Volume 93 Issue 4

LEGACIES SHOULD FACTOR INTO ADMISSIONS - PAGE 8

GRADUATION COUNTDOWN IN DOUBLE DIGITS - PAGE 13

SERVING THE FORDHAM UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY FOR OVER 90 YEARS

1918-2011

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

VOLUME 93, ISSUE 4

English Department to Boycott Bookstore in Fall ’11

PHOTO BY NORA MALLOZZI/THE RAM

After endless complaints from faculty and students, the English Department voted to boycott the University Bookstore.

By CHRISTINE BARCELLONA OPINIONS EDITOR

Last Wednesday Feb. 9, members of the English department voted to boycott the University Bookstore, operated by Barnes & Noble, during the fall 2011 semester. The vote was nearly unanimous, with two abstentions, and came in the wake of complaints from faculty and students about the bookstore’s practices. The English department will ask that faculty teaching English courses, including adjunct professors and graduate students, refrain from ordering textbooks for their classes next semester. During an Arts and Sciences Council meeting prior to

the English department vote, 11 departments pledged their support for the English department’s proposal to boycott the bookstore; however, it is not yet clear if other departments will choose to boycott.

The Office of the Provost has formed a committee to try to address complaints from the English and other departments. Dr. Nicola Pitchford, associate vice president for academic affairs and associate chief academic officer, had the task of assembling the committee, which will set its own agenda but will focus especially on improving communication between the bookstore, faculty and students.

Pitchford is optimistic that the

sources of many faculty complaints can be ameliorated.

“I think we’re already heading in the direction of trying to listen to and address faculty concerns,” she said. “There are going to be some places where there are going to have to be compromises, because Barnes & Noble are a for-profit business, so anything that is going to fundamentally lose them money, they’re not going to agree to.”

The English department’s most serious grievances include the bookstore’s policy of cutting book orders, its frequent tendency to order the incorrect editions of texts, its failure to notify professors of the status of their textbook orders and the difficulty of finding books

in the store.

Though the Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Web site claims that the company is contractually obliged and dedicated “to stocking every book for every student,” professors have found that the store’s practices suggest otherwise.

Dr. Philip Sicker, an English professor, reports that on two instances, different bookstore managers informed him that orders at the bookstore were routinely cut. Two different under-ordering practices were cited; either the bookstore would cut all orders by a third, or the books were ordered based on the course’s prior enrollment, without taking into account changes in the University’s student-body size or the number of students currently enrolled in the class. Sicker was later informed

by Chris Peterson, a regional representative for Barnes & Noble campus bookstores, that Barnes & Noble determines orders based on previous, not current, class enrollment.

Additionally, though professors supply the bookstore with ISBN numbers, faculty have reported that the bookstore has still stocked incorrect editions of textbooks. Critical editions of classic texts can vary widely; for example, the 1918 edition of Frankenstein contains many textual differences

from later editions, which were heavily edited.

Dr. Maria Farland, associate chair of the English department and a member of the committee that will work to resolve problems with the bookstore, noted that when she taught at Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University, which both have Barnes & Noble-operated bookstores, professors received courtesy notes from the bookstores about the status of their orders. The Fordham bookstore sends professors a confirmation of the initial order, but does not follow up with notes on the books’ status or availability.

“We need to demand the same level of professionalism as other Barnes & Noble locations,” Farland said.

In an attempt to combat the problem, Farland asked English Department Secretary Carole Alvino to visit the bookstore daily before the fall 2010 semester began, to record the status of English professors’ book orders. She kept a list of missing books and was unable to find all of the books professors had ordered.

“It’s a ridiculous situation when we have to send office staff to check up on books,” Farland said.

“We shouldn’t have to use personnel and resources as a watchdog to get the best we can from the bookSEE BOYCOTT ON PAGE 3

University Tests Online Housing Lottery System

By PATRICK DEROCHER SENIOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Fordham University’s Office of Residential Life is beginning a transition of the annual housing lottery from a hybrid paper-electronic system to an all-online setup beginning this academic year. Although it is not yet known whether the system will be fully operational in time for the upcoming lottery, implementation has been ongoing since summer 2010 and testing is set to commence in upcoming weeks.

“The Office of Residential Life in conjunction with IT [Information Technology] has been diligently attempting to put the housing lottery online,” Greer Jason, assistant dean of students and director of residential life, said.

According to Jason, the office viewed the University’s recent transition to the Banner information management system as an opportunity to make the transition to an online lottery, as most lottery systems integrate better with Banner than its predecessor, the Student Information System. In deciding what system to install, Jason said that the office spoke with representatives from peer and aspirant institutions before deciding to go with the StarRez housing software, which is currently used by institutions such as Boston College, Santa Clara University and the University of California at Berkeley.

“We only received positive feed-

COURTESY OF STARREZ.COM

Office of Residential Life is beginning a transition of the annual housing lottery from a hybid paper-electronic system to an all-online setup beginning this year.

back about StarRez,” Jason said.

“Specifically, the people we talked to said that they had good customer service.”

In developing Fordham’s implementation of StarRez, the University worked with student focus groups at both campuses to ensure that student voices were heard and heeded through the entire process.

“Wherever we could, we used student feedback and made decisions based on student opinion,” Jason said, adding that both the Rose Hill and Lincoln Center campuses had separate focus groups to hone in on the different needs of the two campuses.

According to Jason, all students who were a part of the Rose Hill focus group had participated in the housing lottery at least once in the past.

For the system to work fully with Fordham’s Banner system, Jason said, the University had to build technological environments and customize the software, working in tandem with representatives from StarRez. The system, which

week of Feb. 14. Due to the uncertainty, these books will not have lottery numbers on them, as in the past, but only the student’s graduation year, which will be used in ascertaining lottery order whether the process ends up online or inperson.

The calendar and residence hall information traditionally included in the publication will be contained in the books. Jason was able to confirm that $200 room deposits will be due on Feb. 25, and that the Integrated Learning Community applications, including the newly formalized retention process, will occur that same week.

In the case of the ILC lotteries, Jason said that they will occur

around March 9, in-person, regardless of whether the entire lottery system goes online.

“We have found that many students whose roommates may not have gotten into the ILC find their roommates for the next year in the lottery,” she said. “So we are keeping it in-person this year and may continue to do so in the future.”

When asked about the prospective Tierney Hall ILC, Jason said that no final decisions have been made, but that the Office of Residential Life is surveying students to ascertain what would be the best course of action for that residence hall once the freshman Manresa Program is moved to Jogues Hall in Martyrs’ Court.

Sports PAGE 20

Opinions PAGE 9

Culture PAGE 11

Men’s Basketball Extends Conference Losing Streak to 37 games.

New York Needs More Bike Lanes to improve traffic safety in the city.

Catch Hottest Designers Before NYC Fashion Week Ends.

normally takes one year to implement, was installed with about nine months of clearance before the lottery, though Jason is optimistic that the housing lottery will be nearly, if not entirely, prepared to go online.

Before the beginning of the room selection process, the office plans on testing the StarRez system with students in late February and early March. According to Jason, the office is looking for student volunteers, and those who are interested should contact the Office of Residential Life.

In spite of the present uncertainty, Jason confirmed that the office plans on distributing lottery books through residence halls during the

INSIDE

NEWS

PAGE 2 • THE RAM • FEBRUARY 16, 2011

SECURITY

BRIEFS

Gingrich Presents “Nine Days That Changed the World”

By SAMMIE LAZAR STAFF WRITER

Feb. 9, Keating Hall, 8:05 a.m.

Repair work being conducted

by Facilities personnel in the first floor auditorium caused a fire alarm to be activated. No property damage occured as a result of the incident.

Feb.11, Lombardi Center, 3:00 a.m.

A New York City Department of Sanitation truck struck the Lombardi foot bridge causing extensive damage to the west side and undercarriage of the bridge.

The area had to be cordonned off and was closed to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

Engineers inspected the area and they determined that it is unsafe.

On Saturday, they braced and stabilized it.

Feb. 11, Metro North station, 5:30 p.m.

A student exiting the station felt sombody bump and jostle him, and also felt a hand in his bag. No property was removed.

Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista came to Fordham for a special screening of their new documentary Nine Days That Changed The World. The former Speaker of the House came to Fordham as a guest of the Fordham Special Events office to celebrate the life and legacy of Pope John Paul II. Produced in conjunction with Citizens United, the Gingriches hosted the extraordinary story of Pope John Paul II, taking the audience through his life and works. The “nine days that changed the world” were the Holy See’s pilgrimage through Poland in June 1979. The documentary showed the moving tale of a cardinal from Poland, becoming the first non-Italian Pope in over 400 years, and manipulating the turmoil in his home country to instill a feeling of solidarity among Catholics to go against the forced atheism of communism.

Pope John Paul II campaigned with love and tolerance, becoming the first Pope to travel to Egypt and Mexico, in addition to speaking out against anti-Semitism. He

used love to combat the violence and martial law that marked the regimes in Poland and all across the Soviet Union, and he was a large factor in the revolution that eventually overturned communist rule.

Gingrich’s attitude toward the late pope was one of complete admiration for his work against communism. He talked before the event about how, as a young person and then a member of the armed services, he had seen the reign of the Soviet Union and had been witness to its power. The documentary that he and his wife produced aims to show how, with peace and diplomacy, a pope and those who believed in his message could bring down forces of violence.

“I thought the movie was extremely interesting,” Eileen Bradley, GSB ’13, said. “When people think of communist countries, they think of Soviet Russia and East Berlin, not Poland. It was interesting to see the post-war struggle there and how greatly the Pope influenced the change. It was inspiring to see how much religion could influence a country from an oppressed regime to democracy.”

With campaigns like that of Pope

Security received a call from a student alleging that another student had verbally harassed her in front of JMH. There is an investigation ongoing.

Feb. 12, 24 Hour Fitness, 3:30 p.m.

Feb. 13, Walsh Hall, 7:20 a.m.

Security received a call in which a student alleged that the door of his room had been kicked in. He and other students were in the room watching television when the incident occured. They immediately looked down the hall to see who they believed were students running away. The locksmith was notified because a couple of the screws were knocked off the plate.

Feb. 15, Goupil Hall, 12:10 a.m.

A security guard caught a student who tried to enter the building with an identification card that had been altered. The number on the card did not match the Goupil number. The security guard made a phone call to which a supervisor responded and the matter was referred to the Dean of Students.

—Compiled by Vikram Bhatia, News Editor

John Paul II, those walls came down and the world was inspired.

“I hope students came and learned about a man, who was truly one of the greatest to ever live,” John Mantia, GSB ’13, president of the College Republicans, said.

“We are supremely lucky to have had him as our Pope while we were growing up. He was the major force

behind the collapse of the Soviet Union, and he did it without firing a single shot. His message of peace and freedom broke down the walls of the Iron Curtain and ushered in prosperity to much of Eastern Europe. It [was] a night to celebrate an incredible man, and I hope students have found the documentary fascinating and moving.”

Professional Social Entrepreneurs Discuss Their Careers

Feb. 12, John Mulcahy Hall, 2:13 a.m.

A student placed her gym bag in an unlocked locker. When she returned, she found that her wallet, worth $200, $300 in cash, Visa credit card, Fordham identification, Fordham keys, Blackberry Torch and iPod were all gone. The situation was deemed a grand-larsoning and NYPD took a report.

PHOTO BY STEPHEN MOCCIA/THE RAM

Newt Gingrich came to Fordham for a special screening of his new documentary.

COURTESY OF WORLDFAIRTRADEDAY10.ORG

Social entrepreneurs came to Fordham to discuss their careers and sell products.

By VIKRAM BHATIA NEWS EDITOR

Students for Fair Trade and the New York City Fair Trade Coalition co-hosted the Social Entrepreneur Showcase and Panel on Feb. 9.

The event, which took place in O’Keefe Commons in O’Hare Hall, provided established social entrepreneurs an opportunity to present and sell their products.

“I’m here to talk to students about what it means to be a social entrepreneur and what are the challenges involved with that,” Chris Turner, the owner of the Palestine Fair Trade Alliance, said. “I am also here to network and meet people, both students and other professionals, who can assist with the business.”

Bryan Matis, GSB ’12, president of Students for Fair Trade, introduced the representatives. This was followed by a 45-minute panel discussion, during which the six entrepreneurs discussed their careers.

The discussion concluded with a question-and-answer session led by students, the majority of whom were from the Gabelli School of Business.

The groups represented were Akhun, Mayan Hands, Of Rags, the Palestine Fair Trade Alliance, Raise India and SCHEFO (Shelter,

Clothing, Healthcare, Education and Food Organization).

“I think being here is a great experience to really get to know how things work around the world,” Andrew Weinzoff, GSB ’12, founding president of the Entrepreneurship Society, who moderated the panel discussion, said.

“We have a huge opportunity to make a difference in the world,” J. Branson Skinner, who co-founded Of Rags when he was a college student, said.

He laid out some of the steps to becoming a successful social entrepreneurship group.

“We need to step back and, you know what, we’ve got a great idea.

What do we need to ask now and who are the people we need to seek out to help us?”

Sherry Masih, the founder of Raise India, warned students that it is not easy to become a successful social entrepreneur.

“It takes a lot of commitment,” he said. “We are stuck in the reality of making a profit and investing that profit into a social business. Sometimes those social businesses run and sometimes they don’t. You have to have profits.”

He also highlighted the rewards of working in the industry.

“I know every one of those ar-

tisans [whose products he sells],” Turner said. “Every sale I make makes a difference to those people.”

The representatives were asked to explain their different motivations for becoming social entrepreneurs.

“I volunteered a lot before coming to college,” Branson said.

This experience, he explained, led to his interest in social entrepreneurship.

“One of the things I have always seen has been that it is not so much foreign assistance or somebody coming in and giving things away,” he said. “It really is [about] jobs.

[These] allow people to really feel empowered. It’s great to have food given to you, but it’s better to go and buy it yourself.”

Anh-Thu Nguyen, co-founder of Akhun, had a different type of calling into social entrepreneurship.

“I would see thousands upon thousands of women every day going into [Cambodian] factories, and this kind of represented the problems in the developing world,” she said. “The conditions at the factories are maybe okay, but you never know and there is a problem with corruption and governance. So we try to bring these ideas of governance and social justice to where they are.”

The representatives also offered advice to aspiring social entrepreneurs.

“You have to do what will bring you happiness,” Camilla Hermann, the director of SCHEFO’s New York office, said.

She added that being a social entrepreneur does not necessarily imply “selflessness” because there are great rewards for those who devote their time and energy into the industry.

“It’s always good to explore different things and diversify,” Jessica Kaire, an artisan representing Mayan Hands, said.

“You have to be hungry in order to achieve what you want,” Masih said. “In life, you face many prob-

lems and challenges. In order for you to keep going, you have to be happy and content in what you do.

As long as you’re hungry you will succeed no matter where you are.”

“Give yourself an interdisciplinary mind,” Turner said. “You need to understand the world around you and ask a working person and ask them what they have. You need to learn a lot about what you care about.”

“Get out of your comfort zone,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen also spoke of the potential of the social entrepreneurship industry.

“I think that in 10 years the fair trade movement is going to be at the same level as the organic movement is now,” she said. “Now you can go to any coffee shop in New York and people talk about how they have fair trade beans, etc. Now, everyone is buying organic.”

THIS

week at FORDHAM Wed., Feb. 16 “Is a JD Right for You?” Ramskellar, 2:30 p.m.

Thurs., Feb. 17 CPA Class Dealy 201, 1 p.m.

Thurs., Feb. 17 Dance Team Auditions Rose Hill Gym, 6-8 p.m.

Tues., Feb. 22 Broadway Ticket Lottery Faculty Lounge, 1-2 p.m.

Tues., Feb. 22 Wine Tasting Dagger John’s, 8 p.m. - 12 a.m.

Tues., Feb. 22 Cinevents! Harry Potter 7:Part 1 Keating 1st, 9 p.m.

—Compiled by Connie Kim, News Editor

NEWS

FEBRUARY 16, 2011 • THE RAM • PAGE 3

Follow-Up on the Super Bowl Blackout Incident

BOYCOTT, FROM PAGE 1

store.”

The practice of failing to inform professors of their orders’ status has hindered the educational process, according to Sicker. Last semester, he ordered 75 copies of a book for his World Cinema Masterpieces course. The bookstore did not tell him the status of his order; he did not know that the bookstore had stocked zero copies of the book until students told him. Bookstore staff members told students that the books were out of print and could not be stocked; however, when Sicker investigated, he found that the book was temporarily unavailable but not out of print.

Bob Steves, the liaison between the University Bookstore and faculty, said that there does need to be a system that confirms textbook delivery, and that better communication should be established between faculty and the bookstore.

“It’s a business that provides a service in a captured environment, and that kind of business is held to a different standard than a business that operates with three similar stores sitting next to it,” he said. “We understand that.”

The English department’s final major grievance with the bookstore is the difficulty of locating books.

Sweatshirts and school memorabilia take up more than half of the bookstore, and textbooks are relegated to the back of the store.

Professors complain that the space allotted for books is inadequate, and often books are hidden behind other books, forcing students to dig for their assigned texts.

“The souvenir shop side of the bookstore is well-tended and wellstocked, while the book side is not,” Farland said. “There aren’t any missing sweatshirts.”

English faculty members hope that the boycott will drive action toward resolving these problems; however, professors also hope that the boycott will not cause students additional trouble. They plan to inform students which texts will be needed for class well in advance,

By GIRISH SWAMINATH CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTO BY NORA MALLOZZI/THE RAM

Failing to inform professors of their order statuses was among the English Department’s concerns, which led to boycott.

which would also comply with the Higher Education Opportunity Act. Students without their own credit cards will have a chance to use a parent’s credit card to order books online in advance, or to buy books in off-campus stores before the semester begins.

In addition to using traditional printed texts, professors would also have the option of letting students use e-books, printing course packs, compiling class readings or uploading readings onto Fordham’s eReserve.

Members of the English department still see traditional printed books as the best option, however.

“The boycott is anything but an attempt to attack print culture, though it may encourage e-substitutes,” Sicker said.

He emphasized that the boycott was motivated because students and faculty “deserve a reliable, well-run bookstore” where they could conveniently purchase the correct texts for fair prices.

The bookstore’s problems have

become an “educational impediment,” according to Sicker. When texts that should be taught at the start of the course are unavailable at the bookstore, students fall behind in their reading and concepts taught in class are not reinforced by out-of-class readings. The cost is either a less effective education, or, if professors choose to photocopy sections of a text while students take the time to find texts elsewhere, a waste of professor’s time and departmental funds, he said.

Farland raised the possibility of an on- or off-campus student run-bookstore, perhaps funded and run by students in the Gabelli School of Business as way to both employ students and help them gain entrepreneurship experience.

She pointed out that many locations off-campus would be amenable to a combination bookstore and coffee shop, and rent in the area immediately south of campus would not be as insurmountable an obstacle as Manhattan rents

would be.

Steves indicated that having a student-run bookstore on-campus would be a violation of Fordham’s contract with Barnes & Noble, which runs until June 30, 2017, and could only be terminated with payouts and other requirements.

Farland also suggested that increased student employment, management and involvement in the existing campus bookstore may be a possible solution to some of the bookstore’s communications shortcomings.

Larger numbers of student workers might be able to keep a closer eye on which books arrive in the store.

The committee will meet later this month to discuss possible solutions to problems with the bookstore.

“It shouldn’t have got to the point where there’s this much dissatisfaction,” Pitchford said.

“But now we’re all aware of it and I think we can figure out how to make it better.”

forum for listeners to discuss and solve problems.

“The WFUV “Issues Tank” is a great way [for] us to explore local issues and involve our listeners in the process of uncovering underrepresented matters in the region,” WFUV News and Public Affairs Director George Bodarky, said. “It’s also an excellent training tool in enterprise/investigative reporting for our student journalists, which is a big part of our mission at WFUV.” Bodarky and Assistant News Director Robin Shannon were coeditors on the project.

The idea for the project was born spontaneously.

“The idea came to me as I was tossing and turning in bed thinking of ways to strengthen our coverage of local issues and give our reporters more opportunities in enterprise and investigative reporting,” Bodarky said.

While potentially strengthening the station itself, the Bodarky says that the project will positively serve the communities who

receive the station.

“WFUV news is always looking for new and innovative ways to reach out to the communities we serve and strengthen the coverage of the issues impacting those communities,” he said.

“This seemed like a great way to expand upon what we already do day in and day out.”

While Bodarky hopes the move will expand the listening audience, he focused mainly on the station’s role in serving its community.

“It is our hope that this project will help to engage our listeners, encourage them to get more involved in their communities and encourage them to help us identify important topics that might fall under the radar,” he said.

The idea will be promoted heavily over the next few weeks, both on the station itself as well as on its Web site.

Kugel, one of the student reporters, said she is excited about the opportunity that the “Issues Tank” presents.

“As a journalist, you naturally

have a desire, a hunger to find the truth, and tell the stories of the unheard voices,” she said. “‘The Issues Tank’ allows me to do just that.”

Kugel said that the work at WFUV has always challenged and rewarded her. But she believes the Issues Tank will allow her to showcase her skills at a higher level. “‘The Issues Tank’ allows us to do really delve deeper into issues, take more time to hear the voices and meet the characters in effort to find and report richer, more meaningful stories,” Kugel said.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to do ‘investigative pieces’ and to have the freedom to not only do what I love, but also follow my instincts to tell the stories I feel obligated to share.”

“My work at WFUV has literally changed my life,” she said.

“Everyday, they push us to be the best we can be, and the opportunity to participate in the issues tank project is just an example of that.”

WFUV Launches “The Issues Tank”

COURTESY OF MEDIABISTRO.COM

By VIKRAM BHATIA NEWS EDITOR

WFUV has launched an “Issues Tank” program through which it will dissect issues surrounding the New York area.

According to the press release announcing the initiative, WFUV will utilize “social media to involve local communities and solicit ideas for coverage.”

Student journalists Sara Kugel and Kate McGee, both FCRH ’11, will investigate and report upon pressing issues, providing a

A television blackout occurred at roughly 8:45 p.m., Feb. 6, on the Rose Hill campus. The loss of signal occurred during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLV; numerous students were frustrated.

The interruption of signal occurred as a result of a leakage of water into electric equipment located in Campbell Hall, which houses the data room that is connected to the school’s cable system.

“Melted snow leaked onto the receptacle of the HD satellite down link, causing a short on the outlet,” Mark McNeil, director of network engineering and operations for the Fordham IT department, said.

Shortly thereafter, resident technology consultants notified other campus departments, including Fordham IT, the residential technology manager, campus security and Privatel, the company in charge of providing cable connection to the University.

“At around 8:51 p.m., [Fordham IT and other departments] were informed of the situation and the leak was located and cleaned up,” said Deirdre Dillon, director of customer relations for Fordham IT. “Connection was restored by 9:30 p.m., so it took roughly 45 minutes to fi x the issue.”

Fordham Facilities Management is currently in the process of repairing the leak. “[Facilities] are trying to find the source of the leak, so that continual leaks would not affect the cable signal,” McNeil said.

Both the IT and Facilities departments on campus apologize for the inconvenience caused and are working toward finding a more permanent solution to the leak, according to representatives from these departments.

Several students, including Daniel Svogun, FCRH ’14, reacted harshly to the technological mishap.

“The television blackout happened during the worst possible time,” Svogun said. “The game’s momentum was picking up and I was extremely frustrated that it happened during the Super Bowl.”

Some students, such as Hira Chaudhary, FCRH ’14, however, managed to watch the rest of the game in their friends’ high-definition televisions.

“It is regrettable that [the loss of connection] happened, especially during one of the most-watched television events in history,” Chaudhary said. “[My friends and I] were completely shocked that the blackout occurred, but we ended up watching the game on another friend’s high-definition television.”

PAGE 4 • THE RAM • FEBRUARY 16, 2011

Students Can Register, Purchase Books at the Same Time Buying textbooks will be easier for students as a result of a new initiative between Fordham University and Barnes & Noble College Booksellers.

Registration Integration, a new initiative, will link the University’s Web site for course registration on the Web site of the bookstore itself. The purpose of this change is to allow students to view books for a specific course as soon as they register for a course. The program went into effect on Thursday.

“This should make it easier for students to plan their textbook purchases ahead of time and have access to information they need to make choices about how to manage costs,” Nicola Pitchford, Ph.D., associate vice president and associate chief academic officer, said.

“Book purchasing for students should be less stressful, and faculty will be more able to count on students having the reading in hand from the first day of class.”

NEWS

Fordham in Brief

Once students register for a class, a link will appear. Clicking this will take the student to a page that displays the textbooks needed for that course.

The student then has two decisions to make. The first is to purchase books from Barnes & Noble in either a new, used or digital form. The alternative is to have the books shipped to them or to pick them up at the campus bookstore in McGinley Center.

The orders will be available for pickup or shipping about two weeks before the semester begins.

There will be delivery fees added to the total cost if the book is shipped, but this does not apply if a student chooses to pick up the books at the store.

Fordham Lincoln Center Plan Becomes Reality On Feb. 3, construction crews broke ground on the site of the next location for the School of Law and residence hall, beginning the transformation of the Lincoln Center campus.

“This is a signal moment in

Fordham’s history,” Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the University, said. “Breaking ground this month is a profound act of confidence in the power of wisdom and learning. Construction of the new law school and residence hall at the Lincoln Center campus is a key step in the transformation of the University and of Jesuit higher education.

“The new building, and the ones that will follow it, will mean that we can offer a more comprehensive education to more students. It is an investment in leadership; an investment in the rule of law; and an investment in research — in short, an investment in the intellectual heart of New York City.”

The investment became a reality when Joe Mauro of Mayrich Construction drove his four-claw backhoe into Robert Moses Plaza at around 7 a.m. He was driving in reverse, and the bucket came up with broken concrete and soil, in addition to some snow. He deposited these materials near the interior of the plaza.

The 100-ton excavator eventually demolished the entire stairway

USG Senator Proposes Selection Process for Board of Trustees Student Resource Personnel

By VICTORIA RAU

that connected the plaza to 62nd Street. Other Mayrich workers used propane torches to destroy the wrought-iron fence that separated the campus from the street.

James Haffner, a second year Law student at Fordham stopped his daily activity to watch the construction.

“It’s good for the school, given our need for space and our growing reputation,” Haffner said. “I know [students] will have to deal with the construction, but there’s always something being built around here. In the scheme of things, I’d say this is a more important endeavor than Fashion Week,” which was setting up across the street.

The new law school building is the main structure within the first phase of the school’s $1.6 billion development plan that will revamp the Lincoln Center campus. The $250 million building will include a 22-story building with a curtain wall made of cast stone, metal and glass. It will front on 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. Only the lowest nine stories will include the law school

itself; the other thirteen floors will form a residential tower and house 430 undergraduate students.

The project is set to be completed in 2014. The 468,000-squarefoot building will more than double the current available space for programs, events and offices. Designed for LEED Silver certification, the building will also have a two-story atrium, a moot and trial court facility and a law library that will hold 562,000 volumes.

“Fordham’s new law school and residence hall occupies one of the most exceptional sites in the city, just south of Damrosch Park,” design partner Yvonne Szeto said.

“We have shaped the building with a series of undulating arcs to make an engaging gesture toward Lincoln Center as well as to provide a distinctive identity for the law school. The new building will be a state-of-the-art teaching and learning environment that will support Fordham Law’s pedagogical mission and enhance the sense of community within the school.”

—Compiled by Vikram Bhatia, News Editor

Lombardi Center Bridge Closed After Collision

MANAGING EDITOR

Students should have input as to who attends Board of Trustees meetings twice a year, Stephen Erdman, United Student Government vice president of FCRH ’13, suggested in outlining a proposal for a less arbitrary selection process of student resource personnel that he presented to Christopher Rodgers, dean of students.

The University Board of Trustees asked Rodgers to select two students to bring to the Board’s two main meetings (Academic Affairs and Student Affairs) each year to provide student insights. The students are not representatives; rather, they serve as a resource for Board members in determining the pulse on campus.

Currently, Rodgers selects two students at his discretion.

Rodgers explained that he bases his decision about the representatives on their campus involvement and diversity of contacts among other students, in order to select students who can speak to a variety of issues, according to Alanna Nolan, assistant dean of Student Leadership and Community Development and USG adviser, who met with Rodgers and Erdman. Rodgers provided a brief comment on the subject for the record.

“USG recently inquired about the student resource people who are asked to attend two committee meetings of the board of trustees when they convene each quarter,” Rodgers wrote via e-mail. “We provided information to USG and the group has shared some if its views.”

“They are not an avenue for students to voice complaints and [pursue] agendas at Board of Trustee committee meetings,” Erdman said, echoing Rodgers’ sentiment. “Rather, the positions serve the Board of Trustees by presenting student perspectives when requested.”

COURTESY OF BRYAN MATIS

USG Senate approves BX Bhangra, an Indian folk dancing club, at the meeting.

After resarching how other schools handle integrating students with the Board of Trustees as nonvoting resource personnel, Erdman brought suggestions for USG’s review as to incorporating the student body somehow in selecting these students, as many schools do.

Erdman’s proposal offered three alternatives to the current manner of selecting student resource personnel. The first option involved a panel composed of student leaders and administrators evaluating candidates based on an application and interview process. The second option called for the executive president and vice president of USG to serve as the representatives ex officio. The third option make the position an elected one.

Although “USG does not yet have a formal stance on this issue,” Erdman said at the Feb. 10 USG meeting that he thought the first option would be the most practical, while other senators voiced support for the second option. The consensus of those at the meeting was that the prospect of implementing the third was the most unlikely. Some members of USG found the second option attractive because of its simplicity.

“If the board of trustees wants the student perspective, then who bet-

ter to voice that perspective than the people the students elected?” Bryan Matis, vice president of operations, GSB ’12, said.

According to the report of Nolan and Erdman’s meeting with Rodgers, Rodgers said that the dean of students is most equipped to make such a decision because he works with the most involved students on campus. Rodgers responded to Erdman’s point that students, not just an administrator, should have input in the selection of resource personnel by pointing out that only the student body elects USG, not administrators. Additionally, Rodgers stressed that the position is not a position of advocacy; therefore, it might be misleading for students to have an input.

“It’s not a representative position, it’s a resource position,” Nolan said.

“USG still needs to continue conversations with the administration before it decides how exactly to address this issue,” Erdman said.

In other business, the senate voted to confirm BX Bhangra, an Indian folk dancing club, as its own club.

Originally part of Fordham University South-Asian Entity, BX Bhangra has expanded over the years to become a co-ed team of 14 committed dancers and was previously approved by the Operations Committee.

PHOTO BY NORA MALLOZZI/THE RAM

On Friday, Feb. 11, at 2:50 a.m., an accident occurred whereby a vehicle collided with the bridge between Lombardi Center and McGinley Center.

PHOTO BY NORA MALLOZZI/THE RAM

This bridge is closed and unavailable for foot traffic because of the collsion.

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I love my wife. And I always did special little things for her. She’s a beautiful woman. She needs and deserves attention. And so, by the way, as a philosopher and poet, I said to myself, “What can I do this year special for her?” And I started thinking: Diamonds? Luxurious sports cars? A beautiful palace? And a villa? A trip to Hawaii? Or even, I thought, a couple of days in Sicily to have some spaghetti with the family and good old friends. And then I thought this: What about a gigantic bushel of roses? To be more precise, the guy charged me $1,200!

But I said, “That’s okay” because, as a poet and romantic, I wrote on the note, and the note said this: “There are no words and no phrases that can say ‘I love you’ like a flower can.” And, so, I happily and enthusiastically gave them to her. I pushed the whole wagon of roses to her.

You know what she said to me? “Sal, you are so full of shit!” But with a beautiful smile and outstretched arms and an open heart, she walked toward me and said, “Sal, anybody can go and buy flowers and anybody can say ‘I love you.’ It is the action that matters. It is the way you behave toward me and treat me. That is love.

TO MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE, PINA. I LOVE YOU! LOVE IS IT!

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The mind has a thousand eyes and the heart but one; Yet the light of a whole life dies when Love is done.

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PAGE 7

Winter of Our Discontent: The Bookstore Boycott

RAM ARCHIVES

The English department has rightly made the decision to boycott the bookstore, which will hopefully result in cheaper, more easily attainable books for students and a less stressful process for professors.

By BRIAN KRAKER OPINIONS EDITOR

College is synonymous with rebellion; free-spirited freedom fighters protesting against injustice and rocking the establishment. An acceptance letter is a signed statement of diplomatic immunity for sticking it to the man, without real-world repercussions.

Fordham witnessed demonstrations in response to the Vietnam War when a cohort of students stormed the administration building like the beaches of Normandy. The group locked itself in the president’s office, refusing to vacate until their demands were met. The University is again experiencing upheaval, but this time the protesters have tenure.

The English department displayed its inner 1984 when it voted in nearunanimous fashion to boycott the Big Brother bookstore. The professors found themselves frustrated by the Barnes & Noble run establishment, citing dissatisfaction with its inability to order books on time, obtain the proper quantity of texts and alert

proctors of ordering troubles. Starting next fall, the shelves of the English section will be as empty as a classroom with a professor 15 minutes late.

This action is the pipe dream of any student who blew a full student loan on over-priced books or failed to navigate the labyrinth of disorganized texts. The institution that dips its hands into students’ pockets at the start of each semester has long been a nemesis of Fordham undergrads.

Students have unofficially boycotted the bookstore for years. Amazon and other online dispensaries offer refuge for bookstore rebels. The Internet provides an oasis of discounted texts to counter Barnes & Noble’s mark-up machine. Students found an underground bookstore under the McGinley Center.

But student protests can only go so far. Professors will not accept moral stance as excuses for incomplete essays and unread assignments. With an inefficient mailroom producing sluggish lines matched only by the DMV, the undeniable convenience of the bookstore ultimately wins out.

This is why an academic stance is

so imperative. The English department may not affect Barnes & Noble monetarily. The revenue loss will be a mere blip on an accounting spreadsheet; however, the dissatisfaction with the mark-up prices and absentee products will catch a corporate eye.

The bookstore expects disgruntled students, but a dissenting faction of

the University dime, when books are not in on time, they must turn to online sources. Fordham does not reimburse these students when they obtain books off-campus, even when it is the bookstore’s fault. While aiding these students is not the focus of the English department’s boycott, if these professors succeed in compel-

ling change, they will also assist those most in need.

Hopefully more departments will follow the English faculty’s lead.

Many majors, including the sciences, often require behemoth textbooks, with prices that easily eclipse $100.

Fields such as computer science are constantly changing and students need to buy the latest edition, simply for the revisions to the last chapter.

When these books do not arrive on time, students quickly fall behind on class readings and cannot complete homework assigned from the textbook.

For now, the English department’s boycott is a momentous denouncement of a bookstore that has become humorously incompetent. When an English professor requested an order for a book, she received a comic version. Next the bookstore will replace Twelfth Night with Twilight. With Barnes & Noble showing no prospect of rectifying these constant flaws and ignoring student complaints, it is only necessary for professors to make a stand.

The English department has channeled the spirit of the rebellious college student with this statement. No longer should this University tolerate a dysfunctional establishment that consistently scams students with inflated prices and empty shelves. Maybe some students will follow suit.

Brian Kraker, FCRH ’12, is an English and computer science major from Pompton Lakes, N.J. He can be reached at kraker@fordham.edu.

when a Wal-Mart opened in a Chicago suburb, retail employment did not increase in the zip code in which WalMart was built and fell significantly in adjacent zip codes, demonstrating a ripple effect in the surrounding communities.

According to Wal-Mart, 62 percent of small businesses in New York City support the store coming into the area, but a consulting firm on Long Island, called Gotham Government Relations says 73 percent small businesses in the area oppose construction of the store.

Furthermore, Wal-Mart is sexist.

The corporation is currently involved in a gender discrimination lawsuit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart. The case is looking for compensation for female employees who claim they were paid less than male employees in similar jobs and their opportunity to advance on the job ladder was significantly smaller for them than for men.

Now, the only reason Wal-Mart’s presence has become a debatable issue is because any building over 10,000 square feet in a manufacturing area must be approved by the City Council. When the City Council held a hearing last week about the opening of a Wal-Mart, however, the corporation did not even show up.

They claim that they did not show up because they did not understand why they were under such scrutiny, while other big box stores like Home Depot and Target have opened in the city and were not required to go through a city council hearing.

“Since we have not announced a store for New York City, I respectfully suggest the committee first conduct a thoughtful examination of the existing impact of large grocers and retailers on small businesses in New York City before embarking on a hypothetical exercise,” a Wal-Mart representative said in a letter to City Council.

According to the New York Times, City Council speaker Christine Quinn responded.

“Wal-Mart’s absence and refusal to attend only leads me to further skepticism about them as a company.”

If Wal-Mart decides to open stores smaller than 10,000 square feet, then no one, not even the City Council, can stop them from opening the store; however, residents can only hope WalMart does not open up in the city.

Lower prices may be good for a while, but when Wal-Mart is in the picture, it only leads to a lower quality of life for a lot of people.

Kate McGee, FCRH 11, is an American studies major from Cranford, N.J.

“The bookstore expects disgruntled students, but a dissenting faction of doctorate-wielding intellectuals is a public-relations nightmare.” doctorate-wielding intellectuals is a public-relations nightmare.

Yet, this boycott goes beyond enforcing stocked shelves and correct editions, because the bookstore’s pitfalls hurt more than the average student. Some Fordham scholarships include stipends for books purchased from the on-campus Barnes & Noble. While a student usually enjoys a semester’s worth of texts on

Wal-Mart Should Not Infiltrate New York City

By KATE MCGEE

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

As Wal-Mart tries to open its doors in New York City, lawmakers, small business owners and residents fight against its infiltration. The corporation is attempting to open a store in the east New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, a low-income area where unemployment is high and jobs are desperately needed. Although WalMart may initially bring jobs, it will hurt the neighborhood in various ways, in the end.

Despite the fact that they promote themselves as a store that enters these communities and brings affordable necessities, like fresh fruits and vegetables into less affluent neighborhoods, they pay their workers a salary below the poverty line, even though they raked in $400 billion dollars in 2009.

I personally hate Wal-Mart and have refused to shop there for years.

There are many reasons Wal-Mart should not come into New York: they are anti-living wage, anti-union, and anti-good benefits. They kill small businesses and are sexist.

Wal-mart fails to pay workers a living wage; according to a report issued

by New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, the average annual pay

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Wal-Mart has locations all over the country, but has yet to open stores in NYC.

for an employee is $20,774, which is below the Federal Poverty Level for a family of four. That is an average of $11.75 per hour. CEO Mike Duke took home $12.2 million in 2008, which according to change.com, is 587 times more than the average fulltime employee.

Wal-Mart is also anti-union. It distributes a handbook to store managerial staff entitled, “A Manager’s Toolbox to Remaining Union Free,” listing how a manager can detect union activity through actions such as “associates spending abnormal amount of time in the parking lot before and after work” and “frequent meeting at associates’ homes.” It also uses the acronym

TIPS (threaten, interrogate, promise, spy), reminding managers that if they do not do any of these, then they will legally be able to keep members from unionizing.

Plus, a study from the University of California at Berkeley estimates that families of Wal-Mart employees use public assistance programs like food stamps, subsidized housing and school lunches 38 percent more than the average for families.

Wal-Mart kills small businesses.

The report from de Blasio’s office, the New York City Public Advocate Bill, finds that the opening of Wal-Mart kills three local jobs for every two the corporation creates. For instance,

OPINIONS

PAGE 8 • THE RAM • FEBRUARY 16, 2011

The Ram

From the Desk of Scharon Harding, Assistant Culture Editor

Serving campus and community since 1918.

After almost four semesters at Fordham, I would like to think I am a little bit wiser. Thanks to the exhausting Core Curriculum, I have learned things that I never thought I would know or ever wanted to know.

I know everything Plato has to say about nothing, the psychological effects a child experiences during potty training and even the names of the first three Muslim caliphs. Although I will carry this irrelevant information with me for the rest of my life, none of these fun facts are what have impressed me most about learning thus far. More interesting, and useful, are the things that I have learned about myself. I do not mean this in the expected self-discovery sort of way rather in a more surprising, practical way.

After high school, everyone who knew me was nervous for me to move away. No one thought I could handle living on my own. My history teacher warned me that my lack of punctuality would lead to a life of failure. My guidance counselor feared that my hectic social life and refusal to plan ahead would result in unfulfilled potential. My dean was horrified at my inability to keep my uniform shirt tucked in. If I could not handle my shirt, then clearly I would not be able to handle life on my own.

Then there was my family. To them, my mistakes were proof that I was going to crash and burn when I moved out of the house. Missed curfews, my constantly messy bedroom, not answering my cell phone, dropping my iPod in orange juice and misplacing everything I owned were all evidence for one inevitable truth: I was not responsible enough to live on my own. I set out to prove everyone wrong. I did not need constant adult surveillance to keep my life in order.

I knew I could be responsible on my own.

Well, I was sort of wrong. Shockingly enough, I did not morph into an adult when I entered college.

Freshman year was filled with what everyone expected. I sent my mother desperate “911” texts for money to.

I received more than enough dirty looks from my roommate for not keeping my side of the room up to par. Midway through the first semester my cell phone rode the subway all the way into Brooklyn, without me.

Things took a turn for the worst sophomore year. One fateful day, I met a homeless woman. She asked me for money, and being the generous, innocent girl I am, I happily opened my purse and gave her money; however, she did not rejoice like I expected. She immediately walked

away without even thanking me. I was outraged, but I was even more outraged when I realized she stole my phone. After a little investigating to see who my thief had been calling with my phone, I learned the woman was a crack addict. My phone was stolen by a crackhead, and I was never getting it back. I hit rock bottom.

Life got rough. My friends constantly taunted me, pointing out homeless people in the street and asking me if I wanted to give them my phone. You can imagine the lectures I received from my family.

Deep down, I was depressed and disappointed in myself. I was supposed to be an adult, and I could not even take care of a phone. I was an absolute loser who would spend the rest of her life spending all her money replacing things she lost and getting ripped off by drug addicts.

Following this was a series of unfortunate events. I broke my replacement phone several times, and ultimately lost it again. In fact, I have been without a phone for the majority of this school year. My friends think it’s pretty funny. My parents do not.

This is where I have made my realization. I lose things, a lot. I always have, and it is very possible that I always will. But it’s okay. I am an irresponsible person, it is part of my

personality. Am I proud of it? Of course not. Is it inconvenient? Very.

But it is not something that I should sit around crying about.

So I have to ask friends to carry my phone when I go out, can never carry cash around and should never share a bedroom again. At least I know these things about myself and have learned to accommodate for my character flaw. Losing things is painful, but beating myself up about it hurts even more. Of course, I am going to work on making this flaw less dominant; in the meantime, I have to learn to accept myself. I think that is important for everyone to learn, especially in college. It’s okay to have flaws. It’s okay to be a loser every now and then.

You are allowed to fail. Laughing and learning from mistakes makes life a lot more tolerable. I definitely have a lot of laughing left to do.

By MATTHEW ARTH

names of the universities that participated in this study, researcher Michael Hurwitz was able to obtain access to the applications of admitted students at 30 elite universities from across the country. His research found that applicants with what he termed a “primary legacy,” a parent who attended the university as an undergraduate, had on average a 45.1 percent better chance at acceptance than an equivalent, nonlegacy student.

“In other words, if a nonlegacy applicant faced a 15-percent chance of admission, an identical applicant who was a primary legacy would have a 60-percent chance of getting in,” the article said.

Even non-primary legacies, applicants who had a more extended connection, were given a 23.3 percent advantage over those without any previous connection to the school.

This rate of preference at the nation’s top schools is much higher than most previous estimates have suggested and begs the question: How far should universities be willing to go to keep an education “in the family?” Perhaps most importantly, does this policy fit with the stated egalitarian ideals of modern collegiate education?

A college education is often

viewed as the great equalizer, giving a chance at a better life to those who have the intelligence and determination to back it up. Those who oppose the idea of special preference for legacies often argue that such an important stepping stone should be solely merit-based, and any deviation from this ideal only places an improper emphasis on incompatible values.

This argument is admirable; however, it fails to take into account the benefits bestowed by legacy admissions. Elite universities rely on the generosity of their alumni to support not only commonly associated expenditures, such as improvements to campus facilities, and the hiring of high-caliber faculty, but also the increasingly robust financial aid and scholarship programs these colleges offer to students of all stripes (who are, most often, non-legacies). By keeping alumni involved in the affairs of their alma mater through their children or relatives, universities help to ensure a continuing stream of donations.

Beyond the simple monetary benefits, colleges can also reasonably assume that the traits and characteristics that made their alumni attractive applicants in the past would also be present to a greater extent in

the children of these alumni. From the perspective of the alumn, the university that played such an important role in forming him or her as a person and in which the alumnus has invested so much owes a similar opportunity to his or her children.

This is not to say that academic qualifications should be diminished, but in a choice between two equally qualified students, it only seems fair to present the child of an alumnus the same chance that his or her parent was given.

It is worth noting that legacy applicants make up only a tiny fraction of the total applicant pool in the first place, and consequently have little effect on the chances of other students. Hurwitz’s study examined over 290,000 applications, and found that legacy status was only a factor in six percent of these.

As the college hunt begins anew every fall, it seems inevitable that the controversial role of legacies in the admissions process will be a perpetual debate. Throughout this continued dialogue, though, we would be wise to ask ourselves, would I want my child to have the option of attending my alma mater?

Matthew Arth, GSB ’11, is a marketing major and economics minor from Southlake, Texas.

The Ram is the University journal of record. The mission of The 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 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 12,000. The Ram office is located in the basement of the McGinley Center, room B-52.

www.theramonline.com Editorial: (718) 817-0873 Production: (718) 817-4381 Newsroom: (718) 817-4394 Advertising: (718) 817-4379 Fax: (718) 817-4319 theram@fordham.edu Fordham University - Station 37 Box B Bronx, NY 10458

Editor-in-Chief Nick Carroll Senior Executive Editor Patrick Derocher Managing Editor Victoria Rau Design Editor Stephen Moccia Business Editor Lindsay Lersner Business Editor Emeritus Caroline Dahlgren News Editors Connie Kim Vikram Bhatia Opinions Editors Christine Barcellona Brian Kraker Culture Editor Sandy McKenzie Assistant Culture Editors Sarah Ramirez Scharon Harding Sports Editor Alexander Vilardo Assistant Sports Editors Jonathan Smith Chester Baker Copy Chief Celeste Kmiotek Copy Team Daniel Atkinson Abigail Forget Tom Haskin Sean McGonigle Olivia Monaco Erik Pedersen Hussein Safa Photo Editor Nora Mallozzi Web Editor Kelly Caggiano Faculty Advisor Jonathan Saunders

Opinions Policy The Ram appreciates submissions that are typed and saved on a disk in a *.rtf, *.txt or *.doc formats, or sent to the staff via e-mail at fordhamramletters@gmail.com. Commentaries are printed on a space available basis. The Ram reserves the right to reject any submission for any reason, without notice. Submissions become the exclusive property of The Ram and will not be returned. The Ram reserves the right to edit any submissions. The opinions in The 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 Ram may be reproduced without written consent.

Legacies Have a Place in Admissions STAFF WRITER

Two high school students apply to a top-30 college; both have identical GPAs and test scores and both are active in similar extracurricular activities. Only one of them, however, is accepted at the end of the day. What is the difference?

A new study shows that, in many cases, a student’s legacy status may have more to do with their chances of acceptance than was previously believed.

It is taken for granted that colleges nationwide give preference in admissions to children or other relatives of their graduates. Because most universities do not publish the numerical criteria for their selection process, it is difficult to judge the level of sway that legacies play in actuality. Last month, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a story on a Harvard University researcher’s recent findings in this area. The research highlighted the extent to which this controversial policy affects decisions within the admissions offices of America’s elite universities today and helped shine a light on this closely guarded campus secret.

By agreeing not to disclose the

Letter to the Editor Dear Editor: The following is a response to the “Fordham Refuses Ban on Smoking” article in The Ram dated Feb. 9 2011, V. 93, Issue 3.

As a non-smoker, I agree with the common remark by smokers “it’s my right”. Absolutely, it is your right to inhale more than 60 different known cancer causing agents as identified by the U.S. Dept. of Health, and it is also my right to choose not to inhale those cancer causing agents and lead a

healthy lifestyle. That said, every time I walk into Walsh Library, I can’t help but fear for my life. Often, the security guards that guard our library from any unlawful entry of coffee feel it is their right to stand directly outside of the library doors puffing down cigarettes. If Dean Rogers [Christopher Rodgers, Dean of Students at Rose Hill] really cares about the mission of the University, “to care for students”, he should use actions rather than meaningless words and make sure the cloud of cancer causing smoke ceases

to linger around the entrance to one of the most sacred and critical havens for students on a college campus, the library.

I’m a graduate student, and while attending my undergraduate institution a smoking ban was enacted on our campus that prohibited smoking within 25 feet of buildings. This ban was met with some resistance; however, it was enforced and by the end of the year became well established and was no longer an issue. A simple measure, which if enforced, would

give ample space and opportunity for all smokers to carry out their right to smoke, while the non-smokers will have our right to be free from cancerous smoke, upheld.

Sincerely, Jason Aloisio If you have an opinion about something you saw in this week’s issue of The Ram, send us a Letter to the Editor at: fordhamramletters@gmail.com

OPINIONS

FEBRUARY 16, 2011 • THE RAM • PAGE 9

New York Needs More Bike Lanes

Unfair Trade Eric Horvath Five-Course Revolution

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Vancouver established a system of bike lanes, such as this lane in Glastown. New York City has begun to introduce them as well, though many areas still lack lanes.

By PATRICK DEROCHER SENIOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Back in October, I was preparing with a friend for the Tour de Bronx, an annual 40-mile bicycle ride around the Bronx, when we decided to take the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway. The Greenway is a 32-mile biking and jogging path around the island of Manhattan that offers its users an unparalleled way to experience the borough, passing under the Brooklyn and George Washington Bridges, getting up close and personal with the piers on the Hudson River and allowing breathtaking views of New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

Everything was ducky for the first 20 miles or so. Then we got to east midtown. Beginning at 35th Street and stretching up to 60th, the Greenway does not exist, which is understandable, given security concerns with the United Nations.

That does not make biking up First Avenue any less harrowing.

If you have ever driven up the avenue, you know that it is a busy, fast-moving thoroughfare, and a crucial arterial for the East Side of Manhattan, with no bike lanes.

On this route, you are only on First Avenue. for 1.3 miles, but the entire time, it is a terrifying experience, and by the time it is all over, you are just grateful to be alive.

New York needs more bike lanes.

I am not one of those people who think that we should all give up cars and meat to bike to work and live off the land, and that cardrivers should be punished. Hell,

I’m a registered Republican. I do, however, believe that cities have a responsibility to make bicycling easier and safer, both through bike lanes and other means.

Following European patterns, bicycling has been exploding in popularity in American cities in recent years, which is made all the more remarkable by the fact that there has been little if any concerted effort on the part of governmental bodies to encourage cycling. (There’s the free market at work for you.)

Whether it is a result of gas prices, environmental consciousness or something else, American

the aforementioned First Avenue, is both irresponsible and counterproductive.

Reinforcing this second notion is a proposal in front of the New York City Council. Brought by Eric Ulrich, a Republican representing southwestern Queens, the measure would require all adults to affi x an identification sticker to their bicycles, ostensibly for safety reasons.

“People on bicycles scare the hell out of them,” he said, referring to his elderly constituents. “Sometimes they can be an intimidating presence on the city streets.”

Apparently, Councilman Ulrich believes that an unenforceable law

would somehow cut down on cycling and cycling crashes, rather than doing just the opposite. It really just sounds like a good way to get $50 out of pizza delivery guys.

Thankfully, Ulrich is benevolent enough to be looking out for bikers’ safety, too.

“They’re in spandex or whatnot,” he said, showing a stunning lack of knowledge about what he is legislating.

I will happily show Councilman Ulrich, or anyone else who is interested, my biking jerseys with at least one, often three, pockets for ID. The fact is that Ulrich’s legislation will be broken constantly and all but impossible to enforce.

When it is enforced, doing so will require police officers to disrupt cyclists in a manner that risks the safety of the cyclists and pedestrians. Furthermore, by reducing the number of cyclists on New York’s streets, the law will decrease the natural safety in numbers associated with increased cycling in the city.

Finally, Ulrich is diverting time, money and energy away from not only the best way to make cycling safer, but also from a much bigger issue. Of the nearly 76,000 car crashes in New York in 2009, fewer than four percent of them involve bicycles, while senior citizens, 12 percent of the city’s population, make up 39 percent of automobile fatalities.

We need more bike lanes and better safety for New York City’s present and future. Bring it on.

Patrick Derocher, FCRH ’12, is an international political economy major from Loudonville, N.Y.

Andrew Leonard, Salon.com

The Daily Dish, TheAtlantic.com

“Obama’s budget is irrelevant. Obama’s last budget was never passed by Congress and that was with large Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. Republicans want deeper cuts than the White House, and may be ready to play hardball. Everything else is just a sideshow.”

“To all those under 30 who worked so hard to get this man elected, know this: he just screwed you over. He thinks you’re fools. Either the U.S. will go into default because of Obama’s cowardice, or you will be paying far far more for far far less because this president has no courage when it counts.”

“Trying to stymie cyclists through regulation and blocking the construction of bike lanes, especially on busy streets such as the aforementioned First Avenue, is both irresponsible and counter-productive.” biking is on the rise, and it is a responsibility of municipal governments to ensure public safety.

This is something New York has only recently begun, under the visionary watch of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The complaint has been raised, however, that bike lanes hurt retail sales, especially in cases of protected lanes, wherein a row of automobile parking separates traffic and bike lanes. The New York Times published an article about the phenomenon on the Upper West Side, where shopkeepers are complaining about such lanes hurting their bottom line and turning away customers.

Issue of the Week:

Balanced Budget A Look at the World Outside of Fordham from the Perspective of Professional News Bloggers

This claim is a bit disingenuous; nobody has actually said that bike lanes have negatively impacted their businesses and these surveys do not normally ask about safety.

This brings me to my second point. Not building bike lanes is not going to stop people from biking. Clearly, they are willing to do so regardless of whether or not the lanes are there, and stopping lane construction will only make the situation worse for cyclists, drivers and pedestrians alike. Trying to stymie cyclists through regulation and blocking the construction of bike lanes, especially on busy streets such as

See what commentators from the Left and the Right have to say about President Obama’s promise to balance the budget.

Last Friday, the afternoon when Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak agreed to resign, I watched the announcement unfold at the gym on television; a few minutes later when I picked up Friday’s New York Times with the headline “Mubarak Refuses to Step Down” it was clear that what the NYT had offered was already stale.

“Menu costs,” costs associated with reprinting material to adjust for price volatility, are a legitimate problem when rapid change occurs (think hyperinflation in Germany and Zimbabwe), not when your local diner wants to adjust burger prices from $6.75 to $7.25 in a few months. The problems with the speed at which the revolution in Egypt is taking place goes far beyond outdated newsprint and rises in crude prices; the greater concern is complacency caused by blind adulation for anyone but Mubarak.

Egyptians are facing a dismaying confluence of a sense of achievement via ousting a dictator while needing to fill a power vacuum.

Mubarak’s departure is certainly an achievement worth celebrating, however, it is not an end in itself; time and time again, most vividly the allowing of multiparty elections in Africa during the late 20th century and a recent “party of no,” toppling the opposition is seen as enough.

The interim military council in Egypt has publicly stated that Egypt’s constitution should be rewritten and approved by popular referendum, its illegitimately elected parliament be dissolved and democratic elections be held within the next six months. Although unlikely, by the time this article comes out the council could have rescinded all of its decrees. It is that very concern, a distrust of the prior regime, that led Tunisians to demand the complete dissolution of the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD).

Power vacuums in impoverished countries are havens for extremist groups. If an ineffective government fails to aid its ailing, like in Pakistan during its recent flood (Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks), militant groups gain the trust of the people by providing where the bureaucracy does not.

The United States won’t allow this sort of anarchy to fester but with a very poor population and a military council that’s closely affiliated to the hated old regime, it’s a concern.

As the revolutionary aftershocks spread across the Arab world, Egypt could quickly become a paltry appetizer for the United States’ foreign policy predicament.

A few months ago, Julian Assange revealed that, in reference to US bombings of Al Qaeda bases, President Ali Abdullah Saleh told General David Petraeus that “we’ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours.” Teetering on the brink of becoming a failed state, sandwiched between Saudi Arabia and Somalia, dinner will be out shortly: a boiling Yemen will be served.

OPINIONS

PAGE 10 • THE RAM • FEBRUARY 16, 2011

iPhone App Aids Confession

By CHRISTOPHER KENNEDY STAFF WRITER

Confession: a word that strikes fear in the hearts of even the most devout Catholics. Those who are brave enough to wander into the confessional wonder, what will their penance be? Will I remember to confess everything? What will the priest think of me?

Fortunately, the process got a little easier this month, with the release of “Confession: a Roman Catholic App” for the iPhone. The app is not a replacement for the sacrament itself, but it makes the examination of conscience much easier by going commandment-by-commandment and asking about specific sins related to each.

This is, apparently, in line with Pope Benedict’s XVI’s wishes to preach theology through technology and give the Web a “soul,” according to a letter issued last May. To me, a churchgoing Catholic, this is a great idea. With its approval, the church hierarchy is showing that technology should be welcomed rather than feared. While Vatican spokesman Fr. Fredrico Lombardi made clear that “under no circumstances is it possible to ‘confess by iPhone,’” the approval of church authorities in the United States shows that the app has a place in one’s faith.

“I think that [the app] is a really useful tool that can allow Catholics to better take part in the Rite of Reconciliation,” John Krasnow, FCRH ’12, said.

Further, he said, new technology is essential for the Church to keep up with the times and connect with an increasingly “connected” flock.

Additionally, this app has the ability to reemphasize the sacrament long-feared by even the most devout.

One trusted Jesuit on this campus told me last year about the importance of confession and how he thought that its revival is key to any re-energizing of the Catholic faith in this country. Sitting down and admitting your faults to a priest, he said, is more powerful and transcendent than most people know.

I can certainly sympathize with this. My Catholicism is, for better or worse, of the Irish variety, meaning that I am frequently riddled with a crushing guilt. Confession, I have realized, is the only way to alleviate this feeling. Fortunately, Campus Ministry offers the service in the University Church, weekdays from 12-12:30 p.m.

Admittedly I do not go often.

When I do, I am nervous, constantly wondering what to say and striving for the right words. It can be a stressful experience. Thus, I see just how helpful this app could be. While some are rightly cautious about letting an electronic device into the confessional, the Church’s embrace of technology is an embrace of our generation, one of Kindles and etextbooks.

This app, then, has the ability to bring many back to the activity that allows us to contemplate how to be better people.

Christopher Kennedy, FCRH ’12, is a theology major from Mystic, Conn.

New Jersey Anti-Bullying Bill a Boon

By PETER GORSKI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

This month, Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, signed the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights into law. The bill, passed by the New Jersey Legislature in Nov. 2010, is intended to enforce strict policies against bullying, particularly in primary and secondary schools. Additionally, the bill also requires public postsecondary institutions to include anti-bullying policies in their codes of conduct.

Through its enforcement of antibullying policies in educational institutions at all levels, the AntiBullying Bill of Rights will be a revolutionary step in combating unethical behavior, at least in New Jersey. Yet, despite all its promises, the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights is likely to be controversial.

One aspect of the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights that is likely to raise concern is whether or not its provisions should be applied

to an educational institution at the postsecondary level. Although many postsecondary institutions have anti-bullying policies, there is no law requiring such policies.

Initially, incorporating the provisions of the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights to the code of conduct of a college or university seemed like it would be futile. The reason is not that the policies in the bill would be ineffective in combating bullying. Rather, it is because, at first glance, some people may think that such policies would be unnecessary in a social setting such as that which exists in a college or university.

As every college student discovers, the social setting in college is different from that in elementary and high school. In college, a person has more independence when it comes to choosing the people with whom he or she wishes to interact. Interacting does not necessarily have to involve talking to other people. It can simply mean being around certain people for a certain portion of the day. Since a student in elementary, middle or high school is limited

in terms of this type of independence, he or she is also more likely to become and remain a victim of another person’s bullying. I can relate this idea to my own experience in elementary school. In my elementary school, all students were required to be in the cafeteria during their lunch hours. For this reason, I had to interact with the same group of people and, as a consequence, endure the same type of bullying from them for eight school years. In college, I have noticed that it is every student’s personal freedom to decide when, where and with whom to eat lunch. If you have independence to avoid people who are likely to bully you, why not avoid them?

Furthermore, it is the general assumption that college students are a different group of people than those in high school that may lead others to the conclusion that the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights would not be necessary in a college social setting. After all, people who pursue higher education are not required to do so by law. People attend college because they want to take a step further toward achieving their life goals and it may seem that harassing another person is a step away from that. In contrast, high school is attended by both those who want to learn and those who want to do other things, like harassing others.

Although many people would not expect college students to bully their peers, the tragic case of Tyler Clementi has shown the nation and the world otherwise.

Clementi, an 18-yearold freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey, took his own life GAYLEN FLOY/MCT after learning that his roommate streamed

Clementi’s sexual encounter on the internet. Clementi’s case showed that bullying is not uncommon at postsecondary institutions. More importantly, it suggested how effective anti-bullying policies incorporated into a college’s code of conduct could have prevented Clementi’s tragic suicide. As was revealed in the investigation, Clementi complained to his resident assistant that his roommate spied on his sex life. If the anti-bullying policies were stricter and properly enforced, Clementi’s complaints would be addressed and he would be continuing his college career at Rutgers University.

The tragic loss of Clementi highlights the need for provisions mandated by the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. These provisions will not only affect those who bully others, but also those who are trained to investigate cases of bullying, including school teachers and administrators. Thus, disciplinary action will not only be taken against students that are accused of bullying, but also against teachers and administrators who do not investigate incidents of bullying. Unfortunately, such strict policies are only intended at primary and secondary institutions, with more lenient policies aimed at public colleges.

Despite more lenient policies for public colleges, the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights sets an important precedent in that it identifies the need for anti-bullying policies at colleges. Hopefully, the nation will learn from the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights of New Jersey and the tragic loss of Tyler Clementi that there is a need for stricter policies against bullying at all educational institutions regardless of whether it is at an elementary school, high school or college.

Peter Gorski, FCRH ’14, is an undeclared major from Brooklyn, N.Y.

Twi Useful Abroad and in the Bronx

By JOHN BUNDOCK CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Ignatius of Loyola said, “go out and set the world on fire.” This proclamation is best reflected in Fordham’s goal of producing “men and women for others.” Organizations such as the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice and Global Outreach have been exemplary in working for the greater dignity of man, whether in missions to the far ends of the world or just off campus. How can such altruistic vocations be fulfilled without fundamentally understanding the people with whom one wants to work?

The introduction of Twi into the University’s foreign language program is a great boon to Fordham, as it furthers the school’s Jesuit mission of social justice, strengthens ties between the University and the surrounding Bronx community and helps better prepare students for careers as truly global citizens. Studies of the Twi language were first organized as a summer program last year under the tutelage Dr. Bernard Kodow Hayford of the sociology department. As reported by The New York Daily News, the program itself was an outgrowth of the African Cultural Exchange club and the Bronx African-American History project

founded by Dr. Mark Naison, who has been an advocate for increased focus of African languages at Fordham.

The so-called “two feet” of social justice, direct aid and long-term structural change, are dependent upon communication. Legendary Jesuits like Francis Xavier and Mateo Ricci certainly learned the languages of the people they served. Spanish and other languages have already proven themselves integral to service-learning in the Bronx immigrant community. Twi and languages like it will allow Fordham students to better work alongside the people of the Bronx.

The new language will do more than just appeal to students’ Jesuit ideals. Twi will help bridge linguistic gaps between Fordham students and the West African immigrant community. This is particularly true as many descendants of the new arrivals study at the University and will rediscover their parents’ language and heritage through such courses.

“The students’ parents want them to learn Twi, to keep the culture alive,” Kojo Ampah, FCRH ’11, a Ghanaian Fordham graduate student, said in an interview with The New York Daily News.

She suggested that the study of African languages will increase student

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Twi is spoken in west African countries like Ghana, where the Peace Corps sends volunteers. Knowledge of the language would aid actions abroad.

appreciation of these immigrants’ culture and strengthen mutual understanding.

Finally, Twi produces new opportunities for students seeking careers in international work. The Peace Corps and Foreign Service look for candidates with a mastery of non-Western languages, such as Arabic, Mandarin, Farsi, Telegu and Cantonese. Fulbright and Boren Scholarships have been awarded to help students further study such languages. Twi is among these non-standard languages that international organizations value. As parts of West Africa emerge economically, languages like Twi will be necessary for conducting business within

the region.

With the initial success of the Twi summer programs, Fordham faculty are considering the expansion of studies in African languages, including new ones such as Mandingo. Twi will allow Fordham students to be better “men and women for others” by connecting the University, the Bronx community and West Africa in a network of common language and cultural heritage.

One can only look forward to this as the University improves upon its commitment to Jesuit ideals while forging new bonds between the town, the gown and the world.

John Bundock, FCRH ’14, is an undeclared major from Pelham, N.H.

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

PAGE 11

NYC Fashion Week Nears Completion

By ALEXIS KEDO STAFF WRITER

New York City’s Fashion Week is almost over, but it is not too late to catch some of the hottest designers. Indeed, this is only the halftime report. The fall collection of Ralph Lauren, in particular, has yet to be revealed, and everyone is wondering what to expect from Ivana Helinski, whose show will be Fashion Week’s grand finale this Thurs., Feb. 17.

How, then, does a dedicated fashionista with nowhere to go catch the last little bit of fashion frenzy that has yet to be unleashed?

Well, Fordham, take heart; for the first time, VIP-only shows will be open to the public via live Web streaming.

That’s right; one can see firsthand the latest offerings from Vera Wang or Betsey Johnson without having to rush to pick up Women’s Wear Daily.

With that being said, what are some of the trends to be expected on and off the runway and in stores this fall? Well, for starters, lace is everywhere.

Take, for example, Jason Wu’s spectacle of a show, which received glowing reviews from Fashionista. com for its “no less than 15 different kinds of lace, gilding and Swarovski crystals” that bedecked what Fashionetc.com dubbed “Versailles-inspired sportswear.” Prabal Gurung and Joseph Altuzarra, too, incor-

porated lace into their collection of glamorous evening wear.

Also, be on the lookout for longer lengths: skirts and dresses that fall to mid-calf and below, as opposed to the more traditional mini.

Though Lindsay Lohan’s court attire of a white mini dress made headlines, Christian Soriano’s show received mixed reviews, but his minimalist black satin maxi skirt, paired with a slim-fitting turtleneck, garnered attention for its stunning simplicity.

Richard Chai, also in tune with the maxi trend, toned down his flowing maxi skirt with a structured jacket.

Simplicity also reigns on the runways of Jenni Kayne, whose ’60sinspired shift dresses are infused with shots of color. Designers are also rewinding a few decades to the ’70s, with elements such as fringe and flared trousers are making an appearance.

Charlotte Ronson merged the muted-color trend with blastfrom-the-past wide-leg pants, a bohemian-print tunic, reminiscent of a peasant blouse and a swingy gray vest. Libertine’s colorful, boxy jackets add some funkiness to oldtime office wear.

Tori Burch got edgier, with her models stepping out in red velvet suits, also reminiscent of the ’70s.

One of the surprise successes of the week has been Victoria Beckham’s collection, which was filled to the brim with modern clas-

sics like draped cashmere dresses, structured wool coats and draped scarves.

Though she and her fellow designers stuck to a muted palette of beiges and light browns for the most part, the hue of the moment seems to be burgundy and other dark reds.

Beckham herself debuted her trademark draped dresses in the rich tones, while model Karlie Kloss stepped out in Prabal Gurung’s show in a striking crimson full-skirted dress. Newcomer Costello Tagliapietra also showed audiences the power of the little red dress. Indeed, big, bold colors, such as color-blocked frocks, will be the hot item of the season, according to fashion forecasters.

Clashing colors ruled at the DKNY spectacle, which showcased a pink-and-orange striped angora sweater that surely made a statement. Vibrant tweeds, mixed plaids and statement stacked Oxford heels rounded out the offerings.

Although New York’s fashionistas are rejoicing at the prospect of being able to view their latest shows online, some of the more established designers, such as Dolce & Gabbana, have protested the broadcasting of their VIP-only shows over the Internet.

Molly McLoone, FCRH ’11 and president of Fashion for Philanthropy, says the move is only stronger evidence that the face of

fashion is changing.

“People are running online contests, having people enter pictures of themselves in the season’s trends to win products,” she said.

McLoone added she thinks webcasts are expanding the window of opportunity for fans of the industry from all backgrounds.

“Not everyone who reads Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue is a millionaire or a celebrity,” she said. “It’s so great that other people are getting

have found a way to create films which children will love while their parents can enjoy also,” he said. “Up and Toy Story 3 are great examples of this, as were Shrek and Finding Nemo. Especially if these keep making a whole lot of money, I am sure that they will receive serious respect from the Academy.”

Even the rest of the movies, including the comedy The Kids are All Right and the science-fiction film Inception, fit in with the normal pattern.

“This year fits right into the pattern; no surprises here at all,” Tueth said.

“I think like anything else it is really political, but it’s still rooted in talent,” McSkimming said.

“I don’t think that the success in the box office necessarily affects a film winning an award,” Marty Mercado, GSB ’11, another movie fan, said. “I think a great case and point for this was The Hurt Locker edging out Avatar last year. Eventually being recognized by the Academy should do wonders for viewership and interest of the smaller released films, though.”

Tueth also explains that, while comedies may not garner as much recognition as many feel they deserve, many do make the cut.

“Comedies make a lot of money but do not get as much Academy respect because the Academy wants to maintain its international prestige,” he said. “A few comedies, however, have gotten the Oscar: It Happened One Night, You Can’t

Take it With You, Tom Jones, The Apartment, Annie Hall and many more that got nominated, not to mention a whole bunch of musicals.”

“Comedy is a really touchy subject,” McSkimming said. “I think they should split it like the Golden Globes and make two categories.

There are a lot of great comedy films out there that get a lot accomplished.”

The expansion of the field also may prove to benefit the representation of different genres.

“If the academy had stuck with the long tradition of five nominees, I don’t think the Western (True Grit ) or the animated film (Toy Story 3) or the indie film (Winter’s Bone) would have made the list,” Tueth said. “The nomination of 10 films makes it possible that a film that receives a lot of second place votes could actually win.”

“At first I was skeptical about it, but I think it’s a great way to give recognition to different genres,” Mercado said. “It’s great to see that not only dramas, non-fictions and epics are being recognized, but also animated films and independent creative movies as well. Whether there are five or 10 nominees, there are usually just three serious contenders, so I think you might as well give some of the smaller films recognition.”

Others, however, feel that the field has become much too wide.

“I hate the 10 film nominations; it’s way too big,” McSkimming

a say in the industry besides Anna Wintour.”

“For people like us, who live in New York, it’s different, but I think it really makes a difference to someone in Oregon or North Dakota who loves fashion. It gives them a chance to see things they wouldn’t normally see.”

To view more on Fashion Week 2011, and to access webcasts of runway shows, go to www.mbfashionweek.com.

COURTESY OF FLICKR.COM

The NYC Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week began on Feb. 9 and ends on Feb. 17.

Movies at the Sundance Film Festival and the Oscars Fit Pattern

COURTESY OF FLICKR.COM

The Sundance Film Festival occurred in January in Park City, Utah.

By CELESTE KMIOTEK COPY CHIEF

It seems as if, no matter what the award, no matter who the actor, no matter what the movie and no matter who the audience, no one will agree.

Some will say that the nominated movies deserved every accolade, while others will say that they did not.

Some will think the nominations did not resemble the movies that reflect popular preference, while others will say that all the honorees deserved the respect.

There are weeks upon weeks of speculation over who and what will receive nominations, who and what should have been nominated, who and what will win and who or what should have won. No one turns off the TV happy.

Still, it is undeniable that the Academy Awards are the standard to which many film aficionados

hold movies.

“The Oscars themselves have become a real mainstream event and the bar which most people hold their movies to,” David McSkimming, FCRH ’12 and a film buff, said.

This past awards season, however, brought some shock: Toy Story 3 received a nomination? Ten films received best picture nominations, rather than the traditional five? A comedy received a nomination?

Perhaps, however, the shock was not as deserved as many felt it was.

The Academy has historically recognized animated features, beginning with Beauty and the Beast, which was not, in fact, aimed at children, according to Fordham professor Rev. Michael Tueth, S.J., Ph. D., who harbors a special interest in movies.

He notes that animated movies are increasingly appeasing adult interests.

“The makers of animated films

said.

The Sundance Film Festival adds another layer to the debate, serving to aid in weeding out potentially great films, versus honoring already-recognized films.

“The difference between Sundance and the Academy Awards is that the honors given at Sundance do not represent the whole Hollywood industry,” Tueth said. “They just give a major boost of attention to a good film, which could still flop at the box office.”

The festival further offers the chance for filmmakers to experiment, with the possibility of capturing the public’s eye.

“Sundance is a terrific development in film marketing and distribution,” Tueth said. “So many great films have made it into major theaters because of Robert Redford’s awareness of how the industry works and how he can advocate for independent productions in that system. This will keep happening, because no one knows what film will catch the public imagination these days.”

Does this mean the Academy is justified in all its decisions, or that Sundance should be revered as the predictor of box office hits? Of course not.

Still, it seems as if the institutions are working to highlight movies that are both deserving and of possible interest. Keep your opinions and support your favorite movies, but do not write off those dark horses.

CULTURE

PAGE 12• THE RAM FEBRUARY 16,2011

Cooking With Clara CLARA ENNIST I am always skeptical about meals that take less than half an hour to prepare because making food only goes that quickly if you have all of the ingredients set out and pre-cut. This week, I decided to see if I could finish a recipe that supposedly took a grand total of 25 minutes to prepare. Start the clock.

Chicken Fajitas Servings: 4 Cost Per Serving: $4.14 Ingredients: -1.5 pounds thin chicken cutlets -2 tbs. vegetable oil -1 tsp. chili powder -Salt and pepper -3 bell peppers; de-seeded and thinly sliced -1 red onion; halved and thinly sliced -1 tbs. minced garlic -8 flour tortillas -Sour cream and lime wedges for serving Directions Move the oven rack four inches from the broiler and turn it on. Line two rimmed baking sheets with aluminum foil. Rub the chicken with one tablespoon of oil and lay it on the first baking sheet. Sprinkle the chicken with chili powder and season with salt and pepper.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and allow the chicken to cook for five to seven minutes; remove the chicken from the oven when it is opaque. Toss the peppers, onion and garlic with a tablespoon of oil; season them with salt and pepper and spread them over the second baking sheet. Place the vegetables under the broiler and toss them occasionally for six to eight minutes or until they are slightly charred.

While the vegetables cook, cut the chicken into strips. Stack and wrap the tortillas in moist paper towels and microwave them about one minute or until warm. Serve with the lime wedges and sour cream.

Apparently this recipe does not factor slicing the peppers and onion into the overall preparation time, but that only took me about seven minutes. I decided to use one each of red, green and yellow peppers to make my dish more colorful. Prepping the chicken took two minutes and its cook time would have been seven minutes, not nine minutes, if I had not been paranoid about it being underdone. I was, however, able to prep the vegetables and get them on to the cooking sheet as well as wrap the tortillas in the paper towels while the chicken cooked, so I did not lose any time there.

Eighteen minutes into the recipe I had the vegetables under the broiler and I sliced my lime wedges while the chicken cooled. I managed to get the chicken sliced while the vegetables cooked–they crisped after seven minutes.

Unfortunately, the buzzers sounded at 25 minutes and I had yet to microwave my tortillas. If I had not been so paranoid about the chicken I could have finished the entire recipe, slicing the vegetables and all, in 25 minutes.

Honestly, even if this recipe took over half an hour to prepare, it would still have been worth it because the results were delicious.

Dining Out: S’mac (Sarita’s Macaroni and Cheese)

of the ooey-gooey stuff. The idea?

Serve only macaroni and cheese, all the time.

Located down in the East Village, it is a bit of a trek from the Bronx.

The easiest route is to take Metro

North to Grand Central, catch the on the menu, it did indeed taste 4 or 5 downtown to Union Square like pizza. What the menu did not and walk the rest of the way. mention was that it tasted like the Walking into S’mac, the foggy mediocre slice of pizza you bought windows invite you in, hinting at that random place on 8th Avenue because you were starving and there is something hot and delithere was nothing else around. cious waiting inside. The Kraft orThe Buffalo chicken was quite a ange and yellow paint is a sunny surprise, in a good way. Great heat escape from the frigid outdoors. from the hot sauce, with chunks As you settle into a table you of spicy chicken lodged between may have to squeeze into your macaroni elbows. It was a Super seat, especially on a Friday night.

Bowl party in my mouth.

Even among all the NYU hipsters For a real kick, I added blueyou are surrounded by, it is hard to cheese crumbles to my order givmiss the gargantuan sign listing the ing it that extra salty, creamy bite. numerous types of macaroni and This was definitely worth ordering cheese they offer. flavor-wise, but the noodles were S’mac offers classic all-Amerioverdone, just as they were in each can, the expected four-cheese, and macaroni dish I got. then a few oddballs Overall Perhaps the biglike La Mancha, Location gest disappointfeaturing Manchego Food Quality ment in going to a cheese with fennel Atmosphere restaurant that speand onions.

Hospitality Price $ cializes in macaroni The overworked and cheese is when cashier begrudg(Out of 4 ’s) it served you a subingly took my order par order of the traand my money, and ditional dish. told me it would be a short wait. A The all-American was flat in flasmall kitchen that was visible to all vor. A bubbly cheddar-laden crust patrons revealed two cooks overlooked promising, but underneath whelmed with oodles of noodles. laid a bed of mushy noodles and About 20 minutes later, three siza sauce that was thick and lacking zling hot cast iron skillets were salt. thrust at me with a side of “I-don’tCreativity is admirable here, eswant-to-spend-my-Friday-nightpecially when tackling something here” attitude from my server. as familiar as macaroni and cheese, Feeling compelled to go outside but if you are not going to perfect the box, I decided to order the the original, then what is the point? napoletana ($6.25) and Buffalo S’mac’s overly ambitious menu is chicken ($7.25) along with the trafull of imagination, but unfortuditional all- American ($4.75). The nately it misses the mark. napoletana was fine, delivering on Bottom line: get your macaroni the menu’s cheesy promise and and cheese fix elsewhere. S’mac is featuring a nice Mozzarella flavor.

Appropriate given its description not all that.

dent, “Sports Night,” “The West Wing,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” Charlie Wilson’s War and, most recently, The Social Network, which has been nominated for eight Academy Awards. His works are best known for their rapid fire exchanges and tightly scripted dialogues which, whether in a comedy or drama, heighten the tension and leave the audience in awe. Describing his writing process, Sorkin once said, “For me, the writing experience is very much like a date. It’s not unusual that I’m really funny here and really smart here and maybe showing some anger over here so she sees maybe I have this dark side. I want it to have been worth it for everyone to sit through it for however long I ask them to.”

There is no doubt in my mind that he has mastered the art of making things worth it.

As someone who can not stand the improper use of grammar, my biggest praise of Sorkin is his unparalleled use of the English language, relying on intelligent wordplay and intellectual references that leave the viewer more than satisfied. While I am not denying that there are still some other decent writers left in Hollywood, I cannot think of a single one whose works are consistently my favorites, as is the case with Sorkin. Of his major works, I can only think of one, Malice (“It was bad. Really bad.” [V. 90, Issue 11]), that I do not own and that I do not regularly watch and

re-watch. They are all that good.

As one Ram editor put it, “‘The West Wing’ is, by far, the greatest television show of all time.”

Sorkin wrote the first four seasons of this political drama, taking home the Emmy for Outstanding Drama every year. Despite focusing on the White House senior staff and the day-to-day operations in the West Wing (who would have guessed?), Sorkin entwines his incredible humor and sarcasm throughout, finding the perfect balance between hair-raising, dramatic moments and side-splitting banter. For anyone who saw The Social Network, this tactic is seen again, as Mark Zuckerberg’s snappy responses and blasé attitude lighten the tone of the more serious deposition scenes. “The West Wing” and all of Sorkin’s works, for that matter, are characterized by this style, frequently blurring the line between comedy and drama.

Another major component to Sorkin’s work is that he always manages to craft characters that the viewer will idealize. From the noble staffers in “The West Wing” to Caffey and Jo in A Few Good Men, there is substance to the personas Sorkin creates. There is also continually a sense of duty, commitment and dedication, with all of the disparate personalities repeatedly demonstrating their responsibility and righteousness. Yet, Sorkin keeps the characters entertaining, and the whimsical banter and pop

PHOTO BY KAYLA LE GOFF/THE RAM

PHOTO BY KAYLA LE GOFF/THE RAM

S’mac, which serves only Mac-n-Cheese, is located on 345 East 12th St.

By KAYLA Le GOFF CONTRIBUTING WRITER

S’mac (short for Sarita’s Macaroni and Cheese) was founded by a couple who could not get enough

Editor’s Pick: Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin

By STEPHEN MOCCIA DESIGN EDITOR

In the world of “Jersey Shore,” “Teen Mom” and the twentieth sequel of The Fast and the Furious, many believe that Hollywood is no longer capable of offering good, clever entertainment. To some degree, primetime has lost its hold on viewers, offering a few quality shows like “The Office” and “30 Rock” but leaving many to wonder what insane network executive views and approves each year’s new pilots (and how bad the ones that are not picked up must be). Thinking back to the 1990s, NBC alone simultaneously boasted awardwinning hits like “ER,” “Friends,” “Cheers,” “Seinfeld,” “Frasier” and “Will and Grace.”

Even “The Simpsons,” the longest-running American sitcom, has tapered in recent years, causing longtime fans to walk away in boredom. Little Fockers (2010) can not even hold a candle to the famously brilliant original, Meet the Parents (2000), opting to go for cheap bathroom humor and asinine plot gimmicks rather than focus on quality writing and excellent wit. Where can the entertainment junkie turn?

Enter Aaron Sorkin. For those of you who do not already know, Aaron Sorkin is the American screenwriter responsible for bringing viewers quality productions like A Few Good Men, The American Presi-

culture references never fall short.

The characters all come across as real people. Very smart, but still just people (I mean, somehow one walks out of The Social Network liking Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin at the same time, even though the two are pitted against one another and Zuckerberg, quite frankly, is intended to look like the jerk).

Sorkin’s masterpieces are really enjoyable and can provide some comfort to those who are disillusioned with the current state of Hollywood. They are entertaining but also intellectually engaging, which is the quality, I think, that sets them apart from all other works. Because he insists on having almost total control over his scripts (he was once quoted as saying “I’m helped by a staff of people who have great ideas, but the scripts aren’t written by committee”), you are guaranteed that any show or film with Sorkin’s name on it will match or exceed expectations.

Sorkin’s upcoming works include a movie adaptation of the book Moneyball, set for release this upcoming September, and a future HBO series grappling with backstage drama at a cable news network, an idea that seems to mesh the concept of “Sports Night” with the topic of “The West Wing.” I am sure both of these will be major hits, going off his record, and that I will love and quickly own them both, going off mine.

CULTURE

FEBRUARY 16, 2011 • THE RAM • PAGE 13

Fordham’s 100 Nights ’til Graduation Kicks Off

By SCHARON HARDING ASSISTANT CULTURE EDITOR

Another group of Fordham students is getting ready to make the significant transition from students to alumni. Last week kicked off the “100 Nights ’til Graduation” countdown, as the Class of 2011 prepares for its last days at Fordham before entering the real world.

Many seniors have mixed feelings regarding the declining number of days left at Fordham. The idea of leaving a place with which they have become comfortable and made into their home upsets some students.

“Time better slow down,” Tommy Lewis, GSB ’11, said. “There’s so much left to do in college and so little time.”

Lewis is not the only one who feels rushed by the sudden countdown.

“To me, a slight sense of urgency creeps into my thought – not stemming from the anxiety that comes from leaving school, but from the little true time I have left to live a particular lifestyle that I have been accustomed to for the last three and a half years,” Joseph Bakalian, GSB ’11, said.

On the other hand, there is a sense of excitement that comes with the approach of graduation.

“Whenever an opportunity arises, I’ll do my best to make the most of it,” Lewis said. “I’ll adopt sort of a ‘Yes Man’ philosophy for the next 100 days.”

“The thought of 100 days left is both sad and exciting,” Alex Slavin, GSB ’11, said. “Sad because there is no more college life, but exciting because I’m entering the real world.”

A lot of upperclassmen are using the last 100 days as a wake-up call.

All seniors want to have some sort of career path waiting for them after graduation; now is the time to start making sure that their futures are bright and secure.

“My goal is to secure a fulltime job and living accommodations in the greater New York area

MOVIE THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

By GIBSON MERRICK STAFF WRITER

The books are everywhere. Bestselling sensations, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest are three Swedish novels written by the late Stieg Larsson. These translated novels are so popular it was only a matter of time before Hollywood jumped on the prospect of making an adaptation.

What most Americans do not know is that Swedish cinema beat Hollywood to the punch, adapting all three novels over the course of last year. Now, for our viewing pleasure, all three are available for instant viewing on Netflix.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, directed by Swedish director Niels Arden Oplev (We Shall Overcome), is a story of political intrigue, a

before graduation,” Lewis said.

Another important factor during these last days is grades. Despite the end being near, seniors are still concerned with maintaining high GPAs. “Like every other senior, I must fight off academic apathy, the notorious ‘senioritis,’” Bakalian said. “I have one last semester to stay on track and accomplish my remaining goals.”

The year is not over yet; seniors still have many Fordham events to enjoy. These events are exciting highlights for the class’s last semester. May features Senior Week, full of events dedicated to making the last days special. Events during the week include a Kick-Off Celebration, the Senior Ball, the academic award event Encaenia, the GSB Awards and the Parent Appreciation Dinner Dance.

“I’ve been looking forward to Senior Week for a couple of years now, after hearing stories and nothing but good things about how much fun it is,” said Lewis.

Another popular series of events that seniors await is Senior Night.

“Each Senior Night has its own

special charm,” Bakalian said. “It’s nice to see everyone and reflect on how each person has evolved since freshman year.”

For most seniors, there is still one Fordham event that they always anticipate: Spring Weekend.

“This Spring Weekend is going to be epic,” Slavin said. “I’m going out with a bang.”

Bakalian is also excited for his last Spring Weekend.

“Each one so far has proven to be a great memory that I have looked back upon with great satisfaction, hopefully Fordham won’t mess this one up,” he said.

Countdowns to graduation are often disheartening; however, the seniors this year are keeping an optimistic attitude. Feeling they have accomplished much during their time at Fordham, they look forward to succeeding even more after graduation.

Bakalian displays the positive spirit of the class.

“I am concerned with living out the final days to the fullest, while remaining optimistic and excited to begin building a professional career,” he said.

what’s

Going

Know “what’s going on” on campus or in NYC?

Send tips, event listings, or comments to theram@fordham.edu.

17

?

On

THURSDAY The Vagina Monologues McNally Amphitheater at Fordham Law School 7:00 p.m Tickets areavailable for $10 at vdayfls.blogpost.com.

See Eve Ensler’s production that addresses a variety of women’s issues and experiences.

18

FRIDAY

Beginner Tango Lessons Lincoln Center Campus Lowenstein Room 912 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Learn how to dance the Tango.

19

SATURDAY Yoga Class Keating room B52 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.

Relax and release your stress by taking a Yoga class. The first class is free.

20

SUNDAY

RecycleMania Event Screenings Lincoln Center Campus McMahon Hall Lounge 109 8:00 to 10:30 p.m.

Learn more about the recycling competition through this presentation.

21

MONDAY George Washington Sculptures Washington Square Park See Stanford White’s architectural collection depicting former President Washington as commander in chief to commemorate President’s Day.

22

TUESDAY American Age Lecture Series: Bob McNeely Flom Auditorium 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Bob McNeely is the the managing shareholder in The McNeely Law Firm and an adjunct professor at Fordham.

23 PHOTO BY NORA MALLOZZI

WEDNESDAY Bulrusher Pope Auditorium Lincoln Center Campus 8:00 p.m.

Tickets are $5 Bulrusher is the story of an orphan girl who has the gift of clairvoyance, yet cannot seem to see her mom.

— COMPILED BY SANDY MCKENZIE

Seniors celebrated the 5th Senior Night, a semi-formal dance, on Feb. 10 .

Ram Reviews young girl’s disappearance, the hunt for her killer, computer hacking and the multitude of terrors unearthed along the way.

At the center of the story is Lisbeth Salander, a young woman described in Netflix’s synopsis as a “rebellious computer hacker,” but these words only scratch the surface. Lisbeth Salander is quite simply one of the most riveting characters ever put to paper and the screen, and actress Noomi Rapace (Beyond), who plays her in the film, certainly does the character justice. Lisbeth, among others, is subjected to so much violence and oppression (the horrors of violence against women are common throughout the series) in her life that it is a wonder how she has not lost her sanity.

Lisbeth is, however, as sane as you or I, but she is deemed “legally incompetent” by her government, and the details concerning why are revealed along the way. Michael Nyqvist (As It Is In Heaven), costars with Rapace, playing Michael Blomkvist, a womanizing journalist

who enjoys little more than exposing the corrupt underbelly of Swedish business and politics through his magazine, Millennium.

The movie starts with Blomkvist being sentenced to jail on libel charges against a weapons-dealing businessman. In the months preceding his jail time, an aging billionaire, Henrik Vanger (SvenBertil Taube, Three Suns), hires Michael to solve the mystery of his niece’s disappearance. He is aided

by Lisbeth, whose own past is just as intriguing and terrifying as the disappearance of the young girl decades prior.

Arden Oplev’s film is, quite simply, fantastic. From the opening scene to the shocking climax, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is one of the most satisfying and exciting films I have ever seen. Impressively, the movie made me care about the characters, who actually seem believable, thanks to the excellent performances given by the entire cast. Again, the central theme of this movie is violence against

women, so to describe this film as dark would probably be an understatement. In fact, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is, in many ways, a staunchly feminist movie, and yet it never comes off as preachy. Thanks to an abundance of violence, criminal insanity, torture and a string of graphic murders uncovered by Salander and Blomkvist, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is not for the faint of heart. Indeed, the movie is at times undeniably frightening, and can arguably be categorized as a horror picture rather than a thriller.

In one of the film’s most disturbing scenes, Lisbeth is violently attacked and raped by her guardian. Lisbeth does not like playing the victim, however, and shortly after she takes her revenge; viewers somehow find ourselves cheering for her.

Do not let the dark nature of the story turn you away, because The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a movie everyone should see, among other things, for the superbly entertaining plot.

TELEVISION “THE VIEW”

By LAUREN ZUPKUS STAFF WRITER

A recent episode of “The View” featured an interview and performance with Latin pop star Ricky Martin (“General Hospital”). With a new album out, Musica Almo Sexo, Martin said he is “hungry for the stage” again.

Martin captivated the audience when he performed his newest single off the album, “The Best Thing About Me Is You,” with the help of an amazing live band.

Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction) was also interviewed on the episode that aired on ABC on Friday, Feb. 4. Both Jackson and host Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost) openly discussed their battles with drug addiction.

Jackson also discussed his upcoming film, The Sunset Limited, where he plays an ex-con opposite Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black).

TO READ THESE REVIEWS IN THEIR ENTIRETY, VISIT THERAMONLINE.COM AND CLICK ON “CULTURE” ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE HOMEPAGE.

PAGE 14 • THE RAM • FEBRUARY 16, 2011

CULTURE

How to Secure Your Dream Summer Internship

By HOLLY LEMANOWICZ STAFF WRITER

How can you snag a coveted internship for summer 2011, or even get a jump-start on securing one for next fall? Even if it feels like you have just begun your spring internship, it is never too early to get a start on searching for future opportunities. Today, employers value the “real world experience” that internships often provide. It is easy to get overwhelmed when thinking about the process of finding internships, applying and interviewing, but hopefully these tips and tricks will leave you prepared and make the process much easier.

1. Know your interests and what you want.

Before you go diving into your search, really think about what careers interest you and where you see yourself after graduation or in the future. Think about your shortterm goals, whether they include obtaining an internship in a related field or working a job and honing your skills. You should aim to have a goal that will interest and motivate you. Think about how you might use these short-term goals to achieve larger ones, such as obtaining your dream job at the conclusion of graduation. In addition, your resumé should tell some sort of “story” that ties your interests and past internships to the job or career that you are seeking.

Ideally, you will be able to use your past internships to show your future employers that you have experience in a related field. At the same time, you may want to consider your position and what your responsibilities include. The internships should be related to your interests and goals and should eas-

ily transfer and be applicable to the industry that you hope to pursue.

Other things to consider include the type of environment in which you would like to position yourself.

Location should also narrow your search. Whether you would like to stay in a city or intern abroad, various options are available to suit your personal preferences.

In addition, thinking about cost as far as transportation, finding housing and deciding whether or not you would be interested in working for-credit or want to be paid a competitive salary are also extremely important factors to consider.

2. Research and surf the web.

In today’s age, sometimes searching for the perfect internship is as simple as doing a little research on the Internet. In addition to visiting career sights of individual companies which you may be interested in, various career posting sites can be a wonderful resource. Hundreds of these search engine type Web sites exist, and they are all readily available. Some of the most popular include Ed2010, MonsterCollege and Intern Queen.

4. Use all available resources.

Utilize your Fordham University resources. The Career Services Office offers countless opportunities to improve your resumé, hone your interviewing skills and more.

You can even sign up to have a oneon-one meeting with someone from the offices to discuss career goals, resumes and cover letters.

Signing up for Fordham’s Job Central Web site is another informative source for internships and jobs that are available; once registered, you can keep track of all career related events on Fordham’s campus in addition to career visits that occur in Manhattan.

Attending the various career related events on campus is a great way not only to get involved on campus and network but also to update your resumé and improve your skills.

3. Think about your connections and personal network.

Sometimes getting your foot in the door is as easy as contacting someone that you already know.

Think of your former internship managers and other bosses in addition to people that are family friends. You never know who may be able to pass your resumé along to a recruiter or coworker.

Remembering to keep in touch with previous bosses and managers is important because they serve as the base of your personal network, can become your mentors and may

5. Explore.

Do not be afraid of branching out and joining professional associations or attending a networking event in a related field. Knowing the ins and outs of an industry in which you hope to be involved can help you identify upcoming trends within that industry as well as show employers that you are serious about your career.

Ask to sit in on a meeting of professionals in whose field you are interested or sign up to view a webinar online. The opportunities for career exploration are endless.

WHO’S THAT KID? Daniella Rizza A MEMBER OF FCRH ’11, MAJORING IN ENGLISH AND MINORING IN ITALIAN FROM LONG ISLAND Where have we seen you?

Wandering around McGinley with my Barbie tote bag, running late to class between Salice-Conley and FMH or on the third floor of the library.

Favorite childhood show and favorite current show?

As a kid, I loved “Sabrina the Teenage Witch.” Whenever I went to old houses, I’d peek into the linen closets to see if there was a passage to the Other Realm.

My favorite show now is “Pushing Daisies,” which, sadly, got canceled too soon. It’s adorable, funny and original. Watch it now. It’s only two short seasons.

Who would play you in a movie and why?

I’d ideally want to play myself and cast my favorite actors as my love interests, but a movie about

help you expand and explore other careers in addition to introducing and exposing you to other industries and working professionals.

Using LinkedIn as a tool to connect with past colleagues, classmates and employers can also prove to be beneficial.

me would have to be a musical and I can’t sing well, so I’d pick Lea Michele.

If you could have dinner with any historical person, who would it be and why?

Jane Austen, because she was so smart and talented, and I’d love to get advice from her and hear her opinions on people today.

What would your ideal day in Manhattan consist of?

I would somehow start out in Brooklyn and walk over the Brooklyn Bridge and get an awesome super stuffed quesadilla at Benny’s Burritos, then head up to Herald Square, where I’d win a shopping spree at Macy’s.

After that, I’d go to the Booth Theater and win front row student rush tickets to Next to Normal, which has magically opened again

with the original cast, and kill time before the show starts, eating dinner at an Italian restaurant.

If you could be anywhere and doing anything right now, what would it be?

I would be at Hogwarts learning magic, and I would then use my knowledge to open an American magic school.

COURTESY OF MONSTERCOLLEGE

Monster College is free to join and helps students find jobs or internships.

COURTESY OF INTERN QUEEN

Internship Queen contains blogs and advice on how to dress professionally.

Some people think my name is Danielle Arizza.

Stuck on an island, what would you need?

Only two things: the entire library that the Beast gives Belle in Beauty and the Beast and my water bottle.

What is your dream job?

I’d love to be an actress who has won multiple Tony Awards for Best Leading Actress in a Musical, but (slightly) more realistically, it would be awesome to be the chancellor of the New York City Public Schools.

What is your guilty pleasure?

I own The Even Stevens Movie on DVD.

Favorite class at Fordham and favorite professor?

This is too hard of a question for me to answer, but if I had to pick one of each, I’d say my favorite class is Broadway Musicals which I’m taking now with Dr. Stempel, because it’s too good to be true.

My homework is listening to show tunes.

My favorite professor is Dr. Greenfield because I’ve had her twice and she is so enthusiastic and gives awesome feedback on essays that facilitate striving for the magis.

How do you blow off steam?

I eat some of the baked goods that are sure to be in my apartment.

My roommates and I bake way too much.

We currently have two kinds of cupcakes, banana bread and a gigantic homemade Reese’s bar.

What is the biggest misconception people have about you?

COURTESY OF DANIELLA RIZZA

Daniella Rizza, who is from Long Island, is a senior and an English major.

FEBRUARY 16 , 2011

PAGE 15

Fordham Extends Losing Streak to Six with Two More A-10 Losses Lady Rams Drop Games to Conference Opponents St. Josephs and Xavier to Fall Six Games Under .500 ALEXANDER VILARDO SPORTS EDITOR

The Atlantic 10 is a tough conference and, right now, no one knows that better than the Lady Rams (10-16, 2-8). After losses to St. Joseph’s (15-9, 5-5) and No. 7 Xavier (21-2, 10-0), the Lady Rams have now dropped six straight A-10 games.

On Wednesday, the team fell to the St. Joseph’s Lady Hawks by a score of 54-47 in the Rose Hill Gymnasium. Senior guard Kyara Weekes led the team in scoring with 12 points, six rebounds and two assists. Senior forward Tiffany Stokes and junior guard Becky Peters continued their shooting woes, with eight and six points, respectively. Senior forward Caitlin Shadbolt chipped in with seven points, five rebounds and an assist.

After being down by double digits for much of the second half, the Lady Rams managed to make it exciting toward the end of the game.

With just over a minute left on the clock, sophomore guard Arielle Collins nailed a three-pointer to bring the score to 44-40 in favor of the Lady Hawks. The Lady Rams had no choice but to foul the Lady Hawks in the last minute, however, and were unable to force a comeback.

“I thought we played a pretty good game,” Head Coach Cathy Andruzzi said. “I thought we forced them into a lot of significant turnovers. We hit the offensive boards and out-rebounded them.”

Shooting once again hurt the Lady Rams more than it helped

PHOTO BY AARON MAYS/THE RAM

Senior Kyara Weeles led the Lady Rams in scoring with 12 points against St. Josephs and added 11 points against Xavier.

them, as they shot just 28.1 percent from the field.

“We took a lot of shots, which was one of the things that haunted us,” Andruzzi said. “Shadbolt goes 2-11 and Stokes [shot] 3-10, so we didn’t get the shooting from the post that we needed. We only had

one person in double-figures. It hasn’t been our defense, its been our offense.”

On Saturday, the team took on Xavier on the Lady Musketeers’ home court in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Lady Musketeers proved why they were ranked No. 6 in the coun-

try, as they beat the Lady Rams by a score of 77-55.

“Xavier is one of the top teams in the country,” Andruzzi said. “They have tradition, size and great experience. We played real hard, and we were very strategic. I thought we played a very good game.”

Weekes contributed with 11 points, three rebounds and three assists. Peters, who had six points, and Stokes, who had five, shot a combined 4-20 from the field.

With about five minutes left in the first half, Weekes nailed a three and cut the Lady Musketeers’ lead to 24-21. The Lady Musketeers responded with an 8-0 run, however, and entered the locker room with a 32-21 lead and never looked back.

The lone bright spot for the Lady Rams was Collins, who led the team in scoring and netted a career-high 20 points to go along with four assists and three rebounds.

“Collins is very good at distributing the ball,” Andruzzi said. “She can get the ball up the court, and when we have to play a certain kind of offense, she excels.”

Shooting was yet again the story of the game for the Lady Rams, as they shot just 28.2 percent from the field. The team now has shot under 30 percent from the field in four straight games.

“We took the most threes we’ve ever taken. If we had eight more of those [go in], it would have been a bit different,” Andruzzi said. “We got some open looks and didn’t make them. We need to work on shooting — shooting has been something that has plagued us.”

The Lady Rams look to turn their shooting habits and losing streak around against two more A-10 opponents. On Wednesday, they travel to Rhode Island (7-17, 1-9). The team returns to the Rose Hill Gym on Saturday, as it hosts the St. Bonaventure Lady Bonnies (16-10, 6-5).

Both Swimming Teams Win on Senior Night in Final Tune-up Before A-10 Championships

PHOTO BY SIMON SULIT/THE RAM

Matthew Grabiak was one of the seniors honored during Wednesday’s Senior Night events. Grabiak will try to improve upon his Atlantic10 Championships results from last season, in which he scored in three events, including a first place finish in the “B” final of the 200 meter breaststroke.

By BRIAN JASINSKI STAFF WRITER

On Wednesday evening, Fordham swimming and diving finished its season with a strong performance against St. Francis College on Senior Night. Both the men’s and women’s teams won their final meet before heading to the Atlantic 10 Championships later this month. The women defeated the Terriers 128-63 to finish the season 7-1, while the men cruised to a

141-66 victory to cap their season at 3-4.

The meet featured season-best times by a number of swimmers on both teams, but was highlighted by a record-breaking performance by Fordham junior Elizabeth Dorger.

Dorger broke the school record in the one-meter diving competition with a score of 277.80; her score topped teammate Andrea Krok’s mark of 276.30 set last season.

Dorger also went on to win the three-meter with a score of 270.00.

Male counterpart Joon Kynng Kim also won both the one-meter and three-meter with season-best scores of 212.40 and 206.70, respectively.

In the lanes, senior Megan McGorry was also a multi-event winner, capturing the 200 freestyle with a season-best time of 1:53.17 and the 100 free in 54.11. McGorry was excited about her team’s victory heading into the A-10 Championships.

“Our victory Wednesday night

might have been the biggest confidence booster our team has had all year,” the graduating senior said. “A large number of swimmers posted their best times of the season.”

In the men’s competition, eight different swimmers won an event.

Freshman sensation Shintaro Noguchi continued dominating the competition as he has done all season.

Noguchi won the 200 individual medley with a season-best time of 1:55.84, while senior Billy Colton

won the 100 breaststroke in 59.82, also a season-best time.

The Rams also received some additional inspiration from the large crowd in attendance.

“Since it was Senior Night, there was definitely added incentive to swim well against St. Francis,” McGorry said. “All of the seniors strived to end their last dual meet on a good note, and the underclassmen wanted to swim well as a tribute their senior teammates.”

In the coming weeks, both squads will taper their practice yardage after a long season. The goal is to rest their bodies and prepare their minds.

McGorry is confident that her teammates will stay focused in pursuit of a second consecutive A-10 title.

“While it would be nice to defend our title and win, our main goal as a team is that everyone swims to the best of their ability,” he said. “We cannot control the outcome of how fast other teams swim. What I do know is that every swimmer on our team is going to fight, and the Lady Rams will not be easy to beat.”

The A-10 Swimming and Diving Championships will take place at the Flickinger Center in Buffalo, Feb. 23-26.

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PAGE 16 • THE RAM • FEBRUARY16, 2011

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To Stay or Not to Stay?

That is the Question

By RICH HOFFMAN STAFF WRITER

Ever since the NBA reached a collective bargaining agreement in 2005, the league’s draft has had an extra requirement: Every player entering the draft must be 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft in addition to being a year removed from his graduating high school class.

There is no news flash there. It basically means what we all know as basketball fans, that every American player needs to spend a year out of high school before entering “The League.”

For almost all players not named Brandon Jennings, this means a year of college.

A ton of NBA stars that were eligible before the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was put in place never graced a college campus.

These are guys who got their feet wet in the NBA without having to go to school and play, and many are household names: LeBron, Kobe, Kevin Garnett and Dwight are a few.

What this means to the NBA isn’t important, though, because the current star high-schoolers will get there eventually.

The real impact is felt on the college level, where these kids have to play for a year, even if their minds are already set on the NBA. Debating whether this is a good rule — I, personally, think it’s a bad one — is a serious issue that isn’t very fun to debate. I want to look at these players’ impacts on the college game.

The number seems pretty fluid, but there were usually between five and 10 guys every year who made the jump straight from high school in the years before 2006.

In addition to these players, there were always a few guys who blew up as freshmen and left after one year, like Carmelo Anthony.

The number of players who are in college for only one year has never been higher than it is today.

Are these “one-and-dones” good for college basketball, though? First, do they help their teams win in March? Strictly looking at the National Champions, that answer is a clear no.

Last year’s Duke team was veteran-laden, as was the team before it. Kansas’ 2008 title team was very experienced, as were the two Florida champions before them.

Almost all of the impact guys on those teams were upperclassmen, not even sophomores.

It is not fair to say that these one-and-done players can’t be a huge part of a team’s deep run in March. Winning it all is not the only measure of success. Derrick Rose was the best player in America at the end of his only season and was only a few missed free throws and a Mario Chalmers desperation three from winning it all. Greg Oden led Ohio State all the way to the final game in 2007.

To me, it seems as if the best

role for these one-and-done players is to be the missing final piece on an already loaded team. Obviously a player of this magnitude will have responsibility, but it’s a lot easier to win when you have guys who have won games before.

Kevin Love of the 2007 UCLA team and Rose are great examples of these “missing pieces.”

It is a lot easier for a young player when he is playing with a Chris Douglas-Roberts or a Darren Collison.

If you are looking for a team that fits the bill for this type of team this year, it is clearly Ohio State and their bruising forward, Jared Sullinger.

Are they good for college basketball, though? Whether you love or hate four-year guys like JJ Redick, Scottie Reynolds or Tyler Hansbrough, fans develop relationships with them. They get to see them start as talented freshmen and develop into senior veterans. Are these guys more memorable than players like John Wall or Kevin Durant?

It is debatable, and it kind of depends on whether you want one tremendous individual season or a great, if slightly lower caliber, four-year career.

The other matter of preference is whether you enjoy the abruptness of a team such as Kentucky changing all of its key players every year. One year you have Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, and the next year we are introduced to Brandon Knight and Terrence Jones.

Next year, it will be Marquis Teague and Michael Gilchrist.

This cycle kind of makes a joke of the term “student athlete,” which gets people all bent out of shape. These kids are signed knowing that they are one-year rentals purely for basketball, and I, personally, don’t care for them.

That is who they are, though.

On the other end of the spectrum is a team like Pittsburgh, that has built an identity as a tough, scrappy and grind-it-out team. It recruits good players without a doubt, but not the five-star guys who would have tested the NBA waters when it was legal. All of its players develop an identity by playing with each other for four years, and they are very cohesive, which makes the program all the more impressive.

The reality of the situation is that, as of right now, this is the system we live in.

The best players are going to play college basketball for at least one year. Although many socalled “purists” do not like this system, it does protect against players entering the NBA before they are ready, as a year of college helps prepare them immensely.

As a college basketball fan, I can only hope that these players embrace the college game on the court.

Even the Kentucky Wildcats play team-oriented ball and give a great effort every night, and that’s what it really comes down to at the collegeiate level.

Right now, that is certainly enough.

SPORTS

FEBRUARY 16, 2011 • THE RAM • PAGE 17

Men’s Basketball

Indoor Track & Field

Women’s Basketball

Temple 77 Fordham 66

Boston Valentine’s Invitational

St. Joe’s 54 Fordham 47

Fordham

Men’s 400m 1. Gordon, Zenith, 46.96 16. Atkinson, Fordham, 48.74

Fordham

fg

3pt ft

reb tp a

GREEN

1-3 0-0 0-0 2 2 1 1

BRISTOL

3-5 0-0 0-0 11 6 0

FRAZIER

5-12 2-5 0-1 4 12 4

ESTWICK

1-5 1-3 0-0 3 3 2

BUTLER MOQUETE

3-11 1-4 3-3 3 10 7 2-3 2-2 0-0 4 6 1

GASTON

11-19 0-0 5-8 9 27 1

Totals

26-58 6-14 8-12 36 66 16

Men’s 500m 1. Ross, Garden State, 1:03.57 8. Bongiorno, Fordham, 1:04.56 10. Delligatti, Fordham, 1:04.66

fg

fg

3pt

ft reb tp a

ALLEN

3-10 0-0 1-2 14 7 4

RANDALL

4-14 3-10 1-3 9 12 2

ERIC

4-7 0-0 4-5 7 12 0

FERNANDEZ 2-9 2-7 4-4 4 10 0 MOORE WYATT

1-4 0-0 0-0 4 2 0

Collins

1-8 1-5 2-2 1 5 3

Weekes

3-8 1-5 5-5 6 12 2

Peters

3-8 2-5 0-0 3 8 2

Dale

1-3 0-0 0-0 6 2 0

Stokes

3-10 0-0 0-2 8 6 0

Bell

2-5 1-2 0-0 2 5 1

Totals

16-57 6-21 9-11 38 47 9

1-4 1-2 1-2 2 4 4 0-2 0-1 0-0 1 0 0

BROWN

0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 1

JEFFERSON 2-4 0-0 6-11 7 10 0

23-68 8-26 23-33 49 77 15

Blocks: Bristol (4), Allen, Eric (2). Steals: Allen, Randall (2), Moore (2), Wyatt (2), Jefferson (2), Green, Bristol, Frazier, Butler, Gaston. Turnovers: Green, Frazier (6), Estwick (4), Butler, Moquete (2), Gaston (3), Allen (3), Eric, Fernandez, Moore, Wyatt.

Team

1st

2nd

Fordham

29

37

Final 66

Temple

47

30

77

GASTON

6-12 0-1 2-5 10 14 5

BRISTOL

3-7 0-0 0-2 10 6 1

FRAZIER

5-11 3-6 4-4 1 17 4

ESTWICK

5-11 4-7 0-0 6 14 2

BUTLER

4-13 2-9 7-7 3 17 4

SAMUELL

0-3 0-0 0-0 0 0 1

GREEN

1-1 0-0 0-0 2 2 0

Totals

St.Joes

fg

3pt ft reb tp a

ROBERTS

1-7 0-0 0-0 11 2 1

HILLIARD 1-5 0-1 2-2 4 4 3 GALLOWAY 7-13 4-9 7-9 4 25 3 QUARLES

2-5 1-2 0-0 2 5 1

JONES

4-9 4-8 3-4 0 15 6

AIKEN

2-3 0-1 4-7 4 8 0

O’BRIEN

0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

BENTLEY

5-7 2-3 2-2 2 14 3

Totals

23-5112-2518-2433 76 18

Blocks: Roberts, Aiken (7), Bristol (3). Steals: Roberts, Galloway (2), Aiken (2), Swilling, Bentley, Bristol, Samuell. Turnovers: Roberts, Hilliard (2), Quarles, O’Brien (2), Bentley, Gaston (2), Bristol, Frazier (2), Estwick, Butler, Samuell (2)

Team

1st

2nd

Final

Fordham

43

27

70

St. Joes

31

45

76

4-10 4-9 1-2 6 12 4

Baker

3-14 0-2 0-0 1 6 1

Gotfrida 2-2 0-0 3-4 3 7 0 1-1 1-1 0-0 1 3 1 1-2 0-1 1-2 3 3 0

Prim

2-4 0-0 6-7 1 10 1

Men’s 4x400 relay 1. Zenith (Faulkner, Phillip, Campbell, Gordon), 3:11.82 5. Fordham (Atkinson, Bongiorno, Delligatti, Schmidt), 3:16.27

Totals

Men’s Mile Run 1. Van Ingren, Binghamtom, 3:57.11 54. Harvey, Fordham, 4:18.43

Baker (2), Gotfrida (3), Bry-

Women’s 60m 1. Walton, BU, 7.64 11. Groeninger, Fordham, 7.90

18-48 5-17 13-18 37 54 12

Blocks: Van Grinsven, Cavallo (5), Weekes, Dale, Bell. Steals: Shields (2), Kuester, Vila, Primi, Shadbolt, Weekes (3), Dale, Stokes (2). Turnovers: Van Grinsven, Cavallo, Shields (3), Kuester (3), ant (2), Smith (2), Shadbolt (3), Zamora (2), Collins (2), Weekes, Peters, Dale, Stokes (4), Bell (2) Team

1st

2nd

Final

Fordham

47

29

47

St. Joes

24

30

54

Xavier 77 Fordham 55

Women’s 200m 1. Miller, Maine, 24.09

Women’s 800m 1. Muncan, New Balance, 2:05.75 73. Bain, Fordham, 2:22.92 Women’s 100m 1. Lamar, NYAC, 2:47.06 20. Davis, Fordham, 2:59.21 Women’s 1 mile run 1. King, BC, 4:37.04 9. Gallagher, Fordham, 4:48.90 43. Arsenault, Fordham, 5:06.63

SWILLING 1-2 1-1 0-0 4 3 1

0-6 0-4 0-1 2 0 4

Kuester

Smith

Women’s 500m 1. Thomas, Nike, 1:10.73 6. Connolly, Fordham, 1:16.32

24-58 9-23 13-18 33 70 17

4-5 0-0 2-2 9 10 1

Shields

0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

Women’s 400m 1. Graves-Fulgham, Unattached, 55.36 25. Warren, Fordham, 58.76

3pt ft reb tp a

Cavallo

Bryant

St. Joe’s 76 Fordham 70

fg

reb tp a

Vila

30. Groeninger, Fordham 26.08

Fordham

3pt ft

Van Grinsven 1-4 0-0 0-0 5 2 0

Men’s 1000m 1. Lecours, Guelph, 2:24.21 9. Polo, Fordham, 2:27.91

7-17 2-5 6-6 1 22 4

DiLEO

Totals

Men’s 800m 1. Novak, NYAC, 1:47.20 5. Schmidt, Fordham, 1:50.81 14. Cosgrove, Fordham, 1:52.63

reb tp a

Zamora

St. Joes fg Temple

3pt ft

Shadbolt 2-11 1-4 2-2 5 7 1

Women’s Distance Medley 1. Dartmouth (Adler, Tanner, Supino, Vailas), 11:29.69 4. Fordham (Gallagher, Connolly, Bain, Arsenault), 11:51.51

Fordham

fg

3pt ft

reb tp a

Shadbolt 3-13 2-9 2-2 5 10 0 Zamora

0-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 1

Collins

8-15 4-10 0-0 3 20 4

Weekes

4-14 3-11 0-0 3 11 3

Peters

2-10 2-8 0-0 6 6 1

Dale

1-2 1-1 0-0 2 3 0

Griff

0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 2

Stokes

2-10 0-0 1-3 9 5 1

Bell Totals

0-4 0-0 0-0 2 0 1 20-71 12-40 3-5 34 55 13

Xavier

fg

Harris

9-18 0-2 0-0 8 18 2

3pt ft

reb tp a

Phillips 4-8 0-0 4-7 13 12 0 Moss

4-9 3-5 2-2 9 13 7

Jennings 1-2 1-1 5-6 1 8 4 Askew

1-3 0-0 1-1 6 3 1

Hawkes

0-1 0-1 0-0 1 0 3

Holmes

4-5 1-1 2-2 1 11 0

Wanninger 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Johnson

1-1 0-0 0-0 1 2 0

Gray

1-1 0-0 0-0 2 2 1

Rutan

3-4 2-3 0-0 0 8 2

Totals

28-52 7-13 14-18 46 77 20

Blocks: Harris (4), Phillips (3), Gray. Steals: Shadbolt, Collins (5), Peters, Griff, Stokes, Bell, Harris, Askew. Turnovers: Zamora, Collins, Peters (2), Stokes, Bell (2), Harris (4), Phillips, Moss, Jennings (2), Askew (2), Hawkes, Holmes (2), Gray (2), Rutan.

Team

1st

Fordham

21

2nd 34

Final 55

Xavier

32

45

77

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PAGE 18• THE RAM • FEBRUARY 16, 2011

NICK CARROLL Being an estranged fan sucks.

Being from Philadelphia, my natural inclination is to hate all things New York, especially the sports teams. So to have only the Knicks, Mets and the trio of bad hockey teams (Rangers, Islanders, Devils) to watch on a nightly basis generally leaves me at a sports loss while at school. Last week, however, I was genuinely excited for a Knicks game, and it wasn’t even when my hometown Sixers split a home-andhome with the overrated, overexposed Knicks — it was actually for the lowly Clippers.

It wasn’t to see Wilson Chandler fire up bad shots or Timofey Mozgov’s awkward brand of basketball; it was to see the spectacular Blake Griffin do things that only he can do.

After Griffin skied over Mozgov earlier this season in Los Angeles and threw down a variety of poster-worthy dunks, I almost consider myself a Clippers fan. I have grown to like Eric Gordon (who is currently injured) and am rooting for the team to make the next step. Whether that happens or not, I have determined that I don’t care.

Really, it doesn’t matter. Maybe I’d like to see more Griffin, and the playoffs would accomplish that, but the regular season provides plenty of highlights. What I am realizing is that some teams don’t need to be good to be fun.

Okay, this isn’t exactly a scientific breakthrough; however, I don’t think teams of this nature receive enough attention. The only bad teams that receive this kind of attention are the aforementioned New York teams, who generate an absurd amount of inexplicable publicity.

Now, I understand the big picture. American sports are all about the playoffs. Every game is a stepping stone toward an eventual championship. With that said, sports are about fun. Even though the San Antonio Spurs are a dominant basketball team that plays the right way and has to be considered the favorites to win the title right now, I would rather watch Griffin and the Clippers play their variety of poor basketball that makes for one hell of a highlight film.

I can easily respect playing the right way like the Spurs do; I even have come to admire the way they play and think they have the ideal system for an NBA contender in place. They aren’t fun to watch, however. When it comes down to it, when I watch a regular season game, I just want to be entertained, and the Clippers usually get the job done.

The Clippers are not alone, though. The Golden State Warriors have followed a similar path over the past few seasons. Building around exhilarating talents like

Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis won’t win the Warriors a title; both lack the size and defense to lead an NBA champion and could never win a championship together. With that said, they run the risk of blowing the scoreboard out on a nightly basis with their high-scoring, uptempo style.

It reminds me of Allen Iverson.

Growing up as a 76ers fan, I always knew that Iverson was inherently flawed. Despite knowing that even the best Iverson year still left the Sixers light years behind the Kobe/ Shaq Lakers, I wouldn’t have traded those seasons for anything. Iverson’s unstoppable scoring (good for sixth-best all time, third-best post-merger) was incredible and the way he played the game was unmatched. He wasn’t and couldn’t be an ideal basketball player, but the way he played the game packed the Center in Philly every night, and fans couldn’t get enough of it (even selling out Iverson’s return to the Sixers on short notice, despite Iverson being washed up and the Sixers being atrocious).

As a fan, of course I want my team to contend for and win championships; however, if I am a fan of a mediocre team, I’d rather my team be fun than good. Right now, the Sixers are on a pretty strong run. After a 3-13 start, the team has gone 23-16 to climb to seventh in the conference and in striking distance of overtaking the Knicks for sixth. I know this team can’t win a championship. They are achieving their potential and still have no chance. Especially considering their style of play (gritty, tough and defense-oriented), this team doesn’t exactly thrill me.

When it comes down to it, even throwing away the idea of potential and growing over time, I would rather be a fan of the Clippers or Warriors just for the fact that I know I will be wowed by the jawdropping skill on display every night, whether it is from my team or the opposition.

Unless the team has a legitimate chance to win something, I’d rather see them entertain, no matter what the sport. In football, the clear example is the Houston Texans. The Texans have evolved into a weekly heart attack, making no lead safe, whether it is their lead or the opposition’s. Maybe the Texans will eventually figure it out, but there is a very good chance that this is who they are and who they are going to be for the next few years. With that said, most of the league is stuck in the same position record-wise.

How many teams conceivably have a better chance of winning a Super Bowl over the next five years? Many teams are stuck in the same situation of having to take that difficult last step to be a contender. So, as a fan, isn’t it better to at least have a team that keeps things interesting week-to-week, rather than one that is playing meaningless, uneventful games for the final six weeks?

One of my roommates is a big Orioles fan. It’s almost pathetic how much he cares even when his team is 30 games out of first place in September; however, the Orioles’ young talent and high-scoring potential make them watchable, even when the games are virtually meaningless.

Sometimes you have to put the record aside, and just enjoy it.

SPORTS

Senior Profile: Brenton Butler

By ALEXANDER VILARDO SPORTS EDITOR

Redshirt senior guard Brenton Butler, originally from Norcross, Georgia, is presently in his third year as a team captain. Butler scored 22 points in Fordham’s upset win over St. Johns. This season, he is averaging 14.2 points per game and shooting 34 percent from the field.

The Ram: Why did you choose Fordham?

Brenton Butler: I chose Fordham because of its high academic standards and because the Atlantic 10 is a very competitive conference for basketball.

TR: What are your thoughts on Coach Pecora and the changes he has made in the program so far?

BB: He is a class act. It has been a pleasure to play for him this year because I have learned a lot that will help me develop as a player as I continue my career. He has brought a winning attitude as well as being a strict disciplinarian. [He] will push the program in the right direction.

TR: The team has a disappointing record. What would it take to salvage the season?

BB: [We need] to win the games needed to make the A-10 tournament.

TR: On what does the team need to improve?

BB: We need to improve playing 40 minutes of intense, competitive basketball. The A-10 is a very competitive conference, and you need to bring your “A” game every night in order to win.

TR: How significant was the

PHOTO BY AARON MAYS/THE RAM

Brenton Butler has served as team captain for the past two seasons. Last season, Butler became the 33rd Fordham player to reach 1,000 points.

upset of St. John’s for the Fordham basketball program?

TR: What are your thoughts on new point guard Lamount Samuell?

BB: It was very significant because it shows the potential that the Fordham basketball team has, and it showed the Fordham community how valuable a strong sports program can be.

BB: Lamount is a great kid who adds a lot of enthusiasm to the team and energy to the court.

He is also a great roommate.

TR: You probably have had plenty of big wins in your basketball career. Where does that game rank among those wins for you?

BB: It’s up there. It was definitely one of my best. It was really great to be a part of that; we really believed that we could win, and it was nice to prove everyone wrong.

TR: What are your plans for next year?

BB: My plan is to play professionally.

TR: Where do you see the Fordham basketball program going under the direction of Coach Pecora?

BB: The sky is the limit. I feel that they can definitely be a consistent A-10 contender.

Squash Wins Two of Three Over Weekend

By BRODY NIEPORTE STAFF WRITER

The squash team had a productive showing this weekend at the Connecticut College Round Robin Tournament in New London, Conn. With the pair of wins over the weekend, Fordham closes out its first regular season under Head Coach Bryan Patterson with a record of 7-9.

Fordham started the tournament with a dominating 8-1 win over Bryant University. The Rams swept the season series against Bryant, winning both matches. The top eight players won matches for Fordham, including a very impressive win at the No. 1 singles position by senior Colin Corbett.

After an earlier loss in the season to Bryant number one Nick Brenner, Corbett came out firing to make sure that Brenner would not beat him again. Corbett ended up taking down Brenner in straight sets with scores of 11-6, 11-4 and 11-7. Junior Eli Plannger, at No. 3 singles, and junior Chris Souther, at No. 8 singles, both had hard fought four-

set wins. No other match went past three sets.

Next up in the tournament, Fordham faced Lafayette. The matchup consisted of two winning teams in the Round Robin, both of which took down the Bryant Bulldogs. Like Bryant, Lafayette was no match for Fordham.

Fordham won the match easily by a score of 7-1. Corbett suffered the only loss for Fordham by losing a very close match to Lafayette’s No. 1 player Carter Rufe, a two-sport athlete at Lafayette.

Fordham junior Andrew Grosner came from behind to pull out a four-set win, and Chris Souther won in four competitive sets winning the fourth set by a score of 15-13.

The final match of the tournament pitted Fordham against highly ranked Connecticut College.

The host school came into the Round Robin with a national ranking of 26th. Fordham fought hard, showing a lot of grit and determination, but in the end it lost by a score of 9-0.

The closest match came at number No. 4 Fordham’ sopho-

more Jack O’Brien lost in three grueling sets; the score of his match was 12-10, 11-2 and 11-7.

All in all, this was a very encouraging weekend for Fordham squash. All three matches that the team played were highly competitive, and Fordham managed to pull out a pair of convincing wins.

Fordham got some valuable experience for some of its new members on the team.

“Winning two matches this weekend was very good for our team, but we are looking forward to the postseason and moving deep into the playoffs,” sophomore Jack O’Brien said.

The Round Robin was a perfect way to end a good regular season for the Rams. Hopefully the team will keep the momentum going in two weeks as they travel up to Harvard University to compete in the College Squash Association’s Team Championships.

Last season, Lafayette defeated Fordham in the first round of play.

However, Fordham rebounded to win consolation final in a win over Bucknell.

Track Finishes Well in Three Meets, Prepares for A-10 Championships

By CELESTE KMIOTEK COPY CHIEF

Fordham’s men’s and women’s track and field teams warmed up for this weekend’s meet at both a tri-meet at Manhattan College with Southern Connecticut State on Wednesday, Feb. 9 and at the Armory Track and Field Center’s Thursday Night at the Races on Feb. 10. They then traveled to Boston on Friday, Feb. 11 and Saturday, Feb. 12 for the Valentine’s Day Classic, where they put out promising performances given their efforts to prepare for the upcoming championship season.

“The team was definitely pleased with the results,” senior Sherilyn Groeninger said. “On both the women’s and men’s side, members of the team had their best races of the season thus far. There were several ECAC- and IC4A-qualifying and school record-breaking times.”

“The team was very happy with the results at Boston this weekend.

We had a few new school records, there were a number of IC4A qualifying performances and overall it was a great confidence boost going into next weekend’s conference championships,” junior Brian Riley said. “Some of the underclassmen really stepped it up this weekend.”

Manhattan’s tri-meet produced four event wins for Fordham. For the men, junior Frank Massaro finished first in the 200-meter dash, coming in at 24.1 seconds, while freshman Mackenzie Murphy finished first in the 55-meter hurdles with 8.1.

For the Lady Rams, freshman Taylor Jacob both won the women’s shot put and broke Jeana Fletcher’s 2009 school record of 39’ 4”, throwing 40’ 2.75”. Freshman Elizabeth Akinyemi also won her event, finishing the 200-meter dash with 29.0 seconds The Armory’s meet featured the mile run, the 800-meter run and the two-mile run. As this meet is less formal than traditional meets, the officials have not posted the final results.

According to the Fordham athletics department’s Web site, on the men’s side, junior Rich Grandelli was the first Ram to finish the mile run, coming in at 4:30.2 and followed by junior Stephen Donnelly with 4:36.8, sophomore Ian Powell with 4:39.8 and junior Christopher Chung with 4:44.5. Junior Carter Ward was the first of the Fordham men in the 800-meter run with 2:02.8; senior Jarrett Anistranski (2:03.0), freshman Troy Coonrad (2:04.1) and sophomore Ben Delikat (2:05.3) also ran. Freshman Tim Kazanjian was the sole Fordham male in the two-mile run, finishing with 9:59.7.

Sophomore Christina Machado finished first of the Lady Rams in the mile run, coming in at 5:28.5, while sophomore Olivia Hustleby came in at 5:46.8. In the 800-meter run, sophomore Kellen Fitzgerald finished in 2:29.1, followed by freshman Shannon McKenna with 2:42.0. Sophomore Kim Naples finished the two-mile run in 11:51.5, and junior Mairin O’Connor came in at 12:28.3.

At the Valentine’s Day Classic, the teams set two new school records, as well as turning out six

more qualifiers for the ECAC/ IC4A Championship. The meet opened with the women’s competition on Friday, while the last women’s events and all of the men’s events occurred on Saturday.

On Friday, Groeninger finished 11th in the 60-meter dash, coming in at 7.90, while then finishing 30th in the 200-meter dash with 26.08.

Junior Elisabeth Warren produced a season-best time in the 400-meter dash, coming in 25th with 58.76.

In the 500-meter dash, junior Kelly Connolly placed sixth with a time of 1:16.32, her best of the season.

Freshman Diane Bain came in 73rd in the 800-meter run with 2:22.92, and sophomore Ashley Davis took 20th in the 1,000-meter run, coming in 2:59.21. Senior Kerri Gallagher took ninth in the mile run with 4:48.90, the best time of the season, followed by freshman Anisa Arsenault, who took 43rd with 5:06.63.

On Saturday, sophomore Sean Atkinson qualified for the IC4As in the 400-meter dash, finishing in 48.74 seconds for 16th place. In the 500-meter dash, both sophomore Michael Bongiorno and junior Nick Delligatti qualified for the IC4As, coming in eighth with 1:04.56 and 10th with 1:04.66, respectively.

Senior Brian Schmidt broke his own, week-long record in the 800-meter run with 1:50.81, good for fifth place. Sophomore John Cosgrove and senior Tim Hutchinson followed, coming in 14th with 1:52.63 and 68th with 1:57.24, respectively. In the 1,000-meter run, freshman Ryan Polo (ninth with 2:27.91) and freshman Brian Walter (17th with 2:29.09) both qualified for the IC4As; senior Thomas Kelly took 30th with 2:30.76. In the mile run, freshman Kevin Harvey took 54th (4:18.43), Riley took 56th (4:18.67), freshman Michael Belgiovine took 71st (4:20.49) and junior Sam Stuart took 79th (4:21.63). Schmidt, Atkinson, Delligatti and Bongiorno took fifth in the men’s 4x400-meter relay, finishing in 3:16.27.

On the women’s side, the women’s distance medley of Gallagher, Warren, Connolly and Arsenault took fourth with 11:51.51, both qualifying for ECACs and setting a new school record. The previous record, set in 1991 by Karen Cloran, Toni Agard, Kim Reilly and Lauren Gubicza, was 11:53.9.

“We plan to use the momentum from the Boston meet and carry it to A[tlantic] 10s this upcoming weekend,” Groeninger said. “We have strengths in both individual races and relays that will prove to be very competitive at the championship meet. We feel very confident that our team will compete at the highest level with the other teams.”

“It is definitely a confidence booster going into A-10s,” Schmidt said. “The team looks great going into the championship season.

Overall I think this is the strongest team we’ve had in years.”

“There is no doubt that we feel prepared for A-10s a week from now,” Riley said.

Both teams will next compete on Friday, Feb. 18 and Saturday, Feb. 19 at the A-10 Championships in Kingston, R.I.

FEBRUARY 16, 2011 • THE RAM • PAGE 19

SPORTS

By CHESTER BAKER ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

I am a Chicago Cubs fan.

That very sentence has been one of the most depressing aspects of my life thus far. Every single time I say it I get a response like “Oh, sorry,” or something to that effect. For those of you who do not know why this is the case, the reason is that the Cubs are historically one of the most futile teams in the history of sports. The last time the Cubs won a World Series was 1908. Yup, that’s 1908. It has been 102 seasons since the Northsiders (in contrast to their rival team, the White Sox, located on the South Side of Chicago) last won a championship.

I have not always been a Cubs fan. My life used to be much more blessed until the Yankees traded for Alex Rodriguez. Up until that point, the 2004 season, I was as big a Yankees fan as you could find.

I had been to four World Series games, two other playoff games, memorized the entire 1998 World Series Championship video and I had also memorized the call on the radio during David Wells’ perfect game. “O’Neill near the line ... he makes the catch! David Wells has pitched a perfect game! Twentyseven up, 27 down! Baseball immortality!” Alright, so maybe I can still remember it.

Something inside me just did not sit right once A-Rod was aboard. It felt like the Yankees were becoming more of an All-Star team, and not the team with whom I had grown up. I loved guys like Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch and Chad Curtis. Suddenly, after all of those players were gone, I simply did not want to root for the team that remained.

I have been told by people that it was dumb of me to abandon a team just because they got new players, especially because whatever team I was going to pick was just going to get new players. They asked me if I was going to switch again if my new team got the prime-time free agents. I really could not think

about all those variables at the time.

All I knew was that I hated what the Yankees were doing, and I hated that they were simply trying to buy wins, and I hate that they just bought a World Series in 2009.

I knew that I wanted to switch teams, and I knew that I would be ridiculed for it no matter what; however, there was no way I was going to pick the Mets or the Red Sox, since I would get made fun of even more.

I realized that I was going to have to pick a team that was not that close to me, since there are not any other teams in New Jersey. I realized that I had free range now, and could pick any team from anywhere in the country. I decided to pick a team that I thought could contend for many years, but was not so good that people would just call me a frontrunner.

In the season before I had switched, the Cubs were just five outs away from reaching the World Series, until the infamous Steve Bartman incident occurred. For some reason this stuck with me, and I really thought that it was going to be the last line of Cubs’ disappointments, and that “the year” was going to be soon.

Sadly, I have been wrong so far.

By choosing the Cubs, I have entered into one of the saddest relationships that any fan can have with their team. I love the Cubs, and I always know that whatever they can do wrong they will do wrong.

Despite this, I still have something in me that says this year will be different, and that finally our suffering will pay off. It is like when a girlfriend keeps letting her cheating boyfriend come back to her and keeps saying to all her friends, “this time will be different.”

I have had my heart broken by them more times than I had my heart broken in middle school, which we all know is the prime of anyone’s heartbreaking career. I had my heart broken by them in my first season of being a fan of theirs, in 2004, when they blew a wild card

lead in late September. The next two seasons were a little bit better, since they were disappointing from the start and never got anywhere near the playoff picture.

In 2007 the Cubs signed Alfonso Soriano (oddly enough, the player who the Yankees had traded to Texas in exchange for Rodriguez). The Cubs reached the playoffs, going from worst to first, just to get swept in the first round by the Arizona Diamondbacks. I did not take this too hard, because it was just nice to see my team in the playoffs.

The Cubs defended their N.L. Central title in 2008, and this time I wanted a championship. I really thought they had a chance, especially with rookie Geovany Soto and free agent acquisition Kosuke Fukodome (who has since been a major bust). I was ignorant, and not used to the heartbreak yet. Of course, the Cubs were swept again, this time by the Dodgers.

These disappointments are just a blip on the screen for any lifetime Cubs fan, and they have seen far worse than I have. Since then, the Cubs have found themselves in the middle of the pack in the league, and have not made the playoffs in the past two years.

I really have no reason to hope, and yet, I still do. We have Carlos Pena at first this season, we got Matt Garza in a trade, Soto had a bounce back year last season and Mike Quade was named manager.

As I write this, I find it sad that these are the kinds of names that excite me. I mean, really, who else would be excited about Pena after he hit under .200 last year?

You know what? I still believe this is the year. I still honestly believe that the Cubs have a legitimate chance to win the World Series. Even I know that sounds ridiculous. I think a team that beat out only the Pirates in the division last year can honestly win the title.

This is what it is like to be a Cubs fan.

So please, think twice before you make fun of us; we already know our curse.

Upcoming Varsity Schedule CAPS=HOME lowercase=away

Thursday Feb. 17

Friday Feb. 18

Men’s Basketball

Women’s Basketball

Saturday Feb. 19

Sunday Feb. 20

Tuesday Feb. 22

Wednesday Feb. 23

at Xavier 8:00 p.m.

at Bonnies 7:00 p..m.

BONNIES 1:00 p.m.

UMASS 7:00 p.m.

Track

Atlantic 10 Championships Kingston, R.I. 9:00 a.m.

Baseball

at VCU 2:00 p.m.

at VCU 1:00 p.m.

at VCU 1:00 p.m.

Softball

Ole Miss 4:00 p.m. at USF 6:00 p.m.

Indiana 12:30 p.m.

DePaul 5:00 p.m.

UAB 10:30 a.m.

Men’s Tennis

at St. Thomas Aquinas 7:30 p.m.

Women’s Tennis

at Quinnipiac 2:00 p.m.

Swimming

Monday Feb. 21

at Vassar 12:00 p.m.

Atlantic 10 Championships Buffalo, N.Y.

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

PAGE 20

Rams Continue to Fall Behind in Conference Play

Rams Fall to Temple and St. Joseph’s, Run Conference Losing Streak to 37 Games

By MARK BECKER STAFF WRITER

On the verge of Atlantic 10 Championship berth elimination, the men’s basketball team faced a contrasting week. On the one hand, the Rams had to travel to take on one of the conference’s premier teams, while days later they returned home to attempt to scrape out a much-needed win over what could be the conference’s worst team.

Fordham (6-17, 0-11) dropped both decisions, each in heartbreaking fashion, 77-66 to Temple (19-5, 9-2) after a spirited comeback and 76-70 to Saint Joseph’s (7-17, 2-8) after holding a double-digit lead at the end of the first half.

“We go into a bye week after giving up a 12-point halftime lead and losing it — I’d like a bye month, perhaps,” Head Coach Tom Pecora said.

It has been a trying season for the team and its fans. A 6-4 start to non-conference play through the fall semester, including the upset victory over likely NCAAbound St. John’s, had raised the bar, only for it to come crashing down as the team trudged through A-10 play, dropping 11 straight decisions this season and 37 in a row dating back to the 2008-09 season.

Heading into Philadelphia to take on three-time defending conference champion Temple, the Rams certainly had their work cut out for them; the Owls are contending for the A-10 title as usual, and rarely lose at home.

In fact, all five of their losses this season have come at away or neutral sites — their last two home losses were Jan. 2, 2010 to Kansas and Nov. 28, 2010 to St. John’s.

The Rams managed to stick around for the first five minutes before Temple caught fire, scorching Fordham for 16 straight points in the middle of the half and holding a 47-29 lead at halftime.

Fordham was not about to go down without a fight, however, coming out of the break and using a 17-3 run to pull within one shot, fueled by the big men and capped by two big-time threes by freshman guard Branden Frazier. Temple managed to stretch the lead back out a bit but could not reach double digits until the Rams had worn down from playing excessive minutes due to an injury-shortened lineup.

“We’re lacking in depth and talent,” Pecora said. “We haven’t been able to play 40 minutes.”

The recent injuries to freshman guard Lamount Samuell (ankle) and freshman forward Marvin Dominique (shoulder) took their toll, shortening the Rams’ bench to a mere 24 minutes split between senior forward Jacob Green and sophomore guard Rayner Moquete, who combined to score eight points with four

PHOTO BY AARON MAYS/THE RAM

Freshman guard Branden Frazier is averaging 12.1 points per game and shooting 41.5 percent from the field.

rebounds, two assists and three turnovers. Three of the Rams’ starters were forced into playing over 38 minutes, and they were the only ones to score in double digits.

Sophomore forward Chris Gaston led the game with 27 points but just missed another double-double with only nine rebounds.

Frazier and redshirt senior guard Brenton Butler scored 12 and 10, respectively, with Frazier adding four each of rebounds and assists and Butler dishing out an impressive seven assists to only one turnover. Junior center Kervin Bristol again flashed the potential Pecora raves about, pulling down 11 rebounds and blocking four shots; all that his game remains bereft of is consistency.

The Owls spread their offense out as usual, enjoying five double-digit scorers with junior guard Ramone Moore leading the way with 22. All-conference senior forward Lavoy Allen managed only seven points but added four assists and 14 rebounds — 10 on the offensive glass — to spark the Owls to a plus-13 margin.

Fordham shot over 10 percent better than Temple from the floor and beyond the arc in the game, but what made the difference were Temple’s 33 free throw attempts, including an 8-8 mark in the final minutes as Fordham fouled to stop the clock.

“On Saint Valentine’s Day I wrote on the board down in the locker room, ‘Without love there’s no pain,’” Pecora said. “I just said, ‘Some of you guys cannot be comfortable with losing, and I understand that it’s been a struggle here over the last two seasons, and there’s been a ton of losses, but if they don’t tear at your gut, then competing at this level is probably not where

you belong.’”

Hardly expecting to have won the Temple matchup regardless, Fordham returned home — or to the IZOD center, rather — to prepare for its most, and possibly only remaining, winnable game this season, against Saint Joseph’s.

For once, the Rams jumped out to an early lead and held on, even extending it to double digits by halftime thanks to shooting 51.7 percent from the field and a ridiculous 53.8 percent from behind the arc.

With a 12-point lead at the half, the first conference win in two years looked all but locked up for Fordham. But no sooner had Fordham extended the lead to 16 than SJU’s freshman shooting guard Langston Galloway took over, sparking a 19-4 run that shriveled the lead to one in the span of six minutes.

Fordham clung to the remnants of hope for the essential win, but could not hold off the Hawks for long: Sophomore point guard Carl Jones scored five points in 23 seconds to put Saint Joe’s up with nine minutes to play and extended their lead to nine.

Fordham cut the lead down to four and three on two occasions, both involving three-point plays, but could not climb all the way back, ultimately falling by six and losing nearly any chance of obtaining a conference win this season.

“It’s a tough loss for us,” Pecora said. “I’m not going to lie to you — they’re adding up.”

Once again, the Rams were defeated in large part due to the slew of injuries that have forced the starters to play excessive minutes the past week.

Gaston played the full 40 and three other Rams topped 35 — all being the only ones to score in double digits — with only Samuell and Green seeing time off the bench (again, 12 minutes

each, in which they combined to score only two points with two rebounds, an assist and two turnovers).

Samuell’s return to the lineup after suffering a high ankle sprain just over a week ago was a good sign for the team, according to Pecora, who noted that having a game-controlling point guard is essential to a team’s success when discussing Xavier junior point guard Tu Holloway in anticipation of playing him next week.

Pecora said that he had not yet checked with the training staff on Samuell’s status and would see how he was at practice this week, but suggested that he will be shut down for the season should there be any further problems.

Frazier and Butler led Fordham in scoring with 17 points apiece while Bristol and Gaston each pulled down 10 rebounds, with Gaston earning his 14th double-double of the season by

also scoring 14 points. He even added five assists against only two turnovers.

Galloway led both teams in scoring with 25 points and was joined in double digits by senior guard Charoy Bentley and freshman forward C.J. Aiken, who also blocked seven shots.

Jones added 15 points and six assists in the win.

Fordham’s flaws are not difficult to pinpoint, as the Rams have shown on numerous occasions that they lack the fundamental aspects of basketball.

The team routinely loses the turnover battle and often by a wide margin — kenpom.com has the Rams ranked 343rd of 345 Division I teams in turnover percentage and 344th in steal percentage.

The Rams also have a consistent inability to shoot the ball at an acceptable clip, with the team dead-last in the A-10 in shooting percentage at a paltry .368. This also has contributed to the Rams’ 13th-ranked rebounding margin, at -6.1, despite boasting the conference’s individual leader in Gaston, as more missed shots turn into more defensive rebounds for opponents.

“It’s all about defense, and offense will come off of that,” Pecora said.

The Rams will take to the road for the next week, heading first to Cincinnati, Ohio to play conference-leading Xavier (186, 9-1) on Saturday, Feb. 19 and returning to New York to complete a home-and-home series with St. Bonaventure (13-10, 5-5) on Wednesday, Feb. 23.

With only five games remaining on the schedule and the Rams needing to win at least three to make the A-10 Championship, a berth is likely to be ruled out by the end of the road trip.

PHOTO BY AARON MAYS/THE RAM

Freshman guard Lamount Samuell is averaging 4.7 points in nine games.