Volume 96 issue 16

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The Fordham Ram Serving The Fordham University Community Since 1918 Volume 96, Issue 16

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WSJ Columnist Talks Midterm Elections, Blasts Party Politics

SAMUEL JOSEPH/THE RAM

Kimberley Strassel, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, came to Rose Hill to discuss the upcoming midterm elections.

By ANDREW MORSE STAFF WRITER

On Monday, Oct. 6, the College Republicans welcomed their first speaker of the semester to the Rose Hill Campus. The Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel discussed the consequences of the 2014 Senatorial midterm elections and answered questions from the audi-

ence in Keating 3rd Monday night. The midterm elections will be held in November and will play a significant role in how the last two years of President Barack Obama’s final term play out. Strassel is a member of the editorial board for The Wall Street Journal. She writes a weekly political column titled “The Potomac Watch.” She also writes many of the un-

signed editorials appearing in The Wall Street Journal, which express the newspaper’s opinion on political policy. She is the only member of The Journal’s editorial board to be located in our nation’s capital. Rather than share her predictions for the November elections, Strassel delved into the consequences of the elections’ potential outcomes. She outlined her thoughts on two differ-

October O b 88, 2014

Returned Grads Give Pro Advice

ent scenarios: one in which the balance in the Senate remains relatively the same and a second in which the Republican Party wins a majority. If the Congressional balance of power remains the same after this November, then Strassel believes the next two years will be spent hashing out the same problems our country is facing right now. She blames a lot of the lack of production from the current Congressional regime on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). “He does nothing. When people talk about dysfunction in Washington, the reality is that the dysfunction is one man,” said the columnist of Reid. She accused the Nevada senator of turning down proposals in an effort to protect the Democrats’ public support and the party’s majority in the Senate, as well as sparing them from having to make tough votes. A victory for the Republican Party in November would give them a majority in both the House and the Senate. Strassel is more optimistic in her view on this scenario, but warns that we will not see the drastic changes many conservatives would like. Rather, she predicts many smaller changes in an effort to build long-term momentum. “Having a majority in Congress gives you more clout and a bigger

A pair of Rams returned to their old stomping grounds Tuesday for Fordham’s first ever News-Brunch. Alice Gainer, FCRH ’04, and Dick Brennan, GSB ’83, reporters at WCBS and co-anchors of WLNYTV's News at Nine, spoke Tuesday morning to celebrate National News Engagement Day. The event, hosted by the communication and media studies department and the communication honor society, Lambda Pi Eta, drew a large, standing-room only crowd to McGinley 235. Brennan and Gainer, New York's only all-Fordham news team, gave students advice and spoke fondly about their time at Rose Hill. "This place here is very special," Brennan said. "When I walk through here in the fall, it's the greatest feeling in the world." Gainer shared similar feelings about her alma mater. She was one of the founders of Fordham Nightly News and also spent time at WFUV,

SEE STRASSEL, PAGE 2

SEE ADVICE, PAGE 3

By MAX PRINZ SPORTS EDITOR

Matos Talks On Keating, Actors, Not Students, Stage Protests By KELLY KULTYS OMA Future EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

By KATIE MEYER NEWS EDITOR

Juan Carlos Matos has only been the new director of Fordham’s Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) for a few months, but he already has a long list of plans for the future. The 27-year-old University of Miami graduate was promoted from his position of assistant director this summer, and officially became the acting director of the office at the start of this semester. He took over the position from Sofia Bautista Pertuz, who left to become assistant dean of students at Hofstra University. Despite his heavy new workload Matos said he feels very ready to step into his new role, something SEE MATOS, PAGE 4

in this issue

Opinion Page 7 Ebola Outbreak in the Media

Culture Page 11 Display Shows Fordham in WWI

Sports

Page 20

Fordham Avenges 2013 Loss to Lafayette

Members of the Fordham community were greeted with the screams and shouts of an anti-war protest as they walked past the Keating steps on Tuesday, Oct. 8. From far away, it looked like a student-organized event, until the large film cameras and tents set up sporadically across campus became noticeable. The protest was part of a commercial for GANT Clothing, an apparel line for men’s, women’s and children’s clothing founded in New Haven, Connecticut in 1949. According to its website, GANT was known for introducing and popularizing the button down collar to the U.S. Its roots in New Haven caused the brand to become popular with students and professors of Yale University. On Tuesday, the clothing line staged a protest set in the 1970s on a college campus, right in the midst of the Vietnam War. The scene was complete with an old fashioned cop car, men on horseback and students holding signs that read, “Students for Peace,” “Will Work for Peace” and “Unite.” This protest sent students to Twitter to voice their frustrations over Fordham’s free speech policy. “I'm sorry, @fordhamnotes, so students can’t have a free speech zone for protest, but a TV show can pay to stage a protest & that's a-okay?” Amanda Pell, FCRH’15, (@itsamandapell) tweeted. Former managing editor of The

SAMUEL JOSEPH/THE RAM

Tuesday’s filming of a commercial for GANT Clothing illicited some feelings of frustration among the student body.

Fordham Ram, Canton Winer, (@ CantonWiner) FCRH’15, tweeted, “A protest is being filmed in the steps of Keating. Will we ever see a real student demonstration on those steps? #Fordham” and then “If student activists said they were filming for ABC Family would it be easier for them to protest at #Fordham?” The students were expressing their frustration over the lack of a free speech zone on campus, a place where students would be allowed to protest, demonstrate, post, etc., without needing prior documentation from the university. Right now, the university follows a demonstration policy that requires students to register their demonstrations in advance. Groups of students are prohibited from “creat[ing] a

volume of noise that prevents members of the university from carrying on their normal activities… congregat[ing] or assembl[ing] within any university building or on university property in such a fashion as to disrupt the university’s normal functions or violate the following rules.” The policy states that a group cannot enter a private office unless given permission. They cannot block entrances, or other forms of passages, they cannot create noise that intereferes with those at work and they cannot occupy space unless they follow university procedures. To get to this stage, students have to adhere to the official demonstration policy. It states, “the Organizer/ Liaison [member of the Fordham

University community] must meet with the dean of students to coordinate the planned event and is encouraged to schedule this meeting well in advance. To schedule this meeting, the organizer must appear at the dean of students’ office for his/her campus. The dean of students/designate will meet with the organizer within one business day. The planned demonstration may be scheduled no less than two business days after this meeting.” The policy states that the leaders of the demonstration must meet with the dean of students to go over the details and communicate them with the Department of Public Safety. In the past, students, especially former president of the United Student SEE COMMERCIAL, PAGE 3


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