you know…”

He advised planning career goals very carefully and streamlining the college education toward those specific goals. He also pointed out that as the sports business has become more competitive, higher education has become much more common among applicants.

There is a greater number of people with graduate degrees entering the industry today than ever before. In addition, a comprehensive knowledge of baseball, knowledge of the practical applications of training and a feel for the business side of sports is vital for any MLB job.

Perhaps the most important thing, though, is networking. The very best way to get a job, according to Mendelez, is by meeting people and forming lasting relationships.

While in college, this can be done by attending seminars and events that feature prominent people in the industry, meeting professionals through professors and interning.

Interning in particular is vital for finding a job, as it has become extremely rare for anyone to get a job without having held one or more internships. Like everything in sports business, these internships are competitive. Applicants should be qualified, willing to work and able to make a good impression on prospective employers.

“First thing I notice when I interview interns is appearance,” Mendelez said. “You gotta look good [and] you gotta sound good… make a good impression. Your personality and how you engage people [is vital] in this business.”

Though it may look daunting, Mendelez made sure to point out that for those who work hard, sports business can be an extremely rewarding career.

As an example, he brought up the general manager of the Chicago Cubs, Theo Epstein. In the 1998 World Series game between the Giants and the Yankees, Epstein was charting pitches behind home plate. Within four years, he was the youngest general manager ever, for the Boston Red Sox. In 2004, under his management, the team won the World Series for the first time in 86 years.

This may not be a typical career, but it exemplifies Mendelez’s point that success in sports business is hard, but it is possible. It is a job that is centered on generating revenue, and as a result it is competitive and sometimes very cutthroat.

It is not a business that should be entered by people just looking for money. You have to love it, and you have to want it.

In the end, Mendelez said, “It’s up to you…be good at what you do, but do it the right way.”

Comfort Foods, Live Performances Shake Up Dining Experience

By DYLAN DE’MARTINO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Student Culinary Council (SCC) held a special event to celebrate the conclusion of this semester’s midterm season in the Marketplace on Thursday, Feb. 28.

The event was marked by popular music played in the cafeteria and a menu featuring items selected in part based on results from a survey conducted earlier in the semester. Some of the included menu items were twice baked potatoes, sirloin steak and salmon.

Another feature of the event was the presence of numerous SCC members centered around a suggestion poster that had been assembled inside the Marketplace. Students were invited to contribute input to be written on the poster.

Two items that appeared to be popular suggestions based upon their prominence on the poster were pierogies and chocolate strawberries.

The SCC functions to coordinate various activities with Sodexo related to food service initiatives.

“Each week, the [executive board] meets with key members of the Fordham Dining Services team to strategize and plan upcoming events,

themed menus, campus involvement and responses to customer feedback,” Rebecca Moore, Sodexo’s marketing manager, said. “Our management team is in constant communication with the [executive board] and all members of the SCC. General Board meets occur once a month with managers in attendance.”

Moore also noted that interest in the SCC at Fordham has increased significantly over the past few years since its foundation.

“As of fall 2012, the SCC had a record 600 plus signups at the Fordham University Club Fair,” she said.

“Of those students, 102 officially joined the SCC.” This increase compared to the provided membership figure of 70 for the 2010 school year obviously indicates an upsurge in students’ desire to play a more active role in the planning of their dining experience at Fordham.

The planning of events like the SCC’s end of midterms celebration at the Marketplace and the solicitation of feedback are part of initiatives Sodexo uses to improve its image amongst the Fordham community, which seems to have taken an unfavorable direction in past years.

Some of the other activities include the periodic featuring of guest

KATE DOHENY/THE RAM

Students enjoy popular foods such as mac & cheese and twice baked potatoes as well as Soul Food later in the week.

executive chefs. Moore elaborated on the next chef to be featured.

“A longtime supporter of local farmlands, sustainable culinary practices and responsibly sourced ingredients, Matthew Weingarten has always strived to create menus that reflect a sense of place and time,” she said. “In his role as Culinary Director for Innovative Solutions, Chef Weingarten’s artisanal approach to cooking is highlighted by his passion for culinary traditions. He has garnered acclaim for ‘some of the city’s finest Greenmarket cooking’ from Time Out New York and food that is

‘thoughtful, well executed’ from New York Magazine. [He] was appointed to sit on the board of Overseers for Chef’s Collaborative, the preeminent nonprofit organization dedicated to making sustainable practices second nature for every chef in America.”

In addition to SCC and Sodexo organized activities in the cafeteria, Asili, the African American Students Association, hosted an event on Wednesday, Feb. 27 to celebrate Black History month.

The fare consisted of many soul food classics. The event also featured

live music. For approximately two hours, from six to eight in the evening, the Fordham Jazz collective performed at the event to enhance the ambience of the event, performing classic jazz standards as well as funk and reggae hits.

With multiple events transpiring at the Marketplace and more scheduled for the future, it may behoove students who would be potentially interested to stay current on what is happening on campus through the Sodexo and SCC Facebook pages as well as postings within the Marketplace.

NEWS

Page 6

March 6, 2013

Fordham Assistant Treasurer To Become Scarsdale Mayor

By EDDIE MIKUS STAFF WRITER

Bob Steves will soon be the only member of the Fordham faculty who can be addressed as “Mr. Mayor.”

Steves, the assistant treasurer, is running unopposed in an election to be held on March 19 for the position of mayor of Scarsdale, a village in Westchester County. He described the town’s electoral process in a telephone interview with The Fordham Ram. “The governmental process in Scarsdale is a little bit different,” Steves said. “It’s a so-called nonpartisan system. So I’m not running as a Republican or a Democrat.”

When asked how his role as mayor would impact his job at Fordham, Steves said that neither job would impact the other and added that other mayors have held private jobs separate from the mayor’s office.

“It’s not like they’re two fulltime jobs at all,” Steves said. “The current mayor is a pediatrician and she has a very big practice.

She maintains her practice and dedicates her otherwise free time to job as mayor.”

In fact, Steves said that he can attend to his job at Fordham and his mayoral post at different times of the day.

“Most of the work, not all of it, but most of it, gets done at night,” Steves said of the mayor’s responsibilities in Scarsdale. “And I’ve chosen that’s how I will spend my

HECHOENUSA/WIKIMEDIA

Scarsdale’s main issues that Stevens will face include reducing flood risks and improving the goverment’s transparency.

personal time.”

Furthermore, Steves told The Fordham Ram that he did not see any potential conflicts of interest between his job at Fordham and his job as mayor.

“I don’t see any conflicts of interest whatsoever,” Steves said. “I couldn’t serve if there were material conflicts, and I don’t see any conflicts. We’re not regulated by Scarsdale. There’s nothing that I do that could compromise Scarsdale, there’s nothing that Scarsdale would do that would impact Fordham.”

When asked how his superiors at Fordham reacted to his may-

oral run, Steves said that they had been supportive.

“Before I made the commitment to be considered for mayor, I talked to my boss,” Steves said.

“He was supportive. He understood that I knew how to manage my time. He understood that I knew what my responsibilities were here and that they came first.”

When asked why he had decided to run for mayor, Steves cited a desire to take an active role in community affairs.

“Both my wife and I have been active in the village [of Scarsdale],” Steves said. “Both of us

feel strongly that you should commit time and energy to what’s going on in the village. I’ve always enjoyed government. I was on the Scarsdale school board. I’ve always enjoyed government and always thought that I brought something to the process and was glad to be part of it.”

In addition to his involvement on the school board, a Jan. 25 article in The Scarsdale Inquirer listed some of the other community service projects Steves has engaged in. These include serving as president and treasurer of the Scarsdale and Edgemont Family Counseling Service, president

of the Greenacres Association, chairman of the Scarsdale Transfer Education Plan, chairman of Immaculate Heart of Mary’s School of Religion and chairman of the Scarsdale Bowl Committee.

The article also stated that Steves has served on Scarsdale’s Board of Trustees since 2009 and is currently its deputy mayor and chairman of the board’s Finance and Municipal Service Committees.

In fact, Steves told The Fordham Ram that the opportunity for community service was the only benefit of being mayor because the office is unpaid.

“I don’t get paid for it. It’s a non-paying job,” Steves said of being mayor. “There’s no salary, no car, no perks, and if you park in the wrong place in the village, you still get a parking ticket. The only benefit is, if you believe in public service and you have an opportunity to carry it out at this level, you either do it or you don’t, and I decided to do it.”

An article on lohud.com, a website connected to a local newspaper that services Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties, listed several issues currently facing the Scarsdale government. These include dealing in a humane way with geese residing in a pond behind the village’s library, reducing the flood risks in the village and ensuring transparency via public meetings.

Steves said that he looks to address these issues in his first-term.

opinion Free Speech Does Not Reign Supreme on Campus Page 7

March 6, 2013

By DECLAN MURPHY STAFF WRITER

The idea of censorship at Fordham University had not really come to my attention until after the announcement that Ann Coulter’s invitation to speak to the student body was rescinded.

Although the invitation itself surprised me due to Coulter’s past controversial comments and reputation, I do not think that Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, intended to censor the Fordham College Republicans’ (CR) right to invite whomever they please. Instead, he encouraged them to see the effects of bringing such a controversial figure to our campus. After all, McShane and the deans aim to advise and encourage us to see things from all perspectives.

Fr. McShane’s insightful yet critical email addressed to the CRs, which was sent out to the entire Fordham community, was not censorship as much as his advisement. The Fordham CRs could have chosen not to heed the warning and gone ahead with the event. But, out of respect for Fr. McShane’s message and in response to the firestorm of outrage, they chose to back down.

The College Republicans noted that they had decided to rescind Coulter’s invitation before McShane’s email was sent out. As the leader of our institution, Fr. McShane has the duty to advise students and give them some direction if their actions could reflect poorly on our school.

Although I do not regard Fr. McShane’s statement to the CRs concerning Ann Coulter as censorship, I do believe several forms of censorship exist on our campus.

One recent example of censorship occurred when the administration invited Fordham alumnus John Bren-

nan, who is currently the director of the CIA, to deliver the class of 2012’s commencement address.

As deputy national security advisor under President Obama during his first term, Brennan was criticized by many for his use of drone strikes on terrorist targets resulting in the deaths of innocent civilians. Several students, including Mike Pappas, FCRH ’12, and Scott McDonald, FCRH ’12, organized a protest against Brennan as their commencement speaker. They attempted to change the administration’s mind about inviting him to speak by protesting his use of drone warfare, organizing a petition and distributing pamphlets to students illustrating how sharply Brennan’s views and actions contrasted with Fordham’s Jesuit values.

Pappas and McDonald also met with Dean Rogers and John Carroll, associate vice president of safety and security, to discuss how they would protest at the commencement speech itself, and Pappas that they were helpful and understanding.

“A week or two before the protest and after outlining what we wanted to do, the two officials were pretty open to helping us,” Pappas said. “What was problematic is the way they handled some of the other aspects of the demonstration. For example, up to a day before graduation I was still getting called into particular university administrator offices and was being given ‘offers’ to try to get us to call the protest off, which I think really says something about how much the administration actually values a student’s right to free speech. Scott and I were supposed to meet with Brennan and other faculty members to speak with him the morning of graduation.

For the meeting on graduation day, Scott and I told the administration that the only way we would attend the

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Students protested to John Brennan as Fordham’s commencement speaker, but felt that the administration stifled them.

meeting was if there was an approved, independent videographer present, which we did not think was too much to ask. We felt that people needed to be held accountable for what was said during that meeting. Once we gave the administration our request, they promptly told us that they could not entertain such requests and they invited other students to take our places.”

This first-hand account of a highprofile protest organized by Fordham students shows how Fordham’s administration essentially censored the students from access to Brennan and did not allow them to question himwith a videographer on the issue of torture.

Officials did allow the students to go ahead with the protest, however, so they did not completely censor the students’ right to protest and free speech. During commencement, around 10 to 15 students protested by standing up and turning their backs on Brennan during his speech.

Other forms of censorship are less obvious and perhaps go unnoticed by some students.

One way the administration at Fordham censors its students is by not designating an area of protest on school grounds for students to protest issues they deem important or unjust. Many universities have a designated area for student protests that are unregulated and unsupervised by administration. This allows students to convene and protest in large groups without interference. In this place, freedom of speech and student organization can flourish and provide a public forum for discussion.

Another form of censorship on campus is the selection of Spring Weekend events and artists.

When providing a survey of potential performers to the student body, administration and the Campus Activities Board (CAB) filter out performers with less-than-appropriate lyrics or reputations and present limited options to students.

Most students have favorite artists that might have some inappropriate lyrics, but that does not mean that they should be automatically excluded from the options considered. It is

understandable that artists with questionable songs often are not aligned with Fordham’s Jesuit values, but if the student body prefers to have such an artist perform, their preferences should not be silenced. If students are unhappy with the options presented

by CAB, they should be able to submit their own considerations so that they do not end up with an artist that many students are not a fan of, such as last year’s Jay Sean.

The example of the Brennan commencement protest illustrates that censorship at Fordham does exist and can present a formidable hurdle to students’ free speech.

This instance, however, is not completely representative of free speech and the student voice. Fordham provides students with multiple routes to express themselves and make their opinions public. Yet, despite the administration’s claims to ensure an unrestricted student voice, the Brennan protest shows that sometimesFordham does not allow students to fully express their views and discuss important issues.

Low Minimum Wage Harms Children Most

By JOSEPH CLINES STAFF WRITER

The issue of the minimum wage rate, again brought into the national spotlight during President Obama’s State of the Union Address, has long been a contentious topic that transcends even the most sharply drawn lines of party affiliation. The matter is complicated not only by the need for at least a basic understanding of economic principles, but also by the ethical implications one’s understanding of the minimum wage creates.

The laws of economics suggest that an increase in employee wages, above what the market values labor, will be detrimental to the employment prospects of additional or even current workers. In practice, workers, even those making the highly stigmatized “minimum wage,” are not perfectly automated, nor is the hiring process of new workers perfectly fluid, resulting in less unemployment due to an increase in the minimum wage than economic principles suggest.

Proponents of an increased minimum wage point to the increased purchasing power workers receiving the augmented wage would experience, potentially spurring the economy.

Economic arguments on both sides of the issue are almost negligible in

JULIAN WONG / THE RAM

Raising the minimum wage will greatly benefit low-income families.

practice and, for argument’s sake, cancel each other out. The truly substantive issue in the minimum wage debate is whether or not an augmented income would tangibly benefit workers and their families on the lower end of the income spectrum.

As Shahmus Khan points out in his TIME article regarding the minimum wage, a worker receiving that compensation can expect to bring home a little over $15,000 annually, without receiving a “cost of living” increase to

adjust for the effects of inflation.

Competition, the almost mystical “invisible hand” that regulates wages in the eyes of Republicans who adore the purely free market system, fails, left to its own devices, to augment the salaries of the lowest earners in the economy. This pool of workers, especially in a stagnant economy, is so large that companies will never have to increase the wages they pay out in order to attract employees. When the free market fails, the government

should intervene.

It is a common misconception that the majority of minimum wage earners are teenagers, who are responsible for themselves. In actuality, the vast majority of minimum wage earners are adults, many of whom have dependents and families to provide for, albeit on a constricted, minimum income salary. Many students feel that working summer jobs for low wages has given them a better appreciation of the struggle millions of “working poor” families endure. The minimum wage is barely enough to provide for college students’ needs, let alone a family.

The term “minimum wage” juxtaposed with the fallacy of perfect social mobility for those willing to work for it gives the impression that those earning this wage are performing “slack work” and have opted against pursuing more career-oriented work.

The gap between rich and poor continues to increase. With policymakers advocating a stagnant minimum wage, the trend is not likely to reverse itself in the near future.

More important than economic data suggesting ominous consequences for a wage increase, parents earning the minimum wage need a way to provide basic sustenance for themselves and their kids. Changing

the “job ladders” that prevent truly open hiring processes may prove to be difficult in a free market. However, even if it is merely symbolic in combatting the trend of income inequality, increasing the minimum wage is necessary for a society that has shown itself to be highly progressive.

Inability to solve the root of the problem, the growing gap between rich and poor, is not an excuse for inaction. Millions of families desperately need and stand to benefit from an increased minimum wage.

Schools in impoverished areas have long documented the academic underperformance of students who arrive to school hungry because their parents cannot provide them adequate nutrition. Even an increase of $1,000 a year can help ease the choices between food and basic needs, such as clothing, that too many American families in the the “working poor” are forced to live with.

An increase in the minimum wage may not eradicate the source of growing income inequality is gripping America in recent years. It does, however, allow for low-income families to better meet their needs and provide a realistic shot at the American dream for their children.

Joseph Clines, FCRH ’14, is an economics major from Malverne, NY.

Page 8

The Fordham Ram

R

Serving 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 4,500. The Fordham Ram office is located in the basement of the McGinley Center, Rm. B-52.

FordhamRam.com Advertising: (718) 817-4379 Executive: (718) 817-4380 Fax: (718) 817-4319 theram@fordham.edu Fordham University - Station 37 Box B Bronx, NY 10458 Editor-in-Chief Connor Ryan Managing Editor Canton Winer Editorial Director Rory Masterson Copy Chief Katie Nolan News Editor Kelly Kultys Assistant News Editors Kate Meyer Girish Swaminath Opinion Editor Richard Bordelon Assistant Opinion Editor Joseph Vitale Arts & Entertainment Editor Devon Sheridan Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor Danielle Garrand Executive Sports Editor Dan Gartland Sports Editor Matt Rosenfeld Assistant Sports Editor Max Prinz Layout Editor Kate Doheny Photo Editor Elizabeth Zanghi Web Editor Anne Couture Assistant Web Editor Courtney Ho Business Directors Nikos Buse Drew Rapp Assistant Business Director Craig Domeier Circulation Director Gary Guarnaccia Distribution Managers Stephanie Kawalski Shannon Marcoux Faculty Advisor Dr. Beth Knobel Copy Team John Bonazzo Alessandra Bruno Michael Dauber Rosemary Derocher Elisa Frangaj Stephanie Kawalski Catrina Livermore Jack MacGregor Shannon Marcoux • Tom Merate Vincent Pellizzi Anthony Pucik Stephanie Sarno • Andrew Santis Kirsten Simons Austin Thomas Opinion Policy The Fordham Ram appreciates submissions to fordhamramletters@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.

OPINION

From the Desk of Elizabeth Zanghi, Photo Editor For the first 10 years of my life, the radio was my only means of listening to music, but when I got my first Walkman in fourth grade and started buying CDs, something incredible happened.

I was able to see the people who were singing and playing the music because of their album covers. Suddenly, my listening experience became much more personal, because I could picture the people who were singing to me. When I heard, “You drive me crazy, but it feels alright!” I knew that the voice was coming from a tan, blonde girl in a jean skirt, for instance.

When I got a little older, I was allowed to watch MTV. I could see the bands moving! They turned into real-life people, to me, and I believe that was the first time I fell in love (with Adam Levine, of course).

Over 10 years later, the personal connection with musicians continues to grow. As technology becomes more and more advanced, performers are faced with the challenge of making their music more than just songs. There are many recent examples of this growth in the music industry, but

I am only going to talk about two: Pomplamoose and Beck.

Pomplamoose is a band that got its start on YouTube when it created a new genre of music called VideoSongs. Throughout their videos, viewers can see everything that they hear. If there is clapping, they see clapping, if there is a bass drum kick, they see a bass drum kick, and if there is harmony, they see four little Natalies formalize on the screen.

With this new genre, listeners are more engaged in the songs they hear. Instead of simply being able to see the musicians, listeners can now see them as they are creating the song. Through watching these videos, I feel more connected with the songs themselves, because I know how they were put together.

And similarly to how I felt when I saw Adam Levine in the “This Love” music video, I felt a personal connection to the musicians, often thinking to myself, “Wow, they are so cool, I want to be like them.”

Less than a month ago, Beck Hansen, known simply as Beck, released a video that felt very much like a Pomplamoose video

at first. It is called his “Hello Again” performance by Lincoln Motor Company, his sponsor throughout the project, and it features David Bowie’s song “Sound and Vision.” The major difference is that through this video is that viewers are more than engaged in the music; they get to participate in it.

In the video, Beck stands at a platform in the center of the music hall surrounded by the other performers who stand or sit along the periphery of the hall, separated from Beck by the audience members. There are over 100 musicians within the orchestration of the song, including multiple choirs, a string section and, my favorite, a theramin.

Beck and Chris Milk used 360 degree technology to film the experience so that viewers can actually feel part of the performance.

Instead of shots put together by the director’s discretion, the viewer decides where to look by turning his head to the part of the concert hall that he wants to see. The viewer can literally see any part of the hall at any time that he wants to. Additionally, the sound changes based on where

About 2,000 copies of The Tulane Hullabaloo landed straight in the trash last week.

The Tulane University student newspaper reported that on Thursday, Feb. 28 over 2,000 copies of that week’s issue were stolen within hours of hitting the newsstands. A story about a drug bust at the nearby Kappa Sigma fraternity house donned the front page of that issue.

The front-page article reported that two Kappa Sigma members, Jules Staib and Wyatt Silverman, allegedly accepted a package containing the drug commonly known as “Molly” (MDMA), a purer form of ecstasy at their off-campus fraternity house on Feb. 22.

The deal, however, was allegedly part of a drug bust led by undercover law enforcement agents.

Upon subsequently searching Staib’s and Silverman’s rooms, the officers said they found a host of illegal drugs, including marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, LSD, the

psychedelic drug DMT, opium, powdered cocaine and narcotics paraphernalia. The students, both Tulane sophomores, were charged with various Louisiana State drug offenses, including possession with intent to distribute “Molly.”

The Hullabaloo alleges that the theft of its Feb. 28 issue was an effort by members of Kappa Sigma to prevent the community from reading the story. After the newspapers were trashed, The Hullabaloo made the decision to reprint extra issues at a financial loss.

While we at The Fordham Ram find this incident to be both saddening and deeply troubling, we feel that there is a lesson to be learned: college newspapers matter.

The act of vandalism and censorship committed at Tulane serves as a poignant example of this reality.

The thieves at Tulane understood that if they could suppress The Hullabaloo, they could keep most of the student body from reading about

the Kappa Sigma drug bust scandal.

They tried to destroy copies of the newspaper because they knew that it mattered.

We at The Fordham Ram applaud the editors of The Hullabaloo for their commitment to college journalism and to informing their community.

Students need a reliable source they can turn to for campus news.

The rumor mill is not enough to keep students informed on what is going on at their colleges. The stories printed in collegiate newspapers would often go unreported in the absence of student-run publications. Other larger news outlets simply do not have the resources — or the demand — to cover college news.

Every university deserves a student entity to report campus news. The material published in newspapers like The Fordham Ram sometimes may be unpopular, even among members of their own staff,

March 6, 2013

in the room the viewer positions himself, just as it would if he were actually in the audience.

Before I experienced this video I had never felt so close to someone on a computer screen. For most of the video, I watched from the stage, right next to him. I could even hear his foot tapping.

I am still thunderstruck from the performance, and I cannot stop watching the video.

New technology has changed the way musicians confront their music. There is now a whole new element when figuring out how to engage listeners. I believe that experiences like Pomplamoose’s videos and Beck’s 360-degree performance are just the beginning of a musical revolution that allows listeners to be part of the music, and I am very excited.

EDITORIAL: College Communities Deserve Truth

Do you disagree with one of our articles?

Then, write a letter to the editor!

Email letters to fordhamramletters@gmail.com

but student publications must print both the popular and the unpopular stories to serve their communities to the fullest.

College newspapers must also strive to spark debate and start conversations. Without a student publication, many of colleges’ and students’ actions would go unscrutinized and unexamined. Student publications serve to bring light and transparency to otherwise unilluminated matters.

We at The Fordham Ram stand by this philosophy and believe that the Fordham community deserves to know about everything happening on campus: good, bad and inbetween.

Editorial Policy The Fordham Ram’s editorials are selected on a weekly basis, and are meant to reflect the editorial board’s view on a particular issue.

Correction An article, “Students Gather, Challenging Censorship on Campus” (V. 95, i. 5) suggested that there is an approval process in which student organizations must engage in order to receive approval from OSL&CD. No such process exists.

OPINION

March 6, 2013

Page 9

Sign-In Policy Needlessly Nannies Students

By PATRICK MAROUN STAFF WRITER

Last December, I was honored to attend the annual President’s Club event at the David H. Koch center at Lincoln Center. While at the beautiful event, I had the opportunity to talk with many of Fordham’s most loyal and supportive alumni, most of whom give around $1,000 annually.

Also I met a Gabelli School of Business alumna who, during the course of our conversation, cast light on one of Fordham’s most infamous policies in a way that I had never considered before. When we discussed Fordham’s 3:30 a.m. policy, she had this to say, “All they’ve done is prevent cuddling.”

Besides the obvious humor of her remark, it offers an interesting insight into the failed and often misguided nature of Fordham’s guest policies.

Clearly the university must have certain rules intended to keep students safe and make them feel comfortable as members of the Fordham community. But as college students — and as citizens — we must be critical of our world and evaluate policies not only on their intended purpose but also on their practical ramifications.

We must consider not only what this policy is for but also, and more importantly, what this policy does.

So what does this policy ultimately do? Does it prevent students from enjoying the company of the oppo-

site sex? It certainly does not. So, why does the university not simply be rid of the policy altogether? I asked James, the security guard in my residence hall what his thoughts were. “[The university] cannot stop people from getting together, but [it] can put rules in place. The rules help [certain] people who are irresponsible by forcing them to think twice about what they might do. [Fordham] wants to give them a chance to be responsible and build good habits.”

I quickly questioned whether the university had the right to impose morality upon its students, but James offered a clarification.

“Most bad things happen at night,” James said.

“The school wants people to be safe.

It becomes a liability.”

I think that James has essentially said two things: The university has to protect itself from potential legal trouble and the early morning hours are very dangerous. The second point, while fairly obvious, is the more important of the two. Of course, the university has to protect itself, but it is deplorable for it to protect itself at the expense of its students. Kicking students out of dorms at 3:30 in the morning and expecting them to walk back to their dorms or apartments, sometimes off-campus, compromises students’ safety.

A Fordham employee, who asked not to be named, summed it up pretty well, “The policy endangers

What’s Old Is New

ELIZABETH ZANGHI / THE RAM

Fordham’s sign-policy underestimates the students’ responsibility for safety.

the guest. By forcing people to travel home at that time of night — it is unsafe.”

His next sentence is a mixed bag: “[The university] needs to either make the rule one o’clock or eliminate the rule altogether.”

As adult college students, I think that we should be allowed to make our own decisions about who stays in our dorm room and when they do it. I do understand that the university is the owner, and we are the tenants, but I do not feel that this relationship permits the university to control the nature of a guest’s visit.

Fordham should trust its adult tenants to make responsible decisions on their own. A person only has the chance to act responsibly if they also have the opportunity to act irresponsibly. Responsibility is a choice, not a mandate.

Fordham should not babysit its students, and it certainly should not endanger them. Students do have a responsibility to the university, but Fordham’s primary responsibility should be to us.

Patrick Maroun, FCRH ’15, is a theology and political science major from Norwood, Mass.

Reflection: One Catholic’s Hope for the Church’s Future

By WM. RYAN DONAHUE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I am a Catholic, and a proud one at that.

That being said, news of the intended resignation of Pope Benedict XVI came with mixed feelings, both admiration and relief. One may question my view or label me as a bad Catholic for such feelings, but I feel quite the opposite. When Pope Benedict XVI was elected eight years ago, I watched as my teacher adjusted the rabbit ears on the television just in time for the pontiff to step out onto the balcony in St. Peters Square.

It was a moment I will never forget, but within the following eight years, the world changed in so many ways few of us could predict.

The pope is 85 years old in a world moving far faster than it did just under a decade ago. I am currently in my 15th year of Catholic education.

Upon first glance, one would determine that I am near the peak of my parochial understanding. In the years since the pope’s election, I have gone through high school and into my third year of college.

During that time, I have made more friends outside of the church than I probably have within the it. It has led me to a double life of sorts that has created a separation between my religious side and secular side.

Those not raised Catholic frequently point out hesitancies about the church’s teaching put into action outside of the church. After all, a large majority of being a Catholic is spent outside of the physical church itself.

The message I gather from my faith is one of acceptance and love from God, and the priests in whom I confide reinforce the same message. I face criticism from friends about the Church’s stance on issues today, but

I remain faithful. Are the priests of the parishes I attend spreading blasphemy? I believe quite the contrary.

The reality, though, is that someone from outside the church looks to the pontiff as the spokesperson for the church.

In the coming years, the message of the church faces a critical moment in its history. Will the pope use these guiding principles of love, acceptance, forgiveness and understanding as the direction of the church. Or will a word-for-word interpretation of the Bible written over two thousand years ago determine our path now?

The silly denial of science by some current believers stands in the way of the church, and the true message pertinent of the Bible. Being Catholic does not mean that it is heretical to accept science, but instead means one should use the Bible as a symbolic guide of faith. You disrespect every educated Catholic when you describe the world as being created six thousand years ago. Embrace the message of God as a tool of faith, not as a tool of arithmetic.

The pontiff holds the responsibility of bringing the Church together into an understanding of the historical and spiritual teaching of the Biblical text.

This is all coming from someone who has been in Catholic school his entire life. Now what does this have to do with the pope? It has everything to with the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion people.

The Church is light-years away from the last time a pope resigned, but the dawn of the Information Age through the rise of the Internet has created a cultural gap that is widening throughout society. As a result, there are an increasing number of people who identify as near divine and an increasing number of people

Stephen Fragano

who detach themselves from the notion of religion; it is a shame. The latter have been scared away from a faith with a true message based in love, the most meaningful innate human quality.

The church holds the unique power of being able to bridge this gap widening by the day. Politics aside, Catholicism has instilled in me a sense of humanity and caring in me that has guided every decision in my adult life, not out of a sense of propriety, but out of a sense of caring for my brothers and sisters around me. The inability to exhibit those virtues toward all, regardless of whether someone is black, white, tan, pink, gay, straight, in-between or any identity is a blatant denial of faith.

The Pope is elected on the basis that he has demonstrated the ability to be the closest living embodiment of God’s teaching. The newly-elected pope should be of an age where

bridging the gap between young and old generations is rendered seamless. The connection to the leader of the church carries a symbolic meaning (of the ability to relate on a personal level, 1.2 billion times).

There is no perfect choice for pope, nor does anyone expect there to be.

The church does, however, maintain the responsibility of electing a pope that reflects an ability to deepen the understanding of God within those in the church, while at the same time spread the word of God in a manner reflecting a consciousness of the current moment. My hope is that the newly-elected pope embraces the Beatitudes in a modern context, and in turn represents the true message of the church.

Pope ______, I know you’re out there. Rest easy these next few weeks, because you have to get right to work.

WM. Ryan Donahue, FCRH ’14, is a sociology major from Phoenix, Ariz.

FABIO POZZEBOM / WIKIMEDIA

Following Pope Benedict’s resignation, the Church stands at a crossroads.

Having heard the great reviews recieved by the AMC original series “The Walking Dead,” my girlfriend and I practically felt obligated to begin watching the show from the very beginning of the first season.

After being captivated by the ever-expanding storylines and intriguing character developments, I had a moment to ponder the show. Basically, the show is nothing more than a unique take on the zombie genre which encountered its heyday in the ’80s. It is not necessarily revolutionary in terms of subject matter or presentation.

The zombie genre, however, is not the only genre to make a comeback. Vampires have also become all the rage in the past few years with the Twilight saga flying off bookshelves and appearing on the silver screen all around the world. Although much of America’s youth today is familiar with the vampire genre, its inception is by no means recent. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published in 1897 — over 100 years before the whole vampire fad began.

Even old children’s fables such as “Jack and the Beanstalk” have been called upon again, with a new movie called Jack the Giant Slayer in theaters. So why exactly are creations like zombies, vampires and storybook heroes recycled again and again? Are people nowadays lacking creativity?

Various studies done by scholars suggest that only seven basic story plots exist. That is it.

Therefore, it is impossible to be totally original in any form of storytelling. A storyteller is forced to make new inventions and new variations on the limited amount of possibilities there are in an attempt to make it his or her own work.

In a way, the best storytellers are people that can take something old or already done and make it relevant and captivating for the newest generation of consumers.

This principle does not only pertain to storytelling. Other fields, such as fashion, encounter resurgences of things that have already been done in the past.

It seems that this disappearance and reappearance of things is the way of the world, and historians even use the old mantra, “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it,” to show the importance of being well-versed in the past.

So, the reappearance of zombies, vampires and even a little boy who climbs beanstalks, is not Hollywood’s way of slacking off; things are simply following the usual ebb and flow of history and storytelling, which occurs in the context of popular culture.

The reality for today’s storytellers is one of uneasiness. Creating a personal, unique, interesting style is essential, but there is an extremely good chance that a previous artist’s work will be rehashed, albeit in a new light.

The fact of the matter is that what is old is new again.

OPINION

Page 10

John Castonguay Media Distorts Catholicism By the time this issue goes to print, the conclave may have selected a new pope. If so, it will not be too soon, for several reasons.

Many are made uneasy by the prospect of a prolonged period without the Holy Father. The Church needs the guidance of a pope, especially in these difficult times. The selection of a new pope would hopefully signal a decrease in the mainstream media’s seemingly endless and frequently uninformed critiques of the Catholic Church.

I am not criticizing the media’s honest analysis of the impact of potential popes or how the sexual abuse scandals will affect the selection of the new pope. What I take issue with are the articles written based on limited information, written by people who lack an understanding of the church but want desperately to shape the decisions of the church hierarchy.

One example of a misinformed article on the church was written

by The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. In her piece, “How Mary Feels About Being A Virgin,” she interviews Colm Toibin, author of The Testament of Mary.

In The Testament of Mary, Toibin casts doubt on the virginity of Mary, depicts the apostles as controlling “misfits” and claims they call “for hiding the truth to protect the institution they are building.”

This representation is factually baseless and serves only to reinforce pre-existing negative views of the Church.

Toibin’s treatment of the crucifixion and Dowd and Toibin’s baseless accusations regarding Pope Benedict also reveal their complete lack of understanding of and qualifications for writing about Catholicism. Toibin calls for Catholics to rethink their belief in the Crucificion as redeeming the sins of mankind.

What Toibin fails to recognize is the centrality of the Crucifixion to most denominations of Christianity. Removing this sacrifice would alter Catholicism so that it could no longer be understood as Catholicism. Toibin wants Catholics to casually change one of their central beliefs in order to please his sensibilities.

He also accuses Pope Benedict XVI of being gay based on the fact that the Pope has an amicable relationship with his secretary, Msgr. Georg Gänswein, who Toibin finds “beautiful.”

Toibin claims that “everyone is hoping for some change. If you could see nuns making sermons.

Clerical celibacy has to be abolished and soon. And we must begin allowing women into the priesthood.”

Toibin is not speaking for all those within the Church, but his own world view. His baseless accusations and clear lack of understanding of Catholicism disqualify him from being taken seriously.

I will follow Toibin’s example: Excuse me while I write about astrophysics and tell David Wright how to hit a baseball.

March 6, 2013

Employers’ Social Media Policies Need Clarity

By JOHN BUNDOCK STAFF WRITER

In an article featured in The New York Times, titled “Even If It Enrages Your Boss, Social Net Speech Is Protected,” was inaccurate in its portrayal of employment dynamics in numerous regards; while social networking speech is protected to the extent of the expression of ideas and criticism, the violation or undermining of company contracts out of sheer crassness or cruelty is not a right.

Speech and privacy rights are not absolute. It is well-know, for example, that shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater is illegal. There are plenty of things that enrage “Your Boss” and there is (hopefully) an overlap between his rage and that of a federal judge.

The conflict between the right to water-cooler complaints and the right of employers to conduct useful business involves a fundamental misunderstanding of where rights begin and end between the Constitution and the social contract.

Speech rights are not absolute, but neither is the power of companies to limit what their employees say and do.

“We’re used to criminal law rights that don’t extend to employers,” said Robert J. Hume, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University who specializes in constitutional law, public administration and the judicial process. “People have fewer rights in the context of relationship[s] with employers [differing from]relationship[s] with the state… [for example], we have the 4th Amendment to [protect us from] unreasonable search and seizures so police officers can’t search us without cause.

However, in workplace environment, employers have freer hands to conduct searches so long as they relate to ‘special needs’ related to employment so long as it (searches) isn’t given over law enforcement,”

GRACE LILLY / THE RAM

Employers often provide codes against discussing work-related topics on social media, but many remain ambigious.

Hume said. “The conflict arises over social media where they (employers) think, ‘special needs’ doctrine applies to speech.”

Speech need not fall under this doctrine of “special needs,” but can be prosecuted when it translates to conspiracy and/or actions that are clear rights violations, as was the recent case of the “cannibal cop.”

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently stated that workers have a right to discuss work conditions freely and without fear of retribution, and this is a just idea in so far as the previous social media policies of many companies have proven incredibly broad and arbitrary; “don’t discuss company matter publicly do not disparage managers, coworkers, or the company itself ” were among such limitations.

“Justices are much more protective of speech rights, where [as] there is a freer hand (for rights restrictions) in regards to drug tests [say]…if you’re a customs officer,” Hume said. The NLRB decision reflects a protection of speech “if there’s no logical link between rights restrictions and needs of em-

ployment.”

Such restrictions have proven incredibly problematic as they forbid honest and constructive criticism, creating an intellectually-stifling atmosphere where it is better to keep your head down and say nothing rather than provide better ideas.

Indeed, the specific case where the NLRB favored the employees involved a social worker.

Mariana Cole-Rivera requests responses from coworkers after another caseworker for Hispanics United stated she was going to complain to management about employees not working hard enough.

The responses involved anger and expletives at times, but were feedback from other workers that could at least be understood as productive, not simple harassment as Hispanics United contended in its firing of Cole-Rivera and four other caseworkers for the posts.

When a single worker is just ranting online, or posting clearly offensive speech, as a police reporter for The Arizona Daily Star did, however, the NLRB finds such dismissals legal. A similar decision was reached

over a bartender’s insulting patrons on Facebook; “concerted activity” aimed at improving wages or working conditions is protected, whereas ignorant venting is not.

Whereas employees must be wisely specific in what they say online, companies ought to also design social media policies that are more finely-tuned: Walmart (ironic considering its criticisms for anti-union policies) received high marks from the NLRB general counsel’s office for narrowing down its prohibitions to “inappropriate postings that may include discriminatory remarks, harassment, threats of violence or similar inappropriate or unlawful conduct.”

Looking at the specific ethics and utility of posts and management’s reaction, one can derive a better understanding of what constitutes reasoned discourse around the digital water-cooler, and what does not.

Enraging management is alright, provided it serves the company to do so.

John Bundock, FCRH ’14, is a Middle East studies major from Pelham, NH.

Ram on the Street Compiled by Joseph Vitale, Assistant Opinion Editor

Would you change Fordham’s sign-in policy?

“I don’t think so. I think

“I think it should start

that it’s a good policy right now. I would suggest pushing the time back from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. though.”

later, and it should be easier for Fordham students to sign in other Fordham students. When the regular guard gets here, that makes sense. The process is a hassle right now.”

— Jett DiPalma, FCRH ’16

— Brian Hahn, GSB ’14

“I think it begins too early. Other than that it is fine. Even though extending the time would be great.”

— Danielle Rowe, FCRH ’16

“It is not a good policy. The sign-in sheet doesn’t even work.

They fined me for an overnight guest that I had a pass for. They also fined me for two people I don’t even know.”

— Katrina Feldkamp, FCRH ’14

Arts & Entertainment

March6,2013

Page11

Beyond Wonder Woman at Athena Film Festival

By MARLESSA STIVALA COPY EDITOR

The Athena Film Festival, which ran last month from Feb. 7-10, consisted of everything from feature films such as the Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild, to lesser-known documentaries and shorts, all revolving around this same theme of women’s leadership. It proved to be an interactive, engaging weekend as well as an entertaining one.

The festival also featured a number of workshops such as “American Film Institute Workshop from Script to Screen: Producing a Short Film” and panel discussions such as “In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing.” Though such workshops and panels would have undoubtedly been wonderful, highly informative experiences, they were not the aspects of the festival I attended.

The festival ran for four days but, due to the school-canceling, traffic-halting snowstorm, I was only able to attend on Saturday.

Fortunately, the Saturday itinerary included the film that most sparked my interest: a film entitled WONDER WOMEN! The Untold Story of American Superheroines.

I will confess that I am a huge Wonder Woman fan, so learning that the Athena Film Festival was

screening a film that would heavily stem from the character’s evolution and continuing legacy was very interesting for me. As the film’s title implies, it chronicled the history and impact of comics’ most iconic female superhero.

Simultaneously, other notable fictitious females such as Xena and Buff y were mentioned. Of course, the greater theme in the movie is how these fictional “wonder women” reflect the idea of real-life “wonder women.” Moreover, the past and current struggles of women in America to attain equality and prove that they can be just as strong, intelligent and ambitious as any man.

Directed by Kristy GuevaraFlanagan, the film presented a good balance between chronicling “Wonder Woman the character” while chronicling “Wonder Woman the symbol for women’s rights.”

The film contained segments from celebrity figures such as wellknown American feminist Gloria Steinem and actress Lynda Carter (who played Wonder Woman in the 1970s TV series). At the same time, the film interviewed everyday “wonder women,” such as a young girl and a hard-working mother, both who have found inspiration in Wonder Woman. That, for me, was the true success of the film. Of course, the way Guevara-

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Lynda Carter donned the iconic tiara in the 1970s TV series.

Flanagan incorporated actual, classic Wonder Woman comics into her film was interesting.

Ultimately, however, I believe the symbolism behind having someone as notable as Gloria Steinem and a young girl each given the same right to voice their respective opinions brought the point of the film home very well: Wonder Woman is and has always been an iconic symbol for feminine strength and intelligence, but ultimately any woman can prove to be a “wonder woman” in her own

life, too. Every woman deserves the right to pursue her goals and achieve her highest potential.

The second screening I attended that night was comedian Bonnie McFarlane’s documentary Women Aren’t Funny. The documentary was a humorous look at the stereotype that women are not as funny as men, whether on-screen, on stage or in real-life social interactions. The documentary follows McFarlane, along with her husband and fellow comedian Rich Vos, on a quest to interview an

array of comedians, club owners and writers to find out their views on why such a negative stereotype exists.

While dealing with this specific stereotype, the documentary inevitably highlights general gender biases, such as the idea that women are more likely to fall for a funny guy than a man is to fall for a funny woman. The documentary felt a bit repetitive and dragging at points, but was nonetheless enjoyable. After all, when one thinks about it, this stereotype is highly relevant. How many “class clowns” in elementary school were girls?

How many female comedians can you name? How many all-female movie comedies can you mention?

The answer to such questions is usually that it is not a lot, as the documentary explores.

Adding to the interactive aspects of the Athena Film Festival is the fact that both WONDER WOMEN and Women Aren’t Funny were each followed by Q&A sessions. The former featured director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and two of the everyday “wonder women” interviewed, while the latter featured Bonnie McFarlane and Rich Vos. March is Women’s History Month and the issues discussed in the festival’s films are just as pertinent as ever and force one to remember that “history is her story, too.”

Still Recording: Listening for Change in Music Industries

By JULIE BOCHAT CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Rock, Goth, Blues, Punk, Rap and Hip-Hop, all these different musical genres have one thing in common: Each genre is a part of the changing landscape of the music industry and more specifically, the way we listen to music. Indeed, the death of “physical music” seems to inch closer with each new technological innovation.

Spotify and Pandora Radio have become the new leading ways of listening to music. For those who do not know, Spotify is a music streaming service available for computers running with Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

Pandora Internet Radio streams music with a recommendation service. The user enters an artist selection and the service automatically plays songs by that artist and his or her specific genre. If the user does not like the recommended song, that user can pass over a certain number of songs. If the user likes the song recommended, he or she can give it a thumbs up which will help formulate the recommendation and gear it more toward the user’s interest. By now, the routine is probably known by every student on campus.

In an email discussion, Fordham professor of communication and media studies Michael Plugh discussed how the physical world of music is ever-changing and how people no longer find the physical use of music as the best way to listen.

“The magnetic reel-to-reel of the cassette tape lives on only in nostal-

gia,” Plugh said. “We’re even seeing a diminished sense of importance in the ‘player’ itself, as our music is increasingly obtained online, in digital form and stored via cloud computing, remotely.”

Many have moved away from a world of listening to music together and into a more personalized world of music.

“When we developed the ability to record sound, music was no longer solely a collective, participatory activity. We used to sing together, play instruments together and listen to music together,” said Plugh.

Since music has become easily accessible, many believe that there is no need for the physical CD, Walkman or record.

“We can access music via any of our multiple interfaces, be they desktop, notebook, tablet, smartphone and so on,” said Plugh. “The notion of the album is diminished, as we increasingly seek to customize the songs we like.”

Some believe that there are pros and cons to Spotify and Pandora.

With a loss of a communal activity, these programs are making music easy to manipulate and customize.

“It’s difficult to say which aspects of our new music experiences are pro or con, since it depends largely on what kind of music experience you prefer, but we might be able to say that with our customizable, material-free relationship with music we gain control over our playlist, while slipping further from the communal experience of music that characterized most of human history,” Plugh said.

Writer and professor of communi-

cation and media studies at Fordham University Paul Levinson believes that the fall of physical music has had a positive effect on the way people listen to their music.

“The digitalization of music and the decline of physical music devices such as CDs is a big step forward for popular music and creativity,” said Levinson.

Online music allows for people to go from a nobody to a somebody.

Rather than waiting to be discovered, people have the ability to make themselves be discovered.

“Rather than needing a record company to sign you up and foot the bill of CD or cassette production, the recording act can get its recordings right out to a distributor like Pandora or Spotify,” said Levinson. “This is great for both the public and the recording artist.”

Not everyone agrees that the digitalization of music has been a positive thing.

Caitlin Tyrell, FCRH ’14 suggests that old-fashioned CDs are a better way to go about choosing music.

“CDs are better than Pandora be-

COURTESY OF PESKY LIBRARY/ FLICKR

So hipster it’s hilarious: Beck recently released twenty new songs in sheet music.

cause you know what you’re going to listen to, sometimes you just want to listen to one artist rather than an entire genre. Also, the few times I have chosen to use Pandora, the music would keep freezing, and I would have to listen to advertisements between songs,” said Tyrell.

Alexandra Kreitman, FCRH ’14 discussed the accessibility and convenience of using Spotify or Pandora over the old-fashioned CD. “Pandora and Spotify” require minimal input from you, are easy to use and are efficient at finding related music that I am likely to enjoy,” said Kreitman.

Regardless of the convenience of these new ways of listening to music, Kreitman argues that it makes the experience not as pleasant due to the annoyance of uninteresting advertisements.

“However, these streaming services have some shortcomings. Unlike a CD, you cannot play a specific artist or song right away,” Kreitman said. “Free Pandora and Spotify accounts play fairly repetitive commercials, which are not very interesting.

Although it has become less practical to handle CDs, the audio quality remains better.”

Among the participants who were interviewed, it seems that the majority have a positive outlook on the digitalization of musical genres. As time passes, more and more people will be able to customize their own playlist via Internet radio. Already, Professor Levinson says, “I was easily able to get my 1972 album, “Twice Upon a Rhyme,” right up on Spotify!”

SPRING SPORTS PREVIEW

2013

SPRING PREVIEW

Page 2

March 6, 2013

Baseball Hopes to Exceed Expectations in 2013

By DOMINIC KEARNS STAFF WRITER

Nothing signals the start of spring quite like the dawn of the baseball season, and the Fordham baseball team has already done battle in Florida and the Bronx. If the first two weeks were any indication, there is reason to believe this season can be special.

The Rams’ offense fared poorly last season, so manager Kevin Leighton will be working hard to help his players take better at-bats this spring. Last season, the Rams only had a .250 team batting average. Only four players batted above that mark. For a team that mainly relies on contact-hitting and speed to win games, those numbers are particularly worrisome. Fordham returns six starting field players from 2012, however, including the majority of its best hitters for average. While the Rams do not have many seniors, Mike Mauri and Ryan Lee should anchor the line-up with their solid averages and ability to steal bases.

Mauri hit .325 last year and led the team in RBI, while Lee was third in hits and RBI a year ago. Junior Tim Swatek is another player to watch, as he led the 2012 Rams in runs scored and had the secondhighest slugging percentage from last season.

The offense is not built around power, but thrives on getting runners on and driving them in. So far, Fordham has successfully overwhelmed its opponents with solid hitting, but the Rams will need to continue having productive atbats to compete for the A-10 title.

The Fordham pitching staff endured a feast or famine season in 2012, so the team is placing its confidence in some young pitchers to provide additional depth and stability to the veteran starting rotation.

“This year’s staff is a lot deeper than last year’s and I am excited about what I have seen out of all of our pitchers. I believe it will be our strength and expect seniors Joe Charest, Rich Anastasi and junior Chris Pike to lead the way on the mound,” head coach Kevin Leighton said.

While these starters struggled against the potent Michigan Wolverines on opening weekend, the experienced staff fared better this past week against St. Peter’s, Iona and Lehigh. In addition, two freshman pitchers are primed to be impact players for the Rams.

Leighton has to be satisfied with the recent performances of Cody Johnson and Brett Kennedy. In a doubleheader on Feb. 26 with St. Peter’s, Johnson pitched a twohit shutout in the first game, and Kennedy recorded eight strikeouts over three innings of scoreless relief in Fordham’s 4-2 win.

The emergence of these young pitchers bodes well for the future at Houlihan Park. Ultimately, Fordham will make the conference tournament if its starters can consistently deliver and if the relievers can shut opposing teams down.

Because the Rams often find themselves in close games, the pitching staff will make the difference this spring.

The Rams nearly reached the A-10 tournament last season, but a season-ending sweep at Richmond left Fordham at 12-12 in league play, which was not good enough.

The Rams were rated ninth of 16 teams in the 2013 preseason A-10 poll, but expectations are higher in the clubhouse.

“We definitely want to be in that tournament when the season is over. Last year was tough with the big adjustment of a new manager, but we have a great freshman class and are better prepared,” sophomore Joseph Calabrese said.

“I think this team is capable of very big things this year. We have a deep rotation and a solid offense. I know we have a team that has the ability to be a playoff team, from there it’s just a matter of getting hot and performing well in the tournament,” Leighton said.

“I believe that this group is up to the challenge. We have a good mix of young talented guys and older guys who have a lot of experience.”

The young talent that Leighton mentions will have a great impact on the season, for Fordham has welcomed 10 freshmen onto the roster. Many of these newcomers will earn playing time, such as Charles Galiano, Joseph Runco, Ryan McNally and Ian Edmiston.

For the pitching staff, freshmen Joseph Serrapica, Kennedy and Johnston all have delivered strong outings in the young season, and these men should strengthen last season’s bullpen issues.

Fordham certainly has the veteran experience and youthful drive to achieve bigger things this season, but the addition of Butler and VCU to the conference will make for plenty of challenging games. The favorites in the league are St. Louis, Rhode Island and VCU by nature of past success. In 2012, each squad won at least 33 games, while Fordham went 22-34 that season.

“The Atlantic 10 is a tough league, there are so many teams

and there aren’t any easy wins in this league. I think that if we can stay focused on doing the little things right and competing each day this team will finish a lot higher than we were picked. Nobody remembers where you start, they remember where you finish.” Kevin Leighton said.

To finish in the hunt for the A-10 title, the Rams will need to have clutch hitting, strong pitching, and win a number of close games. So far, the Rams have generally executed in those facets of the game, and they are 4-0 in games decided by three runs or less. If all goes well, Fordham can follow the 2012 San Francisco Giants’ blueprint and win many close games with dominant pitching and timely hitting. If not, they might be compared to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Regardless, the Rams are putting their best effort forward this spring, and the season should be full of entertainment and drama.

DREW DIPANE/THE RAM

Tim Swatek batted .281 last season, while appearing in 54 of the Rams 56 games. The junior will be counted on to provide offense once again this season.

Rowing Seeks Better Showing in Atlantic 10

By JAKE GROGAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The varsity women’s rowing team, coached by Ted Bonanno, looks to enter the season riding last year’s momentum that saw both individual and collective success.

Their Lightweight 8 crew, which consists of eight rowers and a coxswain all weighing under 130 pounds, ranked as high as 13th nationally last year. When the crew was reduced to four rowers for the Aberdeen Dad Vails Regatta last May, they placed third in the grand finals. The Freshman 4 also qualified for the grand finals, where they beat the University of North Carolina and Florida State, among others, to win the gold medal.

Coach Bonanno enters the season with his largest squad to date, an indication that the success of the team’s younger athletes will be

key to the Rams’ success this year.

They are off to a good start; their fall season ended with a first place victory in every event they entered at the Metropolitan Championships. When asked what his team was doing to prepare for the upcoming season, Coach Bonanno stated that they have been training all winter in the field house and have just recently gotten back in the water.

The Rams also return experience this season, including their entire Lightweight 8 team that medaled at last year’s Aberdeen Dad Vails Regatta.

“There is definitely some emphasis on the lightweight team.

They look strong and can certainly contend for a spot at nationals,” Bonanno said.

The lightweight team will be in contention in every race that they are in, a sort of ace in the hole for a

Fordham squad that looks to compete in the highest levels of postseason rowing.

The Rams will travel down to Williamsburg, Va. on March 9 for spring training, which will be followed by the Murphy Cup on March 30, a tournament that last year saw all four entries fail to qualify for the finals. The Rams will then compete in the Sacred Heart Invitational, where last year they entered three boats and saw a first, fourth and fifth place finish.

Their Varsity 8 crew was competing in the San Diego Crew Classic that weekend, where they finished seventh. The Rams will have three more tournaments to compete in before the Atlantic 10 championships on May 4, a tournament that they have struggled in. In fact, the largest obstacle facing the Rams this season is the conference that they are in.

“The A-10 is a tough conference, very competitive,” Bonanno said.

The team placed seventh out of nine teams at last year’s A-10 championship. Fordham scored only 13 points in six events, 40 behind winner Rhode Island and 29 behind runner up George Washington. The Rams have not finished better than fifth in the last five years at the A-10 championships, but they look as ready as ever to change that. Their returning experience and strong freshman class should help them to finish higher in most events, increasing their point total while decreasing the amount of points earned by the teams that they beat.

The Rams look to be a serious contender to place in any tournament that they compete in this year. While they lost all-conference rower Celine Egraz, they return captain Alexandra Anello, a senior

coxswain who is experienced and will help get the underclassmen on the right track.

“We have just finished up our winter indoor training season and are really excited about being on the water again. The team has been training really hard, and we’re hoping that it will show on the water at our spring regattas,” said Anello, when asked about the upcoming season.

To place in the A-10 championships would provide momentum going in to the Aberdeen Dad Vails Regatta, a tournament that might serve as a warm-up for a lightweight crew hoping to earn a nationals berth.

This season should be a bright one for the Women’s Rowing Team, the first of many for a youthful group that will see their fair share of tournament wins and championships.

SPRING PREVIEW

March 6, 2013

Page 3

Golf Team Returns Four of Five Women’s Tennis Looks to Improve on 17-6 2012 gelika Dabu and Simidian, who In a preseason poll of Atlantic 10

By TARA SLEDJESKI Starters from 2012 Season went 14-9 last season. coaches, the Rams were picked to STAFF WRITER

By BOBBY THOMPSON STAFF WRITER

The Fordham golf team’s spring season kicks off on March 24 at the La Salle Spring Invitational, which is held at the Talamore Country Club in Ambler, Pa. The Rams will attempt to defend their victory from last March, after capturing the 2012 La Salle Invitational by 10 strokes.

Fordham head coach Paul Dillon is confident that the Rams will be able to go back to back and get their fi rst win of the academic year.

The team has four of its five starters from last year, but they will miss their graduated captain Devon O’ Rourke, who placed second overall in the Rams victory last year.

The Rams will be led by co-captains Jason Del Rosso and Brody Nieporte along with fellow senior Connor Monaghan. Junior Brandon Nolan and sophomore Jeff Hogan will round out the starting five after strong fall seasons. Both are becoming more confident in the starting role after playing very well at the end of 2012.

The Rams golf team will be busy after their spring break, as they will be competing in six tournaments, including the Atlantic 10 championship to cap off the season at the end of April in Florida. Dillon is confident that his experienced group of seniors will be able to fi nish off their careers on a high note.

“It’s very difficult for our team to compete in a tournament like the A-10’s,” Dillon said. “We are the only team in the conference that does not have their team on full scholarship. However, every year they seem to exceed their expectations and I am confident they will

do the same this year.”

A reasonable expectation might be a middle-of-the-pack fi nish at tournament such as the A-10’s, but in the past, the Rams have been able to place as high as fourth. Dillon has also noticed, this year as well as in the past, that a team comprised of mostly seniors can make for some distractions, as they try to set up their careers after Fordham away from the golf course. But once again, Dillon has been impressed with the way his seniors have been able to handle golf, school and their plans after Fordham.

Over spring break, the Rams will be traveling to Florida to prep themselves for their busy schedule of tournaments at the end of the semester. The Rams will be able to fine-tune their games after the long winter break at the PGA National Golf Course, which recently hosted the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic.

They will be playing rounds there all week, along with having access to the driving range and other practice facilities, in order to get their swings back into mid-season shape.

Jason Del Rosso says the spring break trip is always a great way to get ready for the upcoming season, and at the same time be able to relax and hang out with the other members of the team.

“Every year I always look forward to the spring break trip in March,” Del Rosso said. “Last year we got to go to Ireland, which was an amazing trip to say the least. I can’t wait to get down to Florida and enjoy the week off with my team.”

The Rams will be competing in tournaments every weekend when they return from Florida up until their A-10 championship on April 26.

After a winter break following their fall season, the Fordham women’s tennis team is back in action this spring. Throughout the fall, the Rams played in various tournaments and won their one dual meet against Manhattan 7-0.

Fordham is looking to build off of that and a 17-6 spring season last year, in which the team lost to St. Louis in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

The Rams should not struggle to pick up where they left off before the tournament last spring, only one player is new this spring.

Fordham did lose three players from last year, but the three mostly played sixth singles and third doubles. The first, second and third single players are all still a part of the team.

The team MVP last season, and someone to watch once again this season, is senior Amy Simidian.

Simidian was named First Team All-Atlantic 10 in a season in which she went 22-8 and led the team in single wins last season.

Simidian will be playing her final matches for Fordham this spring.

Julie Leong and Bella Genkina are also singles players who had a strong showing last spring. Leong was one of two freshmen to get 20 wins in single play and was once named the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week. Genkina was the other freshman to reach 20 wins in singles play, and she earned the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week honor twice.

Genkina is also half of a strong doubles pairing for the Rams. She and sophomore Sarah Ali went 17-5 in doubles action last season.

The team’s top double duo is An-

Another thing that should benefit the Rams this spring is their schedule. They play a schedule similar to last season’s, which should provide the team with familiarity.

Some key matches for the Rams will come against George Washington, Farleigh Dickenson and Army. All three are teams that the Rams lost to last season and will look to beat this season to even out the score. Their match against Temple also looks to be a big one, as it is the team’s home opener and Temple is another team that beat them last season.

finish ninth in the conference. This is a slight drop off from last season when the Rams finished seventh in the conference. The Rams just have to be one of the top 14 teams in the conference, however, to get a chance to play in the Atlantic 10 tournament at the end of the season and be crowned conference champions.

After a strong showing last spring and with a lot of players returning this spring, the Fordham women’s tennis team should have an exciting season. Their first home match is on March 24 against Atlantic 10 rival Temple.

MICHAEL HAYES/THE RAM

The Fordham women lost in the first round of the 2012 A-10 Tournament.

Men’s Tennis Begins First Spring Season Under New Coach

By MAX PRINZ ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

The Fordham men’s tennis team will enter spring play with a positive outlook. The team played very well in the fall, winning four

matches at home and performing excellently at the Columbia Invitational Tournament. Senior Kuba Kowalski, sophomore Srikar Alla and juniors Emilio Mora and Mischa Koran will look to lead the team to even more success in the

spring.

While there was much fall success for the tennis team, things are a little different now. On Feb. 1, Dimitar “Mickey” Bzrov was named the new head coach of men’s tennis, following the departure of

ALLY WHITE/THE RAM

Srikar Alla was 20th in the ITA Northeast regional rankings. He and Kuba Kowalski are the only Rams in the rankings.

Cory Hubbard. Bzrov was previously the director of tennis at the Pound Ridge Tennis Club. He was a four-year letterman at Concordia College, and is a USPTA certified tennis professional. His vast experience with the game will surely be an asset for the Rams.

The Rams have some great players hoping to take advantage of the opportunities under coach Bzrov. On Jan. 3, the ITA released its first regional rankings for the New Year. Kowalski is ranked 12th in the Northeast, while Alla is ranked 20th. Mora and Koran are ranked as the sixth best doubles team in the Northeast as well. In addition to receiving a regional ranking, Kowalski was ranked 110th nationally by the ITA, joining five other A-10 players. With four players in the ITA regional rankings, the Rams have a very impressive roster.

At the ITA Northeast Regional tournament this past fall, Fordham had more representatives in the tournament than any school besides Ivy League schools and St. John’s, which are nationally ranked programs. The players’ hard work is clearly paying off, as Fordham is quickly closing the gap between itself and the more elite programs.

Kowalski, Alla, Koran and Mora are all underclassmen. That gives the program a lot of hope for the future, but raises some questions about their experience and lead-

ership. The team captain is senior Alex Dirienzo, a member of the team for all four years, who will certainly be looked to for guidance.

DiReienzo helps bring energy to the team, a factor that the team relies on in picking up wins.

The Rams have one of the most energetic teams in the nation.

Coach Hubbard started instilling the team with liveliness and coach Bzrov will look to keep that up. The players often yell words of encouragement for the entire match. Shouts of “Go Rams” can be heard from all different parts of the courts.

In addition to great players, the Rams will also get to play a significant portion of their spring schedule at home. Temple, St. Bonaventure and Xavier will all make conference play visits to the Bronx this year. During the fall, the team was undefeated at home, winning 27 out of a possible 28 points in their four matches. The friendly confines of the Bob Hawthorn courts will definitely help the Rams in the spring.

The tennis team has never before reached the A-10 tournament.

Before the season, Hubbard listed making the conference tournament as one of the team’s goals.

Surely that remains a goal under new coach Bzrov, and this year the team seems primed and ready for success.

March 6, 2013

Page 4

SPRING PREVIEW

Softball Trying to Get Back on Top of Atlantic 10

By MATT ROSENFELD SPORTS EDITOR

For the past few years, the Fordham softball team has been one of the few bright spots in what has been a very bleak sports scene here at Rose Hill. In 2011, they won the Atlantic 10 and earned a berth into the NCAA Tournament. Last year, right here at Bahoshy Field, they defeated the third-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. This year, head coach Bridget Orchard and her team are looking to continue the success their program has become synonymous with, but it will not be easy.

The journey to another successful year will be quite different than the ones in the recent past for Fordham. The departure of leaders and proven talents Lindsey Kay Bright, Nicole Callahan and Jen Mineau has changed the look and style of the team in a big way. Mineau, who started 40 of the team’s 58 contests last year, will be replaced by a stable of pitchers, ranging from freshman Patti Maloney to senior Jamie Labovick.

“Right now we have four different pitchers to go with,” Orchard said.

“We’ve reactivated LaBovick, she’s been a pleasant surprise so far. She gets us balls put in play. We just have to play defense behind her, which is definitely different from the past and having nine or 10 strikeouts in a game.”

Sophomores Taylor Pirone and Michelle Daubman also will see time on the mound this year. Pirone and Daubman are the only two Rams that saw the mound last year besides Mineau, pitching 71.2 and

49.2 innings, respectively. LaBovick spent last year playing first base, where she will still spend time this year.

“It’s definitely different,” senior Chelsea Palumbo said about her team’s pitching situation. “Instead of having one power pitcher, we have a bunch of talent throughout four pitchers. We’re excited about that.”

Despite the hole to fill on the mound, in their two tournaments in Florida, pitching has hardly been the problem. It is the bats that will need to be figured out for the Rams as they move on in the season. In their five losses in the NFCA Leadoff Classic over the last weekend in February, the Rams were shut out three times. Looking to step up for Fordham this year is a senior class that includes outfielder and captain Jessica Crowley, Palumbo, who has made the switch from shortstop in 2012 to outfield this year, and

Labovick. The three seniors will be looked upon to lead the team this year.

Another group that will be heavily counted on this year is the Rams’ junior class, which contains two players that could play a big role in determining which way this season goes. Catcher Gabby Luety, who had nine home runs and 23 RBI, and Elise Fortier, who has made the switch from third base to shortstop this year, will be major factors if Fordham is to have a successful year.

“Fortier is probably our key returner as far as leadership,” Orchard said. “All eyes will be on her. If she has a breakout season, we should be doing well.”

Fordham has already competed in three tournaments in Florida thus far. The Rams are off to a 6-9 start in the Sunshine State. Their first tournament, the Dot Richardson Collegiate Invitational, has

been the Rams’ most successful this year. They picked up four wins and one loss, including a victory over ACC member Virginia Tech.

Since the Dot Richardson Collegiate Invitational, however, Fordham has struggled. In its 10 games since, the Rams are 2-8. Fordham is playing the best competition it will face all year in these early season tournaments, with games against power conference opponents like Mississippi State, Pittsburgh and Indiana.

“I think [these tournaments] really give us a gut check,” Orchard said. “We can gauge where we are at, where we are going to be and who can and can’t do what. We’re still trying to find out a lot about our team.”

The team has a lot to figure out about itself, and it gets a lot out of the games it plays against top notch opponent, even if the wins come

MICHAEL REZIN/THE RAM

The Fordham softball team is looking to build on its recent successes. The Rams were 14-6 in the A-10 last year.

few and far between.

“We might not win all of these games [in Florida] because we are playing harder competition,” Palumbo said of the early season tournaments. “But playing these games makes us better as a whole.

We want to start playing up to the better teams. We may not win a lot of them, but they definitely get us better for conference play.”

The one bright spot in its last two tournaments came in its last game of the ESPN Citrus Class in Orlando this past Sunday, when the Rams upset the fifth ranked Texas Longhorns. In a day that was a perfect example of what the team can be, Fordham hit four home runs, two of which came from Luety. Daubman and Palumbo each had a homerun of their own. Fortier also chipped in with three RBI. Last season, Fordham qualified for the Atlantic 10 postseason tournament, in which the top six teams in the regular season get a berth, but, after a win against St. Joseph’s, the Rams dropped its next two against eventual A-10 champion UMass. They were then eliminated after George Washington defeated them.

This year, the Rams look to get back to the top of the A-10, which Fordham won in 2011, but that is still a far way off.

“Our goal right now is to just get better every single day,” Orchard said. “By the time we get to those [Atlantic 10] games, we are playing our best.”

Fordham will next compete in the USF Tournament in Tampa, Fla. from March 8 through March 10.

Track and Field Continuing Momentum Gained in Winter

By RYAN SCANLON STAFF WRITER

After a season of long compression tights and shin splints, the Fordham men’s and women’s track and field teams are looking forward to an outdoor season of warm climate and all-around success. The hard-fought winter season showed great promise for both senior athletes looking to finish on a high note and underclassmen looking to build confidence for the coming years.

Last outdoor season we saw the men take fourth at the Atlantic-10 Championships anchored by their strong mid-distance group. This squad is considered to be extremely deep, having the talent to score in any event ranging from the 500m dash to the 1 mile run, including the 4x400m and 4x800m relays.

Individuals featured in this “midd” category are seniors John Cosgrove and Mike Rossi. Cosgrove netted an eighth place finish in the 800m run at A-10s a year ago, it is clear he is aiming for a medal this time around. Both Cosgrove and Rossi are also staples on Fordham’s 4x800m relay team. Other names who are considered an asset to the mid distance group who are returning to compete in the spring are junior Ryan Polo, junior Brian Walter, sophomore transfer Lester Taylor and sophomore Danny Green, who all could be featured in the 800m run and 1500m run.

One name that will reappear after a long respite from racing is Kevin

Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald is a graduate student with one season left of eligibility, which he will put to use this spring. This New Orleans native is not only the common anchor on the 4x800m relay team but is also the defending A-10 champion in the 1500m run. After nine months removed from being able to suit up, “Fitz” is very confident about the upcoming races.

“I feel in better shape than ever, which makes coming back really exciting,” Fitzerald said.

Fitzgerald also notes the strong finish to the indoor season as an indicator of things to come, “Everyone came together (at IC4A/ ECAC) and put forth some really impressive efforts and times …we ended on a really impressive note, one that bodes well for outdoor,” Fitzgerald said.

With that being said, Fitzgerald and the rest of the 4x800m relay team hope to qualify for the renown Penn Relays like they did a season ago.

In addition to the deluge of middistance runners, other individuals in the sprinting and field events will look to make a splash this spring.

Senior Sean Atkinson will look to excel after a dominating winter season in the 500m dash. His specialty will most likely be the 400-m dash and 4x400m relay, as well as a possible insertion in the 4x800m relay.

Junior high jumper David Fajoyomi continues to be a constant force on the mats, flirting with 7’ at many major meets, claiming his personal

record to be 7’2”. His contributions to the team totals are always reliable. Lastly, junior Sam Houston has been the school’s premiere heptathlete/decathlete since his first year at Fordham. His strengths include his exceptional quickness in the running events and his explosion in the long and high jumps.

Yet, he still possesses the strength to score well in the shot put and discus throws. His progression during his junior year will be fun to witness.

The women took a tenth place finish at the A-10 championships a season ago, but a lot has transpired since then. Losing seniors such as Kelly Connolly and Elisabeth Warren, who were tremendously valued for their work on the relay teams as well as middle distance leadership, is never easy. The emergence of certain individuals, however, has helped heal the loss and perhaps symbolize a changing of the regime.

Junior Titi Fagade had a breakout indoor season, showing no signs of slowing down as well as her versatility, proving her worth in the 500m dash, 800m run and 4x800m relay.

Fagade has established herself as a contender for a spot on the podium at any prestigious meet. The only uncertainty is whether she pursues the 400m dash (as she did last year spring and placed eighth) or the 800m run (as she did this past indoor season and placed second).

The strong improvement of the sophomore class over the winter certainly stood out as something to watch out for in the coming months.

Sophomores Melissa Higgins and Kristen Stuart were established intermediate hurdlers their freshman year; they have shifted gears a bit, however, and shown their prowess in the middle distance events, contributing to a very successful women’s 4x800m relay team in the indoor season. Other sophomores include Jillian Brooks, who contributed on the 4x800m relay and Mara Lieberman, who, in addition to the 4x800m relay, placed well through-

out the winter in the 1 mile run.

Senior Courtnay Newman is one of the few seniors left on the women’s side and will look to finish off her quality high jumping Fordham career on a good note this spring, always a contender to place and earn points come A-10 time.

The Rams’ first race of the new season will be the VCU Ram Invite be hosted by Atlantic-10 new comer VCU in Richmond, Va. on March 16.

RAM ARCHIVES

The Fordham outdoor track team will open up its season on March 16.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Page 12

TSeersucker he

KEVIN ZEBROSKI The compound word/fashion idiom “streetwear” gets thrown around a lot in digital style circles like blogs and forums, but it is not self-explanatory.

“Streetwear” is the shorthand that has come to differentiate between office proper and the casually oriented. Streetwear comprises the clothing associated with the latter, and is epitomized by the skateboarding-inspired label Supreme.

Supreme and the other brands it has inspired make use of bold prints, iconic branding and industry buzz words like “selvedge” — reinforced denim stitching — to appeal to the sartorially informed youth market. That is not to say Supreme does not produce a quality product. While their shirting tends to run larger than more historically relevant European design houses, the quality of Supreme’s garments has appealed to the sensibilities of “style guru” Glenn O’Brien of “GQ” and “Interview” fame. O’Brien has publicly — although not for the purpose of paid endorsements — positively commented on the fit of Supreme’s chinos.

“Streetwear” has come to be associated with designer quality and price because designer brands like Rick Owens and Raf Simons have capitalized on the popularity of loungewear trends.

The designer occupation of streetwear style was epitomized

by Marc Jacobs’ grunge themed and skateboarding-inspired lines in the ‘90s. Alexander Wang legitimized the cotton blend sweatpants and jumper look into a fashionable silhouette by moving away from precision tailoring to slouchy bagginess, and the sneaker output of Lanvin — a legendary French designer house that seems to cater primarily to trust fund babies — has inspired legions of fans that cannot get enough laser-etched leather accents on their lace ups.

Streetwear is where the most daring trends go to die, but the fickle nature of the fashion industry means that experimental streetwear is also a venue for innovation. The best trends — the ones that incorporate functionality and adapt to modern social climates — turn into new standards. Denim pants were once a reaction to the rigors of physical labor. Their invention in the 17th century Occident and the subsequent addition of rivets — the work of Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis — led to the adoption of jeans by the 1960’s Baby Boomer generation as America’s pants.

Whenever you see someone on 14th Street wading through dropped-crotch sweatpants and draped in clingy black silk like an urban ninja, remember that change and eccentricity is part of progress.

The Seersucker provides a wealth of knowledge on sartorial fundamentals, contemporary male fashion and the mastery of personal style.

March 6, 2013

America’s Violent History Ammo for Mimes Production

By JOHN BONAZZO COPY EDITOR

Those who have felled American Presidents get their due in the Stephen Sondheim-John Weidman musical Assassins, which was performed in a great production by the Mimes and Mummers.

The show is made up of short vignettes that set the scene for each killer. It chronicles not only marquee names like John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald, but also less well-known assassins. Charles Guiteau, the man who shot President James Garfield, turns out to be a showboating fame-seeker. Leon Czolgosz, who killed President William McKinley, was influenced by anarchists. Giuseppe Zangara, who attempted to kill Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is submissive to the voices in his head. Samuel Byck tries to crash a jet into Nixon’s White House to get his name in the history books. “Squeaky” Fromme and Sara Jane Moore each attempt to take Gerald Ford’s life in search of fame. Finally, John Hinckley tries to kill Ronald Reagan just to impress Jodie Foster.

The show’s director, Stephen

Agosto, keeps the show’s pace tight and sobering, overseeing the dark action in the Collins Theatre with skill. The set is simple yet effective, and everything on it, from prop guns to a KFC container, eventually serves a purpose.

Sondheim’s brilliant score, which includes ballads for some assassins as well as group numbers, is skillfully interpreted by the pit band. Every line of Weidman’s book lands, thanks to the talent of a great cast.

The group of assassins is a sordid but talented group. Mike Dahlgren emcees the show as the Balladeer, telling these assassins’ stories with heart and feeling.

When he transforms into Lee Harvey Oswald in the second half, he lays bare the inner turmoil the man felt before shooting President Kennedy.

Kevin Horan is an effective John Wilkes Booth, expertly showing both his inner pain and determination. Vincent Pasquill makes Guiteau eerily entertaining; the audience is entranced and a bit repulsed. As Czolgosz and Zangara, respectively, John Schule and Nick Motlenski effectively show the turmoil the men faced before making their decisions. As

Fromme and More, Pam Zazzarino and Sarah Kellman function as great comic relief, ineptly trying to gain fame to impress their men. Phil Reilly is meekly menacing as he plays Hinckley, and his duet with Fromme, “Unworthy of Your Love,” is a show highlight.

In a world rife with news of gun violence, the first sounds of shots in this show may make the audience jump. The right theatrical tone is given to the violence, however, making it much less jarring as the show goes on.

The Mimes’ accomplishment is even more impressive when one considers the cavalier way in which guns are portrayed in most areas of American culture.

This was explored in a recent New York Times series called “Big Bang Theories: Violence on Screen,” which set out to explain why “flying bullets and macabre deaths have long made for compelling viewing.”

Film critic A.O. Scott posits that shows like “The Walking Dead” give viewers the idea of a new, more exciting life. Being “a cowboy, a maverick lawman or a postapocalyptic zombie hunter promises clearer dangers and keener pleasures than the com-

promises and routines that most of us face from day to day.”

Fellow film critic Manohla Dargis also thinks this is true on the silver screen, and that movies push boundaries by glamorizing violence and vengeance. She cites a study from the website All Outta Bubblegum, which tracks deaths in movies, that finds that “the ‘killcount’ for Marvel’s The Avengers, the highest grossing movie last year, is 964.”

Figures like that are sobering reminders that America needs to start looking at violence in its culture in new ways. The existence of guns cannot be denied, but these weapons cannot be glamorized on the screen or stage. This production of Assassins presents a good model to follow, acknowledging the violence inherent in the show’s plot, but using it to further the story and make the audience think rather than using it as just shock value.

The Mimes and Mummers have done right by a great American musical.

Assassins is fun and unsettling in just the right amounts, and provides a good model for how the arts should move forward following tragedy.

Dining Out: Bareburger

By LAUREN HATHAWAY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When I made the Lenten promise this year to eat only humanely raised meat, I was not anticipating a major burger craving the first weekend into the season. Enter Bareburger, a New York City micro-chain featuring a menu of exotic meat burgers made with organic, locally sourced ingredients. With 10 locations throughout Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island, Bareburger is a convenient option for burger lovers with adventurous taste buds.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the 34th Street and 3rd Avenue location in Manhattan was the laid-back atmosphere and earthy décor. From the ceilings made with recycled tin barn siding to the tables made with reclaimed wood, it was clear that Bareburger’s efforts toward sustainability extend far beyond the menu. For a Saturday night around 7 p.m., the restaurant was busy but not too crowded, and we were seated immediately when we walked through the door.

One of my favorite things about the menu at Bareburger was the variety. Among the burger options, you could choose one of 13 different patties ranging from beef to mushroom burgers to exotic meat selections, which included lamb, wild boar, elk, bison and ostrich.

The menu also featured a wide selection of sides, salads, sandwiches and desserts and included multiple vegan and gluten free options for customers with dietary concerns.

The drink menu offered an assortment of beer, wine and organic sodas. I chose a bottle of Sarsaparilla soda, which was creamy and delicious but far too overpriced at $2.95. Most burgers on the menu

The consensus on Bareburger? Enticing NYC food at a not so enticing NYC price.

cost over $10, so my friends and I were disappointed to discover that sides were not included. We ordered the ring and fries combo to start, which came with three dipping sauces: curry ketchup, Bareburger special sauce and habanero chipotle mayo. The fries were perfectly seasoned and the onion rings had just enough crunch.

I ordered the Habanero Express burger with elk on a multi-grain roll. The meat was tender and juicy with a taste similar to beef but slightly more full-flavored.

Although it worked well with the pepper jack, poblano peppers and habanero chipotle mayo, there was so much piled on top of the burger that the flavor of the meat was overpowered. Two of my friends opted for bison burgers, while another chose the farmer’s veggie burger.

Compared to the elk, the flavors of

both the bison and veggie burgers were disappointing. Next time, I would skip the exotic meats altogether and try the lamb or classic beef.

Although our burgers and sides left us stuffed, the desserts sounded too good to pass up.

We ultimately chose the caramel pecan cheesecake, which had a rich flavor but was not as smooth and creamy as I would look for in cheesecake. I would have liked to try the banana foster or hot honey milkshake, but at $7.95 each, the price was a turn-off.

Considering that a burger and fries could run anywhere from $12 to $18, I probably would not choose to come to Bareburger often. Although I enjoyed the atmosphere and respect the company’s sustainability efforts, I was disappointed in the high prices, espe-

COURTESY OF LAUREN HATHAWAY

cially since I was not blown away by the food. If what you want is a good classic burger at a decent price, Bareburger may disappoint. But, if you are passionate about sustainability or are curious about what an ostrich or boar burger might taste like, then stop by one of the many Bareburger locations across the city for a splurge.

Overall Location Food Quality Atmosphere Hospitality Price $$ (Out of 4

’s)

Interested in writing restaurant and food reviews? Email: fordhamramculture@gmail. com

March 6, 2013

ADVERTISING

Page 13

fordhamram.com

facebook.com/theram @fordhamramonline @theram_sports youtube.com/user/ thefordhamram

social for you and me—dia.

THE FORDHAM RAM

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Page 14

March 6, 2013

Editor’s Pick: Brazilian jiu-jitsu

By COURTNEY HO ASSISTANT WEB EDITOR

There is a 200-pound man on top of me and I can hardly breathe, but I tell myself to stay calm and think. Hundreds of possible scenarios flash through my mind, and I gradually eliminate each one based on his reactions. I find an opening. He submits.

Get your mind out of the gutter people, I’m talking about Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

To elaborate, Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a martial art that focuses on ground fighting. It was developed

by Helio Gracie, a Brazilian who initially trained in Japanese judo.

This style of jiu-jitsu concentrates on the use of leverage and submission techniques such as jointlocks and chokeholds.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu rose to prominence in the early 1990s when Royce Gracie, son of Helio Gracie, used Brazilian jiu-jitsu to beat his opponents in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. People were astounded that he was able to beat much larger, heavier op-

ponents who were experts in other fighting styles such as boxing, muay thai and wrestling.

I got into Brazilian jiu-jitsu after realizing that I did not know how to defend myself on the ground.

What if someone stronger and heavier than me attacked me, and he or she started hitting me on the ground? As an average-sized woman, I understand that people who fall into my demographic are usually targets of violent crimes.

Still, no matter what demographic you fall into, it is an unfortunate reality that bad things happen in this world, and you must know how to protect yourself.

So, I learned how to protect myself. I started taking classes, and I have never looked back.

The beauty of Brazilian jiu-jitsu is that it is not just a martial art and a style of self-defense: it is a philosophy and a way of life. It has taught me to be calm in situations where it seems like there is no way out. It is a martial art that challenges me mentally and physically. People who train in Brazilian jiu-jitsu often compare it to

chess. In order to beat your opponent, you have to be focused, adaptable, composed and a few steps ahead of him or her.

I try my best to convince my friends to take Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but I have found that most women are uncomfortable with the idea of fighting so closely with men who are probably stronger and heavier. For all you women out there who are unconvinced that women are able to defeat bigger and stronger opponents, I suggest you look up the current UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. Although men’s and women’s divisions are separated, and she fights within her weight class, there is no doubt that she is an exceptional female fighter who would be able to beat up any man who attacked her.

Nevertheless, whether you are a man or a woman, I recommend that you try Brazilian jiujitsu one day. It will teach you how to defend yourself, you will get a heck of a workout, and I guarantee it will inspire you to become a better person.

NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade Where: 5th Avenue When: Saturday, March 16 11 a.m.

Every year, the streets are overwhelmed by bagpipers, drunken New Yorkers and all shades of green as St. Patrick’s Day approaches. This year, hit up one of the biggest parades in New York to see the international bands, NY’s finest march in full uniform and of course, the people watching. Arrive early, at least three hours, to avoid standing behind a human wall of “Kiss me, I’m Irish” T-shirts so you will have the full experience. If you yearn for a little Irish fare, head on over to McSorley’s Old Ale House at 15 East 7th Street. This traditional Irish pub was founded in 1854, making it New York City’s oldest saloon. McSorley’s has served the likes of President Lincoln and John Lennon in its lifetime. Famous for its ale and classic pub food, it is a perfect stop before you groggily return home.

New York Botanical Garden’s Orchid Show Where: New York Botanical Garden When: Wednesday, March 6 – Sunday, April 21 When: 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.

This time of year everything seems to be in limbo, with Jack Frost holding on to the last icicles and spring struggling to poke through, but a 10-minute walk to the Botanical Garden across the street will brighten up anyone’s day. This Wednesday is the start of the Botan’s 11th annual Orchid Show designed by staffer Francisca Coelho. The exotic flowers will transport you to a tropical paradise, far away from the stress of college and the chill in the air. This year, the beloved flower show incorporates trees blown down by Hurricane Sandy as a memorial to all of the destruction done by the storm. After you tour the grounds, stop by the gift shop to buy an orchid of your very own.

— COMPILED BY DANIELLE GARRA ND ASSISTANT ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Send tips, event listings or comments to fordhamramculture@gmail.com.

COURTESY OF JOHN LAMONICA/WIKIMEDIA IMAGES

Brazilian jiu-jitsu tests the limits of strategy and physical abiulities. Could you jiu-jitsu?

Radical Empathy and Respect: Fordham Theater’s Ruined

By MARGARET DESMOND CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The play Ruined takes on issues that are hard enough to acknowledge and talk about, let alone see portrayed on stage. Lincoln Center Theater chose an undertaking of staggering proportions in bringing this play to their stage. After one of the performances, the director, actors and crew members sat down to talk about how they accomplished the play and overcame difficulties.

The first commenter noted how this play gives a voice to the women in the Eastern Congo. He emphasized that the stereotypical ideas of Africa, such as drums or masks, were not pictured in the show, which instead focused on individual characters. These characters include women devoted to caring for their property in the midst of the guns and the violence; during war or peace, these are women who will protect what belongs to them. He also mentioned how in his work on a documentary similar to the play, there were weeks when he had to stop because he could not cope with the material.

This play is shocking, but the reality

is much worse and more than any audience could handle.

The director, Isis Misdary, introduced the play as “deceptively simple.” She noted how the play portrays the consequences when the worlds of women and men collide.

Savannah Whetsell, the assistant director, followed up with insight on how the play demands an emotional reaction from the audience which is out of place within the content of the play. The emotions in Ruined are often not expressed by the characters.

This suppression of emotion is the only chance the characters have to survive. Isis Misdary also gave some background information on the set, describing how it was inspired by a photo from Ghana. She wanted a way to reflect the presence of the war and the fact that women are making money off the war without overwhelming the other themes of the play. The army vehicle used for the set is authentic.

The actors spoke about their feelings on the sensitive nature of the content of Ruined. The first to speak was Taylor Armstrong Purdee, who played Fortune. He explained that the honesty between the actors had

helped them to deal with the subject matter of rape and exploitation. The actors were told at the beginning of the production by the costume director, “This is real. Deal with it.”

And so they did. The actors watched documentaries on the Congo to understand the situation. Josh T. Tarpaw, who played characters Osembenga and Kisembe, explained that the issues are uncomfortable, so the play will be uncomfortable.

While there is no way around this, it encourages the audience to ask “Why?” and to gain a better under-

standing of the conflict in the Congo and its effects on the people who live there.

From the beginning, Isis Misdary, asked that the cast be “radically empathetic” and push themselves far beyond their comfort level to tell this story.

One young woman, Mayaa Boateng, who played the character Salima, brought up a personal challenge for her as an actress to play a role where she had to give men control over her body. She struggled with this because of the respect she has for

LI YANG/THE RAM

In less than three weeks, actors delved into the brutual sexism in militant Congo.

herself, but in the end she was able to come to terms with it by reminding herself that she is a storyteller.

Later, Ruben De’Paris, who played several supporting roles, talked about the relationship between the men and women of the cast off the stage.

He explained that the men treat the women with nothing but respect and that has made it easier to deal with the lack of respect in the characters they portray.

In only 17 days of rehearsal, the cast and crew of Ruined delved into a world completely foreign from their own and put on a complex and emotional play. This was accomplished by young actors, men and women who are only in their early 20s. Isis Misdary ended the evening on a serious note by pointing out that this disaster is man-made and saying, “I caused it”.

A major reason for the turmoil in Congo is the presence of a mineral necessary for manufacturing smart phones. The director, as a smart phone user, acknowledged that this choice meant she was responsible for the issues in this play. She encouraged the audience to use their phones in a positive way and spread the word about the Congo.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

March 6, 2013

WHO’S THAT KID? HANIA HRIBAL-KORNILOWICZ A MEMBER OF FCRH ’16 MAJOR: PSYCHOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY FROM: MILWAUKEE, WISC. Describe yourself in a couple sentences for the readers: My not-so-typical self-description: I’m the only white girl from my neighborhood, and my entire name is 26 letters and ends in a Z. Oh, and I guess my short hair kinda makes me stick out on campus. I also speak really quickly!

What is your favorite aspect of Fordham and why?

I like that we have a real college campus atmosphere in such close proximity to NYC, and all the black squirrels and random cats.

If there was one thing about Fordham you could change what would it be?

How pitiful our racial, economic and social diversity actually is; in all honesty, the most diversity I’ve seen is thanks to the black squirrels.

What is your favorite thing to do in New York City?

Out of hundreds of things to do, my favorite is still people watching.

It sounds creepy but its actually the best! It’s free and you get to make up completely absurd stories about

people’s lives.

What is something about you that not many people know?

I don’t really have feeling in my left foot/ankle after breaking it in six places and having metal screws installed.

Page 15 I consider GIFs of Honey BooBoo, Jersey Shore, etc. to be my guilty pleasure, because I get to laugh at how ridiculous they are but don’t actually have to listen to their voices. Is that bad?

What is your favorite class at Fordham?

My personality of psychology class — it’s amazing how applicable some of the theories are to people.

What is the biggest misconception people have about you?

That I really like cheese and beer, because I’m from Wisconsin. I also should apparently have mastered my cow tipping skills too; I’m sorry I’ve failed you all.

What is a personal goal you would like to accomplish over your four years here?

To try and meet someone from every state, but mostly I want to get more involved in the community in order to hopefully make a difference in some of the kids’ lives.

Do you have plans, career or otherwise, for post-college life?

I will probably go to grad school, then who knows. I know I want to help people and the environment in any way possible, especially having seen everything I have thanks to my unique background.

What show, food, artist or movie would you consider your “guilty pleasure”?

What activities, clubs, projects or organizations are you involved with at school?

I’m part of the women’s club soccer team, ASILI, College Democrats and Polish Cultural Exchange, although I’ve been lax as of late with meeting attendance.

If you were stranded on an island, what would you bring?

Is there a limit? Something to desalinize water, a little survival kit — Bear Grylls approved — and a soccer ball to keep my ADD self entertained, but I wouldn’t name it Wilson; that’s too cliché. I’d go with a random name like Ferdinand or Apollo.

COURTESY OF HANIA HORBIL-KORNILOWICZ

Hania may have a few screws in her ankle, but that doesn’t stop her from chasing black squirrels around campus.

If you could go back to your first day at Fordham, what advice would you give yourself?

The usual, to calm down and be myself. I also would remind myself to stick with the mantra “Don’t cheat yourself, because you are the one who suffers in the end.”

Hellenic Party: Dance Until You Are Greek

By ALEXANDRA COUMBIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The general consensus from this year’s participants in Greek Night is that the Greeks know how to party.

This past Saturday night the Hellenic Society took center stage at Rose Hill. Any student who passed by McGinley 2nd would have seen the shining blue lights out of the windows.

They would have heard the pounding rhythm of Greek music from a distance away.

The night began with an opening prayer from Father John Lardas, a priest at St. Constantine in Brooklyn.

It is one of the oldest Greek Orthodox churches in New York. St. Constantine is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

“From what I’ve been told, Greek Night is the largest Fordham sponsored event on campus for cultural events and it is by far the most fun,” said, Mike Hayes, FCRH ’13. “I’ve been to multiple cultural events, and the Greeks really know how to party and to put on a show.”

Hayes, a member of the Hellenic Society, says he identifies as, “not Greek myself, but I am pseudoGreek.” The Hellenic Society welcomes Greeks and non-Greeks into their club. “I’m fascinated with the Greek culture,” said Hayes. “So, I decided to get involved as much as I could, and my roommate is from Athens. He definitely helped in influenc-

COURTESY OF ALEXANDRA COUMBIS

My Big Fat Greek Night is hosted by the dashing Hellenic society members.

ing me to join the Hellenic Society.”

Hayes’ roommate, Peter Tsevdos, GSB ’14, is the Fundraising Chair of the Hellenic Society.

When asked what people in attendance can take away from Greek Night, Tsevdos said, “The Greeks are very welcoming, we don’t just invite Greeks into the Greek club. We invite all kinds of ethnicities. That’s how we are, a very welcoming group, and we appreciate everybody coming to dance and mingle together.”

The Vice President of the Hellenic Society, Petroula Lambrou, GSB ’13, explained some of the particulars of Greek dancing. She said that each region of Greece has its own dance style that derives from its history.

“We had fast war-like dances like kotsari, slow couples dances from the islands, male dances like tsamiko and solo dances like the zeibekiko,” said

Lambrou. “Greece is a diverse country with such rich culture and history, which I believe was represented in our performance.”

Efthemia Hanakis, FCLC ’14, the president of Lincoln Center’s Hellenic Society, was also in attendance.

“The Greek culture was really portrayed in the traditional Greek dances that occur in all the weddings, christenings, anything that is a big event that’s what they do,” she said. “The Hellenic Society taught the Fordham culture about that.”

Family members of the Hellenic Society were in attendance as well.

A few of the club members had their Yiayias (Grandmother) out on the dance floor. The DJs mix of both American and Greek music had everyone out on the dance floor.

Many of the traditional Greek foods, such as pastitio, lemon pota-

toes and Greek salad, were served at a buffet-style dinner. The open bar for people over 21 had Mythos, a Greek beer, as well as red and white wines.

Dessert included chocolate covered strawberries, baklava and cake.

Many students attend because they know someone in the Hellenic Society.

“We have a friend who is from Greece and is a part of the Hellenic Society and he talked to us about it,” said Megan Powers, FCRH ’13.

“We’ve come before, it’s a great opportunity to experience a culture that is not familiar to me, and the food is amazing. We have a great time every year.”

Michelle Ioannou, FCRH ’13, was one of the night’s Greek dancers. She has been Greek dancing for her entire life.

“This is my fourth and, unfortunately, last Greek Night where I will be dancing,” she said.

She also encouraged her nonGreek friends to attend. “My nonGreek friends look forward to Greek night each year,” Ioannou said. “They have a blast with the traditional food, dancing and the atmosphere.”

Sarah Sullivan, GSB ’14, summed the night up well: “Greek Night is a beautiful celebration of Greek culture and I think this event, as well as many cultural events at Fordham, inspire all Fordham students to get back in touch with their own roots in terms of both social and educational purposes.”

Karen Hill The cemetery of skeletons in our closets all too often become the walking dead. Our harrowing mistakes and memories — our exes and one night stands — lurch through the halls, our classes, the caf, the bars, forever haunting us.

Our natural tendency is to run from them, but on a small campus awkward run-ins become a large problem. No weekend is complete without a little “Oh my God! There is my ex” drama. Guys and girls alike get the same shaky reaction. This is college, and we are all adults, so this situation must be handled maturely. Whether it was a serious ex, an ambiguous fling or a random hook up, you should just say “hi.” The only thing that should stop you is if you have a restraining order.

It really does not matter where you are or when, but if you are out and about and see that person you really don’t want to see, there is no harm in a smile and wave. Doing so is simple, and it shows you are the bigger person. If you hold resentful feelings, there is no need to unleash them. That makes you look like the crazy grudge holder, and if that person even cares, they will hold resentment over you if you freak out at them.

There must be some redeeming quality in that person that initially attracted you to him or to her. Go back to that place, the pre-fallout place, and just say “hi.” Further conversation does not need to ensue. Don’t give that person another reason to dislike you. I am always really impressed when someone from my past just says hi, and it makes any hard feeling that I do have dissipate. My personal decision is often to choose not have any further conversation. After all, things ended for a reason.

Coming off too strong sends an equally negative message as ignoring the person does. Hugs are not necessary. Introducing the new beau you are with is not necessary.

Attempted shot-blocking is not necessary.

Guys always seem to think it is okay to hook up with someone new in front of us girls with known histories of jealousy. Girls often play the “let’s flirt with everyone in sight” game. Neither of these tactics are wise. Maybe you aren’t even trying to make anyone jealous. Maybe you are just trying to move on, but it will never appear that way. People’s perceptions of you really aren’t that important, but you should be wary of your actions to avoid conflict.

If you truly feel like you can’t handle seeing your ex or whoever is the source of your distress, it is okay to turn away, but only before you’ve been spotted. Otherwise, muster up whatever modicum of courage you can and just say “hi.”

Being the bigger person always feels good, and it feels a lot better than the anxiety of creepily trying to hide under a circle-scarf-turnedinto-hood wondering if you’ve been spotted. Or maybe that’s just me.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Page 16

February 6, 2013

Ram Reviews A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD MOVIES

COURTESY OF MOVIEPOSTERDB.COM

By PJ BROGAN STAFF WRITER

Before we had Christian Bale growling unintelligible one-liners in Gotham City, and before we had Jennifer Lawrence winging arrows at teenagers, Bruce Willis was the action hero of American cinema, always ready to jump off a skyscraper with nothing but a fire hose and a pithy, unprintable catchphrase.

Which is why it is such a shame that McClane is stuck in a movie as pointless and dull as A Good Day to Die Hard, the fifth in the series.

By JAKE KRING-SCHREIFELS STAFF WRITER

No longer is McClane desperately trying to stop an imminent terrorist attack on a major American city.

In fact, he is not even in America anymore. He is sent to Russia to find his spy son — played by Jai Courtney (Jack Reacher) — and gets involved in a perilous Russian political controversy.

If you think a Russian political controversy sounds kind of dull, get ready to have all your expectations confirmed. It is almost as if the studio opened up the drawer marked “Awful James Bond Scripts,” picked up the dustiest volume in the heap, tore off the cover page, slapped on

Die Hard and called it a day. Now, no one goes into a Die Hard movie looking for an Oscar-winning story; they go for Bruce Willis’ shining dome and some crazy action sequences. But, when you devote around an hour of a 98-minute movie to coma-inducing exposition, there is no amount of Bruce Willis and his sub-machine gun that can save your movie.

John’s son Jack becomes slightly more fun as the movie progresses, but he’s certainly no Reginald VelJohnson (Die Hard) or Sam Jackson (Die Hard with a Vengeance).

All that might have been remedied with a villain worthy of Hans or Simon Gruber, but alas, the fifth Die Hard cannot even decide who the real villain is — switching from one Russian man to the next, each older, hairier and more boring than the last. Without any character of interest besides John McClane, it is hard to really care about the bullets and bombs that hit the screen.

With Bruce Willis getting up there in age, there is some talk that A Good Day to Die Hard will be the last in the Die Hard franchise. I hope that is not the case. John McClane deserves better than to go out on such a weak and ephemeral note. Save your money, and go take out the original classic Die Hard or the infinitely entertaining Die Hard with a Vengeance from the library.

Your wallet, your brain and John McClane will thank you.

DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’ MOVIES

It is almost impossible to believe that a short, impoverished Filipino man could ever become the lead singer of a massive American rock band like Journey, until you hear his voice.

Arnel Pineda, now the band’s lead vocalist since his start in 2008, is the center of director Ramona Diaz’s enchantingly inspirational documentary Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey. It is a richly authentic rags-to-riches tale about an improbable discovery and a life-changing opportunity.

The film, produced by Diaz and Joshua Green, chronicles Journey’s concert tour in 2008, Pineda’s first year with the band, and follows them on the road to witness the transformation of their age-old sound. This captivating narrative gets anchored by the interspersed back stories of the band itself, but Pineda’s growth from his low-income childhood to adult stardom, is most important.

Diaz handles these contextual additions with deft understanding of an audience’s desire to stay in the moment, entertained and sporadically informed. Pineda speaks about his childhood in Manila, Philippines, how he would sing at funerals and street corners just to get some rations for his brothers. His mother was ill very early into his childhood, and they had to sell their house and furniture to pay for her medical bills. Pineda continued his desire, though, and eventually landed a spot singing with a band called Zoo. Enter the power of social media. Late one night, Neal Schon,

COURTESY OF MOVIEPOSTERDB.COM

lead guitarist for Journey, was scouring the web, looking for a potential new lead singer to join the band. Then, he stumbles upon Zoo’s cover of The Journey song “Faithfully” on YouTube and he is blown away. Schon, together with Jonathon Cain, keyboardist and guitarist, sent an email to Pineda, inviting him to audition, with a note of comedic emphasis they wrote in the email “This is real!”

“I clicked on the link, the same one Neal Schon saw, and I saw Arnel singing ‘Faithfully’ and my hair stood,” said director Ramona Diaz in an interview. “Oh my goodness, someone has to make this film.”

“10 years ago, this story would not have been possible. 10 years ago there is no YouTube. Some obscure singer in the Philippines singing in marginal bands can be plucked from obscurity, brought to the U.S., audition and get this

gig, that’s a modern story,” she said.

Pineda obtained his visa, and the film captures his tryout process in front of Schon and Cain, who provide insightful musical commentary. By the third day, he is wailing out classics like “Separate Ways” and “Lights” and the entire band can feel the goosebumps.

So can the fans. They line up young and old to fill the 20,000 seat venues all over the country.

It is surreal for Pineda, who can clear as day recall his scrapping for meals, and who now gets catered to daily. Pre-show, you can catch him with herbal tea and throat spray, sometimes even oxygen masks and masseuses.

It could appear that this film is another representation of American Dream idealism, but it is more an ode to the Internet, music and

MOVIES

NO

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Amour got all the buzz — and the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film — but there were, in fact, other foreign language movies released in 2012.

One such picture was the simultaneously happy and bleak Chilean film No, a movie which was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. This Spanish-language drama, directed by Pablo Larraín, follows the events of the 1988 Chilean National Plebiscite, which ultimately led to the ouster of the brutal Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The people of Chile were given the decision to vote “Yes” to keep Pinochet or “No” to reject the dictator and create the beginnings of a new democracy. It is the kind of setting that easily lends itself to hard-edged, dramatic political espionage like John Frankenheimer’s classic suspense tale of a fictional U.S. military coup in Seven Days in May or to biopics of great men and women faced with great decisions a la Steven Spielberg’s saintly portrayal of our 16th president in Lincoln.

Larraín, however, goes a different route. The referendum itself was preceded by about a month of television commercials advocating both for and against Pinochet and No follows TV ad director René Saavedra played by Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mamá También) and his band of rogue, left-wing filmmakers that made the commercials for the “No” campaign. Instead of sanctifying these men and the country’s ensuing democracy, Larraín tells an honest story of whitewashing and corrupted idealism in the creation of a modern democracy.

Pinochet’s government was economically beneficial for the middle and upper classes, but thousands of political dissidents were suppressed under his regime. In his 2006 obituary, The New York Times stated that more than 3,200 men and women were murdered during the Chilean ruler’s

17 year stay in power. The “no” or antiPinochet commercial makers, however, when creating their 15 minute television spots, elect not to include these terrible deaths, and instead they filled their TV time with blind optimism and promises of continued success for the wealthy. Sunshine and rainbows were a repeated theme throughout the advertisements. It seems like an absurd and borderline offensive campaign, but it worked. Pinochet was voted out with 53 percent of the vote, and Chile could celebrate the birth of a democracy without fully confronting its past.

Saavedra is a rather stoic figure, but Bernal plays him with enough subtlety and heart that he is a very likable figure. A fondness for toy trains endeared him to me (I was an avid Thomas the Tank Engine fan in my childhood). He knows the human cost of the Pinochet regime, his ex-wife has been the victim of several attacks while protesting his rule but he masterminds the “No”s wide-eyed and simplistic campaign, knowing that the people do not want to be confronted with the truth. By the film’s end, he almost seems hurt that his advertisements have worked, and that people could be more easily turned by a well-packaged lie instead of the cold truth.

No sets itself up as a counterpoint to another film well-represented on Oscar night: Lincoln.

Both films tackle a celebratory moment in their respective nations’ history, but treat them very differently.

Lincoln, as beautifully shot and acted as it undoubtedly was, just about pretended that Abraham Lincoln single handedly destroyed all racism that would ever exist in America. No, on the other hand, asks us to consider that there are potentially problems and diseases underlying even the greatest moments in a country’s history. It is an interesting and important argument, and one well worth checking out. If you like to read and think about your movies, No is well worth

their potential life-changing combination.

The film is at its best when it peeks in on the music taught, written and performed in behindthe-scenes encounters. It is a personal glimpse at a group of men, not clichéd rock gods, but mortal musicians, constantly fine-tuning and making hard work seem sec-

ond nature. The movie only appears trite because Journey’s generic song titles often embody the “journey” of Arnel Pineda.

“It’s larger than just one individual as we have proven,” said Schon.

“I think we got it right a long time ago, and I think we’re still getting it right, and it’s the reason we’re enjoying the longevity of success.”

By PJ BROGAN STAFF WRITER

TO READ THESE REVIEWS IN THEIR ENTIRETY, VISIT FORDHAMRA M.COM

Sports Fordham Men’s Disappointing Season Nearly Over

Page 17

March 6, 2013

Rams Fall to 6-23; Pecora Still Optimistic About Future Despite Current Struggles

By DAN GARTLAND EXECUTIVE SPORTS EDITOR

The Fordham men’s basketball team set out this season with one goal: to be in Brooklyn, NY on March 14 for the Atlantic 10 tournament. Blowout losses to Richmond and Saint Joseph’s in the past two weeks have ensured that will not be happening.

The Rams’ Feb. 23 matchup against Richmond came just one week after senior forward Chris Gaston’s spirited performance nearly sparked them to an upset of No. 11 Butler. The energy Gaston displayed in that game was nowhere to be found against Richmond, though. He was visibly frustrated after a few close calls did not go his way. First, he thought he was fouled, but the referees disagreed; then, an apparent goaltend was ignored.

“I’m always surprised when Chris doesn’t play well, but I think the residue of missing 13 games this year is thick,” Fordham head coach Tom Pecora said. “He came back [against] Butler and we were

thrilled with the effort and how he played that day, but since then, that energy hasn’t been there.”

The contest was Fordham’s final Saturday home game, meaning Gaston was honored beforehand in Senior Day ceremonies, but his performance in his second-to-last game in the Rose Hill Gym was lackluster at best. Gaston tallied only seven points and six rebounds.

“I feel for the kid, obviously,” Pecora said. “This is not what he expected on Senior Day, or what he wanted, I’m sure.”

Gaston was not the only Fordham player who struggled. The majority of the team looked flat and dispirited as the Spiders cruised to a 72-55 win.

“Right now, obviously, we’re struggling,” Pecora said. “I think the residue of losses is accumulating and I can see it in their body language.”

A pair of young guards provided a bit of a silver lining, though. Mandell Thomas continued his impressive rookie season, leading the Rams with 17 points, and redshirt freshman Jeff Short had one of his

better games this year, netting 12 points while filling the hole left by Bryan Smith, who is out for the rest of this season with a broken hand.

Overall, however, Pecora was not pleased with his team’s showing.

“I told the team I didn’t want to talk to them until practice on Wednesday,” he said. “This is the first time I feel that we laid an egg at home this year.”

Things did not get much better on the road against St. Joe’s the following Saturday. When the Rams and Hawks met in the Bronx in late January, the two teams played an exciting, hard-fought game, which saw 23 lead changes and nine ties.

St. Joe’s came out on top, 66-62.

The rematch in Philadelphia was an entirely different story.

The Hawks started the game on a 10-0 run and never looked back.

They led 39-22 at the half, on the way to an 82-56 victory.

The loss was Fordham’s ninth in a row, dropping the Rams’ record to 6-23 overall and 2-12 in the A-10.

They have not won since Jan. 26 against Rhode Island.

In game one, freshman Cody Johnson pitched a two-hit gem, and did not allow a base runner until the fifth inning. By that point, Fordham had all the offense it would need.

The Rams scored their only run in the second inning, when senior Tim Swatek produced a lead-off triple. Joseph Runco singled him home with one out, and the Rams held on from there. St. Peter’s starter Eric Mozeika took the loss despite allowing only two hits. A seventh-inning throwing error by junior third baseman Rob McCunney, however, created some late drama. With two outs and the tying run on third base, Johnson got Brian Schroeder to fly out to left field, and Fordham claimed a 1-0 win.

In game two, the Rams again edged the Peacocks in a 4-2 encounter. St. Peter’s opened the scoring with a vicious two-out rally off starter John Porter. After Porter retired the first two batters, the Peacocks’ next four hitters reached base via three hits and a walk. Fordham avoided further trouble when Gerard DeFilippo grounded to shortstop with the bases loaded. The Peacocks would regret that missed opportunity in the second inning, when Runco and Edmiston powered a two-run Fordham rally. St. Peter’s responded in the fourth, as James Spadaccini reached on an error and scored with two outs on a Porter wild pitch. Fordham nearly regained the lead moments later, but sophomore Joseph Calabrese and Cianci left the bases loaded. In the fifth, the Rams broke the 2-2 deadlock when Galiano singled home Mike Mauri.

Mauri drove in another run in the sixth with a sacrifice fly, and reliever Brett Kennedy finished off the Peacocks. Kennedy allowed no hits and struck out eight in his three innings, and pitched with exceptional poise for a freshman. Most importantly, he led Fordham to its 4-2 nightcap win.

After a planned series against Wichita State was canceled due to excessive snow in Kansas, the Rams played home games against Iona and Lehigh.

On Friday, March 1, senior Joseph Charest pitched a complete game, and Fordham withstood an Iona rally for a 4-3 victory. Fordham scored its first two runs in the first inning, as RBI singles from senior Mike Mauri and freshman Charles Galiano highlighted a two-out rally. Iona scored one unearned run in the third inning after freshman Ian Edmiston made a two-out fielding error, but the Gaels did not get another hit against Charest until the sixth inning. The Rams tacked on insurance runs in the bot-

SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 20

ALLY WHITE/THE RAM

Mandell Thomas continues to play well, even while the Rams struggle.

Fordham Baseball has Strong Start in the Bronx

By DOMINIC KEARNS STAFF WRITER

While local temperatures still hover in the 40s, the Fordham baseball team has sprung into action with a 5-3 record. After losing its first two games against the Michigan Wolverines, the Rams amassed a five-game winning streak that finally ended on Sunday, March 3 against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks.

The week began on Tuesday, February 26, when Fordham opened its home slate with a doubleheader sweep against the St. Peter’s Peacocks. Each game went only seven innings, and Fordham benefitted from the shortened affairs.

DREW DIPANE/THE RAM

Ian Edmiston collected four hits in eight at-bats over the weekend.

tom of the sixth when freshman Joseph Runco smashed a two RBI single into right-center field. Iona again benefitted from sloppy Fordham defense in the seventh, however, when a wild pitch and throwing error gave the Gaels a second unearned run.

In the ninth, the Gaels nearly completed the comeback. Matt Hratko singled in Iona’s third run with one out, making the score 4-3. Nevertheless, Kevin Leighton stuck with Charest, and the move paid off when Joe Smith grounded into a game-ending double play.

On Saturday March 2, Fordham defeated Lehigh 8-4 for its fifth consecutive win. After Fordham tallied an unearned run in the first inning, Lehigh erupted for three runs in the following frame. Fordham senior Rich Anastasi allowed three hits to the Mountain Hawks, and another Fordham error made things worse.

The Rams benefitted from a Ryan Faust dropped pop-up to make the score 3-2 in the third inning, but Fordham truly exploded offensively in the following frames. In the fourth, senior Ryan Lee tied the game with a one-out RBI double, and he took advantage of two wild pitches by Lehigh starter Mike Burke to score the go-ahead run. The fifth inning was even more productive for Fordham after Mauri, Galiano and freshman Ryan McNally recorded consecutive hits off Burke. The Rams continued to wreak havoc against Lehigh reliever Nick Macaione, scoring two more runs. Fordham enjoyed an 8-3 advantage by the end of the frame, and freshman Joseph Serrapica recorded four innings of strong relief to earn his first collegiate win. The Rams cruised to an 8-4 triumph, and improved to 4-0 at Houlihan Field.

On Sunday, March 3, hopes for a perfect week were squashed when Lehigh scored a convincing 6-0 win.

The Mountain Hawks eked out a 4-3

win over Iona in an early afternoon game, so the odds seemed to favor a fresh Fordham squad. The Mountain Hawks immediately had junior starter Chris Pike on the ropes, though, stranding four runners during the first two innings. By contrast, Lehigh starter Wayne Edwards retired the first eight Fordham batters.

The Mountain Hawks finally broke through against Pike in the third frame, when a one-out Connor Faust grounder bounced off freshman shortstop Joseph DeVito’s arm as he dove to corral it. Two Lehigh runs scored on the single, but the Mountain Hawks were not done yet. In the fourth inning, Lehigh added three more runs thanks to a barrage of singles and a fielding error from freshman second baseman Joseph Runco.

Chris Pike did not make it to the fifth inning, and the Fordham offense was suddenly in a 5-0 hole. The final five innings moved briskly, and freshman Brett Kennedy provided Fordham’s lone bright spot with four innings of superbly long relief. The Rams mustered only five hits and lost 6-0 to end an otherwise perfect week.

“Earlier in the week, we were just comfortable. We played with confidence after the big weekend at Michigan. We wanted to sweep teams like this, but the defense and hitting missed chances today,” sophomore Matt Cianci said.

“We played well in the beginning of the week. We tacked on some early runs in those games. It was tough to swing in the cold, but that is no excuse. It is difficult to keep the guys up when we’re down by five so early,” sophomore Joseph Calabrese said.

The Rams continued their homestand this week, with a March 5 matchup against Wagner and a March 6 game versus Fairfield. Fordham will host a doubleheader with Stony Brook on Saturday, March 9, with games at noon and 3 p.m.

Page 18

ADVERTISING

March 6, 2013

fordhamram.com

facebook.com/theram @fordhamramonline @theram_sports youtube.com/user/ thefordhamram fordhamram.com

social for you and me—dia.

THE FORDHAM RAM

SPORTS

March 6, 2013

Page 19

The NHL Mid- Varsity Scores & Stats season Report

By ANTHONY PUCIK STAFF WRITER

I know that it’s hard to believe, but the NHL season is nearly half over. Almost every team in the league has played 20 games or more, and with 48 total games in this shortened season, the league is starting to show who is up for the challenge this year and who will be left out come late spring.

This shortened season is also shaping up to have an exciting finish. While some divisions have clear cut leaders, like the Chicago Blackhawks in the Central and the Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific, some division leaders are only separated by a game or two from nearly every team in the division, like the Northwest, led by the Vancouver Canucks, and the Atlantic, led by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

With all these hot playoff races, the conference standings are even more stressful. In the Western Conference, a team could be out of the playoff race to begin the night and end up in fourth place depending on how other teams play. The Eastern Conference has more of the same, with spots seven through 11 all within four points of one another.

Since the season is half over, let’s look at the biggest overperformers and underperformers in both the Eastern and Western Conferences.

For the Eastern Conference, the biggest surprise team is the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens were the worst team in the Eastern Conference last season, but this year they have become one of the best teams in the entire NHL without making many groundbreaking moves in the offseason. For some reason, this year the Canadiens are suddenly firing on all cylinders; they are one of the best teams in the league in terms of scoring and have one of the best goaltenders in the league in Carey Price. With no signs of slowing down, don’t be surprised if the hard-hitting, offensively-strong Canadiens are leading the Eastern Conference when the season ends.

The surprise team in the Western Conference is, without question, the Chicago Blackhawks. A playoff team last year, everyone knew the Blackhawks were a fairly good team and would most likely make the playoffs this season, but I don’t think anyone predicted this kind of run. The Blackhawks appear to be unstoppable this season; much like

the Canadiens, they are one of the best teams in the league at putting the puck in the net. What really stands out for the Blackhawks this season, however, is their fabulous goaltending.

Not every team in the league has enjoyed success this season. In the Eastern Conference, the biggest disappointment this year is the New York Rangers. The Rangers won the Eastern Conference last season and were two games away from making it to the Stanley Cup. Despite their success, major changes were made in the offseason as they let many depth players leave in order to acquire forward Rick Nash from the Columbus Blue Jackets. Nash, a prolific scorer, was supposed to bring the offensive pop that the Rangers needed and be the missing piece for the Rangers’ hope of winning the Cup. Injuries to Nash and some other key players, however, have limited the Rangers this season, and even with all of the players healthy on the ice, the Rangers cannot seem to get a rhythm going. Inconsistent play haunts them along with a dreaded power play that is probably worse than one would find in a lot of AHL teams. Perhaps it is a lack of chemistry from so many new faces in the locker room or some rust from many of the players who did not go across the ocean to play in international leagues, but the Rangers are not the team they were last year and they are going to need to do a great deal if they have any hope of making a Cup run this year.

The Los Angeles Kings also, are not where they were last year. The Kings squeaked their way into the playoffs last season as the eighth seed and then had one of the most miraculous runs in Stanley Cup history and became champions.

This year, however, the magic is gone. The Kings find themselves out of the playoff race right now, and, much like the Rangers, they just don’t seem to be the same team that hoisted the Cup last season. All the same players are there, but the results are different; perhaps playoff magic really does exist and now that it has worn off the Kings are going to look much like they did for most of last season, an average team that might make the playoffs by the skin of their teeth.

Whatever the case may be, the second half of the NHL season is bound to be full of its surprises and disappointments and I for one cannot wait to see them.

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers have been disappointing this year.

Men’s Basketball Fordham 32 28 60 Geo. Wash 36 32 68 (FOR) C. Gaston 14pts 6rebs (GW) K. Larsen 15pts 5rebs

Richmond 31 41 72 Fordham 23 32 55 (RU) T. Allen 11pts 5rebs (FOR) M. Thomas 17pts 2asts Fordham 22 34 56 St. Joe’s 39 43 82 (FOR) M. Thomas 15pts 8rebs (SJU) C. Jones 24pts 3rebs

Women’s Tennis Fordham 1 Dartmouth 6

Softball Pacific Fordham

6 5

Fordham 1 Massachusetts 6

Fordham Indiana

0 1

Fordham St. Joe’s

Fordham Maryland

2 10

Baseball Fordham Michigan Fordham Michigan

Women’s Basketball St. Bonaventure 27 23 50 St. Peter’s Fordham 41 21 62 Fordham (BON) A. Walker 10pts 7rebs (FOR) A. Corning 15pts 14rebs St. Peter’s Fordham Fordham 32 26 58 Temple 27 17 44 Iona (FOR) A. Corning 10pts 12rebs Fordham (TEM) V. Macaulay 18pts 9rebs Lehigh Men’s Tennis Fordham George Washington 7 Fordham 0 Lehigh Fordham

2 5

2 10 14 11 0 1 2 4 3 4 4 8 4 3

Fordham 11 Georgia Tech 10 Fordham Texas

9 7

Men’s Swimming 1650 Freestyle S. Sholdra 1st-15:24.66 Women’s Swimming 200 Backstroke B. Ryan 1st-1:55.79 Men’s Track ECAC /IC4A Championship S. Atkinson 5th- 1:03.56 Women’s Track ECAC /IC4A Championship T. Fagade 2nd- 1:12.97 4x800 relay 2nd-8:48.24

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

Brett Kennedy

Abigail Corning

Freshman

Junior

Baseball

Basketball

Kennedy struck out seven of the eight batters he faced in the second game of a doubleheader against St. Peter’s. He is 1-0 on the year and has totaled 14 strikeouts in 9.1 innings pitched.

Corning received A-10 Co-Player of the Week honor after registering two double-doubles to close out regular season play. Corning totaled 25 points and 26 rebounds in the two Fordham victories.

News & Notes

• Senior swimmer Brienne Ryan broke both A-10 and Fordham school records, winning the 200-yard backstroke in 1:55.79 and capturing gold at the A-10 championships. Ryan beat her old mark of 1:56.11 which was set in 2011.

• Freshman Steve Sholdra won gold in the 1650-yard freestyle in an A-10 record time of 15:24.66. Sholdra broke the oldest A-10 record of 15:34.07 set by Ed Denny of West Virginia in 1980. Sholdra’s time was also an NCAA “B” qualifying mark.

• The Fordham softball team scored a big upset, defeating No. 5 Texas 9-7 on March 3. Juniors Elise Fortier and Gabby Luety combined for 7 RBI and senior Jaimie LaBovick pitched a complete game for the win.

• The women’s basketball team will head to Philadelphia for the A-10 Women’s Basketball Championship. The third-seeded Rams will play either Butler or Saint Louis in the quarterfinal round on Saturday, March 9 at 7:30 PM. Students can sign up for free bus transportation from the Rose Hill campus to and from Philadelphia from March 4 to Thursday, March 7, 12-2pm.

• Junior Titi Fagade earned Second Team All-East honors in the 500m at the ECAC/IC4A Championship. Fagade’s time of 1:12.97 was good for second overall.

SPORTS

Page 20

Frustrating Season Does Not Damper Future Expectations FROM BASKETBALL, PAGE 17

“I know how frustrated I am,” Pecora said. “I’m tremendously frustrated, and I know how frustrated they are.”

Frustrated though he may be, Pecora is still confident that he will turn Fordham into a winning program.

“It’s not eating up anyone else more than me,” he said after the Richmond game. “I’ve lost more games in the last three years than I had in the last, I don’t know, six, eight, ten. It’s killing me. I’m the one who’s not sleeping.”

He has said on many occasions that the problem with having such a young team this season (Gaston and junior guard Branden Frazier are the only upperclassmen recruited as scholarship players) is that the inexperience will cost that team games. The upside, though, is that those young players are able to mature more quickly by playing significant minutes than they would by sitt ing on the bench.

“I believe this young group is going to be good enough to get us rele-

vant in this league, to move us to the middle of the pack,” Pecora said.

Perhaps Fordham’s most impressive young player is Thomas, who Butler head coach Brad Stevens called “one of the better freshman guards in the league.”

“I still believe Mandell Thomas can be an elite player in this league,” Pecora said.

Getting Fordham out of the A-10 basement will not be easy, but Pecora believes his program is headed in the right direction.

“We have to get some things in order, and I think we fi xed those — like the scheduling for next year,” he said. “The schedule we played this year [with so many non-conference road games] is just brutal for a young team. Next year’s schedule is going to be structured much differently. That’s going to be a positive.”

Pecora believes Fordham’s recent struggles will only make it more rewarding when his program turns the corner.

“If you don’t know the bad, then you can’t revel in the good,” he said.

“When we get good, we’ll celebrate harder than anybody.”

March 6, 2013

Women’s Tennis Starts Season 2-4

By TARA SLEDJESKI STAFF WRITER

The Fordham women’s tennis team’s spring season is underway.

The Rams got off to a 2-4 start this spring with matches against NJIT, St. John’s, Dartmouth, Albany, UMass and Saint Joseph’s. Their wins so far have come against Albany and St. Joseph’s.

The Rams started off the spring portion of their schedule with a 6-1 loss against NJIT on Feb. 2 in Newark, NJ. Fifth singles player Julie Leong accounted for the Rams’ only point. The double teams may not have won their matches, but all three did put up good fights. The first doubles team lost 8-6, while the second and third lost 8-5.

The Rams’ second match of the season was against St. John’s on Feb. 15 in Queens, NY. They

lost that match also but managed to get two points in the 5-2 loss.

Amy Simidian won her first singles match in a super tie-breaker. Anika Novacek also won her sixth singles match. Leong and Angelika Dabu, doubles partners, won their third doubles match 8-3, but the Rams failed to get the point for doubles after the first and second doubles lost.

Following the St. John’s match, the Rams next took on Dartmouth on February 23rd in Hanover, NH. They lost that match 6-1. The only point of the day came from Novacek at sixth singles again.

The Rams’ first win this season came against Albany on Feb. 24 in another match that took place in Hanover. The Rams won the close match by a score of 4-3. The Rams won all of their doubles matches against Albany, which ensured the

doubles point for them. In singles, Dabu, Leong and Novacek won their third, fifth and sixth singles matches.

After the Albany win, the Rams were next in action on March 2 against Massachusetts. The Rams lost this contest 6-1. Sarah Ali picked up the Rams’ point of the day in singles play.

The Rams’ latest match was against St. Joseph’s on March 3 in Philadelphia. The Rams picked up their second win of the season, defeating the Minutemen 5-2. Ali, Dabu, Leong and Novacek all picked up wins in second, third, fifth and sixth singles. The Rams also won all of their doubles matches to pick up the doubles point.

The Rams are next in action on March 6 at Vassar in Poughkeepsie, NY.

ALLY WHITE/THE RAM

Jeff Short has seen his minutes increase due to Bryan Smith’s injury.

KATE DOHENY/THE RAM

Fordham’s first home match of the spring is on March 24 when the Rams play host to the Temple Owls.

ADVERTISING

March 6, 2013

Page 21

fordhamram.com The Fordham Ram is just like a Long Islander waiting at Dagger John’s.

It is now online.

THE FORDHAM RAM

?

Does mistakes in The Fordham Ram bother you? ? ?

? ? ?

?

Than you should, become an Copy Editor!

Contact: fordhamramcopy@gmail.com (Plus g in the net you’re nam e ewspap er!

SPORTS

Page 22

Smith Says The NBA’s All-Star Weekend is always pretty fun to watch. Before the actual All-Star Game, you can watch Justin Bieber play in the Celebrity Game, if you’re into that kind of thing. You can see some of the best point guards in the league compete in the Skills Challenge, and you can even see the best sharpshooters compete in the 3-Point Shootout. And then there’s the dunk contest, which used to feature names like Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins and Vince Carter. This year, the final round of the contest pitted Jeremy Evans against Terrence Ross. Raise your hand if you were excited to watch them face off. If your hand is up, you’re a liar. NBA legend Magic Johnson has offered mega-star LeBron James a million dollars to compete in the dunk contest. That’s what it’s come to.

The NBA needs its superstars to compete in the dunk contest or people aren’t going to watch anymore. We can pretend that we are excited to see Eric Bledsoe give it a go, but we all know watching that was like when you asked for a Razor scooter as a kid, and you got another brand; clearly not the same and not as fun. The NBA features high-risers like James, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Kevin Durant and so many others who could electrify an audience.

These players don’t have an excuse to not give it a go (Griffin has in the past, and he was great). If the players think that a possible injury could be a problem, then why do they all go out and play in the AllStar game the next night? There’s no defense in either event, and an injury could easily happen at any time. All these stars are at the dunk contest anyway, watching from the sidelines in their hipster-rimmed glasses.

Let me get back to the LeBron James issue. Bron-Bron has been putting on his own mini-version of the dunk contest before every game that the Miami Heat play.

During warm-ups, he performs a dunk that leaves fans with their jaws on the floor, begging for more. His pre-game antics have even caused ESPN to show Heat warm-ups live on national TV so that everyone can watch. Magic Johnson wants LeBron in the dunk contest so bad that he’s willing to give him one million dollars just to do it. If LeBron is smart, he’ll take the money and do it. Hear me out.

James is finally at the point where every NBA fan in America doesn’t hate his guts. Well, except for the ones in Cleveland — they’re still bitter. But everyone else is starting to not hate, and even like, James a little bit. The main reason is the way he shut his mouth and played like a man possessed in last year’s playoffs, silencing all the critics and winning a ring. He’s followed that up this season with one of the best statistical years possibly of all time. So LeBron, while you’re still liked, take the million dollars, use your “king” status to rally up some other stars, do the dunk contest and donate the million dollars to charity. Sounds like a slam dunk to me.

— Alex Smith

March 6, 2013

Senior Profile: Devon Morris Matt’s

Minute

ELIZABETH ZANGHI/THE RAM

Devon came back from a torn shoulder ligament to help lead his team to fifth place in the A-10 championship.

but now I think I might continue it.

If I stay in New York I would want to join NYAC.

By NICK CILIBERTO STAFF WRITER

The Fordham Ram: How does it feel to be a senior?

Devon Morris: I guess it happened kind of quick, the four years went by really fast. It’s good, though, glad to be done with college.

TFR: Why did you choose to come to Fordham all the way from Washington state?

DM: It was actually a tough choice; it was between here and Denison University, a D-3 program, and it was mostly for swimming that I chose, and the last day I just flipped a quarter, and it ended up on Denison, but I chose Fordham anyway, so I really don’t know.

TFR: Can you tell us a little bit about that?

DM: Yeah, NYAC is a mash program. It’s the New York Athletic Club, and usually it’s kids that have done swimming in college, so usually it’s Princeton and Harvard and a few other schools around the area end up swimming at NYAC. It’s a master’s program that’s focused more towards competitive swimming than swimming just to stay in shape.

TFR: What’s your favorite Fordham memory?

DM: Probably Union Square; My friend had a girlfriend that went to NYU. We went there a lot freshman year, so I like it there a lot.

DM: Well that’s a tough one, let me think for a second. I would say my favorite Fordham memory probably comes from swimming.

It was last year’s A-10s in Buffalo, it was the 200 freestyle relay, and it was the first time our team has gotten a gold in a relay in I can’t remember how many years, but it was a really exciting moment.

TFR: What are your plans for after graduation?

TFR: Do you have a favorite non-swimming memory?

DM: I don’t really have any plans after graduation right now. I’ll probably end up doing the same thing I did with college; it’ll probably come down to a quarter toss to stay in New York or to go back home, but I’d like to stay in New York.

DM: I would say spring weekend my freshman year, MGMT. I thought that was a really good concert, and I had a lot of fun there.

TFR: Do you have a favorite place in the city?

TFR: Do you have any plans to do anything with swimming after you graduate?

DM: I haven’t really thought about it until probably this weekend at A-10s when I realized swimming was coming to an end, and for the longest time I thought I’d be done with swimming after college,

TFR: How did you get started with swimming?

DM: I started swimming I think when I was four, but I didn’t get serious about it until about eighth or ninth grade, and that’s when I started to focus on swimming more.

TFR: What was it like being a team leader this past season?

DM: This past season was great;

we had a great team, everybody was a contributor from the junior class down. It wasn’t hard at all — didn’t do anything different. They all knew what had to be done, as in the juniors and sophomore class.

There’s just a bunch of great guys.

They’re all really friendly, so it was really easy.

TFR: How was your final season and tournament? Are you sad to see it go?

DM: The final season had a lot of ups and downs because I tore my shoulder at the beginning of the season, so I didn’t compete much until probably January so that was the downs. The ups, we went to Hawaii for winter training, and that was great. And then A-10s, seeing everybody swim really well was another great moment.

TFR: Is there anything you want to share about swimming or about Fordham, or in general?

DM: I can’t think of anything specific, no. Come to the swim meets I guess. There’s not many people there sometimes, good showing a lot of the time though.

Parents are nice.

TFR: Does the team look like it’s going to get better in the future?

DM: The conference definitely got better this year. The conference was ridiculously fast this year so hopefully the team can stay at the same pace as the conference.

St. Bonnie’s [Bonaventure], just to know about the conference UMass has won the past, I don’t know, 15 years in a row, and St. Bonnie’s put them on upset alert for the next few years. They got two Russian kids that are really quick. The team, I think the team has a lot of promise for the following years, a lot of good young talent.

Watch the interview with Devon at youtube.com/thefordhamram

Last Sunday, after leading by as much as 16 points, the New York Knicks suffered a disappointing loss to LeBron James and the Miami Heat. However, don’t fret Knicks fans: as disheartening as it was to blow a sixteen point lead, there are actually many positives to take out of the game. In fact, I surprisingly feel better about the Knicks’ playoff chances after witnessing their defeat.

One encouraging sign was the revitalization of Jason Kidd. His field goal and three-point percentages have decreased each month since February; basically, he was in the midst of the worst shooting slump of his career until Sunday’s game.

Against the Heat, he was able to bury four threes in five attempts.

At this point in his career, Kidd’s importance is not defined by numbers, but rather by his leadership and intangibles. Nevertheless, his surprising success from three-point range early in the season played a big part in allowing the Knicks to space the floor, creating more room for players like Carmelo Anthony to operate. The Knicks, as a team, have struggled from three-point range for a while now, dropping from a torrid 42 percent earlier in the year to just over 30 percent now. As a result, their ability to create space has deteriorated to the point where a large portion of their offense features strictly isolation basketball from Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and J.R. Smith. Hopefully, Kidd’s reemergence as an outside threat will return the offense to the cohesive, well-oiled three-point machine that we had the pleasure to witness in November and December.

Another signal from Sunday’s game that indicates the Knicks’ resurgence was their defense. For stretches during this game, especially during the second quarter, the defense swarmed the Heat players’ every possession and did a great job of forcing turnovers, very reminiscent of their amazing defense during November. There is still much room for improvement, since the Knicks did allow many easy Heat lay-ups and put-backs due to a lack of hustle. The brief glimpses of tenacious defense, however, give me hope that the Knicks might finally be turning a corner in terms of their intensity and commitment to play at both ends of the court.

We should keep in mind that LeBron, Dwayne Wade and the Heat are playing out of their minds at the moment, having won their 14th contest in a row. The fact that a struggling Knicks team was able to outplay this behemoth for a good portion of the game is cause for hope. At this point, the Knicks’ worst enemy is themselves. For a few possessions (and this has plagued the Knicks for a while), the Knicks players thought it more important to complain to the refs than hustle back on defense, leading to easy Heat dunks. If the Knicks can improve their attitude like they seem to be refining their offensive cohesion and defensive intensity, then who knows: The Knicks might just have a slim chance at dethroning the mighty Heat come June.

— Matt McCormack

March 6, 2013

Fordham Track Takes Part in IC4A/ECAC Championships

SPORTS

Page 23

By DAN GARTLAND EXECUTIVE SPORTS EDITOR

ELIZABETH ZANGHI/THE RAM

The Fordham track team concluded its indoor season last weekend.

By RYAN SCANLON STAFF WRITER

The Fordham men’s and women’s track teams were in action last weekend, competing in the last meet of a prolific indoor season.

The Rams have had a lot of terrific performances in a wide array of events, from individual runners to relays to jumpers to multipurpose athletes. The IC4A/ECAC championships were much anticipated to provide the cherry on top for this hard-earned campaign.

Qualifying to compete at this meet is an accomplishment all its own. Not only did several Fordam athletes qualify, but a few also medaled and received All-Eastern honors for their efforts. Both the men’s and women’s sides tallied 16 total points in a very competitive field, which included some of the strongest programs in the Northeast and along the East Coast.

Highlighting the men’s end was senior Sean Atkinson, whose masterful indoor season keeps demanding recognition. Atkinson laced up and ran the 500-m dash preliminary race on Saturday (Day 1), merely looking to qualify for the Day 2 final. In the process, Atkinson broke his own Fordham school record, clocking in at 62.72 to finish second among the entire field. In the finals the next day, Atkinson did well, finishing in 63.36 for fifth overall, netting four points. Atkinson was busy, he also teamed up with the fist team AllConference 4x400m relay crew to compete. The team of Atkinson, junior Sam Houston, sophomore Lester Taylor and junior Sean

Collins hit a time of 3:14.75; this placed them, however, 10th in the preliminary race, failing to qualify. Junior high jumper David Fajoyomi seemed to fly under the radar most of this winter season, but he put in another remarkable performance at this last meet. Fajoyomi cleared 6’11” on Saturday, earning a second-place finish behind junior Tommy Butler of Cornell. Fordham’s 4x800m relay was another featured team over the weekend, the group of senior John Cosgrove; junior Brian Walter, senior Mike Rossi and junior Ryan Polo took second in the preliminaries and finished fifth overall on Sunday in a time of 7:30.0.

A school record was broken on the women’s side. Rewriting the record books this time was the 4x800-m relay team. The team of sophomores Melissa Higgins, Kristen Stuar, Mara Lieberman and junior Titi Fagade won the preliminary race on Day 1 in 8:57.42, earning a spot in the finals. In the Sunday finals, this group vastly surpassed their Day 1 effort by hitting 8:48.24, shattering the former record of 8:54. Fagade was not finished. She took second place on Sunday in the 500-m dash finals in a time of 1:12.97, nearly duplicating Atkinson’s efforts and inching very close to her own school record in the process.

The Fordham men and women will now recover and build for the next challenge: outdoor season. With a lot of different pieces contributing this past indoor season, Fordham’s outdoor success is highly anticipated.

During the blizzard a few weeks ago, I spent much of my day off playing MLB 2K11 on my Xbox.

There was a foot of snow outside, but all I could think of was baseball.

I probably look forward to the start of baseball season more than any other sport. For whatever reason, people make a much bigger deal of Opening Day than they do of the start of football, basketball or hockey season. This year might be the most excited I’ve ever been for the start of baseball season.

I’m a Yankee fan, and I have been since 1997. During that time, the Yankees have won four World Series and missed the playoffs only once. All that success has made the regular season seem like a formality. Opening Day for the Yankees might as well be Oct. 1.

But not this year. For the first time I can remember, the Yankees begin a season with the distinct possibility that they might miss out on the playoffs. There is actual drama and intrigue surrounding the Yankees this year, and it doesn’t involve Cameron Diaz and popcorn.

I have literally no idea what to expect from the Yankees this season. They might even finish last in the ultra-competitive AL East.

While the Toronto Blue Jays spent the winter picking up Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson from the Marlins and R.A. Dickey from the Mets, the Yankees — in typical Yankee fashion — signed a bunch of old guys. Travis Hafner and Kevin Youklilis are in the Bronx now. They also re-signed 39-year-old Ichiro Suzuki, who will be the starting right fielder after Nick Swisher went to Cleveland in free agency. Youklilis will play third while Alex Rodriguez recovers from hip surgery, and Hafner will be the designated hitter against right-handed pitchers, so it’s not like they’re looking to these guys to come off the bench as role-players.

Youkilis batted .235 last season, splitting time between the White Sox and Red Sox. Hafner batted .228, with 47 strikeouts and only 32 walks for the Indians. Bronx Bombers? Not so much. In 2012,

The Yankees have good starting pitching, though, assuming CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda (age 38) and Andy Pettitte (age 40) stay healthy. The bullpen might not be as strong, especially considering Mariano Rivera is 43 years old and coming off a torn ACL. Rafael Soriano, who filled in for Rivera last season, is gone now, having signed with the Washington Nationals in free agency. Soriano’s departure puts a tremendous amount of pressure on Rivera and David Robertson to anchor the bullpen.

I had a coach in middle school who referred to things like bunting for base hits, suicide squeezes and stealing home as “Yankees baseball.” At a time when Alex Rodriguez was blasting 50 home runs a year and Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield batted in the middle of the order, this was most assuredly not the Yankees’ style of play. But this year, the Yankees might have to do stuff like that if they want to be successful, and that sounds like a lot of fun. It’s about time the Yankees made me sweat.

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

The 39-year-old Ichiro Suzuki will be the Yankees’ starting right fielder.

Upcoming Varsity Schedule Home games in CAPS Men’s BBall

Women’s BBall

Got a story idea for us?

Email fordhamramsports@ gmail.com

Youkilis and Hafner had a combined WAR (an advanced metric which estimates how many more wins a player earns his team than a replacement-level player) of 1.8.

By comparison, the combined WAR of Reyes, Buehrle and Johnson was 9.1.

The Yankees also lost Russell Martin, their catcher, to free agency. Derek Jeter broke his ankle in the playoffs and has yet to appear in any spring training games. Curtis Granderson, who mashed 43 home runs last year while playing center field, broke his wrist in a spring game and will be out until mid-May. Raul Ibanez and Andruw Jones were serviceable while sharing the role of fourth outfielder/DH, but the Yankees let them go, too. That’s probably a good thing, considering both are aging and declining rapidly.

The problem is that no one was brought in to replace them, unless you count Matt Diaz (which you shouldn’t — he actually had a negative WAR in four out of his last six seasons. That means he cost his team wins.).

Baseball Softball Indoor Track Women’s Tennis

Thursday Mar. 7

Friday Mar. 8

Saturday Mar. 9

Sunday Mar. 10

Monday Mar. 11

Tuesday Mar 12

at St. Bona 4 p.m.

Winner of Butler/St. Louis 7:30 p.m.

STONY BROOK 12 & 3 p.m.

C. Mich & W. Mich & Tenn. Tech Youngstown St. 12:15/4:45 p.m. 11:45/2:30 p.m.

NCAA Championships Boise, Idaho at Columbia 4 p.m.

Atlantic 10 Semi-Final TBD STONY BROOK 12 p.m.

Maine 11:45 a.m.

Boston U. 1:30 p.m.

Radford TBA

Wednesday Mar. 13

Sports

Page 24

March 6, 2013

Fordham Women Finish Regular Season 22-7; Claim Third in A-10

By MATT ROSENFELD SPORTS EDITOR

With a win over Temple on Sunday, the Fordham women’s basketball team finished with the third best regular season in the history of the program. The win was its 12th in the Atlantic 10 and was good enough to earn the Rams a third seed in the A-10 postseason tournament.

In order to claim that spot, Fordham had to win its last three games.

The first was a matchup with St. Joseph’s at the Rose Hill Gym. The Hawks were one of the three teams ahead of Fordham heading into the Feb. 24 matchup.

The Rams seemed to control the Hawks for most of the game. Early in the second half, Fordham had a 12 point lead and, surprisingly, looked to be cruising past a good St. Joseph’s team. The Hawks turned things around, though, going on a 10-1 run that cut the Fordham lead to three with 11 minutes to go in the game.

The two teams continued to trade baskets as time dwindled down.

Two free throws from graduate student Marah Strickland put Fordham up five with just under a minute to go. The Rams would take home the victory if they just hit their free throws.

A three-point play from St. Joe’s to cut the lead to two. Then, Fordham, which leads the A-10 in free throw percentage, failed to convert on the front end of a 1-and-1. Redshirt junior Erin Rooney, who shoots 83 percent from the free-throw line, saw her shot go in and out, which opened up the door for St. Joe’s to send the game to overtime.

St. Joe’s did exactly that, scoring on its next possession to even the game up at 58.

In overtime, Fordham took control early. The Rams came up with two big stops and two baskets to go up four and immediately put St. Joe’s on its heels. The Rams would not give up a lead again, as Strickland hit

LI YANG/THE RAM

Sophomore Abigail Corning recorded consecutive double-doubles in Fordham’s wins over St. Bonaventure and Temple.

four more free throws that sealed a marquee victory for the Rams with a final score of 70-63.

Strickland finished the game with a career-high 31 points.

“It really was a game of resilience,” head coach Stephanie Gaitley said.

“We played a really good St. Joe’s team. Marah stepped up big when we were struggling in certain areas.

I’m just really proud of our effort.”

The final week of the season saw Fordham first take on St. Bonaventure, a team who has struggled this season and came into the Rams’ last home game of the year with only a 2-11 conference record.

Fordham dominated out of the gate, starting off the game on a 12-4 run. In what would become a recurring theme in the game, the Bonnies came back with a run of their own, scoring seven unanswered to cut the Fordham lead to one.

The first half, however, would

eventually belong to Fordham. The Rams scored at an unbelievable pace, including a 14-2 run in the middle of the half. Fordham was nothing less than on fire during the first half, shooting 53 percent from the field and 69 percent on nine of 13 from three. Fordham would take a 41-27 lead into the locker room at half time.

The second half would start off in the Bonnies favor. Fordham went cold as St. Bonaventure went on a 14-2 run its own during the early parts of the half. The once 14-point lead for Fordham was down to two.

The two teams would remain close, trading baskets as Fordham’s lead never got larger than six.

Then, like it seems to have been doing all year in this historic turnaround, the Fordham defense stepped up. After St. Bonaventure cut the lead to four, 53-49, with just

less than five minutes left, the Rams held the Bonnies without a field goal. The Rams brought their lead up to 13 in a 9-0 run before a St. Bonaventure free throw stopped it with 42 seconds remaining. The game was well in hand by then.

The Rams took home their 21st victory behind a strong team effort, including the third double-double of the year for sophomore Abigail Corning, who recorded 15 points and 14 rebounds.

“Our experience really helps,” Corning said. “Last year we probably would have folded under the pressure. This year we are able to handle the pressure and keep the lead, even when it dropped all the way down.

We stayed calm.”

The last game of Fordham’s regular season took place in Philadelphia, where the Rams were able to defeat the Temple Owls by a score of 58-44.

The Rams got off to a slow start,

trailing for seven minutes until a three from senior Arielle Collins tied the contest at 12. From there, Fordham went on a 10-0 run, grabbing a lead it would never relinquish.

Temple hung tight with Fordham for the remainder of the first half, never letting the lead get any larger than seven. Nevertheless, the Owls could not overcome the stout Ram defense which has shined all season, and Fordham took a five-point lead into halftime. “[Defense] has been our staple all season long,” Gaitley said. “You never know what’s going to happen on the offensive end, but you know you can count on your defense. That’s something that never wavers.”

After the break, Temple quickly cut the lead to three, but that was as close as it would come. A three from Corning started an 8-2 Fordham run to bring the lead to nine, as Fordham’s defense never let the Owls threaten its lead.

Fordham was able to push the lead to 13 after another run, this one eight unanswered points, in the middle of the half. Fordham maintained control and cruised to the 14-point victory.

Fordham had four players in double digits, with Strickland, Rooney, freshman Samantha Clark and Corning scoring 15, 14, 11 and 10, respectively. Corning also had 12 rebounds, which was her second consecutive and fourth overall double-double.

The win secured the third seed and a bye for the Rams in the A-10 tournament this weekend. Fordham will take on the winner of Friday’s first round game between the No. 6 seed Butler Bulldogs and No. 11 seed Saint Louis Billikens. Fordham beat Saint Louis in Missouri on Feb. 17, 61-56, and did so without its leading scorer Strickland. Fordham did not face Butler in the regular season.

The Rams’ quarterfinal game will take place on March 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Hagan Arena in Philadelphia.

Women Third, Men Fifth at A-10 Swimming Championships

By NICK CILIBERTO STAFF WRITER

In Geneva, Ohio this past week at the Atlantic 10 Conference Championships, Fordham men’s swimming placed fifth out of seven teams, while the women’s side finished third out of 11 teams. Senior Brienne Ryan led the charge in her final race, winning gold in the 200yard backstroke, setting a conference and school record.

Richmond won the Atlantic 10 title with 737 points. Massachusetts finished second with 594 points, followed by Fordham with 473. La Salle (442), George Washington (285), Rhode Island (269.5), Duquesne (243.5), St. Bonaventure (215), Saint Louis (185), Xavier (165) and Butler (68) occupied the last 8 spots.

The 1650-yard freestyle event kicked off the championships’ final night. Kara Field, Megan Zarriello and Frances Warren each scored in the event. In the women’s 200-yard backstroke, Brienne Ryan took the spotlight, finishing in a record time of 1:55.79, breaking her own mark of 1:56.11 set in 2011. The time

was also an NCAA “B” qualifying mark. With the win, Ryan joined former teammates Courtney Collyer (2009 & 2012), Caitlin Napoli (2009) and Erika Newell (2005) as the only Fordham women swimmers to win two events in one Atlantic 10 Championship.

Other than Ryan, three other Rams made the finals, as Spencer Chappell finished sixth in the “A” final in 2:01.88, Jordan Tomimatsu placed second in the “B” final (10th overall) in 2:02.91 and Theresa Goehring clocked in third in the “B” final (11th overall) in 2:03.32.

In the 100-yard freestyle, Alana Biagioli, Chandler Lulley and Kellie Lyver qualified for the consolation final. Biagioli won the “B” final in 51.55 seconds (ninth overall), while Lulley and Lyver tied for 15th overall in 52.36 seconds.

In the final event of the championship, the Rams 400-yard freestyle relay of Ryan, Lulley, Lyver and Biagiali finished third with a time of 3:24.69.

On the men’s side, the story was quite different. They finished fifth in a pool of seven teams.

St. Bonaventure won the Atlan-

tic 10 Championship with 688 points, followed by Massachusetts (613.5), Xavier (519), George Washington (397), Fordham (391.5), Saint Louis (386.5) and La Salle (362.5).

Steve Sholdra was the star of the night for the Rams, winning gold in the 1650-yard freestyle final with an Atlantic 10 and school record

time of 15:24.66. The time broke the oldest Atlantic 10 record on the books, (15:34.07 by Ed Denny of West Virginia, set in 1980), as well as the Fordham mark of 15:32.76, set by Paul Smith in 1992. Devon Morris was the only Ram in the 100-yard freestyle “B” final, finishing ninth overall.

Two Rams scored in the 200-

yard breaststroke, as Ben Dwyer was seventh in the “A” final in 2:04.10, while Zachary Jacobsen placed fourth in the “B” final (12th overall) in 2:05.85.

The 400 freestyle relay concluded the championship, as Shintaro Noguchi, Patrick Militti, Thomas Yi and Morris finished fifth with a time of 3:02.10.

ALLY WHITE/THE RAM

The Fordham men finished in the same spot as last season, while the women dropped from second to third place.