Rose Hill Magazine Spring 2009 by rosehill

the campus magazine of fordham university

Fordham is a Jesuit University. Right? By Lauren Gilger

Our Staff EDITOR

Benjamin Guhin MANAGING EDITOR

Joseph Milner Dear readers, In the spring of 2008 we released the first issue of Rose Hill Magazine. Through 48 glossy pages we explored new perspectives of our university, with articles covering Marymount, residential colleges and Spring Weekend, an interview with a Jesuit scholastic and a discussion with the new student government presidents. Over the summer, in a stroke of forward-looking genius, we decided to move our publication entirely online. Now, as even the Boston Globe teeters on the brink of losing its ability to print, we’re revisiting ink and paper. Going online has allowed us to provide more content with fewer costs and delays. Located at rosehillmag.org, our website features articles about life on our campus as well as in our city, and is supported by a growing community of bloggers.

ACADEMIA EDITOR

Gabrielle Hovendon FOOD EDITOR

Paul Neubecker STAFF BLOGGERS

Adelle Pica John Biancardi Will O’Donnell Jake Martin, S.J. Kat Chang DESIGNERS

Shannon Copfer Michael Goncalves Jen Keefe

However, we realize that the internet model has yet to find its niche in serving the University community, so with this issue we are introducing a mixed-media approach. By utilizing both print and the web, we hope to bring our investigations, conversations and viewpoints to you more effectively. Now, about those articles. On page ten you’ll find our cover story. Lauren has spent the past two semesters investigating the relationship between Fordham’s rise in the rankings and the state of its Jesuit identity. The following article is our exit interview with Dr. Brennan O’Donnell, the outgoing dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. A few weeks after the announcement that he will be assuming the presidency of Manhattan College, the dean sat down with Gabrielle to discuss the challenges and opportunities that he has found here. Our bloggers round out the issue on pages four through seven, providing a preview of the extensive content available on our website. This second print edition of our magazine exists with the intent of reaching more readers with content that we believe deserves attention. We encourage you to join us both here and online and invite you to support us by getting involved, donating to help us print in the future or simply passing on this issue when you’ve finished reading. We hope you enjoy it. -The Editors editors@rosehillmag.org

Our Sponsors The Curran Center for Catholic Studies sponsors conferences, lectures and academic programs for students and faculty within the University, for scholars across the United States and for the broader New York City community. This programming provides a forum for ecumenical engagement between Catholics and participants from other faith traditions, for the academic study of broad “faith and culture” questions and for the promotion of Fordham’s Jesuit tradition of serious intellectual engagement with religious ideas.

Rose Hill Magazine

Spring 2009

The Scholastic Endeavor

By Adelle Pica

Excerpts from our blogs

By Will O’Donnell, Kat Chang and Joe Milner

Ten restaurants to visit before you graduate

By Paul Neubecker

The final edition of Ask Jake

By Jake Martin, S.J.

The new ambassadors

USG’s new executive board

Fordham is a Jesuit university. Right? 10 By Lauren Gilger

The Exit Interview 14 By Gabrielle Hovendon

Fordham College at Rose Hill encourages its students to develop commitment to others and explore themes that are central to the Jesuit tradition: the dignity of the human person, the advancement of the common good and the option for the poor. In return, Fordham expects students to engage actively in their own education, to grow in personal and social values and to be willing to judge and be judged on clear and high standards.

MTA Meditations

The First Flight

reflections on NYC mass transit

adventures in wine tasting

The MTA’s Fare Hikes

My First Winery Tasting by Kat Chang

by Joe Milner

The MTA, which in its infinite wisdom has retained its board members’ free E-ZPass tags — undoubtedly because these tags are an essential component of MTA operations — decided to enact these hikes after gas prices plummeted, after the golden boys of Wall Street took their tumble, and after the rest of the world economy went down with them. So now the MTA just looks stupid.

Then she showed us a list of the wines that we could choose to taste; in all my eagerness to learn everything about wine, I jumped right in. I skimmed over the descriptions of each wine and chose the Doobie Red first (named after the Doobie Brothers, for whom the owner of the vineyard and winery worked as a manager). I also tasted a Sonoma Valley Merlot, a SyrCab (blend of Syrah and Cabernet), a Cabernet Sauvignon, and the Roadster Red.

Excerpts from our Blogs find more posts at rosehillmag.org/blogs

The Scholastic Endeavor Adelle Pica details the fantastic features of a Fordham education

1. Your diet consists of vending machine snacks and 12-packs of Diet Coke. At this point in the year, there’s just no time to nourish yourself with food that requires preparation. It’s crunch time (no pun intended) and there are papers to write, labs to complete and exams to fear. Chow down on Cheetos and get to work!

2. You’ve stayed at the library so long that security turns off the lights around you, and you’re forced to grope around in the dark to find the exit. Also, the library staff doesn’t appreciate it when you hide behind the slightly crumbled bust of Augustus in the “Greek and Roman Room” in a panicked desperation for more study time. Trust me... I know.

3. You become irrationally annoyed at inanimate devices. Perhaps you’ll be struggling through a paper and suddenly think to yourself, “Why is it called Times New Roman anyway? That’s so stupid. These fonts are all stupid. Bookman Old Style? What is that, a cult for the elderly? And the only thing Wingdings seems useful for is communicating with extra-terrestrials. My life is so difficult... ”

4. You seriously consider dropping out of school to engage in one of the following: a) Fleeing to Europe to become a homeless, but charming, vagabond. b) Selling all of your possessions on eBay and devoting yourself entirely to Buddhism. c) Becoming one of those people who sells encyclopedias door to door. d) Joining a local gang. e) All of the above.

YOU KNOW IT’S THE END OF YEAR WHEN... I think everyone will agree that the last few weeks of a semester — be it fall or spring — are always really stressful. Yet there seems to be something particularly special about the kind of stress one encounters at the end of the spring semester. ¶ Perhaps the stress seems more palpable because this time it’s summer that awaits us at the end of the scholastic finishing

line, instead of a winter break that always feels too short. Maybe it’s the fact that there are beautiful and blossoming nature-y things sprouting all around us while we feel like we’re being crushed inside by all the academic pressure. Maybe it’s all Father McShane’s fault.* ¶ In any case, I’ve made a few observations during my time at Rose Hill, and included them above.

Music and the City our blog about live music

A Rapper Stays True to His Punk Roots by Will O’Donnell

Not surprisingly, Pissed Off Stef is at his best when he’s, well, pissed off. One of the gems of Never Better is “Drumroll,” the second track, which features a rapid-fire drumbeat that occasionally drops into silence while Stef spits words out at an incredible pace… P.O.S. completely bypasses the morally repellant, misogynistic lines that infect much of rap. Instead, he speaks intelligently about social issues and his own life while dropping allusions to anything from The Big Lebowski to Fugazi.

THE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN AMERICAN CATHOLIC STUDIES 5. Every time someone asks, “How are you?” you struggle not to sob uncontrollably. We’re all pressed for time, losing sleep and feeling worn out. It’s perfectly normal to feel a little emotional, if not mildly hysterical. But it is important to remember that public crying freaks people out, so do your best to avoid it. If you simply can’t control yourself, blame the tears on pollen and pet dander.

On a brighter note, eventually this three-to-five week period of panic and frustration will pass, the semester will come to a close, and summer will begin. How can you get by in the meantime? Well, spontaneous dance parties usually put me in a good mood!

The Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies (CACS) offers an honors certificate in American Catholic Studies, an interdisciplinary program of study open to academically talented undergraduates interested in the history, theology, art, and culture of American Catholicism. The Curran Center staff works with each student to craft a course of study suited to his or her interests and, in conjunction with the Campion Center, works closely with potential candidates for prestigious fellowships. Students perform community service and attend various communal events throughout the semester. If you would like to know more about this community of young scholars who seek to combine a rich academic life with active engagement of the University community, the broader Church, and the world beyond, please visit our website at http://www.fordham.edu/cs

* I’m kidding, of course. Father McShane is awesome.

Corner Bistro This classic dive serves up the best cheap burgers in town, with some McSorley’s on tap and one of the City’s best jukeboxes to boot.

Di Fara’s This one will require an epic journey to Brooklyn, daunting for city initiates but worth every minute of the subway ride. It is considered by many to be the best pizza on the planet.

Katz’s Delicatessen This old-school New York Deli is in a league of its own when it comes to serving up homemade corned beef and pastrami.

Gramercy Tavern Sometimes everyone needs to break the bank on dinner, and if you’re going to do it, no one will help make that night incredible like Danny Meyer and his crown jewel restaurant.

Artichoke Basille’s Re-establishing good pizza in Manhattan, Basille’s makes the trip down to Union Square that much better if you know a slice of artichoke is waiting for you.

Peter Luger’s Arguably the best steak in NYC; enough said.

BEFORE YOU GRADUATE, HERE ARE TEN PLACES YOU MUST TRY Over the course of four years at Fordham, I’ve run the gambit when comes to food options. Unfortunately, for most students the first experience is the caf, then Pugsley’s, and finally some experiments with Arthur Ave. ¶ However, when it comes to the City, finding quality cuisine is not as simple a matter. Sometimes you have a bad experience; sometimes you have a decent time; and sometimes you leave as a disciple, emphatically urging everyone you meet that they cannot miss the food there.

By Paul Neubecker

Ask Jake

THE FINAL ROUND FROM FORDHAM’S FAVORITE ADVICE COLUMNIST, JAKE MARTIN, S.J.

Dear Jake,

Graduation is so close and I don’t have a job or apartment yet!

My first year of college is coming to an end, and I think that I may have acquired what some people refer to as a “beer-belly.”

My parents have offered to let me live at home while I look for work, but I’m afraid that doing that will look bad to my friends and potential employers because I should have this all together by now. Am I just being picky or is it really important that I find a place, job or no job, and live on my own? Sincerely, Hardly Homeless

This is pretty embarrassing now that it’s getting warmer and my friends are talking about going to the beach every weekend this summer. Any advice on how to ditch or deal with an uninvited 13 pounds? Thanks so much, Suddenly Summer

Dear Suddenly,

Dear Hardly, While I can’t guarantee that you’ll have a job after graduation, I can guarantee that if you move back home with the P’s your popularity will sink like a stone. First of all, good luck finding anyone willing to play beer pong in a wood-paneled rec room, say goodbye to fistbumping with your brosephines while watching Dane Cook on if Dad’s got the remote during an Everybody Loves Raymond marathon, and I don’t even want to get into the romantic situation of Mom walking around in her housecoat and rollers screaming about the stack of Victoria’s Secret catalogs under your bed. So I would suggest that you do whatever it takes to have a place of your own. If you can’t get a job, go to jail. At least then you’ll get some street cred and maybe one of those teardrop tattoos that seem to be so popular with the prisoners these days.

Nobody knows the horrors of the dreaded Belly Bump Moostache (BBM) more than I. Have no fear, however: help is on the way. A couple of years back when I was working at a gas station in Tallahassee my friend Chico came up with a surefire way to drain off the pounds like puss from an abscess! Meth, Meth and more Meth! Trust me; you’ll be the apple of the eyes of all the ladies at Jones Beach this summer, especially the ones who don’t mind a guy with a few missing teeth and open sores sprinkled across his ashen skin like rainbow jimmies on a child’s birthday cake! Funny thing though, haven’t talked with Chico since his trailer exploded. I hope he and his three pet ferrets are doing okay. Speaking of ferrets, this will probably be my last column for a while. Me and my Buddy Silky are planning on opening up a jet ski rental stand in Haiti, but first I have to “lay low” for a while at an undisclosed location not in Paramus, New Jersey.

Jake

Caracas Arepa Bar This classic East Villager serves up delicious Arepas. Cheap enough that it won’t break your budget, you can even afford to pay for your date.

Shake Shack Nothing like a Shake Shack burger in the summertime while sitting outside in Madison Square Park; it’s quintessential “summer in the city.”

Babbo Try to rub your pennies together just long enough to at least make one trip to the ultra-hip temple and altar of pasta in its highest form.

Blue Ribbon Bakery Sooner or later, you’ll find yourself at 3 am in Manhattan wondering where you could still get a decent bite to eat. Answer: here, serving a full menu of contemporary and French classics until the wee hours of the morning.

THE NEW AMBASSADORS The hopes, plans and faces of USG’s new executive board

EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT

John Gordon Farmingdale, NJ johntullygordon@gmail.com

Photos by Lauren Gilger

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

Michael Recca Pelham Manor, NY michaelrecca@gmail.com VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS

Ian Gaylets Scranton, PA gaylets@fordham.edu

VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Emily Wong Smithtown, NY ewong@fordham.edu

WHAT EXCITES YOU MOST ABOUT NEXT YEAR?

Working with all of our senators and Executive Board members. We’re thrilled with the great voter turnout this year. John and I will work to implement a free-speech zone on campus as well as to make improvements in the cafeteria, residence hall sign-in policy and much more. WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU AND YOUR COMMITTEE TO ACCOMPLISH?

WHAT EXCITES YOU MOST ABOUT NEXT YEAR?

I’m excited to get things done, to make changes and to increase visibility for USG. WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU TO ACCOMPLISH?

As VP of Marketing and Communications, my goal is to ACT by creating Awareness, building a Community, and fostering Transparency. By creating awareness, I believe that USG can bring about change.

For me the most important committee that I chair is the Senate. The most important thing for this Senate is to keep on task, improve efficiency in the meetings and ensure that all senators work to achieve their campaign goals.

I’m looking forward to a United Student Government that will get to work immediately to help improve Fordham students’ quality of life. I’m very excited about having an Executive Board filled in large part with people who have worked on USG initiatives in years past, but also thrilled to welcome some fresh faces with unique and impressive visions for this University’s future. WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU TO ACCOMPLISH?

There are many important problems that I believe United Student Government must act swiftly and efficiently to resolve, ranging from some wellknown concerns about the residential housing sign-in policy and the lack of funding for clubs to some of the larger issues including the approval of the Lincoln Center Development Plan and the recent MTA fare hike. One key project that I hope the student body will support will be the establishment of a free-speech and -expression zone on campus, an area where students will be able to demonstrate, protest and express themselves without pre-requisite administrative approval. This has been successful at a number of our peer and aspirant universities, including the highly active “Red Square” at Georgetown. USG has done extensive research on this subject and as I move forward in my term, I hope to see the vision of “Maroon Square” at Fordham become a reality.

WHAT EXCITES YOU MOST ABOUT NEXT YEAR?

It is my senior year and we have a great USG! WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU TO ACCOMPLISH?

For me, I think working as a team with the VP of Finance Kathryn Carey will be extremely important for a successful year. Kathryn is great and we will be working together on everything to come up with ways to be more efficient and to better the clubs and the university at large. For my committee, I need to have dedicated members who are going to be willing to work. The VP of Operations needs his committee to do their job well. I encourage those who are interested to pick up a packet and apply.

VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE

Kathryn Carey Washington Township, NJ kacarey@fordham.edu VICE PRESIDENT OF CBA

Steve Cirincione VICE PRESIDENT OF FORDHAM COLLEGE

Caitlin Meyer

Holmdel, NJ cirincione@fordham.edu

Oakland, CA cmeyer@fordham.edu

VICE PRESIDENT OF STUDENT LIFE

Patrick Scotti Hicksville, NY pscotti@fordham.edu

WHAT EXCITES YOU MOST ABOUT NEXT YEAR?

With three years of experience here at Fordham, I’m excited to have the opportunity to serve the University community in a new capacity on USG. All the work that we will be doing to move Fordham forward is something that I cannot wait to continue. WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU AND YOUR COMMITTEE TO ACCOMPLISH?

Out of all the projects and initiatives that we have already started discussing, I believe that getting student input for the plans for the new student center will be among the most important contributions that House Committee will make during the upcoming year. It is a student center, and the voice and desires of the students should be heard during the planning stages.

The vast potential and unmatched dedication found in the members of WHAT EXCITES YOU MOST ABOUT NEXT YEAR? the new administration. Although I We have received much support from have only been a part of Fordham’s students and administrators alike who United Student Government for one share in our goals to move Fordham year, I have seen this body make ever upward. We have a terrific great strides in both reaching out to group of students on board this year the students and working with the whose diligence and aptitude are school’s administration. I believe we already becoming apparent. There can build on the successes of this are all sorts of very plausible and real- past year to continue to make the istic ideas that have come forward students’ voice heard while seeking that will surely enhance the Fordham to improve our great university. experience. WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU TO ACCOMPLISH?

Get students involved and interested. Of course, we will be working to implement and amend policies, integrate new programs, publish scholarship opportunities, etc., but our successes will be limited if the student body does not participate in our efforts.

Continuing in the role again. I think that a big problem in the past has been the turnover rate for my position, and I’m looking forward to being able to use the summer to continue my projects, like making the budget process electronic, instead of using it as a transition period. WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU AND YOUR COMMITTEE TO ACCOMPLISH?

I think it’s important that the club leaders feel more comfortable coming to me with their questions and concerns. I plan on making the budget process more transparent, which I hope to achieve by fostering closer relationships with the club leaders.

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU TO ACCOMPLISH?

As Chair of the CBA Dean’s Council, one of my primary goals is making the Council a more visible and efficient body. I intend to do this by fostering and facilitating collaboration and communication within the business community, allowing students to use one another as resources and ultimately adding value to CBA. I will be addressing such pressing issues as the Business Week Survey, Freshman Academic Advising and New Student Orientation, to name a few. I will dedicate myself to continuing the tradition of excellence here at Fordham.

FORDHAM IS A JESUIT UNIVERSITY. RIGHT? There’s a neo-Gothic church on campus, where Mass is held daily. There are theology and philosophy requirements in the core curriculum. There’s the Core Curriculum itself. There are community service programs, a campus ministry office and strict guest policies in the dorms, and no pro-choice club. ¶ And then there are the Jesuits: 83 on Rose Hill’s campus alone. Fordham’s official slogan is “Fordham: the Jesuit University of New York.” It appears in the first line of the University’s mission statement.

By Lauren Gilger

In recent years, Fordham has undergone a revolution in numbers, rankings and prestige that some say is eroding the Jesuit nature of the university. In 2003, University President Father Joseph M. McShane, S.J., and Judith Mills, Ph.D., then the University’s strategic planning officer, began talks that would lead Fordham to “reclaim its position of leadership in American higher education and preeminence among Catholic universities,” according to Fordham’s website. The plan, named “Toward 2016,” was approved by the Board of Trustees in March 2005. On March 29, 2009, almost exactly four years later, Fr. McShane announced a continuation of the 2016 plan: Excelsior. Its goal? To raise $500 million “to bring Fordham into a new era of preeminence by 2016, our 175th anniversary.” Like Toward 2016, Excelsior is a multifaceted plan. It focuses on academics and facilities while projecting goals of increasing the number endowed scholarships and chairs, as well as undertaking a massive renovation of the entire Lincoln Center campus and several key buildings at Rose Hill. Along the way, the University embraced another, less Jesuit-centric slogan, which hangs above the entrance to McGinley Center: “New York is my campus. Fordham is my school.” As these changes emphasize structural more than spiritual aspects of the University, some have begun to question just what makes us call ourselves Jesuit at all.

Fordham, Inc. Sitting on a panel of students that met over a Tino’s dinner with a small group of faculty members last semester, sophomore Eric Horvath had something rather less-than-politically-correct to say about Fordham’s religious affiliations. When a concerned theology professor introduced the state of Fordham’s Jesuit identity into the conversation, Horvath responded, “You know, you want to be careful when you talk about Fordham as ‘Jesuit.’ I mean, I would have never come here if I thought it was really Catholic.” Why did Horvath choose to attend Fordham? “Location in the city, the brand name,” he explained in a recent interview. “Religion had absolutely nothing to do with it.”

When taught by quality professors at Fordham (sometimes, he said, he has not), Horvath felt that “they enriched my Core…though they didn’t make me want to go to Mass.” Admissions 101 During a recent meeting with Admissions, one visiting student was not impressed. The admissions officer began their conversation by telling her that Norah Jones recorded in the basement of Keating, and about how excited the campus was to host the filming of a Michael Douglas movie the previous fall. “She was really pushing the pop-culture aspect of the school,” the high-school senior, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

Horvath’s point of view may reflect an increasing trend. There is a twelve percent difference in the number of Catholic students in the freshman and senior classes, according to statistics provided by Fordham’s Admissions Office.

To this prospective student, a confirmed Catholic, the attitude at Fordham regarding religion seemed a little off. “It was funny,” she continued. “[The admissions officer] was kind of apologetic about [Fordham] making us take theology classes.”

To Horvath, who was raised as a Catholic, the goal of advancement requires pragmatic decision making. “If they unequivocally want to get better scores, play down the Jesuit aspect because you’ll get a better applicant pool.” If Fordham markets itself as primarily Catholic or Jesuit, he said, “How many brilliant Jewish students will go here? No one wants to come into something they’re already on the outside of.”

The admissions officer never mentioned Fordham as a Jesuit university again, until this student asked about community service options on campus. “I didn’t think they were really heavy on the religion,” the student concluded.

Raising the question of how the University is — and how it should be — strategically marketing itself, Horvath offered one solution. “Better professors.”

For her application to the University of San Francisco — a Jesuit institution that falls lower in the ranks than Fordham, at 127th to Fordham’s 61st — the student said that she had to write an essay about their core values and Jesuit mission, and the ways in which she could help create “a more humane and just world” in conjunction with the university. She couldn’t remember what she had written for Fordham.

Since then, the student has decided to set aside any misgivings about the University’s identity. She will be attending Fordham in the fall.

“We’re certainly seeing an increase in the caliber of students applying to the university,” Buckley observed.

When asked if Fordham is getting better as a result of the 2016 plan, Eric Horvath’s response spoke to the heart of the prospective student’s concerns: “Better in what way?”

While these new students are certainly accomplished, they are not necessarily here because they are passionate about Jesuit education.

Fordham by Numbers John Buckley, the vice president of undergraduate admissions, has worked for the University since the late 1980s. At that time, Fordham received 4,000 applications each year. For the fall of 2007, he said, “there were nearly 24,000.” While applications are up at most American universities, “Fordham’s growth has been ahead of the curve.” In a 2008 progress report on the 2016 plan, McShane highlighted the ways in which the University has improved. Rankings topped the list: over the last five years, Fordham has risen from 84th to 67th in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual college guide. Last year, the number jumped again, to 61st, according to the publication’s website. A comparison of the current freshman class to the senior class tells the story behind this rise. According to Buckley, the average SAT scores of enrolled students increased from 1208 to 1228 in reading and math. In the class of 2012, 42 percent of students ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school classes. In the class of 2009, it was 39 percent; in 2008, 34 percent. In the everyone-goes-to-college age, Fordham’s incoming classes are more qualified than ever. They scored higher on the SAT, maintained higher GPAs in high school and probably ran a club or two.

While he couldn’t say whether this was any different 50 years ago, but Buckley recognized that “there are a number of students coming out of high school who are less familiar with what ‘Jesuit’ means.” At the same time, he insisted, “the tenets of Jesuit education are very appealing” to new students. According to Admissions, these tenets include academic excellence, cura personalis — education of the whole person — and social awareness in the form of community service and social justice. Religious vs. Prestigious As Fordham has steadily climbed the ranks, the number of Catholic students at the University has sharply dropped. Five years ago, when the 2016 plan was first discussed, 65 percent of the freshman class identified as Catholic. Today, that number has dropped to 51 percent. “What we’re seeing,” Buckley explained, “is classes becoming more geographically and ethnically diverse, and, as a result, religious affiliation has shifted as well.” According to the numbers, however, ethnic diversity has shifted very little at Fordham. Over the past four years, there has been less than a four percent increase in the number of minority students, comparing the freshman and senior classes. At the same time, the student body as a whole experienced a 12 percent drop in the number of Catholic students, according to statistics provided by Buckley.

He noted another trend: an increasing number of students who don’t specify any religion at all. Fordham may not be becoming less Catholic but, instead, more religiously ambivalent. This trend is nothing new. Georgetown, the highest-ranking Jesuit and oldest Catholic university in the county, has become a forum for discussion about religious identity among Catholic universities. Georgetown has come under fire in the past for issues as wide-ranging as hiring the first lay president of a Jesuit university to playing host to Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. According to student newspaper The Hoya, the university was also criticized for funding Law Center internships at pro-choice organizations. Unlike Fordham, Georgetown’s roster of clubs includes H*yas for Choice, a fact that the Cardinal Newman Society has spoken out against in the past (http://www.thehoya.com/node/15934). Last year, when Pope Benedict XVI visited Washington, D.C., he chose to speak at Catholic University, not Georgetown. In an article entitled “A Papal Voyage, A Campus Question,” The Hoya framed the issue as a crossroads “between its Catholic identity and the demands of secular academia.” The choice for Georgetown, which some believe the university has already made, has been between being religious and being prestigious. Rose Hill senior Anthony Talarico, a concentrator in American Catholic Studies, said he believes that Fordham can be both elite and Jesuit, but recognizes that one does not automatically lead to the other. “I hope the administration remembers that and doesn’t sell its Jesuit soul for higher rankings,” he said in an email.

“YOU KNOW, YOU WANT TO BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT FORDHAM AS ‘JESUIT.’ I MEAN, I WOULD HAVE NEVER COME HERE IF I THOUGHT IT WAS REALLY CATHOLIC.” Eric Horvath, FCRH ‘11

“We’re not a seminary” Fr. Patrick J. Ryan, S.J., vice president of university mission and ministry, isn’t worried about the future of Fordham’s religious identity. “We’re not a seminary,” he said. “Pointing to the history of Jesuit education in Asia, he said that 95 percent of the students in Jesuit high schools and universities do not identify as Christians, much less as Catholics. He highlighted the Jesuit tradition, which educates regardless of the student’s religious affiliation and aims instead at raising the level of cultural development. The final goal, he explained, is a new level of “openness to the transcendent” — to God. It is in this process that the importance of the presence of the Jesuits themselves comes into question. With their numbers declining across the globe, what does the future of Jesuit education look like, exactly? While it would be hard to call an institution “Jesuit” without Jesuits, the University can still foster what Fr. Ryan calls an “Ignatian setting” — one that is created by clergy and lay men and women alike. The staffs of Campus Ministry, Community Service and Global Outreach — departments that fall under his jurisdiction — play invaluable roles in the “service-formation” of the students, he said. “It’s not important that we have people around with collars on.” What is important? Ryan stressed that students and staff alike should have a basic understanding of Ignatian Spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. His office runs Fordham’s retreat center at the Jesuit House of Prayer in Goshen, New York, and about a dozen faculty and staff members are practicing the Exercises in daily life this year.

“The important thing is Ignatian spirituality,” he said, “not Jesuit personality.” And that is the heart of the matter, according to Fordham College junior Maria Fitzsimmons, a former co-chair of Rose Hill’s Ignatian Society. “The call to justice for all members of the University community, from president to student to custodian and beyond, is key to this university’s Jesuit heritage,” she wrote in an email. “Something which I worry this administration forgets sometimes.” That concern has been echoed in seminars, panels and classrooms throughout the University over the past year. As administrative concerns turn not only to economics and endowments, but also to construction and renovation, it can seem as if the Spiritual Exercises are the furthest thing from administrators’ minds. But the students — old and new — are not without responsibility for this trend, either. A Tradition of Ambivalence “It seems, at Fordham, it can be very difficult to get students to do anything,” Professor Patrick Hornbeck of the Theology Department observed. “We need to have a much more vibrant dialogue on this issue.” This year Hornbeck arranged a number of Ignatian Discernment Seminars, in order that students with concentrations in American Catholic Studies might foster this discussion. An alum of Georgetown, he noted its continuing discussion about Jesuit identity. There, the question pops up as the result of hot-button issues, like having Larry Flynt speak on campus. “And the two sides misunderstand each other terribly.”

At Fordham, Hornbeck sees a different problem. The essence of Jesuit education certainly remains a topic of debate and discussion, “but without the same tradition of activism, it doesn’t surface in the same public way, which can lead to apathy.” The difference? “Red Square at Georgetown.” Red Square is a free-speech zone marked clearly in the center of Georgetown’s campus. According to Hornbeck, the two universities deal with free speech in very different ways. And Jesuit, Catholic, prestigious or religious — in order for any community to embody an identity, all parties involved must embrace it. “It would be very helpful for Fordham students to take some ownership in the process, rather than being shepherded through,” Hornbeck suggested. Identity Crisis The 2016 plan calls for higher standards, higher rankings and higher achievement — but of what kind? Maria Fitzsimmons defined a Jesuit education differently than did Buckley and Admissions. She also listed academic excellence as the first facet of a Jesuit education, but with a side note: “In true service to its students, a Jesuit university must first be a good university, which is certainly not to say it must rank high on the lists we hear too much about.” Professor Hornbeck challenged the idea that only two mutually exclusive paths — Jesuit identity and prestige — remain open to Fordham. “We need to ask different questions of ourselves in the process.” “How do you define ‘excellence’?”

Dr. O’Donnell, previously a professor of English and director of the honors program at Loyola College in Maryland, has been the Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill since July of 2004. He is also the first lay person to ever hold this office. Even before setting foot on campus, he had built a strong background for the position: O’Donnell is an authority on Jesuit higher education and had published and edited numerous publications on the topic as well as served as editor of the magazine Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, as a board member of Collegium (a consortium of Catholic colleges and universities) and as a member of the National Seminar on Jesuit Higher Education. Since becoming the FCRH dean, O’Donnell has done more to show that he deserved his job. Upon entering, he was quoted as having said that he wanted to break down the barriers between academic and student life, thereby creating a campus environment where deans attend student events. The verdict, five years later? “There’s been more opportunities and incentives for academic personnel to be involved in the extracurricular lives of students since I began,” gauged O’Donnell. According to the dean, there has also been a movement towards greater student responsibility for and ownership of academic work. More students are becoming “actively engaged in their own education.” Additionally, there has been a rise in the number of classes that offer a service-learning element, prompted by an allocation of funds for professors who included such an element in their courses’ syllabi. Furthermore, O’Donnell cited an improvement in research during his five-year tenure. “We’ve put a lot of emphasis of fostering a culture of undergraduate research, especially in the sciences,” said the dean. This culture has resulted in students presenting at national conferences and coauthoring papers with professors, largely due to the efforts of Dr. Donna Heald, associate dean for science education. “I take credit only in having been smart enough to hire her,” explained O’Donnell, citing an abundance of positive energy, especially in the pre-health advising programs.

THE EXIT INTERVIEW

The graduation of the class of 2009 will be the last for Dr. Brennan O’Donnell as Dean of Fordham College at Rose Hill. ¶ A few weeks after the announcement that Dr. O’Donnell will be leaving to assume the presidency of Manhattan College, Rose Hill sat down with the dean to chat about eye pigmentation, high school math, Flannery O’Connor and, of course, his past five years at Fordham.

By Gabrielle Hovendon

“We’ve made marked improvements in this area.” The University hopes eventually to expand the phenomenon, which has been achieved in part by an increase in fundraising and summer research scholarships, into the humanities and social sciences. O’Donnell has also been responsible for working in conjunction with Student Affairs to create integrated learning communities like Manresa in Tierney Hall and the Science Integrated Learning, or SILC, wings of residence halls. Due to his supervision and the hard work of Assistant Dean Robert Parmach, the freshman advising program has grown as well. Average SAT scores for the incoming class are up fifty points from where they were five years ago, and no one has to refer to the U.S. News & World Report College Rankings to know that Fordham is zooming towards the top fifty. When asked if this numbers game was essentially just that, a game, the dean answered candidly. “I think that all universities — including Fordham — have to be very vigilant about making sure that the drive for the appearance in the ratings is connected with the reality of

what’s going on with the improvements.” Dr. O’Donnell made a comparison between striving for rankings and the situation in which a student considers grades more important than the acquisition of real knowledge. Asked if he thought that Fordham was guilty of this confusion, he said, “No, but Fordham, like all other universities, needs to be vigilant about its priorities.” Instead, O’Donnell pointed out that Fordham students tend to have a desire for learning that their peers at other private New York City universities sometimes lack. “Fordham students are hungrier,” he said, referencing not Sodexo but rather the undergraduates’ drive for erudition. “They’re hungry for knowledge.” To O’Donnell, the largest challenge that Fordham faces is one shared by the rest of America: the financial crisis. Recession aside, said O’Donnell, “we knew that it was going to be tough to fund all the initiatives of the strategic plan.” He sees the solution quite simply: “Do more with less.” Despite the hiring freeze, which he said is not absolute, Dean O’Donnell quietly recommended that Fordham acquire more professors in

strategic places: “We need to grow the faculty.” However, he also believes that Fordham should maximize the time professors spend with students in addition to pushing faculty publications and research. “[We should] give [the students] the best experiences that a reduced amount of money can buy,” he said, summing up the effects of the financial crisis on many colleges’ endeavors. We spoke briefly about how the dean felt to be leaving Fordham. While he will not miss disciplining those students who have violated academic integrity policies, the dean said that he has always loved times like Encaenia and graduation, “times when I could recognize student accomplishment. Dean’s List is always a fun day.” “The thing I’ll miss most is the people I work with most closely in the office,” he added, citing the assistant deans and the work-study students with whom he collaborates. “The key for me has always been people.” One particular man has certainly been a key for Fordham College over the last five years. Dean O’Donnell will be missed by the entire university.

“THE KEY FOR ME HAS ALWAYS BEEN PEOPLE.” Dean O’Donnell

all these things and more at

rosehillmag.org

this issue was printed with support from Fordham College at Rose Hill and the Curran Center for Catholic Studies