Volume 101 Issue 10

The Fordham Ram Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 Volume 101, Issue 10

FordhamRam.com

April 24, 2019

CAB Books Moffat and Day

Students Elect Incoming USG Seats

By ELIOT SCHIAPARELLI and SARAH HUFFMAN Fordham’s Campus Activities Board (CAB) announced on April 23 that Alex Moffat and Mikey Day, two stars of "Saturday Night Live" ("SNL") will be the 2019 Spring Weekend comedians. CAB made the announcement at their Spring Weekend Bingo game.

Both Moffat and Day appeared on the show for the first time in 2016 and became repertory players in 2018. Day had previously worked on the show as a writer starting in 2013.

The two are known for appearing together in a skit portraying Donald Trump’s sons. Moffat played Eric Trump and Day played Donald Trump Jr. Both comedians regularly appear on the “Weekend Update” segment on "SNL." In a joint statement to The Fordham Ram, Comedy Committee co-chairs Jane Mackowiak, FCRH '19, and Clifford McKay, SEE CAB, PAGE 7

By ERICA SCALISE PROJECTS EDITOR

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Members of the Fordham community placed flowers on Keating steps in memory of Sydney Monfries, FCRH '19.

University Remembers Sydney Monfries, FCRH ’19

By AISLINN KEELY and HELEN STEVENSON Sydney Monfries, FCRH ’19, died on Sunday, April 14 after sustaining a critical injury in a fall from Keating Clock tower. In response, the university held a number of services in her memory,

including a Palm Sunday mass on the day of her passing and a vigil held on Tuesday, April 16, where students were invited to come together at University Church to share memories and collectively remember Monfries.

Members of the Fordham community filled the pews, the aisles

and the second floor of University Church. The basement of the church contained overflow seating, where the service was live streamed.

Prior to the service, Michael C. McCarthy, S.J., vice president for Mission IntegraSEE VIGIL, PAGE 3

Students Win Tinder U Concert

By ELIOT SCHIAPARELLI ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Sexual Misconduct, said the committee also hosts a Week of Action in October for domestic violence awareness month.

This semester’s Week of Action included five events. The first event was the clothesline project, an event where students wrote

Through right swipes on Tinder, Fordham students secured a concert from Charli XCX and Juice WRLD on April 10th.

While the rules of the competition had been unclear to some, Tinder confirmed the details, time and location in an email on April 22.

The concert will be held at 6 p.m. on April 24 at the New York Expo Center. Students who RSVPed through an in-app advertisement will be let in on a first-come-first-served basis, and a stand-by line will be available for students who did not RSVP. Students cannot bring any guests, and they must have their Fordham ID and proof of enrollment in Tinder U to get into the concert.

The New York Expo Center is roughly 20 minutes from Fordham’s Rose Hill campus.

An UberX to the location costs about $18. On its website, the center advertises large event spaces for festivals.

SEE ACTION, PAGE 6

SEE TINDER, PAGE 5

EMMA BUDD FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

The Committee on Sexual Misconduct within USG hosted its annual Week of Action starting Monday, April 8.

USG Hosts Series of Events for Annual Week of Action

By SARAH HUFFMAN

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

The Committee on Sexual Misconduct within the United Student Government (USG) hosted Week of Action from Monday, April 8 to Thursday, April 11 to bring awareness to

the issue of sexual assault.

Week of Action is an event that the national organization It's On Us holds every April for sexual assault awareness month. This is the third year that the committee has participated in Week of Action. Emma Budd, FCRH ’20, co-chair on the Committee on

After time spent campaigning and meeting the candidates, the United Student Government (USG) governing body for the 2019-2020 school year is official.

Four of the seven vice presidential candidates ran uncontested and one of the positions, vice president of sustainability, accepted write-ins. The two contested positions were for vice president of Gabelli and vice president of communications.

Kaylee Wong, GSB ’20, and Ashley Qamar, GSB ’20, will officially begin their term as president and vice president, respectively. Wong takes over for Connor Sullivan, FCRH ’20, as president and Qamar takes over for Wong as vice president.

Reilly Keane, GSB ’20, will assume the role of vice president of Gabelli for Amanda D’Antone, GSB ’19. She was elected over challenger and senator Michael Tomicich, GSB ’20.

Thomas Reuter, FCRH ’22, will assume the role of vice president of communications from Roderick Perez, GSB ’20. He was elected over challenger Senator Griffin LaMarche, FCRH ’22.

Of the write-in candidates for vice president of sustainability, David D’Onofrio, FCRH ’22, Gabrielle Perez, FCRH ’21, Samuel Haviland, FCRH ’20 and Margaret Tattersfield, FCRH ’22, Tattersfield will assume the role of VP for Gabrielle Perez.

Olivia Quartell, FCRH ’21, will remain vice president of club operations and Elizabeth Bjorklund, FCRH ’21, will remain vice president of finance and budgets. Patrick Fox, FCRH ’20, will also remain Vice President of FCRH. SEE USG, PAGE 7

in this issue

Opinion

Page 8 Jesulit, Barstool Fordham Don't Know What the Fordham Community Is

Sports

Page 24

Softball Wins 10th Straight

Culture

Page 17

FET Empowers Women with Feminist Playwright

NEWS

Page 2

PUBLIC SAFETY BRIEFS

April 24, 2019

Professors Deliver Lecture on Spirituality

Includes Insights From Major Religions

By PATRICIA WHYTE

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

April 9 Walsh Library 8:40 p.m.

A student reported that while in Walsh Library she saw an unidentified male masturbating.

Public Safety is investigating.

April 10 Hoffman Avenue 4:00 p.m.

A student reported that his off-campus non-Fordham property had been broken into. It was burglarized sometime between 11:30 a.m. and 3:50 p.m. Public Safety is investigating.

April 16 Walsh Library 10:10 p.m.

A student reported that sometime on the evening of Friday April 12 he was at an off-campus party and a male grabbed his buttock without consent. Public Safety is investigating.

April 14 Salice-Conley Hall 3:36 p.m.

A student reported that she was trapped in an elevator. The elevator company responded and was able to free her. The elevator was then taken out of service until repairs could be made.

In his April 10 lecture entitled “Sexuality, Spirituality, and Love of God,” Rev. Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., FCRH '63, GSAS '65, sought to shed light on some of the complexities of humanity often overlooked by religion.

The lecture was followed by responses from Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Ph.D., assistant professor of theology at Fordham University and Amir Hussain, Ph.D., professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University.

The event was held in the Flom Auditorium in the Walsh Family Library and was open to the public.

Ryan offered insights on understandings of human sexuality and perspectives of God from Jewish, Christian and Muslim perspectives.

“Human beings created in the image and likeness of God, a theme common to the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions of faith, have much to learn from God, and especially much to learn from God about how to love,” Ryan said in his lecture.

Ryan is the Laurence J. McGinley professor of religion and society at Fordham University.

An alumnus himself, Ryan has held numerous positions at Fordham as a Middle Eastern

PATRICIA WHYTE/THE FORDHAM RAM

Sarit Kattan Gribetz, Ph.D. delivers her response to Fr. Ryan's take about spirituality, sexuality and the love of God.

Studies professor, Loyola Chair in the Humanities and Fordham’s Vice President for University Mission and Ministry before his appointment as the McGinley Professor in 2009.

Ryan drew from several scholarly sources during his lecture, mainly focusing on texts from the Bible, the Quran and the Torah,

April 23 Walsh Library 8:30 a.m.

A student reported that she lost her ID card holder containing two credit cards, two debit cards and her student ID in the computer room. She was issued a new ID card, and Public Safety is investigating.

-Compiled by Eliot Schiaparelli

Follow us on Twitter! @TheFordhamRam

COURTESY OF THE RAM ARCHIVES

Fr. Ryan's lecture was entitled "Sexuality, Spirituality and the Love of God".

to aid his discussion of gender roles and sexuality as portrayed by these major religions.

“Sexuality is not alien from spirituality but an essential element in it,” Ryan said. The reverend heavily discussed the complexity of humanity and the transcendence of God from modern social structures of gender.

“The love we have for God, or should have for God, and the love God certainly has for us entails loving the fullness of what it is to be human, male and female,” Ryan said.

Following Ryan’s lecture were theology professors Sarit Kattan Gribetz and Amir Hussain, consecutively.

As a Jewish woman, Gribetz's response to Ryan’s lecture focused primarily on the relationship between God and Israel and examined the link between sexuality and spirituality.

Gribetz discussed biblical texts’ use of metaphor to describe God and Israel as lovers, reflecting that this relationship has the potential to be empowering and also abusive.

Gribetz also examined the major religion’s exclusion of homosexual partnerships as loving relationships.

“We ought not to limit our

interpretation of spirituality to heterosexual relationships,” Gribetz said.

Hussain discussed love and good faith, but primarily focused on the exclusion of homosexual relationships from traditional interpretations of spirituality.

“In our current climate, we are in a dangerous place for those who aren’t heterosexual. I think of Islamic psychologists who worry about losing their license if they are anything but heteronormative, and I wonder how we got to that place where we can hate people for the love that God has put between them,” said Hussain.

In his reflection, Hussain wanted to bring light to the presence of love in the Islamic tradition.

Maggie Burzynski, FCRH ’21, attended the lecture to fulfill a requirement for her philosophy class and because she said she found the content of the lecture to be intriguing.

“I actually liked it way more than I thought I was going to,” Burzynski said. “I thought the lecture part was really informative, and I especially appreciated how they talked about the fluidity of gender when it comes to God, especially in different languages.”

This Week at Fordham Wednesday April 24

Thursday April 25

Friday April 26

Saturday April 27

Sunday April 28

Astronomy Club Conspiracy Night

CAB Speaker Series

Ramblers Spring Weekend Concert

Under The Tent

FAHS Museum Trip

This is the April installment of the Astronomy Club's conspiracy night.

Come prepared to discuss your favorite, wildest conspiracies. The event will take place in Freeman 101 at 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday and end at 10:00 p.m.

Campus Activities Board (CAB) is hosting Ellie Kemper as the Spring Weekend speaker. Kemper is known for her roles in "The Office" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the event will start at 7:00 p.m.

The Ramblers will host their semester spring concert. The show is Harry Potter themed. They will perform their entire set list as a culmination of their entire semester's work. All friends, family and members of the Fordham community are welcome.

Residence Halls Association (RHA) is hosting Under The Tent 2019 on Martyrs' Lawn. The theme is A Night in The Emerald City. It is a semiformal/formal event. Tickets can be purchsed online through University Tickets for $30 with a two dollar fee.

Fordham Art History Society is taking students to the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art to the Art After Stonewall (1969 1989) exhibit. Students will meet at Lincoln Center and then travel to the museum.

Freeman 101 9:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Leonard Prep Theater 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Fordham Prep Theater 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Martyrs' Lawn 9:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.

Lowenstein Lower Lobby 12:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

NEWS

April 24, 2019

Page 3

Student Groups Hold Service for Sydney Monfries Community Comes Together After Death of Student FROM VIGIL, PAGE 1

tion and Planning, reached out to the members of the Fordham community via email, expressing the importance of community at this time.

“It’s important for us to be patient with ourselves and to take care of each other,” he wrote.

All members of the community were invited to attend the services. According to McCarthy, United Student Government (USG), Commuting Students Association (CSA), Residence Halls Association (RHA) and Campus Activities Board (CAB) coordinated the event with support and guidance from Campus Ministry.

In a joint statement to the students of Fordham, USG, CSA, RHA and CAB said Monfries was an amazing friend, classmate and member of the Fordham community. They called on all members of the student body to attend the service.

“Let us all exhibit the love to one another that Sydney exhibited to all those she encountered,” they said.

According to McCarthy, the administration felt it was important to give the students the opportunity to organize the service with the university’s support.

During the service, friends of Monfries told personal anecdotes

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

CAB, RHA, CSA and USG organized a vigil in memory of Sydney Monfries, FCRH '19 in the University Church.

and provided comfort and support for one another. Students who spoke during the service asked that their comments not be reproduced in this article.

“At times of tragedy, when one doesn’t know what else to do, sometimes having the capacity to at least organize a service... It can be healing,” McCarthy said.

“As painful as the service was, we thought it was important to give students the opportunity to do that.”

McCarthy said the service al-

lowed the Fordham community to come together in a time of tragedy.

“I always think of the quote by the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, that the chiefest sanctity of a temple is that it is a place where people come to weep in common,” McCarthy said. “This was a tremendous tragedy that we all felt. We were just heartbroken.”

During this week, there will be a lamp and condolence book set next to a portrait of Monfries.

The display outside University Church invites members of the community to sign the book and spend time in prayer and reflection, according to an email from McCarthy.

A funeral service was held on Monday, April 22, at Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem. Monfries’s burial took place at Hope Cemetery at Hastings on Hudson.

Counseling services are available in the Counseling and Psychological Services office in O’Hare Hall. The office can be contacted at (718) 817-3725.

Residential Life staff is available in residence halls, and campus ministers are available around campus to speak with at any point. Campus Ministry can be reached at (718) 817-4500.

NEWS

Page 4

April 24, 2019

Research Spotlight

USG Column

University Holds Annual Research Symposium

Students Present Projects in All Fields

By ELIOT SCHIAPARELLI

By KRISTEN MCNERNEY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

On Wednesday, April 10, Fordham held its 12th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. Students presented over 100 projects in a wide array of areas not limited to science.

Students studied “Social Media Usage and Well Being,” “Superbugs: Bacterial Antibiotic Resistance” and “Grip Strength Differences Between Athletes and Non-Athletes,” to name a few.

According to Maura Mast, Ph.D, dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill, research has grown exponentially at Fordham since the first symposium 12 years ago. She said there were only about 30 presenters the first time the university held the event.

“The FCRH Undergraduate Research Symposium has always been a highlight of the year and this year was no exception,” said Mast. “We featured the work of over 300 students who collaborated with over 70 faculty in fields such as Biology, Chemistry, Art History, Psychology, Anthropology, Theology, and Linguistics, and more. I always learn something new at the Symposium and I’m so impressed with the energy and intelligence that Fordham students bring to this work.”

For students who chose to conduct oral presentations, there were breakout sessions at the beginning of the day. Following lunch and presentations were several speakers including Mast and Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the university.

For those who chose to present posters on their projects, both McGinley Second and McGinley Ballroom were filled with their work.

Mast and Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D, associate dean for strategic initiatives at Fordham College at Rose Hill wrote a letter in the symposium’s program. They thanked those in at-

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

JULIA COMERFORD/ THE FORDHAM RAM

Students spent the day at the symposium giving a mix of oral and poster presentations. They presented 164 projects.

tendance and celebrated Fordham’s Undergraduate Research Program.

“FCRH students are presenting their work across the country and around the world, most recently in France, Germany and Spain,” they wrote. “On campus, students are now part of a community bonded by a deep interest in big questions and the relentless pursuit of knowledge.”

They said the university now has over $1.5 million in research funding for students and faculty, a research seminar titled “Foundations in Research Engagement” and over 100 publications co-authored by students and their faculty mentors.

Annunziato said she thought the day was wonderful for both students

and their mentors.

“There was so much excitement in the air and a very strong turnout; I was so grateful for all the support our student researchers received,” she said. “A few students mentioned to me how the Symposium shows that research is ‘cool’ and I love hearing things like that.”

Joanna Moles, FCRH ’21, presented on “Epigenetics and Addiction” with a group.

“It was a really unique opportunity to not only share my group’s work but also to see the work of my fellow students,” she said. “Seeing all the original ideas and research made me realize how intelligent, innovative and dedicated our student body at

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Photo of the Week:

SW Concert Protestors Address USG

Finals are coming up at Fordham, meaning some students will be spending more time in Walsh Library. The first day of finals at Rose Hill is May 7, so for now, some students are spending time outside enjoying the spring weather.

Fordham is.”

Catherine Aumiller, FCRH ’19, presented a poster on college students attitudes toward American English dialects. It was titled, “What Do College Students Think of American English Dialects? A Survey Based Approach.”

“Presenting my findings to the diverse array of people that were at the symposium was a fun challenge that forced me to think about how my research fits into real life,” said Aumiller. “I loved having discussions with people wherein we worked to connect my research to what they already knew about the topic.”

Annunziato said students are well prepared to talk about their projects.

“For students who choose to deliver talks, we send them instructions in advance as well as assign a moderator to each panel who provides advice. For students who select a poster presentation, we also send out guidelines,” she said. “I hold a workshop on giving conference talks and creating posters before the Symposium.”

Colleen Cochran, FCRH ’21, gave an oral presentation titled, “Characterizing Summer Diurnal Patterns of Photosynthesis on American Beachgrass.”

“It was a wonderful experience to be able to share my research with the Fordham community and my peers,” said Cochran. “The event is a wonderful day of celebration and support.”

Annunziato also said each year, she tries to implement feedback from the year before in order to make the symposium better.

“I am eager to encourage more students who are completing theses or independent studies to present at the Symposium,” she said. “I think some may not feel their work is ready but this is such a great venue to gain practice giving a presentation and to receive supportive feedback. I also am interested in forming a committee of students who might like to work with me on Symposium planning.”

Students expressed concern at the USG Senate meeting on April 11 over Sean Kingston’s upcoming Spring Weekend performance.

“Students Against Sean Kingston,” a campus group which has been actively speaking against Kingston’s performance, presented information regarding a 2010 gang rape accusation against the rapper.

The students said they had previously met with CAB members, who were also present at the meeting, and said they were “met with deaf ears,” before meeting with SLC members and receiving the same response. They said they believe the vetting process for booking Spring Weekend performers should be significantly updated, a position with which many USG Senators agreed.

“I wish this were a different situation right now,” said CAB President Kathryn Teaney, GSB ’19, who commended the students for taking a stand.

Teaney explained that the contract with Kingston is valid unless he is arrested or convicted, and that Fordham either has to pay him to perform, or pay him not to perform.

“I would feel more sick and more uneasy if we allow him to come,” Senator Brian Daaleman, FCRH ’19, said. “It doesn’t sit right with me.”

Executive President Connor Sullivan, FCRH ’19, and Executive Vice President Kaylee Wong, GSB ’20, presented a statement that expressed USG’s feelings as an organization regarding Kingston’s performance.

“We do not feel comfortable having him represent our university and perform on our campus,” read the statement, which has been made available on USG’s social media platforms.

Sullivan and Wong said that allowing Kingston to perform would be undermining Fordham’s Jesuit values and emphasis on ‘cura personalis,’ or care for the entire person.

“Students Against Sean Kingston” said they felt uninspired after a meeting with Christopher Rodgers, dean of students.

Senators granted club status to the African and Caribbean Students Union. A representative for the club said it will serve to celebrate rich and diverse cultures and will serve as both a safe space for African and Caribbean students and a learning platform for students of all backgrounds.

She said she would like to bridge the gap between the many Bronx residents of African and Caribbean heritage and students at Fordham.

The new USG Constitution has been approved pending minor changes. Wong presented an updated version, in which all committees are listed and the roles of joint committees are outlined. Committees co-run by SLC members include Finance and Budgets, House and Operations.

Advisor Cody Arcuri, assistant dean for Student Involvement said that “Under the Tent” tickets are on sale online, with a theme announced as “A Night in the Emerald City.”

NEWS

April 24, 2019

Page 5

Students Win Tinder Concert By Swiping Right:

Juice WRLD and Charli XCX to Perform

FROM TINDER, PAGE 1

“The New York Expo Center boasts an amazing 10-acre venue space located directly on the East River Waterfront. Featuring 90,000 sq feet interior space with a 60,000 sq foot main event space, the New York Expo Center is a perfect place to host any large scale event, festival or concert,” the website reads.

Juice WRLD is known for his song, “Lucid Dreams,” which debuted at number 74 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts at the beginning of the summer in 2018. It peaked at number two on the Billboard charts.

Olivia Quartell, FCRH ’21, said she did not participate in the competition but downloaded the app to go to the concert.

“I’m not big into rap music, but over the summer my friend who I used to drive around with everywhere only listened to Juice WRLD, and then I really started to like it,” she said. “So I feel like it’s a really cool opportunity cause it’s the one rapper that I like. It might be a disaster but it’ll be a really good story either way.”

Charli XCX first saw success with the song “Boom Clap” from “The Fault in Our Stars” soundtrack. Her more recent hits include “Boys,” which came out in 2017, and “1999” from 2018.

Sarah Kowaleski, FCRH ’21, said she is going to see Charli XCX. “I’ve had a Spotify playlist for

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Fordham University students won a concert by Juice WRLD and Charlie XCX in Tinder's Swipe Off competition.

Charli XCX and Juice WRLD since we won,” she said. “I’m so excited to go that I got a cute purple tank top to wear that’s very Charli XCX vibes.”

The bracket style competition started with roughly 1,200 eligible schools in mid-March. While Tin-

der was unable to share the exact number of swipes that won the competition, the company said it was clear that Fordham students made an effort.

“We’re unable to share the exact number of right swipes, but we’re

impressed by the dedication of Fordham students and excited to see all the new connections made on Tinder over the last month,” wrote Lauren Probyn, senior marketing director at Tinder in an email to The Ram. The #SwipeOff competition was

Recycle

The Ram

meant to promote Tinder’s Tinder U feature, which is a version of the app only available to college students.

Probyn said the idea for the concert came about because college students are a core part of Tinder’s demographic.

“We know through our ongoing Tinder U program that a major passion point for college students is focused on music,” she said. “While ideating concepts that intersected their interests, we knew music was going to be front and center. The timing aligned perfectly for us to develop a bracket-style contest that would lean into existing rivalries and school spirit; thus, Swipe Off was created.”

Olivia Valkenburg, FCRH ’21, said she thinks the promotion is great publicity for the dating app.

“Every Fordham student is on it now, and that’s impressive. It’s one of the best marketing schemes I’ve ever seen,” she told The Ram last week.

Even students in relationships participated in the contest. Chris Lipuma, FCRH ’21, said even though he does not need the dating app, he participated.

“I’m in a committed healthy relationship but Juice Wrld is important enough that we both redownloaded Tinder just to get the concert,” he told The Ram last week.

NEWS

Page 6

April 24, 2019

USG Backs "Students Against Sean Kingston"

CAB Announces Performance Will Go On

By HELEN STEVENSON NEWS EDITOR

On Thursday, April 18, Campus Activities Board (CAB) announced their decision to keep rapper Sean Kingston in the Spring Weekend lineup.

Their announcement comes after an Instagram account under the username @studentsagainstsean followed a number of Fordham students, demanding Sean Kingston’s removal from the 2019 CAB Spring Weekend lineup.

The creators of the account, Students Emily Mueller, FCRH '21, Emily Andrade, FCRH '21, Meg Vanecko, FCRH '21, Grace Kubelka, FCRH '21, and Arden Crawford, FCRH '21, said they created the account in response to a 2013 court case, in which Kingston settled a $5 million lawsuit with a woman who accused him of gang rape for an undisclosed sum of money. The account and the group’s advocacy generated a campus-wide conversation that addressed the artists Fordham books for Spring Weekend.

“The accusations from 2013 were settled in civil court, Mr. Kingston was never arrested or prosecuted, and we have no additional information other than tabloid news reports,” CAB’s statement reads.

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Sean Kingston is set to perform for Spring Weekend on Saturday despite recent controversy among students.

On Thursday, April 11, the “Students Against Sean” group addressed the United Student Government (USG) to voice their concerns.

That same day, USG put out a statement requesting Sean Kingston’s removal.

“We feel that hosting Sean Kingston contradicts our Jesuit identity, specifically Cura Personalis and being Men and Women for and with others,” they wrote. “While we recognize that under the law, all

are innocent until proven guilty, as men and women for and with others, we must not participate in the silencing of sexual assault survivors, rather we are called upon to raise their voices.”

Kathryn Teaney, GSB ’19, CAB president, said in a statement to The Fordham Ram that they do take into account artists’ past controversies when scheduling a performance. She said that unfortunately, when completing their original search for Kings-

ton, these allegations did not come up.

“The new information does not affect the validity of our contract with Mr. Kingston and at this time we plan to keep him in the lineup for the concert,” reads CAB’s statement.

In a joint statement to The Fordham Ram, the “Students Against Sean” advocates said they had initially left comments voicing their concerns from their personal accounts on the Sean Kingston

announcement post. However, shortly after, comments on the post were disabled.

“Because of issues in past years, we've decided to disable comments on all Spring Weekend announcement posts,” Teaney said.

However, in a statement found in the Students Against Sean Instagram account bio, the group said they do not believe this to be the case.

“Last year's announcements were open for comments and so were Kingston’s until someone mentioned the allegations,” they stated.

The “Students Against Sean” said they have received pushback from other members of the Fordham community. “[Adversaries] suggested we ignore this allegation and 'just have fun' since CAB members worked so hard to organize Spring Weekend,” they said.

“Our supporters have found this unacceptable, and we need to hold CAB and our administration accountable.”

An Instagram account was created with the handle @studentsforsean, in support of Sean Kingston, stating the student body has the “right” to see him perform.

“It is also your right not to go,” one post reads. “You can simply wait for the other acts to come on the stage.”

USG Hosts Third Annual Week of Action FROM ACTION, PAGE 1

messages relating to the issue of sexual assault on a t-shirt and hung them on a clothesline in front of McGinley Center. The t-shirts remained up for the entire week. Budd said this was an opportunity for students to stand in support of survivors of sexual assault and for survivors to share their own stories.

Tuesday’s event was a bystander intervention workshop in the Student Lounge. The committee handed out pamplets about consent and bystander intervention and had people sign a sign that they made, pledging to be an active bystander. They are planning on hanging the banner in McGinley Center.

Nate Singh, FCRH ’20, USG’s vice president of health and security, said this issue pertains to resident and commuter students alike. He said they wanted to get commuters more involved in their events, and they worked with Vanessa Reyes, FCRH ’19, Commuter Student Association president emeritus to get the word out about the event to commuters.

The Speak Out Against Sexual Assault, hosted by Women's Empowerment (WE) and Rodrigues’, was Tuesday night.

Singh said this is an event that WE puts on every semester.

“This year we included it as part of the week of action,” he said. “It was completely put on by them, we just wanted to be the to support their event

because it’s such a powerful and moving experience for a lot of people who are there to listen in on people’s individual experiences with sexual assault.”

Wednesday was the Horrors of Healthcare event. Anya Patterson, FCRH ’19, presented her thesis about black and brown women in gynecology and the liberties the health care system takes without their consent. Budd said she presented her presentation from the research symposium.

“I think the intention there is to make sure we’re addressing all aspects of the issue of sexual assault and that it inadvertently effects people of color and LGBTQ people differently than straight white women,” said Budd.

The event on Thursday was a self-defense class in the gym. A self-defense and krav maga instructor went over stances, how to properly throw a punch and real life scenarios.

“We want to make sure that nobody thinks we’re hosting a selfdefense class to focus on educating women to defend themselves over educating people not to commit acts of sexual assault,” said Budd.

“The reality is that it does happen, so we want to make sure people are feeling prepared, confident and safe in their abilities.”

The last event was Candy and Consent at senior night on Thursday night. The committee handed out pieces of candy stapled to pieces of paper with information about Title IX at Fordham and information about consent. Singh said a lot of people took them and hopefully

learned something from them.

Singh said the committee chooses events based on what students will be the most interested in going to and what events will reach the most students. He said they look at what will be effective in terms of ability to spread awareness and education about sexual assault.

“Every semester we try to mix it up to see what students are responsive to, as well as bringing in as many perspectives to the issue as we can,” said Singh.

He said it is important to include different perspectives.

For example, last semester, they included an event where Rev. Lito Salazar, S.J., spoke about the Church’s perspective on the issue of sexual assault.

Singh said a large part of this week is about reaching out to students who have been affected by this issue and letting them know that their voices will not be ignored.

“The ultimate aim for this week is to get more students in this community to be educated about this issue and to care about this issue. It’s to show that students care a lot about sexual assault and how it impacts students here,” Singh said. “We want to show that this issue is not ignored at Fordham and as a student body we are prioritizing action against sexual assault.”

Budd said they want to make sure their peers know what resources are offered to them. She said they want to expand the

COURTESY OF THE COMMITTEE ON SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

Students make posters for USG's annual Week of Action.

conversation and make a lasting impression on this issue The committee on Sexual Misconduct is a group of 15-20 undergraduate students who work on initiatives and events relating to Title IX at Fordham and the overall education and awareness of the issue.

“I hope that [the Week of Action] continues the conversation and people keep talking about it and that anyone who is feeling alone in their situation realizes that this is a conversation that’s happening and that there are people that support them,” said Budd. “And that they start to

learn about and understand their resources here.”

“We really couldn’t have done anything we did this week without the work of our committee members," said Singh. "They put in so much time and effort to make sure these events are well programmed and effective."

Singh said the committee worked closely with the Title IX office and administrators to make sure all information given to students throughout the week is accurate. All members of the committee go through Title IX training to ensure the information they are giving is accurate.

NEWS

April 24, 2019

Page 7

USG Announces the 2019-2020 Election Results

Election Sees Over 360 More Votes than Last FROM USG, PAGE 1

Kevin McSorley, GSB ’20, will assume the role of vice president of student life after serving as senator this past year.

Emma Budd, FCRH ’20, will assume the role of vice president of health & security from Nate Singh, FCRH ’20.

Senators for the FCRH class of 2020 include Emily Silfies,

COURTESY OF RAM ARCHIVES

USG meets weekly to discuss student affairs and vote on resolutions.

FCRH ’20, and incumbent senators Matthew Schumacher, FCRH ’20, and Domenic Setaro, FCRH ’20.

Senators for the GSB class of 2020 include incumbent senator Tomicich and write-in candidate, Roderick Perez.

Senators for the FCRH class of 2021 include newcomer and transfer Tyler Raciti, FCRH ’21, as well as returning senators Carsyn Fisher, FCRH ’21, and Carlos Rico, FCRH ’21.

The GSB class of 2021 will see incumbent Nicholas Abbazio, GSB ’21, and newcomer Chirayu Shah, GSB ’21, assume their roles for senate.

Of the nine candidates who ran for FCRH senate for the class of 2022, Arianna Chen, FCRH ’22, and Liam Leahy, FCRH ’22, as well as incumbent candidate D’Onofrio, will assume their roles for senate.

Incumbent candidate Matthew Heutel, GSB ’22, and newcomer Luke Morgan, GSB ’22, will assume the senate seats for the GSB class of 2022.

The inauguration for the new senate will be held on May 2 in O’Hare Special Collections Room on the fourth floor of Walsh’s Library. It will be held after the USG meeting that day.

Sullivan said he hopes the

KATIE MORRIS/THE FORDHAM RAM

Thomas Reuter, FCRH '22, right, was elected VP of communications.

increased candidates and voter turnout will continue in future elections.

“The 2019 USG election was a success with over 360 more votes than last year’s elections,” said Sullivan. “I am so

proud of all the candidates who won and want to thank everyone who chose to run. This year, we saw a record number of candidates for the freshmen class. We hope that involvement continues in future elections.”

SNL Comedians to Perform at SW FROM CAB, PAGE 1

FCRH '20, said CAB ran into unforeseen roadblocks while booking this year’s Spring Weekend comedian. They said they decided that a combination of the two comedians would be best given the timeframe.

“Two co-headliners puts a spin on our timeless event — breathing some new life into the Sunday night event felt appropriate,” said Mackowiak and McKay. “Furthermore, by going back to our "SNL" roots, we were hoping to see an increase in attendance from last year’s comedian.”

They said the booking process usually involves them reaching out to their agent, then receiving a list of comedians within their price range.

The co-chairs create proposals for their top choices and send them to their advisor and the assistant dean for student involvement for approval. After being approved, she said they submit a bid for the comedian through CAB's agent.

Mackowiak and McKay said it is consistently difficult to find a comedian whose content is not offensive to members of the

Fordham community, as comedy has become more controversial and divisive over the years.

“In an effort to adhere to our Jesuit values, we would not want to bring someone who could potentially upset any one group on this campus,” they said. “While this only creates limitations for us throughout the booking process, putting the needs of our community first is our priority.”

Mackowiak and McKay said CAB hopes that this year’s headliner’s "SNL" background will resonate with the Fordham community and reinforce Fordham’s connection with the greater New York City area.

“We would not bring someone to campus that we ourselves would not feel comfortable with, so we’re sure that Moffat and Day will be able to put on a hilariously funny and socially conscious show,” she said.

The show will take place Sunday, April 28 at 6:00 p.m. in Leonard Prep Theatre. Admission is free for all students and no guests are permitted. According the CAB's Instagram story Tuesday morning, t-shirts and "swag" will be given out at the event.

A RANGE OF CLASSES AS WIDE AS THE OCEAN Astronomy • Business Ethics • Calculus • Chemistry Digital Art and Design • Economics • Forensic Biology Genetics • Marketing • Microbiology • Philosophy • Spanish Sport Management • Supply Chain Management • Web Design

www.shu.edu/summer19 COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Both Alex Moffat and Mikey Day are performers on "Saturday Night Live."

OPINION

Page 8

April 24, 2019

The Fordham Ram

Jesulit, Barstool Fordham Don’t Know What the Fordham Community Is

By JACK McLOONE

SPORTS EDITOR EMERITUS

On the whole, Fordham students have high expectations for Spring Weekend.

The above thought is the only semi-rational reasoning I can come up with for a vocal minority to push for Sean Kingston to remain as the Spring Weekend concert headliner.

These same groups—namely @jesulituniversity and @barstoolfordham — also had a fit when Soulja Boy was removed from the weekend.

However, wanting a good concert is no reason to disregard Jesuit values or basic human empathy and reason.

The Jesulits and Barstool Fordhams of the world/campus are mad because of a misguided understanding of the process, or maybe just some deep-seeded inferiority complex originating in their desire to emulate a fraternity.

On Thursday, Fordham’s United Student Government (USG) met with a student group that was advocating for Sean Kingston to be removed from Spring Weekend following the revelation that he had settled an alleged gang rape case out of court in 2013. USG ultimately released a statement advocating for the removal of Kingston as the performer.

“We feel that hosting Sean Kingston contradicts our Jesuit identity, specifically Cura Personalis and being Men and Women for and with others,” the statement said. “We believe that his presence on campus is a direct undermining of these ide-

COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

United Student Government has released a statement advocating for the removal of Kingston as the performer.

als. While we recognize that under the law, all are innocent until proven guilty, as men and women for and with others, we must not participate in the silencing of sexual assault survivors, rather we are called upon to raise their voices.”

It’s worth pointing out here that this USG statement is not an official cancelling of Sean Kingston. Campus Activities Board has, as of now, yet to make a decision. The group has also, understandably, come under fire for its seemingly lax vetting process for artists.

Both Jesulit and Barstool Fordham, those last bastions for goodtime havers at Fordham, were upset.

Barstool Fordham’s Instagram story featured screenshots of the USG statement saying, “This is why we can’t have nice things…,” “These

reports were proven to be false” and “Can you imagine being the voice of the student body and being this out of touch with the fordham community.”

Well, for one, settling out of court is most definitely not “proving something false” and instead often occurs in order to avoid litigating the case and exposing the truth.

Second, what “Fordham community” is Barstool Fordham talking about, exactly? My Fordham community hangs t-shirts in support of sexual violence victims outside of the McGinley Center and has a USG committee solely focused on lessening sexual violence. My Fordham community doesn’t get mad online because someone with more than a modicum of empathy and who doesn’t spend their days posting voy-

euristic shots of people hooking up at bars is looking to do a net positive for the school by cancelling a problematic (to put it lightly) performer that has already been canceled by schools like UConn.

The Jesulit account also disagrees with USG’s statement and gets in on questioning whether they are truly “representative.” Well, seeing as how its members are elected by the student body — the polls closed on Friday — yes. It’s on you if you don’t see yourself represented; run for office or vote if you think otherwise.

These two groups also have decided to take their absurd and misguided anger and turn it into a “movement,” asking students to email Cody Arcuri, the assistant dean for student involvement. First when it was announced that Soulja Boy was

being removed from the concert and now with the threat of the same fate to Sean Kingston.

It’s, again, worth noting that one of the emails to Arcuri that Jesulit promoted on its Instagram story was upset with the decision to remove Soulja Boy and replace him with Sean Kingston because no one supposedly cared about Kingston while Soulja Boy has good songs.

Someone who still wants him to be the performer despite all of that so they can stumble through “Crank That” on Martyrs’ Lawn is supposedly more “representative” of Fordham than USG and others who were happy with that decision and also want Kingston removed.

So Barstool Fordham, Jesulit and those of you that agree with them: what exactly is your game plan here?

Are you okay with implicitly disbelieving a woman’s claim of sexual assault because she was paid a large sum in a settlement so you can listen to “Fire Burning” with your shirt off?

You didn’t have to come to a Jesuit school. But you did and, by consequence, are being exposed to morals that you may not believe in at all.

You are free to choose to ignore them, but you can’t do so while also claiming to speak for the entire community. Maybe take some time to engage with a wider portion of Fordham than your Instagram followers instead of posting potshots on your stories.

Jack McLoone, FCRH ’19, is a journalism major from Little Silver, New Jersey.

Twitter is Full of Misleading Ledes

By BRIANA SCALIA OPINION EDITOR

As an aspiring journalist, it’s pretty much included in the job description that I be up to date on major news stories. Though just as important, it’s often not stated that I should also be fact-checking every story I come across before paying it mind.

A quick glance through this week’s Twitter moments would have you believe that the Supreme Court is deciding on the rights of LGBTQ+ workers in the next coming days.

The heading, “Supreme Court to decide whether Title VII covers LGBT workers,” appears only after clicking on the moment.

One tweet a few moments down goes even further, detailing the major issue that the Supreme Court is to determine whether the present terminology of the law includes those of varying sexual orientations.

Though not intentionally misleading, most of our sources of information these days can often lead to a state of confusion. Logging onto Twitter every morning is like navigating the conversation of a crowded room that began long before you knocked on the door.

Each day new hashtags are trending, new threads are being published

and new information is being spread to millions of users (well, as long as it fits into a 280 character limit).

Don’t get me wrong, I love Twitter. I have two accounts, one professional account for all my journalistic needs and one casual account where I can post my amateur sketches of people (@briana__scalia and @bri_valentina because why not?).

As aforementioned, I check both accounts multiple times a day, whether to catch up on current events or to waste time liking relatable posts. But I would be lying if I said I had never been deceived by some kind of tweet.

Before sitting down to write this article, I was fully prepared to publish a scathing article demanding the Supreme Court reconsider taking working rights from those in the LGBTQ+ community...until I realized I had completely misunderstood the story.

Twitter is not the source of this quick news trend. On the contrary, the social media platform is just doing its best to keep pace with the shortened attention span of the average user. And though some might think of this shortened attention span as a sign of entitlement, I see it as quite the opposite.

We are all expected to keep up on everything. Ask any non “Game of Thrones” fan how they feel browsing social media after each new episode

release.

Technology has given us the power of knowledge at our fingertips. It’s not surprising that the result is that people want to know everything, from the latest incestual hookup of Westeros (no spoilers here) to Senator Warren’s new student loan forgiveness policy.

The power of instant knowledge could only be followed by the expectation of immediate answers, and in a world of gray rather than black and white, the succinct answer is not al-

ways the correct answer.

Wanting to stay updated about the world around us isn’t something to be ashamed of. If I’m being honest, it’s one of the things I value most in those I consider my closest friends.

But with the desire to understand comes the necessity to fully understand. To look further into news stories, to do your own research before boycotting a celebrity or just to read further into the Twitter moment.

Even if it takes an additional half an

hour, it’s worth your time to read up on stories you find interesting.

Yes, Twitter could do its part to try and make some of its stories more clear.

But in the end, it falls on our shoulders to be more responsible about the information that we circulate, be it over the phone or in person.

Briana Scalia, FCRH ’20, is a journalism major from Long Island, New York.

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Though Twitter could try to make its headlines more straightfoward, it’s the reader’s responsibility to research further.

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April 24, 2019

Page 9

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SUMMER SESSION 2019

Session I: May 28–June 27 Session II: July 2–August 6

Register now via my.fordham.edu. fordham.edu/summer

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

Website FordhamRam.com Email Address theram@fordham.edu

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

The Fordham Ram’s editorial is se-

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

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

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

April 24, 2019

From the Desk | Katie Morris

It Memes A Lot To Me

Today, memes are the easily identifiable backbone of millennial internet culture. Angry Arthur, Tea Kermit, Sarcastic Spongebob and Yodelling Kid are all memes that united the internet in a brief, shared inside joke.

Regardless of, or perhaps in spite of, vocal disapproval, modern culture has embraced the grassroots power of memes.

Memes are not simply a form of entertainment but rather a medium of ideas. Because the meme underworld pulses as a subtle undercurrent resistant to authoritative manipulation, memes can revolutionize culture in ways unachievable through explicit control. Memes are prolific, important and unaffected by the scorns of your meme-shaming-distantrelative-Aunt-Jenny.

To start, memes deserve due acknowledgement for their position in the entertainment industry. Like movies, television, and books, memes are crafted to entertain, unite and engage audiences.

Once a meme is created, it spreads through Twitter (the classic raw-meme provider), Instagram (Twitter’s visually cultivated opponent), Tumblr (for the edgy grunge) or Facebook (the middleaged-mother playground), where users then choose to replicate, alter or reject this meme.

Some memes achieve enough

stardom to transcend generational and cultural differences (like the gold and white dress), while others circulate among a smaller niche group.

Regardless of orbital sphere, memes are beloved for the humor, satire and realism. They are a form of original, creative and funny entertainment with enough fans to rival America’s traditional pastimes.

Memes are also one of the most effective forms of idea communication.

Officially, a meme is “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture,” according to Merriam-Webster. Internet memes are generally videos, images, text or some a combination of all three.

The basic structure is comprised of two parts: the format and the message. Formats can be frequently replicated and personalized skeletal structures (“Is this a pigeon”) or completely variable (“Damn Daniel”). Limited by simple graphics and short words, simplicity is a central aspect of memes. Only a few ideas can be communicated, and most meme formats require rudimentary interpretation. This non-convoluted presentation is inviting and easy to transfer.

Meanwhile, the comedic element appeals to entertainment

and encourages a participant to continue. This ubiquity is an important source of memes’ power.

Memes seize on this ubiquity to facilitate meaningful change.

This meme magic is found in the potent power of memes to deliver a message. As a social movement, memes wield the power of dissenting thought.

Within meme culture, participants, shielded by the anonymity of the internet, shamelessly critique life. The dissatisfied and disillusioned use social media as an outlet to express frustration by mocking unfavorable aspects of society.

Memes are particularly powerful for this purpose because they present a sideways argument instead of a direct attack.

A meme highlights an issue but does not engage in an active shaming, therefore lessening the likelihood of defensive responses.

Readers are then allowed to interpret and judge validity.

By weaponizing cultural information, transmission, and replication, Because the main target of memes is culture, memes are immensely powerful weapons of ideological war.

As with all media, memes are not without fault. That said, memes need to be approached with caution, not fear. A meme’s greatest asset, its simplicity, also renders memes simplified ver-

sions of complex and nuanced arguments.

As grassroot media, memes are prone to presenting narrow, one-sided views and are easy harbingers of misinformation. However, it is wrong to place blame on memes; it is a reader’s responsibility to evaluate and research the messages presented in memes.

The purpose of memes is not to provide reliable information or replace balanced discourse but create a complementary form of discussion.

When the internet revolution came, it offered opportunities for otherwise powerless individuals to contribute to society. Memes are a symptom of this new ability ,and it is time we properly evaluate their contribution. Ready or not, memes will continue to change the world by reshaping society. I suggest you be ready.

Editorial | In Memoriam

Respecting the Life and Memory of Sydney Monfries On the morning of Sunday, April 14, members of the Fordham community received an email from Public Safety informing them that a student was critically injured in a fall from the Keating Hall clock tower.

Updates from Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the university, on the condition of Sydney Monfries, FCRH ’19, continued throughout the day, notifying individuals of a mass held in her honor and of her ultimate passing.

The coverage of the incident by the New York Times, the New York Post, the Daily Mail and Inside Edition, among others, was offensive and irresponsible journalism.

There are opportunities for exciting storytelling in news journalism, and there are moments when this style of reporting is completely inappropriate. Similarly, there are times when the sharing of sensitive information is justified and times when it is, unquestionably, not.

Fordham lost a valued member of its community this past Sunday.

The aforementioned outlets’ romanticization of the “forbidden” campus clock tower from which Sydney fell and the sensationalizing of the incident through its vivid description were as disrespectful as they were

abhorrent.

The use of The Ram’s 2013 feature article in an attempt to portray the incident as the latest development in a systemic phenomenon involving mischievous student trips up the tower was misguided and misleading.

The positioning of her death as an attempt to “get a good picture for Instagram” and of Sydney as just another selfie-obsessed young person was obnoxious and despicable.

It is not the media’s place to create blame for an incident that is, at its core, senseless.

Sydney did not die because she and her friends succumbed to the “irresistible” “allure” of the iconic structure.

Her death was not a failure to fulfill a mythicized “rite of passage” or a symptom of a studentwide thrill-seeking craze or social media takeover.

Sydney’s death was just tragic.

Any news coverage that paints the incident with dramatic macabre or presents it as an indicator of some wider trend instead of the heart-wrenching accident it was is a shameful and inexcusable exploitation of her memory.

There are stereotypes that cast journalists as manipulative and ruthless storytellers who take advantage of high-interest situations for fleeting moments of visibility in return.

It is unfortunate that many reporters fed into those tropes on Sunday.

The Ram chose not to disclose intimate details of the incident or to release Sydney’s identity before the university put out a statement in an attempt to be considerate of her loved ones.

We wish other outlets had treated the incident with the same care.

We cannot imagine what it must be like for those close to Sydney to be exposed to such harrowing and exploitative depictions of an event that is already likely to stay in their hearts and minds forever.

The best way we at The Ram can show our respect to Sydney, her family and all those affected during this time is by reporting on her death with integrity.

The best way we all as individuals can show our respect is by discussing her death in the same way.

We urge you — for this incident and all going forward — not to share or engage with the sort of journalistic coverage that exploits tragedy for its shock or entertainment value.

We urge you to keep in mind the realities behind the dramatized narratives, as well as the real people behind them.

Sydney’s death was a life-altering occurrence in the lives of

many people, on Fordham’s campus and elsewhere. It is a painful tragedy. It is not part of a larger phenomenon, and it should not be used as click-bait.

There is a palpable air of devastation at Rose Hill that outside reporters and readers do not nor cannot experience for themselves.

This devastation has been exacerbated by the spectacle with which the tragedy is circulating throughout the media.

The reporters and their respective outlets should feel ashamed of themselves for compounding the grief of a community so already heartbroken.

The Fordham community has a beautiful and organic tendency to come together during even the most difficult of times.

Lean on the support systems — those offered by the university and those you have built yourself — that are available to you at this time and continue to expand those networks with care and integrity going forward.

Honor Sydney’s memory by strengthening your connections with one another and with all things genuine, and honor her by condemning the sensationalism surrounding her passing.

The Ram continues to send comfort and support to those close to the incident and to the Fordham community at large.

OPINION

April 24, 2019

Page 11

GO! But With More Context

HUNTER BENEGAS/THE FORDHAM RAM

While donations given to GO! should not be mistaken for those given to a traditional charity, they still go to a good cause.

By ERIC STOLAR

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Recently The Ram posted an opinion piece, “When Charity GO!es Wrong” written by Sean Franklin, offering some critique of Fordham’s Global Outreach (GO!) program. As someone who has been involved in Global Outreach as a participant, leader and board member, this article immediately caught my attention.

I fully believe that GO! is one of the best things I have ever done at Fordham, but I will also be one of the first to admit that it is not a perfect program. Programs like GO! should be critiqued in order to keep their operations transparent and

their work beneficial. However, if you’re going to offer critique on the program, you must do so with some insight as to what the program actually is.

I want to address and essentially explain some things that were misrepresented in Franklin’s piece. To begin, yes it is correct that GO! is not a charity organization, nor are the things it does charity.

In order to give some better context as to who we are, I suggest taking a look at the GO! website, fordham.edu/go, where you will see that GO! is “a cultural immersion and service program...where Fordham students learn about various issues of social, economic, political and environmental injustice while

living a simple lifestyle that fosters communal and spiritual growth.”

It is also explained to everyone who participates in the program that we are not a charity and the service we accomplish on our projects is not what we are about. We explain that traveling abroad with good intentions to do charity is not simply enough. Throwing money into charity does nothing to resolve injustice, rather, it delays the economic and materialistic hardships of injustice.

Charity without social change is nothing more than extending systems of oppression.

If you want to know what GO! is about from my point of view, GO! is about learning. It is learning

about your position as a student at a university that is just about as privileged as you can get.

It is about learning that while you are sitting in your dorm complaining about your forced triple in South, somewhere in this world there is another kid who deserves to be in your seat just as much as you but instead has been oppressed by series after series of failed social systems of inequality.

Saskia Verdoes, the head of GO!’s community partner in Romania, attempted to provide some insight on how her organization views students who come on trips like GO! projects. Verdoes responded to Franklin’s article in a Facebook comment, “I think it’s important to know that we, as ONG, do not consider the students to be charity volunteers at all!”

I also want to point out that fundraising and charitable giving are not mutually exclusive — you can fundraise for things other than charity.

GO! teams fundraise to offset the program cost for everyone on their team.

As pointed out by Franklin, GO! Projects can cost close to $2,000 per person.

That’s a lot of money to expect an undergrad to just toss over, especially with the cost of a Fordham education. Plus, it’s true that instead of spending $1,000 on a project, you could donate $1,000 to a charitable organization, but that money is going to hold very differ-

ent weight.

The thing is, a lot of the organizations GO! partners with operate on relatively small scales. Many of these organizations rely on the annual income from groups like GO! teams to function. For example, when I led GO! Mexico this past January, my estimated costs were $1,700 per person for 12 people.

That covered our flights and our program fee, which covered everything else for us.

But that program fee did not just cover us — it also was used to buy a week’s worth of food and supplies for the families who housed us for two nights and help contribute to the wages of the employees of the organization.

And sure it would be great if Campus Ministry could pay for the entire cost of a GO! Project, but there are just a few issues with that.

The main issue being that GO! and Campus Ministry are completely separate organizations. Campus Ministry is its own department with its own budget, and Global Outreach is a program under the Center for Community Engaged Learning, a completely different department.

So next time someone asks you to donate to their GO! trip, I urge you to understand the context. As we say in GO!, “To Hell with Good Intentions.”

Eric Stolar, FCRH ’19, is an environmental studies major from Erie, Pennsylvania.

CPS is Worth the Investment

By DANIEL JOY

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Mental illness bears a lofty price tag for many Fordham students.

The dollars and cents accumulate in missed classes, uncompleted assignments and test scores, and they reflect a struggle with an invisible illness, not an innate inability.

Insecurity, isolationism, misery and irritability deplete the mental capital of even the most resilient scholar. The competition for dream jobs and plush salaries is shelved for a battle for stable moods and concentration.

Fordham University also faces significant costs stemming from mental illness. When a Fordham student withdraws from the university because they do not receive the mental health care they need to function and

thrive in our university community, Fordham loses their tuition payment, room and board and purchases at the bookstore.

When Fordham loses a student under these circumstances, they also lose the value of their intellect: the journal publications and grant money that may have stemmed from their research, the lesson plans they might have crafted for undergraduate students as they continued at Fordham for their terminal degrees and the name recognition they might have brought their alma mater when they go forth and set the world on fire.

Years down the road, Fordham will lose the donations the student would have made if they’d graduated and looked fondly upon the Jesuit University of New York.

In order to limit the costs incurred by both students and the university,

Fordham has invested in providing mental health resources to the university community.

The Office of Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) provides Fordham students with group counseling, up to ten sessions of individual counseling, prescriptions through their in-house psychiatrist and referrals to outside mental health providers. CPS also provides guidance and intervention training to Fordham employees and organizations. However, Fordham should consider investing more money in CPS. For some who walk into CPS, they get their 10 sessions and require no more. For others, 10 sessions will not adequately address their mental health concerns.

They find themselves at the end of the line, forced to confront their illness without additional university-

HUNTER BENEGAS/THE FORDHAM RAM

Counseling and Psychological Services fulfills an essential function on campus, but it must be given more funds.

provided talk therapy to ease their symptoms before they’re handed their diploma – if they make it that far. Some request ten sessions and are denied immediate care.

Instead, they are pigeonholed to a waitlist, where they languish without the immediate care necessitated by their condition.

Others, in addition to or in place of ten sessions, seek a referral to an outside care provider only to have to remind the staff of said request before receiving their referral.

Year to year, the budget for CPS must grow at a faster rate. More counselors must be hired so more students can be seen for more sessions.

Additional support staff must be on hand to provide outside referrals for students based upon their specific insurance coverage or lack thereof, follow up with these students to ascertain whether they’ve found success with the referral and provide ad-hoc support and additional referrals to those students who have not.

These support staff require a more comprehensive database for storing information on the students from the time they first walk in to far after they leave for good.

This growth in staff and information technology infrastructure must be accompanied by more office space for administration and more rooms for meeting with clients. This will necessitate the expansion of CPS from the basement of O’Hare Hall to additional satellite offices.

I understand that an increased investment in CPS would have op-

portunity costs; every additional dollar spent on CPS could have been spent on scholarships or teacher pay and every additional room allocated to psychological services could have been used as a classroom. However, in the long run, any additional investment in psychological services would more than pay for itself.

When students find relief for their mental health symptoms through counseling, they are able to remain as students and complete their degrees, which means they provide Fordham with the tuition bill required for such a feat.

I am a testament to the value of CPS. The beginning of my sophomore year, I cold-called the office seeking help for depression. After the screening call, I went into the Office, where, in the course of my first consultation, I was referred to a psychologist a stroll off campus.

Aside from prescribing me antidepressant medication, he has been the biggest asset in helping to manage my depression.

In large part because of that referral, I’ve been able to serve the Fordham population in a myriad of ways: as a Resident Assistant who assembles care packages for his residents, as a club leader who exposes students to the joys of nature and as an economics major who will remain at Fordham through a Ph.D. program if that’s what it takes to prove that people like me are worth the investment.

Daniel Joy, FCRH ’20, is an economics major from Ellington, Connecticut.

FORDHAM LOOKS FORWARD

Page 12

April 24, 2019

Facilities Improves University from Ground Up

By HANNAH GONZALEZ MANAGING EDITOR

For this issue’s Fordham Looks Forward, The Ram sat down with Marco Valera, vice president for Facilities Management, to discuss current and future projects for the department. Valera described Facilities’ ongoing maintenance efforts, upcoming renovations and movement toward renewable energy sources.

Hannah Gonzalez: To start out, what are some of things you’ve been working on so far, and what are you going to be continuing to work on in next semester?

Marco Valera: We cover a lot of different areas. We have Public Safety, which reports through Facilities Management. They’re more of operational department, and in that area, we’ll continue to provide excellent service and respond to changes as they occur, both internally and externally.

They also get a lot of training in crisis management.

Those operational things are ongoing. Facilities performs the day to day stewardship and operations needs, which I think most people kind of take for granted, because it’s always there. But it takes a lot of effort to continue to deliver them in an efficient and cost effective manner, and in a more a sustainable way.

So that’s the operations side.

The other big area is construction, project management and renovations. So we always have a series of projects going on every year. Some are just to keep the buildings operational and in good condition. For example, roofs. I’ve got over 80 roofs to take care of, from little ones to big ones. That’s the project side.

Along with that, we make improvements. This past year we just finished the third floor of JMH. Downtown we did a big project on the sixth floor and renovated that completely. Right now we’re getting ready for the next set of renovations that we’re starting in the summer—for example, putting an elevator in Collins Hall so you can get to the theater. Then ultimately we’ll do some improvements in Collins Hall after the elevator is in.

We have a variety of other projects. We are now in the development for a campus center.

The program and the budgets are being looked at. Hopefully we can do that in the near future, because it’s much-needed on this campus.

The sustainable side is another area that we’ve been working on for years, primarily to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. That’s been the focus that Father McShane asked us to look at. A lot of that really centers on the physical plant, because the situation is really about fossil fuels, electricity, all those things.

So we’ve had a few initiatives working toward reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. We’re actually down 26% since we started doing a variety of measures about 10 years ago. I think that’s very good, given that we’ve also grown significantly in the amount of buildings we have, mostly down at Lincoln Center.

Our goal is to get to least 40%.

We’re also looking at renew-

able energy. We don’t have a date yet, but we’re looking to be 100 percent renewable in electricity that we consume. And to that end we just installed a solar array on top of the garage. That’s been an initiative that we quietly put in place, and it’s going to be operational in April. It will be the largest solar array in a New York City higher ed. institution. Others have relatively modest solar arrays. We were obviously able to take advantage of the very large floor space that the garage has. So it’s a great thing for us.

We’re also looking to purchase green power. We entered into an agreement for 20 years to 2.6 megawatts of power from an offsite array. We’re looking to ultimately try to be as a renewable as we can. And then there’s a bunch of other projects, like replacing our light bulbs with LED bulbs.

We had significant reductions in the amount of energy that we use—over 15% drop over time.

So I think those are the big buckets of what Facilities Management does.

HG: Looking forward, do you

have any other longer-term goals that you want to tackle?

MV: We know we have a lot of needs, as most universities have.

We are looking longer-term at our science facilities, and the possibility of adding a new science facility or making major renovations to what we already have in place. So that’s a significant item for us.

At least at this campus, we have a lot of older buildings, which are quite handsome and neat and look great, but they require a lot of TLC. Renovating them up to the current code is something we’ve been doing, and it will take us decades. It’s an ongoing effort.

And, frankly, we have to prioritize with limited resources.

We don’t have the amount of money that we would ideally love to have for our buildings. So we have to make some compromises, or to extend the life of a building or equipment that we might’ve otherwise wanted to change out right away. So those are challenges that we face: how to keep the plants and the buildings in good condition operationally in proba-

bly the highest cost environment of any city in the United States.

We’re looking at renewables, but most likely renewables are going to be something that occurs offsite. It’s developing now with the governor’s initiatives of wind and solar and so on. We’re trying to find the right place where we fit in. We just don’t have enough space. These solar arrays need to be really vast to generate the amount of power that you would need. Wind is a renewable source of power, but there’s just not enough wind coming on our campus. So we’ll probably do that in a model where we purchase renewable power from providers as they come online over the next five to 10 years.

We are putting in 2.1 megawatts of hydrogen cell technology, which is considered renewable. That will pick up about a quarter of our campus electricity, which will then be renewable and generated onsite. The rest we’ll get offsite. There’s a lot of technology coming online. So we’re looking to find the best opportunities we can.

HG: Are there any other exciting projects you would want students to know about?

MV: You know our Armonk campus, Calder Center? We’re trying to see if we can put in a small water turbine that would generate electricity from the lake.

It’s small, but it’s a fun project to try out.

We’re also working with Saint Rose’s Garden. They want to put in a greenhouse and more than double their site. Another project is that we’re putting in a new gym floor, as it’s very worn and outdated. So there’s a variety of projects throughout the campus.

Some you’ll notice, some you won’t notice.

We just finished the ground floor of Dealy Hall this year, which seems to be very popular with students. Ultimately I would love to put a glass-enclosed exterior on Starbucks, but that’s down the road.

Mostly, like I said, our three major buckets are running operations efficiently, constructing things and trying to be more sustainable.

COURTESY OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

Facilities Management has installed solar arrays on top of Walsh Library (top) and the parking garage (bottom), which become operational this April.

April 24, 2019

FORDHAM LOOKS FORWARD

Page 13

COURTESY OF RAM ARCHIVES

Recently, Facilities Management completed projects renovating the first floor of Dealy Hall on the Rose Hill campus (left) and the sixth floor of Lowenstein Hall at the Lincoln Center campus (right).

COURTESY OF RAM ARCHIVES

Facilities Management’s upcoming projects include work on St. Rose’s Garden, Collins Hall and the Rose Hill Gym, as well as the continuing service of Facilities’ department of Public Safety.

Page 14

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April 24, 2019

CULTURE

April 24, 2019

Page 15

Editor’s Pick | Music and Identity

Revolting Against Expectations, Learning Self-Love

By BOJEUNG LEUNG VISUAL DIRECTOR

Whether because of time constraints or my heritage, my identity has been divided, making it almost impossible to have one unified identity. With all the chaos in the world and near-constant bad news, it’s been a lot to try to handle. At Fordham, we have made the news a lot the past few years but not for many good or happy things.

To deal with this chaos, I have worked on fostering a sense of love, community and purpose, exchanging my fear in favor of having more of a positive attitude.

I have found a sense of pride in embracing my mixed identities and seeing how others have chased after a seemingly unobtainable thing: positivity and self-love. The major elements that have been a catalyst in my transformation have been music and dance.

As we get closer to finals and I have just two brain cells left for studying, the past few weeks have been fantastic for helping me keep my mental headspace in a positive frame. As some of my favorite artists have dropped new tracks or projects, I thought it would be a great time to share the people who are not only keeping me motivated but are also inspiring me.

I’ll start with my love of K-pop.

Yes, K-pop. For those who have

not joined the wave that’s seeping throughout mainstream music, it’s time you did. Groups like BTS, BLACKPINK and NCT have been breaking records left and right with their newest albums and appearances in America.

But you shouldn’t start to listen to K-pop idols just because they are breaking records and dance really well. It’s their themes and music that make me and so many other fans flock to them. Looking at BTS, it has been discussing things like having the courage to face your faults and weaknesses and having the compassion to forgive yourself for them.

BTS had a massive UNICEF campaign in conjunction with its “Love Yourself” album series called: "LOVE MYSELF." The campaign was an attempt to ensure children and teens in the world lead safe and healthy lives without fear of violence. BTS’ message since it debuted has been to, “find love in [yourself], embrace people and society in a larger sense with love.” Its new era just started with “Map of the Soul: Persona,” a mixture of funk-pop songs about happiness, love and references to Greek mythology, it’s the perfect time to start listening to the group.

The way that BTS embraces its faults and tries to grow and become better people while also bringing more love into the world has really made me try to do the same.

Another person that BTS (and

BOJEUNG LEUNG/THE FORDHAM RAM

Groups like BTS, BLACKPINK and NCT are huge modern K-pop artists, making a splash with appearances in America.

my friend Ezra) has inspired me to listen to is Rina Sawayama, who in her own right is the future of pop. As a Japanese-British artist, her music is not J-pop or K-pop but rather peak Britney Spears pop music. She’s invited fans to send in video submissions speaking about their “hard to pronounce” names, talked about the pain of being closeted and has full dance choreography. Everyone should stream

“Flicker” at least once during finals to find some positivity and uplift people who, in her words, are “misunderstood for who [they] truly are.” Rina is one of those artists that I wish I had more of growing up. She’s completely owning her identity and making sure people respect it.

Speaking about respect, I must talk about Beyoncé’s “Homecoming,” which, somehow, we at The Ram have not talked about and was

her groundbreaking performance at the 2018 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Her project is both a Netflix musical documentary and a live album. Beyoncé pushed the vision of Afro-futurism and black excellence to millions of people. The past two weeks of seeing people that looked like me, people that despite their struggles and hardships were able to rise above and find a sense of pride, was glorious.

Catania's: Serving Superb Slices Since 1949

COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

Catania's Pizza is a local spot that's no frills and all food, offering a classic New York City pizza shop experience.

Catania’s is the most old-school pizza shop I have ever been to, and that is a serious compliment.

The place has been around since the good ol’ days — 1949 to be exact (which I know because it is stated boldly on the sign out front). I am certain nothing has changed. It is at the very end of Arthur Avenue and across from Columbus Park, with a huge sign out front that is hard to miss. The walls are covered with old black-and-white pictures of Italian people and some other signs, similarly Italian.

The tables are classic: small and plain. There is dark wood in places and some gray tiles on the floor. The walls have a grayish, yellowish and whiteish color that reminds you of your grandparents’ house or a diner you would stop at on the side of a highway during a road trip. They even have oregano and parmesan cheese shakers on every table just to remind you that you are at a pizza shop. I love the vibe.

Catania’s has a decent selection of classic Italian slice shop foods and a great selection of calzones available.

If you are not looking to get a slice, they have mini-calzones that look like ravioli but are made with pizza dough, which is quite idiosyncratic. The slices, though, are what we are interested in for the purpose of this column, so I will give you my thoughts.

The slices are probably the smallest I have had in the neighborhood. However, I would rather have a slice on the smaller side than too large. Order two slices and it is no problem. The dough at Catania’s is what really stands out. It is on the chewier side, but this gives it a great bite and makes it more satisfying than dough that is too thin or too crispy. The pizza is baked perfectly to a nice golden-brown.

The cheese and sauce were both solid. Nothing was particularly memorable about either, simply classic mozzarella and tomato sauce flavor.

They know how to portion both just right, with neither too much nor too little cheese, and the perfect amount of sauce to keep the crust moist but not soggy. All the ingredients tasted fresh, and it seemed like they were making new pies throughout the day so nothing became stale from sitting out too long.

Overall, you must check out Catania’s. It is a local spot that’s no frills, all food. It is a family-owned operation with nice people and great slices. It does not seem like much has changed at Catania’s in the last 70 years, but it also does not seem like they have anything to change. They have been doing the same thing for decades, slinging some of the best dough I have ever seen. Catania’s is the real deal.

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Page 16

April 24, 2019

Students Reflect on First Year Experience Three Rams Recall Personal Journeys A Whirlwind of Feelings and Memories

By MARIANA B. HERNANDEZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

It's 1:15 a.m. I turn my key in my door and tiptoe in quietly so as not to wake up my roommates. I quickly realize that they’ve both already gone home for break. It’s oddly quiet. I’ve grown so used to the noise of other people, whether it be conversation, laughter or just the sound of breathing.

There’s only a few weeks left before the semester ends and I’m already thinking about how hard this summer is going to be. I climb into bed and prepare to say good night, but no one’s there. I cannot wait until break is over — the room feels too empty without my roommates.

At 5:00 p.m, I sit on a Ram Van headed towards Lincoln Center. We drive past the LC fountain and I make sure to catch a view of it, trying to ingrain every single detail into my memory. I step off the van and meet up with my friend for dinner.

What I love about this city is its ability to change your plans. We catch a subway down to the Village for dessert. We sit on a stoop and talk for hours. We finally leave around 11:30 p.m and head towards the subway, grateful for good food, public transit and New York City.

2:20 p.m. I’m speed-walking across

campus because, of course, Starbucks has made me late. I arrive exactly on time, jumping onto the Ram Van and off to Jumpstart. Two times a week, two hours each, in a classroom with fouryear-olds, helping them increase their literacy through activities and games.

The kids give me life and the Jumpstart team members have become some of my closest friends. I’m reminded daily that I came to Fordham for an opportunity like this. How incredibly lucky we are to be given the chance to engage with the Bronx community.

Then at 8:00 a.m, I wake up and, for a moment, I’ve forgotten where I am. I still haven’t gotten used to being here but, simultaneously, I can’t seem to remember life before college. Fordham sometimes feels like such a bubble, sep-

arated from the outside world. I’ve grown so attached to everything about it. As I sit up, I run through my daily schedule, starting with my morning gratefuls, an idea given to me by one of the many Jesuits on campus. So what am I grateful for today? I’m grateful for the support system here, with friends and professors who have become friends.

I’m grateful for the opportunities to engage with the community around me, I’m grateful for New York City, the good and the bad.

Finally, I’m grateful that my journey has led me to Fordham. Summer will be hard but it’ll lead me back here in the fall and I cannot wait to see what the next three years here will offer.

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The first thing I remember after my parents left is Edward's Parade.

For what felt like eternities between sunrise and sunset throughout three blazing August days, I sat with ten strangers. Upperclassmen and staff bombarded us with seemingly endless information about college that we couldn’t possibly remember. I carefully made friends within these groups and was sad to say goodbye, knowing I’d likely never see them again.

Personally, this was the most off-putting part about these small groups: we spent three entire days bonding just to part at the end. At the very least, I had someone to smile at when walking around campus.

Once classes began, it was a whole

Thomas Tedesco, FCRH '21, took a medical leave of absence for a semester.

Expectations, Realizations and the Struggle to Adapt

By THOMAS TEDESCO CONTRIBUTING WRITER

MARIANA BELTRAM HERNANDEZ FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

Mariana Beltran Hernandez (second to the left), FCRH '22, is grateful.

From Homesickness to Happiness

By KATHERINE TIMOFEYEV

COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

different game. Between frantically searching for buildings and sitting alone in my room when I had a long break between classes, the first week was chaotic. Although many upperclassmen implied it would be easy, with nicknames such as “sylly-week,” it seemed the complete opposite.

For many, this is when the first wave of homesickness hit. Pictures of best friends on my wall only made me miss them more. I would have done just about anything for a home-cooked meal. Everything seemed confusing and scary.

This made me feel alone, especially in the beginning when I barely knew my roommates and ate most meals alone. It was hard to process. In high school, I almost always had someone to walk to class with. In college, I had to learn to be alone, whether that meant spending time between classes on my

KATHERINE TIMOFEYEV FOR THE FORDHAM RAM

Katherine Timofeyev (middle), FCRH '22, has adapted to life at Fordham.

own or learning to enjoy having an evening to myself.

However, as time passed, the loneliness subsided. I found myself constantly spotting familiar faces.

Especially at Fordham, everyone offers a friendly smile and is more than happy to offer company.

Fordham also helps by offering programs that encourage people to meet other students, such as the Manresa kayaking trip.

As weeks passed by, I adapted.

I figured out when and where to have meals and where I preferred to study. I learned to enjoy spending time by myself and to balance my work schedule. Just when I finally found a consistent routine, the semester ended, and I had to start all over again. But this time, I felt more confident. I already knew my favorite place to eat and had friends to hang out with every night.

Of course, this part came with its own challenges. Life became divided — at college, I missed home.

But at home, I missed college. It’s a constant battle between missing things, which in a way is positive. It means I have become comfortable on campus and most of the hardships of transitioning are over.

I can happily say it’s been an incredible year. College is full of constant change that everyone has no choice but to blindly leap into. I’ve learned a great amount and have met some absolutely incredible people. I can’t wait to see what my next few years will bring.

I’m not sure there is such a thing as a universal freshman year experience. Leaving home can mean trading San Diego sun for New York snow or just taking the 4 train a borough over.

There are only two things I can speak truthfully and accurately about: my personal transition from high school to college and what might have been different had I not gone to Fordham.

I went to high school in Bergen County, New Jersey — the NJ county closest to Fordham. Location was a big reason my mom wanted me to come here. Westwood Regional High School was my home away from home and I had made it that way. I participated in the marching band and academic decathlon team, I played "Super Smash Bros. Melee" every weekend with friends, I had a great relationship and I was valedictorian of my class. You could say I had found my niche.

Fordham was one of the first acceptances I received, but I opened that email with little more than a passing thought. I received a financial scholarship, so that was nice, but I still had my sights set on Ivy Leagues. As the admissions kept rolling in and everything that wasn’t an outright rejection was obscenely expensive, I began to seriously entertain the idea of going to Fordham. I went to a spring Accepted Students Day and started to see Fordham as a prestigious school with a beautiful campus in a great location. I felt completely satisfied the day I committed to Fordham.

An aside: I’ve struggled with depression since my sophomore year of high school. The first symptoms were brought on by things like the PSAT exam and my driver’s license test. Anything with lasting implications for my future brought out the worst of my symptoms.

When I sat on Edward's Parade on Aug. 27 with my orientation group for the first time, I was in the midst of a depressive episode.

Such a transition was stressful for

a naturally introverted person who flourished in a small town with a close-knit group of friends.

The 30 miles between me and my hometown may as well have been a thousand miles. I closed up completely, and within a month I knew I needed to go home for my own mental health. I set about withdrawing with absolute certainty that Fordham was not the school for me. But that’s when Fordham showcased, yet again, its ability to make me question what I thought I wanted.

The Fordham faculty made the process of leaving as frustrating as possible, and I am grateful for that. Every professor who I emailed goodbye replied on the same day with well wishes and thank-yous for my class contributions. I had to meet with various deans three times. My mom’s words echoed, “If you had tried to withdraw from any other school, they would’ve handed you a slip and said goodbye.” By the end of the whole ordeal, Fordham whittled me down to a medical leave of absence with possibility of returning in the spring.

Despite everything, here I am at Fordham again. I have found my niche writing for the Ram and playing in the Pep Band. I have a great group of friends who go out with me on the weekends and study with me every weekday. I’m closer with my friends from back home than I’ve ever been and I still see them over breaks and on weekends, which is when we go to college tournaments for the same game we used to play in each other’s basements.

I have a few regrets from last semester, but one thing I will never regret is my leave. That was my journey. It was what I needed to grow and make a home here, and now I’ve built something that will last.

There are a lot of things in life that you have to face when you’re not prepared. The lessons you learn throughout these trials are what you wish you knew in the beginning. That’s the curse of hindsight. Freshmen year is one of those tests you can’t prepare for, but you make it through.

CULTURE

April 24, 2019

Page 17

The Impact of Social Media on Eating Disorders It is common knowledge that social media can have negative influences on mental health, especially for teenagers and young adults. Living in the age of the “Instagram model” and “beauty guru” often strikes down users’ confidence in their own beauty and body, contributing to an increase in eating disorders and anxiety issues in particular. Resultingly, new questions have arisen as to how we can protect young users from developing these issues.

Eating disorders are, unfortunately, far from a new phenomenon. However, they have changed as social media has risen in popularity. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, at least 30 million Americans suffer from an eating disorder.

There are several different types of eating disorders: the most common including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.

These encompass a wide variety of symptoms beyond the direct avoidance of food. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, and thus deserve an immense amount of attention.

Social media images often glorify skinny bodies. With a large focus on fitness and dieting, Instagram is flooded with pictures for “thinspiration.” Because of this, these media applications can be triggering for those who are currently suffering from or are in recovery from an eating disor-

der.

There is an idealization of the “after” body image which is incredibly (and often unrealistically) thin, yet muscular. Many social media influencers are paid to promote weightloss supplements or programs using images of themselves looking their very best to showcase the product.

Not only is this damaging for mental health, but it is also often deceptive, as the influencers often have not used the products themselves or have altered the photo to appear thinner.

It is also probably one of the worstkept secrets that many young adults rely on photo-editing applications to perfect their seemingly candid and untouched posts for social media.

Unfortunately, the blurred lines between reality and fantasy on social media are its driving force.

Though logic may tell us that so many of these images are tailored for perfection, we never know for sure.

They always seem so effortless, and it is almost impossible not to fall for the facade. We often don’t know the truth unless we post it ourselves.

Social media’s danger lies precisely in the fact that we use it so frequently we become unaware of its negative impact on us. It is so constant that we have forgotten who we are without it. A prominent advocate for mental health awareness, the United Kingdom’s Prince Harry explained that “social media is more addictive than drugs and alcohol, yet it’s more dan-

.

COURTESY OF FLICKR

Social media, especially popular apps like Instagram, may contribute to an increase in eating disorders among users.

gerous because it’s normalized, and there are no restrictions to it.”

There are several reasons as to why social media is particularly harmful compared to other forms of media in regards to eating disorders. The nature of social media lends itself to comparison, and unlike magazine or television advertisements, users are often comparing their own selfimage to that of people they know in real life: peers, classmates, friends and family. They don’t seem as out of reach. It is like a never-ending version of the dreaded middle school pool party — always feeling too big or too small, never right, amongst our peers.

No one is immune to the negativity of social media. A mask of anonymity, as well as the ability to keep

up with hundreds of users, allows many people to criticize others more harshly. Many celebrities have publicly spoken out against or even quit social media due to online criticism of their appearances. We often feel like have the authority to judge others merely because we have access to their images. While sharing posts publicly, of course, does expose users to criticism, it should not minimize the cruel, disrespectful nature of these comments.

We may be on the verge of a new dawn: one in which we are aware of the potential negative impacts social media can have and make conscious efforts to combat them. Just a few days ago, it was reported that Instagram is considering hiding “like”

counts on photos in order to return the focus back to sharing content for the joy of it, rather than focusing on the like counts garnered. The future of social media, of course, remains unseen. However, with an increased awareness we can hope to make the future a little easier on each generation.

If you are struggling with mental health issues, do not hesitate to contact the following resources: Fordham University Counseling and Psychological Services (RH): 718-8173725 Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800273-8255 Crisis Textline: text START to 741741

Fordham Ram Crossword: Seven Kingdoms 1. Anti-anti-vax org.

4. Frantic 9. Antibody created during an allergic reaction (Abbv.)

12. Make a mistake 13. Bird claws 14. Univ. admission exams 16. Glee star Michele 17. Opera crowd applause 18. Backhand _____ 19. Casterly Rock family 21. Riverlands family 22. Breakfast, e.g.

23. Antiquity, in antiquity 24. Fifth word of The Star-Spangled Banner 25. Reaction by an excited puppy 27. The Eyrie family 30. Leader of nuns 33. Give a weapon 35. Bailey Savings and Loan note, maybe 36. Rio de Janeiro country, in its own language 37. State forcefully 40. Daytona or Indy sight 41. 10 baseball games, e.g.

(Abbv.)

44. Follows one of the R’s of recycling 45. Winterfell family 48. Like a spinner 50. Golf prop 51. Thurman of “Kill Bill” 52. “Not quiiiiite…”

55. Lindsay of “The Parent Trap” 57. Dragonstone family 60. Adam and Eve’s son 61. Tube-beaked bird 62. Church affirmative 63. First-person shooter pioneer 64. Highgarden family 65. Oxfam or Greenpeace, for example (Abbv.)

66. Junior U.S. Navy rnk.

67. Harp and Elephant 68. X, Y or Z preceder ANSWERS IN ISSUE 4

Across

Down 1. Basic component of life 2. MLK had one 3. Skyscraping bird?

4. Roman Ares 5. Winged 6. Short fiction 7. Having your ducks in a row, e.g.

8. Website design code (Abbv.)

9. Banks, in relation to bonds 10. Art houses 11. X and Y and Z, more succinctly 13. Capital of Georgia 15. I ___ with my little eye 20. What dogs hold their puppies by ANSWERS TO ISSUE 9

CREATED BY CLAIRE POLACHECK & JACK MCLOONE & GABBY GILLESPIE

21. JFK security 26. Modems plugged into phone jacks, briefly 28. Long ago, often in fantasy epics 29. What a bummer! (with “aw”) 30. Easy as 123 31. German sausage 32. Storm’s End family 34. Former J. Lo beau Anthony 38. Dune alternative 39. Poor opposite 42. “Get some ______”

43. Indonesian island famous for tigers 46. Fantasy worlds 47. Barbie’s partner 49. Easy place to shoot fish 53. Pinocchioing 54. Place for plants in an apartment 55. Boy, in Scotland 56. Double-reed woodwind 58. Hair products 59. When the sun is at its apex 61. NBA stat

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Page 18

April 24, 2019

Who’s That Kid? | It’s Owen Thorsteinsson, FCRH’22!

Freshman Helps Club Soccer Find Success

By DYLAN BALSAMO

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Much of the dialogue surrounding college athletics, especially here at Fordham, involves the figurative and literal big men and women on campus: football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball — sports that sell. What many do not talk about or may not even know about, is the Fordham club sports scene.

Owen Thorsteinsson, FCRH ’22, is a young standout on the club soccer team.

Soccer has always been a big deal for Thorsteinsson. He began at the age of five and continued through high school, playing three seasons of varsity. Over his dorm bed hangs two soccer posters: one of the Manchester United squad and one of Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne.

Now, any soccer fan might clock that having these two posters in one room is equivalent to putting statues of Mary and Judas next to each other. Thorsteinsson doesn’t seem to care though, as his passion for the game of soccer runs far too deep.

Upon making the decision to

come to Fordham, the idea of playing club soccer piqued Thorsteinsson’s interest.

“I found out about the club soccer team through Fordham’s website, under the clubs and activities page,” he said. “I was hesitant to try out at first, but my parents, coaches and friends encouraged me to give it a try.”

The attempt proved successful, as Thorsteinsson found a role early in the fall season. He would come off the bench as an attacker, shifting between the left and right wing and proving himself a versatile offensive tool.

By the time the team hit Nationals, he started two of the three tournament games and has been a staple in coach Chris Caserta’s starting lineup for the entire spring season.

In the club’s 4-1 win against Sacred Heart in early April, Thorsteinsson scored his first Fordham goal, earning Man of the Match honors from Caserta.

Thorsteinsson attributes these personal successes to the environment that the club has cultivated. “It was an easy integration into the team because of how welcoming everyone is,” he said.

“If I mess up, or don’t play a great

game, my teammates are the first to pick me back up and encourage me.”

He also said he is thankful that his peers and family pushed him to try out. “...joining the team has been one of my best decisions I’ve made since I started school here, and it has been an incredible part of my overall college experience,” he said.

As a collective, Fordham’s team found success during the fall season. It placed high at regionals in Delaware, which was good enough to earn them a spot at Club Nationals in Alabama.

Although one of the smallest schools at the tournament, as Thorsteinsson is quick to point out, Fordham held its own, placing high in its group and advancing to the knockout phase. It was there that the club lost at the hands of Michigan State, 3-1. For a team like Fordham, getting that far and playing much larger programs is a massive success.

“I can’t wait until next fall season to prove myself again and hopefully win the league and make it to nationals,” Thorsteinsson said. “I am surrounded by a talented group of freshmen and I

COURTESY OF OWEN THORSTEINSSON

Owen Thorsteinsson FCRH ‘22 has become a huge assest for the club soccer team.

think that we can do great things in the future for the club.”

If those other freshmen — there are nine of them, to be

exact — have the same talent, dedication and passion as Owen Thorsteinsson, then this club is in good shape in the years to come.

FET Empowers Women With Feminist Playwright

By RACHEL GOW CULTURE EDITOR

This April, Fordham Experimental Theatre (FET) teamed up with Women’s Empowerment to present the 2019 Feminist Playwright Festival. The show, directed by Lily Ochs, FCRH ’22, Seerene Kurzum, FCRH ’22, Áine Boyle, FCRH ’19, and Lizz Bogaard, FCRH`19, consisted of several small skits and played for three nights at Fordham’s Blackbox theatre.

While Women’s Empowerment usually presents a show independent of FET, it felt the club had been fairly male-dominated in the past and wanted to give a voice to women who would not typically be involved.

They accomplished this feat with a cast almost entirely comprised of women (two parts were played by men). However, the profound successes of the play transcended the genders of its participants.

It was not the gender of the actors that made the show so enthralling, but the zeal with which they captured feminine issues and triumphs. Similarly, while evidently geared towards female students, the show’s use of humor and raw emotion made it enjoyable and relatable for audiences of all types.

As stated in the directors note, Women’s Empowerment wanted to explore stories of “intergenerational female relationships, trauma, and forgiveness, gender dysphoria, women loving women,

clowns loving women, bilingualism and identity sexuality and the college experience.”

The first act, directed by Boyle, featured a variety of student-written poems and plays and posed a serious inquiry into the feminine identity and the ways in which it intersects with sexuality, gender identity and ethnicity.

Maggie Rodriguez, FCRH ’20, put on a spectacularly powerful performance, delivered partially in English and partially in Spanish in what she said was an effort to negotiate between identities and examine how being a white Hispanic woman fits together. Her spoken word poem, while commenting on the difficulty of balancing these diverse facets, was wonderfully coherent.

Maggie Burzynski, FCRH ’21, wrote the next piece titled, “My Family Tree,” a true account of conversations she has had with female family members, including her mother, sister and grandmothers. These women had all experienced some sort of emotional or physical trauma that in turn impacted their relationships with one another.

Burzynski described the play as a representation of the hardships of womanhood as well as the strength and beauty inherent in women and their struggles. At the end of “My Family Tree,” a particularly profound moment occurred in which these women wonder whether they had caused trauma in the lives of others or had this trauma inflicted upon them. The ability of women to be

both the victim and the culprit is articulated beautifully in this moment, as the family realizes that both are true.

Calvin Swindal, FCRH ’22, wrote and performed “Screens,” a poem about his identity as a transgender man. In it, people chastise him for wearing “a screen,” a metaphor for his life prior to transitioning, questioning his new external identity. The poem is a

raw and emotional look into the failure to accept, misconceptions surrounding transgender people and how difficult these judgments can be to answer and live with.

The second act of the Feminist Playwright was a longer and more lighthearted play written by Ochs, Kurzum and Bogaard titled “Common Sense.” The comedic, absurdist tale details the journey of a young writer who, despite the

awkward and inappropriate advances of a male coworker, finds her voice.

The play utilized the experience of enduring, unwanted attention while simultaneously poking fun at toxic masculinity.

While a mish-mash of people and narratives, there was one unifying thread in the festival: feminism is a framework in which all people can find a place.

COURTESY OF LIZZ BOGAARD

Fordham’s Experimental Theatre put on a feminist playwright festival that featured a variety of student-written work.

April 24, 2019

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Page 20

April 24, 2019

Fordham Women’s Tennis Have Beyond the Scoreboard: Rough Week, Drop Two Matches New TV-Deal for WNBA

By GIGI SPEER STAFF WRITER

With Atlantic 10 Championships beginning this Wednesday in Orlando, the Fordham women’s tennis team will need to bounce back from two losses starting this Wednesday. Last year, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) was victorious in the tournament, beating out Davidson 4-2 in the final.

Davidson was seeded third, matching up against the #1 seed VCU last year, while Fordham finished eighth in the conference.

The squad matched up against the #9 Saint Louis University, earning an easy 4-1 victory as senior Tatiana Grigoryan and her fellow senior doubles partner won the third spot, and junior Maia Balce and senior Gianna Insogna earned a second doubles victory. Balce and Insogna, along with senior Whitney Weisberg

continued their success in singles, as Fordham took the third, fourth and sixth singles points, respectively. The Rams could not keep their momentum, losing to the eventual winner, VCU in the second round.

The 2017-2018 team finished with a 9-10 record overall, which the 2018-2019 squad has already beaten, with a 10-10 record overall after this weekend.

On Saturday, the Stony Brook Seawolves bested the .500 Rams all over Hawthorn and Rooney Courts, dominating the afternoon to win all four points.

The doubles point came from losses at the first spot by Grigoryan and Arina Taluyenko 6-3, and the senior doubles combo of Insogna and Alexis Zobeideh, 6-2. The Seawolves then went on to sweep all three singles matches.

After their last home match for the year, the Rams traveled north to Amherst, where UMass

proved victorious in more singles matches.

Freshmen Nicole Li and Genevieve Quenville managed to get the ball rolling for the Rams in doubles, winning 6-2 in the third spot while Grigoryan and Taluyenko picked up on the underclassmen’s success, winning first doubles 6-4.

However, Taluyenko’s first singles win 6-2, 6-2 was not enough, with the rest of the matches going in UMass’s favor.

The sophomore’s success is not novel, though. She remained dominant throughout conference play, undefeated against all A10 opponents, and remains a force to be reckoned with and a key addition to the team headed into tournament play.

The championship games begin this Wednesday, with the final match taking place on the 27th at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Women’s Tennis is stumbling into the Atlantic 10 Championship on Wednesday after losing two straight matches.

Men’s Tennis Ends Regular Season With Win at Eastern Florida

By DYLAN BALSAMO

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

The Fordham men’s tennis squad had one last chance to prove their skill and worth before this coming week’s Atlantic 10 Tournament. Luckily, this week was not only a test of skill but stamina, as the Rams found themselves in Florida, not far from the site of the conference championship. The opponent: Eastern Florida.

Unlike their matchups of the previous few weeks, this match did not see Fordham come out of the gate particularly strong, as they dropped the doubles point.

While sophomores Lutwin de Macar and Alex Makatsaria won third doubles over Sebastian Bunster and Fabricio Galvan, the duo of juniors Fabian Hansch Mauritzson and Allen Thornes dropped their bout with Adriel Azucey and Frederik Oervad 6-3, and sophomore Max Green and junior Finn Kemper fell 6-3 to Nils Michel and Nicholas Mora.

In singles, the Rams took control of the afternoon, with early singles wins from Mauritzson over Oervad 6-3, 7-5 and de Macar over Galvan 6-3, 6-1. While Green fell to Michel 6-3, 3-6,

4-6 and Kemper lost to Azucey 0-6, 4-6, Fordham secured a win for themselves in the two final singles slots. Makatsaria was able to squeeze out a victory against Mora 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 and Freshman Jofre Segarra proved to be the difference, defeating Bunster 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

The final for the day was 4-3 in favor of the Rams, making the day a success, but not by a landslide.

“It was a tough match today,” Kemper said. “All of us had to get used to the heat, but we showed great fighting spirit and came back to win the match after losing the doubles point.”

The end of the event proved the end of the regular season for Fordham. What comes next for the squad is the Atlantic 10 Tournament, also in Florida, which kicks off on Thursday. They will play as the seventh seed in the tournament and will face the tenthseeded Saint Louis University in a noon matchup on Thursday.

Fordham’s biggest issue all season has been consistency, and as any sports fan will point out, consistency is essential for postseason success. The Rams have the talent.

They hope the talent comes out to play.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Men’s Tennis enters Thursday’s A-10 Championship as the seventh seed.

is Bittersweet at Best

By ANDREW POSADAS

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

The Women’s National Basketball Association and CBS Sports officially signed a multiyear partnership on Monday that begins next month when the 2019 season tips off. The television deal guarantees a bigger national spotlight for women’s basketball, but also it ensures that the league’s biggest problems are yet to come.

40 more regular-season WNBA games are scheduled to be shown on the CBS Sports Network, more than double the amount already slated for national television this season (75) between ESPN and NBA TV. On its surface, the agreement is a huge win for the WNBA in its pursuit to attract a bigger audience and generate much-needed revenue. However, I believe this deal will ultimately add more stress to an already tumultuous relationship brewing between the league and its players.

Recently, the WNBA Players Association exercised their option to terminate the current collective bargaining agreement with the WNBA after the 2019 season.

And who could blame them?

At the current moment, the league has still not named a replacement for former WNBA President Lisa Borders after she stepped down back in October.

Mark Tatum, the deputy commissioner of the NBA, has filled in admirably as interim commissioner but there is no indication a permanent leader will be named in the near future.

When collective bargaining negotiations get underway after the season, the convoluted task of coming to an agreement with the players association needs to be in capable hands, especially when there are considerable issues to discuss.

The most important issue centering on the WNBA’s base salary, or lack thereof. Haters and detractors might belligerently argue that WNBA players should not earn as much as their NBA counterparts because they simply do not generate the same revenue. Forget that comparison for a minute; instead, let’s take a moment to consider why these players would rather play in Europe than domestically.

Take the biggest story in the WNBA before this deal was agreed upon: Seattle Storm superstar and reigning league MVP, Breanna Stewart. Her accolades over the past year also include WNBA Finals MVP as well as FIBA World

Cup MVP. She is unquestionably the best women’s basketball player in the world. However, in the WNBA, Stewart was only paid a base salary of roughly $57,000 for her incredible season.

Stewart, among many other star players, chose to earn more money by playing overseas in the offseason, where players can make more than a million dollars in base salary. Sadly, Stewart ruptured her Achilles playing for Russian team Dynamo Kursk in the EuroLeague championship game. Obviously, she is not the first WNBA player to sustain such a catastrophic injury but that is not the point.

Having to play basketball yearround in order to make a living without the proper offseason time only sets up more potential injuries for the WNBA’s biggest stars. The WNBA should agree on a collective bargaining agreement which would prohibit players from jumping over seas after the season concludes.

Unfortunately, none of that will be possible if the MVP and face of its league cannot even break six figures for an entire WNBA season. What baffles me further is that the NBA has not done more for their sister company.

The NBA owns 50% of the WNBA, but where are the commercials and advertisements highlighting the countdown to the WNBA season during NBA Playoff coverage? I can count on one hand the amount of WNBA commercials I have seen during playoff games on ESPN and TNT. There is absolutely no reason why women’s basketball can’t generate the money necessary to keep its players happy financially.

If Europe found a way to make women’s basketball profitable for all parties, the WNBA needs to catch up, as they are still grossly behind the EuroLeague.

In early February, I was given the opportunity to become one of the beat reporters for the New York Liberty at WFUV. Without hesitation, I sent an email confirming my assignment and found myself uncontrollably giddy. I even thought to myself, “Hey, maybe I’ll get the chance to see Breanna Stewart up close and personal when the Seattle Storm comes to town.”

Now, because of the WNBA’s lackadaisical effort to protect its players, I won’t be seeing Stewart battle the Liberty or any team for that matter. But at least we get to watch the games on TV, right?

COURTESY OF FLICKR

With a new TV deal, the WNBA now must focus on taking care of its players.

SPORTS

April 24, 2019

Page 21

Student-Athlete Column: A Championship Team

By GIGI SPEER

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When walking into McGinley, we all see a huge banner with the accomplishments of the most successful Fordham alumni, from Vince Lombardi to Mary Higgins Clark and more. When walking into the Lombardi Center, trophies, awards and milestones of past Fordham teams and individual athletes encompass the trek.

Whether you’re on a sports team or not, these showings of excellence are open to all Fordham students, staff and visitors to revel in and be inspired by. Many of us reflect the values of those who flourished before us merely by attending college, a special privilege only enjoyed by a select few in both the country and the world. However, these displays go beyond that. They hold everyone entering their respective buildings to a high standard, with great expectations.

College isn’t simply an expected step after high school, it is a prerogative for hard workers who want prosperity to pay back the village that helped them throughout their years.

It is a wonderland beyond books and budgeting; it gives students the opportunity to explore internally and externally, making connections and learning from those around them.

Personally, these physical representations of great expectations extend to practice and game time on Bahoshy Field. As a member of a highly competitive softball team, there really are no days, hours or minutes off. Everywhere I look, the

accomplishments of teams and players past swarm my vision: the fence plastered with pictures of these people, celebrating or making amazing plays. Perhaps the most aweinspiring aspect of the field is the list of championships won in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. That’s six championships in a row, holding us to a standard we never forget. The fence and field itself are a constant reminder of the privilege all 17 of us players have to play for such a dominant program.

Furthermore, the newly-inaugurated fence and banner displays success, represents the past and encourages the future. In her book “What I Know For Sure,” Oprah Winfrey spoke of a time where she started to hold herself to a higher standard, beginning in 1969 because of Rev. Jesse Jackson’s speech at her school. He spoke of personal sacrifices made by the ancestors that put each of us in the position of power and potential we hold today, leading Oprah to create two mantras: “If you want to be successful, be excellent,” and “If you want the best the world has to offer, offer the world your best.” She certainly has followed these lessons, accumulating monetary and spiritual wealth beyond comprehension.

Perhaps we can all take a lesson out of her and Jesse Jackson’s book.

Let the flame of motivation be lit inside you to do more and be better. It is a fire that existed in those before us, on and off the playing fields, and a life lesson forever gained from being both a softball player and a student here.

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Fordham Softball has set a high standard, one not lost on its student-athletes.

By JIMMY SULLIVAN SPORTS EDITOR

Over this holiday weekend, I had a particularly illuminating conversation with my grandmother.

On Easter Sunday, we were talking about professional sports gambler James Holzhauer, the man who has broken “Jeopardy!” to the tune of over a million dollars over the past 14 days. If you haven’t seen Holzhauer in action, just realize that he knows absolutely everything and isn’t afraid to wager accordingly. On his off nights, like the one he had last Friday, he still rakes in over $80,000. He is likely the greatest player the show has ever seen and yet, my grandmother can’t watch him because she hates him.

I then rebutted that we were in the presence of greatness and should enjoy his run, because we may never see anything like it again. Quickly though, I realized that was a hypocritical statement.

You see, I root for the Jets. It isn’t a fun thing to do, and I don’t love myself for doing it. All my life, I have held a burning hatred for the New England Patriots, with their evil emperor head coach Bill Belichick and cold-blooded quarterback Tom Brady. New England has won six Super Bowls in the last 17 seasons, and yet perhaps more amazingly, the Patriots manage to sell us on a “plucky underdog” narrative each season. But we have seen a level of dominance from the Patriots we will never see again, and that should be appreciated.

That being said, I have rooted for the Falcons, Eagles and Rams in the last three Super Bowls because the Patriots have been involved. This is partly because I need to have a rooting interest in the Super Bowl because I can always count on my team not being there, but the other part of it is because I really didn’t want the Patriots to win. Despite the hatred, which I am not alone in, one has to respect the franchise’s ability to reach or come close to the pinnacle of the sport year after year, with 31 other teams trying to do the same and often failing.

Another example I’ll cite when it comes to sports hatred in modern times is the Golden State Warriors.

The Warriors lost the NBA Finals in

2016, after winning 73 games in the regular season and taking a 3-1 lead over LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers. After blowing their shot at a second straight title, the Warriors vowed to never let it happen again, and they ensured it wouldn’t by snatching the league’s second-best player, Kevin Durant, away from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Golden State did what it was supposed to do the next two seasons: win a championship. They did so as the most talented basketball team ever assembled, and the construction of their roster was a result of masterful salary cap navigation, combined with the willingness of superstars to take less money than they were worth.

Instead, most people you’ll ask will be rooting against the Warriors this spring in their attempt to become the first NBA team to three-peat since Kobe and Shaq’s Lakers. The Twitter Gospel says that Durant was a snake for leaving the Thunder and the Warriors are the abomination of the sports landscape, and while this has settled down with time, there is still a degree of anger from some fans, most of whom already know who’s going to win the title.

While this near-predetermination is a problem for the NBA, the Warriors rose out of a system that allowed them to construct a Death Star roster after nailing first round picks and convincing the likes of Durant and DeMarcus Cousins to take major pay cuts. That should be celebrated, not derided. While I rooted for teams like the Rockets and Cavaliers to take them down in the playoffs the past couple of seasons, it’s hard to over-

state how dominant the Warriors can be and how talented their roster is.

I’m not saying that you should immediately stop rooting for underdogs in sports. Perhaps the greatest quality of the games we watch is that anyone can win at any given time, and even the unlikeliest of teams can spring upsets that can shock an entire country. That being said, with salary caps and revenue sharing designed to give everyone an equal playing field, we should have a much greater appreciation of the teams that are still able to tilt that playing field in their favor.

After a few years, can it get boring to watch the same teams dominate a sport? For sure, but their supremacy only means that they were better at talent evaluation and manipulating their roster for maximum benefit than the other teams were.

So the next time you encounter a sports dynasty, celebrate it. Enjoy it.

Appreciate it. Such a run of dominance is hard to conceive and even harder to sustain, and the energy you waste hating on it could be used more positively.

Anyway, the Warriors are about to vanquish another overmatched first-round opponent, and by the time this has article has been printed, Holzhauer will have vanquished another two overmatched “Jeopardy!” players. You can find me celebrating his true Daily Doubles and endless knowledge of everything, and I’ll try to apply that same mindset to the Warriors’ title defense.

You know why? Because things like these only come around once in a generation, and we should realize that before it’s too late.

COURTESY OF FLICKR

We should celebrate greatness when we see it, rather than rooting against it.

Varsity Calendar HOME AWAY Men’s Tennis

Thursday Apr. 11

Saturday Apr. 13

Friday Apr. 12

Sunday Apr. 14

Monday Apr. 15

Tuesday Apr. 16

Wednesday Apr. 17

A10 Champ.

12 p.m.

Women’s Tennis

Follow us on Twitter at @theram_sports

Softball Baseball Track

UMass (DH) 11/1:30 p.m.

UMass Lowell UMass Lowell 12 p.m./2:30 pm 12 p.m.

Penn Relays Philadelphia, Penn.

Albany 3 p.m.

Brick City Classic Jersey City, N.J.

Women’s Soccer

Columbia 7 p.m. (Spring)

Golf

Atlantic 10 Championships Orlando, FL

Men’s Soccer

St. John’s 3 p.m.

UMass 12 p.m.

URI Invitational North Kingstown, RI

SPORTS

Page 22

Track and Field in Two Places This Weekend

By ANDREW POSADAS ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Fordham Track and Field pulled double-duty over the weekend, participating in two separate invitationals. As the majority of the squad ventured east into Long Island, five select Rams took the trip down I-95 to race in the Garden State.

Being in two places at once may seem unrealistic to you or me, but Fordham Track and Field makes it look easy almost every weekend. On Saturday, head coach Thomas Dewey sent five of his runners to Princeton University for the Larry Ellis Invitational. The remaining Rams looked to make some noise at the Wolfie Invitational, hosted by Stony Brook University.

Heavy rainfall in the New York metropolitan area initially delayed both invitationals, but Fordham withstood the inclement weather to enjoy individual and team success throughout the day.

Starting off at the Wolfie Invitational, hosted by Stony Brook University, the Rams were able to win five events on the day. Of those five wins, three came from the women’s side. Sophomore sprinter and jumper Kathryn Kelly enjoyed a stellar day, winning both individual and team events.

Kelly, alongside sophomore sprinter Sarinnaugh Budris, freshman sprinter Dominique Valentine and junior hurdler Gabrielle Schreib, was able to capture first place in the 4x100 relay.

Their winning time of 3:57.40 marks a season-best in the 4x100.

Kelly also showcased her leaping ability, jumping nearly 38 feet to take home first in the triple jump event.

On the men’s side, sophomore sprinter Kyle Mack ran a season-

best in the 400 meter hurdles, securing first place in 55.42 seconds.

The men’s team then earned its second victory of the invitational in the 4x400 relay. The team of Mack, sophomore mid-distance runner Arthur Gooden Jr., freshman sprinter Chase Krug and sophomore sprinter Jack Keegan took the top spot in its event with a time of 3:23.43. By event’s end, a solid, balanced effort from Fordham was good enough to finish third in both the men’s and women’s competition. For the second consecutive weekend, the Rams put up a top-3 performance in team scoring.

As for the five members chosen to run in the Larry Ellis Invitational, a pair of season-best times and a top-10 finish highlighted the day at Princeton University.

Senior distance runner Laurel Fisher gave Fordham its best finish on Saturday in the 3,000 meter steeplechase. She finished in 10:45.72, earning her ninth place in the event. Fellow senior and mid-distance runner Aidan Moroz ran a season-best 2:10.09 in the women’s 800 elite run event to finish in 16th place. The performance also betters her current Eastern College Athletic Conference Championship qualifying time in the 800 meter run event.

The best showing from the men’s side came courtesy of graduate student distance runner Brian Cook. In the Mike Brady men’s 1500 meter elite run, Cook posted a IC4A qualifying time of 3:49.85, placing 18th overall.

Next up on the docket for the Rams are the Penn Relays, which will be hosted by the University of Pennsylvania. Fordham looks to snare another potential topthree finish for the third straight weekend. The relays kick off this Thursday and continue through Saturday.

April 24, 2019

In Spite of Break, Rowing Races on Easter Weekend

COURTESY OF ROW2K

Fordham Women’s Rowing competed on Easter weekend as much of Fordham took time off for the holiday.

By MARIA TRIVELPIECE STAFF WRITER

While the majority of Fordham University students headed home for Easter weekend, the dedicated athletes on the Fordham University women’s rowing team headed to the water in Cherry Hill, N.J. to compete in the Cherry Hill Invitational. While other students were able to relax and recuperate, these women put their time, effort and dedication into four different boats including the Varsity

8, the Second Varsity 8, the Third Varsity 8 and the Varsity 4 and made the most of the holiday by producing a great showing.

The Varsity 8 placed fourth in its heat to advance to the Petite Final where it eventually finished sixth. The Second Varsity 8 took fifth in its heat, and the Fourth Varsity 8 placed third.

The Third Varsity 8 had the best showing of all the Rams’ boats as its placed first in its heat. After coming off a great performance

in San Diego a few weeks ago, the Fordham University women’s rowing team was happy with its performance this past weekend, but it still hopes to improve.

The team will have some time off before competing again, when it heads to the Dad Vail Invitational on May 10 and 11 in Philadelphia. Its Atlantic 10 Championships will be held on May 18 on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, N.J.

Golf Finishes Fifth, Nieves Finishes Third at Rhode Island Invitational

By JIMMY SULLIVAN SPORTS EDITOR

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Fordham Track competed on Long Island and in New Jersey this past weekend.

Fordham Golf finished fifth out of seven teams at this week’s Rhode Island Invitational, the team’s final tune-up for the Atlantic 10 Tournament next weekend.

The star for the Rams was junior Tomas Nieves, who came in third in the tournament after its three rounds finished. His best round was a two-under 70 to close out Monday. Following his twoover round of 74 on Tuesday, he completed the tournament just two strokes behind runner-up Joe Egan of Holy Cross College and three shots behind winner Dawson Jones of the University of Rhode Island. Par for the tournament was 216, meaning that Jones won the invite at even par.

Other Rams had a harder time getting going.

The next best player for Fordham at this tournament was sophomore Anthony Wells, who finished the tournament at +16. Like Nieves, he played his best golf in the second round on Monday with a 74, which he sandwiched between a five-over 77 and a nine-over 81.

Fordham’s overall performance in the Rhode Island Invitaitonal went similarly. Head coach Paul Dillon’s team started the tourna-

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Fordham Golf showed some encouraging signs in the last tournament of the season.

ment with a 17-over 305 and followed that up with a 15-over 303; these two performances put the Rams in a tie for fourth after day one. However, things went south in the final round as the team collectively limped to a 309 finish. A couple of other teams followed this pattern as well, but the URI squad avoided mistakes and emerged victorious after three rounds.

Senior Josh Madarang, in his last regular-season tournament as a Ram, started out well enough but could not sustain; after a firstround 76, he followed up with rounds of 79 and 82. Senior Tommy Hayes also had his struggles and went into the clubhouse on Tuesday after a 77-84-82 showing,

while sophomore Dean Cerimido shot an 82, an 80 and another 82 for a +28 total performance. Finally, freshman Billy Harrison competed individually for the Rams and finished his tournament 28 strokes over par.

Fordham had an encouraging finish to its regular season, which included a career-best performance from one of its most important golfers. Now, the team will take a few days off before taking on its final test of the season, the A-10 Championships starting on Friday, April 26. The Rams will hope to carry over the positive momentum from their performances this week and leave the negatives back in New England.

SPORTS

April 24, 2019

Anthony Cardone Baseball’s Best Players Right Now Major League Baseball is about two weeks in, and some players have helped impact their teams in huge ways. We’ve seen some ridiculous statistics from the guys around the league so far. But who’s been the best?

Let’s start in the American League position players. José Altuve of the Houston Astros has been on a tear, leading his club to a 11-5 record. Altuve hit .328, 7 HR and 13 RBI with 21 hits in his first 64 at bats. He hit a homerun for five straight games against the Yankees and the Mariners. He could be off running to another MVP award.

Mike Trout is consistently good. He’s hitting .406 with 5 HR, and 12 RBI. Could he be the first .400 hitter since Ted Williams?

A less popular player is Domingo Santana of the Mariners.

After a grand slam to kick off the season in Japan, Santana has hit .333 with 4 HR and 23 RBI, which leads the AL. He’s on pace for a huge year if he can keep it up.

One more guy that is up and coming is Tim Anderson of the White Sox. Anderson has the highest average in the league at .429. He has 3 HR and 10 RBI to go along with five stolen bases. The Sox sure are glad they locked him in early with that six-year deal.

As for the American League pitchers, most of them belong to the Tampa Bay Rays, leading the AL East at 12-4. Their starting pitching ERA is under two, which is unheard of.

It’s thanks to Blake Snell (last year’s AL Cy Young winner), Tyler Glasnow and Charlie Morton. Snell is 2-1 with a 2.16 ERA and is tied for the league in strikeouts with 36. Glasnow has an incredible 0.53 ERA in his first year with the Rays and Morton is 2-0, 2.18 ERA and 25 K. No rotation is even close to them.

One more guy off to a fast start is Matt Shoemaker of the Blue Jays, who has a surprising 3-0, 0.92 ERA and 19 K in his first season with Toronto.

For the National League one guy stands out, and it’s Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger. Bellinger is knocking the cover off the ball hitting an NL best .424, 9 HR and 23 RBI: basically the triple crown so far. Other hot starts are Anthony Rendon in his “walk year” hitting .400 and Mets Rookie Pete Alonso with .345 avg, 6 HR and 17 RBI. The pitchers who stand out so far are Luis Castillo of the Reds with a 0.92 ERA and 25 K, Joe Musgrove of the Pirates, who hasn’t given up a run yet, and the closer for the Padres, Kirby Yates, who leads the league in saves with nine of the first 11 wins for the Padres.

Now the stats won’t stay like this, and everyone gets in a slump, but some of these guys have started this season with a bang, and we could see some history this season if it stays like this.

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Chris Hennessy

Varsity Scores & Stats Baseball Saint Louis Fordham W: Lehmann (3-4) L: Mikulski (4-5) S: Lefner (2) (FOR) MacKenzie: 1-5, HR, 2 R, RBI

7 4

1 3

Saint Louis Fordham W: Luther (6-2) L: Stankiewicz (6-2) S: Lefner (3) (FOR) Tarabek: 2-4, 2B

4 1

Men’s Soccer Fordham Red Bulls NY II

Men’s Tennis Fordham Eastern Florida

Men’s Track & Field Larry Ellis Invitational (FOR) Cook: 1500m - 3:49.85 - 18th

Saint Louis Fordham W: DiMeglio (3-3) L: Wark (2-3) S: Martin (7) (FOR) Baker: 2-3, 2B, R

Fordham Fairleigh Dickinson W: Karslo (2-0) L: Gilbert (0-3) (FOR) Tarabek: 5-7, 2 2B, 6 RBI

Women’s Rowing Varsity 4 - 3rd - 4th

22 10

0 1

Softball Hofstra Fordham W: McGrath (6-3) L: Suto (6-10) (FOR) Taffet: 3-3, 2B, SH, 4 RBI

Wolfie Invitational Individual Results Only (FOR) Mack: 400m Hurdles - 55.42 - 1st

Saint Joseph’s Fordham W: Aughinbaugh (12-9) L: Ventura (11-12) (FOR) Storm: 1-3, HR, RBI

Women’s Track & Field Larry Ellis Invitational (FOR) Fisher: 330m Steeple - 10:45.72 - 9th Wolfie Invitational Individual Results Only (FOR) Kelly: Triple Jump - 37’ 10 ¾” - 1st Women’s Tennis Stony Brook Fordham (FOR) Zobeideh: 4-6, 5-7 Fordham Massachusetts (FOR) Taluyenko: 6-2, 6-2

4 0 2 5

Kathryn Kelly

Junior

Sophomore

Baseball

Women’s Track & Field

While also taking part in the 4x100 and 4x400, Kelly found success in three events on her own, including a win in the Triple Jump with a season-best time of 37’ 10 3/4”. She also finished 2nd in the long jump and 3rd in the 100m Dash.

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

The NCAA Baseball National Award Watch List was released this past week as the season reaches its halfway point, and the list had three Fordham Rams listed as contenders for distinguished national awards. Senior catcher Justin Bardwell is on the list for the Buster Posey award for catcher of the year. Junior Alvin Melendez, who plays right field and also pitches for the Rams, sees his name on the list for the John Olerud Two-Way Player Award, an honor given by the College Baseball Foundation. Additionally, sophomore pitcher John Stankiewicz, who leads the Atlantic 10 in wins and ERA, is on the National Pitcher of the Year Watch List.

• Gaitley Signs Extension

Women’s Basketball head coach Stephanie Gait-

ley has signed onto a two-year extension to her contract, meaning she will coach the Rams for at least another six seasons. Gaitley just this past season led the team to the program’s second conference championship in the Atlantic 10 era.

Athletic Director Dave Roach said, “Her success is unparalleled in Fordham history and I’m ecstatic to extend her contract to 2025. I look forward to continuing to work with her and her staff in enhancing our women’s basketball program.”

• Baseball Hits the Road

Baseball had a few days off during the Eas-

• Tennis Regular Season Over

ter break, but were back in action on Tuesday against Fairleigh Dickinson, a game in which they won 22-10. The game was a beginning of a nine-game road trip for the Rams, which will have them visit multiple opponents, including UMass Lowell. After FDU, the next step for Fordham is a Wednesday afternoon matchup with Saint Peter’s. In terms of rankings, Fordham ranks in the top 15 in the country in multiple statistical categories, including stolen bases, ERA and strikeouts per nine innings.

Both Men’s and Women’s Tennis squads complet-

ed their regular seasons this week. The women’s side finished on Friday, falling 5-2 in a trip to the University of Massachusetts. Meanwhile, the men won their Tuesday matchup on the road, defeating Eastern Florida State University 4-3. Both teams will compete this week at the Atlantic 10 Championships at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida. The women will begin play in the tournament on Wednesday, April 24, while the men will commence the following day, Thursday, April 25.

1 3

Saint Joseph’s 2 Fordham 18 W: Aughinbaugh (13-9) L: Ventura (11-13) (FOR) Aughinbaugh: 3-4, HR, 4 RB

Matt Tarabek

• Baseball Has Three Nominees

2 16

Saint Joseph’s 1 Fordham 2 W: McGrath (7-3) L: Herr (7-2) (FOR) Aughinbaugh: 2-3, 2 2B, RBI

Athletes of the Week

Tarabek went 10 for 18 on the week, including a 5 for 7 afternoon on Tuesday at Fairleigh Dickinson. Tarabek drove in six runs over the seven day period, all of which were during that Tuesday win. His had a season high of 2 doubles.

4 3

– Compiled by Dylan Balsamo

College Hockey Shines As a fan of all things hockey, I consume college hockey as much as possible all season long, which culminated this past weekend in Buffalo, N.Y. with a Frozen Four full of exciting hockey and great prospects that will be vying for the Stanley Cup very soon.

The four semifinalists were the University of Denver, Providence College, University of Minnesota Duluth and the University of Massachusetts, and they played on Thursday night in two great semifinal games.

Duluth won the first game over Providence 4-1. Considering Duluth was a one seed and PC a four, this was a very predictable result but nothing the Friars should hang their heads about.

After a great tournament with a young core, they are poised to be back soon.

Then came the main event.

The Denver/UMass game was talked about a lot over the 10day layoff between games, and it lived up to the hype. A matchup of two supremely talented teams went to overtime, with the Minutemen winning the game 4-3.

Defenseman Marc Del Gaizo scored the game winner for UMass, who is making its first appearance in the Frozen Four on the back of Hobey Baker Award winner defenseman Cale Makar.

Makar is a Colorado Avalanche prospect and is expected to report to the team once his season is over. He is the school’s first Hobey Baker winner, a trophy given to the best college hockey player, like the Heisman.

The season continued one more night for the Minutemen and Bulldogs, who met on Saturday night for a riveting championship game UMD was the reigning champion after beating Notre Dame in the final game last year, and UMass was in its first championship game. This was evident early, as Duluth looked like the more talented and poised team, getting through the neutral zone with ease, and jumping out to a two-goal lead after two periods.

Massachusetts gave themselves a lot of chances to close the gap, but goaltender Hunter Shepard stood tall for the Bulldogs. Duluth put the game away with a third goal with two minutes remaining.

It was quite the season and tournament, leading up to a second consecutive National Championship for the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs. UMass went from the butt of many college hockey jokes to its first championship game on the shoulders of Makar, its captain and best player in the country, in a season-long feel good story. Throw in St. Cloud State University being upset in the first round as the number one overall seed for the second straight year, a lot of hitting, a lot of goals and great goaltending, and you get a sense of why the Frozen Four is so special.

Once again, the Frozen Four proved why it can be just as entertaining as the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

SPORTS

Page 24

April 24, 2019

The Fordham Ram

Fordham Baseball Drops Two of Three Home Games to St. Louis

By JACK McLOONE

SPORTS EDITOR EMERITUS

So far in 2019, Fordham Baseball has been stellar at home, coming into its weekend series against the St. Louis University Bilikens with a 13-2 record at home. However, the visiting Atlantic 10 foe left with a series win, taking two of three from the home Rams.

Fordham is now 8-7 in the A-10 and 23-18 overall, putting the Rams at seventh overall. That puts them in as the final qualifier for the A-10 Championship with one month left in the season, which will be played at Houlihan Park.

“I know our guys are going to do anything they can to make the tournament, so I like our chances, but we are going to have to earn our spot and our guys know that,” said head coach Kevin Leighton in an email.

The series started with a double header on Thursday and then a game on Friday instead of the usual weekend series due to the holiday.

And it started off on the wrong foot with sophomore Matt Mikulski on the mound for the Rams.

After getting into and out of a jam in the second inning, he couldn’t do the same in the third. Over the course of the inning, he walked four batters and gave up three singles and a double, resulting in six runs. Many times this season, the big innings given up by Ram pitchers have been pushed along by errors in the field. This time, all six runs were earned.

While the Ram bullpen performed admirably over the rest of

the game, allowing just one run over the final six innings, the offense was unable to pick up their starting pitcher, scoring one run apiece in the sixth through ninth innings, which included two RBIs for freshman designated hitter Andy Semo and a solo home run for sophomore shortstop Jake MacKenzie (his second of the season). They eventually lost 7-4.

But the Rams bounced back in the second half of the doubleheader behind yet another stellar pitching performance from senior Anthony DiMeglio. After a rough start against VCU last weekend, he fired seven innings of one-run ball, striking out seven and walking two. He also hit two batters.

Both Semo and MacKenzie stayed hot for the Rams, helping drive in all three of the Rams’ runs in the second game. Semo hit an RBI infield single in the fourth, with another run coming across on a wild throw from third. MacKenzie then doubled home junior outfielder Jake Baker in the fifth to give the Rams a 3-1 lead. Junior closer Kyle Martin came in and slammed the door for his seventh save of the season.

MacKenzie is having an unreal season. He is third in all of Division I baseball with 33 steals (on 37 attempts), which is exactly as many as he had last season with still a month to play. But more than that, he’s leading the team in batting average (.349), onbase plus slugging percentage (.908), hits (58), doubles (10), triples (6) and runs scored (34).

JULIA COMERFORD/THE FORDHAM RAM

Normally a solid team at home, Fordham Baseball lost two of three games at Houlihan Park against Saint Louis.

“My only concern with Jake going into this year was that he’d try to top what he did last year and try to do too much. He is on pace to top his performance from last year!” said Leighton. “It’s hard to expect any player to hit at the pace he has this year because you will inevitably hit some balls hard for outs but he has a skill set that you can’t really defend with the combination of speed and ability to hit. He can create offense the minute he steps in the batters box. I’m just glad he plays for us!”

The Rams sent sophomore John Stankiewicz and his second-best-in-the-country 0.90 ERA to the mound for the

rubber match on Friday, and through five innings it couldn’t have gone better: he had a perfect game through five, striking out seven batters in the process.

“John has been incredible for us this year. I think he is a great example of what a pitcher is,” said Leighton. “He locates his pitches very well and can throw any pitch in any count. He has given us a great chance to win every time he’s taken the mound and that’s all we can ask out of our pitchers.”

However, he started to scuttle in the sixth, giving up back-toback singles to start the inning.

After a sacrifice bunt moved up the runners, a walk and a single

allowed the first run to score. He also allowed another run to score in the seventh, putting the Rams down 2-0. The two runs “ballooned” his ERA to 1.11, now merely sixth-best in the country.

Senior Anthony Zimmerman gave up two runs in the eighth to put Fordham down 4-0. Baker plated the only Ram run in the eighth with an RBI single. As a whole, the team had just five hits and struck out 13 times on the day.

The Rams won’t have another A-10 opponent until May, instead playing Farleigh Dickinson and St. Peter’s at home this week before heading to UMass-Lowell for a three-game set this weekend.

Softball Sweeps Saint Joseph’s to win its Tenth Straight Game

By EMMANUEL BERBARI STAFF WRITER

Scoring 10 runs in the second inning sounds like a rarity for any game that involves a diamond, a ball, a bat and some leather gloves.

Well, as the nation as learned over the last several years, anything is possible for Fordham Softball.

The Atlantic 10’s hottest team accomplished that feat twice, yes twice, this week and, on Sunday, plated an astonishing 16 in the second and cruised to a 10th straight victory, an 18-2 win over Saint Joseph’s, completing a sweep of the weekend three-game set and improving to 9-1 at Bahoshy Field this season.

With the win, the Rams improved to 22-20 overall and a first-place 14-3 in Atlantic 10 play, while the Hawks, who were looking to assert themselves in the conference standings, fell to 21-19 and 9-6, respectively.

“We continue to swing at good pitches and hitting is contagious,” head coach Melissa Inouye told Fordham Athletics. “The team has done a great job on feeding off of each other’s energy and at-bats.”

13 hits, two stolen bases, one walk and four errors highlighted the wacky frame in which Fordham registered 19 at-bats.

In total, 18 runs and 17 hits would be more than enough for

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Despite a slow start, Fordham Softball has been firing on all cylinders in the midst of its 10-game winning streak.

any competent starting pitcher incredibly, it was not the best offensive outburst from the Rams this season, with a 21-run barrage against Detroit Mercy. For Fordham, junior ace Madie Aughinbaugh has accomplished plenty more with plenty less.

Having virtually nothing more to do than attack from the second

inning on, she held Saint Joseph’s to a mere four hits and two unearned runs in her 16th complete game performance of the season, her ninth in 12 tries in conference play.

Six different Rams tallied multihit performances, while every starter recorded at least one hit.

Aughinbaugh, who improved to

13-9 with a 2.69 ERA in the circle, wouldn’t have needed it, but she also provided her own support, raking to a 3-4 effort at the dish with four RBI, tying a career high.

“Aughie and Molly did well today mixing pitches against a scrappy lineup,” said Inouye.

Seniors Chelsea Skrepenak and Jordy Storm each reached safely

three times, combining for five runs scored.

Freshman Julia Martine and seniors Molly Roark and Maria Trivelpiece all collected two hits, two runs and two RBIs apiece.

For some perspective on Fordham’s dominance this weekend, the team managed a .380 batting average, including a .625 clip from Storm and a .600 weekend from Aughinbaugh, who, aside from her pitching prowess, collected a team-high six hits. 10 players managed at least one run batted in.

Conversely, the Hawk’s struggled to a .181 average against the Fordham staff.

“It’s been fun to watch them swing with confidence,” said Inouye.

In 17 conference games, senior Kylie Michael, Storm, Trivelpiece and Roark are hitting .400 or better, and Fordham is collectively hitting a stellar .339. In 12 conference outings, Aughinbaugh is 10-0 with a sub-2.00 ERA over 71 innings.

Only six league games remain out of eight games in total for the Rams this season. Fordham will make its final road trip this weekend to face Massachusetts in a crucial series with conference tournament seeding implications, but the first order of business will be home midweek clash with 25-18 (6-8, Big East Conference) Providence squad on Wednesday.