Issue 6, Volume 100

The Fordham Ram Volume 100, Issue 6

Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 FordhamRam.com

See centennial spread, pages 12-13.

March 14, 2018

Former Daily News EIC Speaks

By JOERGEN OSTENSEN ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

FUEMS Wins Awards

By SOPHIA GIATZIS STAFF WRITER

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM RAM

FDM reveals its final total raised for The Andrew McDonough B+ (Be Positive) Foundation in its fifth year.

FDM Surpasses $100,000 in Fifth Annual Fundraiser

By AISLINN KEELY NEWS EDITOR

Fordham Dance Marathon (FDM) surpassed a long-awaited milestone last Friday by raising over $100,000 for The Andrew McDonough B+ (Be Positive) Foundation. Confetti rained on the FDM organizers as they hoisted posters revealing a final total of $101,643.44 raised for childhood

cancer.

Organizers set the goal of $100,000 early in the fundraising process, incentivizing people to be part of a record year. The goal was broken during the marathon itself, according to Claire Polachek, FCRH ’19, vice president of Residence Halls Association (RHA) and executive director of FDM. It is traditional to freeze the donation percentage before the start

of the dance marathon, according to Polachek. On Wednesday night, FDM had reached 80 percent of its goal. By the morning of the marathon, the group still had $10,000 to raise to reach the $100,000 mark.

Polachek said she grew nervous at the size of the task as March 9 approached, but felt confident it could be achieved.

SEE FDM, PAGE 6

Arthur Browne, former editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News, said that he is troubled by the state of local news in an event hosted by the Communications and Media Studies Department.

Browne retired from his post at the Daily News in December, where he said he saw local news threatened by a changing industry. He told Fordham students that local news will remain in serious jeopardy unless there are alterations made to the current economic models.

“Local news is dying across the country. It does not make money on the web,” Browne said. “The model as it’s now practiced is simply not sustainable.”

Newspapers like the Daily News have fundamentally changed because of the Internet, according to Browne.

In the past, people purchased newspapers to read about what was happening in their local SEE BROWNE, PAGE 5

USG Advocates to Change Club Times

By HANNAH GONZALEZ ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

This semester, United Student Government (USG) launched an initiative to encourage clubs to further accommodate commuter students. Headed by Senator Selin Berberoglu, FCRH ’19, the initiative calls for clubs to meet at least once a month at times accessible for commuter schedules.

In an email to all club leadership on campus in early March, Berberoglu introduced the initiative and asked that clubs work with her to ensure inclusive meeting times.

“Many commuters feel like they cannot make friends outside of commuters and feel slightly ostracized by clubs and other residents,” said Berberoglu in the email. “To tackle this issue in the spring 2018 semester, I would like to push all extracurriculars to have inclusive meetings times for commuters at least once a month.”

To promote this goal, Berberoglu is working to arrange a town hall meeting with all club leaders to discuss how clubs can SEE USG, PAGE 3

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM RAM

Students congregate around the Carolyn Dursi Cunniffe Fountain to protest white supremacy and racist rhetoric.

Students Protest White Supremacy at Fordham

By JOERGEN OSTENSEN ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Students gathered at the Carolyn Dursi Cunniffe Fountain on Monday afternoon to protest white supremacy at Fordham and what they considered to be a lack of a condemnation by the administration and unfair resolutions to incidents of hate speech on campus.

Fordham Students United (FSU) organized the protest and around 20 students attended. During the hour and a half event, there was near constant use of a megaphone for speeches and chants.

Protesters said the impetus for the protest included the Rodrigues Coffee House incident and the photo of Fordham students posing with a Kekistan flag on Murphy Field.

In an email advertising the protest, FSU said it felt the university protected students who used hurtful rhetoric.

“Fordham’s response, or lack thereof, to these events shows that the only free speech Fordham is willing to protect is the violent and racist rhetoric that actively targets and threatens students of color, LGSEE PROTEST, PAGE 3

Fordham University EMS (FUEMS) received four awards at the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation’s (NCEMSF) 25th annual conference during the last week in February. One of the awards was the EMS Organization of the Year, which it won in a group of over 200 other collegiate EMS organizations across the United States, Canada and other parts of the world.

Its other awards included the HEARTSafe Campus award, which recognizes EMS services with quality cardiac arrest responses, the EMS Ready Campus Bronze Award, which awards emergency preparedness and the Striving for Excellence in Campus EMS award, which awards excellent life support services.

FUEMS Chief Heather Cahill said she was overcome with joy at receiving the four awards in February on behalf of FUEMS. “In the past two years, I have been able to aid and watch Fordham EMS grow and improve and become what it is today,” she said. “This award is for remarkable young people, of today and our forty year history, who have donated thousands of hours of service to keeping the Fordham community safe and healthy. I am so proud of every one of our members.”

Director of Fordham University EMS Marykate Decker, FCRH ‘18, wrote a letter outlining the progress that FUEMS made over the last year and how certain aspects of the organization set it apart from others. She sent this letter to NCEMSF and itserved as the foundation for FUEMS, receiving the EMS Organization of the Year award.

In 2017, FUEMS improved their relations with the community outside of the Rose Hill gates, according to those involved. Decker said FUEMS “formed a bridge” between itself and the Fire Department of New York, standing in solidarity with the FDNY when FDNY EMT Yadira Arroyo lost her life servSEE FUEMS, PAGE 6

in this issue

Opinion

Page 11 British Vogue Must Value Diversity

Sports

Page 24

Baseball Rides Bats, Knehr to Doubleheader Sweep

Culture Page 15 Rob Cohen Discusses The Hurricane Heist

NEWS

Page 2

PUBLIC SAFETY BRIEFS Mar. 6 O'Hare Hall 2:30 p.m.

A student reported that their clothes were taken from the washing machine in O’Hare Hall. The incident is under investigation.

Mar. 7 Mugz Bar + Grille 1:30 p.m.

Student reported that her cell phone and debit and Fordham ID were taken in Mugz 2476 Arthur Avenue. Student said that she left her phone on the bar and turned around when she looked back it was gone. NYPD responded and is investigating the incident.

Mar. 10 Belmont Ave. 2:05 a.m.

A Fordham student was assaulted by a non-fordham individual.

The student called public safety while other students were holding the individual. Public safety and NYPD responded and the individual was taken into custody.

March 12 Arthur Ave. 4 a.m.

A student reported that there was an individual outside her residence yelling up at her window.

The residence was near Arthur and 188th. Public Safety responded but he individual had already left.

Later the individual was encountered by public safety. The male was determined to be erratically.

NYPD responded and took him to the hospital.

March 9 Westchester Campus 2 a.m.

A smoke alarm was activated in room 110 at the Westchester Campus. It was set off by burning food in a microwave oven. Purchase Volunteer FD responded, the area was ventilated and the alarm was reset. There were no injuries or property damage.

- Compiled by Joergen Ostensen

March 14, 2018

Money Matters

Lewis Family Speaks to Fordham Wife and Daughter Talk Legacy

By AISLINN KEELY NEWS EDITOR

The late Reginald F. Lewis built a billion dollar empire on the global food company TLC Beatrice. As the company’s head, he became the first American to make a billion dollar overseas acquisition. His surviving wife, Loida Nicolas Lewis, and daughter, Christina Lewis Halpern, discussed his legacy at the FinTech event, “The Legacy of an International Empire: Reginald F. Lewis & TLC Beatrice.”

The informal format lent itself to a conversation that touched on Lewis’s approach to business, his life and the approaches of his surviving wife and daughter.

Lewis was always bent on business, according to his wife. In his childhood, he bought a paper route for $10, and later sold it for $140.

Before his business ventures, Lewis attended Harvard Law and founded the first African American-owned law firm on Wall Street. Though his grades were not particularly strong, Mrs. Lewis said he made it a point to cultivate friends from all backgrounds during his time at Harvard.

“In his mind, he was going to be universal,” she said.

Later in life, Lewis founded a college and focused on educational initiatives for those in poverty. Mrs. Lewis said she and her husband considered education key to social mobility.

“Education is the way out of poverty,” she said.

However, Mrs. Lewis discussed her husband’s failures as the keys to his success. She said he lost his scholarship during his time at Harvard, and his first big business deal failed after the man he sought to make the deal with accused him of bad business practices.

While Mrs. Lewis said Lewis’ identity as a black man influenced his opportunities, she said Lewis never attributed failures to racism.

Halpern also touched on the importance of failure. Following in her father’s footsteps, she founded All Star Code, a non-

COURTESY OF FORDHAM FINTECH NETWORK

Loida Nicolas Lewis (left) and Christina Lewis Halpern (right) share family stories and business advice.

profit focused on equipping boys in poverty or from minority backgrounds with coding skills. Halpern said the idea of failure and having a growth mindset is a big part of the curriculum her company teaches.

Growth mindset is an approach used by people like Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Jordan, according to Halpern. It requires an emotional detachment from failure, leading the practitioner to view failure as a building block to success and take more risks without the fear of an undesirable outcome.

After building his empire, Lewis passed at age 50. The New York Times wrote his obituary after Lewis lost his battle to brain cancer in 1993.

Mrs. Lewis subsequently took over the company, and balanced being a mother to their two children as well as the head of her late husband’s business ventures.

She said in order to balance the responsibilities as business executive and mother of two, she made family a priority.

“There is a basketball game, I’m

there. Unless I’m in Europe, then Grandma is there,” she said. “You have to have the family.”

Family is still important to Mrs. Lewis, and said she came to Fordham to spread her husband’s legacy. Mrs. Lewis repeatedly referenced the PBS documentary of her husband’s life, “Reginald F. Lewis and the Making of a Billion Dollar Empire,” and his biography “Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? How Reginald F. Lewis Created a Billion Dollar Empire.”

Carina Oriel, GSB ’20, co-president of Fordham’s FinTech Network, organized the event after having tea with the Lewis family.

The families are friends, and do work together in the Filipinocommunity, according to Oriel.

She said she was inspired by their story and wanted to help promote Lewis’s legacy.

“I had grown up knowing his story, but I wasn’t really as familiar in depth with it,” said Oriel.

In previous conversations with Mrs. Lewis, Oriel said she learned about the Lewis documentary, and Mrs. Lewis’s endeavor to

bring it to different companies and universities. Oriel said she wanted to get involved.

“I was just like, I want to bring this to Fordham, this is the most amazing opportunity for us to do that,” she said.

Originally, only Mrs. Lewis was slated to speak, according to Oriel. However, the Fordham Foundry had a connection with Halpern, which led to her participation. Oriel said this made it a family-focused event.

“We wanted to do something that really reflected the family because it was a family business,” she said.

The audience ranged from a Fordham student population, to friends of the Lewis family and young entrepreneurs seeking advice. sabella Bellizzi, decided to come despite having no personal connection to Fordham or entrepreneurial aspirations. She said she found Mrs. Lewis’ discussion of failure applicable to life.

“I think a lot of what she [Mrs. Lewis] said was very relatable for any job, not only being in business or an entrepreneur,” said Bellizzi.

This Week at Fordham Thursday March 15

Friday March 16

Sunday March 18

Monday March 19

Tuesday March 20

Big Top Carnival

Ram’s Got Talent

Circle K KEEN Sports

Spring Showcase

Outdoors Club Chipotle Fundraiser

McGinley Ballroom 5-7 p.m.

McGinley Ballroom 5-7 p.m.

990 Pelham Parkway South 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m

Collins Auditorium 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Chipotle, Fordham Plaza 5-9 p.m.

As part of Commuter Week 2018, the Commuting Students Association is putting on a carnival in McGinley. The event will have games and prizes as well as free shirts and food for all who attend. Entry is free for the event.

Commuter Week 2018 continues with the Commuting Students Association talent show. Kick off your weekend by watching your fellow classmates showcase their talents this Friday in the McGinley Ballroom. Admission is free.

The Circle K service club is hosting a KEEN (Kids Enjoy Exercise Now) sponsored event to help special needs children participate in activities. Volunteers will have an afternoon to work with the children to engage in sports and arts & crafts activities.

Musical Minds is hosting its annual Spring Showcase this upcoming Monday. Individual and group performances are welcomed for anyone who makes, or has an interest in, music. Original music is encouraged.

Admission is free.

The Outdoors Club is holding a fundraiser for their upcoming white water rafting trip. Show your support by heading to the Chipotle by Fordham Plaza. Present your flyer to the cashier to make your contribution.

NEWS

March 14, 2018

Page 3

At Fountain, Students Protest White Supremacy FROM PROTEST, PAGE 1

BTQ+ folks, immigrants, Muslims, Jews and other minority groups,” the email said.

Students held signs and banners with slogans denouncing white supremacy. Slogans included messages such as “Black Lives Matter” and “Racism is a Social Sin.” Others read “No Tolerance for Nazis” and “White Supremacy Kills.” Students held a banner that said, “Fordham Against White Supremacy.”

Chants were also a constant presence at the protest. Protesters used a variety of slogans including: “Say it loud, say it clear, Nazis are not welcome here,” “Hate speech is not free speech” and “No Justice, No Peace.”

Several of the protestors also voiced their opinions on issues using the megaphone.

Rebecca Erwin, FCRH ’18, a member of FSU and one of the event’s organizers, explicitly connected Fordham’s administration to the issue.

“Fordham’s policies and protection

of white supremacy is putting people at risk,” they said.

Erwin said they felt not enough members of the Fordham community are addressing white supremacy.

“Our goal today was just to spread the word,” they said. “A lot of people just don’t know what’s going on.”

Reyna Wang, FCRH ’18, a member of FSU, said part of the goal was to inspire administrative response.

She said the university was unfair in its response to both the Rodrigues Coffee House incident and the Kekistan Flag photo, which she said she considers to be connected to white supremacy.

“We just want to call on the school to directly address that there is a problem of white supremacy on campus, to denounce it and to hold the people who are propagating this message accountable,” she said.

Wang said there is a connection between inaction on this issue and potential violent acts.

“If you connect the dots, you see

the reason that people are physically harmed by white supremacy is because people allow this message to spread,” she said.

Jonah Foley, FCRH ’18, of FSU also said white supremacy poses a real threat to students on Fordham’s campus. They said that has prompted them to take a leave of absence.

“I’m literally scared,” they said.

“This place isn’t really safe for me anymore…as a person who is out as trans now and as a person who is vocal about these kinds of issues.”

Bob Howe, director of communications for the university, said the university is committed to the safety of its students and works to create an environment where students feel safe.

Claire del Sorbo, FCRH ’19, said that although she, as a white student, does not feel threatened she has noticed a very hostile environment toward students of color.

“I’ve seen the way that it’s affected my friends,” she said.

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM RAM

Students held signs and banners in protest white supremacy and hate speech at the Carolyn Dursi Cunniffe Fountain.

The protesters were critical of Fordham’s response to this issue, which was why the protest took place near Cunnife House.

Del Sorbo said the priorities of the university are misplaced.

“It’s unacceptable that these students have not been openly condemned by the university and that the university has not openly condemned white supremacy and has treated student activists, like us, as a bigger threat to the university,” she said.

She said that inaction is not in accordance with Jesuit values, which she said the university only gives the appearance of upholding.

“They don’t defend their most marginalized students and even defend the people who caused harm to them,” she said. “They protect them because their parents donate a lot of money to the university.”

Howe said the university takes action in cases of hate speech on campus.

“The University does take action when hate speech occurs on campus, and did so in the case of the flag, but since it was handled through the student disciplinary process, the outcome must remain confidential,” he said.

Rafael Zapata, who began as Fordham’s chief diversity officer this semester, attended the protest. Zapata declined to comment for The Ram. Erwin said they considered his presence at the event to be significant and said they have high hopes for him in his new role. However, Erwin said the optimism his presence gave here did not extend to the rest of the administration.

“I don’t think it speaks for the administration at all,” they said.

Erwin said they do not have faith that Zapata will be able to change university policies.

“[The administration] supported talking about these issues without taking any action,” they said. “A lot of the time, I feel like the administration likes to pretend they care.”

Erwin also said they were concerned that Zapata was the only member of the administration to attend the event. They specifically criticized Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the university, for not showing up.

“McShane never shows up for these things,” they said. “That says to me that he doesn’t care.”

Howe said though McShane’s schedule generally precludes him from attending events held on short notice, he is fully aware of and empathetic to the students’ concerns, and supports Student Affairs in addressing any unease and/or threats as fully as possible.

“As much as Father McShane and the administration would like to protect the University community from hate speech, we are not insulated from the culture around us, a culture that is increasingly divisive and in some cases openly hateful,” he said.

Howe said the administration is committed to an inclusive campus.

Erwin said they noticed other students mocking the protest and found it concerning, as they feel it is representative of a trend in the student body.

“I notice stuff like that all the time, people mocking protests and not understanding why people care about this because there is a culture of apathy at Fordham University,” they said Wang was also critical of students and administrators who were not present at the protest.

“If you’re not actively opposing white supremacy, if you’re not opposing racism, you’re taking the side of the oppressor,” she said. “That’s the side our administration is taking.”

USG Senator Pushes for Commuter Inclusion FROM USG, PAGE 1

become more inclusive. She also said she hopes to incentivize clubs by granting student lounge advertisements to events which cater to the commuter population, as well as stamping them as commuterfriendly.

According to Berberoglu, commuters often feel separated from the campus culture due to the tendency to emphasize residents over commuters in on-campus events.

“Clubs meet at 9 p.m., and when their class ends at 1 p.m., commuters don’t usually have the luxury of waiting on campus for that long,” said Berberoglu, in an interview with The Fordham Ram. According to Berberoglu, clubs could help bridge this gap, granting commuters the opportunity to become more involved in college life.

“Extracurriculars are the easiest way to make commuters feel like they attend a college,” said Berberoglu.

Berberoglu said that while responses from club leadership have been slow, some of the reactions she has received have been enthusiastic.

Kevin McSorley, GSB ’20, musical director of the B-Sides, said that while his group currently has three commuter performers, diffi-

culties in scheduling can arise.

“We try to be mindful of our commuters, but logistically it can be hard sometimes,” said McSorley.

Annalee Mueller, FCRH ‘20, treasurer of the Fordham Psychology Club, agreed that the differing schedules of commuters and residents can can be challenging.

As she drafted the initiative, Berberoglu said she drew from both her own experience as a commuter and the wider commuter population on campus. She surveyed commuters in the student lounge in McGinley in order to gain an understanding of the scope of commuter concerns. In doing so, she found that a sense of disconnect between commuters and campus culture is widespread.

“I was hoping it was just me,” said Berberoglu. “But as I spoke to others, I realized it was not a problem exclusive to people who are quiet or who have parents that might be strict. It’s a commuter issue.”

Other commuters have also addressed their difficulty forming friendships on campus.

Victoria Becker, FCRH ‘20, commuter student, said that the opportunity to be involved in clubs would help commuters form relationships outside of

commuter circles.

“Clubs are a great way to make new friends with the same interests, and it would help commuters make more friends who live on campus,” said Becker. “There are commuter events to foster friendships between commuters, but clubs would assist in making friends who are not.”

While surveying the student

lounge, Berberoglu stated that she encountered commuters who felt they had never been able to integrate into campus life.

“I spoke to seniors who had never been able to attend a single club or event on campus,” said Berberoglu. “They were never able to make friends with residents.”

McSorley spoke positively of

the contributions of commuters in the B-Sides and said he hopes this initiative would grant other clubs the opportunity to experience the same diversity of perspectives.

“I would love if clubs could be more accessible to commuters,” McSorley said. “That would not only open up clubs to new people, but it would allow clubs to grow and gain new ideas.”

FORDHAM RAM ARCHIVES

USG has launched an initiative to encourage clubs to make their meeting times more accessible to commuters.

NEWS

Page 4

March 14, 2018

Research Spotlight

USG Column

Student Studies the City’s Coyotes, DNA

By JULIA RIST STAFF WRITER

If you think you have escaped the presence of coyotes by moving to the city, think again. Emily Hargous, FCRH ‘18, said she has found no shortage of these animals while conducting her research. Hargous, a biology major and math minor, is researching how the seasons affect urban coyotes’ diets. “[Coyotes] definitely have become much more attracted to urban areas,” Hargous said. “Plenty of papers have published that they’ve actually moved into New York City.”

In the summer of 2016, Hargous led a group of high school students in ecological research while volunteering for Project TRUE (Teens Researching Urban Ecology,) a collaboration between Fordham University and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Project TRUE pairs three high school students with a university student or faculty member to serve as their mentor while they conduct ecological research.

While acting as a mentor and a team leader for Project TRUE, Hargous found her own mentor in Carol Henger, GSAS. Henger, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Biology Department, is working on a project of her own in which she studies urban coyotes.

After Hargous’s second summer volunteering, Henger asked if Hargous would be interested in helping her with a research project.

“I was impressed with Emily’s hard work and enthusiasm toward ecology, and at the end of the summer, I asked her if she’d like to volunteer in the lab,” Henger said.

“Emily started volunteering during her junior year, learning laboratory techniques such as DNA extraction and polymerase chain reaction (PCR).”

Both Hargous and Henger conduct their research at the MunshiSouth laboratory in Armonk, New York. Henger is also a member of the Gotham Coyote Project, a

Week of Action Approved

By SARAH HUFFMAN STAFF WRITER

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM

Photo of the Week:

Students crowd the barrier at the Fordham Dance Marathon (FDM) in Lombardi Field House. Headliners of the charity event included Chiddy Bang and Saen. FDM raised over $100,000 this year.

group that studies the ecology of New York City’s coyote population.

In the fall of 2017, Henger was trying to determine how different coyotes’ DNA was from one another. In order to find this out, she collected coyote scat to extract the DNA. Then, Henger used a PCR to see the DNA clearly. By using this technique, she was able to differentiate one DNA strand from another.

“When you use the PCR you can determine how unique the individuals are,” Hargous said. “If you’re looking at a bunch of different scat samples from one area, you don’t know if that sample is just going to

be from one coyote or two.”

Hargous’s research project builds on Henger’s work. While conducting her own research, Hargous examined the anthropogenic components of the food coyotes eat to better determine the nature of their diet.

“We’re seeing if the coyotes are eating wheat, corn and rice [which are all anthropogenic components] because that’s what humans are eating,” Hargous said. “We’re also looking for plant, invertebrate, vertebrate and poaceae, which is a type of grass. We’re trying to see how much of what they’re eating is actu-

COURTESY OF GOOGLE

Emily Hargous, FCRH ’18, studies New York City’s coyotes and is a member of the Gotham Coyote Project.

ally human food.”

One challenge that Hargous says she encounters in her research is the collection of the scat samples. The seasonality component is a big part of Hargous’s project, which means she has to take scat samples in all four seasons, including winter. When the scat is frozen, it is very difficult to extract DNA, according to Hargous.

“The DNA in scat samples that we’ve found during this time of year have been very degraded,” Hargous said. “Some of them are just frozen, and some of them are from 2006 or onward, so they’re really degraded.”

To combat this issue, Hargous studied samples that had been taken from past years.

So far, Hargous has had 51 samples of coyote scat to use as part of her research. She said the samples she collected indicated that coyotes are eating more human food than food that is commonly associated with a coyote’s diet like plants and small animals.

Hargous said a big reason as to why coyotes have become so common in urban areas could be because their diets have changed. In order for coyotes to continue thriving in urban areas, humans have to be better at co-existing with them, according to Hargous.

“If you find that they’re actually eating more human food, it’s important to find more ways to aid coyotehuman interactions,” Hargous said.

Hargous said she hopes her project will make more people more aware of the presence of coyotes in the city.

“You have to be aware that, although you’re living in the Bronx or Manhattan, you have to think about wildlife other than pigeons,” she said.

“You have to be aware and respectful that this is their environment too.”

Hargous will present her findings on April 11 at Fordham’s Undergraduate Research Symposium.

This past week, United Student Government (USG) approved the budget for its Week of Action, an initiative led by Vice President of Health and Security Nate Singh, FCRH ’20. Singh said this week is a major project that will bring attention to sexual misconduct.

There is already a lineup of events for the week, including a benefit for Times Up that will raise money to cover the legal fees for victims of sexual misconduct, an intersectionality panel and much more, according to Singh.

The Senate also approved a new USG newsletter. Senators Ashley Qamar, GSB ’20, and Roderick Perez, GSB ’20, designed the newsletter to aid in marketing and to answer common questions about student government.

“I designed the newsletter to showcase student events and information that would be helpful for club leaders,” said Qamar. “My hope is that its implementation makes information more accessible to the entire student body.”

They also said they want the newsletter to make USG more accessible to the student body. It includes working links to the organizations social media and email to facilitate doing so, according to Qamar and Perez.

“My hope is that the newsletter reaches all Rose Hill students, because, although USG has successfully communicated information through social media in the past, not all students use Facebook, Instagram or Twitter on a regular basis,” said Qamar.

Additionally, the Senate approved, “So You Want To Be In USG” guidelines. Senator Patrick Fox, FCRH ’20, presented the document. It includes sections on the basics of USG, outlines the roles of each member and gives a run through of initiatives and how to execute them, according to Fox. Fox also added descriptions of all the committees and who runs them.

The Senate also approved the Year of Fordham Voices at the meeting this past week. The form was presented by Senator Christopher Canadeo, GSB ’19. Year of Fordham Voices is an event that celebrates those who consistently produce meaningful work that betters the Fordham community efforts that may be overlooked on campus, according to Canadeo.

In his executive update, Executive President Brian Reardon, FCRH ’18, thanked USG’s advisors for sending the walkout letter to the Fordham community. He said that the letter has been distributed on many different platforms by different deans and departments.

Senator Scott Saffran, FCRH ’18, spoke on behalf on the Elections Committee. Saffran said the information meetings’ attendance has been low, so people should encourage other students to run for Senate. He reiterated that it is required for people interested in running to attend one of the meetings.

NEWS

March 14, 2018

Page 5

Former Daily News EIC Speaks to Students

KEVIN STOLTENBORK/THE FORDHAM RAM

Arthur Browne, pictured above, retired as editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News in December of last year.

FROM BROWNE, PAGE 1

communities. Browne said that meant people would consistently buy the same publication because of something they liked about it.

Brown said that in the past, people were more loyal to a specific newspaper but that has recently changed.

Today, most people get their news through online searches, according to Browne. He said that means readers pay less attention to which publication they

are reading.

“They don’t care whether you’re the Daily News or The New York Times,” he said.

Browne said that the internet has widened the gap between readers and publications.

“The connection between the publication and the reader is being weakened, if not severed,” he said.

Publications have been forced to cut down the number of local reporters as a result of the digital

age, according to Browne.

He said the change can be seen at Daily News, where there has been a significant decrease in local reporters since his time as city editor, a position he served in until 2003. This has happened at other newspapers as well, according to Browne. He said the New York Times has seen significant cuts in its Metro section reporters.

Browne said these changes have had important consequenc-

es. He gave the example that there is no longer a reporter assigned to cover the courthouses in the Bronx and Queens, which he considers significant due to the large populations of the two boroughs.

Browne said he is worried about the effects of having fewer reporters covering local issues will be.

“You just don’t know what’s going to happen…when the press isn’t there, it makes a difference,” he said.

During his time at The Daily News, Browne contributed to a series of editorials about the lingering health effects that 9/11 had on first responders. He said those editorials helped to change laws, and that this work would not be possible today at the Daily News.

Browne said his time as editorin-chief, until his retirement last December, made him aware that cutbacks in the number of reporters hurt both the community and the bottom line of the publication.

He said that producing original content is the only way for newspapers to succeed.

“If you add more, you will make more money,” he said.

Browne said he hopes that local newspapers will add staff in the same way that the New York Times and the Washington Post have added staff to cover national issues.

That is the way for newspapers to become profitable again, according to Browne.

“I believe, with the right investment, it could work,” he said.

However, in the past year, local publications faced challenges.

Billionaire owner Joe Ricketts shut down local publications DNAinfo and Gothamist after reporters tried to unionize. Previously, the two publications had been a source for local city news.

Browne said it was important to speak to Fordham students because of its significant journalism school and because of the university’s city location.

“If there’s something I can do to add to their knowledge, I’m quite happy to do it,” he said.

Browne also addressed what makes for good training for journalism students. He said a wellrounded education gives reporters a greater perspective.

“The more well-rounded the education, the better the journalists are going to be,” he said.

Browne also said it is important for all Fordham students to understand how the press works.

He said the press is essential to American society.

“The press is a major force in American culture,” he said.

“America would not be America without a free press.”

Browne said he thinks that means it should be studied in college courses.

“Learning the internal operations of the press, the thought processes of newspapers and magazines…it’s an important set of information for everyone to know in the same way that they understand how the branches of

Recycle The Ram

NEWS

Page 6

March 14, 2018

FUEMS Acknowledged by National Awards FROM FUEMS, PAGE 1

ing in the line of duty on March 16, 2017. Members of FUEMS wore a black stripe through the center of the star of life on their ambulances and donated to a fund for Arroyo’s children.

FUEMS also became a part of the 911 mutual aid system, sending 20 medical volunteers to be on standby at the finish line of the New York City Marathon for the past three years. FUEMS has also been adding to their extensive, ever-growing network of alumni who have expanded their Advisory Board and provided shadowing and career opportunities for FUEMS members.

FUEMS also pushed boundaries by increasing their presence on the Lincoln Center campus in 2017. “[The] Fordham University Jesuit tradition emphasizes the importance of bridging gaps--gaps between men and women, majority and minority populations and the Fordham community and our neighbors in the South Bronx,” said Decker.

In the Fall of 2017, FUEMS drove one of their ambulances to the Lincoln Center campus to train new Student Attendants, and since then have provided free transportation for any student from the Lincoln Center campus to the Rose Hill campus to volunteer for FUEMS. FUEMS also worked on their relationship with the Rose Hill community. In the fall semester, FUEMS started working with the

Freshman CORE programming, a program that intends “to change student knowledge, attitudes and behavioral intentions related to alcohol and other drug use,” according to the CORE Programming page on the Fordham website. Chief Cahill and Decker spoke to the entirety of the Class of 2021, educating them about safe drinking habits, signs of alcohol poisoning and how to contact FUEMS in case of an emergency.

“We have seen a steady decline in alcohol related accidents this year, which we attribute to being some of the first people the freshman class meets,” said Decker.

FUEMS also worked with RAs and New Student Orientation Leaders, teaching them what to do and how to help in medical emergencies.

FUEMS also had their first “CPR Day” on Jan. 30, 2018. FUEMS and Residential Life sponsored this event, in which students and faculty were educated on the proper techniques of CPR from Fordham EMTs. FUEMS is hoping to make this an annual event.

FUEMS also added a new ambulance, updated the three computers in their office, received approval to carry glucometry kits for diabetic emergencies and improved relations with other organizations on campus, such as Campus Ministry and Psychological Services.

It is because of these improvements that FUEMS won four awards at the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services conference last

month.

“A week later, I’m still overwhelmed with pride. None of this would have been possible without the servitude of each member of FUEMS,” said Decker. “Chief Cahill and I owe all of our successes this year to all of them; they are remarkable individuals.”

Kathleen Malara, who is the Executive Director of Fordham’s Health Services and has also been serving as advisor for FUEMS for 17 years, was proud of the strides that FUEMS made in 2017.

“The FUEMS students are an amazing group of individuals that not only work hard as students but also give back to the University with the dedication and commitment of caring for other students in the need of emergency care,” said Malara.

Julia Hughes, FCRH ‘18, who serves as an EMT and ambulance rider for FUEMS, was glad that FUEMS received recognition for their hard work.

“I am truly honored to be part of an organization that ensures the well-being of the Fordham com-

munity as one of their own,” said Hughes.

The organization is working to switch completely from paper to electronic patient care reports, adding positions of Crew Chief and Crew-Chief-in-Training-Coordinator this month, starting to integrate diversity training into their monthly agenda with the Office of Multicultural Affairs and working to make the Health Center an opioid prevention center, all while providing 24/7 service for the Fordham community and beyond.

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM RAM

A FUEMS vehicle sits next to a blue light system outside of Queens Court, a freshman dorm on campus.

FDM Raises Over $100,000 in Fifth Year FROM FDM, PAGE 1

“After a phenomenal fundraising push by our RHA and committee during the event, we felt relatively confident that we would hit the goal by late after-

noon,” she said.

Polachek said she cannot be sure when the group surpassed the mark due to an FDM tradition.

“It is also tradition that the director and most of the chairs hold-

ing the numbers do not know the final total before the reveal, so I don’t know when exactly we hit it,” she said.

During the marathon, various Fordham groups performed,

KEVIN STOLTENBORG/THE FORDHAM RAM

Chiddy Bang, a rapper, performed at the Fordham Dance Marathon as the headline talent.

including Flava and Fordham Experimental Theatre Stand Up Comedy. However, headlining talent Chiddy Bang and Saen brought in the most attention, according to JC Evans, an entertainment chair of FDM. All performances were donated to the cause aside from Chiddy Bang, according to Evans. He said FDM chose Chiddy to headline because of his historical success, positive message, availability and the agreed price. Evans said booking a hip-hop act was important to the group.

“Also, a priority of ours was to book a well-known hip-hop act, as this is the most popular genre in the world for our generation, but has not been represented on Fordham’s campus in a very long time,” said Evans.

Chiddy Bang’s performance included songs like “Opposite of Adults” and “Mind Your Manners.” Twice during his set, he mentioned receiving rejection letters from Fordham when he applied as a student.

“I didn’t get in, but I’m here with y’all today,” he said.

During a freestyle rap, Chiddy included the line, “Got rejected, now doing shows at Fordham.”

Evans said he did not know Chiddy Bang had previously applied to Fordham when he made the booking, but that the rapper mentioned this to him in the car ride to the dance marathon.

“It was funny because he sounded kinda bitter, but it was all love,” he said.

FDM “heroes,” children fighting pediatric cancer, attended the

event as well. They could be seen dancing and playing with Fordham athletes and FDM organizers early in the evening.

Meghan Keough, GSB ’20, and Emma Budd, FCRH ’20, said they found it endearing the way the children got to interact with the Fordham community.

“It’s so great that they bring some of the kids here so they can hang out with the athletes and see that everybody is here to support them,” she Keough.

“It was very cute,” said Budd.

Both Budd and Keough said they attended to support their roommate, Julia Townsend, GSB ’20, a hospitality chair for FDM. Townsend said preparation for the event began last April. A full year of planning and coordinating catering required a lot of emails, according to Townsend.

Restaurants like Pugsley’s Pizza, Cava Grill and Burger Lodge donated food to the event.

Townsend said a lot went in to locking down catering donations.

“You’re trying a lot to get a little, but usually once you get a positive response they’re really willing to help,” she said.

The FDM goal has increased every year since its establishment, according to Polachek. The goal is set by the incoming director.

“Our goal has increased every year, and I expect next year to follow the same trend,” she said.

Funds can still be donated, and have been, according to Polachek.

Since the total was revealed, FDM has raised an additional $2,000. The current total is over $103,000.

NEWS

March 14, 2018

Page 7

FPR Hosts Semi-Annual Debate

By JASMIN BOYCE STAFF WRITER

College Democrats and College Republicans took the stage of Flom Auditorium for Fordham Political Review’s semi-annual debate. Representatives went toe-to-toe on the nation’s opioid epidemic, President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, hurricane relief in Puerto Rico and the issue of gun control in the United States.

Party representatives were each allotted a two-minute introduction followed by two series of ninetysecond rebuttals. After this, the floor was opened to the audience for a question and answer segment that lasted around eight minutes per topic. Each representative presented a closing statement lasting one minute.

Louis Norred, FCRH ’21, spoke about the opioid crisis in the U.S. on behalf of the College Republicans.

He proposed that a strong presence of law enforcement would help decrease the number of lives lost to the addictive drug each year.

“Through a well-funded and active drug enforcement agency, our nation seeks to resolve this pressing social problem.” stated Norred.

Collin Bonnell, FCRH ’21, of the College Democrats, urged against this in his rebuttal. Bonnell said past presidents, like Nixon and Reagan, have declared wars on drugs that have not yielded positive results.

“More criminalization is never

the solution to a problem like this,” said Bonnell. “The only way that we can help this is through the gradual decriminalization of drugs.”

Declan Murphy, FCRH ’18, argued for the College Democrats against the Trump administration’s decision to move the United States Embassy in the State of Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He said there would be no fair peace in a one-state solution, urging the crowd to remember the two-state solution has long been a cornerstone of U.S. Diplomacy.

“Moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is an act of provocation on the part of Trump,” said Murphy. “That’s not me speaking, that’s the U.N. General Assembly and the U.S. security council who voted the move was provocative.”

To counter this argument, College Republican Tim Kyle, FCRH ’21, referenced the United Nation’s history with the State of Israel. Kyle said it was a unique relationship compared to other nations.

“Israel is given an exception in the international community by the U.N. in that they’re not allowed to choose their own capital,” said Kyle.

“Every country should have the right to choose where they have their government.”

While some of the debate was partisan, both sides agreed the United States should send more relief to Puerto Rico after last year’s devastating hurricane. However, their arguments differed over how far that

relief effort should extend.

Samantha Hardy, FCRH ’21, arguing for the Democrats, said Puerto Ricans should receive equitable aid provided to other recent hurricane-ravaged areas, like Texas and Florida, because they are citizens of the United States.

“The response was inadequate and insufficient, as there was a discrepancy between treatment and responsiveness of mainland disasters such as Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma and Island Territories such as Puerto Rico,” said Hardy.

Ryan Slattery, FCRH ’20, argued for the Republicans. While he did not contest the need for greater federal assistance in Puerto Rico, he questioned the legitimacy of the amount of funds necessary for the Puerto Rico Equitable Rebuild Act of 2017, currently being pushed in the Senate.

“I believe that this plan would cause economic ripples throughout the nation, if we are to relieve any debt without means of proper bankruptcy,” said Slattery.

The debate concluded with the topic of gun control. College Democrat Michael Fissinger, FCRH ’21, stated the problem lies in the number of guns present within the country. He called for a revised federal ban on assault rifles and said the government should work to decrease the amount of guns in private possession.

“I propose a comprehensive gun buyback program,” said Fissinger.

“Should the federal government not

sponsor such an activity, I recommend state and municipal governments take up the issue.”

College Republican Domenic Setaro, FCRH ’20, said there should be greater restrictions when buying weapons, but urged against an all over ban on guns.

“We need stricter background checks for guns, which pay extreme attention to the applicant’s mental health, and we must increase our security in schools and urban areas to further prevent these atrocities from occurring again in the future,” said Setaro.

Rev. Bentley Anderson, S.J., associate chair and associate professor of African and African American Studies, said he moderated the event with a rigid structure to ensure the crowd remained under control. Anderson said the gun control debate

was held to the end purposefully because he was concerned it would get out of hand.

“I was very careful on the time,” said Anderson. “In part because I don’t want the students acting like the adults we see on TV when it comes to debating controversial or high-energy charged topics.”

Audience member Alana Murphy, FCRH ’19, said events like this have a positive impact on campus. She said debates help both sides understand their own argument and the arguments of their opponent in a more open and productive setting.

“I think this was a good experience for everyone to actually kind of be forced to listen to both sides, and to really see both the weakness in your own argument possibly and the strengths of someone else’s argument,” she said.

COURTESY OF JASMIN BOYCE

The debate took place in Flom Auditorium in the basement of Walsh Library.

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OPINION

Page 8

March 14, 2018

The Fordham Ram

Fordham Fosters Comraderie for Walkout

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The National Walkout, taking place on March 14, will hopefully heighten the awareness of the need for gun control.

By EMILY THOMPSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER

One of the things that really drew me to Fordham University was its motto of creating “men and women for others.” I knew on my first day, when I heard Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the university speak of the passionate students of Fordham, that I had chosen a school that really did care. Fordham prides itself on its thoughtful and active students who are passionate about creating change; it is part of being a Ram. When I first told friends and family that I had chosen Fordham as my home for the next four years,

I received comments like, “Half of your education will be at Fordham, the other half on Arthur Ave.” Fordham’s motto, after all, is that “NYC is our campus, Fordham is our school.” While all of these comments seem a bit fluffy, Fordham teaches its students to care for those both inside and outside of our gates.

Whether through programs such as Global Outreach (GO!) or events such as FDM, Fordham gives its students outlets for finding injustices they are passionate about trying to solve. Only so much can be taught within a classroom. There is a difference between learning about injustice and the suffering of others and feeling compelled to act on it.

In light of the most recent school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, many colleges and universities have announced that they will not penalize accepted students or currently enrolled students for their participation in peaceful protest. In his university statement on gun violence, McShane said, “Fordham University affirms that it is not only a civic responsibility to curtail gun violence, but a mandate dictated by Catholic, Jesuit teachings on the the sanctity of life.”

Whether at a Jesuit university or not, allowing students to take a stance on gun violence gives them the opportunity to show compassion and awareness for their fellow

students.

To punish students for being passionate about the livelihood of others is to teach them that goodwill is only a concept that they cannot act on. Discouraging students from acting on their beliefs gives the impression that thoughts and words are sufficient for change. While these factors are necessary, it is when people stand up and show up that change is actually made. Youth movements have often been at the heart of change in United States history. We can look to student protests during the Vietnam War to Ruby Bridges and the Little Rock Nine during the Civil Rights movement for proof that, sometimes, the actions of youth are needed to force the hand of lawmakers.

Students and teenagers are often stereotyped as immature and uninformed. Recently, politicians argued on a CNN interview that students are too young to have any opinions on gun control. “Do we allow the children to tell us that we should pass a law that says, ‘No homework’?

Or ‘You finish high school at the age of 12’ just because they want it so?” Florida State Representative Elizabeth Porter stated, “No… The adults make the laws because we have the age. We have the wisdom.

And we have the experience to make these laws. We have to make laws with our heads and not with our emotions.”

But here is where we prove critics wrong. When we march out onto Eddies, we are procuring a new place

for students in the minds of older generations. We have the strength, knowledge and empathy to act on our opinions. By encouraging the walkout, Fordham University is instilling confidence that its students are trustworthy global citizens. Acting on “emotions,” as Representative Porter discourages, is proof that we are deeply disturbed by these most recent tragedies and care about our community.

There is nothing more heartwrenching than having a lockdown at your school or watching a coverage of a mass shooting. In the aftermath of a travesty such as that at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, facilitating walkouts and allowing students to express their opinions and grief is a part of the healing process. It’s about solidarity with those who lost loved ones or who no longer have a voice.

School is the place where often times we feel most at home — it is where our friends are, where we put our sweat and tears into securing a future for ourselves.

Being able to have a say in how their “home away from home” works is crucial for allowing students to feel pride in their community and what it stands for. This, if nothing else, shows the bonds of the Ramily within Fordham and the care students have for those outside Fordham’s gates.

Emily Thompson, FCRH ’21, is a journalism major from Norwalk, Connecticut.

Why “The Wall” is Still Wrong

By SEAN FRANKLIN STAFF WRITER

On the campaign trail, then-candidate Donald Trump often talked about building a wall on the southern border. “We need to build a wall” became one of his signature applause lines. But pundits dismissed this move as purely symbolic, saying it was merely meant to be an indication that Trump would be tough on immigration. Taking Trump “seriously but not literally” was the method employed by most analysts.

Nevertheless, since he has taken office Trump has shown that he does in fact want to build an actual, physical wall on the southern border. I was always a bit skeptical of the idea that the wall was purely a rhetorical device; Trump never seemed tonguein-cheek when he talked about it. It seemed to me that he was serious: and he clearly was. In last month’s abortive attempt at immigration reform, he stipulated that one of the terms of the deal had to be $25 billion allocated for a border wall.

Since Trump seems serious about this move, let’s take the idea of building a wall on the Mexican border at face value. First, we should note that there is already a barrier erected along the majority of the border. The Secure Fence Act of 2006, signed into law by President George W. Bush, stipulated that a fence be built along the southern border. Nearly

700 miles of fence already stand along the 2,000-mile border.

Looking at the process of constructing that fence can give us an idea of the kind of issues that arise when you try to erect a physical barrier on the border. First of all, most of the land on the border is owned by private citizens. In 2006, government had to invoke eminent domain on hundreds of property owners in order to get enough land to build even the amount of fencing that currently exists. A border wall, which would require more support infrastructure than a fence, would likely require even more land. Building on this land is further complicated by a 1970 treaty between the U.S. and Mexico prohibiting construction that would inhibit the normal flow of the Rio Grande, which forms a large portion of the border.

Second of all, it’s expensive. Estimates for the cost of a 35-foot concrete wall (the specifications that Trump has laid out) on the border start at about $25 billion. Building a wall isn’t as easy as it seems. It’s not just the cost of the concrete and rebar that goes into it. You also need to pay engineers to design the wall and construction workers (40,000 a year, by one estimate) to build it, build hundreds of miles of roads to deliver materials, etc.

Even after the wall is built, maintenance and upkeep could cost billions of dollars each year, on top of the

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President Trump’s U.S. Border Wall is, and will always be, an expensive, unrealistic and ultimately ineffective concept.

initial construction cost. For the existing border fence, the Government Accountability Office estimated that upkeep costs would exceed initial construction costs within seven years.

The same would likely be true for a border wall. It all adds up to a $100 billion boondoggle within 20 years of construction (and that’s assuming there are no cost overruns – which, with government, is a fool’s wager).

A border wall would have a myriad of other drawbacks. It would permanently scar fragile desert ecosystems along the border. It would, especially given Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the wall and his outlandish claims that Mexico will pay for it, damage our relationship with the country,

our third-largest trading partner. But the best argument against it is that it simply wouldn’t work.

First of all, research shows that about only half of unauthorized migrants actually jump the border in the traditional sense – the other half enters through legal ports of entry, usually with a short-term visa, and then overstay their welcome. A border wall would do nothing to stop these sorts of illegal entries. It probably wouldn’t stop people who come up against it, either. A 35-foot wall, for example, could easily be circumvented by a 36-foot ladder.

The kind of deal Trump is proposing, on principle, makes some sense – Democrats want protection for ex-

isting unauthorized migrants and Republicans want more border security.

A compromise in which both sides get what they want is reasonable, but a border wall is not something that will increase border security.

If Trump really wants increased border security, he could send those $25 billion dollars to something that’s actually useful, like more Border Patrol agents. There are a lot of legitimate ways to reduce illegal immigration. Building a wall is not one of them.

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

OPINION

March 14, 2018

Page 9

Training Teachers Won’t Stop School Shootings

By ANTONIA VANZINI STAFF WRITER

On Feb. 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. It was one of the worst school massacres in history with 17 people killed and 14 wounded.

Nikolas Jacob Cruz, the 19-yearold perpetrator, was identified by witnesses and arrested shortly afterward.

After the event, Florida legislators proposed and voted for a newly structured plan: the “school marshall program.” Its total cost would be $67 million, which will be used

to train and arm teachers in districts only with the stated and documented permission of the local school board. Apart from coordinating administrations and school officials, the legislation would put new limits on gun purchases; a threeday waiting period and raise the age for anyone to buy a gun from 18 to 21. Its provision of $400 million would help to finance psychological departments in every public school; school resource officers and mental-health counseling would no longer be an option.

Arming teachers is not the answer. We cannot solve a problem by using the problem itself. Taking

weapons away from students and giving them to the teachers would just exchange fire for fire.

Moreover, training sessions would not be sufficient. Most of the participants would not be psychologically ready to use the weapon, even if they technically have a perfect understanding of how to do so.

The entire process would be cost-inefficient for most public schools in the country. Instead, these schools should invest in security programs, without resorting to this type of mass arming measure.

School shootings have always been an issue in the United States, and they follow a pattern. The

COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

Florida legislators have passed the “school marshal” bill designed to arm teachers, regardless of Senator Rubio’s dissent.

murderer is usually in his teenage years. He often has problems at school, hardly gets along with his classmates and could be depressed at home. Most occur in mundane places, like small towns and college campuses.

Politicians, experts and law makers are trying to adopt effective measures to guarantee higher levels of security in universities around the country to prevent these tragedies from happening again. People have addressed the issue in a variety of ways, from pacifist in-school protests to proposals of a complete overhaul of gun laws in the country.

“Everytown for Gun Safety” is an interesting example of a non-violent attempt to approach the matter and call for a definitive solution.

It is a nonprofit group, co-founded by Michael Bloomberg, that works to prevent gun violence; it is most famous for its running tally of school shootings. The organization explains on its website that it defines a school shooting as “any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds.”

Gun control needs to be based on the implementation of effective laws. We should find solutions of two types: task-oriented and morally shaking.

The first kind becomes operative through legislative change.

The government should do all in

its power to state clearly and in giant characters that weapons should never be sold to teenagers without knowing in advance the exact purpose of that purchase.

The second type of measures include protest rallies and pacifist attempts to confront and solve the issue.

Therefore, college and university students should always be free to express their ideas, cooperate with their classmates to create a better campus environment and urge school officials to provide them with an adequate level of security.

After politicians proposed the “School Marshall Plan” at Florida’s House and Senate Appropriations Committees, President Donald Trump supported the idea of arming teachers, though Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has said he strongly opposes it.

Residents of Parkland and survivors of the shootings have expressed their disappointment and are currently trying to protect the plan’s implementation.

One furious teacher, when asked about the proposal, said, “I love my students, but I didn’t sign up to take a bullet for them.”

Antonia Vanzini, from Catholic University of Sacred Heart, is an International Relations and Languages major from Milan, Italy.

Tino’s Takes | Faustino Galante

The Catholic Church Should Not Condemn Marijuana Use Many people do not know that the Roman Catholic Church is a major opponent of marijuana use.

On June 20, 2014, Pope Francis spoke out against the recreational use of drugs, including marijuana, stating, “Attempts, however limited, to legalize so-called ‘recreational drugs,’ are...highly questionable.” The Church has also donated to anti-marijuana campaigns across the United States.

According to The Boston Globe, in 2016, the Church spent $850,000 in 2016 to defeat a state ballot meant to legalize the recreational use of the drug.

The Roman Catholic Church’s condemnation of marijuana is hypocritical. The Church should revoke its dissaproving position on cannabis use; marijuana has medicinal qualities and is a safer substance than alcohol and tobacco. To stay relevant, the Church must keep up with a constantly evolving society.

The Catholic Church is skeptical of the effectiveness of medical marijuana. Last year, Catholic Bishops from Florida publicly “expressed ‘concerns’ on medical marijuana.” The Bishops claimed that though legalizing the drug medically held the potential to benefit many, it could also be problematic. They worried that medical legalization in Florida could cause fraud, abuse, healthrisks, youth accessibility and no assurances of quality. According

to them, the risks involved with legalizing the drug’s medicinal use outweigh the benefits.

The fact that the Church so strictly denounces marijuana use while showing some leniency towards alcohol and tobacco is both hypocritical and somewhat ironic. It seems as though simply because society considers pot immoral and alcohol acceptable, the Church follows suit. The Church deems marijuana smoking sinful on the basis that it holds mindaltering capabilities.

The recreational legalization of marijuana is a hotly debated topic. While many, including the Catholic Church, believe it would be damaging to society, the legalization of the drug’s recreational use could prove beneficial in a number of ways. The Catholic Church explicitly condemns the dealing of illegal drugs. According to a 2008 article published

by Fox News, the Vatican added seven new deadly sins “for the age of globalization.” One of the sins on the list is drug dealing. The recreational legalization of marijuana would allow governments to regulate the drug. This would “curb the black market” and pose a threat to the business of drug dealers.

If the Church wishes to abolish drug dealers, supporting the legalization of recreational cannabis would be a small step in the right direction. The legalization

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The Catholic Church continues to be hypocrtical so long as it retains its strong stance against the use of marijuana.

of recreational marijuana could compromise a sinful black market.

On Oct. 28, 2016, The Boston Globe reported that the Boston Archdiocese spent $850,000 of tax exempt funds to fight the state’s ballot measure, Question 4. The bill legalized cannabis for recreational use for people over the age of 21. The Church’s funds, according to The Globe, funded advertising campaigns and sent materials to parishes and schools condemning the state’s proposed measure. The Church’s decision to donate such a great amount of money to an anti-marijuana campaign is unprecedented and ludicrous. Terrance Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese,

defended the donation saying, “It reflects the fact that the archdiocese holds the matter among its highest priorities. It’s a recognition that, if passed, the law would have significantly detrimental impacts on our parishes, our ministries.”

The Church’s rationale that Question 4 would be “significantly detrimental” to it is wrong.

Legalizing cannabis would have no drastic impact on the Church’s ministry. For this reason, a donation so large seems unfit. The $850,000 could have gone to a much better cause. The Church, furthermore, fails to recognize the inefficiency of campaigns against marijuana. A 2008 research study on the effectiveness

of drug campaigns revealed that participants “who were primed with anti-drug PSAs were more curious about using drugs than those that hadn’t seen the PSAs.” Essentially, drug campaigns spur curiosity among its audiences and acts as a “motivational force” to try something new.

The Church’s donation to antimarijuana campaigns in Boston was unjustified. Question 4 fails to pose a direct threat to the Catholic Church. Anti-marijuana campaigns, moreover, are inefficient.

The Catholic Church should allow society to determine whether it deems recreational cannabis reasonable. Its interference and input on the matter is simply unsolicited and unnecessary.

OPINION

Page 10

R

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

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March 14, 2018

From the Desk | Joe Esposito

Here Come the Yankees The New York Yankees have always been the team to beat; dominating baseball with 27 world championships. Notorious for spending big money to buy the best players, they have been despised by most.

Last season was quite the exception.

Hoping to rebuild, General Manager Brian Cashman initiated a selling phase in 2016, trading away talented key players. Cashman then looked to the youth of the organization for the 2017 season. Led by the powerful or young bats of Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, the Yankees were dubbed the “Baby Bombers.” At the start of that year, expectations were quite low as many saw it as a time to revamp the team. But as the playoffs approached in late September, it was clear that the Baby Bombers had far exceeded those early expectations.

The Yankees finished the regular season 91-71, performing far better than anyone had imagined. Judge, a rookie, hit the most homeruns in the American League (52) and became a face of the team. Talented players like Starlin Castro and Didi Gregorious brought excitement to the clubhouse with their passion and hopefulness. Simply put, the team was fun to watch.

I was able to bask in that fun while attending the American

League Wild Card game, one nobody thought the Yankees would compete in at the start of the season.

When the Yankees fell behind 3-0 in the bottom of the first inning and had to remove superstar Luis Severino, it seemed their run was over and their magic gone. In one of my favorite fan moments, Gregorious once again proved everyone wrong in the bottom half of the first inning when he hit a three-run homerun to tie the game.

The Yankees then went on to win that game, beating the defending American League champion Indians in a 5-game series and taking the Houston Astros 7 games. The Yankees weren’t supposed to make the playoffs in 2017. But despite expectations, they continued to impress, exceed expectations and awe fans all season long.

The 2017 Yankee season was one of the greatest sports adventures I have witnessed, and I loved every minute of it. Following a team of young talent that played with heart and then seeing them find success was truly satisfying. As a Yankee fan, one really doesn’t get to journey with the underdog. Seeing the underdog prevail is a fulfilling experience: last season allowed me to participate in that.

When the offseason came

around, the Yankees did something extraordinary- they signed Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees went back to their roots by signing Stanton, arguably baseball’s best power hitter.

He won the National League MVP award and hit the most homeruns in the game (59) in the 2017 season.

Stanton will be joining Judge, Sanchez and Severino, a trio now seen as superstars to many after their outstanding performances.

By trading for Stanton, the Yankees inherited his $432 million contract: something the organization is familiar with doing. A part of this deal involved trading Castro, a player who brought great vitality to the Baby Bombers. They also let Todd Frazier walk, the man behind the rallying thumbs down movement.

The time of the Baby Bombers, in my eyes, is no longer. Sure, the Yankees still have a lot of youth on their team, but that is no longer the focus. In 2018, the Yankees will be all about money and power once again.

Their starting lineup will consist of the American League and National League 2017 homerun champions, a fact that is truly remarkable. Add the talented bats of Sanchez, Gregorious and Brett Gardner, as well as the powerful arms of Masahiro Tanaka and Aroldis Chapman to the mix, and you have arguably the

best team in baseball.

The emphasis has shifted from a young group of underdogs filled with hope to an all-star team of power, whose season is a loss if they don’t win it all. As a fan, I’m not happy about this change. For one, setting the bar so high would render even a relatively successful season a disappointment. Also, while it will be fun to watch Judge and Stanton aim to combine for 90 plus homeruns, seeing the Yankees walk into the playoffs will be boring.

Finally, this year I will not be able to experience the kind of fulfillment I did in the 2017 season watching a unique team turn energy into results. Last year’s group had something truly special, and in my eyes, that is gone.

Editorial | National Walkout

Solidarity Should Not Mean Silence

It has been one month since the Parkland shooting left the nation shell-shocked and we at The Fordham Ram are still at a loss for words, struggling to find the right thing to say.

What do you say when you have said it before? What do you say when you know you will soon say it again?

Sentiments calling for change fall on deaf ears when they are heard so frequently. As a result, we become desensitized and defeated.

Disheartened and despondent.

All too often, we go through the motions and then move on. Seventeen lives were lost at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and if we allow the statistics to foreshadow the future, these victims will, unfortunately, not be the last.

As the editorial board of The Fordham Ram, we do not claim to have all of the answers. But we firmly believe that, when it comes to gun violence, something has to give in this country. We hope our platform can help advocate for that change.

Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the university, sent a statement to the Fordham community on Feb. 26, encouraging

students to turn their concern into direct action. McShane stressed that it is a part of our civic duty to curtail violence of this magnitude.

Thoughts and prayers can only do so much for bullet wounds.

We at The Fordham Ram would like to underscore McShane’s message and call the Fordham community to actively contribute to this conversation.

Today, many students will do just that by participating in the ENOUGH National School Walkout. We think that this is an instrumental step – among several others – that must be taken to confront gun violence head-on.

United Student Government cited the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas as sources of inspiration. As college students who have grown up amidst the sickening reality of mass shootings, we must make it our responsibility to ensure that this does not continue.

It is easy to feel cynical in the current socio-political climate, but now more than ever, we must use this pathos to propel us forward in protest.

In the fight for greater gun control, we must call out the politicians who are capable of passing legisla-

tion but decide their loyalties lie elsewhere, most notably with the National Rifle Association (NRA.) President Donald Trump, who recently backslid on his brief promise to raise the age limit to purchase weapons and reconsider legislation for near-universal background checks, received more than $30 million in campaign support from the NRA, according to The Center for Responsive Politics .

Florida Senator Marco Rubio said that the Parkland shooting was “that terrible day you pray never comes.” However, the NRA has spent $3.3 million throughout his legislative career.

Kentucky Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for national mourning and prayer. He also received $1.3 million in NRA support by 2016.

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan received an estimated $171,977 in campaign contributions from gun lobbyists in his 2016 campaign alone.

This is a watershed moment to hold these politicians accountable: to stand up and say we are fed up.

Choose the lives of American citizens over the NRA’s campaign dollars. Represent the people, not the

corporate gun lobby.

We at The Fordham Ram strongly encourage students to hold letter writing campaigns and make calls to members of Congress. Policy change will not come without clear pressure from enraged constituents at every corner.

March for Our Lives takes Washington on March 24 with 730 partner events across the globe. This presents a perfect opportunity to stand in solidarity and make your voice heard with millions of other concerned citizens.

If you cannot attend a march, consider adding your name to the petition to call on Congress to pass legislation or making donations to organizations such as Everytown for Gun Safety or New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.

The recurring reality of mass shootings in the United States is difficult to stomach. We can never seem to make sense of why it happens, but that does not mean we should allow it to continue.

It is imperative to take the steps to prevent another tragedy from happening, regardless of if it feels like pushing a rock up a boulder that is increasingly insurmountable.

Send your ideas to fordhamramopinions@gmail.com

OPINION

March 14, 2018

Page 11

British Vogue Must Value Diversity

By ISIAH MAGSINO

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I grew up around an extremely artistic family. My close cousins own an art studio back home, and their sibling is currently the creative director of a clothing label.

It’s no surprise that their influence eventually drove my own interests in fashion magazines.

That being said, the glossy covers with attractive models and elaborate clothing have always sparked my interest. Vogue was and still is my favorite magazine, as is the case for many other fashion enthusiasts. I love what Vogue stands for: refined culture, clothing and people.

However, after the beginning of my college career, I began to notice that Vogue and the fashion industry as a whole lacked one major component: diversity. In years prior, I had somehow overlooked the fact that many fashion magazines, runway shows and clothing campaigns included the same thin, white women.

I realized that the fashion industry desperately needed a push for diversity. Initially, last year’s news of a black, gay male taking over British Vogue was extremely promising. However, I was quickly disappointed with the work that followed.

In Spring 2017, Conde Nast International announced that the well-respected and influential Edward Enninful would replace Alexandra Shulman at British Vogue as its new editor-in-chief. Shulman announced she was stepping down from her position after 25 years because she “pictured a future without Vogue.”

Enninful, former fashion director of I-D Magazine, contributing editor at Vogue and fashion director of W, claimed he would produce a “New Vogue.” Unlike Vogue’s usual socially exclusive content, this “New Vogue” entailed an inclusive work environment and push for socially progressive content.

Although Enninful’s appoint-

ment seemed promising, there has yet been a shift from Shulman’s predominantly white magazine. My claim on Enninful resides within an arguably racist editorial found in his first British Vogue issue and series of all-white magazine covers.

When news of his appointment came out, Enninful emphasized one thing: diversity. Supermodels, designers and other editors predicted that Enninful would revolutionize British Vogue by offering a perspective from being a “double” minority, as he is both gay and black.

Even I, an avid Vogue reader, who has always been concerned with the lack of representation of minorities in the fashion industry, believed that Enninful would push for British Vogue to include more components of diversity within its work.

Enninful’s career as the editor of British Vogue began with Adwoa Aboah on the December issue. Aboah is well-known throughout the fashion industry for her supermodel status and women’s empowerment program, ‘Gurls Talk.’

Aboah’s British Vogue cover was everything the fashion industry needed: diversity and substance.

Aboah’s cover was not only a call for a movement to include more representation of people of color, but also a realization that the upcoming generation of British Vogue consumers care less about what “it-girls” are wearing on the red carpet and more about social injustices. This more was a promising sign that Enninful would remain true to his original goal.

But my concerns grew immediately after coming across the editorial spread “Remain” in Aboah’s issue. The setting of the photo was a fantastical wood, with three white women dressed in elaborate, avant-garde gowns.

What struck me most was the naked ethnic women placed on a cow.

Immediately, my liberal arts education screamed: colonialism.

I recall staring at the editorial for an extended period of time thinking about the obvious messages the image depicted and wondering how Enninful could have either missed the dangerous image or dismissed any sort of racist messages it emitted.

For someone whose initial motives implied an understanding of racism within the industry, I find it hard to accept that Enninful could decide to include such an offensive editorial. I vacillated between opinions. Ultimately, I decided that Enninful’s arguably racist editorial made him seem hypocritical, regardless his intentions.

After Aboah’s groundbreaking British Vogue cover, there was a less-than invigorating follow up with the next cover stars: Taylor Swift for January, Margot Robbie and Nicole Kidman for February and the Hadid sisters for March.

Though these women are massive figures in the industry, they fall back into Shulman’s white and generic mold. Aboah was a prominent figure in the industry and she resonated with the younger and “more aware” generation. Her work as a feminist and racial activist is unparalleled in the fashion industry and she stands out compared to her following cover-stars.

People may claim it’s ultimately just a cover, but the cover is arguably one of the most important factors of a magazine. Cover stars are the central focus of the monthly issue and, being the first thing that is seen when on stands, have the power to influence cultural and societal perspectives.

Because of the lack of substantial and diverse cover stars following Adwoa Aboah, it seems as if Enninful only capitalized on diversifying British Vogue in the beginning in order to gain attention from the press. More press ultimately calls on more attention to him and British Vogue, while ultimately boosting the issue’s sales.

Although I have my speculations about how Enninful is di-

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Edward Enninful should put more people of color on the covers of British Vogue.

versifying British Vogue, I do believe that consumers are slowly seeing more socially progressive content. For example, the past issues have included pieces on transgender beauty and minority spotlights, which align with Enninful’s motives.

However, if a cover does not resonate with a younger generation that is arguably exhausted from the old content, there is a smaller chance that consumers will even pick up Enniful’s covers that may include this so-called progressive content.

There is no doubt that Enninful is skilled in his craft, and in no way do I intend to discredit him; I believe his appointment was important to my generation.

However, Enninful’s recent work at British Vogue does not resonate with his earlier claimed intention of revolutionizing Alexandra Shulman’s all-white British

Do you have your own opinion?

Send your ideas to fordhamramopinions@gmail.com

Vogue.

Again, I wrote this piece based off of Enninful’s first four issues.

Although I am arguing that Enninful has not been true to diversifying British Vogue, there is no say in how he may or may not produce further content that resonates truly to his initial goal.

It is my lasting interest in Vogue that compels me to express my concerns with the magazine and its absence of diversity.

I believe that Vogue has incredible power over cultural views, and with this power comes the responsibility of being socially correct. Despite my concerns of diversity in British Vogue, my faith in Enninful remains hopeful that he will finally bring diversity to the publication.

Isiah Magsino, FCRH ’19, is a communications and culture major from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Page 12

CENTENNIAL

As involvement in World War II picked up speed, The Fordham Ram found its news content inseparable from the happenings overseas (Vol. 23, Issue 10).

March 14, 2018

March 14, 2018

CENTENNIAL

Page 13

The war not only altered Fordham’s student body, but also its curriculum, speeding up its courses to make students more available (Vol.22, Issues 13, 14, 15, 18 and 19).

The Fordham Ram as the Nation Enters WWII

By THE FORDHAM RAM STAFF In an effort to commemorate 100 years of student journalism on campus, The Fordham Ram will be including moments in history through its archives each week. This week’s collection reflects the ongoings at Fordham University following the United States’ entrance into WWII. The headlines, advertisements and editorial content are from 19421943.

In these first years of the Second World War, Fordham saw gradual increases in both its number of men overseas as well as in war efforts on the homefront.

Fordham students contributed to the forces overseas (Vol. 22, Issues 14, 17 and 20).

In 1942, the vast majority of The Fordham Ram’s advertisements consisted of cigarette brands and U.S. bond stamps (Vol. 22, Issues 13, 14, 15 and 16).

ADVERTISEMENTS

Page 14

Can’t be on campus four nights a week?

Hybrid classes meet once or twice weekly: • War and Imperialism (HIST 3566) • Science Fiction, Film, and Television (FITV 3571) • Forensic Science (CHEM 1110) • Sports Broadcasting (JOUR 2789)

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

Learn more at fordham.edu/summer

SUMMER SESSION 2018

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

New episodes every other week

March 14, 2018

CULTURE

March 14, 2018

Page 15

Rob Cohen Discusses The Hurricane Heist

By RYAN DI CORPO CULTURE EDITOR

Rob Cohen, director of the newly-released film The Hurricane Heist, deserves your gratitude.

Most known for originating the multi-film, multi-million dollar The Fast and Furious franchise in 2001, Cohen became an unlikely part of film history during his early career. Working briefly in the early 1970s for Martin Jurow, producer of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Cohen was later hired as a script reader by cofounder Mike Medavoy of Orion Pictures. While employed under Medavoy, Cohen, sifting through a slush pile, discovered and fervently advocated to sell to Universal Studios what Mr. Cohen described as “the great American screenplay.”

Eventually bought by Universal, the screenplay for The Sting earned writer David S. Ward an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1974, along with an additional six Oscars for the film.

Preventing the screenplay for a veritable classic of American cinema from being tossed into some wastebasket of drama was one of the things for which The Fordham Ram sat down with Cohen during a brief interview on Feb. 28. His new film, The Hurricane Heist, follows suit with his other directorial efforts: high-octane, adrenaline-drive

action films such as 2002’s xXx and 2005’s Stealth. Heist, released March 9, follows the attempt of a group of hackers to rob $600 million from a mint during the course of a Category 5 hurricane.

When asked where to start working on an obviously costly and technically complex endeavor, Cohen stated that he began with the script. Cohen was highly critical of the original script sent to him, referring to the original gunwielding meteorologist character as akin to Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon.

Despite the failings of the initial screenplay, Cohen said he was able to restructure the story to his liking. Eschewing a romance between two central characters, Cohen instead placed emphasis on the relationship between the two brothers in the film. In further reimagining the role of the meteorologist, Cohen crafted a character afraid of the severe weather at hand, instead of a hyper-masculine stock character ready to take on the world.

By his own admission, the shoot for Heist was not easy on his main actors, including Ryan Kwanten, Toby Kebbell and Maggie Grace.

Required to do all of their own stunts, the film’s actors received the same words of warning from Cohen prior to the shoot: “You’re going to be miserable.”

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Director of the multi-million dollar The Fast and Furious franchise uncovers the production behind The Hurrican Heist.

Despite his prediction, Cohen said that the actors hired were willing to heed the challenges of shooting, including jumping between moving vehicles and withstanding the force of 44,000 gallons of water. The shoot itself, according to Cohen, took 65 days, a mediumlength shoot when compared to 24 days for The Boys Next Door and 110 days for Daylight.

Despite the high profile of Cohen, who directed his first feature film in 1980 and whose last four films have grossed domestically an average of 49 million dollars, the production of Heist was met with financial difficulty. Cohen said that

while the budget for the film was set at $35 million dollars, he was in constant need for several million more towards covering visual effects costs. Cohen, who was able to work around the film’s budget constraints, stressed the importance of maintaining a sense of realism in the visual effects, lest the audience completely dismiss the quality of the film.

The Fordham Ram also asked Cohen how he felt about action films have since directing The Fast and the Furious. “I still like gravity,” he said. Cohen explained that current action films, such as seemingly unending slate of Marvel and DC

Comics films, exist within their own universe and therefore have no regard for the laws of physics.

Cohen prefers to situation his films on planet Earth, where people cannot fly and would likely regret it if they tried.

Further, he referred to the now eight sequels to The Fast and Furious as mainly focused on “spectacle.” Yet, notwithstanding what sounds like some criticism for how other directors have approached The Fast and Furious films, Cohen says he can’t complain about the continuance of the franchise; those films pay for his children’s education.

Oscars Recap: The Shape of Water Shines

By SHELBY DANIELS

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Celebrating its 90th year, the Academy Awards had more than just presenting flubs to worry about for this year’s show. Hoping to recover from last year’s tense Moonlight and La La Land Best Picture debacle, Jimmy Kimmel returned to host for another year.

Kimmel’s opening monologue highlighted the nominees of the night, took some jabs at longrunning acceptance speeches and emphasized the importance of the current social movements going on in Hollywood.

The real star of the night proved to be Guillermo del Toro.

Guillermo’s The Shape of Water is a creature flick exploring the love between a mute custodian and a sea creature stored in a lab in Baltimore in the 1960s. Guillermo’s The Shape of Water won the top award for the night, Best Picture, as well as Best Director, marking the first Oscar win for the Mexican-born writer and director.

Perhaps one of the most satisfying and heart-wrenching wins was Jordan Peele’s victory for Best Original Screenplay. The victory of Peele’s horror flick Get Out marked a significant moment in Academy history. Not only did the film bring an open narrative about modern racism into the mainstream spotlight, but the film successfully delivered its message through the often neglected horror genre.

Peele’s victory for Get Out was a positive departure from the

“Oscars So White” movement that plagued the awards show in the previous year.

Taking home Best Supporting Actress, Allison Janney accepted the award for her portrayal of Tonya Harding’s intense and unyielding mother in I, Tonya.

Sam Rockwell took home Best Supporting Actor for his role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing , Missouri as a close-minded cop from a small town in the South.

An audience favorite of the awards season, Lady Bird was notably snubbed from any awards.

Directed by Greta Gerwig, this coming-of-age film starring three-time nominee Saoirse Ronan had previously been predicted to take home major awards for the night. Despite not leaving with an Oscar, Gerwig’s nomination for Best Director marks only the fifth time a woman has been nominated in the category, with the last nomination given to a woman in 2010, making the attention that Lady Bird received significant nonetheless.

Del Toro and Peele’s wins and Gerwig’s nomination marked a noticeably more diverse Oscars this year. Previously criticized for its lack of diversity, the Academy seemed to reflect the social movements of the Hollywood community within its nominations and the show itself. Amidst the ever growing #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, Hollywood has found ways to speak out and bring awareness against issues plaguing the industry during this awards season. While

more dramatic and obvious protests have been held - including the sea of black gowns at the Golden Globes - the Oscars addressed these pervasive issues within the program itself, rather than leaving the burden to the stars to do most of the heavy lifting. Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek and Annabella Sciorra, all reporters of the sexual misconduct of Harvey Weinstein, introduced the official Time’s Up montage.

Additionally, the Academy Awards shifted a minor presentation of an award to respect the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. Rather than having the

previous year’s winner of Best Actor present the award for Best Actress as per tradition, the Oscars did not include Casey Affleck in its lineup of presenters, a subtle change that spoke volumes given the reports against Affleck of sexual misconduct and harassment.

Frances McDormand’s acceptance speech for Best Actress capped off the evening’s discussions of diversity and inclusion.

Winning for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing , Missouri, McDormand called upon every woman nominated for the evening to stand and be acknowledged. She

ended her speech with “inclusion rider,” citing a clause in contracts that necessitates diversity when signing onto a project.

While the Oscars diversified their award winners and included calls to action, the Oscars still have a long way to go. Whether or not their highlight on diverse winners will make an impact on the Hollywood community is yet to be seen.

One can only hope that the momentum around social justice movements and increased opportunities for people of color in the film industry will continue outside of the end of award season.

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Celebrating its 90th Year, the Oscars awarded The Shape of Water with the highest honor of the night.

CULTURE

Page 16

March 14, 2018

Real Talk at Girls Talk: Panel Highlights Women’s Stories

By ISHA KHAWAJA CULTURE EDITOR

This Sunday, the Gurls Talk Festival harbored a space for young girls to share their insecurities about their bodies, learn to actively harness their social activism in this age of call-out culture and to meet some of their favorite social media influencers at Industry City in Brooklyn. The event was in collaboration with Coach and Teen Vogue.

After years of struggling with drug abuse, bipolar disorder and depression, British model and activist Adwoa Aboah founded Gurls Talk, a platform for young women to reveal their most intimate stories.

According to their YouTube channel, Gurls Talk is missioned “to show girls that you are not alone and that by opening up and sharing your personal stories, you too can discover that many others are going through the same things.”

The underlying tone of each panel at the festival recognized that each individual personal hardship is not isolated. There is power in sharing your most intimate stories. After sharing her own stories with friends, Aboah realized that she wanted to facilitate other young girls to confront this truth.

When first entering the venue, sheer pink balloons spelling out ‘Gurls Talk’ floated as tons of glitter flooded the floors. The venue was like a playhouse for young feminists, with free totes and denim jackets distributed and embroi-

dered.

There were tables informing women on sexual health and contraceptive advice neighboring a New York State voter registration table. One could take a break from the panels and play pool, strike a pose in a photo booth and even get a polaroid taken for a photojournalism project.

Eliza Hatch, founder of the online photo series Cheer Up Luv, retold woman’s accounts of everyday and normalized street harassment in her project.

Like many young women, street harassment is a part of everyday life for Hatch. She never questioned it until she brought up such accounts to her bewildered male friends.

“If my closest friends didn’t understand that street harassment was happening then I knew there was a greater issue to be tackled,” she said.

From there Hatch began to raise awareness surrounding the issue.

A year later, her project has grown into an international platform where hundreds of girls try to get in touch with Hatch to share their experiences.

After getting their pictures taken by Hatch, girls wrote down an instance of street harassment and pinned it up on a shiny silver board.

There were also a series of panels discussing race in America, a conversation with Adwoa Aboa and rapper Professor Green about mental health and a workshop on body positivity with model Palo-

ma Elsesser.

A panel that unraveled a seemingly perfect reality was the workshop on body positivity with model Paloma Elesser.

Elesser faced incredible difficulty loving her curves at a young age and returned to that adversity when she entered the modeling industry as a plus size model. She advised the girls to find refuge in exploring and embracing their interests outside of their looks.

Pieces of paper were handed out during the workshop, and the participants were told to write down five things that they liked about themselves excluding their appearance.

“We don’t have this safe space every day,” said Elesser. “So next time you need a confidence booster, pull this little paper out and remember what you love about

The panel discussion, sponsored by Coach and Teen Vogue, took place at Industry City in Brooklyn.

Exploring Unknown Pleasures As an admitted music snob and an alleged hipster, there are certain things I avoid doing to ensure that I don’t advertise those tendencies too flamboyantly. There is no denying that I’ve tipped my hand a bit by hanging up a The Velvet Underground and Nico poster in my room, but when you’re low on cash and rich in blank wall space, a poster as frequently printed and as cheaply sold as that is at least a defensible decision.

However, in an attempt not to play into the stereotype too much, I’ve avoided a different purchase: anything branded with the Unknown Pleasures album art. So if you’re wondering, as I was, what the story is behind those weird wavy lines set against a black background, you’ve come to the right place.

Unknown Pleasures, the debut album from short-lived English rock band Joy Division, has been referred to as one of the most influential post-punk records of all time, and with good reason. The album borrows ideas from punk rock, such as its energy and its willingness to reduce a song to its bare essentials.

Unknown Pleasures experiments with these ideas in a variety of interesting ways.

Take, for example, the album’s production. Throughout most of the album, there are gigantic amounts of sonic space dividing one set of notes from another. Instrument separation is far from the

“When someone says another ‘has privilege,’ what that person hears is ‘I haven’t been through anything in my life.’ Privilege is not about what you’ve been through.

Privilege is about what you haven’t had to go through.” says Khan.

There is a miscommunication between what is spoken versus what is understood due to a lack of awareness and education around the systematic power of racism.

This miscommunication proceeds so long as it is not confronted, as Khan eloquently addresses.

Every panel catered to educate young girls and make them feel confident by confronting the seemingly similar yet isolating issues they encounter. By addressing the day-to-day issues that are uncomfortable to face, the Gurls Talk Festival was a powerhouse of instilling confidence in women.

COURTESY OF ISHA KHAWAJA

Albüm Klüb | Adam Payne-Reichert

only studio track that the album’s producer, Martin Hannett, used to invoke a sense of an expansive atmosphere.

Sound effects such as breaking glass, the flush of a toilet and what sounds like an electric zap are modified and deployed at key points in a number of the songs to add to the foreboding energy that characterizes Unknown Pleasures’ sound.

Hannett also layered effects onto the instruments, allowing the guitar riff in “Day of the Lords” to originate in the left channel and then bleed throughout the entire mix. Further, the song “Insight” is sung through a telephone line in order to achieve a sense of distance and isolation.

In addition to inspiring and influencing a huge number of post-punk albums to follow, these production tricks serve the album by helping to create a dark backdrop against which Ian Curtis, the group’s singer, can deliver his gloomy lyrics.

Curtis was intensely affected by a variety of mental and somatic ailments, including depression and epileptic seizures. The dissatisfaction with his quality of life can be felt throughout Curtis’ vocal performance and lyrical content.

On “Disorder,” he laments poetically and tragically that he’s “got the spirit” but “lose[s] the feeling”; in “She’s Lost Control,” Curtis describes a fellow epilepsy victim who “turned around and took [him] by the hand and said/‘I’ve lost con-

yourself.”

In her workshop, Elesser placed an importance on the friends you surround yourself with. Her best friends were not the people who just complimented her outfit, but the ones who encouraged her to execute her creative ideas.

She encouraged listeners to reevaluate their friendships. If your friends are not positively serving you, there is some cutting off to do.

The members of the panel “Race” moderated by fashion designer Melody Ehsani with Janaya Khan, Mari Malek and Mariah Idrissi provided profound insight to a sensitive topic.

Cofounder of Black Lives Matter Toronto and the international ambassador for the Black Lives Matter Network, Janaya Khan, confronts the unspoken uncomfort that surrounds privilege.

trol again.’” On “Day of the Lords,” he asks simply, “Where will it end?

Where will it end?”

Curtis’ vocal performance throughout is also emotionally moving and inspired, creepily whispering at points and shouting at other times in near unhinged anger and frustration. Granted, these dark themes are what may repel some listeners, but Curtis’ lyrics may also prove deeply relatable to some.

I personally struggled with this album for a while and understood that there was something in it that I just wasn’t getting. However, when I listened to it during a particularly anxious period, something immediately clicked.

This is not to say that one must be suffering from some mental condition in order to “understand” or to “truly appreciate” the album. There is something here for most people, even if that something is just the danceable yet still dour opening track “Disorder.”

If you decide to explore past that track, I would recommend “Wilderness” and “Interzone” as good next steps. For anyone who is still hooked at that point, I would recommend that you give the entire album a listen.

Every track has something unique to offer, and listening through the whole 40 or so minutes of Unknown Pleasures will give you a much better sense of the thematic continuity of its melodies and the lyrics.

Fordham Irish Night Review

By ANASTASIA McGRATH CONTRIBUTING WRITER

If you happened to be near McGinley Ballroom this past Thursday night, you may have been startled by the pounding sound of nearly 30 Irish stepdancers performing a wellpracticed routine. The dancers were members of Fordham’s Irish Dance company, Sláinte, and were the main attraction last week at Irish Night.

Although the night was split evenly between stepdancing and performances by various a cappella groups, Sláinte began with a bang in a dance to Riverdance favorite “Reel Around the Sun.” This dynamic opener began slowly but culminated in a fast-paced routine that captivated the audience.

A standout moment from this performance was a dance solo from Sláinte’s only male member, Greg Hopp. The B-Sides followed with upbeat renditions of popular songs, providing a fun respite from the intensity of Sláinte’s opening dance.

Sláinte then returned to the stage with “Stolen Kiss” in iconic costuming of black velvet dresses with red sashes. “Stolen Kiss” featured a smaller group of dancers, allowing for the individual talent of each dancer to be more easily displayed.

After a brief interlude of the Satin Dolls singing Rihanna’s “Shut Up and Drive,” Sláinte returned to the stage in a very different mood. A costume change into jeans and white shirts combined with the EDM/rockinfused choice of song made “A Ca-

pella” a strikingly different dance from the last two.

While Sláinte prepared for their last two dances, The Ramblers took to the stage with a beautiful rendition of a traditional Irish folk ballad, “Red is the Rose” that had nearly everyone in the room humming along.

The Class of 2018 Dance was a particularly poignant moment for the members of Sláinte, as co-presidents Clare McGough and Lexi Rizzo are graduating seniors. The dance provided them with a great send off, providing each with a solo.

The finale, however, was the true spectacle of the show, with all 25 members of Sláinte onstage at once. By this time, all members had changed into matching green t-shirts.

The sight of them dancing in circling groups of lines resembled a giant green spinning pinwheel.

Some of the people I attended with were unfamiliar with Irish stepdance prior to Irish Night. Sláinte’s performances provided a not only thorough but also memorable introduction to this art form.

What was needed to complete the Irish experience, however, was a stronger presence of traditional Irish music.

As someone familiar with Irish-American culture, I was excited to hear such favorites as “The Fields of Athenry,” but was sorely disappointed.

Nevertheless, it was great to see members of the Fordham community, Irish or not, enjoying Irish-American culture together, and I am looking forward to seeing that again next year.

CULTURE

March 14, 2018

Page 17

Buzzed and Abroad | Cat Swindal

Friends, Memes and Pride Flags: Reconnecting in Poland In July of 2016, I had my first trip overseas to Europe. I travelled around Poland while attending MAGIS and World Youth Day. World Youth Day is an event where the Catholic youth of the world gather to see the Pope, and MAGIS is a program specifically for Jesuit-university students to come together.

Not to be cliché, but that trip changed the course of my life for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons was the beginning of a friendship with my good pal Natalia, who I got to see again for the first time in almost two years.

Nati and I met on the second day of the MAGIS program while sitting on a football field on University of Łódź grounds. I remember the day well; I had just gotten to Poland after an 18-hour trip.

With minimal sleep, I was feeding off the energy of everyone who was dancing around me, laughing and speaking all different languages. My group members and I got the first of several sandwiches we

would eat by the time we returned to the U.S. We gathered where a big circle of students was already sitting. One of those students was Nati.

I don’t remember what she was wearing specifically, but I remember envying it. She had her hat on backwards just like me, though her hair was much longer than mine, and she had the Spanish flag draped around her shoulders.

I don’t even remember the two of us interacting very much that day, but she was one of those people who I was comfortable around right away: and I wanted to become friends with her badly. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see her very much the rest of my time in Poland, but, like most others in MAGIS, we exchanged social media handles.

Boy, am I grateful I didn’t let her slip away.

Like I said before, my trip to Poland changed the course of my life.

I found God on that trip in more ways than one. One way was that as soon as I set foot back in the U.S., I

finally realized that I was gay. God told me this, and it is fact to me.

I officially came out on Instagram in Feb. 2017 after being public for a while with my girlfriend while not being up-front about it (a lot of people thought we were gals bein’ pals).

When I came out, I was blessed to receive an overwhelming amount of support from family and friends who commented sweet messages that I still read sometimes. One such message was from none other than Natalia. She sent me a private message welcoming me to the community, saying she wasn’t out and proud yet, but hoped to be someday.

We started talking about the hard times before realizing you’re queer and how the people in our lives have reacted or would have reacted.

In that conversation, Nati and I became safe people for each other. We know we could talk to each other about the joys and woes of being LGBT. Nati told me later that I was the

COURTESY OF INSTAGRAM

Cat Swindal, pictured above, met up with a friend, Nati, at the University of Łódź in Poland in the summer of 2016.

second person on this planet she had come out to.

Nati and I continued to be in touch, mostly through Instagram comments. She would often comment on pictures of my girlfriend and me or respond to stories, being so affirming of my evolving identity.

It also turned out that we had the same taste in a lot of things (other than women): memes, Disney movies, “Hamilton” and politics, to name a few. We had so much in common. When I realized I could visit her in Madrid while studying abroad, I knew that we were going to have fun together. We spent a whole two weeks planning and sending voice messages and getting so excited to see each other again.

Boy, did our weekend together deliver. We immediately bearhugged each other at the bus station and began talking for hours.

We talked about everything from life stories to musicals. I would start a meme and she would automatically finish it.

She made fun of the way I acted American, like saying “French fries” instead of “chips,” and I made fun of her for being so British (she has a British accent when she speaks English, as if she could not get any cooler).

Nati and I talked about our dreams of being an artist and a priest, respectively, and our futures with the loves in our lives. We even watched our mutual favorite Disney movie, The Lion King, and recited every word. On Saturday, she brought me into the city center of Madrid, where I reveled in its beauty and history, looked at palaces and temples and ate ice cream.

Her extremely sweet parents fed me cocido madrileño and I had nev-

er felt so full in my life.

The most life-giving part of my visit was not the beautiful city, but Nati herself. The first place she took me was Chueca, which is the most famous haven for LGBT Madridians. We bought LGBT bracelets and walked around looking for cheap flannels.

She took pictures of me wearing my new favorite outfit, including a bow tie my girlfriend gave me and a green suit jacket we found for five euros in the city. With every new unconventional and not-cateredto-female piece of clothing I wanted to wear, she was there encouraging me to wear it with gusto.

I even got to meet her girlfriend, Ari, who is incredibly sweet and laughs at just about anything. Like Nati, I was instantly comfortable around her and have now made a new friend in her. It was a weekend full of laughs and hugs from my old and new friends, who are very much in love with each other.

Before returning to Granada, I told Nati that she was the one of the kindest people I had ever met.

She didn’t believe me, but I insisted it was true.

She listens and cares so deeply for the marginalized. Her passion for the LGBT community knows no bounds. I am proud to know her and have her as a good friend and confidant.

She is one of the most supportive people in my life and it all started with a sandwich at MAGIS. I continue to find God in the gifts He presented me while in Poland, and one of those gifts was my friendship with Nati.

Now home in Granada, I know that we’ll be seeing each other again really soon. After all, we are bound for life.

Editor’s Pick | Colette Nolan

Netflix’s “Sense8” Demonstrates Characters’ Diversity When I first saw trailers for Netflix’s original show “Sense8,” I figured it wasn’t going to be something I’d really enjoy. However, once I finally got around to watching it, I was treated to one of the most engaging stories I had ever seen. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I grew attached to the myriad of diverse characters.

“Sense8” follows eight individuals from entirely different backgrounds, as they discover that they are all mentally linked together.

The group consists of an array of unique and talented individuals ranging from a Chicago police officer to a Korean businesswoman and kickboxing star, as well as a Spanish actor and even a trained pharmacist living in Mumbai.

The characters’ connection allows them to experience the emotions that others in the group are feeling and even share knowledge and language. While the newfound “cluster” seems to be having fun connecting with one another at first, trouble soon emerges in the form of a sinister man by the name of “Whispers.”

The group, called “sensates,” must work together to track down Whispers and keep him from de-

stroying the cluster as he did with his own.

The science fiction aspect of the show may not appeal to everyone, but other aspects of “Sense8” are just as enriching as the plot.

Creators Lana and Lilly Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski used “Sense8” as an opportunity to offer diversity of race, gender, sexuality and identity that is often lacking from other science fiction shows and films. It was precisely this diversity that drew me to the show and got me to stick with it.

There are multiple members of the LGBT community in the main and supporting cast, something that is celebrated in the show and never used as the butt of a joke or a tool of oppression.

Despite the show’s genre being science fiction, it is strongly rooted in the concepts of emotion and empathy. The sensates’ connection is a strongly emotional one. They learn that they are often called to the aid of another sensate to respond to their emotional dilemmas. This helps lead to strong ties between them that outside forces are unable to break.

“Sense8” developed its cult following because of the pure empa-

thy it displays in conjunction with the diversity of the cast. It asks a very simple question: when there is nothing keeping you from understanding another person, what can you realize about the things you have in common?

For some of the characters, this commonality is their sexual orientation. For others, it may be the complicated relationships they have with their families.

In any case, “Sense8” shows its audience that there will always be someone you can connect with over an aspect of your identity, but also that we must be willing to overlook simple differences, such as race, religion or gender, to do so.

If I were asked to summarize “Sense8” in one sentence, I’d have to call it a love letter to the human race. Each character, scene and story is infused with life and all of the

scary and wonderful things that accompany it. The sensates’ connection mirrors the ways in which our everyday relationships shape who we are.

The more we let others in and try to understand them, the stronger we will be as a community.

Sense8”’s message of empathy and acceptance is an important one that reminds each of us of our impact on others: “I am also a we.”

COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

“Sense8,” created by The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski, premiered its first season on Netflix in 2015.

CULTURE

Page 18

March 14, 2018

Who’s That Kid? | It’s Hillary Bosch FCRH ’19

Playwright, Student and Intern: Hillary Bosch

By BAILEY HOSFELT

EDITORIAL & MULTIMEDIA DIRECTOR

Hillary Bosch has her plate full. An environmental studies and political science double major, Bosch is deeply involved on campus, especially within Fordham’s thriving performing arts circle.

She is the president of the Theatrical Outreach Program (TOP) and a member of Fordham Experimental Theatre (FET) as part of Black Sheep Performance Poetry. Bosch also serves as Opinions Co-editor for The Paper and drives the on-campus shuttle for Public Safety.

Most recently, Bosch wrote and directed “Standing Water,” one of three original student-produced plays showcased at FET’s Spring Playwrights’ Festival last weekend.

“Standing Water” – Bosch’s playwriting and directing debut – follows two girls, Bridget and Kelsey, who are both packing for their first year of college. In the process, the two characters come across objects that remind them of their 2005 evacuation during Hurricane Katrina.

Bosch is from New Orleans, La. herself and lived through the natural disaster that left the Big Easy rattled and wrought by wreckage. As a result, “Standing Water” is largely biographical.

“The character of Bridget was based on my own experience living in Georgia for three months after the hurricane,” said Bosch. “[She shows] what it was like to pick up and move, lose your home and experience a natural disaster at a young age.”

“As Bridget attributes different associations to objects”, Bosch explained, “a character playing a younger version of her retells Bridget’s evacuation story.”

The writing process was equal parts cathartic and challenging for Bosch.

“I don’t talk about Katrina often,

much less perform a play about it,” she said.

She cited making such a personal and lived experience resonate with a larger audience as one of the initial obstacles.

“People will never understand the magnitude of this disaster,” said Bosch. “It took my family and the city years to rebuild.”

But Bosch recognized that other Fordham students went through the same experience and, for them, this too meant a lot. Bringing her story onstage not only provided representation but also spoke to a platform larger than herself.

“I hope this play encourages people to participate in Hurricane Harvey relief efforts,” said Bosch, underscoring how instrumental the city of Houston was in helping her hometown rebuild after Katrina.

Given such intimate subject matter, it was important that Bosch had a cast who made her feel wholeheartedly comfortable. In this case, this manifested in “Standing Water” having an all-female ensemble.

“I have no problem with men,” Bosch said, adding that she went to an all-girls high school. “I just am able to be more of myself with women, which was ideal for such a personal show.”

Bosch was the only female playwright showcased on FET’s lineup, but this is not indicative of the Fordham theatre community’s current landscape - quite the opposite actually. This is the second year that all three of Fordham’s theatre club presidents are female.

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, many women involved in creative fields are calling out the bad behavior they have personally experienced.

Bosch said that for the Fordham theatre community, there too has been a noticeable shift toward confronting sexual harassment and as-

COURTESY OF HILLARY BOSCH

Hillary Bosch, FCRH ‘19, writes and directs her play “Standing Water”.

sault opposed to sweeping it under the rug.

“It had gone ignored for years,” Bosch said, explaining that the national conversation struck a specific chord in Collins. “This semester all three Rose Hill theatre clubs passed amendments to their constitutions regarding inappropriate behavior.”

There is now a larger network of support and procedural approach for handling a problem should one arise.

Bosch said Erin Kiernan, president of FET, and Madeleine Burrow, president of Mimes and Mummers, were instrumental in bringing about this change.

“Women are taking center stage and will not be overlooked,” Bosch

said. “[Kiernan and Burrow] helped establish a community of female empowerment in the clubs and set a precedent of respect that we intend to uphold.”

This desire to both protect and uplift extend to Bosch’s post-grad aspirations.

Currently, she is an intern at FEMA in the agency’s Environmental and Historical Preservation department. She could see herself working there after graduation but also would welcome living in another city with “New” in its name.

“I hope to attend the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and earn a masters of environmental management,” she said.

Bosch believes that environmentalists are increasingly important given the current political state of the country.

Being from New Orleans – which Bosch calls a “crazy combination of the Deep South and unadulterated individuality” – and experiencing the catastrophic damage of a natural disaster first-hand, she wants to work toward preserving a better world.

“I think growing up at the intersection of Southern conservatism and modern progressivism has made me more empathetic and understanding in such a polarized political climate,” Bosch said, which will certainly aid her entering in a line of work that some discredit.

She joked that her double major helps her case to one day sue people who are mean to nature, and her experience at FEMA has showed her that the federal government is not as stiff as she once expected.

When asked who she looks up to, Bosch said Dian Fossey is her hero.

Fossey, a primatologist and conservationist in the 1970s and ‘80s, did incredible environmental work.

However, Bosch noted that she too was flawed and accused of being racist.

“She’s a real person role model,” said Bosch. “Full of mistakes and some bad choices but so dedicated to her work that she died doing what was right.”

Bosch revealed that she has Fossey’s final words memorized verbatim. “‘Once you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate on the preservation of the future,’” Bosch said, quoting a major source of inspiration for her.

For Hillary Bosch, living through a hardship as life-altering as Hurricane Katrina, was not easy. But she, like Fossey, is choosing to focus on the road ahead instead of what’s in the rear-view.

The Fordham Ram Crossword: 21 & Over Across 1. Word preceding “Da ba dee da ba daa” 5. Name for 1-Across/21-Across, 39-Across and 23-Down 11. Kansas’s first round opponent 12. Confuse 13. Lighting or ring 14. Maximum

THROWBACK CROSSWORD: VOLUME 46 ISSUE 42

15. An online version of yourself 17. To scratch out (Fr.) 18. The type of person to 24 down 20. Single Sign On 21. Annoying Canadian 23. Northwest Alabama Regional Airport 26. Indian flatbread 27. Liters or pounds, e.g.

29. An angel who hasn’t died yet, according to John Mulaney 31. TMZ style of journalism 33. “Not a chance” 36. Antonio Banderas or Anthony Hopkins on screen 37. Kelly, Hackman, or Wilder 38. Let live 39. Wolf cry Down 1. Heart monitor reading 2. DiCaprio, to pals 3. Exclamations while holding one card 4. Coming to a close 5. Thus far unknown 6. What one might do to get into better schools 7. “____ Be” - Black Eyed Peas 8. Floating markers 9. Donkeys 10. A cassette player at Urban Out fitters 16. Gravity-defying footwear (sing.)

19. FX show about motorcycle gang, briefly 22. “_____ is _____!”

23. A vessel for hot beverages, I’m properly pluralized 24. Browse without permission

CREATED CLAIRE POLACHEK & JACK MCLOONE ANSWERS IN ISSUE 7

25. Ancient Greek coin 28. Cross-country train line (abbv.)

30. Alternative to Teddy 32. Aspergers falls on this spec-

trum (abbv.)

34. Direction from Fordham to Syracuse 35. 2-Up

March 14, 2018

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Page 19

March 14, 2018

Three Football Players Take Part in Pro Day

By JIMMY SULLIVAN

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Fordham football quarterback Kevin Anderson, offensive lineman Anthony Coyle and running back Chase Edmonds took part in Fordham’s annual pro day at Columbia University on Thursday, March 8. The event was originally scheduled to take place at Fordham but was moved to Columbia due to last week’s inclement weather. There were 17 teams in attendance, including the Giants and Jets.

Out of the three Fordham players who participated, Edmonds was the only one invited to the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. At that event, Edmonds led all running backs with a time of 6.79 seconds in the threecone drill and tied Northwestern’s Justin Jackson with the top time in the 20-yard shuttle. Anderson, Coyle and Edmonds all hope to be drafted in next month’s NFL Draft in Dallas.

At the pro day last Thursday, the players tried to show teams why they should be taken in the draft. Edmonds had at least a slight advantage because of his performance at the Combine. At his pro day, he spent most of the time displaying his skills as a receiver in an attempt to show NFL teams what he could do in the receiving game. Edmonds posted three straight 1,000-yard seasons before an injury-plagued senior season; he had 86 catches and 905 receiving yards over the course of his four collegiate seasons. Edmonds rushed for a Patriot League record 5,862 career yards, which is fifth-best in Football

Championship Subdivision (FCS) history.

Anderson, who started at quarterback the last three seasons for the Rams, is also trying to make it to the NFL. Anderson was granted a fifth season in college football after sitting out the 2013 season at Marshall while he recovered from an injury. His final year was also shortened by an injury, but he put up nearly 8,000 yards in three years as the team’s starting quarterback under head coaches Joe Moorhead and Andrew Breiner, both of whom are now at Mississippi State.

Anderson won the team’s Offensive Player of the Year award at the end of the season.

Finally, senior offensive lineman and Staten Island native Anthony Coyle, who earned first-team all-Patriot League honors in 2017, perhaps had the most to prove out of the three players. He was able to do just that, as he put down 30 bench press reps of 225 pounds, which would have tied him for fifth among all offensive linemen had he been invited to the NFL Combine. Coyle started all 11 games at left tackle this past season and received Fordham’s Lansing Trophy, given to the team’s top offensive lineman, for the second straight season.

Edmonds, Coyle and Anderson performed admirably on the field for the Fordham Rams in their careers. Edmonds already has gotten his chance: he visited the Saints on Monday after interviewing with the Patriots at the NFL Combine. Now, they’re out to prove that their performances can carry over to football’s biggest stage: the NFL.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Chase Edmonds took part in the NFL Combine and Fordham’s pro day.

SPORTS

Page 20

Women’s Tennis Continues to Struggle, Drops Match to Temple

By CHARLIE MAISANO MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

The Fordham women’s tennis team had high expectations heading into the 2017-2018 season. After nine games this season, the Rams have already lost more games than they did all of last year.

In a week that only had one game scheduled, the Rams headed to Philadelphia on Friday to face the Temple Owls. Both teams entered the contest with a .500 record, as the Owls were 4-4, 2-1 in the AAC, while the Rams were also 4-4, 1-0 in the A-10.

They may both have had .500 records, but the momentum for each team was on two different trajectories. The Owls started off the season 1-4, but had since won three straight games. As for the Rams, they started the season 3-0 before losing three straight and subsequently splitting decisions between two games last week.

Not only did Temple have the momentum advantage prior to the game, but they also had the edge in personnel as well. Junior Carina Ma, who is the Ram’s number one singles and doubles competitor, did not play in the game on Friday for an undisclosed reason. Junior Tatiana Grigoryan replaced Carina in both her spots in the lineup.

Without Ma in the lineup, the Rams struggled to pick up victories in the singles competition. Out of the six singles matches, Fordham was only able to win one match. Senior Estelle Wong defeated sophomore Kristina Titova in two sets, 6-0, 7-5. In place of Ma, Grigoryan fell in first singles to senior Alina Abdurakhimova in two sets, 5-7, 1-6. Two other Rams also lost in two sets. Senior Carolina Sa lost her match to junior Alice Patch 5-7, 0-6, and Temple sophomore Cecilia Castelli cruised past junior Whitney Weisberg 6-2, 6-0.

The two remaining women for Fordham fought extra hard in their losses. Sophomore Maia Balce and junior Gianna Insogna both battled for three sets with their opponents

EMILY SAYEGH/THE FORDHAM RAM

The Fordham women’s tennis team is struggling to start the season.

but were unable to pull out a victory.

In fourth singles, Balce lost to senior Yana Khon 6-4, 6-7, 8-10, while in fifth singles Insogna was defeated by freshman Oyku Boz, 7-6, 6-7, 8-10.

Despite being shorthanded in the singles competition, head coach Bette-Ann Liguori was proud of her team for fighting back even though the odds weren’t in their favor.

“The team’s effort was tremendous, despite not having Carina in the line-up. […] Gianna and Maia had split sets before the match was decided, and if they had the opportunity to play out a third set, I believe they would have won their matches.

Tatiana fought hard against a stronger player, but Estelle was flawless in her singles match. She really picked up her game to another level to beat that player in straight sets,” said Liguori.

In doubles, the Rams also only got one victory out of three matches and dropped the doubles point. The lone victory came from Grigoryan and Wong. They outlasted Abdurakhimova and Rimpledeep Kaur in one set, 7-6.

Liguori thought, “Tatiana and Estelle were truly awesome in first doubles, and really got to show how

talented they are despite the fact that they never played together before.”

In the other doubles matches, both teams could not make it out of the first set. Patch and Khon swept Sa and Weisburg 6-0, while Boz and Titova easily handled Balce and Insogna 6-2.

When it was all said and done, the Owls defeated the Rams 6-1 and extended their win streak to four games.

The Rams record is now below .500 for the first time all season.

Up next, the Fordham Rams will try and get back to .500 against the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights on Sunday, March 18th. Last season, Fordham beat Fairleigh Dickinson 6-1 at home, which according to Liguori, should also happen again this time around.

“FDU is down to only five, possibly four players, so we are starting the match with a solid advantage,” said Liguori. “However, our match will be outdoors ,and we are still playing indoors, which gives FDU an advantage because they are in Orlando playing right now. So, we just need to practice well this week and we should beat them.”

Men’s Basketball Bounced in First Round of A-10 Tournament

By ALVIN HALIMWIDJAYA STAFF WRITER

Fordham basketball’s season of struggle came to an end on Wednesday, March 7, as the 14th-seeded Rams fell to 11th-seeded George Washington 78-72 in the first round of the A-10 Championship. Fordham ended their injury-laden 2017-18 campaign with a record of 9-22.

Junior guard Joseph Chartouny led the Rams with 18 points, eight assists and four steals, going 8-14 from the field to end his rough shooting season on a positive note. Freshman and junior forwards Ivan Raut and Prokop Slanina respectively, contributed with 15 points each, with Raut adding seven rebounds to his statline. Junior forward David Pekarek chipped in with 14 points to round out the majority of Fordham’s scoring.

On George Washington’s side, star forward Yuta Watanabe was held to 12 points on 3-8 shooting after burning Fordham with a 31-point performance a week before; however, sophomore guard Jair Bolden poured in 22 points, graduate forward Bo Zeigler posted 16 points and seven rebounds and sophomore forward

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Fordham Men’s Basketball saw its season end at the hands of George Washington in the Atlantic 10 Tournament.

Arnaldo Toro hung up 11 points and 15 rebounds on the shorthanded Rams.

Fordham was outrebounded 3922 but countered with their traditional aggressive, ball-hawking defense by picking up nine steals and forcing 13 GW turnovers. The Rams also put in a serviceable offensive performance, racking up 16 assists and shooting 45 percent from the field, in addition to going 11-14 from the free throw line.

The Rams got off to a good start in the first half; already up 21-18 with 9:34 remaining. Fordham went on an 11-2 run to jump to a 32-20 lead on a Slanina layup with 6:03 to go in the first half. However, a 36-26 Fordham lead with 3:54 remaining was erased.

George Washington ended the half on a 13-3 tear and headed into the break up a point, 39-38.

The second half was a much closer affair, as there would nine ties through

the beginning 13:16 in the final half; however, head coach Jeff Neubauer pointed to the lack of rebounding in the second half, and the Rams would pay dearly for losing out on the glass.

After a three-pointer from Pekarek pushed Fordham to a 68-65 lead with 5:18 to go in the game, the Colonials went on an 8-0 run to grab a 73-68 lead with 1:24 remaining in the contest. Another bucket from Pekarek cut the lead to 73-70, but a potential

game-tying three from sophomore guard Cavit Havsa with 26 seconds left rimmed out, and George Washington put the game away with some made free throws.

Despite Fordham’s disappointing end to the season, Fordham showed resiliency in a season where numerous players were unable to play a large part of the year. With sophomore forward Chuba Ohams and junior forward Jesse Bunting being shelved early in the season, as well as junior transfer guards Erten Gazi and Antwon Portley unable to play the whole season, Fordham had to make do with the players they had.

Neubauer admitted it was a “very difficult season with injuries. We will all learn from this experience. Our team will be humble heading into next season, and this will help us.”

However, Neubauer also pointed to the positives going into next season, saying that, “Prokop [Slanina] and Ivan [Raut] really improved during the season. They will be very important pieces next year. We had two transfers [Gazi and Portley] sitting out this year. We are determined to get it right here at Fordham.”

SPORTS

March 14, 2018

Evan Biancardi Yanks Locked and Loaded

With Opening Day just over two weeks away, the New York Yankees are starting to trim down their roster in anticipation for what’s expected to be another pennant-chasing season. Before the start of last year, the Bombers seemed to be years away from making another World Series title run, but after a rookie record 52 home runs from Aaron Judge and a Cy Young-worthy campaign from Luis Severino, the team now enters 2018 with lofty expectations.

It didn’t seem as though the team needed much improvement after last year’s loss to the Astros in Game Seven of the American League Championship Series, but that didn’t stop them from pulling the trigger and making perhaps the most significant acquisition of the offseason.

On December 11, 2017 it was made official that the Yankees had acquired reigning National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton. In order to complete the seven-year deal, though, New York had to absorb much of the $295 million remaining on his contract, which could keep him in pinstripes through his age-38 season.

The depth of the Yankees’ farm system has been well-documented since the team decided to sell in 2016, and no player has had more hype than second baseman Gleyber Torres.

The 21-year-old is recovering from Tommy John surgery on his nonthrowing elbow, but all signs point to him filling in for the departed Starlin Castro. The Bombers will also look to third base prospect Miguel Andujar to replace Todd Frazier.

While the acquisitions of Brandon Drury and Neil Walker suggest that the team may be slightly hesitant to start its two youngsters (who have a combined seven major league at-bats), it’s not a matter of “if” but “when?”

The Opening Day lineup would certainly look much better with Andujar and Torres in it, but keeping them in the minor leagues through the first half of April would make them eligible for Super-Two status, which would give the Yankees an additional year of club control.

Regardless, the Yankees lineup will undoubtedly be one of the best in baseball, and with the relief core intact, the bullpen has the potential to be historic. The only thing standing in the way of a division title, then, is the starting pitching. Much has been made of the Yankees’ inconsistent staff, but it’s evident that Cashman and the front office feel as though their rotation can repeat their playoff excellence from a year ago.

The pressure is on Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery to repeat last season’s success, but veterans Masahiro Tanaka, Sonny Gray, and CC Sabathia are no sure things.

With just over $10 million to spend before reaching the $197 million salary cap, a midseason acquisition is plausible, but with arms like Chance Adams and Justus Sheffield ready in the minors, the front office has a ton of flexibility moving forward.

Yankees’ fans have much to be excited about in 2018, and while it may seem as though it’s championship or bust for new manager, Aaron Boone’s, squad, there is no doubt that this year is just the start of a new dynasty in the Bronx.

Page 21

Senior Profile | G’mrice Davis

By JACK McLOONE SPORTS EDITOR

Fordham Women’s Basketball senior forward G’mrice Davis is one of the best players in Fordham history.

She is fifth all-time in Fordham scoring and second all-time in rebounds.

For the second season in a row, she is averaging a double-double with 17 points and 13.8 rebounds per game.

In other words, she’s totally dominant and a big reason why the Rams are hosting Harvard on Friday, March 16 at 7 p.m. in the first round of the WNIT. G’mrice sat down with The Fordham Ram to discuss her career.

Ed. Note: This interview was edited for length. It can be read in its entirety on FordhamRam.com TFR: What got you into playing then, if you started so late [Davis first played basketball in eighth grade.]

GD: I always wanted to do everything the boys did ‘cause I was like a little tomboy and I was super physical. So, I tried softball, that didn’t do it for me. I tried cross country. I tried track. Track was pretty fun cause I like to jump. But basketball was just like all-around fun. I could run, I could jump, I could hit. So I was like ‘wow.’

And I’m really, really tall. So, I wasn’t going to go to basketball tryouts and then one of my RAs was like, ‘You have great height. You should just go try, see if you like it.’ And from the first day I was like, ‘Oh, this is fun.’ And I’ve been like hooked on it ever since.

TFR: What separated Fordham from the rest of the schools?

GD: Fordham was the absolute last school to offer me. I was in a tournament my junior year called ‘Battle of the Bronx.’ My AAU coach comes up to me after the tournament and is like, ‘Hey, this school is interested in you.

It’s pretty close by. I want to take you to the campus so you can see.’

And I’ll never forget, he brought me up during Jubilee, and I love food.

I absolutely love food. So I spoke to the coach, and this was the first time I had ever met her. I spoke to the coach, they got me on campus, and I was able to eat whatever I wanted. I was like, ‘Oh my god, I like this school.

They have so much food.’ They won me over with food!

But no, but then we started talking more consistently, phone calls, and they offered me. I could just tell, with Coach Gaitley – with other coaches, it was like, not all of them but most of them, ‘Okay when is this conversation going to be over. Oh my goodness, its so long and drawn out I don’t even want to talk to you anymore.’ Or it’ll be like, I’ll look at my phone and just watch it ring.

Coach Gaitley, I see her calling, I’m answering on the second ring.

We’re talking for about an hour and a half and the stuff we’re talking about doesn’t have anything to do with basketball. I kinda knew which direction I was heading in when I could just sit there and talk to her for over an hour and not get bored, not looking at the time to see how long we were on the phone or not not even wanting to answer her phone calls, cause that’s the feeling I was getting with other coaches. There were very few that I even wanted to talk to.

TFR: How would you describe the differences between freshman year G’mrice and senior year G’mrice?

GD: Basketball-wise, there’s a huge difference. I’m more confident, more comfortable, just more settled in with my game.

But, I think the biggest changes came personally. My freshman year, I was a brat. I had this attitude about

me, where it was like nobody could tell me anything. Like, ‘You can’t say anything to me, what?’ And if you did try to say something to me, I’m coming right back at you with attitude like, ‘Oh no, don’t talk to me!’ It just gradually changed.

I hit a rough point here at Fordham and I was pretty much told ‘We don’t want you here.’ I contemplated on transferring. I really, really wanted to leave. I didn’t want to be somewhere where I felt unwanted. I spoke to my mom, and she just kept me level-headed, said, ‘You should just stay, tough it out. Figure it out.’ And I ended up listening to her and I made it work. But that’s where the turning point was for me. I was like, ‘Okay, I can’t keep up the same antics and stay here. So if I’m gonna decide to stay, something’s gonna have to give.’

I just kinda stopped putting the blame on everybody else. I’m not saying the coaching staff is perfect and I was terrible, but I put a lot of the blame on them and I didn’t take accountability for the things that I did to put myself in those situations.

Once I really took accountability and really bought into the program, it was kinda like smooth sailing. Now my game is evolving, I don’t find myself stressed out and freaking out about the little things. I’m just like going with the flow now.

TFR: What would you describe your relationship with Coach Gaitley like?

GD: We’ve had a really crazy relationship. It’s had a lot of ups and downs. A lot of times where I didn’t know where our relationship was going and what the dynamics of our relationship was going to be after certain situations.

There’s been a lot of things that me and Coach Gaitley have had to work through, but I think the thing that has kept us grounded – even when we have our disagreements and I’m like, ‘She’s dead wrong!’ or ‘G’s dead wrong!’ or even where we both think each other’s dead wrong and we’re just looking at each other like, ‘I’m not giving in! I think the thing that has kept us grounded no matter what – and we’ll have our times where it’s like ‘Coach Gaitley’s not even speaking to me’ or like ‘I don’t even want to see Coach Gaitley I’m so pissed off right now,’ – I think the thing that’s kept us grounded is honesty.

No matter what we’ve gone through, I have always been honest with Coach Gaitley. I have never told a lie. Just because, I won’t do something that I can’t take the consequences for.

I’ve never lied to her. I’ve always been an open book with her, I’ve always been honest. Even when we had our disagreement, we had a lot of meetings behind closed doors where we’re getting stuff off of our chest, but we’re always honest with each other. And I think that was the thing, I think she has a lot of respect for me because of that, and I have a lot of respect for her just because she lets me express myself in that way. Like I don’t feel shut down. I know I can’t say certain things to her in front of the team, but I know when we’re having our one-on-ones and we’re hashing some things out, I can say certain things because she gives me that freedom.

She respects me in that way, and I respect her in that way and I think that’s really been what has kept our relationship grounded throughout these four years with everything that we’ve been through.

TFR: So, you just found out you have at least one more game at the Rose Hill Gym after a rough end to

Liam McKeone Los Angeles Fit for a King?

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Senior Day. What does that feel like, knowing you’ll get to play in your third WNIT while you’re here and getting to do it at home?

GD: Oh my goodness. Every time that I think it’s my last home game, it’s like, ‘Nope! You’ve got another one. Nope! You’ve got another one.’

I’m excited that we get to play home, I’m really excited. And I’m just really grateful that I don’t have to end my career with the feeling of not being good enough to go postseason.

The things that we’ve done, dating back to the foreign tour, have put us in a situation to be one of the elite teams because that’s pretty much what you have to be to go postseason. You don’t just get handed that. I think it says a lot about our team, how hard we’ve worked, our chemistry on the court, off the court. You know, the commitment that everyone has put into everything that we’ve done this year.

It speaks volume to this team and I’m just really happy that I get to go out and end my career with the WNIT. You know, it’s not the tournament we wanted, but still, going postseason WNIT, that’s a big deal. And to get to end my season that way and with the group of people that I’m ending it with, it brings a lot of joy to me.

TFR: Usually we end these interviews asking about post-Fordham plans, but I know you’re trying to go pro. What’s that been like, kind of preparing for that while also playing through the season?

GD: Of course, I’m trying to keep my focus on the season, but that is something that is in my mind because at this point the season is coming to a close and a lot of agents are coming to contact me.

Although I’m keeping my foot on the pedal as far as pushing through the season, that’s still something I have to deal with. I have to talk to these agents, I have to see who I want to pick to represent me, who can offer me the best things. Potentially going to the WNBA, I’ve talked to a lot of agents and my name is circulating here and there, so you never know what happens with that. But overseas is looking like a pretty much guarantee as far as what I’m doing after college, and I’m so, so excited. Because entering college, I just thought I would come here and play for these four years and then go get a job somewhere. Going pro was never my plan. These last two years have really shown me, ‘You have worked your butt off. You’re pretty good and people are seeing that! You love this game, why not keep on playing?’ I just gotta stay locked in and stay buckled down and finish the season off strong, as not only is that gonna be a great way to end the season, helping my teammates and myself go onto the next rounds of the WNIT – hopefully to win it – it will also help me as how far or how high I go in potentially in the draft or how high of a level I play overseas. All of it kind of circled around and relates to each other. I’m just trying to stay focused, finish out the season, do what I need to do and prepare for the next level.

Despite it being a fairly competitive year throughout the NBA, the one topic nobody can stop talking about is where LeBron James will end up after the 2018 season.

At this point, it seems unlikely he stays in Cleveland; he brought them the championship he promised, and this is the worst LeBronled Cavs team since he came back after a stint as league villain in Miami. Yeah, they got younger and more athletic at the trade deadline, but Rodney Hood is already hurt, and the leaping abilities of Larry Nance Jr. can only help so much.

That leaves three alternatives: the Houston Rockets, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers. But, for obvious reasons, all anyone can talk about is the possibility of the biggest star of the league, in the biggest market in the league, playing for one of basketball’s oldest and most successful franchises.

Houston and Philly would have a tough job finagling their rosters to fit in LeBron; the Lakers would only need to convince him. Are the kids (Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma) ready to win? Can the celebrity front-office pairing of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka build the right team around LeBron? Most importantly, how would LeBron fit alongside the foundation of the Lakers?

Obviously, when you have LeBron, the question isn’t how he fits, but rather how the rest of the team fits around him. But the Lakers don’t seem too eager to dump the results of their tanking over the last two seasons, so his fit is worth questioning. The biggest issue lies with Ball; unlike Kuzma or Ingram, he needs the ball in his hands to succeed. Fortunately, this has become less and less of a concern as late.

While Ball is best with the ball, he’s managed to fix his shot somewhat and is shooting 41 percent from beyond the arc after the AllStar break. A small sample size, to be sure, especially with the time he’s missed, but it’s a much brighter future to look at than when Ball was chucking sub-30 percent from deep at the start of the season.

Defensively he’s already a stud, so if he can become even a decent spot-up shooter, he’ll fit just fine in LeBron’s world.

Ingram is emerging as a force on both sides of the floor; he utilizes his length on the defensive end of the floor to make any given night miserable for his opponent, and he has mouth-watering offensive potential. Not quite KD-like, as some audacious Lakers fans may tell you, but he’s athletic enough to get to the basket whenever he wants, and once his shot develops, his release point is so high it could be nigh unstoppable. Kuzma, unlike his fellow prospects, is the perfect fit next to LeBron; he can hold his own as a power forward on the defensive end against both bigger and smaller 4s, and is a quality spot-up shooter who can run the floor.

The Lakers have a bright future ahead of them, but if they want to become the star-studded machine like the Lakers of old, this home stretch is crucial.

March 14, 2018

Three Potential March Madness Cinderellas

By ANDREW POSADAS STAFF WRITER

The time is upon us to fill out a bracket that seals the fate of the NCAA tournament in our opinion.

If you’re like me, you’ve watched enough college basketball this year to be temporarily granted the title of “expert analyst.” You’ve spent countless hours watching conference tournaments this past weekend. You’ve watched the NCAA Selection show and you’ll watch “Bracketology” on ESPN until the first game tips off at noon this Thursday.

However, no matter which teams you pick to win, there’s one question that will have you pondering the next few days: who’s this year’s Cinderella?

Having seen the brackets, three teams might use fairy godmother’s magic to make a deep run in this tournament.

1.UCLA-11th seed, East Region All of this depends on UCLA winning their First Four game in Dayton against Saint Bonaventure on Tuesday night. Should they win, the bottom half of the East region should be on alert. Granted, the Pac-12 Conference underperformed this year, with only three teams receiving bids this year. Conference woes aside, do not sleep on UCLA. They had two big wins against fellow NCAA tourney teams in Arizona and Kentucky, both coming away from home. Aaron Holiday is one of the most underrated guards in the country; he isn’t afraid to take and make big shots.

Thomas Welsh is a walking doubledouble with a dangerous midrange game. Add young, talented freshman Jaylen Hands, and the Bruins have the recipe to get to the second weekend. Remember this: the last time UCLA entered a tournament as an 11th seed? Back in 2015, where they ended up in the Sweet Sixteen.

2.Providence-10th seed, West Region Coach Ed Cooley and his Friars were the talk of the town in Manhattan this past weekend at the Big East Conference tournament. A team floating on the bubble, Providence

needed a good showing to cement their resume in looking for an NCAA tourney bid. Not only did they have a good showing, they reached the finals of the Big East tournament, losing to Villanova in overtime. Along the way, they beat NCAA tournament teams Creighton and top-seeded Xavier — especially impressive considering they were down at halftime in both of those games, only to force overtime and earn hard-fought victories. This team has no surrender in them. Senior Guard Kyron Cartwright brings Coach Cooley’s “never say die” attitude onto the court every single game. To get to the Sweet Sixteen this year, they will have to get past UNC in the second round.

The last two times they’ve faced each other, Carolina has come out on top.

Is the third time the charm for this Providence squad? We shall see.

3.Loyola-Chicago-11th seed, South Region My last choice for a Cinderella epitomizes what a Cinderella truly is: a school nobody has heard of who ends up shocking everyone and busting some brackets along the way. The “Ramblers” are making their first NCAA tourney appearance since 1985, where they made it into the Sweet Sixteen as a four seed. Thirtythree years later, this year’s Ramblers squad is seasoned with upper-classmen ready to jump into the national spotlight. Spreading the wealth on offense, five players on LoyolaChicago average double figures in scoring. Not only do they rank third nationally in offensive field-goal percentage, their defense ranks fifth in the nation, only allowing 62.2 points per game. This is a balanced team on both sides of the floor who have a signature win against NCAA tournament team Florida in Gainesville back on Dec. 6th. If any doubledigit seed in the tournament has the potential to make it into the Sweet Sixteen and possibly deeper, look no further than the Ramblers from ChiTown. The mark of a Cinderella is a team with experience and balance.

Loyola-Chicago fits the bill perfectly.

SPORTS

Page 22

By EMMANUEL BERBARI ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

The Major League Baseball season is only two weeks away, projections are piling in and the American League East has drawn a tremendous amount of attention.

Throughout the early years of the 21st century, there has been a lack of parity within the division, with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox typically duking it out to the finish line. In fact, the two teams have ranked first and second in the division—in no particular order—eight times since the turn of the century, more than any other combination in a fiveteam field stacked with talent.

While many believe that 2018 should be no different, with arguably the greatest rivalry in sports again taking center stage, the division is far more balanced than the average opinion would indicate, with a sleeper team north of the United States/Canadian border destined to make some noise.

Highlighting these two top dogs is what everyone wants. Re-energizing the rivalry to an early-2000s type feel would be sensational for the league.

The star power is there, as New York added the NL MVP to a lineup already containing the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP runner-up; a catcher who hit 33 home runs in five months, a shortstop who set the franchise round-tripper mark and a first baseman with the potential to hit 40 home runs.

They also already possess baseball’s top bullpen and a top-five starting rotation in the American League.

On Boston’s side, the premier slugger in the free agent market was added to shore up the lone offensive hole offensively: power.

The starting rotation is anchored by a true horse and is solid top to bottom; while the bullpen is somewhat shaky, the team has the makings of a bona fide contender.

Add a third team to this mix: the Toronto Blue Jays. With last year’s significant underperformance, the Jays are being written off despite a roster at full strength, including a powerful lineup, a sturdy starting staff and some capable relievers— as a whole, a mix that could prove

to be a thorn in New York and Boston’s side.

The addition of Curtis Granderson adds pop and veteran leadership to the top of a lineup that can compete with the big boys.

Josh Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP who is coming off a 33-homer season that many call a “down year” due to a disappointing first half, anchors the middle of the order. Justin Smoak broke out as an All-Star last season and showcased himself as one the league’s top first basemen. At the designated hitter spot, Kendrys Morales is a proven run producer who would be an asset to any American League team.

Much-needed speed and versatility comes with the presence of Kevin Pillar, while Russell Martin can handle a pitching staff—and contribute moderately in the batter’s box—as well as any catcher in the game.

This offense will score a lot of runs, hit plenty of home runs and give the Yankees and Red Sox scorching headaches.

Toronto’s pitching staff is no slouch either. Marcus Stroman has taken the necessary strides toward becoming an ace and is coming off his best season yet, pitching to a 3.09 ERA in 33 starts, including two complete games, spanning 201 stellar innings pitched. Marco Estrada is a pitcher that fits anyone’s staff. While the 34-year-old is coming off a down year, he is

experienced, crafty, eats innings and serves as a stabilizer. Oh, and a former 20-game winner in J.A. Happ will toe the rubber every five days, a veteran southpaw who has logged two of his finest seasons at Rogers Centre. Jaime Garcia is another veteran lefty who has experience in the AL East, making starts for the ALCS-bound Yankees last year and coming out of the bullpen once during their postseason run.

Rounding out the rotation, and perhaps the x-factor, is Aaron Sanchez, the righty flamethrower who was riddled by injuries in 2017 but is only a year and a half separated from a 15-2, 3.00 ERA campaign where he ranked seventh in Cy Young voting. A return to form from Sanchez transforms Toronto’s rotation from solid to elite.

If Troy Tulowitzki somehow avoids the injury bug for the majority of the season, the Blue Jays may have a lineup comparable to Boston’s, and within spitting distance of New York’s.

Sure, there are plenty of ‘if ’s’, but Toronto only needs some things to come to fruition.

Many individuals around the game project the Jays as an 80-85win team, but I like to view them as a lock for the second wild card, making the AL East a three-playoff-team division, with a ceiling that makes the Yankees and Red Sox really fight to keep the division crown in familiar territory.

COURTESY OF TWITTER

If Josh Donaldson gets back to bringing the rain, the Blue Jays will be very scary.

Varsity Calendar HOME AWAY

Follow us on Twitter at @theram_sports

Women’s Basketball

Thursday Mar. 15

Friday Mar. 16

Sunday Mar. 18

UMass 3 p.m.

Tuesday Mar. 20

R. Morris or Drexel (WNIT) TBA Cornell (DH) 12 p.m. / 3p.m.

Cornell 12 p.m.

Iona 3 p.m.

Holy Cross/ Seton Hall 2/4:30 p.m.

Detroit Mercy 11 a.m.

Iona 3:30 p.m.

Rider 3 p.m.

Men’s Tennis

Women’s Tennis

Monday Mar. 19

Harvard (WNIT) 7 p.m.

Baseball

Softball

Saturday Mar. 17

Farleigh Dickinson TBA

Wednesday Mar. 21

SPORTS

March 14, 2018

Anthony Cardone

Not So Cleveland Brownish The NFL offseason has had a few big splashes with trades and signings with some of the biggest names from around the league, and we haven’t even started the actual offseason yet. The one team that we thought would never be a part of these type of deals were the Cleveland Browns.

This past weekend, the Cleveland Browns, who didn’t win a single game last year, told the world to forget about the past and focus on the future. The Browns are the laughingstock of the NFL, but made some moves that had NFL fans think a little bit about next season.

They started off by trading for, recently franchise tagged Dolphins wide receiver Jarvis Landry. They sent the Dolphins a seventh round pick in 2018 and a fourth round pick in 2019 for Landry. Landry led the league in receptions last season with 112 and had 987 yards with 9 touchdowns. Landry has played four seasons with the Dolphins since 2014. Everyone was shocked at the trade, and people didn’t see the reason behind it... until a few hours later. The Browns would trade a third round pick to the Buffalo Bills for quarterback Tyrod Taylor, another mobile quarterback, after they drafted Deshone Kizer. Little did we know, the Browns would yet make another trade a few minutes later sending Kizer to the Packers for cornerback Damarious Randall. After acquiring these three, new general manager John Dorsey didn’t give up the number one and four overall picks in the upcoming draft. To put things in perspective, say they get running back Saquon Barkley.

Then, they can draft a quarterback with the fourth selection, and the Browns offense can very well be a surprise team to look at in 2018.

There are also plenty of free agents they can sign because they have one of the top cap spaces in the NFL. Some possible pick-ups are wide receiver Albert Wilson and running back Dion Lewis.

They are also talking about an extension on running back Duke Johnson and can also take the risk of trading one of their higher picks for big names in this upcoming draft, so it’s looking like a successful offseason for Cleveland.

On a personal level, I believe that the Browns are finished being the “laughingstock” of this league. Winning only one game in the last two seasons is atrocious.

Their fans even threw a parade in Cleveland for going 0-16, in the streets of their own city. For an organization, that has to be embarrassing, looking at your own fans going against you. One, you could lose revenue on ticket sales, which last year were as bad as they could have been, and two, that brings the confidence level down, especially for the players, whose main goal is to bring a championship to Cleveland.

Now, none of us really see the Browns winning the Superbowl next year, but John Dorsey did a really good job and has gotten off to a great start as the team's new general manager in his first offseason. With these moves, the Browns could take a big step forward in the upcoming 2018 season.

Page 23

Alvin Halimwidjaya

Varsity Scores & Stats Men's Basketball

Baseball

Softball

A-10 Tournament First Round

Bachman Sports Complex

Fordham 72 George Washington 78 (FOR) Chartouny: 18 Pts, 8 Asts, 4 Stls (FOR) Raut: 15 Pts, 7 Rebs (FOR) Slanina: 15 Pts, 3-4 3pt

Fordham 10 Coppin State 8 (FOR) Goulard: 3-5, 2 R, 2 RBI (FOR) Godrick: 2-4. 2 R, RBI, 3B, SB

East Crimson Classic

Fordham 4 Coppin State 1 (FOR) Knehr (W): 7 IP, 1 H, O ER, 4 BB, 9 K (FOR) Tarabek: 2-4, 1 R, RBI, 3B, SB

Women's Basketball WNIT First Round

Harvard @ Fordham Friday, March 16 7:00 p.m. EST Rose Hill Gym Bronx, NY

Women's Tennis Fordham 1 Temple 6 Estelle Wong (FOR) def.

Kristina Titova (TEMPLE) 6-0, 7-5

Winner plays Drexel/Robert Morris

Fordham 4 Samford 1 (FOR) Rauch (W): 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K (FOR) Johnston: 2-4, RBI Alabama (13) Fordham

4 3

Alabama (13) Fordham

7 2

Fordham 4 Samford 1 (FOR) Quense (W): 5 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K (FOR) Rauch: 1-3, 1 R, 2 RBI Fordham Boston College

Athletes of the Week Reiss Knehr

Paige Rauch

Junior

Freshman

Baseball

Softball

Knehr turned in a masterful performance on the mound on Sunday, propelling baseball to a 4-1 win at Coppin State. The right-hander went the distance, surrendering only one hit and an unearned run, walking four and striking out nine to finish the dominant effort in 107 pitches.

In a 4-1 victory over Samford, one of two wins the team recorded at the East Crimson Classic, Rauch delivered in a big way, hurling six stellar four-hit frames, walking three and fanning five to improve to 5-1 on the season. She then came back the next day and fired two scoreless innings.

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

News & Notes • Women's Basketball Earns WNIT Bid

Despite falling short of its ultimate goal in the Atlantic 10 Quarterfinals in Richmond, Fordham Women’s Basketball will still be playing postseason hoops this season. Even better, the team will host a playoff game, welcoming the Harvard Crimson to Rose Hill on Friday at 7 p.m. for a firstround WNIT matchup. This will be Fordham’s fourth WNIT appearance in seven years under head coach Stephanie Gaitley, previously competing in 2013, 2015 and 2017. The Rams are 4-3 all-time in the WNIT, all under Gaitley, and will look to advance further than last year, when they fell at Penn State in the second round.

• New Assistant AD Announced Joe Gilfedder was named Assistant Athletic

Director for Athletic Performance. The announcement was made by Athletic Director Dave Roach on Monday night. Gilfedder has worked as part of Dartmouth’s Strength and Conditioning staff for the past three years and will be responsible for supervising the strength training and conditioning programs of 22 teams and oversee the Walsh Training Center. A 2012 graduate of Ithaca College, Gilfedder was a four-year letter winner as a football linebacker.

• Two Rams Named Academic All-Conference

The Atlantic 10 announced its Swimming and Diving Academic All-Conference teams on Monday night, with a cutoff of a 3.0 cumulative GPA. Seniors Tommy Christensen and Nele Albers were selected as Fordham’s recipients. The award-winners were voted on by the conference’s Sports Information Directors.

Christensen served as a team captain this past season, along with his 3.53 career GPA. Meanwhile, Albers scored in two individual events while maintaining a 4.0 GPA.

• Leadership Academy Holds Awards Ceremony The Fordham Leadership Academy held

a dinner where it announced its newest Leaders of Distinction and Leaders of Merit. Caroline Hamann (Women’s Rowing), Thomas Slattery (Men’s XC/Track and Field) and Merissa Wright (Women’s Track and Field) were recognized as Leaders of Distinction. Meanwhile, Erin McBride (Women’s Swimming and Diving) and Stephanie Leo (Women’s XC/Track and Field) placed as Leaders of Merit.

-Compiled by Emmanuel Berbari

2 4

Dame-Light Savings Time When Daylight Savings Time (DST) comes around, everyone knows it’s time for longer days and hopefully warmer weather; when our clocks move one hour forward, we know that we’re getting closer to beach season, the end of the school year and the summer; you know, all the good stuff. In the same way, the NBA season has a clear sign every year that the playoffs, and therefore crunch time, is around the corner.

That time is when point guard Damian Lillard of the Portland Trailblazers decides to readjust the gigantic chip on his shoulder, thrust his hands into an active volcano and torch the rest of the league.

Over the past few years, Lillard has inserted himself into the top tier of point guards in the NBA. His fourth-quarter heroics, aka Dame Time, are on full display this season, as he is one of the league leaders in both fourth quarter scoring and clutch scoring, which is when it’s a close game with less than five minutes to go in the contest. In addition to his game-winners, deep threes and double-digit scoring runs, he’s proven that he can lead his team and not just put up meaningless stats, as the Trailblazers are currently third in the Western Conference.

Lillard has done this for a while now; after the All-Star break, especially with two All-Star snubs in the last three years, he has come out firing and ready to put the NBA on notice. Sometimes it comes even before, as he once hung 51 points on the then-defending champions Golden State Warriors right before the break in 2016 after one of his exclusions off of the West All-Star team. He averaged 27 points per game in the 2015-16 season through February and March, 28 PPG in the 2016-2017 season from February to April and is currently putting up a mind-boggling 31.6 PPG throughout the past two months.

Whether it’s March Madness, a manifestation of Dame’s anger or just a hot streak, there’s something about Lillard that pushes him to a higher level near the end of the season. Last Monday, he dropped 39 points in an away game on the hapless Los Angeles Lakers, as he erased an 11-point lead with 5:26 remaining with a series of threes that might as well had been flung all the way from Portland. He then followed that up with eight more threes in a dismantling of the New York Knicks the very next night.

Lillard’s deadeye stroke, combined with his sneaky athleticism and the ice-cold killer instinct in his liquid nitrogen-laden limbs, make him arguably the fourthbest point guard in the NBA right now. The Blazers have never been a team anyone has wanted to face in the postseason; however, Portland has proven itself to be a significant, albeit second-tier, threat in the West. Golden State and Houston aren’t letting anyone touch them right now, but if Dame can keep his madness up past March, Rip City has a chance to play Cinderella and sneak into May.

SPORTS

Page 24

March 14, 2018

The Fordham Ram

Baseball Rides Bats, Knehr to Doubleheader Sweep of Coppin State

By JACK McLOONE SPORTS EDITOR

Fordham Baseball’s final trip to warmer climes didn’t exactly go as planned. Not because the Rams played poorly — they swept their doubleheader against Coppin State — but the weather at first pitch was only in the 40s. With the two wins, the Rams are now 8-4-1.

Game one of the doubleheader saw the Rams carry over the hot bats from their last weekend series against James Madison. They had 13 hits and plated 10 in the 10-8 opening victory.

“I think, as a group, we have been putting together very good at bats, and this weekend we continued to get some big two-out hits,” said head coach Kevin Leighton.

“We have a pretty dynamic offense when we get runners on, so we have to continue to find ways to get to first base.”

The opening run in game one was an example of how dangerous the Rams are on the basepaths.

Sophomore center fielder Billy Godrick led the game off with a single, part of a 3-8 day across both games. He then stole second and was able to advance to third on a pased ball. Sophomore right fielder Alvin Melendez then drove him in with a sacrifice fly for the 1-0 lead.

“Both Billy and Alvin have been keys to our offense, and both have the ability to not only swing the bat well but also steal second and third, which will lead to us scoring

more runs,” said Leighton.

Coppin State answered right back in the bottom of the frame after an error by freshman third baseman C.J. Vazquez allowed runners to go to second and third with no outs. A sac fly to right drove in the run.

After scoring another in the top of the second, the Rams hung four on the Eagles in the top of the third to take a 6-2 lead. Melendez, sophomore shortstop Matt Tarabek, freshman left fielder Nick Labella and junior first baseman Brian Goulard notched the RBIs. Senior starting pitcher Ben Greenberg struggled a bit in the bottom half of the third and was pulled after giving up a solo home run, two singles and a walk. He was replaced by junior Mike Cowell, who let one inherited run score.

Greenberg finished with two earned runs (and one unearned) over the 2.1 innings he worked.

They were the first earned runs he gave up this season.

Cowell was the victim of a throwing error in the bottom of the fifth when a two out double and a throwing error by Labella let two runs score. The tying run scored two batters later, making the score 6-6.

Both teams put up one in the sixth, but then the Rams woke up again with two outs in the seventh. Junior designated hitter Justin Bardwell started it off with an RBI double. He moved to third after a wild pitch and then scored on a bunt single from Goulard of

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Fordham Baseball swept last Saturday’s doubleheader with Coppin State behind junior pitcher Reiss Knehr.

all people. Freshman catcher Domenico Doria got in on the fun with an RBI single, making it 10-7.

The Eagles tacked on one more in the bottom of the frame, but then sophomore reliever Kyle Martin came in and threw two perfect innings to close the game.

After a hitting explosion in game one, it was junior starting pitcher Reiss Knehr who was the star of the show in the seven-inning game two.

An RBI double from Godrick in the second was all Knehr needed, going the full seven while giving up just one hit and one unearned run in the sixth. He struck out a

season-high nine batters.

“Reiss was solid, and I thought he did a nice job making some adjustments throughout the game,” said Leighton. “Overall, I thought his command of all of his pitches was better and that allowed him to go deep in the game and only allow the one hit.”

While Leighton may have seen better command from Knehr, he did walk four batters and hit another. It was his second game in a row with four walks.

The bats did not go completely silent in this one either, as the Rams scored four runs on seven hits, including an RBI triple from

Tarabek and an RBI double from Labella.

Fordham will finally return home for its first extended homestand of the season starting on Wednesday with a 3 p.m. game against the Wagner Seahawks. That game will be followed up with their first home weekend series of the season against Bucknell. That will start with a doubleheader on Saturday, March 17 at noon.

“Home games are always a plus, and we always seem to play well at home,” said Leighton. “We have some challenging games coming up, but the guys are definitely looking forward to competing again.”

Rauch Stars for Softball in East Crimson Classic in Alabama

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Paige Rauch starred for Fordham Softball, who won two out of five games at the Tuscaloosa Classic last week.

By BRENDAN O’CONNELL STAFF WRITER

At the East Crimson Classic in Tuscaloosa, Fordham Softball played five competitive games against Samford, Alabama and Boston College, managing two victories in the process.

On both Friday and Saturday, the Rams split their matchups, defeating Samford and losing to #13/13 Alabama. Both contests against Samford ended in 4-1

wins, with freshman Paige Rauch earning the win on Friday and the save on Saturday in relief of winning pitcher Lauren Quense.

Rauch has been one of the team’s most consistent performers on the mound and in the batters’ box with a 5-1 record, 1.89 earned run average and 22 strikeouts as a pitcher, while also leading the team in such hitting categories as walks, triples, home runs, runs batted in, on base percentage, slugging percentage, runs scored and total bases.

Head coach Bridget Orchard had high praise for Rauch – and the team’s veteran leaders – following this past weekend’s action.

“Paige is a warrior and loves to compete. She is willing to do whatever it takes to help her team.

Madie [Aughinbaugh] and Lauren have been great mentors to her and helping her adjust to the college game. They both have big game experience and they all know they can count on each other. Paige is hitting leadoff for us and doing very well setting the tone. She has

been getting on base to start the game and has also driven in some big runs for us in our wins. She is a winner and works very hard every day to get better.”

Fordham lost a nail-biter to Alabama on Friday night by a score of 4-3 and again the following day by a score of 7-2 despite Madi Shaw’s four combined hits over the two games, including a home run, a double and three RBIs. Orchard was encouraged by the way her team played against a nationally-ranked opponent, she said.

“I was very proud of our team and the effort we gave in both games. The first game I feel we played very well and were a hit away from breaking the game open and beating them on their home field. The takeaway is that we are good enough to play with the top ranked teams, we just need to execute better. [Generally, our hitting] went flat and we couldn’t get anything going. I thought our defense and pitchers did a great job with their powerful offense.

Four of our pitchers all had the opportunity to face them and I feel that will help them as we get into conference play. Every batter in Alabama’s lineup is dangerous, and we did a decent job keeping them off the bases. It was a great opportunity for us to play in front of a huge crowd on national TV at an amazing facility like ‘Bama.

Our players are gaining incredible experience that should pay off in the end,” Orchard said.

On Sunday, Fordham squandered a late lead against BC, ultimately falling 4-2 despite two more RBIs from Shaw.

20 games into the season, the team holds a 6-14 record, a mark that Orchard feels is a reflection of the intensely competitive earlyseason schedule and that will turn around as the team enters Atlantic 10 play.

“We definitely have started out slower than we had hoped, but we are improving each game,” Orchard acknowledged. “We still are not where we would like to be, but pieces are coming together hoping to have a solid line up by conference play. We have been unable to get some timely hits when we needed them and are still making mistakes on defense that have hurt us. We have put ourselves in positions to win games though, so that is an improvement from day one of the season.”

Tuesday’s game against Hofstra was rescheduled due to weather and will now take place on Wednesday, March 28 at 3pm. This coming weekend, the Rams will host the Fordham Tournament, where they will face UMass Lowell, Holy Cross, Seton Hall,and Detroit Mercy in their first games at Bahoshy Field this spring.

“We are excited to play at home and looking to get some wins heading into conference play next weekend,” said Orchard. “We have played a grueling pre-season and the team needs to gain some confidence by winning these games.”