Volume 94 Issue 14

Opinions PAGE 8

Culture PAGE 13

Sports PAGE 20

Cardinal Dolan thanks students for their enthusiam.

Fordham’s hidden gem: St. Rose’s Garden.

Volleyball wins Bucknell Invitational.

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SERVING THE FORDHAM UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY FOR OVER 90 YEARS

1918-2012

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

VOLUME 94, ISSUE 14

Fordham Rams Come From Behind for Homecoming Win Fest, Full of Carlton Koonce and Ryan Higgins Starred with Two Touchdowns Each as Fordham Outscored Cornell 34-27 on Saturday Tradition Week Included Memorials, Club Showcase and Comedy

By MONICA CRUZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Building up excitement and school spirit for the Homecoming Game, Festivus Fordhamensis is a Fordham tradition that entails a week full of exciting events for students to enjoy. This year, the events included the 9/11 Interfaith Memorial Service on Tuesday, hosted

by Campus Ministry, and the Club Performance Showcase on Wednesday night, a Fordham tradition in which performing arts clubs sing and dance on the steps of Keating Hall. The Ballroom Dance club preformed an exciting and unique set in the showcase.

Emily Rochotte, GSB ’13, United Student Government vice president of student life, expressed her excitement for the showcase in an email, stating, “I have attended [the showcase] since I was a freshman, and it was really cool to be able to organize it this year. I love watching all of the clubs perform because they are all so talented.”

On Thursday, Sept. 13, El Grito de Lares and Academia Hispana hosted a Hispanic Heritage Month kick-off dinner, featuring guest speaker Columbia University graduate Abran Maldonado. Maldonado spoke about his struggles as a Hispanic-American. He achieved an Ivy League education and went on to found Positive Entertainment and Creative Education, or PEACE, to help inner-city students get a wellrounded education.

Diana Figueroa, FCRH ’15 described the speech as “inspiring.”

“What Mr. Maldonado said mirrored my own experiences,” she said.

“Because we’re both from the same culture, his advice and inspiring words felt especially motivating.”

Friday, Sept. 14 brought two of Fordham Fest’s biggest events. The first event, “The Cardinal and Colbert,” was a panel discussion on the relationship between humor and faith featuring Emmy-winning Comedy Central talk show host and The New York Times best-selling author, Stephen Colbert and the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan. The discussion was moderated by writer and Jesuit priest Father James Martin, S.J. The three spoke at length about the importance of joy in one’s spiritual life and the necessity of laughter and humor in leading a fulfilling existence.

Later that night, the first annual #ClubLib dance party was held on the Walsh Library lawn. The unique event, costing students $5 per ticket, featured several DJs that spun fantastic electronic music for students SEE FESTIVUS, PAGE 11

PHOTO BY ALLY WHITE/THE RAM

Quarterback Michael Nebrich pictured above, drops back to pass a few plays before he suffered a massive hit that injured his knee. SEE BACK PAGE

Dolan, Colbert Discuss Faith’s Interaction With Joy Over 3,000 Fordham Students, Faculty and Guests Gathered to Explore the Intersection of Faith and Joy

By CONNOR RYAN NEWS EDITOR

Timothy Cardinal Dolan and Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” greeted an electrified crowd of nearly 3,000 on Friday night in the Rose Hill Gymnasium as the celebrity pair sat down to discuss the intersection of humor and faith.

Colbert spoke bluntly about how he wanted to be sincere while discussing the interaction of his faith life and his passion for comedy, despite the pressure he felt to be funny.

He said that his comedic tendencies do not hinder his faith life, but instead, lead him to look at religion through a satirical lens.

“Jim [Martin] sent me a little card, which I keep taped on my computer at work and it says, ‘Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God, and that’s for me how I can mix my faith and what I do for a living,” Colbert said. “If we can do joy, well then, it’s kind of like worship in our own insignificant way.”

Rev. James Martin, S.J., author of Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life and contributing editor at America magazine, moderated the program, advertised as “The Cardinal and Colbert: Humor, Joy and the Spiritual Life.”

Despite plenty of jabs and zingers, the unscripted discussion among the guests proved to be personal and focused. Colbert poked fun at the new English translation of the Mass, while saying he likes to pick on the misuse of religion among politi-

BRUCE GILBERT/FORDHAM.EDU

Stephen Colbert, Father James Martin and Timothy Cardinal Dolan, pictured above, answer the audience’s questions.

cians. Meanwhile, Dolan showed his lighter side, as he impersonated Clint Eastwood and spoke about the importance of living, loving and laughing.

During his opening remarks, Dolan recalled an anecdotal story illustrating the power of laughter and faith amidst great sadness and grief.

“A young man in college once approached me as a parish priest to say he wanted to become a Catholic,” Dolan said. “When I asked him why, he replied, ‘Last week I was at the wake of a Catholic man I admired very much, who died suddenly, still young. And his family, while mourning him deeply, could still laugh, as if they knew it would all be OK.’” Earlier this week, The New York

Times equated the program to “what might have been the most successful Roman Catholic youth evangelization event since Blessed Pope John Paul II last appeared at World Youth Day.” Because of space limitations, only students with a valid student ID and an event bracelet were able to get into the gym. Approximately 2,300 bracelets were distributed to students Thursday morning. The remaining bracelets were given to faculty members.

To ensure a seat, hundreds of students lined up from the entrance of the McGinley Center down to near Fordham Prep on Thursday morning long before event officials began distributing bracelets just before 8

a.m.

Deanna Toffales, FCRH ’16, was one of the first in line, after camping out since 11 p.m. on Wednesday.

“Sleeping was absolutely horrendous,” Toffales said. “I’m pretty sure I broke a couple bones. I got bruises; it wasn’t fun.”

Despite never having seen Colbert’s show, Toffales said the experience was worth it.

“I’m most excited to meet this guy that everybody thought it was necessary to camp out for,” Toffales said. “I’ve never seen him before, so this is an exciting experience.”

The event bracelets were completely sold out by 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. A simulcast in Keating SEE COLBERT, PAGE 3

NEWS

PAGE 2 • THE RAM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

SECURITY

BRIEFS

Sept. 11, Loschert Hall, 12 a.m.–11a.m.

A student’s Xbox, valued at $350, was reported missing. A student left his XBox in the fourth floor community lounge, when he returned the following morning, the game console was missing. Games, “Battlefield”, “Call of Duty” and “Gears of War,” were also stolen.

Sept. 12, Finlay Hall, 2 p.m.

A fire alarm was going off as a result of burning food being cooked on the stove in the basement. A student haphazardly attempted to cook bacon in a large pot. FDNY responded.

No damage nor any injuries were reported.

Sept. 12, Salice Hall, 6 p.m.

A fire alarm was activated on the fourth floor of Salice Hall caused by a plastic strainer placed on top of the stove. The melting caused smoke.

The FDNY was called, and the building was evacuated. No injury or permanent damage were reported.

Sept. 12, Between Walsh Library and Larkin Hall, 8:45 p.m.

Security apprehended two males who jumped over the fence. The males proceeded to accost two female students, but they were taken into custody by security. The perpetrators initially tried to enter campus at the Campbell security post, but the security guard would not allow them.

The NYPD was notified and the two were arrested for trespassing.

Sept. 13, Martyrs’ Court, 9:40 p.m.

The fire alarm went off, caused by burnt popcorn in the first floor microwave. The building was evacuated and the FDNY responded. The alarm was reset. There were no damage nor injuries.

Sept. 13, O’Hare Hall, 10 p.m.

An RA reported an unknown perpetrator for vandalizing the bulletin board in the lobby of O’Hare. Security is investigating the vandalism.

Sept. 14, E. Fordham Rd and Washington Ave, 11 p.m.

A student was walking on the sidewalk, when two men came from behind and snatched her blue Marc Jacobs wallet valued at $500. The wallet was hanging from a lanyard wrapped around her neck. In the wallet was her ID, keys and $160 cash. The perpetrators fled down Washington Ave. The student was not injured.

Sept. 16, The Jolly Tinker, 12:15 a.m.

A student at the bar, “Tinkers,” bumped into a patron. The patron became irate and started a fight with the student. The student was escorted from the bar. He received cuts on his face during the altercation.

Sept. 16, 3:30 p.m.

An off-campus student received a call from an unknown person making inappropriate remarks. She notified security. Security is investigating the incident.

Sept. 17, Walsh Hall, 4 p.m.

The fire alarm in Walsh Hall was accidentally set off in the roof mechanical room.

-Compiled by Karen Hill, Assistant News Editor

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GSB Urges Students Toward PC Computers While GSB Allows Students to Use MacBooks, Students Are Highly Recommended to Purchase PCs to Use Microsoft Office

By KELLY KULTYS ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

This August, the Gabelli School of Business freshmen and sophomores received an email informing them that for the upcoming school year, they were going to use the full array of programs offered by Microsoft Office 2010 for their classes. In accordance with the Gabelli technology policy, students must own a laptop that is compatible with the 2010 Windows software, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and specifically, Access, which is a database tool used to compile information.

“This program is really centered around our sophomore year curriculum,” Nicole Gesualdo, director of strategic communications, said.

“What we needed to do was to have every student in the sophomore core be able to run the full Microsoft Office Suite while they were in class because there are going to be times when they are using every single program in that Suite.”

As of now, however, there is no version of Access that comes in the Microsoft Windows package for MacBooks. If the students attempted to use that version, it would mean that they would be missing a vital component of the Suite.

This means that students who had already purchased Macs had one of two options. They could attempt to run their MacBooks in PC mode or purchase a new, Windowscompatible laptop or netbook.

“There is a work-around, where if you have a Mac that can run on a PC platform, you can open your Mac in PC mode and then access the right version of Microsoft Office with Access on it,” Gesualdo said.

Gabelli School of Business’ technology policy that was sent to students this summer, however, does state that “a workaround exists to enable Microsoft Access 2010 on a Mac laptop, but [the workaround] can be tedious and is not recommended for non-expert users.”

Also, if students choose to run their MacBooks through the Windows 7 platform, they could face some issues during classes.

“The problem we ran into was that the professors who teach in the program can’t support the Macs that run like that in class,” Gesual-

PHOTO BY ELIZABETH ZANGHI/THE RAM

Peter Baldino, GSB ’13, uses a Windows computer to access Microsoft Excel.

do said. “The University help desk supports it; Jeff [Haynes, Information Systems Engineer] supports it.

There are many ways to get support.

However, when you’re actually in the physical classroom, you’d be stuck until after, because the professor wouldn’t be able to get you back on track.”

The Gabelli technology policy offers a slightly different answer from Gesualdo’s. The policy states “students with Mac computers running the native Mac operating system cannot run Microsoft Office Professional 2010 with proper execution speed and peripheral control. The only way to make a Mac laptop work within our technology guidelines is to toggle between the Windows and Mac operating systems. This configuration is not supported by the Gabelli School of Business, and most students do not have the technical background and skills needed to manage it on their own.”

Because of this, Gesualdo, in conjunction with the Gabelli technology policy, recommended that students choose PC laptops.

“It’s not that students can’t have a Mac, it’s just that they needed to be aware if they run into a problem in class, the professor isn’t going to be able to necessarily help that person out,” Gesualdo said.

The Gabelli technology policy also states that “they understand that a Windows laptop is not every student’s personal preference, and [they] realize our policy may require some families to make a purchase.”

Some students agree that using a PC may in fact be easier than a Mac. “Using Excel in Windows is a lot easier than using Excel in Macs,” Elizabeth Hughes, GSB ’15, said.

Others were upset, since they had already purchased a MacBook before reading the part of the policy that states “please remember that the Mac version of Microsoft Office is not equivalent to Microsoft Office Professional 2010. It does not meet the Gabelli School requirements.”

“I just don’t understand why they didn’t tell us earlier on,” sophomore GSB student, who spoke on

the condition of anonymity, said.

“Why didn’t we get this email before, advising us to not buy Macs, before we went out and purchased them?”

Students with Macs were also unhappy with the part of the policy that states “students who want to use a Mac for general purposes at Fordham and still be properly set up for their Gabelli courses may consider purchasing an inexpensive netbook computer (about $300; look for models with a dual-core CPU and 4GB main memory) as a secondary machine.”

“I didn’t want to run my Mac in PC mode, because I’ve heard it eventually hurts the computers, but now I had to go out and purchase a new computer and the Microsoft Office 2010 Suite,” another sophomore GSB student , who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

“That’s money I didn’t need to spend.”

Since the email was sent out this past summer, many students assume this is a new program GSB added. This software, however, has been used in prior years, in tandem with the new core curriculum.

“The difference is, this year, every single sophomore is taking the integrated core,” Gesualdo said.

“Last year, it was just a portion of the class. This is the first time we’ve ever had to confront every student in the class needing to have this software.”

As of now, the Gabelli staff has not had to face any major problems with the large-scale roll-out of this program, but Haynes is cautious about the upcoming months.

“There haven’t been any issues so far because the class that requires it, Information Systems, hasn’t run yet,” Haynes said. “That’s in the second half of the fall semester, so we’re anticipating, probably after Columbus Day, we’ll start seeing more requests.”

The Gabelli School is very glad to make this software available to the entire class for the first time because it believes that these programs will benefit students in their future careers.

“It’s better that students learn how to use this [software], because it will be a part of their job no matter what business field they find themselves in,” Gesualdo said.

Homecoming Draws Large Crowd to Campus

PHOTO BY MICHAEL REZIN/THE RAM

Hundreds of alumni returned to Rose Hill’s campus Saturday for Homecoming.

Students, alumni and faculty celebrated homecoming together on Saturday, Sept. 16. Alumni and seniors over the age of 21 were invited to eat, drink and enjoy in the famed “Homecoming Tent” that is pitched in the center of Eddie’s every year.

Along with the tent for alumni, other activities were available for young children. Children were able to take advantage of inflatable bouncy castles and face painting.

Alumni, current students, parents and Fordham administrators were decked out in school colors which added to the day’s feeling of school spirit.

Their enthusiasm carried over into the stands of Jack Coffey Field, where the maroon-andwhite clad crowd cheered their Rams to a 34-27 win over Cornell.

Senior running back Carlton Koonce and senior quarterback Ryan Higgins led the team to victory with two scores apiece.

Everyone in attendance enjoyed the beautiful weather, great company and, most importantly, an impressive victory for the Rams.

For more homecoming action, see the photo spread on page 4.

-Kelly Kultys, Assistant News Editor

NEWS

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SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 • THE RAM • PAGE 3

Dolan, Colbert Talk Humor and Faith COLBERT, FROM PAGE 1

Hall gave those who were not able to get an event bracelet the chance to watch the event via live video feed.

After Fordham officials announced the event in July, an email was sent to various media organizations saying that journalists would not be allowed into the event and that the program would not be broadcast in any capacity.

In a seemingly contradictory move, however, Fordham officials invited an estimated three journalists to attend the event as “guests.”

“There was a press embargo on the event, but some journalists who attended as guests broke the embargo,” Bob Howe, Fordham’s senior director of communications, said in an email. “The rules were the same for everyone, student and outside media, and no one was given permission to tweet or post about the event from the venue, nor to photograph nor record it.”

According to The New York Times, the embargo was broken when students and an editor from Commonweal, a Catholic magazine, began forwarding the best one-liners through Twitter and into the blogosphere for all to see.

“This was a surprise: Normally embargoes are automatically broken once a reporter files a story; I guess Twitter now counts as filing,” Father Martin wrote on his blog.

Students and other attendees were encouraged to email or tweet questions they wanted the guests to answer during the 15-minute Q&A session at the end of the program.

THIS

week at FORDHAM Thursday, Sept. 20 Cinevents!: Jeff, Who Lives at Home Campus Activities Board Keating 1st 9 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 21 Fordham AIS Club (Business IT Club) McGinley 2nd Floor Lounge Sunday, Sept. 23 Brazil World Youth Day Info Session St. Ignatius Room 7-8 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 24 GO! Domestic Applications Due McGinley 205 5 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 24 Spring Weekend Concert Committee Open Meeting Keating 1st 5:30 p.m.-6:15 p.m.

Monday, Sept. 24 Holy Hour of Adoration Keating Blue Chapel 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 25 Cinevents!: The Amazing Spiderman Campus Activities Board, Keating 1st

Fordham in the Bronx Jeffrey Coltin

BRUCE GILBERT/FORDHAM.EDU

Rev. James Martin, S.J., Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, Stephen Colbert and Rev. Joseph M. McShane gather for a photo.

When one student asked how anyone can still remain joyous despite the “hatred” that Christian leaders often spread toward homosexuals, Colbert answered directly: “If someone spreads hate, then they’re not your religious leader.”

Tim Luecke, FCRH ’13, was recognized at the end of the event amidst thunderous applause for a

brief video animation he made of the guests arriving at Fordham. Luecke also crafted life-sized posters of the guests, which they all signed.

The posters now sit in the Campus Ministry office.

In the end, many students said they enjoyed the jabs of the discussion, but more importantly the intimacy and the sincerity all parties

brought to the subject of faith and joy.

“I had a great time,” Matthew Gombos, FCRH ’15 said. “I think they talked about a lot of things that I didn’t expect them to talk about. I liked the fact that Colbert wasn’t in his character.”

Additional reporting by Ricky Bordelon.

USG Ex-Domain Claimed By Chinese Bank Due to a Budgeting Mishap, USG’s Website Domain Was Purchased at an Auction in August

By KELLY KULTYS ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

If any students attempted to access the United Student Government (USG) website after last May, they would have been in for a puzzling surprise. The USG domain from last year, usgrh.com, was changed to a financial website written entirely in Chinese.

The question is, what exactly happened over the summer? According to Stephen Erdman, FCRH ’13, USG executive president, USG’s subscription to the hosting service of usgrh.com expired last May. Erdman and the outgoing vice president of IT for USG at the time, Michael DiTanna, FCRH ’13, attempted to renew it before it was terminated.

In May, Erdman contacted the Office of Student Leadership and Community Development (OSL&CD) to access the appropriate funds from the USG budget to pay for usage of the domain name.

OSL&CD, however, had some trepidations about hosting the Fordham-based website on an external server.

In order to preserve USG website access, Erdman and his executive vice president, Aileen Reynolds, FCRH ’14, tried to rectify the situation.

“Aileen and I communicated with OSL&CD throughout the summer to bring about this budget transfer,” Erdman said via email. “We also

suggested that we use our personal money to cover the expense for the time being.”

OSL&CD, however, remained firm that it wanted the USG club website to be hosted through OrgSync, the online portal that allows different clubs and organizations to interact through the school’s online community.

“We wanted to keep our domain original, since if we used OrgSync, it would have to be orgsync.com/ usg,” DiTanna said.

In late August, OSL&CD allowed Erdman and Reynolds to access their funds for the website.

“We received access to the USG budget account via the OSL&CD credit card to temporarily renew the website subscription,” Erdman said.

By that time, however, it was too late to renew their subscription to their prior domain at usgrh.com.

“When we sought to complete the transaction, we discovered the website had been auctioned off to a Chinese bank,” Erdman said.

This was a major disappointment for USG, who had spent a long time putting together the new website design.

“In 2010, we created usgrh.com as a really flashy new website that students actually accessed, instead of all the previous attempts, such as the USG blog, which barely had any readers,” DiTanna said.

Erdman and Reynolds had to move quickly to rectify the situa-

tion, since it was getting close to the start of the semester and students needed to access the USG website.

“We actually got a call from St. Joseph’s University [in Philadelphia], asking what happened to our website,” DiTanna said.

In addition, USG wanted to make sure that none of its information on usgrh.com was compromised in the auction.

“We had to start from scratch since we lost the domain, so the host wouldn’t keep our files,” DiTanna said.

“We purchased the usgrh.org domain and quickly migrated our files to that site,” Erdman said.

The USG website, however, lost a lot of its online traffic that it had just begun to accumulate.

“We had 500 visitors, crosscountry and internationally, to the site each day,” DiTanna said. “During busier times, such as Fordham Week, we had over 1,000 visitors.”

The new website is currently up and running, although the new vice president of IT, Bridget Fox, FCRH ’14, is in the process of adding more information. As of the last USG meeting, Fox was gathering senate members’ pictures and bios to upload to the website.

Currently, the website contains information about upcoming USG events, such as the freshmen elections, as well as biographies of each of the members, policy information, committee descriptions and records of USG meetings.

Students Join Armory Rally “Everybody look to your left; this is your armory!”

The setting sun had just dropped below the old castle’s turrets. The crowd turned toward the Kingsbridge Armory. Many had lived in the neighborhood for years and worked in the community. It was their armory. But among them were Fordham students. Was it their armory too?

Built in the Northwest Bronx around 1910, the Kingsbridge Armory hosted a National Guard regiment. At a massive 575,000 square feet, the armory, one mile from Rose Hill, on Kingsbridge and Jerome, is reportedly the largest of its kind in the world. It served its purpose for years, but in 1996, the military moved out, and it has stood empty for 16 years.

The current vacancy may change soon, as two developers have submitted plans to the City to revitalize the armory: one, an international ice center with nine rinks; the other, a multi-use market with a gym and event space.

Last week’s rally was organized

by KARA, the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance. KARA is a small group made up of residents of Kingsbridge who want a community voice in the redevelopment of the armory.

“That’s what this rally is about,” Alice McIntosh of KARA, said. “The Kingsbridge Armory belongs to the Northwest Bronx, and we must be at the table for every aspect of how this project is ultimately shaped.”

KARA has developed a list of demands for the development project, including “wall-to-wall living wage jobs” and “dedicated community space.”

Dillon Gurciullo, FCRH ’15, attended the rally, representing Fordham’s Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice (DDCSJ). She supports KARA’s cause.

“They’re not asking for things that are way out of reach; they’re asking for very reasonable things and they’re willing to compromise,” Gurciullo said.

Gurciullo said she felt a bit awkward standing around when she first arrived, but as they started calling roll, she noticed, “Fordham was a big part and there were more people from Fordham than I realized at first.”

The University got a big cheer at roll call and approximately 12 current students attended the rally.

Rachel Field, FCRH ’15, was one such student. Field has been involved with other community organizing efforts in the Bronx, and said she felt very welcome, mingling with groups she knew before and making new connections.

Field hopes to get many more Fordham students at KARA’s next rally on Oct. 17.

“Student protests are historically so moving for people, and they’ve always made a lot of change. You do live here. What happens outside [the gates] dramatically affects what happens here [on campus],” Field said.

Sign the petition to put livingwage jobs in the armory at change. org.

PAGE 4• THE RAM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

NEWS

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A VICTORIOUS

Photos By: Michael Rezin, Victoria Rau, Michael Hayes and Ally White Spread Compiled By: Elizabeth Mallozzi and Elaina Weber

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NEWS

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 • THE RAM • PAGE 5

PAGE 6 • THE RAM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

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PAGE 7

Emory Scandal Exhibits Flaws in College Rankings

By ELIZABETH ZANGHI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

When searching for the right college, many high school students turn to rankings. Choosing to apply and go to a school that is highly-ranked in several categories should lead to a rewarding college experience, in theory.

Well, what if the rankings are flawed?

Last year, Emory University was ranked No. 20 by U.S. News & World Report out of over 200 national universities. This rank was based on many factors, including SAT scores of incoming students and high school class rank.

According to Bloomberg News, Emory was found guilty of inflating both of these categories. The school reported that the average SAT scores ranged from 1310 to 1500 out of 1600 points, but the actual average was found to be between 1270 and 1460, a 40-point disparity. Emory also claimed that 87 percent of students were in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class.

The real percentage was only 75.

These discrepancies pose questions about Emory’s high standing as a top-25 school, but the newfound information can be disconcerting to high school students who plan on using ranking systems such as U.S. News & World Report when deciding where they will spend four years and exorbitant amounts of money.

Drew Rapp, GSB ’14, did not rely heavily on rankings when looking for colleges.

“Rankings are useful as a reference

JASON GETZ/MCT

Emory University recently admitted to inflating self-reported SAT scores and class ranks of incoming students.

point, but my decision was based on other factors, such as the University’s mission, location and campus atmosphere,” Rapp said.

These kinds of considerations are helpful, especially because many universities believe that the U.S. News & World Report’s system of ranking is flawed.

On the U.S. News & World Report website, the methodology of calculating rank is broken up into a few steps. First, schools are put into different categories based on the institutions’ missions. Then, the logarithm “gather[s] data from each college on up to 16 indicators of academic excellence.” The questionable part of this process is the fact that the data is selfreported by each individual college.

U.S. News & World Report claims that it attempts to catch falsified in-

formation through a series of checks.

Namely, it compares the self-reported information with “other official sources.” It also checks to see if the school has had any large jumps in each category. It is now obvious, however, that this analysis does not always find dishonest information.

“Emory’s confession that school officials gave inaccurate information to U.S. News & World Report is further evidence that the higher education ranking game is a case of garbage-in, garbage-out,” Bob Schaeffer, who works for FairTest, an organization dedicated to ending possibly flawed standardized testing throughout the country, said in a Bloomberg News interview. “The reliance on self-reported data from colleges, which obviously want to burnish their profiles, guarantees that the results will be ma-

nipulated.”

Emory is not the only college found to have falsified scores. According to USA Today, the SAT scores of students at Claremont McKenna College in California “were generally inflated by an average of 10-20 points each.” Today, Claremont McKenna has the same ranking, No. 9 in National Liberal Arts Colleges, as it did when it gave the false information.

The self-reporting of the data is only one problem with the U.S. News & World Report rankings. The rankings are also based on peer assessments, in which students fill out surveys about other schools. At least two schools, Clemson University in South Carolina and the University of Wisconsin, have admitted to giving their competitor schools lower rankings in order to help themselves climb

the ranks. Because of the seemingly low quality of ranking, more than 60 top colleges have even opted to refrain from giving information to U.S. News & World Report. Twelve university presidents sent a letter to each individual university that participates in the U.S. News & World Report survey, urging them to join the boycott. One of these presidents, Maryland Sanford Ungar from Goucher College in Baltimore, discredits the survey by acknowledging that he “would better be able to fill out a survey on refrigerators than on colleges I’ve never visited, never interacted with.”

Gerhard Casper, president of Stanford University, is unconvinced that rankings in general hold any clout.

“I am extremely skeptical that the quality of a university[...]can be measured statistically,” he said in a 1996 letter written to James Fallows, the editor of U.S. News & World Report.

This trend of mistrust is not new.

Reed College in Oregon has declined surveys from U.S. News & World Report since 1995. The competitive liberal arts college has even requested to be unnamed in the rankings, a request that U.S. News has denied.

If presidents from some of the nation’s top universities refuse to give information to U.S. News, should students trust and utilize, rankings?

Students like Rapp have found an ideal balance in college searching.

“A number on a list meant little to me. The reputation is more important,” Rapp said.

Elizabeth Zanghi, FCRH ’15, is an art history major from Lancaster, Pa.

Catholic Candidates Differ in Interpretation of Faith

By JOSEPH VITALE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Our nation’s supreme document of law, the Constitution, creates a clear separation between church and state. This founding principle dates back to the Separatists, the first European settlers, who sought to escape a government that mixed religious doctrines and public policy into one, in order to create one devoid of a relationship between government and church.

If the Separatists were to see what American politics looks like today, they would not be pleased: a media that blames religion and praises government, a society that is divided by Church doctrines and politicians that impose their religious beliefs on the American people solely for the sake of loyalty. In 2012, church and state are anything but separate.

Because of this overlap, it only seems fitting that the religious backgrounds of our political leaders have become a critical aspect in the formation of their images, their decisions and their agendas, with the race for vice president as no exception.

For the first time in U.S. history, both the Democratic and Republican parties will have Catholics running for the office of vice president: Obama’s choice, Joe Biden, and Romney’s choice, Paul Ryan. The result is a question concerning who will carry the Catholic banner. This November, it will be answered by the public’s reception of each of the can-

didate’s stances on three key issues: abortion, same-sex marriage and economic ideology.

As for abortion, Ryan, a lifelong Republican from Wisconsin, stands firmly in his pro-life position. While Ryan has remained steadfast in his belief, even in the case of rape and incest, he recently conceded that, as vice president, he will adopt the same views as Romney, who would make exceptions for these circumstances.

On the other hand, having supported the platform his whole career, Biden is a pro-choice advocate. In a speech at the Democratic National Convention, he professed his hopes for “a future where women control their own choices, health and destiny.”

An overwhelming majority of Catholics support Ryan on this particularly disputed issue. Biden, a lifelong Democrat from Delaware, has been the target of some criticism for his stance, in that it differs from a crucial Catholic position. For this reason, Ryan’s ability to remain true to the teachings of the Church has been well received by many Catholic voters.

On the issue of gay marriage, Biden gives his full support, which he made clear in an interview in May of this year. Biden told reporters that he is “absolutely comfortable” with samesex marriages. While the remarks were favored by many Democratic supporters, there was not much excitement in the White House. (At the time, President Obama had yet to establish his position on the issue.)

Ryan, however, has never strayed from his support of “traditional marriages.” As a senator, he voted for a number of policies that were anti-gay marriage, hesitant to clash with Catholic teaching.

At the end of the day, Biden’s stance is favored by socially liberal Catholics, but this demographic is a minority. Many see Biden’s position as inconsistent with the Church’s teaching. It is important to note that the Church is entering a more progressive era, so whether or not the majority of Catholics will be in support of same-sex marriage is up in the air. For now, the issue gives Ryan another edge on Biden with Catholics.

Just as these two candidates have taken separate paths on social issues,

they have promoted each of their party’s opposing economic ideologies. Biden, for one, has been labeled a “social justice Catholic” due to his appeal to blue collar DemocratCatholics. He endorses government spending on the poor and disabled, supports unions and pushes for the redistribution of wealth through higher taxes and increased spending on social programs. Ryan has diverged from these Catholic social teachings through his budget plans and his monetary policy. His fiscally conservative budgets have caused those in the Church to see his policies as lacking in certain moral criteria in their failure to emphasize programs that serve the poorest and most vulnerable Americans.

This particular issue, more than any other, splits voters evenly. Neither Biden nor Ryan have a strong enough voice to dominate the debate.

In a muddle of politics and religion, Ryan will carry the vote for the more conservative Catholics. He is pro-life, anti-gay marriage and understands the preferential option for the poor in a way that does not keep them relying on government. Rather, he suggests a way that helps them gain access to jobs and education so that they are not stuck in poverty, allowing them to achieve today’s version of “the American dream:” a reality not too far from his own.

Joseph Vitale, FCRH ’16, is a communication and media studies major from New York, NY.

BRANDON KRUSE & OLIVIER DOILIERY/MCT

Joe Biden and Paul Ryan are both Catholic, meaning that for the first time in history, both tickets will feature a Catholic.

PAGE 8• THE RAM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

The Ram Serving campus and community since 1918.

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.

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OPINIONS

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From the Desk of Canton Winer, Assistant Opinions Editor I often wish that people would be more like Key West.

No, I don’t mean that I want to see more sunburned, overweight cruise ship-goers lounging under coconut palms while sipping on tequila sunrises from a mermaidshaped souvenir bottle. Mostly, I just want people to embrace the weird.

If you’re wondering how I jumped from Key West to loving your inner freak, then you obviously have not been to Key West.

The city of 25,000 has survived and thrived, not in spite of how outright bizarre it can be, but in large part because of it. Over 2 million tourists are estimated to visit Key West every year, not just to bask in the sun, but also to bask in the city’s strangeness.

The city, which claims to be the southernmost point in the continental United States, certainly has plenty of peculiarity to spare.

To begin with, Key West has an unrivaled obsession with cats — I’m talking 70 year-old unmarried aunt-level here. Polydactyl cats (cats with extra toes), roam the city from their home base, the Hemmingway House. The 40 or so

polydactyl cats that reside in the home, which used to house Ernest Hemmingway, are descendants of his cat, Snowball.

A cat even ran for mayor of Key West. Willoughby II, a 22pound feline, ran in the 1989 Key West mayoral race and received 37 write-in votes. The fat cat’s 37 votes have been blamed for skewing the results of the tight race.

Every night, tourists gather in Mallory Square for the Sunset Celebration, yet another Key West tradition featuring the city’s favorite house pet. “Cat Man” wows tourists with his famous “Cat Circus” every night. The small Frenchman — yes, Cat Man is French — has trained a dozen or so stray cats to jump through hoops on command, walk across a tightrope and more.

My favorite part of the Sunset Celebration, however, is the nightly bagpipe show. The lone bagpiper (or as I like to call him, that-crazyman-with-the-bagpipes) marches around Mallory Square in his Scottish garb, kilt and all, droning on his pipes until the sun sets.

The people of Key West have not lived without their fair share of

struggles. On April 23, 1982, the people of Key West seceded from the United States and declared their independence as the Conch Republic. While the secession was a joke, the Conch Republic was founded over legitimate concerns.

In 1982, the United States Border Patrol set up a roadblock and inspection point on U.S. 1 just as it exits the Florida Keys. Vehicles passing through the checkpoint were stopped and searched for narcotics and undocumented immigrants. The mayor of Key West and the city council protested, saying that the roadblock would disrupt tourism. When the U.S. Border Patrol did not yield to their concerns, Mayor Dennis Wardlow and the city council declared the Conch Republic’s independence, saying that if the federal government was going to establish the equivalent of a border station, as if Key West were a foreign nation, they might as well become one.

Mayor Wardlow was proclaimed prime minister of the Conch Republic, and he immediately declared war against the United States. The war was short-lived.

Prime Minister Wardlow broke a

stale loaf of Cuban bread over the head of a man dressed in a U.S. naval uniform, and hastily surrendered one minute later. He then applied for $1 billion in foreign aid. Despite the Conch Republic’s brief struggle for independence, the massive publicity stunt proved successful, and the roadblock and inspection point were removed shortly thereafter.

If Key West was just any old Florida town, you would probably not be reading about it right now. Key West’s weirdness is what has empowered it to flourish. We should all follow Key West’s lead and embrace our inner oddball.

Our eccentricities should be capitalized upon, not hidden away. We may not all be as peculiar as Key West, but we all have our own polydactyl cats.

EDITORIAL: Media Embargo Was Handled Improperly “The Cardinal and Colbert: Humor, Joy, and the Spiritual Life,” a special panel discussion held this past Friday, was one of the most popular events held on campus in the past few years. Around Fordham, the event was highly advertised by Campus Ministry and the Office of Mission and Ministry. Student excitement was running high, and the media also started to buzz with anticipation.

According to The Washington Post, however, on Aug. 9, the newspaper and other media outlets received an email from the University announcing a media embargo for the event: “After extended conversations with the program participants, the University will be closing the event to the media. […] We will not be videotaping the event for distribution, nor streaming it on the web or elsewhere.”

Neither The Ram nor The Observ-

er, the student newspaper at Fordham Lincoln Center, was informed of this decision in early August. Only through later conversations with the University’s communications office were editors of both publications told that they would not receive special access to the event.

The office also stated that student media would be treated the same as external media in this situation, meaning that neither publication would be allowed to act as press at the event. By informing external news organizations of the blackout before informing the staffs of its own newspapers, however, the University was not treating The Ram and The Observer as equal members of the media.

Although we accept that the University had justifiable reasons for closing the Dolan-Colbert event to the media, the parameters for the embargo were left unclear. A small

number of journalists were admitted to the event as guests, just as student journalists were admitted as student attendees. Furthermore, in the event program, Fordham promoted the use of a Twitter hashtag (#DolanColbert) to facilitate student questions for the panelists. By formally establishing this tool, the University encouraged students (as well as The Ram and the paper) to live-tweet during the event, opening the discussion to the “Twittersphere” and making it less-than-private.

Perhaps this was a situation in which the power of social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter were underestimated. We believe it is unreasonable for the University to promote the use of social media without expecting members of the media to use the technology. The Ram was one of a handful of student organizations that live-tweeted the event, as did an editor from the Catholic magazine

Commonweal. The New York Times cites this professional use of Twitter in its article about the event as an incident that effectively ended the media embargo.

Fordham cannot expect a media blackout while encouraging the use of social media during the event and inviting outside reporters. The University should have been more careful and explicit as to how attendees used social media if it wanted to retain the integrity of the blackout.

While journalists and consumers of media work out the role Twitter will play in journalism, we must be wary of its power to undo an embargo, even as we harness its power to stir up positive hype.

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

Letter to the Editor Dear Editor, In the end, Father McShane got it right when he asked the crowd of students packed into the Rose Hill Gymnasium, “Who got the Cardinal and Colbert?” and the answer came thundering back: “FORDHAM!” Last Friday night was a very special night, and I don’t think it could have happened anywhere but at Fordham.

I will admit to a little nervousness as I drove to the Bronx for the session that was formally entitled “Humor, Joy, and the Spiritual Life,” but referred to everywhere and by everyone as simply, “The Cardinal and Colbert.” I knew that I would have been right at home in University Church, and that I could probably hold my own if I had to pinch-hit sometime for Professor Camosy in his Christian Ethics course. And, I had just recently met Clint Eastwood at one of the national conventions, who told me in that distinctive gravelly voice, “You know, I played a preacher

once, so I know that neck thing you wear is mighty uncomfortable.” But going toe-to-toe with Stephen Colbert, with Father Jim Martin acting as moderator? In front of one of the most demanding audiences anywhere — college students? More than once I wondered, “Dolan, what did you get yourself into this time?”

While we were waiting in the green room, Father McShane told Stephen and me about the students who had waited in line overnight for a bracelet to get in, and I thought, “Wow! College students who are that eager to give up their Friday night to hear a talk about faith and joy. Who would have guessed?” By the time we got backstage (back gym?) waiting to go on, and I heard the cheers for Tim Luecke’s wonderful animation, I could feel the anticipation from an obviously-enthusiastic crowd, and my butterflies disappeared.

What impressed me most about Friday night was not anything that

Stephen Colbert, Father Martin or I said, as engaging and enlightening as I found our conversation to be. It wasn’t the gift bag that Father McShane presented to us afterwards, as kind as that was (but a medium t-shirt for me, Father McShane?

Really?). And it wasn’t even the opportunity to meet Stephen Colbert, one of the premier satirists anywhere and a man of obvious deep faith, or his charming wife Evelyn. No, what really touched me was you, the Fordham students. I don’t think I’ve ever been with a group of young people more eager to celebrate their faith — not at World Youth Day, not at Theology on Tap, maybe not even with the seminarians at the North American College when I was rector!

It would be great to keep that level of enthusiasm going forward, and I hope for many more opportunities to be with Fordham students.

You know, I celebrate the 10:15 a.m. Mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral most Sundays from September

through June, and I would love to welcome a group from Fordham.

Feel free to check out my blog at blog.archny.org (where I’ve posted my opening remarks from Friday night, if you’re interested in reading them) or my Twitter @cardinaldolan if you’d like to keep up on some of the things that are going on with me.

I’m very grateful to everyone involved with “The Cardinal and Colbert,” and feel very fortunate to have been invited to the Jesuit University of the capital of the world (as our late Holy Father, Blessed John Paul II referred to New York) to participate. More than once I heard the evening referred to as “this Fordham generation’s U2” and I guess I’m flattered, but it does leave me with a question — am I Bono, and is Stephen Colbert The Edge, or is it the other way around?

— Timothy Cardinal Dolan Archbishop of New York President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

OPINIONS

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The Left Lane Conor

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 • THE RAM • PAGE 9

The GOP Is Missing G-O-D

Fucci

Righter’s Block John P. Castonguay

Corporate Donors Do Harm

Campaign Cash Is Wasted

In 2008, one of the major campaign feats for which President Obama was known was his unprecedented ability to fundraise.

Most of the donations for his 2008 campaign came from a grassroots movement of donors, all of whom donated between $5 and $100. The 2012 campaigns have produced far less impressive contribution records for both candidates. Not only has President Obama been outfunded by Mitt Romney, but unlike last election cycle, the majority of Obama’s contributions came from wealthier Americans. Romney, however, is not without fault. Although he has outshone Obama in his fundraising, the vast majority of his contributions have come from the wealthiest Americans and the trending super PACs. Fewer than three years ago, one would have been hard-pressed to find a corporation that would donate directly to a campaign. In the aftermath of the infamous 2010 Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, everything has changed. The ruling granted corporations and unions the ability to donate to political campaigns with free reign, overturning the 2002 McCain-Feingold Act. This is when super PACs became extremely important. Unlike when one donates directly to a campaign, there is no limit to the amount of money that a person can donate to any particular super PAC. These super PACs have created a rather disturbing trend of highprofile supporters donating to a particular campaign without needing to disclose their names. The lack of name disclosure is exceptionally nice for corporations, since it allows them to avoid publicity similar to what Chic-fil-A received this summer. Protecting corporations, under the First Amendment essentially opens Pandora’s Box of opportunity for corporate exploitation.

Corporate personhood has become a hot-button issue throughout the political realm due to one simple fact: If corporations are people, they deserve the same rights as people. To me, this premise is completely ridiculous. Corporations are on a plane that requires a different set of rules from those that apply to average people. There is no way that a person working a job which earns the median U.S. income could influence a political campaign to the extent that a multibillion dollar corporation could.

Also, there is no sense of morality instilled in a corporation that gives it a conscience that would keep most people in check. Corporations are all about the bottom line, and their political support will be thrown behind the candidate that will give them the greatest profit.

The American system of politics is already hanging on by a thread; the idea of corporations being able to hold so much influence is frightening. America should be about the individual, not the corporations.

We need to move back to what Obama did in 2008 and rely on individuals to fuel campaigns.

Although the unemployment figures remain high, the presidential campaigns are not feeling an impact on their wallets. This month, President Obama out-fundraised Governor Romney for the first time in months. In August, Romney raised approximately $111 million, as opposed to the $114 million that President Obama’s reelection campaign raised.

Obama’s campaign gathered 1.1 million donors, who gave an average donation of $58. During the previous month, Romney outfundraised the president, $101 million to $75 million. Overall, the Democrats have won the race for cash $740 million to $630 million. President Obama, however, is using his resources at a much faster rate than his Republican counterpart, and Romney is estimated to have a $60 million on-hand cash advantage.

Political analysts can use this recently revealed data to claim an advantage for one side or the other in the election. Romney’s larger amounts of available capital give him a clear advantage down the stretch, but Obama procured 317,000 first-time donors, meaning that he will be able to raise more money as we get closer to November.

Unfortunately for political junkies, nobody will really know who will win this presidential election until Nov. 6. The way the funds are being used serves as clear evidence of the need for serious campaign reform. In the month of July, Obama spent two-thirds of the $53 million he raised on campaign advertisements. Romney’s campaign claims Obama has spent over $100 million on attack ads alone. This problem is not unique to this presidential campaign. According to a report from the Campaign Media Analysis Group, “More than half of all commercials have been attack ads, and almost 70 percent of all commercials for the Senate have been negative” in 2010.

Politicians waste millions of dollars forcing the public to listen to mudslinging. It is entirely legal for them to do so, but it would be beneficial for voters and politicians if legislation were passed requiring the dedication of a certain percentage of all campaign funds to a philanthropic project. The public would learn about the true motives and abilities of the candidates based on where and how the candidates use these funds. How candidates allocate these funds would reveal their priorities. The degree to which the candidates are actively involved in the projects would serve as evidence of their dedication to the public welfare. Their effectiveness in overseeing the use of funds would affirm their ability or lack thereof in preventing waste and actually accomplishing goals.

A philanthropic approach would soften politicians’ images and actually aid their communities rather than line the pockets of media moguls. Honest attack ads have a role and will remain a part of political campaigns, but philanthropy needs to be more actively incorporated.

GLEN STUBBE/MCT

Many Republican politicians publicly espouse their belief in God as the guiding principle of their political ideologies.

By MATT SCHLESINGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Vice presidential candidate and Roman Catholic Paul Ryan has recently come under fire for his proposed budget plan. The plan would cut back on social programs that provide health care, food assistance and other forms of public aid to the poor and elderly.

While the plan enacts tax breaks for the wealthy and increases defense spending, three-fifths of the proposed cuts come from programs for low-income Americans. Feeling the need to speak out, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reminded Ryan that “a central moral measure of any budget proposal is how it affects ‘the least of these’ Matthew 25. The needs of those who are hungry and homeless, without work or in poverty should come first,” according to the USCCB. Perhaps they needed to tell Rep. Ryan that he seems to have forgotten the words of Jesus, “to love thy neighbor as thyself.”

For all that the GOP likes to talk about God, He seems to be missing from many parts of its platform. The Republicans’ irresponsible denial of the gravity of global warming does not coincide with the idea that we should respect all of God’s creation.

Anybody who has heard the Beatitudes — especially “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” — should fully understand what Jesus would have thought of the death penalty.

If Jesus teaches us to clothe the naked and invite in the stranger, how can Republican rhetoric on illegal immigration be so cruel?

Can Mitt Romney actually read the story of the Good Samaritan

and still oppose offering education benefits to illegal immigrants? Would Jesus really choose to build a new battleship over a new classroom? That just does not square with Jesus’ words, “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” At this point, the thoughtful conservative jumps in, proclaiming that he or she wants to help the disadvantaged, but that he or she disagrees about how it should be done and who should do it.

Republicans are not opposed to the Beatitudes; they are opposed to the idea that it is the government’s responsibility to address social problems in the first place.

Yet Jesus’ charge to “love thy neighbor as thyself ” indicates that our only obligation as Christians is a radical devotion to the poor.

Even if an individual conservative practices this in his or her private life, it is both naïve and selfish to hope that others will voluntarily contribute their time or money to the poor.

It is clear that society’s problems are too big for individuals, too big even for many state governments to effectively address, and as Christians, it is our duty to ensure that social problems are dealt with effectively.

In the absence of any marketbased mechanism, governments must provide the solution. According to the USCCB, “Government and other institutions have a shared responsibility to promote the common good of all.” If the choice is between the conservative ideals of self-reliance and Darwinian survival of the fittest and the liberal ideal of social responsibility, it seems clear which camp Christians must join.

Of course, no discussion of this

sort would be complete without touching on the hot-button issues of abortion and same-sex marriage. As for gay marriage, I turn to Fordham’s new friend Stephen Colbert.

“I would like to read to you what Jesus said about homosexuality,” Colbert said, “but he never said anything about it.” And that should be that.

On the trickier issue of abortion, I turned to Fordham theology professor Dr. Larry Welborn.

He argued that too much energy is focused on the question, “When does life begin?” The questions we should be asking are, “What purpose does God intend for a human life? Does He want us to be hungry or abused?” Welborn said. He made a fascinating point when he asked me to consider what would happen if those who devote so much energy to helping the unborn worked instead to improve the lives of those who have already been born.

So how should a Christian engage in politics? Welborn said that our main concern must be how to carry out God’s kingdom, and that “ought to take the form of advocacy for the poor.” It is clear that we “must be on the side of efforts on behalf of all of God’s children — especially the poor and sick.”

The heart of Jesus’s message is to care for the “least of my people,” and it is clear the GOP does little to help them. Ryan’s budget plan has brought the intersection of faith and politics into the public eye, and many people sense hypocrisy. Republicans love to talk about faith, but Jesus would take issue with most of their platform.

Matt Schlesinger, FCRH ’16, is an undeclared major from La Crosse, Wisc.

Are your friends really tired of hearing you complain?

Write for The Ram’s opinions section.

E-mail us at: fordhamramopinions@gmail.com 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

PAGE 10 • THE RAM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

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PAGE 11

St. Rose’s Garden: Fordham’s New Hidden Gem

By MARGARET DESMOND CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On the edge of Fordham’s campus, past Faculty Memorial Hall, toward the parking lot behind O’Hare Hall, you can make out the tops of cars and buses flying

by at that familiar Bronx speed.

The ever-present cacophony of horns and sirens grows louder and louder. If you take one right turn, however, you may think you have been transported to a country farm. There lies St. Rose’s Garden, a small vegetable oasis amidst the

urban backdrop of the Bronx.

Alex Williams, FCRH ’13 and an environmental policy major at Fordham, is currently in charge of St. Rose’s as its garden manager.

“I was someone who was interested in gardening as an environmental policy major,” Wil-

PHOTO BY ELIZABETH ZANGHI/THE RAM

The organic garden produces a myriad of plants including mint, roses and sunflowers. It was built in an unused backyard.

liams said. “I was disillusioned by the lack of focus around campus and wanted to do something that would make a difference.”

This determination to make a positive contribution led Williams to read The Ram and learn more about his campus. After reading an article about the soon-to-be-created organic garden last semester, Williams joined Jason Aloisio, a Fordham graduate student studying biology and working as the coordinator of the City Zoo and Fordham University Urban Ecology Partnership, and Elizabeth Anderson, FCRH ’13, who are cocreators of the organic garden.

Williams volunteered to help Aloisio, Anderson and other volunteers in the creation of St. Rose’s Garden.

Both Williams and Aloisio put in many hours of hard work to create the garden. Neat, little boxes filled with leafy, green vegetables packed together in the small lot are a testament to their efforts. The garden is filled with a variety of vegetables including eggplant, green beans, peppers, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and several herbs.

“The goal is to develop a connection with local food banks,” Williams said when asked about the future of the produce. “Student volunteers also have the opportunity to bring vegetables home.”

Vegetable-loving students can also find fresh produce through the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Aloisio organized through the help of Environmen-

tal Policy classes.

From the last week of September until mid-November, students can receive between six and eight pounds of vegetables weekly for $16 per week. In its first year, the program has already had 30 people sign up after only one week of advertising.

“The semester is young but kicking off on the right foot,” Williams said.

The garden is having weekly volunteer events, the first of which occurred last week. These take place every Wednesday at 4 p.m., and anyone who is interested can attend.

The volunteer opportunities are not limited to those with a green thumb. While plans for this year include harvesting vegetables and composting, they will also involve adding art to the garden and improving the garden’s official records.

Williams and Aloisio said theyhave high hopes for the future of St. Rose’s.

“The garden will be a tool to teach students who are interested, whether environmental policy majors or just other Fordham students in general,” Williams said.

The garden also has another contribution to the Fordham community, in that it could bring students together.

“I also see St. Rose’s as becoming a place where people can come to hang out,” Williams said.

“We always encourage students to come visit.”

Festivus Fordhamensis Excites Campus Members FESTIVUS, FROM PAGE 1

to rave all night long. “#ClubLib was a lot of fun,” Ali Glembocki, FCRH ’16, said. “It was filled with tons of dancing and great music. I’d definitely like to go to an event like it again.”

This year’s Fordham Fest featured the thrilling Clash of the Classes theme, in which attendance was taken at every event and scores were tallied based upon the number of students from each class that attended.

The Class of 2013 trailed the pack with the fewest attendees,

with the Class of 2014 just ahead of the seniors. In second place, the Class of 2016 fared well, only to be beat by the Class of 2015.

The exciting Fordham Fest activities were only made possible through the hard work of organizations including the United Student Government, Campus Ministry, Sodexo, Resident Hall Association, CAB, Cinevents, CSA, Flipside, Peer Educators and the Student Culinary Council. Students and faculty members alike put in many hours of preparation.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL REZIN/THE RAM

Students were awash in light and fog as they got in touch with their groovy side with Walsh looming in the background.

PHOTO BY STASHA O’CALLAGHAN/THE RAM

The underutilized Walsh Library lawn provided a safe, but nevertheless enjoyable, dance floor for students to kick off their Homecoming Weekend. Here, a Fordham DJ spins records to a dancing crowd.

PAGE 12 • THE RAM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Behind the Spotlight RACHAEL PRENSNER

Like any good artsy kid, I spend a fair amount of time trying to keep track of what’s hip and new in the musical (read: indie) world. When cooler friends mention “that new group” to me, I want to be able to say I’ve, at least, heard of them. But when it comes to contemporary jazz, I’m clueless. The only associations jazz conjures in my head are Dave Brubeck and my grandpa’s band, which plays standards for groups at nursing homes. I have no excuse, however, because Fordham has a club that makes it easy for jazzilliterate students like me to hear and appreciate jazz music on campus.

Mark Dumond and Nick Gatto, both FCRH ’14, are co-presidents of Fordham’s Jazz Collective, which brings in world-class jazz artists once a semester and hosts weekly Tuesday night jam sessions. Members range from people who, in Dumond’s words, think “jazz is elevator music” to students with considerable musical talent and ambition.

I have previously seen Dumond, a music major from Maine, listen to jazz. The way he closed his eyes and nodded his head in time made it clear that he had a deep relationship with the music. He believes good listening “takes work,” and pointed out that, while we tend to think of classical music as refined and sedate, audiences were often rowdy and responsive at the premieres of works that are now part of the classical canon.

Dumond played drums, his primary instrument, and piano during high school and knew he wanted to make music a priority in college.

“New York City is the jazz capital of the world,” he said, which, in addition to Fordham’s liberal arts curriculum, made Fordham attractive.

Dumond and Gatto agree the energy of jazz lies in improvising. To me, the idea of composing something on-the-spot, in front of an audience would be a nightmare. I spent years taking classical piano lessons and months practicing particular pieces only to go on YouTube and find better versions by Chinese seven-year-olds.

Gatto noted, however, that improvisation is both high-stakes and emotionally intimate.

“A musician gives [...] the sum total of his musical knowledge and experience,” he said. “[A jazz show is] an opportunity to go on an in-the-moment, pure journey of creation with that improvisor,” Dumond said.

Both emphasized that the reputation jazz has for being unaccessible is misleading. Before Dumond began playing jazz, he watched musicians talking and laughing during their set, which piqued his curiosity. Gatto agreed that watching the facial and bodily expressions of musicians while they play and following the soloist are the first two steps to good listening.

Things like rhythm and energy do not need translation.

“Swing feels really good, and it is a true reward in itself just to be able to play,” Gatto said.

Dumond considers Collective’s Jazzitup! Concert Series “one of “Fordham’s greatest and least-known gems.” The fall concert is this Monday Sept. 24 in the McGinley 2nd music room with pianist Jonny King.

Dumond had a word about “the stuff they play” at dances.

“Funk and Latin, those are two of the best genres to move to that exist,” he said. “I know I’ve heard enough of ‘We Found Love’ to last me a while.

For more information, email mtdumond@gmail.com.

CULTURE

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Dining Out: Yakitori Taisho

PHOTO BY JOHN LEE/THE RAM

The restaurant is at 5 Marks Place, right next to its sister restaurant, OH Taisho.

PHOTO BY JOHN LEE/ THE RAM

Although open from 6 p.m.- 12 a.m., it is best to arrive early to avoid long lines.

By JOHN LEE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

New York City restaurants are expensive. Forget about atmosphere, decor, lighting or mood. It is hard enough to find food that college students can afford. For students, good food at cheap prices is what matters.

Within the bowels of Lower Manhattan, in St. Marks Place, however, there is a Japanese grill restaurant called Yakitori Taisho, which caters to a college student’s financial situation and needs.

Upon entering, you will notice that

Yakitori is a restaurant that does things differently from a typical restaurant.

In a normal restaurant, the chefs are in the kitchen, which is all the way in the back and away from public view. In Yakitori Taisho, however, the kitchen is in the front room, in plain sight. Everything that goes on, from the cooking and preparation of the food to the sudden blaze of fire on the grill, is visible. There is more appeal to this than just the visual aspect. Diners hear the chop of the knives on boards and the clang of soup ladles while smelling the meat sizzling on the grill and the aroma of the sauces and spices.

The bar is also in the front room. It is a small platform that encircles and surrounds the kitchen area, with a very simple design and small wooden stools. In fact, simplicity almost defines the restaurant’s aesthetic. There are no expressive lights, decorative plants, classic Japanese paintings or anything of the sort. Instead, the restaurant has an urban coolness to it that is more street than posh. The place is not completely grimy or dirty, nor is it overly clean and sparkling.

The chefs, who everyone can see, also add something to the look of the restaurant. They wear bandanas on their heads, dark tattoos on their arms, casual yet fashionable tees and aprons around their waists. Combined, they look like an Asian version of the E Street Band. They are all very friendly and say hello when patrons enter, which helps add to the casual aura of the restaurant.

The restaurant has a variety of appetizers and entrees, typically Japanese food, such as Taisho don (three meat skewers and egg over rice), or edamame. The main star of the restaurant, however, is the grilled meat. The meat is usually on skewers. There are various kinds of meats you can order, such as chicken meatballs, chicken gizzard, beef, pork, bacon with scallop or asparagus, shrimp or shitake mushrooms. The distinctive trait of the meat is its tenderness and juiciness. The meat is not tough, and every gentle bite results in a rush of flavor and juices.

The meat’s sauce is both tangy and sweet, which enhances the flavor and prevents the food from being just texture without taste. The beef is extremely tender and juicy, like a long, thin piece of perfectly-cooked medium-rare steak that you cannot help but savor. The chicken meatballs

are the most flavorful and enjoyable to eat, simply because they are sweet, not spicy, salty or bitter — just pleasant.

What makes the food taste even better is its affordability. Each appetizer costs between $3 and $5. Entrees cost between $7 and $10. Each grilled meat, which is usually three skewers, costs between $2 and $3. You can also order various sets of grilled meats, which consist of 10 skewers of a variety of meats, and cost $13.50. Because of the cheapness of some of these items, if you are not careful, you can accidentally spend more money than intended. Just one of the sets, however, is enough to satisfy one person.

The service is fast and efficient, but you can only get this quality service if you arrive early. The place can get very crowded, and there are, at most, two to three waiters dealing with customers, so if you come at a later time, you can expect slower service and a longer waiting time.

Yakitori Taisho features nothing that can be considered fancy. It does not appeal to people looking for a quiet evening in a well-designed, calm or atmospheric setting. The place is often noisy, crowded and filled with the scent of grilling food. Yakitori Taisho is more of a hangout place, where you can get great, affordable food and chat with friends. There is something nice about going to a restaurant that makes you feel as if you were in a friend’s kitchen, and this has an appeal all of its own.

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

’s)

Editor’s Pick: Sebastian Janikowski

JOSE CARLOS FAJARDO/MCT

The Polish Cannon shares a record with Tom Dempsey, Jason Elam and David Akers.

By OLIVIA MONACO EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Although I am from New York, I have unfortunately endured being raised as an Oakland Raiders fan. My father, growing up during the dark ages of the Giants and Jets in the ’60s and ’70s, was unable to watch his hometown teams — which were blacked-out unless there was a sellout – and so

he turned to the West Coast to get his football fix. Consequently, I was recruited to the Raider Nation and have since suffered through nine years without a winning record or playoff appearance. It has not been all bad, however, because of one shining aspect of the Raiders’ roster: Sebastian Janikowski.

At first glance, it is obvious that Sebastian Janikowski is not your average kicker. At six-foot-two and

over 250 pounds, he is clearly one of the largest kickers in football.

That strength is exhibited whenever he approaches the ball; every fourth down is exciting because there is always the chance that history will be made. Janikowski is currently tied for the NFL record for the longest field goal at 63 yards.

(I remain convinced that he shattered the record with a 72-yarder that was uncounted because of an expertly called opposition timeout, but I cannot find any evidence to prove it.)

Even on kickoffs, Sebastian shows his strength by routinely kicking for touchbacks, and also occasionally propelling the ball through the uprights. He holds numerous other NFL records, including one for kicking eight touchbacks and eight points-after-touchdown in a single game, and he tied another record by kicking three field goals over 50 yards in one game.

Janikowski did not have a conventional path to the NFL. Born in Poland, Sebastian was raised playing soccer, like his father, who was a professional soccer player. He was good enough that he made the Polish U-17 team as a 15-year old, before emigrating to America to join his father, who had relocated here.

In high school in Florida, Sebastian was a standout soccer star who was recruited aggressively by

colleges and even received an offer to play professionally in South America. On a whim, he tried out as a kicker for the football team during his senior year, and his life changed.

While in college at Florida State, Sebastian attracted attention from many NFL scouts, prompting him to forego his senior year and become only the fifth kicker in NFL history to be drafted in the first round. He chose to go to the NFL a year early so that he could afford to bring his mother over from Poland.

Talented and devoted to his mother, what more could you ask for?

“Sea Bass” has perennially been the most consistent player on an often-lackluster team. He is the reason that I continue to watch the Raiders lose week after week.

He and punter Shane Lechler are the only two remaining members of the team that went to the Super Bowl in 2002 (in case it was unclear as to how poorly the team generally performs).

Even in this young season, Sebastian has already given me hope for a better year, with a 51-yard gem in the Raiders’ opening game. As long as he is on the team – which should be a while, given that he is the NFL’s highest-paid kicker – I will faithfully wear my silver and black each Sunday to watch Sebastian rewrite history with his left foot.

CULTURE

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Is Hollywood Out of Original Ideas?

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Man of Steel is Hollywood’s seventh Superman film since the one in 1951.

Film has always had the uncanny ability to influence as strongly as it can entertain. In 1977, Star Wars did more than transport viewers to a galaxy far, far away. It was also instrumental in improving special effects technology and inspiring the science fiction genre. In recent years, Inception not only awed audiences with its special effects, but also inspired deeper questions, such as the significance of dreams and the power of a simple idea. Everyone has a story to tell, and film is an ideal medium to do just that.

Why then does it seem like there are so few original stories being told?

A quick visit to a movie theater can prove that the recent trend is far from compelling, new dramas or quirky, original comedies. Instead, remakes of classic films and adaptations of already-existing works currently dominate movie screens. The latter of the two inevitably leads to another common trend: franchises.

From Harry Potter to Pirates of the Caribbean, there seems to be an endless series of films based on alreadypopular characters. Are such trends due to a lack of creativity or from a fear of taking risks? Are these films created so consistently because the studios see them as safe or because audiences will surely pay to watch them?

When all is said and done, Hollywood is a business that works on a basic formula. Studios give money to filmmakers so they can, in turn, gain a surplus of money back. While backing a director with an innovative, “neverbeen-done-before” plot is obviously the more creative investment, it is also a financial risk. An original screenplay offers little to no proof to a studio that it will prove successful at the box office. When money is on the line, it is no surprise to see creativity pushed aside. If a director steps back from the “never-been-done-before” mindset and instead proposes something like, “I want to reboot Superman” (not that Superman Returns should be looked to as a shining example of reboots, but hopefully Man of Steel can change that), he or she is more likely to receive the green light.

Hollywood may generally see adaptations and remakes as safer bets than original screenplays, but such films obviously would not be released as often if audiences were not so eager to see them. Original films such as (500) Days of Summer and Juno have certainly been well-received by audiences and critics alike. At the same time, however, such films are not going to inspire the same high-grossing box office weekends like The Avengers or The Hunger Games. There is a certain excitement that comes from anxiously waiting in line for the midnight

TELEVISION

TELEVISION

By MARLESSA STIVALA CONTRIBUTING WRITER

“GLEE”

“AWKWARD.”

premiere of the latest blockbuster or superhero film. Filmmakers recognize this and do their best to deliver, as an almost unspoken understanding between those behind the camera and those sitting in the theater.

The real question is whether or not this “business arrangement” is a good one. Just because film remakes and adaptations seem to be made in great quantity, does this necessarily equal great quality? Most people tend to agree with the idea that “nothing beats the original,” whether the original is J.K. Rowling’s novels or the colorful pages of an actual Batman comic.

While that is true in most cases, it can also be said that one can simply appreciate a film adaptation for what it is, independent of its source. At the same time, it is important to remember that it is nearly impossible to do a completely faithful adaptation. Even an arguably “good” one, such as The Hunger Games, still had a number of scenes removed, added or changed completely.

The quality of a remake is almost a completely different story and often riskier. Even the slightest rumor of remaking such films as East of Eden can inspire emotional reactions about how uncreative Hollywood has become (and more importantly how dare they think anyone could play Cal Trask better than James Dean?). This is because such films are classics in every sense of the word. They starred classic actors, who in turn, became synonymous with now-classic characters in scenes that can never be remade in quite the same fashion. Certain films such as Casablanca or Star Wars (not that George Lucas would approve of it for even a second) should simply be off limits to future remakes.

Moviegoers can only hope that any future remakes and adaptations will maintain respect for the original source material. Maybe if a greater sense of mutual trust between filmmakers and moviegoers can be achieved, filmmakers can feel confident that audiences will want to see something new and innovative.

Maybe film creativity can reign again.

Ram Reviews MOVIE

THE MASTER

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012 • THE RAM • PAGE 13

Check Take a look at the latest events and hotspots in NYC!

This

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

!

Out

Bon Iver Where: Radio City Music Hall When: Sept. 19 – 22, 8 p.m.

Price: $40 - $50 Beginning Wednesday, Bon Iver takes the stage for four nights in a row this week at Radio City Music Hall. Made famous by frontman Justin Vernon’s melancholy vocals and indie-folk song arrangements, as well as his personal story (former schoolteacher, heartbreak, selfexile to a Wisconsin cabin), Bon Iver has released two albums in five years; both have been, in this editor’s opinion, quite fantastic and have garnered critical acclaim. Vernon and Co.’s work receives unique validation with the opportunity to play four straight nights at legendary Radio City Music Hall (take the D train to 47-50 Rockefellar Center; the trip takes less than 50 minutes) and a $40 ticket to see a Grammy–winning artist in his prime at arguably the world’s greatest theater seems like a steal. Hungry? Grab dinner before the show at Tenpenny, a fantastic (and fantastically priced) restaurant located in the Gotham Hotel, located on 16 E. 46th Street.

COURTESY OF PRETTYMUCHAMZING.COM

Uptown Showdown Where: Symphony Space; 2537 Broadway When: Sept. 24, 8 p.m.

Price: $15 Voted “Best Comedy Show” of 2012 by New York Magazine, Uptown Showdown pits two teams of comedians and comedy writers together as they debate their views on the hottest topics and questions facing Americans today. Which decade was coolest, the eighties or ’90s? Which are better, cats or dogs? Cake or pie? This month features Janeane Garofolo (Ratatouille) and Dave Hill of the Upright Citizens Brigade. Check out this comedy show and shake off the Monday blues with an end-of-the-night laugh.

- COMPILED BY DEVON SHERIDAN

MOVIE THE WORDS

TELEVISION “THE NEWSROOM”

By HELENA MEYER

By COURTNEY SMITH

By PJ BROGAN

By JAKE KRING-SCHREIFELS

By KRISTOFER VENEZIA

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

STAFF WRITER

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

This past Thursday, Fox kicked off the fourth season of its award-winning, musical comedy-drama “Glee.”

The show is now split between what’s going on at McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio and Rachel Berry’s (Lea Michele, New Year’s Eve) new adventures at the New York Academy for the Dramatic Arts.

A slew of new characters have been introduced in order to replace the original cast members who are no longer on contract, and, as is usual with “Glee,” there are as many hits as there are misses.

Based on the first episode, this season is a vast improvement from last season’s train wreck. The show has become more about character development and meaningful song choices than overdone plotlines and Top 40 pandering. Let’s see if they can keep it up.

As the show “awkward.” closes its second season on Thursday, Sept. 20, Jenna will finally make her choice between the flawless Matty McKibben (Beau Mirchoff, “Desperate Housewives”) and the adorable Jake Rosati (Brett Davern, The Pool Boys). The love triangle has been building for the past two seasons, and Jenna has developed significant relationships with both. In the past few episodes, however, the love triangle has taken a stagnant turn: Jenna knows who she wants to be with, but does not do anything about it, even though it’s time for her to make a choice and for the storyline to move forward.

Regardless of a few small flaws here and there, at the heart of the show is a girl that makes us all feel a little less awkward. Jenna shows us that we are all fumbling through life. I promise you’ll be thankful.

Much buzz surrounding The Master rose from the purported role that Scientology plays in the movie’s plotline.

The religion, preached by Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Moneyball), a ruddy faced L. Ron Hubbard stand-in, does indeed play a significant role in the film. Enigmatic filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), however, only uses Scientology as a backdrop for the story of two men; a wild, angry man named Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line) and Dodd’s attempt to use spiritual domination as a means to force Quell into society.

The Master is not a mocking diatribe on Scientology, but is instead an odd, complex movie about two men trying to give themselves to something greater. The Master benefits from the sympathy and melancholy of Phoenix’s Quell.

Sometimes it is easy to spot a film wherein ambition exceeds execution.

The Words, which hovers over heavy thematics and ethical implications, is such a film. With such an ambiguous title, it is disappointing how easy the story reads.

Unfortunately, Bradley Cooper (The Hangover) cannot resurrect its lackluster appeal. Beyond his inane antics and machismo in The Hangover, his more cerebral side, like his presence in Limitless, can produce a pleasant dichotomy. Cooper, whose Dr. Jekyll-half appears in this film, enlisted friends Brian Klugman (Cloverfield) and Lee Sternthal (Tron: Legacy) to write and direct. The script lacks intended depth and pull, but the imagery succeeds aesthetically and emotionally. In this case, visuals substitute for= substance, a daunting task for a film about the written word.

Starting off a new television series by telling a largely-American audience that the United States is not the best country in the world certainly takes balls. That is exactly what HBO’s drama, “The Newsroom” does.

The show spends most of its time on the set of a nightly news broadcast called “News Night” on the fictional Atlantis Cable News channel.

The main characters in the show are Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels, Dumb &Dumber), who is the anchor of the broadcast, and McKenzie MacHale (Emily Mortimer, Hugo) who serves as the executive producer of “News Night.” Aaron Sorkin, best known as the creator of “The West Wing,” is the brains behind “The Newsroom.”

Aaron Sorkin should be pleased with putting a show together that really gets audiences thinking about world issues.

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CULTURE

PAGE 14• THE RAM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

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WHO’S THAT KID? Christopher John Osowiecki A MEMBER OF FCRH ’13 HISTORY MAJOR FROM FRANKLIN SQUARE, NY Describe yourself in a couple sentences for the readers.

What is something about you that not many people know?

ite memories at Fordham thus far?

I’m 5’10”, Polish and from Frankin Square, Long Island.

In the American classic Die Hard, Hans Gruber said, “When Alexander the Great looked at his empire, he wept, for there were no more worlds to be conquered [sic].”

I am surrounded by worlds yet to be conquered.

I have a tattoo on my chest. It’s a symbol of the Polish resistance from WWII. After a horrible German slaughter of Polish people, the Polish rebels spray painted it on areas or tanks they sabotaged.

Hanging out with the people I live with at my house.

What is your favorite aspect of Fordham and why?

When I walked into Keating for the first time, I felt like a templar of old. It’s a medieval building on campus!

No other campus had ever impressed me like this. At that moment, I knew I was going to Fordham.

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

COURTESY OF CHRISTIAN MURPHY

Osowiecki enjoys raging shirtless in order to proudly display his Polish tattoo.

I love to go to shows, see bands live and rage. I also work at a moving company, Box Butler, and I got to see the nicest apartments I have ever seen in my life.

I like seeing the upper stratosphere of the city.

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

What is your favorite class at Fordham? Why?

The food.

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

World Cinema Masterpieces.

I had zero interest in black and white movies going into the class, but I watched the movies and I loved them. Some movies were the saddest things I ever saw, but I was excited to write the papers about them. I came out of that class a much more cultured individual. It has helped me appreciate modern movies as well.

I really love video games, and I’ve played them all my life. I used to play them too much, but now it’s just under control.

If you were stranded on a desert island, what would you bring with you?

What is one thing you would like to do before you graduate?

Lots of sci-fi books. My dad turned me onto bad sci-fi books, and now I eat them up.

I want to go to Senior Nights. I used to hang out with a lot of seniors through my job at the Ram Van, and they always talked about Senior Nights, so I look forward to attending them a lot.

Anything else you’d like to share with the readers?

In reality, I’m a big nerd that loves sci-fi and playing hours of Mario Tennis with my roommates.

What is one of your favor-

A STUDENT BODY THIRSTS FOR CULTURE YOU ALONE CAN QUENCH THEIR THIRST WRITE FOR THE RAM CULTURE, AND SAVE THE FORDHAM COMMUNITY FROM CULTURAL IGNORANCE Contact us at: fordhamramculture@gmail.com or come to room B52 in McGinley, Tuesdays @ 6 p.m.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 15

Fordham Struggles Against Ivy League Opponents Dartmouth and Columbia Shut Out Women’s Soccer as Rams Start Homestand

By DOMINIC KEARNS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In its first six matches, the Fordham women’s soccer team had scored just three goals, and had never scored multiple times in a game. The Rams’ only goal scorers were sophomore Kristina Maksuti and junior Kaitlyn Carballiera.

The recent win at Maryland looked like a potential turning point for Fordham, but the Rams’ offensive struggles continued last weekend in losses to Columbia and Dartmouth.

The Rams traveled five miles to Baker Sports Complex to play the Columbia Lions on Friday, Sept.

14, and returned to the Bronx ruing a 2-0 defeat. Senior goalie Rachel Suther earned her second consecutive start for the Rams, but she could not stop a 13th-minute header from Coleen Rizzo. Erin Falk delivered a corner kick for the Lions, and Rizzo finished nicely.

Fordham neutralized the Columbia attack after that, but the Rams trailed 1-0 at halftime. Freshman Victoria Camaj tested Columbia sophomore goalkeeper Grace Redmon in the 30th minute, but Redmond held her ground.

The game opened up in the second half, with the teams combining for 25 shots in the final 45 minutes. Both goalkeepers made several huge saves to keep the score at 1-0, and both teams were content with the frenetic tempo that developed. In the 76th minute, Rizzo found Beverly Leon for an all-important second goal. The Rams tried to clear a corner kick, but the ball found Rizzo, who fed Leon for the insurance tally.

PHOTO BY PATRICK DOHERTY/THE RAM

Fordham turned to sophomore goalie Ally White in the second half of the Rams’ 3-0 loss to Dartmouth on Sunday.

Fordham mustered eight shots and three corner kicks in the last 15 minutes, but the Rams could not find the net. Junior Kelley Alpaugh shot twice in less than 60 seconds, but Lions keeper Grace Redmond would not be beaten in Columbia’s 2-0 win.

“We started slow after the win against Maryland, and we weren’t taking a lot of shots,” Suther said.

“We had opportunities, but they

Saad Will Redshirt for XC

By RYAN SCANLON STAFF WRITER

The face of Fordham cross country made a big decision over the summer. Senior Julian Saad has chosen to redshirt his entire senior season in an effort to better himself and the team for the following campaign. The senior from Trumbull, Conn. was named Fordham’s cross country MVP last year and is the school record holder in the 3,000-m run with a career-best time of 8:10.66. He proved to be one of the Atlantic 10’s finest with a breakout season last year, but it is clear he is looking for more from himself and his team next year.

“I’d like to make a jump to the national stage and get this school some national recognition for distance running,” Saad said. “They have the talent to be a good team.

I’m excited to see how this season progresses for them. In many respects, they are a very young team, but to make jumps to get the team to a national stage next year, we need everyone to gain experience now.”

The decision was easy, according to Saad, once he was admitted into Fordham’s competitive mas-

ters program for a Ph. D. in psychology.

“That was the other half of it,” Saad said. His work ethic also flourishes in the classroom, earning multiple Atlantic 10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll mentions and a spot on the Atlantic 10’s All-Academic list last fall.

This past weekend, Saad watched as his teammates captured first place at the C.W. Post Invitational in Brookville, NY. This 8-km race is typically used to solidify the back end of the pack for Fordham, and to determine any final spots for the traveling roster. No Ram finished in the top five, but the men packed extremely well (scoring 7-9-10-1623) to seal the victory. Junior Pat Burke led in seventh place with a time of 26:55.

The women’s team also raced well, taking third place out of 20 teams in the 5-km course. Leading them was sophomore Melissa Higgins in sixth place at 19:42. Higgins was known for her hurdling success during indoor and outdoor track a year ago.

Next weekend, on Sept. 22 the Rams will be in action at Williams College taking part in the competitive Purple Valley Classic.

just are not falling for us. The box has been crowded, so we need to slot the ball wide in our attacks.”

On Sunday, Sept. 16, the Rams hosted the Dartmouth Big Green, but the change of scenery did not lead to a different result. Dartmouth’s defense was tested early on, as Fordham attempted three shots in the first two minutes of action. The Big Green, however, scored first with a 12th-minute

goal by Corey Delaney. Emma Brush passed to Delaney, who made no mistake in crushing home a shot from 18 yards. Dartmouth doubled its lead two minutes later when Maria Moschitto half-volleyed into the net off another Brush assist. Just 10 minutes later, the Big Green won a penalty, thanks to a Fordham handball, and Chrissy Lozier scored Dartmouth’s third goal in the 26th minute. The

Rams conceded three goals in the first 30 minutes, and trudged into the locker room down 3-0.

Head Coach Ness Selmani replaced Suther with sophomore keeper Ally White to start the second half, and the move paid immediate dividends. In the 58th minute, White made an impressive save on an Brush breakaway shot. The Big Green put the Rams defense under immense pressure and easily could have scored another two goals. Brush nearly curled home a 20-yard shot in the 67th minute, but her effort hit the post. The rebound went to a teammate, who was cruelly denied a goal by the stellar White. Fordham had one brilliant opportunity in the 74th minute, but freshman Ivana Lahcanski fired a sitter over the crossbar from 10 yards out.

White made another big save on Libby Hamlin in the 76th minute before sophomore Kate McDonnell narrowly missed the target for Fordham in the 77th. In the last 10 minutes, Dartmouth exhibited its superior passing game and came close to adding a fourth tally several times. In the end, another slow start cost Fordham in its 3-0 home defeat.

“It was a tough loss,” McDonnell said. “We were trying to recover from the loss on Friday, but we are having a tough time scoring. When the A-10 season comes, we’ll be ready.”

The Rams are in the midst of a five-game homestand, hosting two games this week. Fairfield will visit for a 7 p.m. match on Sept. 21, and Loyola (Md.) will travel to the Bronx for a 1 p.m. kickoff on Sept.

23.

Women’s Tennis Competes at Columbia

By DYLAN BISSONETTE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Women’s tennis began its season at the Columbia Invitational this past weekend. Fordham, St. John’s, Columbia, UPenn, UMass, Binghamton, Fairfield and Harvard all participated in the tournament.

Fordham women’s tennis was 17-6 last year, and lost in the first round of the Atlantic-10 tournament.

The Rams only lost two players from last year and have some talented young players for the future.

They did not win their flights in singles, only getting as far as the semifinals. Senior Amy Simidian won her back draw at first singles, while others did not do as well in their back draw.

Simdian wants to have a great senior year after a strong junior season. She had a 22-8 record and was the team MVP. She was in flight A of the tournament, but lost her first match to Stephanie Do of University of Pennsylvania 6-1 6-3. Simidian then went to the back draw and dominated. She beat Sharissa Ryan of Fairfield 6-3 4-6 10-8, and St. John’s Nevena Selkovic 3-6 6-1 10-8.

Sophomore Bella Genkina, sec-

ond singles, was in the flight B of the tournament. She has been contributing to women’s tennis since she was a freshman. She was 2010, last year, playing from second singles to fifth singles. She lost to Monica Yajima of Fairfield 6-3, 7-5 and to Sara Yhotz of Binghamton 6-2, 7-5.

Sophomore Sarah Ali, third singles, was 15-11 last year. She played second singles but had a better doubles record, 25-7, playing with Bella Genkina. She was in the C flight of the tournament and beat Agatha Ambrozy of Bing-

hamton 6-4, 4-6, 11-9. She lost to Amy He of Harvard in the quarterfinals.

The first doubles team, Simdian and junior Angelika Dabu, struggled and lost 8-2 to UMass.

The second doubles team, sophomores Anika Novacek and Julie Leong, reached the semifinals.

They beat St. John’s 9-7 and UMass 8-6, but lost to Columbia 8-3.

The Rams play again from Sept.

21-23 at the Army Invitational.

They are looking to have a better tournament and win in their flights.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL REZIN/THE RAM

Julie Leong reached the doubles semifinal with Anika Novacek.

PAGE 16 • THE RAM • SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Two-Minute Drill DAN GARTLAND

The baseball season is entering its final weeks, and for the first time in a long time, the Boston Red Sox aren’t in playoff contention. The Red Sox, one of baseball’s model franchises ever since their 2004 World Series title, have simply imploded this year. For some people, it might be strange to see the team with the league’s third-highest payroll, a team which averaged 93 wins per year in the past five seasons, floundering at the bottom of the standings, next to teams like the Mets and Royals. But if you think about it, it really isn’t that surprising.

The 2004 team had a rare combination of talent and chemistry.

Johnny Damon hit .304 and recorded the second-most home runs of his career. Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz both hit more than 40 homers. Jason Varitek hit a career-high .296. Curt Schilling won 21 games at the age of 37. Pedro Martinez had 227 strikeouts.

The leader in the clubhouse was Kevin Millar, the veteran first baseman whose carefree personality came to typify the Red Sox mentality. It was Millar who came up with the “Cowboy Up” rallying cry during the 2003 playoffs and who dubbed his team “The Idiots” during the 2004 championship run.

Those “Idiots” were the exact opposite of the rival Yankees. The Yankees are the epitome of professionalism. They have rules against long hair and beards; they keep their iconic pinstriped uniforms in pristine condition. The Red Sox took great pleasure in being the anti-Yankees. Johnny Damon’s long-haired, bushy-bearded pseudo-Jesus look and Doug Mientkiewicz’s pine tar-coated batting helmet are perfect examples. The Yankees were also perceived to be too tightly wound — their cleancut look is often confused with a lack of emotion. The 2004 Red Sox were having a lot of fun, and they wanted everyone to know it.

They were everything the Yankees weren’t.

Terry Francona was the perfect manager for this sort of environment. Francona’s laissez-faire attitude allowed the players to do as they pleased.

That approach worked for a while. The 2004 championship ended the franchise’s 86-year World Series drought. After another championship in 2007, the Sox had a legitimate claim at a title of Team of the Decade.

Last year, though, it all came crumbling down. The Red Sox went 7-20 in the month of September, allowing the Tampa Bay Rays to come back from a nine game deficit and take the wild card. Francona was let go. General manager Theo Epstein jumped ship to join the Chicago Cubs.

Closer Jonathan Papelbon left to join the Philadelphia Phillies. It was a long winter in Boston.

It gave the media plenty of time to talk about the reasons behind the team’s collapse. Soon it was

revealed that Red Sox pitchers were eating fried chicken, drinking beer and playing video games in the clubhouse on their days off.

The “Cowboy Up” culture was the team’s undoing.

When the Sox were winning, clubhouse antics like that made them quirky; when they started losing, it made them dysfunctional.

Francona took most of the blame for being unable to control his players.

“I was disappointed and [Francona] was disappointed, but the reality is somebody else might do a better job of reaching the players and improving that clubhouse culture,” then-GM Epstein said of Francona’s departure.

Bobby Valentine was brought in to replace Francona. Valentine and Francona’s managerial styles couldn’t be more different. While Francona was known for his hands off approach, Valentine is a strict disciplinarian. After eight seasons under the relaxed Francona, Valentine’s stern approach was supposed to bring much needed structure to a fractured clubhouse.

Instead, the players turned on Valentine — almost immediately.

In mid-April, Valentine called out veteran third baseman Kevin Youkilis, questioning his offseason commitment. Criticizing a team leader like Youkilis, one of the few holdovers from the 2004 team, did not go over well in the Boston clubhouse. “Bobby Valentine, Red Sox Try To Mend Clubhouse Relations” read one USA Today headline on April 18.

That’s not something you want to see fewer than two weeks into the season. Ever since then, Valentine has been sleeping with one eye open, knowing he could be fired at any point. GM Ben Cherington has given Valentine a vote of confidence on multiple occasions, but it has not stopped the speculation that he’ll be axed.

This year was supposed to be different than 2011. It wasn’t. While the Yankees and Orioles jockey for position atop the AL East, the Red Sox duke it out with the Blue Jays, trying to avoid their first last-place finish since 1992.

The low point of the season came on August 25, when the Red Sox traded Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Three of the team’s best players were suddenly headed out of town. The collapse was complete. The Red Sox were starting from scratch and rebuilding.

This offseason will mark an important crossroads for the Red Sox organization. Cherington and team president Larry Lucchino will have to decide in which direction they want to take the team.

Over the past decade, Red Sox baseball has come to be defined by its countercultural clubhouse environment, and Boston fans have come to embrace the misfit attitude. But after that mindset resulted in the demise of the 2011 team, is it time to take a new approach?

Trading Gonzalez, Crawford and Beckett (as well as Youkilis in an earlier deal) freed up more than $100 million for the Sox to retool their roster this offseason.

With the team looking to start fresh in 2013, what will be the philosophy of the new look Red Sox?

SPORTS

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Senior Profile: Patrick Murray

PHOTO BY MICHAEL REZIN/THE RAM

Patrick Murray kicked the longest field goal in school history, 52 yards, during Fordham’s home opener. Murray has not missed on any of his kicks this season, while also consistently pinning teams inside the 20 yard line on kickoff.

By CHESTER BAKER SPORTS EDITOR

Put all of the kicker stereotypes and jokes in your back pocket, because there is really no place for those at Fordham.

“I hear them sometimes but I just laugh along,” senior kicker Patrick Murray said following the team’s Homecoming Day victory.

Murray is not only one of the best kickers in the Football Championship Subdivision, but in all of college football.

Murray, who is also the punter for the Rams, got his start in football late in life, following years of playing soccer and Gaelic football.

“When I got to high school, there was an opportunity presented towards me from Coach [Greg] Toal asking me to kick for the team, saying that I could do really well and have an opportunity to go to college,” Murray said. “So I talked it over with my dad, who never thought about me playing football. But, it’s really worked out for my benefit and my family’s benefit, and it was one of the best decisions that my dad and I have ever made.”

The decision to play football is not the only influence Murray’s father (who hails from Ireland) has had on him, as the two have a very strong relationship. So strong, in fact, that Murray opted to change his number from 93 to 7 prior to this season in order to pay respects to his dad.

“My dad was born on April 7 and he’s been the biggest inspiration in my entire life, and I just wanted to do him that honor of wearing the number of the day he was born,” Murray said. “Also his favorite soccer player Jimmy Johnstone, who played for Celtic, wore No. 7.”

The Don Bosco Prep graduate has played on the football team in all four years at Fordham, setting records and collecting awards along the way. Murray almost did not come to Fordham, however, originally committing to the University of Delaware out of high school.

“Delaware really wasn’t for me. It might be for some people, but I was just looking for something different,” Murray said. “My mom graduated from Fordham, so she had suggested to just look here as a place to go to school. The football team happened to be practicing, so I went up, introduced myself to the coach, and the next day I was practicing.”

While Murray is now considered a premier college kicker, consistently racking up College Placekicker of the Week awards from multiple magazines and websites, it has not

always been easy for the New Jersey native.

“I went to a lot of I-A programs, and I was told that I was too small,” Murray said. “So that kind of gave me a little edge, put a chip on my shoulder.”

There was certainly no doubting that Murray belonged in college football following Fordham’s opener against Lock Haven, the game in which Murray set a school record for the longest field goal by drilling a 52-yarder.

Still, Murray thinks he could have done better.

“I actually didn’t hit it as well as I would have liked to,” Murray said. “I was a little disappointed with that.

Luckily, it went over, and it counts the same if it goes over by 50 yards or an inch.”

While the record-setting kick may have had some added significance, the kicker remains calm, even when being iced. Instead, Murray simply relies on the skills that he’s been working on ever since high school.

“I don’t really feel pressure during the games,” Murray said. “I’ve hit tens of thousands of footballs, it’s just repetition and doing the same thing over and over again. It’s trusting my holder Joe Sullivan, it’s trusting my snapper Brian Wetzel, who are the two best guys I could ever ask have to snap and hold for me.”

Despite not having as much success on the team as he would have liked, Murray said he believes that

the friendships he has with his teammates has been a major influence in getting through some of the tougher times.

“We know that even when we’re down, one of us is going to pick the other guy up,” Murray said. “I think that’s what makes us a great team.”

Murray, who has made a 65-yard field goal in practice, has heard some talk about getting a shot in the NFL, especially from his teammates.

“The guys will joke around with me, especially whenever a game is on, saying ‘Murray, you can do that too, you’re better than that guy,’” Murray said.

Fordham’s kicker tries not to listen to the speculation, however, instead concentrating on the job he currently holds.

“We’re focused on winning games right now,” Murray said. “If I’m blessed enough to go to the next level, I’ll deal with that after the season, after we make the playoffs, and after we win a national championship.”

If the NFL never happens for Murray, he already has a fallback plan about which he is very passionate.

“I would love to go to law school,” Murray said. “That has been a dream of mine since I was a little kid, to study corporate law. My dad would also like me to go to law school. He’s always been interested in it so it, resonated throughout my life. Sometimes you will find me watching a court case on TV instead of ESPN.”

PHOTO BY MICHAEL REZIN/THE RAM

Murray leads the Patriot League in all major kicking categories, including points scored , made field goals, field goal percentage and yards per punt.

SPORTS

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SEPTEMBER 19, 2012• THE RAM • PAGE 17

Clemens’ Comeback

By TARA SLEDJESKI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

September is always the most exciting time of the year in baseball, due to the efforts of teams competing for playoff spots. This year, however, it is interesting and exciting for another reason as well. This month, 50-year-old Roger Clemens is currently attempting to make a comeback to the sport.

Clemens spent 24 years in the major leagues, pitching for the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees and Houston Astros. During his career, he won 354 games and compiled a 3.12 earned run average, while striking out 4,672 batters. Recently, however, Clemens is best known for his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. This past year he also made the news when he appeared in front of a jury after charges of perjury were brought against him.

Clemens left the sport after 2007, but at this moment he is back to pitching, this time for the Sugar Land Skeeters in Sugar Land, Texas. The Skeeters play in the Atlantic League of professional baseball, which is an independent league.

Clemens has started two games for the Skeeters so far, throwing eight scoreless innings. The Atlantic League is not a very competitive league, however, so Clemens is most likely not as good as his numbers would suggest.

There are a few possible reasons why Clemens could be coming back now after taking a five-year break. One possibility is that he wants to play baseball with his son Koby, who also plays for the Skeeters. He may believe that he could help his son’s career by being on the same team.

I believe that the biggest reason why he came back is because he does not want to be on the ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame this winter. As of right now, his name will appear on the ballot with Barry Bonds and Sammy

Sosa. Both of these men have also come under fire for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs during their great careers. Most likely, Clemens does not want to go up against other great players who allegedly used performance enhancing drugs.

I also believe that Clemens thinks that if he waits five more years to go on the ballot, his court scandal and the accusations of using performance enhancing drugs will leave the national spotlight.

In time, people may be more likely to just look at his career numbers and not at the controversy that surrounds him.

Even though Clemens is attempting this comeback to the majors, it appears as though he will not get the chance to pitch for a major league team this year. The owner of the Houston Astros has said that he would put Clemens on his pitching staff, but only to pitch against teams not contending for a playoff spot. Clemens, however, wants to pitch against teams who are contending. Unless one of the two men is willing to give in to the other’s wishes, I do not see Clemens pitching for the Astros this season.

I do not think anyone can blame Clemens for doing all of this. Any player would want to improve his Hall of Fame chances. Also, any player would want to participate in a game that could mean something.

At the same time, though, there has to come a time when players finally give up. Clemens is 50 years old and has had his past tarnished by accusations; the time has come for him to move on from the sport.

As the season dwindles down, it looks less and less likely that Clemens will actually pitch in the majors. If Clemens does not pitch in a game this year, then a new question arises. Will Clemens try to make a comeback next season too, or was this a one-time thing? Well, like a lot of things in sports, only time will tell.

Check out our new look!

Let us know what you think at twitter.com/theram_sports

Varsity Scores & Stats Men’s Soccer Fordham 1 Stony Brook 2 Goals: Fitz (SBU), 26’ Sotka (FOR), 54’ Fernandes (SBU), 63’

Volleyball Fordham 28 25 25 3 Bucknell 26 22 9 2 Delsing (FOR)- 15 kills Serrato (BUCK)- 10 kills Fordham 25 25 19 25 3 Qunnipiac13 14 25 8 1 Rodenberg (FOR)- 13 digs Robinson (QUIN)- 19 assists Fordham 25 27 25 3 Providence 16 25 16 0 Konkel (FOR)- 42 assists Muzzonigro(PROV)- 10 digs Fordham 25 26 15 25 13 3 Hofstra 22 28 25 18 15 2 Hipp (FOR)- 18 kills Kinnier (HOF)- 17 kills

Football Fordham 3 3 14 14 34 Villanova 0 7 7 13 27 Koonce (FOR)- 176 yds rushing Matthews (COR)- 489 yds passing

Water Polo Fordham 9 Navy 16 Wash. & Jefferson 13 Fordham 10 Univ. of Toronto 12 Fordham 11 Johns Hopkins Fordham

3 13

Women’s soccer Fordham 0 Columbia 2 Goals: Rizzo (COL)- 13’ Leon (COL)- 76’ Fordham 0 Dartmouth 3 Goals: Delaney (DART), 12’ Moschitto (DART), 14’ Lozier (DART), 26’; PK Cross Country CW Post Invitational Men: 1st Women: 3rd

Golf- Adams Cup 12th out of 12 teams

Athletes of the Week Carlton Koonce

Sara Konkel

Senior

Junior

Football, running back

Volleyball, setter

Koonce was named Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week after rushing for a career-high 176 yards on 31 carries in Saturday’s win over Cornell.

Konkel and the Rams beat Bucknell, Providence and Quinnipiac to win the Bucknell Invitational. Konkel averaged 34 assists in the three matches.

News & Notes • •

•

Sources say Fordham quarterback Michael Nebrich suffered a torn ACL in Saturday’s win against Cornell. Nebrich will likely miss the remainder of the season.

The Fordham women’s basketball schedule is now available on FordhamSports.com.

The Rams will face three teams which played in last season’s NCAA Tourament, and eight which played in the NIT. Fordham has hired former Virginia Tech player Charisse Mariconda as an assistant softball coach.

Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/theram_sports COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA

Clemens, pictured here with the Yankees, is trying to get back in the game.

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Sotka Scores Lone Goal in Men’s Soccer 2-1 Loss to Stony Brook Seawolves

PHOTO BY MICHAEL REZIN/THE RAM

Sotka’s second half goal was not enough for the Rams against Stony Brook.

The midfielder now leads the Rams with two goals on the season.

By MATT ROSENFELD ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

The Fordham men’s soccer team traveled to Stony Brook last Friday, Sept. 14, having won two games in a row, including a shutout victory over No. 22 Brown.

None of that mattered, however, as the Rams fell short against the Seawolves, losing by a score of 2-1.

The first 25 minutes of the game were even, as neither team could create a serious chance to score. That changed in the 26th minute though, when Stony Brook’s senior midfielder Leonardo Fernandes gave a pass to freshman midfielder Alejandro Fritz inside the box, and Fritz was able to get the ball past Fordham sophomore goalie Sean Brailey to put the Seawolves up 1-0.

Stony Brook remained on top 1-0 until the end of the first half.

“The first 20 or so minutes were fine, but then we kind of lost our shape a little bit,” Fordham Head Coach Jim McElderry said. “They scored a good goal, and then we just sort of survived until halftime.”

Despite the Seawolves’ early lead, the Rams proved to be resilient. Just 10 minutes into the second half, Fordham connected on a scoring opportunity. Freshman Kyle Bitterman worked a cross into the box that found the foot of sophomore Kalle Sotka, who then shot the ball into the net, beating Stony Brook’s senior goalie Stefan Manz and knotting the game at 1-1.

“We came out after halftime and our guys really responded well,” McElderry said. “After a bad first half, being down a goal, we scored a goal 10 minutes in

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012• THE RAM • PAGE 19

SPORTS

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and had a lot of momentum.”

Fordham continued to push the offense, securing a free kick deep in the Seawolves’ zone. That free kick, however, would prove disastrous.

Off of the unsuccessful free kick, Stony Brook quickly countered and, just seven minutes after the Rams’ equalizer, in the 63rd minute, Stony Brook’s senior defenseman Antonio Crespi crossed the ball in to Fernandes, who was able to beat Brailey and put the Seawolves back on top 2-1.

Fordham scrambled to tie the game, but Stony Brook’s defense held firm as the Seawolves captured the victory to remain unbeaten at home, with a perfect 3-0.

“Unfortunately, we had an attacking free kick and got caught on the counter,” McElderry said.

“The players pushed in the second half. They really competed.

We just couldn’t get that tying goal. There is stuff to build on.

We have to make sure we start games better, we can’t play just a half a game, and hopefully in our next game, we’ll start better and hopefully not be down a goal chasing the game.”

The Rams’ record is now an even 3-3. Their next game comes on Friday, Sept. 21 in New Haven, CT against Yale.

The Bulldogs currently sit at 2-3-1, but have won their past two games.

Their home record is 1-1-1, while Fordham’s away record is at 1-2.

The game at Yale will conclude Fordham’s recent four-game road trip, on which they are 2-1 thus far.

By MATT ROSENFELD ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

Football is widely considered a game played by brutes. Many simpletons describe it as big men pushing each other around.

Words often associated with the game include strength, toughness and heart. These things certainly are important in football, but one thing has been slowly taking over college football for awhile, and now, finally, it may just be king: speed.

Speed has been an essential part of the game for as long as it has been played, certainly for as long as any of us here on campus have been alive to watch it. But there is a difference between the type of speed I am talking about, and a receiver who runs a 4.3 40-yard dash.

I am talking about team speed — the ability for all 11 players on the offensive side of the ball to play and execute as fast as possible.

Nowhere is this philosophy more present than at the University of Oregon, all the way up in the Pacific Northwest, where Head Coach Chip Kelly has his Ducks playing football faster than anybody on the planet. The offense run at Oregon is a no-huddle offense to the 10th degree.

The reason behind Oregon’s frantic offense, and now many other offenses throughout the nation, is to beat teams down until they can’t keep up. The Ducks run plays faster than any team in the nation, running a play about every 20 seconds during a game.

What does this mean?

Faster plays mean more plays.

More plays mean a tired defense, and a tired defense is an easy defense to beat. Kelly and his players never worry if they get off to a bad (never slow) start.

They trust their system.

The Ducks know that they are only getting faster, so in the second half when the opposition begins to tire, they are just getting

started.

A good story that helps explain just how fast Oregon is comes from a September 2010 matchup against the University of Tennessee. In the middle of another dizzyingly quick Oregon drive in the third quarter, a Tennessee defensive lineman approached the Oregon center with a plea.

“If you guys run two more plays at this speed,” the Tennessee player said, “I’m going to fall over dead.”

How does Oregon maintain such a pace? Their speed hinges on two things: its ability to communicate and its practices.

Since the Ducks forego the traditional huddle, they must get the plays to their players on the field somehow.

The solution is a series of hand signals and cardboard signs, all with meanings that only the Oregon players understand. There are six people on the sidelines on a given day, all giving signals. Some of them are the ones the players are looking at, some of them are simply decoys to prevent opponents from cracking the code.

A lot of team use signals, but Oregon has simply mastered the system to a scary degree. Going fast is so important to the team that if, for example, a pass play has a receiver ending his route across the field from where he started, the next play called has that player lined up on the side of the field he ended up on. All in the name of speed. Going fast is a lifestyle for Oregon football.

Just look at their practice. A blur of yellow and green, which are the school’s colors, the practice is a never-ending sprint, faster than the games. They have the scheme so down-pat now, that often they run 30 or more plays in 10 minute periods.

With two-hour practices that get the players more reps in less time than anybody in the nation, it is no wonder the Ducks have been in the top eight in the nation

in scoring offense every year Kelly has been a head coach.

The peak year for the program came in 2010, when Oregon reached the National Championship game. They lost to the Auburn Tigers 22-19, only the second time in that season the team failed to score 20 points.

There lies the crux in the offense, most people say. Can the up-tempo offense win a championship? Before 2010, people thought there was no chance. The offense was written off as a gimmick, but now, the question is, can speed, speed and more speed, win over southern powerhouses like Alabama and LSU? Don’t get me wrong, offenses that predicate themselves on going so fast the other team taps out are certainly not gimmicks.

As Oregon has become more and more successful, offenses like it have been popping up all over the place, in high schools and lowerlevel college football.

Our very own Fordham Rams run an offense that relies on tempo, much like the Ducks.

Chip Kelly’s vision of offense seemed silly initially. How could a football team win in such an untraditional way? Kelly’s teams then averaged over 200 yards rushing a game, gashing exhausted defenses with blazing-fast running backs.

But what about championships?

Oregon knocked on the door of greatness in 2010, defeated Wisconsin in the 2011 Rose Bowl, and is currently ranked fourth in the nation this season.

People will argue that, until the Ducks win a National Title, traditional football sets will reign supreme, but people are taking notice. Just ask Jon Gruden, former NFL football coach and current expert on ESPN. “It’s a philosophy that is the damndest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Gruden said. “I love it and can’t get enough of it.”

Neither can anybody else.

Upcoming Varsity Schedule CAPS=HOME lowercase=away

Thursday Sept. 20

Friday Sept. 21

Men’s Soccer

at Yale 7 p.m.

Women’s Soccer

FAIRFIELD 7 p.m.

Water Polo

Cross Country

Men’s Tennis

Women’s Tennis Golf

Sunday Sept. 23

Monday Sept. 24

Tuesday Sept. 25

at Columbia 12:30 p.m.

Football

Volleyball

Saturday Sept. 22

at La Salle 7 p.m.

LOYOLA (MD) 1 p.m. at Temple 7 p.m.

Navy Invitational Annapolis, MD Leeber Invitational Fairfield, CT

National Tennis Center Collegiate Invitational Flushing, NY Army Invitational West Point, NY Cornell Invitational Ithaca, NY

ST. FRANCIS 7 p.m.

Wednesday Sept. 26

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

PAGE 20

Rams Hold On for 34-27 Homecoming Day Win Over Cornell Trio of Higgins, Koonce, Wetzel Leads 28-Point Second-Half Offense; Nebrich Injured

By CHESTER BAKER SPORTS EDITOR

A packed house at Jack Coffey Field was treated to a Fordham win on Homecoming Day, as the Rams defeated the Cornell Big Red 3427. Fordham came back from a 7-6 halftime deficit, using a powerful second-half offense to rack up four touchdowns.

With the win, the Rams improve to 2-1 on the season, giving Fordham a winning record for the first time since Sept. 18, 2010.

The victory was especially sweet for Head Coach Joe Moorhead, who returned to the Fordham sideline on Homecoming Day for the first time since his time as a player.

“This whole experience being back here is just something special for me. I’m very humbled and honored to be back,” Moorhead said. “[It was great] to see so many faces coming off the field and in the stands and the crowd support.”

Moorhead was not the only member of the team to notice the crowd.

After all; over 6,000 people showed up to the game to create one of the best atmospheres in recent memory.

“I was feeding off [the atmosphere] in the second half,” senior quarterback Ryan Higgins said.

“When you make those big plays you can hear the crowd erupt. After that, you just feed off their energy.”

The win came at a price, however, as sophomore quarterback Michael Nebrich was taken off the field following a hit on a failed jet sweep run, which led to a knee injury. The injury, which has still not been given a diagnosis by Moorhead or the team, will most likely keep Nebrich out for an extended period of time.

Sources have said the injury is most likely a torn ligament. Nebrich, who

was helped off the field by the Fordham staff after laying on the ground for a few moments, returned to the sidelines on crutches for the rest of the game.

“When you take that kind of athletic ability and that kind of playmaking ability out of the gameplan, it’s incumbent upon the other guys to step up,” Moorhead said. “It doesn’t look good.”

The coach could not help but be pleased with Higgins’ performance, as the quarterback had no problem stepping up in the increased role.

“It’s something I’ve prepared for,” Higgins said. “Whenever you run a two quarterback system, like we do, you always have to be ready if that guy goes down with an injury.”

Fordham was led by Higgins, who torched the Cornell offense for 281 yards and two scores. Higgins had no problem finding his favorite receiver of the day, connecting with sophomore Brian Wetzel eight times for a career-best 153 yards. Wetzel used some scouting reports to help him get the edge on his career day.

“We knew that there were two freshmen cornerbacks, so they were new,” Wetzel said. “So we just had to show them how the big boys play.

The Rams also had no trouble rushing the ball, as senior running back Carlton Koonce ran for a career-high 178 yards and two touchdowns on 31 attempts.

“The coaches challenged the backs, they challenged the o-line to pick it up and go out there and get it done,” Koonce said. “I think just from a mentality standpoint it was full steam ahead.”

The Rams got off to as good of a start as anyone could ask for, as redshirt sophomore Ian Williams forced a fumble on the first play from scrimmage after a completed pass by

PHOTO BY MICHAEL HAYES/THE RAM

Koonce’s Player of the Week Perfromance was seen by 6,087 fans.

Cornell. The ensuing Fordham drive would sputter out at the Cornell 13yard line, however, only managing a field goal from senior kicker Patrick Murray, giving the Rams an early 3-0 lead.

Moorhead had no problem setting for the early field goal.

“I just wanted to take the momentum of the recovered fumble and moving the ball a little bit and get some points on the board,” Moorhead said. “When you’re a quarterback like that and an offense like that, you’re going to need points.”

The quarterback in question was Cornell junior quarterback Jeff Mathews, who threw for a gamehigh 489 yards. The gunslinger found three receivers for touch-

downs, while also rushing for a score of his own.

Big Red senior wide receiver Luke Tasker consistently found open space in the first quarter, torching the Rams for 84 yards before finishing with over 100 yards in the game.

Still, the Rams defense held strong in its own territory, keeping Cornell shutout throughout the quarter.

Mathews and the Big Red looked to finally get on the board, but a 28yard field goal attempt from junior kicker Johnny Wells was no good.

Fordham would take advantage of the special teams gaffe, marching down the field for another Murray field goal.

Cornell extended the lead on its second drive of the game, stretching

the lead to 14-6 on a quarterback sneak from Mathews.

The Rams responded, however, scoring their first touchdown of the game on a 15-yard scamper into the end zone by Koonce. Fordham used a 63-yard connection from Higgins to Wetzel to facilitate the drive, which took just three plays and 1:04 off the clock.

Fordham capitalized on its newfound momentum, as Higgins led the Rams down the field for a touchdown, giving the Rams the lead again. The senior quarterback alluded pressure on a big third down play, finding Wetzel for the first down.

Higgins then found sophomore wide receiver Sam Ajala streaking down the field for the touchdown.

The Rams again went for two, converting this time on a gadget play in which senior wide receiver Blake Wayne threw to Higgins for the score, giving the home team a 20-14 lead.

The offense continued to roll for the Rams, scoring on its next drive to grab a 27-14 lead.

Cornell would not go down quietly, however, as Mathews found Tasker for a 40-yard touchdown, cutting the lead to 27-21.

Fordham looked to secure an insurance touchdown and take up some game clock on the ensuing possession. That plan failed when Higgins threw his second interception of the game to junior safety Kevin Laird.

Cornell was unable to move the ball, however, as the Fordham defense responded once again to preserve the lead.

The two teams traded touchdowns in the final four minutes.

The Rams will look to win their third straight Liberty Cup this weekend at Columbia.

Volleyball Captures Bucknell Tournament Championship

By KENNY DEJOHN STAFF WRITER

It has been a rough start to the season for Fordham volleyball, as the Rams opened the season with a disappointing 5-9 record after a win against Lafayette on Sept. 11.

The Rams then entered the weekend as an underdog in the Bucknell Invitational, but ended up surprising most of the competition with their strong play.

On Sept. 14, the tournament’s first day, the Rams took on the Bucknell Bison in the opening match for both teams. The first two sets were closely contested. In the first set, a kill and a block from junior Lisa Hipp made the difference for Fordham, as the Rams pulled out a close two-point victory. Hipp continued her strong play in the second set. Tied at 21, both teams were searching for a spark. Hipp provided it, scoring three of Fordham’s next four points on kills.

The third set was not nearly as close as the first two. It was completely owned by the Rams, who went on runs of 8-0 and 10-1. They

PHOTO BY DREW DIPANE/THE RAM

Fordham fell to the Hofstra Pride in five sets, 3-2, on Tuesday night in an out-of-conference match in the Bronx.

also recorded an impressive .462 hitting percentage.

Freshman Brennan Delsing was the team’s biggest contributor on offense. She tallied 15 kills and an absurd .636 hitting percentage. Hipp, probably the team’s most clutch player of the day, had 13 kills, seven digs and four blocks. Starting for the first time this season at setter, junior Sara Konkel tallied 34 assists and seven digs. Senior Randi Ewing and junior Carina Thompson each contributed six kills of their own.

Defense was a big part of the game

as well. Junior Maria Rodenberg tallied a match-high 13 digs along with seven assists and two aces.

With two more matches coming in the tournament’s final day, the Rams were looking to continue their strong play.

In the opening match against Providence, the Rams dominated yet again. They won the first set by a healthy margin (25-16), but had to come from behind to win set No. 2.

After trailing 23-19, the Rams scored five of the next six points to tie the score at 24 apiece. Fordham

was able to get kills from Hipp and Delsing after consecutive sideouts to come away with a 27-25 set win. Set three was a repeat of set one for the Rams, who won 25-16.

In the three-set sweep, Ewing led the way with a hitting percentage of .688 and 12 kills. Hipp recorded a double-double with 11 kills and 12 digs. Thompson contributed nine kills. Konkel tallied 42 assists and three blocks. Rodenberg continued her strong defensive play, tallying nine digs.

Quinnipiac presented the Rams

with their biggest challenge of the tournament. It took four sets for Fordham to dispose of Quinnipiac, with set scores of 25-13, 25-14, 1925 and 25-8.

The Rams held the Bobcats to a terrible hitting percentage of -.078.

Delsing led the match with 12 kills, while also adding four digs and five blocks. Thompson continued her strong tournament play with nine kills and five blocks. Freshman Brianna O’Neill got into the action in the third match, adding seven kills and seven digs. Konkel continued helping the offense, registering 27 assists to go along with seven digs.

Both Ewing and Delsing were named to the Bucknell Invitational All-Tournament team.

“We really stepped it up this weekend and took control of our game,” Thompson said. “We all came together and worked our hardest for each other. We went into this tournament with the mindset that we were going to win and dominate.

Everyone gave it their all and pushed themselves to succeed.”

The Rams have won five of their last seven matches.