Observer Issue 12 Fall 2018

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bserver

October 25, 2018 VOLUME XXXV, ISSUE 12

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Midterm Elections: Democrats, Reconsider Socialism GABRIEL SAMANDI Contributing Writer

With midterm elections coming up, politics are starting to take center stage in many Americans’ minds once again.

This particular election cycle has been especially publicized in the media; call it a facet of the “Trump Factor” if you’d like.

People are once again coming out of the woodwork to have their voices heard in a particularly virulent election cycle, and there is a high probability that we will see some major governmental changes moving forward.

Characteristic of our current political dialogue, there is much division expected between party lines this November. Both sides are angry, energized and ready to take more seats across the country. However, the Democratic party’s lack of a centralized message is particularly interesting, especially looking forward to 2020. Instead of working on a national platform, Democrats by-and-large seem to be targeting their local constituencies promising “real change that works.”

In fact, the only major link between Democratic candidates across the U.S. is the idea that they are anti-Trump. While that strategy certainly works for most of their base right now, Democrats cannot continue to keep their rhetoric so negative and directionless going forward.

It’s all too easy to stoop to the level of President Trump when it comes to political rhetoric, but there is untapped potential in social moderates’ desire for a return to political normalcy. see SOCIALISM pg. 5

COLIN SHEELEY/THE OBSERVER

Fordham’s first ever drag show was met with criticism from conservative forces outside the university.

Petitions Duke It Out Over Drag Show

By KEVIN CHRISTOPHER ROBLES Asst. Arts & Culture Editor

On Wednesday, Oct. 10, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) launched a petition, which reached over 13,000 signatures, to stop the drag show hosted by the Rainbow Alliance and Fashion for Philanthropy clubs at Fordham Lincoln Center (FLC).

On Saturday, Oct. 13, a group of Fordham University alum-

ni created a counter-petition to show support for both Fordham’s LGBTQ students and for the student drag show. To that effect, the show occured without incident on Friday, Oct. 19, despite fears of a potential protest from members of TFP Student Action, the organization’s university outreach.

The counter-petition campaigns for “Rams to join us in enthusiastically and unequivocally supporting LGBTQ Month

at Fordham by signing [the] petition.” In addition, they hope to use the counter-petition as a springboard to raise funds for Fordham LGBTQ groups like PRIDE Alliance and Rainbow Rams.

The team behind the counter-petition had learned about the TFP petition when it was linked to an online discussion forum frequented by Fordham alumni.

Joe Campagna, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’15, came up

with the idea of launching the counter-petition in order to show solidarity in the face of TFP. “It started very much as an organic thing,” Campagna said.

“There was this immediate sense that we wanted to do something that would unify the Fordham community and that we could use this debacle and turn it into something good rather than a dark day for Fordham.” see PETITIONS pg. 2

Rainbow Alliance and Fashion for Philanthropy Host Drag Show

By MARINA VERGARA Contributing Writer

“Fordham did not know what they were getting into when they accepted my application.”

- Rosie “Ram This” Hill

MATTHEW LABARBERA/THE OBSERVER

Fordham’s first ever drag show smashed gender norms.

NEWS

RHA Needs Voices

OPINIONS

Celebrity Opinions

Student Association calls for gener- Not allowed, ever. (Don’t worry, al participation. we’re joking).

PAGE 6 PAGE 2

It’s unlikely that Fordham could have foreseen him hosting the university’s first ever drag show when they admitted Jack Bugbee, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’19, president of Rainbow Alliance and queen Rosie “Ram This” Hill. Nevertheless, in Bugbee’s final fall semester, Fordham celebrated this student-run event, providing a space for its students to be totally and wholeheartedly themselves.

On Oct. 19, the show came to life. Wigs flew, death drops ig-

nited cheers from the audience and five-inch pumps smashed gender norms with each queen and king’s effortless strut. Pope Auditorium had a full house: students, administrators and friends alike came out to share the love, to support their LGBTQ brothers and sisters and to celebrate the art of drag.

Drag, in its most mainstream form, features cisgender men (typically those in the LGBTQ community) who dress to exaggerate femininity, playing into stereotypical female gender roles. It isn’t limited to a specific gender identity or sexual orientation, however. As noted by drag historian Joe E. Jeffreys, “Drag is everybody’s art form.”

The art has transcended the gender binaries it questions and

critiques. Drag includes queens, kings, bio-queens (a cisgender woman impersonating a drag queen), androgyny and more.

Furthermore, drag isn’t just about the clothes, makeup and wigs — it’s a performance art.

Drag combines fashion, comedy and entertainment to create an artform that celebrates individuality and authenticity. It’s a form of self-expression and freedom for a community too often oppressed for who they love and who they are.

Originating from 17th century pantomime and vaudeville, drag found its home within the LGBTQ community in the mid1900s and has been an important aspect of its history ever since. see DRAG SHOW pg. 12

ARTS & CULTURE

FEATURES

SPORTS & HEALTH

Resparking a Catholic schoolgirl’s imagination.

Learn about the new e-board and their goals for the year.

Check out FLC’s Pre-Med program, through the eyes of Steve Howard.

Heavenly Bodies PAGE 14

BSA Off Hiatus PAGE 17

THE STUDENT VOICE OF FORDHAM LINCOLN CENTER

Pre-Med Profile PAGE 19

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News

October 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

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Residence Hall Association Calls for Student Voices

By ZANE AUSTILL Contributing Writer

On Sept. 26 at 9:30 p.m., students started to arrive at McMahon 109 for the year’s first Residence Hall Association (RHA) meeting, yet the door was still closed. Members of the e-board tried to hold the door open with a splintered wooden stop, but the stop kept slipping, barring entrance to the room. This problem extends to an existential challenge for RHA: What is the best way to ensure student voices are heard?

RHA President Minna Suh, Gabelli School of Business (GSB) ’20, reflected on the the organization’s mission. “The RHA is here for all students,” she said.

“We want to be a voice for their concerns and needs.”

At the first meeting, two overheard comments summed up the night.

“I didn’t know there’d be pizza,” one attendee said.

“What is this about anyway?” another asked.

By the end of the night the executive board explained the purpose of RHA, their various initiatives for the year and their many services. Generally speaking, RHA covers issues on campus dealing with dorm buildings, residential life policies, dining facilities and campus events.

On a small scale (or maybe a large scale depending on one’s desire to see “A Star is Born”), RHA sells movie tickets for $11 and offers opportunities for students to purchase Broadway tickets through the Theater Thursday Raffle. RHA is also responsible for organizing community events on campus.

In terms of larger projects, RHA helps to support the B+ Foundation, which strives to end pediatric cancer. At Fordham, this means a year-long, campus-wide effort through various mentorship programs and fundraising events. Students can volunteer

COURTESY OF YUNUEN CHO/THE OBSERVER

RHA holds events to enrich student residential life and encourages students to make their voices heard.

as “heroes” who spend time with children diagnosed with cancer.

The fundraising efforts will top off with the Fordham Dance Marathon next semester.

Despite these other services, a primary concern for many is enacting change on residential policies. The Guest and Visitation Policy has been the primary focus of RHA’s efforts in recent years. The controversial policy currently restricts students from hosting overnight guests of the opposite sex. This fall, RHA and the Office of Residential Life reached a compromise which curbed the zero-tolerance policy violation fee, though many students still feel that other aspects need to change.

For any sort of change to occur, RHA needs students’ voices, Suh said. “The more evidence,

the better.”

On that first meeting, in a packed room, voices were powerful. At the second meeting two weeks later, however, the turnout was less hopeful. No pizza was promised. Only nine students attended. Attendees went around the room and shared the screensavers on their phones as an icebreaker while waiting for other students who never arrived. The highlights included a grandma in a rocking chair, a boyfriend still sleeping and a cheeky cat.

The new Advocacy Coordinator Vasilios Livanos, GSB ’21, addressed his goals for the year: continue working with the university towards a guest policy regulation revision. Livanos’ job as an advocacy coordinator is to facilitate a conversation between the student body and the Ford-

ham administration. RHA wants to work with Fordham, Livanos said, rather than against them.

Katie Gleason, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22, believes that “a reasonable compromise makes sense, but I don’t know if the students and the administration have the same definition for what a reasonable compromise would be.”

In an email sent to the student body on Oct. 4, RHA stated: “Our Advocacy Coordinator will be continuing work with our advocacy representatives to make progress on our Guest Pass Policy Initiative and other important matters.”

Livanos declined to comment further on the policy.

At the end of the meeting, the e-board took questions from the attendees. When asked how the

student body should go about enacting change, the board answered plainly: more presence at the general body meetings.

There were no further questions. There were no further comments. The meeting lasted less than 10 minutes.

If students cannot attend the Wednesday meetings, there are suggestion boxes posted in the McKeon Hall laundry room and in McMahon Hall outside of the RHA office. Additionally, an anonymous digital suggestion form is available through email.

At the first meeting, during a pause, a student raised their hand and asked, “Has anyone ever thought about putting printers in the res hall?”

A chorus of applause followed.

“We can put that on the agenda,” Suh said with a smile.

Fordham Alumni Organize Counter-Petition In Support of LGBTQ Students PETITION FROM PAGE 1

Phil Fraietta, FCRH ’11, expressed his disgust with the TFP petition: “Just the idea that they would think that they have the right to silence members of the Fordham community really troubled me.”

Similarly, Melissa Ingala, FCRH ’15, said, “We felt that it was important to broadcast the support of students and recent alumni.” She mentioned the importance of Fordham’s Jesuit values and how she believed TFP’s petition violated them. “From the very moment you walk onto campus as a prospective student, the president and the administration are very much about the idea of Cura Personalis,” she said. “And we found that this petition was completely at odds with the culture of [the] campus and the ideals of Cura Personalis. We felt that it was important to reaffirm our roots in the Fordham community and that we treat our friends and colleagues with mutual understanding.”

David Emami, FCRH ’14, echoed these statements: “We all know bigotry exists and what’s shocking is to see it cloaked in the words of the Church. [They are] using the Catholic faith as a shield for bigotry.”

Mary Kate Cervin, FCRH ’15, is currently a religion teacher in Boston and is studying at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry. After Campagna started the petition, Cervin began spreading the word around social

media and other Fordham alumni about its existence. “My Jesuit values that I learned at Fordham instilled in me to be inclusive of all people and who they are through Cura Personalis,” she said. “They are taking something out of our religion, twisting it really badly and claiming for it to be genuine love for the person when they’re just being hateful towards the identity of the person.”

Having studied Catholicism extensively, she also gave a theological perspective on the issue: “I think that [TFP looks] at theology very black and white and Jesuits have always looked at theology and Catholicism as a gray matter, that we need to follow our conscience.”

James Demetriades, FCRH ’15, was the vice president of the PRIDE Alliance club for most of his time at Fordham. He explained that he had been bullied his freshman year for being gay, which provided him with a personal stake in making sure that LGBTQ students have a safe environment at Fordham. “The [TFP] petition is actively advocating for the suppression and oppression of a minority group,” he said. “I think Fordham has a responsibility to support all of its students and to provide spaces for all of its students. Fordham can both support students of faith and support LGBTQ students. They’re not mutually exclusive.”

“God created us all in His image and that includes our LGBTQ

ROXANNE CUBERO/THE OBSERVER

The drag show carried on under the threat of protest.

brothers and sisters,” Campagna said. “If we’re a Catholic university and we’re going to espouse that we were all created in the image of a loving God, then we’ve got to practice what we preach.”

John Ritchie, the director of TFP Student Action, explained his organization’s motive for the

petition: “Promoting a drag show for those tempted by a lustful lifestyle is like promoting drugs for those who suffer from drug addiction,” he said. “The pro-homosexual drag show is morally unacceptable. No Catholic campus should ever sponsor events that legitimize lifestyles that vi-

olate nature, deeply offend God and tear apart the moral fabric of authentic Catholic education.”

In addition, he spoke of his disdain for those behind the drag show and for the LGBTQ community at large: “To promote ‘pride’ for any sinful lifestyle cuts at the root of Catholic education, because St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that pride is an act of contempt for God. Pride is the sin of Lucifer.” He was also sure to note that history is on his side, saying, “For 2,000 years the Church has vanquished error and sin. Now it’s our turn to stand firm and renew our fidelity to the law of God and our devotion to the Magisterium of the Holy Catholic Church.”

Meanwhile, Campagna had only praise for those behind the drag show. “We think what they’re doing is terrific,” he said.

“We want them to know that they have our support and the support of a whole lot of Fordham Rams.”

Now, the goal of Campagna and his cohorts is to try to amass more signatures than the original petition. “TFP has an army of folks who are ready to sign every petition out there,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

Campagna and his team launched a GoFundMe page on Oct. 18 with three goals: to ensure that the drag show “is packed with Rams,” to raise $25,000 for LGBTQ organizations at Fordham and to show TFP “that inclusion and love unites people more than discrimination and exclusion.”

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER October 25, 2018

With New E-board, SOL Rises Again

By RUBY GARA News Editor

Though the sun set on Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) on Oct. 15, the Student Organization of Latinos (SOL) has risen with plans for its “revival” after emerging from its semester-long hiatus last spring.

Their mission as a student club has not changed — their constitution, signed in 2011, states that SOL “contribute[s] the opportunity to foster awareness for both the Fordham and Latino community with academic support, leadership, community involvement and awareness.”

Their e-board currently has six members and about 20-30 weekly attendees. This was not the case this past spring semester, when the club all but ceased to exist after two members of the e-board having graduated.

“The leadership from that point on was not a very effective one and things just kind of dissolved,” Maribel Molina, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’20, and president of SOL, said.

Prior to finals week last semester, Senior Director for Student Involvement Dr. Dorothy Wenzel and SOL Advisor Sandy Vargas held an information session on April 26 for students interested in helping with the club’s revival.

“For all of us there, it was more about trying to just be part of reviving a club that is much needed on campus rather than just being part of a leadership position,” Molina, who joined SOL her freshman year, said. She was appointed the president of SOL’s all-new

RUBY GARA/THE OBSERVER

SOL returns to campus after a semester-long hiatus to face new administrative and student body challenges.

e-board after the second information session.

“A couple of my friends who are also part of the e-board and I noticed that SOL wasn’t as active anymore on campus as it had been before,” she said. In addition to those students who had graduated, some students still on campus “weren’t able to work together.”

Molina spearheaded the revival of the group, despite the previous e-board not having prepared

a budget for the semester. “Our Mucho Gusto Mixer was a success,” she said. SOL also hosted an informational club meeting about “what Latinos have done in history and the role that many have had in our culture.”

The “You know you’re Latinx when…” tabling event was “another successful idea,” Molina said.

SOL is currently looking at ways to celebrate Dia de los Muertos on campus. While the details

of the event remain in question, Molina said the club wants to “share the importance and meaning of this tradition.” They hope to feature building an altar, as well as a paint-your-own Dia de los Muertos skull.

Other plans for the club’s revival include group outings to dance lessons and different Latin American restaurants, in addition to discussions about Latin American culture.

Similarly to Molino, Victoria Leahy, FCLC ’19, also joined SOL her freshman year before becoming a part of the new e-board last semester. As the current treasurer, Leahy specifically deals with budgeting and the necessary appeal forms. “With SOL, however, it is more collaborative,” she said.

“We want to make sure we all have our voices heard and that it’s not entirely up to one person for everything.”

The events will not be budgeted by the university this fall semester, due to the club’s inactivity last spring. Instead, they are funded by the Student Activities Budget Committee.

Reflecting on the presence of HHM at Fordham, Leahy said she hoped to see an academic discussion on topics such as immigration. “However, I do understand that Fordham has a lot on its plate,” she said. “With HHM occurring a few weeks into the beginning of the new fall semester, there’s a lot going on at Fordham — from attending to the freshman class’ needs to hosting events for prospective students … it is a lot.”

“The idea behind Hispanic Heritage Month is to celebrate the

News

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contributions that Latin and Hispanic individuals have brought to our history and culture, in addition to remembering those iconic and monumental figures, Leahy explained. In regards to next year, she thinks a bigger recognition of the month on campus is “definitely necessary.”

Alejandra Garcia, FCLC ’21, attended the first information session after seeing a flyer reaching out to students interested in being a part of the recently revived club.

“Even just that one meeting completely altered the way I felt at Fordham,” Garcia said. Knowing more students from different Latin countries made Garcia “more hopeful for this year,” due to the sense of community she now feels.

The SOL meetings are conversation-based, though they follow an agenda with topics they want to discuss. The ability to talk to students who can personally relate to her is what Garcia enjoys the most. “It’s a great space because people also get to talk about personal experiences that they probably wouldn’t feel comfortable sharing in predominantly white spaces, such as classrooms.”

According to Garcia, a better way to approach HHM on campus is to start a conversation about the more indigenous cultures, a topic she said is not discussed enough. “I also think reshaping the way the program happens is necessary, to be ultimately aware of the fact that HHM showcases certain things that non-Hispanics expect to see.”

Opinions

Opinions Editors Jordan Meltzer - jmeltzer3@fordham.edu Owen Roche - oroche2@fordham.edu October 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

THE

STAFF EDITORIAL

FORDHAM VS. 13,000 SIGNEES

T

he American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) boasts many “victories” on its website. From bullying the likes of Boston College, Georgetown and DePaul to taking down information relating to Planned Parenthood to policing “blasphemous” college art exhibits, TFP evidently prides itself in the long list of its perceived moral triumphs.

But on Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, it failed to chalk up another victory.

After nine days of uneasiness and 13,000 signatures on TFP’s petition to stop Fordham’s first ever drag show, the event went on. With a full house, the turnout was incredible. TFP, save for a sarcastic shout-out in the show’s program, was all but forgotten.

It would appear that, out of the thousands and thousands of angry self-professed Catholics that signed the petition and decried Jesuit values in a vitriolic comment section, none of them bothered to show up. They rallied against an event they would never see that was created by individuals they would never meet and held by a community they refused to understand. These

signatories had no real connection to Fordham University or the Lincoln Center campus.

Despite the hateful message and tone-deaf nature of the petition, the Fordham community let the drag show go on and is stronger than before.

“The perversion of Catholicism that clings fast to the church’s bigoted, ignorant and predatory past is not the ideology to which the Fordham community strives to adhere.”

The celebration of LGBTQ History Month on campus means more to many Fordham students than any petition signee will ever know. As Fordham struggles on in its mission for tolerance, October is a time to honor diversity, praise identity and feel at home on a campus that hasn’t always returned the favor.

Those quick to attack Fordham and invalidate the Jesuit

principles that shape the university only prove what we already knew: Fordham is not TFP. Those who live for others and see them for the whole person that they are do not put out hits on those they disagree with. The perversion of Catholicism that clings fast to the church’s bigoted, ignorant and predatory past is not the ideology to which the Fordham community strives to adhere.

In proclaiming various acts of LGBTQ pride on campus “anti-Catholic,” TFP sells itself out to the twisted traditions of Catholicism’s darkest side.

Fordham’s student body stands up to bullies, especially those who cower behind computer screens and broken theology.

We can debate who the better Christian is until the second coming, but we already know who the better people are.

TFP’s attempt to stop the Fordham Drag Show was a failure — a failure to understand, to empathize and to be true to the Catholic faith. Thirteen thousand signees tried to silence a voice of inclusion and support within a Jesuit institution, but the show went on.

And the turnout was incredible.

We’ll see you at next year’s drag show.

Photo Feature

OBSERVER Editor-in-Chief Colin Sheeley Managing Editor Izzi Duprey Business Manager Luis Navarro Layout Editor Sabrina Jen Asst. Layout Editors Esmé Bleecker-Adams Steph Lawlor News Editors Carmen Borca-Carrillo Ruby Gara Opinions Editors Jordan Meltzer Owen Roche Arts & Culture Editors Courtney Brogle Marielle Sarmiento Asst. Arts & Culture Editor Kevin Christopher Robles Features Editors Lindsay Jorgensen Jeffrey Umbrell Asst. Features Editor Gianna Smeraglia Sports & Health Editor Luke Osborn Social Media Editor Madison Leto Photo Editors Andrew Beecher Lena Rose Copy Editors Lulu Schmieta Sami Umani Visual Advisor Molly Bedford Editorial Advisor Anthony Hazell Comma Coordinators Tatiana Gallardo Cat Reynolds Alexandra Richardson Abby Wheat

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POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

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• Letters to the Editor should be typed and sent to The Observer, Fordham University, 140 West 62nd Street, Room G32, New York, NY 10023, or e-mailed to fordhamobserver@gmail.com. Length should not exceed 200 words. All letters must be signed and include contact information, official titles, and year of graduation (if applicable) for verification.

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THE OBSERVER October 25, 2018

Opinions

5

Redefining Socialism: Bringing Hope Back to the Democratic Platform SOCIALISM FROM PAGE 1

I’m not advocating for a particular candidate for the Democratic primary quite yet — it’s way too early to make that call, but I do think we need to start redefining the way in which the left is viewed in America.

The primary term that needs redefining is socialism.

The word typically brings to mind one of two things: a violent Marxist-Leninist society built on equal wealth distribution or a 70-something-year-old man with a thick Brooklyn accent shouting about a “revolution.” Arguments in favor of the economic system which is prevalent in Europe are often brushed off with a comment about socialism’s incompatibility with American lifestyles and a criticism of the individual foolish enough to even bring it up in the first place.

The truth is that America and socialist European countries have long been providing their citizens with the very same services. The difference is that America has constructed the means by which we gain access to these services — human rights of education, healthcare, housing, food and public safety — in such a way that, for many, social mobility is nearly impossible. Our society is built to keep people in the social spheres they were born in, from the laws surrounding business ownership to the price of a college degree.

Socialism as a concept neither implies nor encourages the redistribution of wealth in a society, contrary to what Fox News might tell you. Socialism, as it exists in the 21st century, is the government ownership of goods and services deemed necessary for a

society to function smoothly.

In countries across Europe from Germany to Sweden to Ireland, this is most typically achieved by having the federal government institute organizations to take charge of specific

We need to start redefining the way the left is viewed in America.

The primary term that needs a new definition is socialism. needs. America’s own strategy, created in the 1980s under the Reagan Administration, combines the use of official government bodies with private companies contracted to provide services on behalf of the U.S. The issue with America’s version of providing social services is that private companies that are owned by individuals are not motivated by altruism or a sense of service to the people. Instead, they are driven by profit margins and investment returns, motivations not inherently negative but undoubtedly problematic in the delivery of fundamental needs to a population.

Take the opioid epidemic, for instance. If government-owned organizations were in charge of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, the primary goal would be helping the thousands of Americans dying every month.

Instead, preserving human lives takes a backseat to making sure investors are happy. A dead father in Indiana is only part of a larger calculus that involves

stock returns, insurance rates, production costs and demand for medication. It should not be considered un-American to assert that private business should only capitalize on the wants and comforts of a society, not on the fundamental human rights of its people. It is not radical to believe that a government in the 21st century should provide for an individual’s basic needs if it can.

Unfortunately, our national political dialogue claims just that. And far too many people — particularly those on the right — lambaste socialists as “enemies of the state.” November presents us with a monumental opportunity to vote Democrats into office and begin working against the injustices imposed on Americans from the White House in the last two years. Between defending net neutrality to respecting the basic human rights of immigrants, it’s up to us, the young Americans concerned for the future of our country, to elect the kinds of Democrats who will reform the very systems that suppress so many young and working-class voters.

Unfortunately, the current Democratic platform as a whole does not endorse the socialization of private services on a meaningful scale, a strategy which could fundamentally change the systematic oppression of so many in our society.

This is exactly why the socialist undercurrents taking hold of voters right now are so important; here lies an opportunity to bring back hope to the Democratic Party.

There are socialist candidates ready to make the kind of changes we need to heal the gaping wounds brought about by

social stratification and identity politics. These are the candidates worth watching — and supporting — during this midterm cycle and into 2020.

The reason we should have so much confidence in the message of socialist candidates is simple: socialism at its fundamental level advocates for the social cohesion of America. And today, when it seems like the political stability of our country is deteriorating, a message of unity and mutual respect may be exactly what we need to begin rebuilding our political system into one we can be proud of.

It is not radical to believe that a government in the 21st century should provide for an individual’s basic needs if it can.

And frankly, there’s no better place than New York City for young, politically-minded individuals to invest in a socialist reform of the United States.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the veritable face of the modern socialist platform, is slated to win her congressional district in the Bronx and Queens by a landslide. She has run on a platform considered “far-left” for American politics, advocating for the forgiveness of student debt, abolishment of private prisons and accessible healthcare for all.

Running for Governor of New York on a very similar platform was Cynthia Nixon, a self-proclaimed socialist. She amassed

an impressive one-third of the vote running against incumbent Andrew Cuomo. All across New York State, socialists have galvanized to combat the far-right, but there is still a lot of fracturing among Democratic Party lines.

New York City has the potential to be the home of a new platform for the Democratic Party. With faces like Ocasio-Cortez, Nixon and Brooklyn native Senator Bernie Sanders, our city is ready to share with the country a new era of unity and acceptance in American politics: one that is needed now more than ever.

Our goal as college students should be to redefine the word “socialism” in our communities, both here at Fordham and at home. It is not nearly as scary or radical as many people in our country think, and it seems to be successful in New York. Socialist platforms that are based on the issues, not just the party, have a real chance at reshaping our country’s political outlook.

Instead of treating the word like a dirty, hurtful thing, “politics” can become the way by which we solve the problems in society. Let’s help people realize that public service is just that — a service for the public — not just a place for the elite to return on the investments of their financial backers.

All people in this country deserve a voice, and socialism advocates for exactly that. If we can redefine that word in this country, it can become a banner for the voiceless to rally behind.

We have the opportunity this November to reshape the political dialogue of this country, but that can only be done when the forgotten are heard. Let’s make sure they are.

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Opinions

October 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

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Metropolitan Trash Authority The MTA is Testing Our Patience

BRANDON SAPIENZA Staff Writer

They say that $2.75 can get you anywhere in the city. While that may be possible in a perfect world, it isn’t true in ours. Every weekday, 5.7 million people take a leap of faith and dive underground to one of the 472 subway stations across the five boroughs of New York City. Yet for all the use of the largest transit system in the world, the stations continue to look abandoned and dreary.

When trains finally do reach these sorry excuses for stations, they make it there on schedule just 58.1 percent of the time.

From the trains to the station to the actual infrastructure, the underground world of New York City isn’t a relief from the traffic above; it’s just another headache.

The subway being a mess isn’t a new problem. Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) issues plagued commuters in 1990, when overcrowding started to become an issue on many of the subway lines. Because of the increasing amount of trains running to accommodate, traffic became commonplace on the rails.

These trains are relying on signals so old that command operations overseeing the entire system can’t even pinpoint where exactly a train is located. This uncertainty affects important lines such as the B, D and F lines and poses a major threat to safety — trains are susceptible to collision, endangering lives and commutes alike. The trains themselves are old, with some of the cars operating on the A and C lines reminiscent of the

ones seen in the popular 1979 street gang movie “The Warriors.”

I have encountered these problems as a lifelong New Yorker and current commuting student. Just a few weeks ago, after leaving my house at 6:45 in the morning, I was stuck on the northbound D train on the Manhattan Bridge for over 45 minutes, which caused me to be over half an hour late to my 8:30 a.m. class. The best answer I heard as to why we were stuck came over the muffled intercom system, during which the conductor said there were signal problems a few stations ahead. Perhaps the fires for the smoke signals were not burning hot enough, or the string between the tin cans on either end of the tunnel had been severed.

The MTA loves to flaunt its shiny new stations, like the brand new one at Cortlandt Street-WTC, yet it continues to ignore decaying high-volume stations such as 34th Street and West 4th Street. On the R line, two stations of the 16 in all of Brooklyn were renovated over the past two years. The rest were left to rot.

There is no one to blame but Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo. Decades of upkeep on par with that of a cheap roadside motel — allowed by elected officials — has caused the current transportation catastrophe that millions of New Yorkers deal with daily.

More recently, de Blasio and Cuomo have gone back and forth over who has the ability and responsibility to control some of New York City’s most important departments such as the MTA and public housing, another neglected city program. Together, the two don’t even know who’s paying the $30 billion for the repairs that need to be made.

Mayor de Blasio said in August, “There is no way on God’s green earth the city of New York can pay a substantial amount of the MTA’s more than $30 billion subway repair plan.” Cuomo, who gave the MTA $8.6 billion, might as well have taken that money from thin air, as a report from the state comptroller’s office doesn’t indicate where these billions of dollars are coming from. The state has until the middle of the next decade to figure out how it is going to get the funds, which

means work on the repairs will not start for a long time.

Many politicians, including former Democratic gubernatorial primary candidate Cynthia Nixon, have made and continue to make the MTA a primary target of potential reform. Incumbent State Senator Marty Golden (R22), who is running for re-election, has made it his business to aggressively address the underperformance of the subway in his district, which has few subway options for commuters. He said to Street Blogs last week: “While the Governor made the opening of the three stations [in Manhattan] a major event, the reality is that the system is crumbling. The R line, which serves this district, is consistently rated as one of the poorest performing lines.” Golden continued, “The poor state of our transit system undermines our economy. Companies will not remain in New York City if the mass transit system continues to decline.”

Despite support from local politicians on both sides of the aisle, New Yorkers have seen the consequences of poor leadership manifest in their daily commute.

In nine years, MetroCard prices have gone up 75 cents and bridge tolls remain obscenely high; one crossing over the Verrazano Bridge to Staten Island costs a non EZ-Pass and non-Staten Island resident driver $17. MTA Chairman Joe Lhota also said in a NY Daily News report that there is no scenario in which fares would remain the same next year.

This means New Yorkers of all wealth brackets will continually have to pay more for late trains; smelly, dirty and unkept stations; and old trains in order to get to work.

Everyone involved with the MTA — including Mayor de Blasio, Governor Cuomo, MTA President Andy Byford and Chairman Joe Lhota — should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this horror of the tunnels to fester beneath our great city. They could hold as many town halls as they want, but by the end of it, commuters once again pay the price for their indifference. If they really cared, the subway wouldn’t be like this. New Yorkers like to complain, but even we have our limits. This is an embarrassment.

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THE OBSERVER October 25, 2018

Opinions

7

Give Shots a Shot GRACE GETMAN Contributing Writer

It is almost impossible to find a college student who is anti-vaccination. It is also almost impossible to find a college student who has gotten their flu vaccine this year.

The benefits of flu shots make this gap all the more confusing.

Naturally, vaccinated people are less likely to contract the flu. In cases where people do get the flu, several studies show that the vaccine reduces the severity of the illness. This prevents ICU visits, absences from class and runs to CVS to buy cough drops and Tamiflu. Finally, receiving the vaccine helps protect others from getting the flu through herd immunity.

So why don’t college students get their flu shot? I asked some of my friends why they hadn’t gotten their flu shot yet, and I heard many different excuses.

One such friend, Katie Gleason, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22, passionately defended herself in the dining hall.

“I’m not proud of this, but here’s the thing: In my experience it doesn’t change my likelihood of getting the flu. I haven’t gotten the flu shot in the past five years and only contracted it when I did get the shot. I just believe in myself and my immune system.”

Beyond the strength of Gleason’s immune system, the rationales of all the people I asked who hadn’t received their flu shots yet laid in three main categories: they claimed that they got the flu from the flu shot, they claimed they

didn’t need one because they’re healthy and they claimed that even if they wanted to get one, there’s nowhere they could do so.

All of these are false and are not good reasons to not get your flu shot.

So let’s break these down: Myth: You can get the flu from the vaccine.

Myth-busted: You can’t get the flu from the vaccine, as it’s made from an inactivated virus that cannot transmit the disease.

The vaccine does take two weeks to reach full effectiveness, however, so if you’re exposed to the flu beforehand or during those two weeks you can still get it.

Myth: You’re in your physical prime so you don’t need the vaccine.

Myth-busted: The flu can infect anyone, but even if you are in your peak physical fitness, getting the flu vaccine helps protect everyone else, especially on a college campus like ours where people are all crammed together and illness spreads quickly.

Myth: There’s nowhere to go to get your flu shot.

Myth-busted: There are four pharmacies — Walgreens on Broadway, CVS on 57th Street, Duane Reade on Amsterdam Avenue, and CVS on Columbus Avenue — where you can get your flu shot within five blocks of Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus, and

GRAPHIC BY STEPH LAWLOR

it is free under most insurance plans.

That’s your best bet, but you can also get a flu shot through Fordham Health Services (for $30 — shame on them).

With the ease and overwhelming benefits of getting a flu shot, it is appalling that more college students do not get the vaccine. Apathy and ignorance are not valid excuses.

Influenza is a serious disease with serious consequences.

Last year alone, multiple elementary schools were forced to temporarily shut down because their rate of infection was so high. As a result of flu-related infections, 30,453 people had to be hospitalized. Approximately 80,000 people died, including 183 children from the ages of one month to 17 years old.

These are real people, with real lives and real stories. The thing about the flu shot is that it actually works.

It provides benefits that stretch from the individual to the entire Fordham community and our nation.

We, even as college students, all have a civic duty to keep ourselves and our community safe by getting our flu shots, especially when it is so easy to do so in New York City. It’s literally around the corner, and, at a cost of zero dollars for the majority of students there’s no reason not to get vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend for people to get their flu shots by the end of October, so if you haven’t yet, please give it a shot.

SATIRE

Celebrities Should Not Have Opinions OWEN ROCHE Opinions Editor

I’m sorry, the old, apolitical Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh — because she’s a Democrat.

2009 was a simpler time. On Sept. 13, on national television, rapper Kanye West snatched the microphone from up-and-coming pop-country darling Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards and insisted that indeed, he would let her finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. It was delicious drama, a high-profile feud that would satisfy the population for months on end.

It’s 2018, and Swift and West are once again in the headlines.

No, West didn’t storm another stage to feed his fans’ appetites for zany antics (as of printing).

Swift didn’t rehash an old relationship for the public’s enjoyment, either. They did something worse: they voiced their opinions.

Worse yet — political opinions.

The fun’s over. Thanks Taylor, now the world knows you’re anything but red.

Nine short years from that fateful VMA broadcast, it’s clear that Taylor Swift’s recent endorsement of Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee has hit a nerve. Never mind that Kanye’s scarlet headgear habits as of late only bolster his reputation for erratic and inflammatory public statements. But we expected more from Taylor. Who could have imagined in their wildest dreams that the singer-songwriter would keep up with current events, much less formulate and express her rational, well-articulated views on politics?

A powerful and — worse yet — popular woman in America

EVA RINALDI VIA FLICKR

I knew Swift was trouble when she presented an opposing view from mine. Now we’ve got bad blood.

thinks she has the right to weigh in on the state of the nation? This is why we can’t have nice things.

Reception of Swift’s brazen partisanship has been rightfully chilly. President Trump has been confirmed to listen to her music a whopping 25 percent less because of it, moving her hit “22” down at least eight spots on his Golf Jams playlist. “Getaway Car” on Putin’s personal mixtape gets skipped almost every time, per top White House sources. Scathing treatment on the national stage, but warranted — there was a delicate balance in the entertainment world, and Swift has created major bad blood with her refusal to be completely ignorant of

local elections and the American two-party system.

How can we restore order and reestablish the blank space between artists with opinions and the rest of us? Where is our savior, Kanye West, to wrench the microphone away from Swift once more?

At a nationally televised meeting with the president, of course.

Just when the world thought West had decided to stick to tattered thousand-dollar cardigans and funky footwear, he’s treated us to a madcap red cap rodeo with the promise of a presidential campaign in 2024 — letting Trump finish a potential second term, true to form. Trump supporters

loved it; critics were quick to criticize. In the end, however, Kanye was just wasting the president’s executive time.

Don’t be fooled — it’s not just the controversial duo spouting their personal views like anyone cares; even more artists have jumped on the ridiculous express-how-you-feel-about-current-events bandwagon. Chance the Rapper recently endorsed a political candidate in his hometown of Chicago, Amara Enyia, for mayor — a move as audacious as it is unprecedented for the artist that has been known to shy away from any sort of community involvement whatsoever. He’s not Chance the Sociopolitical Advo-

cate, after all.

Where has this plague of celebrity endorsement come from?

Everyone except the President of the United States of America must very reasonably have a seasoned background in politics before they open their mouths. It only makes sense that we leave the big decisions and political endorsements to the experts. Would you really want a singer telling you who you should support in the next election? A rapper? To the blue collar, salt-of-the-earth families of America, their trust in pale, pudgy politicians in expensive suits is well placed.

What’s that? Donald Trump is a celebrity, too? Impossible — NBC has no plans to bring back his show, the failing Celebrity Apprentice. Our president won the election without the crutches of star power or cheap persuasion tactics, and he governs with the same disdain for spectacle. Ask anyone who agrees with him; they’ll tell you the same thing: His opinion matters.

People with power whose views I don’t agree with using their platform to push personal beliefs is shameless and counterproductive to our democracy.

Celebrities getting fearless about their political views must stop.

It’s time to put an end to beloved contemporary icons sticking their noses where they don’t belong.

You can keep your two cents, Taylor — all we care about is your music. And not even 75 percent as much as we used to.

Taylor, would you please return to your roots and be an impartial, oblivious music maker that never leaves the house? I wish you would. Artists, personalities, Instagram influencers, take note: Americans and political consciousness are never, ever getting back together.

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Opinions

October 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

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Fordham Is Better Than You Think It Is KEVIN CHRISTOPHER ROBLES Asst. Arts & Culture Editor

There’s been a lot of talk recently about Fordham’s place in the rankings.

It’s a scary word, sounding as if the numbers that some websites attribute to a specific college are the end-all and be-all of the value of that school. In a Sept. 10 email, University President Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., opined about these very same rankings, expressing his disappointment in Fordham’s dwindling rank yet reaffirming his belief that this Jesuit institution is one that “offers its students a world-class education characterized by intellectual rigor and care for the whole person.”

Fordham has a certain reputation among some of its students that is not exactly golden. It is possible, however, that the very act of attending this school may skew our perspective of Fordham’s actual quality. McShane is right: the numbers aren’t everything.

I was once a doubter of Fordham myself. I did not particularly enjoy the fact that I went to this school. Having grown up in New York City, it was difficult for me to see the value of staying in the same place I’d lived in for so many years, and Fordham represented to me something of a prison; a cage rather than a cocoon. Still, not everything is as it seems.

Allow me to share with you an experience I’ve had which has put my views on our institution in clearer focus.

Over the summer, I went to the

SARAH TAKASH/THE OBSERVER

Reclaim the Ram — root for Fordham.

National Jesuit Student Leadership Conference (NJSLC) along with a number of students from Fordham. Representatives from all 28 schools in the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities were present. A different member of the association hosts NJSLC every year, and this year it was hosted at LeMoyne College up in Syracuse, NY. The conference’s main theme was “collaborative leadership.”

This was an opportunity to learn from our Jesuit-educated brothers

and sisters about the ways that their colleges and universities operated, mostly through lectures held by the students themselves.

It was an excellent conference by most measures and there was no shortage of memorable moments.

The most pivotal of those moments for me might seem a fairly innocuous one. I was approached by a pair of students from one of the other colleges who, during lunch, asked me if I knew where the salad bar was. I pointed them in the right direction and joined

Meetings at 5:30 p.m. on Mondays in LL902

them in the line, making smalltalk along the way. They asked me where I went to school; I told them that I went to Fordham in New York City.

“Oh,” one of them said to the other. “He’s one of the smart ones.”

Never in our little sphere of NYC schools do students from Fordham ever characterize themselves as “smart” or particularly exceptional.

It was a completely normal conversation that those two

students must have forgotten a few moments after getting their salads, but that line remained fixed in my brain. “He’s one of the smart ones.” It made me realize that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way that we perceive ourselves as a school.

It made me realize that being in NYC means everyone who doesn’t go to NYU or Columbia ends up comparing themselves to NYU and Columbia. And it made me realize that, outside of our echo chamber, people actually see Fordham as a good school.

I began to notice all of the other schools in attendance, ones I had ignored or not thought of very much. St. Louis University, with its astonishingly well-run student government; Creighton University, the hidden gem of the Midwest whose students were intensely gung-ho about sharing their experiences; Xavier University, whose students kept urging us to visit Ohio, “the greatest state in the Union”; and LeMoyne itself, which, in addition to its beautiful campus and excellent pizza, boasts the very first female president of a Jesuit college, a fact of which its students are very proud.

Something weird happened at NJSLC — something very unexpected. I started to see Fordham as part of a greater whole, started to see its unique attributes and little idiosyncrasies brought to light.

Oddly enough, yes, I became proud to go to Fordham.

Fordham is better than you think — you just have to escape its echo chamber.

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THE OBSERVER October 25, 2018

Opinions

9

Virginia: Ground Zero for a Possible Blue Wave?

PATRICK RIZZI Staff Writer

If the Democrats are to retain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate on Nov. 6, they will have to appeal to diverse constituencies all over the country. Voting habits of individual congressional districts are more polarized than ever; some of this is due to gerrymandering while another part is due to the increasingly polarized political climate in this country. There are many states and localities deemed by politicos to be possible microcosms of the 2018 midterm elections. That said, those interested in understanding the effects of the midterm elections should look to my home state, Virginia.

Virginia was once a solid Republican state, but it went blue in 2008, a presidential election year, for the first time in recent memory. Since then, the only statewide victory for the GOP was the election of Bob McDonnell, a staunchly conservative but not necessarily out of the mainstream candidate for governor, whose electoral victory helped fan the flames of the Tea Party movement. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won Virginia by an even greater margin than Barack Obama did in 2008 and 2012. Northern Virginia — which tends to be diverse, affluent and educated — is very liberal and has become increasingly so in the Trump era. Some traditionally Republican-leaning parts of Virginia are now competitive in the midterms.

How could this be, and what can Democrats learn from them?

Let’s look at Virginia’s 7th Congressional district, which is an interesting case study to analyze as we go into the midterms.

Virginia’s 7th district is a Republican-leaning (R+6) district that consists primarily of Richmond’s affluent northern and western suburbs as well as rural areas to the north of the region. The district extends to the Spotsylvania area, near Fredericksburg. The statistics for this district show that it is quite affluent (median income of $73,580) and not especially racially diverse (71.65 percent white).

While the 7th District is a conservative district to a certain extent, it seems that voters in the district may be souring on today’s Trump-led Republican Party. Mitt Romney won this district by 15 points in 2012, but Trump only won it by six in 2016.The 7th District’s current representative

PHOTO VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Those interested in understanding the effects of the midterm elections should look to my home state, Virginia. is Dave Brat, a Tea Party-style Republican and member of the House Freedom Caucus. He won a shocking upset when he challenged Eric Cantor in a primary

in 2014.

At a time when voters are increasingly irate with the dysfunction in Congress, Brat’s hard-right rabble-rousing is in the spotlight. While much of the staunchly conservative GOP base in the district is pleased with him, most others wish they were represented by a more pragmatic and less ideological voice.

Enter Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate for House of Representatives in the district. Spanberger has an exceptional professional background, headlined by her time as a CIA operative. She is running on a traditional center-left platform that is able to speak to both solidly Democratic voters in the district as well as independents and some moderate Republicans. Her campaign website lists detailed positions on various issues of considerable importance to the district. However, it seems that she views her desire to work across the aisle and try to restore a sense of sanity to politics as main selling points to voters in VA-07. She has also had excellent results raising money, raking in

nearly three times as much in donations last quarter than the incumbent Brat.

Meanwhile, as a Freedom Caucus member, Brat is stuck in an awkward position: having to appeal to his ultra-conservative, pro-Trump caucus and base while feeling intense discontent from others upset at his ideological rigidity. Since most Freedom Caucus members come from conservative districts, few understand the feeling of possibly having to moderate their political stances.

Further, the race between Brat and Spanberger has tightened considerably. This contest is unique not just to Virginia, but also to the entire country because of the unique question it poses: Can Democrats win if they can hold the ideological center of the political spectrum in addition to the Democratic base? This question poses a unique strategy that could possibly be used by Democrats in red districts around the country. While progressive Democrats may be concerned at other members of their party attempting to hold the political center, it should be noted that most of these “red but not overwhelmingly red” districts likely do not have many staunchly progressive voters.

The Democratic Party’s soul still seems to be in somewhat of an ideological battle. Does it identify most strongly with liberal centrism? Traditional liberalism? Progressivism? Something in between? Yet if the party can win on somewhat unfriendly turf like Virginia’s 7th Congressional district, their voters may be able to have their cake and eat it too.

How the Kavanaugh Hearings Turned Sexual Assault into a Political Agenda SAMANTHA VOGEL Contributing Writer

It’s 2018, nearly 100 years after women gained suffrage in America, and we are still fighting the battle of gender inequality. In this case, we’re dealing with a man’s word against a woman’s. On Saturday, Oct. 6, the Senate confirmed Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh as a justice for life despite the multiple allegations of sexual assault against him, in a 50-48 vote.

As a young woman in the United States, this is infuriating and disturbing. The idea that such a man can sit on the Supreme Court bench for life disheartens me. I am disappointed in our country. I am angry. I am upset. But, unfortunately, I am not surprised.

We claim we are learning. We claim we are growing. We claim progress is linear and we are moving forward. 20 years ago, before the #MeToo movement, before Time’s Up and before women came forward saying “no more,” the same injustice against women occurred. It was a man’s word against a woman’s.

His word won when Anita Hill came forward accusing Clarence Thomas, and man’s word has now won again.

This case is not a question of partisan politics, but it has been labeled as such. Both parties are equally guilty in using this case to advance their political

MOBILUS IN MOBILI VIA FLICKR

Women have protested Kavanaugh’s confirmation since Ford’s accusations first surfaced.

agendas, and that is disturbing. Not only is sexual assault a highly sensitive subject, it is also a highly personal one. For Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, to agree to share her testimony — televised in front of the world with millions watching — is a remarkable sign of courage.

Yet the problem with this case — and, ultimately the problem facing our country — is partisan mentalities.

Ford’s case was not political. It was a case of morals. Yet Republicans used the case to suggest the the Democrats were

trying to undermine them, “paying” Ford to testify to prevent another conservative from getting seat on the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Democrats used the case to point a finger and use Ford’s story to prevent Kavanaugh’s confirmation and another conservative seat on the bench.

Now, I’m not saying this is true of all Democrats or all Republicans. My point is not to address the bitterness of party polarization in America. Rather, I want to address the topic of Ford’s testimony: sexual assault.

I believe Ford. I believe her not

just because she came forward.

She didn’t want to testify, and I don’t blame her. I believe her because she agreed to relive her traumatic experience on live television. I believe her because sexual assault is traumatic, it’s personal and it’s not something a survivor wants the world to know about.

This case is about how our country deals with sexual assault, or, rather, how it doesn’t.

This case reflects the cyclical cycle in American history. How time and time again, after progressive “milestones” in wom-

en’s rights and our treatment of women, we still allow the same mistreatment and demonization of women to occur.

When women challenge the men in power in America, they are ignored. They are labeled capricious, emotional, untrustworthy. Their word is not weighed the same as the word of a man with a governmental title. This is exactly why we should believe women who come forward — particularly against those in power — because we cannot allow ourselves to live in a world where a man with a title is untouchable. We have to allow a platform, and encourage, every woman to come forward, to share their story. To let them know they are heard and their words are valid.

The way Ford’s testimony was treated by the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as our president, was reprehensible. Sexual assault is not political, and our government should not treat it as such. We turned Ford’s case into politics, putting agenda above ethics.

I ask all the Senators who voted to confirm Kavanaugh to think about their children, and if applicable, their daughters. If it was your daughter who was sexually assaulted, would you have voted differently? Would you believe her? Would you want the man she accused sitting in the highest role of political power?

Would you have made her case about your political agenda? I dare say you would.

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Arts

October 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

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The How-To’s of Halloween: Your D.I.Y. Guide 5

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By MAY MOISEEVA Staff Writer Even in the midst of the usual October study rush, we mustn’t forget about the sweetest holiday of all: Halloween. With the spooky day just around the corner, lots of people are stocking up on candy to satiate their inner six-year-old, and if you’re one of them — you do you! But if you crave sweets that will make you feel like a creature of the night, here are some recipes for you to try out for Halloween.

mum cupc

Quick note: Baking from scratch often requires a mixer. If you don’t have access to one, you can alternate between a strong whisk and your hands, but it might be more challenging.

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

1 box of cookies with at least one side covered in chocolate (Digestives, Fudge Stripes, etc.)

1 bag of Hershey’s kisses 1 bag of icing (store-bought or homemade)

2 sticks butter

These are hassle-free treats to make if you are overwhelmed with things to do but still want to make Halloween season count. Simply take a cookie chocolate-covered side up and a Hershey’s kiss. Pipe some icing at the bottom of the chocolate and stick it to the center of the cookie. Then pipe a line along the bottom of the kiss and make a bow or a square for the buckle. Let the icing set and enjoy.

Witches’ Hats PHOTOS BY ANDREW BEECHER, EMMA SEIWELL & MAY MOISEEVA

1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1 cup pumpkin puree ½ cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2-3 teaspoons pumpkin spice ½ teaspoon baking powder Mini chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. First, beat softened butter with sugar until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Add pumpkin puree, vanilla extract and milk; mix until the batter is creamy. Mix flour, baking powder and spices in a separate container, then beat into the batter until it is as smooth as you wish you were when talking

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THE OBSERVER October 25, 2018

By COURTNEY BROGLE Arts & Culture Editor

Halloween is right around the corner and you know what that means — lots of sugar and lots of spooks. That being said, it’s no secret that Halloween festivities can add up quickly, especially for students who want to have fun without going over-budget. Luckily, through the magic of imagination, dorm supplies and Pinterest, you can rock Halloween in style and keep your bank account happy.

1. Studious Scientist

or STEM majors and the creative-minded alike, grab a lab coat from your closet or a pre-med major’s , a measuring cup beaker and some business casual wear for a cool scientist costume. Be as relaxed or as any as you want. Props are your friend here. ou can either don a pair of glasses and a beaker, or use a pair of goggles and or gloves and rock a messy hair-do for a more mad scientist interpretation.

2. Cozy Cactus

alling all plant parents: if you want the world to know how much you love your succulents and cactuses, grab a plain green sweater and a handful of disposable coffee stirrers which can be found at Argo Tea and the am afe if you don’t have any handy in your room . Break the stirrers in half; bend them in half again but don’t separate the pieces from one another. epending on the texture of your sweater, the snapped piece of the stirrer should catch itself in the knitting.

If not, some ra y glue will de nitely do the trick. Be sure to attach all around the sweater and add tissue paper flowers to your hair or sweater for more detail. Wear brown or tan bottoms to give the illusion that you’re a potted cactus.

3. Black Bat

Why be a cat when you can be a bat? In addition to wearing an all-black out t, make a set of wings with a black garbage bag from the kitchen. old the bag in half and cut out scalloped ends on a diagonal away from the folded edge. epending on the length of your trash bag, you may need to repeat the process to make your second wing. lue both bags together with ra y glue, fasten hair ties or rubber bands on each end to hold them up by your wrists and safety pin the middle of the wings to the nape of your shirt. ou can use the scraps from the initial cuts to make a headband for bat ears, or you can rock a space bun hair-do.

mmy cakes

4. Yourself as a Sims Character

Turn yourself into a beloved video game character with only two tools: green paper and a headband. Wear whatever you think your character would wear, and follow any online template to create a plumbob the trademark green triangle above a character’s head . lue the diamond to a headband and you will be speaking Simlish in no time.

5. Radical Rosie the Riveter

elebrate denim and feminist iconography this Halloween in an homage to osie the iveter. Pair some skinny jeans and a denim top with a set of combat boots, and nish the look with a vintage updo, bandana, and swipe of red lipstick. Make sure to get some pictures of the signature muscle pose osie strikes in her poster.

6. Fordham Public Safety Officer

Put a quirky flair on a traditional cop security guard costume with a nod to ordham’s nest. Along with a white dress shirt, tie and slacks, sling a ordham lanyard on your neck and carry around your student I . or added laughs, mess with your friends and ask to see their I s throughout the night.

7. One of Snow White’s Seven Dwarves Looking for a unique group costume elebrate the classic isney lm and dress up as one of the seven dwarves. rab a colorful oversi ed sweater cinched with a large belt , plain black leggings and a slouchy beanie for the basic ensemble.

To identify members of the group, write out your character’s name on a paper plate and wrap it around your neck with a piece of string or dental floss.

8. A Fordham Ram

Show some major school spirit by rocking a ram ensemble this Halloween. sing a spare Ama on box, cut out a series of cardboard circles and glue them with some overlap to make the horn rings. Once dried, fasten them to a headband or bobby pin them into your hair.

Wear a mostly tan or cream ensemble and don’t forget to blacken your nostrils and upper lip with black eyeliner to give a cuter effect to the look. And when in doubt, rock an all-maroon ordham ensemble to give a less-literal am out t.

to your crush. Pour into muf n liners or reusable cups and bake for minutes. An easy test to see if they are done is to poke through one with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out dry, the cupcakes are done.

If you want to make your own cream cheese frosting, use one-half stick of butter, ounces cream cheese, teaspoon vanilla extract and cup of confectioners’ sugar adjust to taste . Mix all together and put in a pastry bag. If you don’t want to spend money on a pastry bag, put the frosting in a plastic bag and cut off one corner. or a pastry bag, a flat no le is best to use for the mummies. To decorate, pipe intersecting stripes of frosting on the lower half of the cupcake. Then pipe two to four lines at the top and make two circles in the oval between the strand. Put one mini chocolate chip in each eye — and you have your very own mummy army.

Witches’ Fingers Ingredients: Whole almonds 2 cups flour 1 cup confectioners’ sugar 2 sticks butter 1 egg

1 teaspoon almond extract ½ teaspoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt Red decorating gel

Beat together softened butter and egg; when the mixture is equal, beat in sugar and almond extract. ombine the flour, salt and baking powder and slowly beat into the original mixture. or extra creepiness, divide the dough into two batches and color them green, blue and or purple. efrigerate for half an hour. Preheat oven to degrees ahrenheit. orm the dough into long stripes resembling ngers, press an almond as a ngernail into each. To make it appear more nger-like, squee e the nger a little just below where the rst and second knuckles would be and use a sharp knife to cut three stripes in the middle knuckle. ree e or refrigerate for minutes after shaping. Bake for - minutes or until they start to brown at the edges. Take some red decorating gel and put a little under each almond, then press the almond back to create the appearance of blood under nails.

Arts

11

Arts & Culture Editors Courtney Brogle - cbrogle@fordham.edu Marielle Sarmiento - msarmiento3@fordham.edu

Arts & Culture

October 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

Fordham’s First Ever Drag Show Rainbow Alliance and Fashion for Philanthropy raise over $500 for LGBTQ Community Center DRAG SHOW FROM PAGE 1

Rainbow Alliance and Fashion for Philanthropy brought Fordham’s first ever drag show to life under the leadership of Bugbee and Nicole Shapiro, FCLC ’19.

These two clubs came together to celebrate LGBTQ History Month, drag culture, queer culture and to give back to the LGBTQ community. Over $500 in donations were collected during the show and sent to the LGBT Community Center of NY. Bugbee and Shapiro first connected via shared French classes. Once they were presidents of their respective clubs, they saw an opportunity to work together to create something new and unique. So Rainbow Alliance and Fashion for Philanthropy joined forces and embraced the intersectionality of LGBTQ history, fashion, entertainment and philanthropy. Out of this bond, the drag show bloomed.

Despite Fordham University’s Catholic background, the event was approved just like any other, according to Shapiro. “The Fordham administration understands that the LGBTQ movement is present and necessary,” she said.

“Many students identify with this community and it’s an amazing to see a considerably conservative institution acknowledge and empower them.”

Bugbee hopes that the drag show inspired students to “engage in difficult, nuanced and complicated discussion about how drag affects the perceptions

On Oct. 19, the show came to life. Wigs flew, death drops ignited cheers from the audience and fiveinch pumps smashed gender norms with each queen and king’s effortless strut.

MATTHEW LABARBERA/THE OBSERVER

Drag King Just Kyle reads a letter written by the Rainbow Alliance e-board addressing the issues around drag, including transphobia.

of queer people and perceptions of gender.” He and Shapiro built an event that not only entertained, but fostered love, compassion and conversation.

At the show, I felt this love.

As I picked up my “Gaybill,” I couldn’t help but smile. I knew that in this space, I was accepted for who I was. I knew that who I love would not be condemned here. I knew that this was my family, my lovely, gay family, all here empowering and celebrating one another. There was not a square inch of Pope Auditorium that did not contain endless amounts of life and color.

The audience and performers felt this love as well. Roxanne

Cubero, FCLC ’22, said she “felt [it] in her chest.” Queen Lia Anna Thief, a.k.a. Vincent DeSeno, FCLC ’21, had the entire audience laughing with her brilliantly honest and authentic stand-up comedy; she truly captured the humor in millenial gay culture.

As Margeaux, John Beltre FCLC ’18, captivated the audience from start to finish. As the wind blew through Margeaux’s silky champagne skirt, the crowd erupted in cheers. She was more than a drag queen, she was a goddess.

Cristina Pardo, FCLC ’19, enjoyed her time at the drag show.

“Everyone was just so hyped to be [there] and that made it ten times better,” she said. The ex-

citement radiated from the audience the entire night; the soldout theater clung to every word queen Coincoin, Wayne C. Babineaux, FCLC ’20, said.

During her performance, Coincoin told the stories of the silenced and sang the unfiltered truth, as she recalled America’s long history of slavery and racism.

Claire Holmes, FCLC ’19, said that she “loved seeing so many younger Fordham students here.”

Coming from a very religious and conservative background, Holmes was encouraged by amount of support she saw for the show. The great turnout was reassuring, especially after the

petition condemning this drag show by the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) gained over 13,000 signatures. Despite the hate demonstrated by the group, the Fordham community was resilient and stood united. The love from our fellow LGBTQ students and allies is so much stronger than the hate we face.

Drag king Just Kyle, Ky Hayward, FCLC ’21, relayed Rainbow Alliance’s message of the necessity to acknowledge the presence of all identities within the ever-growing LGBTQ and drag communties. “Gender identity and gender expression are not costumes,” he said.

How to Fall into Autumn for First Time New Yorkers

By MARIA HAYAKAWA Contributing Writer

Enjoy a pleasant, tasty cup of a pumpkin spice latte (PSL) at Cha Cha Matcha (373 Broome St.). They have delicious PSLs, only for this Fall is finally upon us which means sweater time of the year. They also have great matcha drinks and pastries. weather, pumpkin everything, Halloween and beautiful hues of red and orange everywhere. I have enjoyed fall in New York City for a little over 18 years now and each year it’s an enjoyable and electrifying time. For many people, it is their first autumn in the city, so here are nine activities to do during the fall season that won’t break the bank and are perfect for New Yorkers.

Take a detour to Van Cortlandt Manor right by the riverside a little north of Westchester and enjoy a myriad of intricate and beautiful pumpkins displayed at the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze.

Filled with almost 7,000 pumpkins, soak up all the Halloween spirit here.

Travel downtown on Oct. 31 to Greenwich Village to watch the Halloween parade. Come watch the parade to see marvelous and ghoulish costumes while taking in all the Halloween spirit.

Take a stroll on the Highline which is a wonderful floating park and used to be an old train line in the Meatpacking District. Enjoy the colorful leaves and the beautiful view of Chelsea and the Hudson River.

Apple pie? Butternut squash soup? I think yes.

Visit the Farmers Market in Union Square which has a wide variety of produce and food perfect for the fall season.

Take a step into the terrifying Blood Manor in the West Village.

Known as one of the city’s scariest, spine-chilling haunted houses, this house of fright will surely give chills and thrills to all.

Savor a symphony of flavors at Dominique Ansel Bakery (189 Spring St.). It has some of New York City’s best confections and pastries. Their pumpkin pie is to die for and nothing is better than sitting down and enjoying a sweet pie in the fall.

Look cute and comfy on a budget this season by thrifting. L Train Vintage (204 1st Ave.), Buffalo Exchange (several locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn), and Monk Vintage in Brooklyn (496 Driggs Ave.) are all of my personal favorite thrift stores for cozy finds.

Enjoy and spend time with family and friends at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. It runs from 77th Street and Central Park West Avenue all the way down to Macy’s Herald Square. It is a spectacular parade filled with music, amazing floats and gigantic balloons, and it is a wonderful apex to any autumnal celebrations.

GRAPHIC BY STEPH LAWLOR

WWW.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER October 25, 2018

Arts

13

‘Legally Blonde’ Delivers Fresh Feminist Message

By COURTNEY BROGLE Arts & Culture Editor

To rephrase the opening sequence of “Legally Blonde,” “Omigod, omigod you guys, Splinter Group’s gonna win the prize.”

On Thursday, Oct. 18, Fordham Lincoln Center’s musical theatre troupe, Splinter Group, presented “Legally Blonde: The Musical.”

With a line wrapping the hallways down to the library, a packed Pope Auditorium was uproariously enthusiastic from the show’s start to its conclusion.

“Legally Blonde: The Musical” is based on the Amanda Brown novel and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture of the same name.

Elle Woods, a UCLA sorority president, enrolls at Harvard Law School in an effort to win over her ex-boyfriend. Over the course of the story, she defies expectations and negative initial impressions others have of her, all while remaining true to herself. It has been lauded critically for its upbeat soundtrack, overall feminist sentiment and strength in confident womanhood.

Indeed, it was a night of female empowerment. Students not only enjoyed a high-energy musical, but also participated in a meaningful cause. For the second semester in a row, the Splinter Group teamed up with Feminist Alliance in a menstrual product drive.

The drive accepted any and all period product donations upon entry for the Bowery Mission. For those out of the loop, the Bowery Mission is a rescue shelter downtown at 227 Bowery St. between Rivington St. and Stanton St. They serve the immediate needs of the

impoverished, including meals, shelter and other care.

Feminist Alliance President and Splinter Group cast member Maya Tatikola, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’20, explained that the drive came to fruition during last semester’s performance of “High School Musical.”

“The product drive was created by the Feminist Alliance as a semester-long service project, and uses art and activism to unite the school community,” she said.

“As of last year, Splinter helped Feminist Alliance collect six full bags of menstrual products, which we aim to double this year,” Tatikola said. Indeed, the Feminist Alliance far exceeded their goal, collecting 1,037 menstrual products total.

Students involved in the production were “Keep[ing] it Positive” leading up to the show’s opening night. Sam Rizzo, FCLC ’22, played the lead role, Elle Woods. “At first I was really surprised, I just wanted [to play] a Delta Nu sister,” said Rizzo, in between compliments and hugs from her peers. “I was really excited to even get a callback … when I checked the cast list, I couldn’t believe it, it was crazy.”

Splinter Group Secretary Jonathan Jackson, FCLC ’20, spoke highly of the show’s casting. “I think going into it the board was genuinely worried about having someone play Elle, but the were so many freshmen this year that showed up and really impressed them,” Jackson said. “I feel like people think that there’s a kind of favoritism, but I think the fact that there are actually a lot of fresh-

men in the cast proves otherwise.

Everyone also brings their own talents and knowledge into the space and the show is better because of it.”

Co-directors Sophia Oliveri-Meyer, FCLC ’20, and Kevin Mikuls, FCLC ’20, both also agreed that it was important to produce the show tactfully in the age of the #MeToo movement. As Mikuls explained, “It’s one of those things where the show is so much fun that people forget that it’s about something, they think it’s just about flashy musical theatre.

But at the heart of the story is a woman being able to do whatever she wants.”

The materials within the show were indeed handled maturely and with grace. In the initial show announcements, Mikuls and Oliveri-Meyer were clear about the scenes in Act II that included actions of and discussions on sexual assault. The duo reiterated to the house that the material for some may have been upsetting, and if at any point the presentation was too triggering for audience members they were free to excuse themselves.

“When I really realized the gravity of some darker moments in the show was when during rehearsals there was someone in the cast who felt triggered by the scene,” said Mikuls. “Even though it’s a musical, we felt we had to warn the audience … I’m not sure if anyone even left, but I think we owe it to survivors to be able to choose for themselves how to handle the trauma.”

Oliveri-Meyer added: “We obviously wanted to warn people and

COURTESY OF LENA WEIDENBRUCH

In the number “What You Want,” Elle Woods (Sam Rizzo, FCLC ’22) is admitted into Harvard Law.

took the scene in the script very seriously, because it’s obviously a much more talked-about issue now. We were careful about the blocking and making it powerful, but also making sure that it wasn’t really triggering.”

Leading up to the performance, Jackson was eager for audiences to see the show. “This entire process has been extremely fun to be a part of. This group of people is one of the most fun groups I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Whenever we’re not working, we’re laughing and joking around.”

When asked to comment on the

menstrual product drive, Mikuls said, “It’s a good show to have tied with the Feminist Alliance. There’s not a lot of shows where the lead … realizes that she needs to do what she wants, which makes the alliance so special and cool.”

Although the original movie came out in 2001, and the musical in 2007, the lessons Elle Woods teaches audiences have clearly aged well. And in the partnership with the Feminist Alliance’s menstrual product drive, “Legally Blonde: The Musical” solidified its importance among young women still in 2018.

‘The Perks of Being a Snowflake’ — Senior Releases Debut Album

By MORGAN STEWARD Editor-in-Chief Emerita

COURTESY OF MICHAEL KUSHNER

“I’ve always been inspired by the great musical satirists of yesteryear and today like Tom Lehrer, Tim Minchin and Bo Burnham,” said Billy Recce, FCLC ’19.

Have you ever wondered what the unifying thread between the “Justin Bieber, Lizard Man” conspiracy theory, creepy kids in trench coats and Betsy Devos is?

The is answer Billy Recce. The Fordham senior, with the help of the university, is finally getting to check off a major bucket list item for himself: releasing an album of his own original musical satire songs.

The last time I sat down with Recce was last semester to talk about his new musical, “The Charlatans,” and now just months later, Recce has released a full-studio album. Creating his own album is something Recce has dreamed of doing since he started writing his own songs, but it wasn’t until he began to explore the histories of the musical satirists that came before that he felt ready to do it. “I’ve always been inspired by the great musical satirists of yesteryear and today like Tom Lehrer, Tim Minchin and Bo Burnham,” Recce told me. “I found out that Tom Lehrer in the ’50s self-produced his first album, made a thousand copies and sold them out on his college campus … That is exactly what I want to be doing. You know, you have to start small, but dream big.”

Recce applied for a summer research grant through Fordham and was awarded $5,000 to make this dream a reality. While the grant was generous, producing an album on a budget that small posed its own challenges to Recce. “[The $5,000 budget] has to cover a lot … [renting] the recording studio, the mixing, the editing, the CD production, the, you know, duplication. Getting it up on iTunes costs money, getting it up on Amazon costs money. Obviously the artwork costs a little bit of money,

then paying the musicians and the performers.”

One of the ways Recce was able to cut corners was by recruiting friends to help him with all aspects of the project: singing on the album, directing his first ever music video for “Unironic Love Song” and even designing the album artwork, another cue he took from Tom Lehrer. “I was sort of toiling about whether I do a real picture for the cover, or do I do this cartoon [by Dan Markowitz]. Then I came back to Tom Lehrer’s first album, which was a cartoon that he commissioned by a friend, and I was like, in the vein of Tommy boy, I’ll go down that route.”

In typical Recce fashion, this interview was filled with jokes, insults and lots of laughter, but there was also a more touching story he shared that perfectly captured how much this album means to the young writer. “I grew up a total CD nut. Cast albums were my thing. I’ve always collected them and I have, like, 700. I wouldn’t even so much care about the music, I would just care about having this album and being able to flip through it. That was my world,” he shared.

Recce paused for a moment, the smile on his face one of the happiest I’ve ever seen. “I’m normally a very realistic guy, but I saw a 3D proof of the album on my computer last night and I ... I was like, ‘Wow, this is what I’ve always wanted.’ To have a CD to be able to put on the shelf with all of the rest of them is the coolest feeling. I’m very thankful to Fordham for making it happen, making a dream come true.

That’s literally what it is.”

Billy Recce’s album, “The Perks of Being a Snowflake” is now available to purchase online from CD Baby or to download and digitally stream from Amazon, iTunes and Spotify.

14

Arts

October 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

WWW.fordhamobserver.com

To Respark a Catholic Schoolgirl’s Imagination The impact of the Met’s “Heavenly Bodies” exhibit

By ROXANNE CUBERO Contributing Writer

Walking into the Byzantine and medieval art galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I felt that I was intruding upon a sacred space. However, there was no meditative hum of a choir; instead, a staccato symphony of strings echoed through the halls, emphasizing the drama of Catholicism. The pilgrims were irreverent; everyone — including me, I will admit — was elbowing each other to get the best view (and the best picture) of the revered relics of “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.”

When The Met announced “Heavenly Bodies,” it was as if God was speaking to me. Catholicism defined a large part of my life. My childhood smelled like frankincense and myrrh, and I fantasized about my middle school crushes in the light of a stained glass window.

Likewise, fashion is also a large part of my life. My mother used to tell anecdotes of my grandmother, who allegedly would never let her or her sister go out unless they looked “presentable.”

All of the women in my family are devout Catholics and fervent fashionistas, myself included. However, my relationship with Catholicism is a peculiar one. I was born and raised in the Church, but I can’t remember loving it for its beliefs.

I think I loved the theatrics of the sacrament rather than the Mass itself.

Similar things can be said for the designers that are featured in this exhibition. Each designer’s respective relationship to Catholicism varies, but the Church’s impact is omnipresent, like God Himself.

Cristóbal Balenciaga was “probably the most devout,” according to Andrew Bolton, head curator at the Costume Institute and the mastermind behind “Heavenly Bodies.” The drapings of his evening gowns mimicked that of the Virgin Mary in a Renaissance painting. Conversely, Alexander McQueen, chief designer of Givenchy from 1996 to 2001, presented a corseted black gown over motorcycle pants, proclaiming that women, in spite of the ancient belief that they should be docile servants to the men in their lives, need to walk and work.

Whether it reveals itself in imitation or critique, the Church’s influence is undeniable.

Just like my relationship

All the women in my family are devout Catholics and fervent fashionistas, myself included.

with the Church, it was difficult to make a connection with any of the pieces past a superficial layer. Any connection that I did make was fleeting. I don’t know if I can attribute that to the ter-

rifying music or the swarms of people or something else. I couldn’t feel anything past seeing the objective beauty.

Bolton believes that “exhibitions should spark debate.” It’s an invitation to question context, history and relationship, in which fashion and the Church are abundant. The Church, however, does not share the same sentiment. Catholic belief is built upon believing without seeing; believers are not scrutinizers. Perhaps it was that habit that prevented me from making a personal connection with the exhibit.

This is not to say that I’m not a believer. “Heavenly Bodies” was the first Costume Institute exhibition that I connected with in a deeply personal way. Walking through the exhibit, I could see my own fashion choices reflected in Thom Browne’s modest yet unusual silhouettes and austere color palette inspired by nuns. The same could be said for the dramatic, mystical pieces, especially the Christian Lacroix wedding ensemble that reminded me of my middle school’s yearly celebration of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.

The designers of “Heavenly Bodies” and I are anchored by our nostalgia for our Church that finds itself in changing times.

I want to love the Church, and I think that I always have loved it. From my fashion choices to my unending compassion for others, I think it has always been there, buried deep, as if it were in the womb with me.

ROXANNE CUBERO/THE OBSERVER

Star-Studded New York Comic Con

By DAEJAH WOOLERY Contribtuing Writer

This year’s New York Comic Con (NYCC) was as nerdy and amazing as always, with new guests, premieres and panels for any and every fandom.

NYCC featured appearances from actors like David Tennant, Jason Momoa and Danai Gurira; comic guests such as Brian Michael Bendis, Kelly Sue Deconnick and Scott Snyder; authors including Charlie Zane Anders, Annalee Newitz and V.E. Schwab all drawing crowds, signing photos and speaking at panels.

The upcoming Universal Studios film, “Mortal Engines,” about a post-apocalyptic world where London is both a city and a villain, even made its debut at the convention and was met with mixed reviews. An inside look for Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” has garnered amazing reviews and increased anticipation for the Dec. 14 release.

I attended on Friday and was pleasantly surprised by the level of organization. Of all ReedPop (the company that organizes NYCC) conventions I’ve seen, this one ran the smoothest. From the moment I stepped off the subway, greeters pointed me in the right direction, and when I arrived at the beautiful Javits Center, the security was fast and efficient. Even as I navigated the show floor, I was impressed by how well I could get around. So if you’ve been shoved around at cons in the past, NYCC 2019 may yield better results.

The Niobe comics published by Stranger Comics drew many to their booth with an energetic bunch from their creative team hanging out calling anyone to them.

The story is written by Sebastian A. Jones and actress Amandla Stenberg (“The Hunger Games”). It follows the main character Niobe Ayutami, modeled after Stenberg, through a heroic coming-of-age story while she runs from the Devil himself. With stunning artwork and a compelling story, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Niobe adapted

to the big screen, especially since its captured the attention of Hollywood stars like Viola Davis who wrote the forward for the hardcover edition.

As always, NYCC was keen on safety and included “Cosplay is Not Consent” signs everywhere they could. You still can’t say controversy without con, but NYCC managed to avoid that for the most part.

This past June, popular moderator and host of “The Talking Dead,” Chris Hardwick, was accused by actress and cosplayer, Chloe Dykstra, of physical and mental abuse during their long-term relationship.

Though investigations have not led to any conclusions, this year was still Hardwick’s eighth year of moderating panels at NYCC. Ultimately, the decision to include Hardwick came from AMC, the network of “The Walking Dead,” not NYCC or ReedPop. Still, the allegations sparked discussion about the diversity of moderators at cons and rape culture in the convention scene.

Overall, New York Comic Con has only improved as the years go by. Obadiah W.M., Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’20, has frequented NYCC for four years so you can take his word for it when he said: “This year was my personal favorite. I think with the new mainstream popularity of different anime and comic-based media like “Black Panther,” “My Hero Academia” and “Justice League,” people were really inspired with their costumes and there were more first-timers.”

If that doesn’t convince you to make it to NYCC 2019, maybe it’s the hope of running into a star on your way out. Gabe Samandi, FCLC ’22, and I ran into Tony Revolori, who played Flash Thompson in “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” The star toured the show floor and gladly stopped for a quick photo with me. According to Revolori, not one person had spotted him before we did, a reminder to keep one’s eyes peeled at the con.

All in all, New York Comic Con 2018 defended and solidified its rank as one of the best American comic conventions for newcomers and longtime fans alike.

Free until they found the fence.

- Mary Alter

This creative interruption is brought to you by...

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Fun & Games

October 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

Crossword

EDITED BY DAN NASTA

ACROSS 1. Seedy pickle flavor

21. Debacle

5. College entry exam

23. Follows Jack on Halloween

8. Stair unit

26. Ohio’s rubber city

12. Car warming mode

30. Hullabaloo

13. Punctured

31. Solid nitrogen

16. Wholesome

32. Snowden org.

17. Lacked by modern food delivery?

35. Bowling target

18. Punctuated drum

36. “Now

19. Shrek species

37. Service charge

20. Hunting pattern

38. Window’s units: Abbr.

You Me”

39. Superlative suffix 40. Lbs. in the Great White North 41. Little chap 42. College entry exam 43. Number of people needed to tango, in Argentina 44. Hospital destinations after accidents: Abbr.

45. Short dashes 46. What He had done on Easter 48. “BlacKkKlansman” writer-director 49. Line 50. One may tow a water-skier 56. an existence; scrape by 58. Harry Potter’s Ball 59. Wire bussom supporters 62. Those without stick shifts 64. Chick follower, for sandwiches 65. Depose 66. Elephant nose 67. When one door opens?

68. Workplace safety org.

69. Pressure unit: Abbr.

70. Tampa Bay team DOWN 1. “Dead” dance music 2. Value 3. Peruvian spitter 4. Yellow fruit

5. Midriff muscles 6. Tackles head on 7. “Hey, Soul Sister” performers 8. Silly and occult 9. Pull a boat 10. Make a mistake 11. Number One 14. Time periods 15. Which Moines? (Iowa) 22. Embraced intimately 24. 8-track home 25. Lightbulb thief 27. An M16, for example 28. Blonde composer 29. Essentials 31. Our ticket out of here 32. Fran Drescher voice 33. Frightening and occult 34. Starting to wake up 36. Bunches of bones, occult … or the conclusion of 8- and 33-Down 47. Nap in Madrid 50. 4-Down flavor 51. “ or shut up.”

52. Emphatically 53. Spirit board 54. Lay to rest (fears) 55. Rips 57. Nosh 59. “Monster’s Inc.” girl 60. Toys 61. Cremation product 63. Slip on ice, with style

Word Scramble Question: What do 97 percent of climate scientists agree is a principal cause of climate change?

LO GLIG MARBWNA

NIDOGOLF

ROVENNMNTIE

SPOID RRACAC

SHANEHE IXO C HENTEEUGES ROFCEF

UGHTROD

Answer

EDITED BY JORDAN MELTZER

Features

Features Editors Jeffrey Umbrell - jumbrell@fordham.edu Lindsay Jorgensen - ljorgensen@fordham.edu October 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

Twenty-One Years Later, Veteran Returns to School

JORDAN MELTZER/THE OBSERVER

After serving in the Air Force, working as a corrections officer and enrolling in culinary school, John Wesley is pursuing an undergraduate degree at Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

By JORDAN MELTZER Opinions Editor

“You know what? I’ll do that.”

John Wesley, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’20, didn’t say this when going to Starbucks or picking an outfit. He said it when he decided to enlist in the Air Force in 1997.

Wesley’s choice to join the military was a change of heart that happened, quite literally, overnight. A self-proclaimed “goofball” who had just been kicked out of high school at the age of 18, he was working two jobs: one as a waiter and one as a gas station attendant. One Saturday, a revelation suddenly hit him when he was filling up tanks at the gas station.

“I had an epiphany watching cars go by, and I was like, ‘I’m never getting this back again if I don’t do something,’” he recalled.

“So that was Saturday morning.

Monday morning, I went and signed up for the Air Force.”

“I saw my life passing before my eyes.”

A native of Piscataway, NJ, Wesley felt a desperation and a longing familiar to many: to get out of his hometown and do something meaningful. His lust for life had brought him to the Air Force, and he would not settle for an assignment close to home. So, despite his initial post in New Jersey, within six months of that fateful Monday morning, he was in Kuwait.

“That’s where I turned 21 years old,” he said. Wesley has deployed to Ali Al Salem Air Base, about 20 miles from the Iraq border. “It was crazy. We used to find unexploded ordinances everywhere.”

Part of Wesley’s job was to search unknown vehicles and entire localities for hidden bombs. This was no small task: the lives of countless individuals were in the hands of a young kid who was voted “Class Clown”

denly, a garbage truck pulled up, and two men got out and sprinted away from it. The boys tried to warn others in the area, but it was too late. Their lives were two that were taken among the 19 that died that day.

“ You have to constantly transform yourself

into doing better for yourself in order to do better for society. You have to become better. No one’s gonna give you anything. You have to go out and do it.”

– JOHN WESLEY, FCLC ‘20

in high school. It whipped him into shape. He knew there was no room for jokes anymore. He called it a “culture shock,” but, ultimately, he was thankful for it. “That deployment set the precedent for the rest of my deployments. It made me headstrong.”

Wesley’s later tours took him to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Iraq. During his time in Saudi Arabia, he was stationed at a base built by the Bin Laden family-owned Saudi Binladin Group, which is the largest construction company in the Middle East.

Just a few years prior to Wesley’s deployment to Saudi Arabia, an incident occurred there that inspired that shift to seriousness.

During the Khobar Towers bombing of 1996, two “goofballs” — “And like I said, I identify with being a goofball” — were sitting on top of the towers, where they were not permitted to be. Sud-

Wesley learned an important lesson from that horrific attack: “Just don’t ever become complacent with stuff. Because you never know. That time you become complacent, it’s that one time that something hits. It’s really important that you pay attention and just do your job. The one time you become complacent, that’s a wrap.”

For Wesley, Iraq was the worst deployment. In addition to substantial heavy bombing that targeted his Air Force base, he committed something of a cinematic save: While many of his fellow troops were sleeping, he helped stop five terrorists from breaking into their base. As he was repairing the television at their base, he saw five figures in thermal imaging that were trying to climb over the fence at the base. He alerted the rest of the team, and they captured the intruders. For this act, he earned an Air Force

Commendation Medal.

When reflecting on the medal, he shrugged it off: “Yeah, that was pretty cool.”

Wesley’s service in the military would come to an end after six tours lasting 1,538 days — he rattled off this number with ease — but that was not the only service to others he conducted. Following the conclusion of his time in the Air Force, he spent five years working as a corrections officer. Then, for another two, he taught children with behavior problems. Far cries from a waiter and a gas station attendant.

“I kind of got into the psychology of things and why people do things,” he explained. “These kids were abused and coming to me — to not only teach these teenage boys life skills, but also as a confidante and someone who was there to protect them from their parents and stuff like that.”

He began cooking for these teenagers. Many of them didn’t have appropriate supplies or ingredients in their homes, so Wesley often brought his own. When some of the boys suggested he attend culinary school, he initially dismissed the comments. But then: another epiphany.

Wesley ended up taking classes at New York City’s Institute for Culinary Education. After his time at the institute, he decided to take his education in a new direction: online courses. He took an accounting course and, in his own words, “completely bombed it.” He decided he needed to attend a traditional brick-andmortar university so he could experience face-to-face instruction from professors. After overhearing a conversation about education at — of all places — a

restaurant, he was subjected to a shining review of Fordham University and its veterans program.

The rest is history.

“So, actually, kids started my education,” he deduced. “Teenage boys. The kids that had problems — I actually learned a lot about myself through them. You know, patience, nurturing. Stuff I didn’t think I had.”

Now 40 years old, Wesley lives with his oldest son in New Jersey. He has plans for Fordham and beyond, which is something he couldn’t say as an 18-year-old goofball. He wants to combine his eagerness to learn with his passion for culinary arts and start his own restaurant.

“I actually spoke to [Gabelli Dean Donna Rapaccioli] at the career fair,” he said. “She sent me an email already … I went to culinary school. I have some pretty good plans as far as setting that stuff up.”

Twenty-one years passed between Wesley’s final day in Piscataway High School and his first day at Fordham. Transforming from high school expellee, to Commendation Medal recipient, to corrections officer, to chef, to FCLC student and, finally, to prospective entrepreneur is an exceptional path, and one that is bound to change a person in a myriad of ways. But he was keen to offer some wisdom and advice about his journey thus far: “Self-recognition. You need to know a lot about yourself.”

He went on: “You take everything more seriously when you’ve done this stuff. For myself, being older, I’m like, ‘Damn, I’m revamping myself again.’ So you’ve got to change with the times. So that’s what I’m doing now.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER October 25, 2018

New BSA Strives for Inclusivity on Campus

Features

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By LINDSAY JORGENSEN Features Editor

Although The Black Student Alliance (BSA) at Fordham Lincoln Center (FLC) was unable to reactivate its club status before the end of last semester, as originally desired by its past executive board members, the club has officially returned in full force this semester.

The club’s temporary hiatus that began in February 2018.

Consisting of an entirely new e-board, BSA has worked over the summer to resolve some of its past issues to develop specific, proactive goals for the club during the 2018-19 school year.

The new e-board members are President Ahmari Alford, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’21, Vice President Jemina Molines, FCLC ’21, Treasurer Ian Sokolowski, FCLC ’20 and Secretary Chelsea Ashley, FCLC ’21.

BSA’s new advisor is LeighMarie Weber, the assistant of Multicultural Affairs. According to Alford, Weber has been overseeing e-board meetings and supporting them in their conversations about where they want to see the club go since the beginning of the semester. “She has been working with us very collaboratively even throughout the summer,” Alford said. “We’re working very close in tandem with the office.”

The previous BSA e-board wanted to make the club more present within the Fordham community, but stated in a meeting in February that they were not entirely sure how to successfully carry out that vision with the resources they were given. The current e-board, while building off their predecessors’ goals, is working on constructing and carrying out those of their own.

“We definitely agree we want to make it a more involved and dynamic club on campus,” Alford said. “However, I think our primary goal is to not only be a safe space, which is also very important for students on campus, but furthermore to be an important and useful resource to black students on campus.”

Although Alford knows Ford-

Consisting of an entirely new e-board, BSA has worked to resolve some of its past issues to develop specific and proactive goals for the club. ham does its best to offer different opportunities to students on campus, she feels that often students of color, specifically black students, are left out of that narrative. According to Fordham’s Spring Demographic Profile from 2018, half of the school’s undergraduate students are white. Alford hopes that BSA can become “a replacement for that lack of presence” for students of color on campus.

One of the main reasons for BSA’s hiatus was that its meetings had poor attendance. Although BSA has only begun holding weekly meetings two weeks ago, the e-board is optimistic about the turnout.

“Obviously getting club attendance can be difficult because everyone has different schedules,” Molines said. “There’s a sense of community [at Fordham], but students can just come here, go to class, and then go home, they don’t have to stay on campus if

PHOTOS BY JEFFREY UMBRELL/THE OBSERVER

Pictured above are (left to right): Treasurer Ian Sokolowski, Vice President Jemina Molines, Secretary Chelsea Ashley and President Ahmari Alford.

for black students and students of color throughout the city. The e-board reviews her findings and she then compiles them into a newsletter. The newsletter will go out once a month and will ul-

they don’t want to, but we are trying to actively attract new members to come and have people feel like they’re comfortable here and that they can use this club as a resource and a space.” Once BSA cultivates and solidifies this space, Molines hopes that new members will bring their friends to BSA meetings and events to further increase attendance.

Alford mentioned that BSA hopes to grow in attendance and attract a wider audience at meetings by introducing “dynamic and relevant” discussion topics at their meetings. During the meeting on Oct. 17, BSA held a talk called “I Miss the Old Kanye,” in which BSA members discussed celebrity Kanye West and his recent White House visit that has sparked media controversy. The meeting involved going through West’s controversial media history starting in 2005 through the present and then investigating and discussing West’s actions in the context of race.

“If we continue to give students a space they really wouldn’t otherwise have, an open and community-like space to discuss these topics, that’ll continue to further the membership. We hope to also put on events that could attract students who have never heard about the club,” Alford continued.

The e-board stated that their greatest initiative in increasing BSA’s visibility on campus is creating a newsletter, which is currently managed by Molines. She finds different academic professional and cultural opportunities

timately give students a resource to explore those different opportunities.

The contents of the newsletter will vary from information about exhibitions at museums, internships and scholarships, all avenues through which students can facilitate self-growth, academic or professional growth. Alford also mentioned that BSA will work with other clubs during the year to initiate more student involvement and increase club presence on campus. They also hope to partner with ASILI: The Black Student Alliance at Rose Hill for some events.

BSA has already started working towards helping their members facilitate professional growth. The club is partnering with the Fordham Career Ambassadors (FCA), on Wednesday, Oct. 24, to hold a resume and interview workshop. Students will have the opportunity to help build their resume or tailor their resume a specific job or position they may be applying. They will also have the opportunity to ask any questions and even schedule a mock interview with an FCA on campus.

“Offering different opportu-

nities for students who may not be able to come to club meetings but still be involved in a certain way is how we hope to grow and establish not only a large quantity membership but that’s one of

quality and substance that regularly has great contributions to the club and the community,” Alford said.

BSA also aims to manifest an inclusive environment where all students are welcome. During the first meeting of the semester, some members were skeptical of Ian Sokolowski’s position as treasurer on the e-board, as he is a white male student. Sokolowski has attended BSA meetings since freshman year, and has “learned a lot” from being a member.

“I thought that if there was an opportunity to help keep the club alive, as it was falling apart last semester, I would very much like to do that because it taught me a lot and could hopefully maybe teach someone else in my position or teach other people other things,” Sokolowski said.

The rest of the e-board supports Sokolowski’s position on the e-board and dedication to BSA. “It’s a safe space for all students,” Molina said, in reference to the club. “[It’s] not only a safe space but a learning space as well,” Alford continued. “I think that’s definitely good to have a person there [like Sokolowski] as a liason perhaps for that learning space.”

BSA holds meetings every Wednesday from 5-6 p.m. Besides the resume workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 24 and working joint events with ASILI, the club is working on developing their largest events during Black History Month.

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Features

OCTOBER 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

In Harlem, Following History

Fordham Alumni Explore one of New York City’s Fastest-Gentrifying Neighborhoods

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5 PHOTOS BY JEFFREY UMBRELL/THE OBSERVERGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY STEPH LAWLOR

By JEFFREY UMBRELL Features Editor

On the morning of Oct. 7, Fordham History and African American Studies Professor Mark Naison traveled to 116th Street in Harlem early to explore the neighborhood before joining a group of 15 or so alumni on a walking tour organized by the Office of Alumni Relations. The neighborhood, he said, was “unrecognizable” to him. “I see all these white tourists

heading out of the subway and crowding the streets … ‘Tourism’ and ‘gentrification’ are words that no one would have ever associated with 116th Street in the ’90s.”

The mostly white Fordham group was just one of many visiting the neighborhood that morning, and it was clear that, as across much of New York City, gentrification was quickly making its way into Harlem, which is historically viewed as one of the black capitals of the United States.

“Luxury condominiums on 116th Street? Crowds of tourists?

This blew me away,” Naison said.

Alumni Relations plans a number of cultural tours and museum visits across New York City each year. Shannon Hirrel, the office’s assistant director of New York City programming, organized the Harlem walking tour in conjunction with Naison.

“Many of the alumni who attend our NYC events attend fairly regularly,” Hirrel said. “My goal is to build community and engagement among our alumni.”

She stressed that attendees have a “shared interest” in the events’ content. These events allow alumni to engage and connect with one another.

“I think it’s a great program,”

Naison said of the work done by Hirrel and Alumni Relations. “For me, it’s all very exciting. I’m glad to see tours like this being organized.” Many of the sites highlighted on the tour were nestled among the luxury condominiums and high-rises of which Naison spoke, and one has to hope that they, too will not be lost to the at times destructive power of gentrification.

1. Canaan Baptist Church - 132 W 116th St. The worship hall of the Canaan Baptist Church can only be found after passing through the deceptively small and inconspicuous brick-and-concrete entrance and down a long, windowless and similarly modest hallway. Doing so, however, only makes the size of the hall itself all the more impressive. In 1965, the congregation moved from the church’s previous location two blocks north to the present building, a renovated Loews Theater, as Canaan was quickly becoming one of the largest religious communities in Harlem. Red is the color of the carpet, curtains and robes worn by pastors, ministers and choir, and its brightness is reflected in the energy and spirit of the attendees who fill Canaan’s two levels of seating.

been meticulously renovated, and its wrought iron fence, corinthian columns and arched entryway offer a glimpse into a past where Harlem was in fact an uptown retreat for the extremely wealthy.

most historically significant sites in Harlem and stands as a monument to the neighborhood’s rich Islamic history. Malcolm X preached here until his conversion to Sunni Islam in 1964. In 1965, the building was destroyed by firebombing, but has since been rebuilt save for the fourth floor.

2. Graham Court Apartments - 1921 Adam C. Powell Blvd.

Graham Court, which occupies in length the entire block from 116th to 117th Streets, dwarfs the rows of walk ups that surround it, and serves as a reminder of the radical changes Harlem underwent since the turn of the 20th century. Completed in 1901 at the commission of William Waldorf Astor, the wealth that Graham Court represented had all but left Harlem by the 1920s, and the building quickly fell into a state of disrepair. It has since

Map Key

3. Minton’s Playhouse 210 W 118th St. The original Minton’s Playhouse closed in 1974, and this renovated restaurant tries to capture some of the energy that musicians like Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald brought when they graced the Minton’s stage. “I could learn more in one session at Minton’s than it would take me two years to learn at Julliard,” Miles Davis wrote of the club’s legendary jam sessions in his 1990 autobiography, sessions that would help to develop the heavily improvisational nature of bebop and cement Minton’s place in music history.

4. Malcolm Shabazz Mosque - 102 W 116th St. Walking past the corner of 116th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard., one may not even notice the presence of the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, formerly known as Mosque No. 7. A barbershop, shoe repair store and pharmacy occupy its ground floor, and its green and gold dome is only visible from the opposite side of the street. The mosque, nonetheless, is one of the

5. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Towers - NYC Housing Authority - Malcolm X Blvd. and 115th St. Malcolm X and other Civil Rights leaders once preached on street corners in and around these public housing towers, which are by far the tallest in the neighborhood. They have stood witness to the tumult of the 1960s, the Harlem drug epidemics of the 1980s and 1990s and now remain one of the last vestiges of truly affordable housing in the area as gentrification slowly creeps uptown. The towers are just one section of a public housing development that stretches from Malcolm X Boulevard (the northern extension of 6th Avenue) almost to the shore of the East River.

“If you are not living in public housing, where the rents are protected,” Dr. Naison explained, “your chances of being displaced are pretty good over the next 10 years.” He worried that poorer communities who have left Harlem for the Bronx will eventually be pushed out of New York City altogether.

Sports & Health

Sports & Health Editor Luke Osborn - losborn1@fordham.edu

October 25, 2018 THE OBSERVER

Pre-med Profile: Steve Howard, Student Researcher

By LUKE OSBORN Sports & Health Editor

Attending an American medical college right after one’s undergraduate career is a huge undertaking.

Preparation for medical school applications practically starts the second pre-med students walk onto campus that first day of freshman year. Steve Howard, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’20, is one of the many who took on this strenuous journey.

Howard is pursuing a natural science major with a concentration in organismal biology. He is originally from Norwalk, CT and has a twin brother who also attends Fordham Lincoln Center. According to Howard, most Lincoln Center pre-med students opt to take a gap year between undergrad and medical school to concentrate on applying, but he has decided to apply his senior year instead. He explained: “The road is just too long, and I want to get into it as quick as possible.”

Not only do prospective doctors have to complete four years of graduate education, but they also must complete a residency in which medical school graduates practice under supervision in a hospital setting. Residencies

“ I want to do some-

thing with my life that would impact the world in some way that I could help people medically, because if I didn’t have my brother in my life, I don’t know what I’d do.

Being a twin is me” -STEVE HOWARD, FCLC ‘20

usually take one to four years to complete depending on the area of medicine, so it’s no wonder that Howard wishes to get an early start.

Since Howard is applying to medical school his senior year, he will have to take the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) in June. Howard has already begun studying for the MCAT and he is planning on taking a Kaplan review course next semester to help him prepare. Though medical school admissions take a holistic evaluation of prospective medical students, an applicant’s MCAT score and GPA are the two major deciding factors of admission.

To build up his resume, Howard has immersed himself in extracurriculars. Every summer since his freshman year, Howard has been researching lobster blood cells with Dr. Grace Vernon Ph.D., a natural science professor and the chair of the FCLC Pre-med Committee. He also shadows doctors who are family friends in Florida every spring break and he is planning on volunteering at Mount Sinai West, a hospital one block away from the Lincoln Center campus.

Howard found his pre-med experience at Fordham to be a mixed bag. “They do have a good system here, since we’re so close to Mount Sinai,” Howard said. “We’re in New York, so we have a lot of connections.” He also appreciated the rigor of courses Fordham requires of their pre-med students.

The pre-med track requires students to take two semesters of biology, chemistry and physics as well as some upper level chemistry and biology courses. Students in the natural science major complete these requirements and take many more upper level lecture and lab courses on top of everything else. Howard commented, “I feel like [the classes] prepare you for medical school and the MCAT.”

LUKE OSBORN/THE OBSERVER

Steve Howard is a Fordham College at Lincoln Center Junior majoring in Natural Science.

In contrast, Howard expressed: “I don’t like how they advise you, because they expect you to know [the process] on your own.” He mentioned that upperclassmen have been a better help to him in this regard, and he also noticed that pre-med students without connections to the natural science faculty have trouble finding research positions and extra curricular opportunities. “I got lucky,” Howard said, for he knew Dr. Vernon before entering Fordham.

In the future, Howard believes that the natural science faculty should use their connections with major medical institutions in New York to provide more opportuni-

ties for Fordham science students.

The next step in Howard’s application process is taking on the Fordham Lincoln Center Pre-med Committee. Right before every pre-med student applies to medical school, they must appear before the Committee, comprised of faculty who write a letter of recommendation to the applicant’s medical schools. Receiving a committee letter is a process in and of itself, and a student is required to submit a resume, a minimum of five letters of recommendation, a transcript and a three-page personal statement. Howard explained that he would be appearing in front of the committee in early November,

a year before he actually applies for medical school.

Though the pre-med process is very demanding, Howard eagerly looks forward to his medical school acceptance. Howard was inspired by his late grandmother and his twin brother who suffered major brain surgeries after a car accident that took place early in their childhood. Faced with finding a track that best suited him, Howard decided: “I want to do something with my life that would impact the world in some way that I could help people medically, because if I didn’t have my brother in my life, I don’t know what I’d do.

Being a twin is me.”

Bryant Kicker Makes First Career Field Goal in Shootout Win

By JEFFREY UMBRELL Features Editor

It seemed, just eight minutes into the first quarter last Saturday in Fordham’s 42-41 loss against Bryant, that the team’s blowout win at Lehigh the week before was just a fluke. A 32-yard touchdown run by Bryant running back Alfred Dorbor put the Bulldogs ahead 213, and the Rams defense, which had been a strength of the team all season, had just allowed touchdowns on three consecutive drives.

Luke Medlock, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’19, backup to quarterback Tim DeMorat, FCRH ’22, could be seen with his helmet on warming up on the sideline.

“Despite the loss, Saturday showed both the physical and mental toughness of Conlin’s team, perhaps even more so than the win against Lehigh did.”

DeMorat stayed in the game, though, and midway through the second quarter the Rams offense found its rhythm, picked up tem-

po and would reach the end zone twice before the end of the half to cut the deficit to one, 21-20.

An eight-yard touchdown strike from DeMorat, his fourth of the afternoon, early in the fourth quarter lifted Fordham ahead of Bryant 41-33. The Rams had in fact outscored Bryant 38-12 since the Dorbor touchdown, and as the game entered its final minutes it seemed that Fordham’s lead would hold.

Bryant would answer to narrow the lead, 41-39, but after a failed two-point conversion and onside kick attempt, victory for Fordham was all but certain.

On the ensuing drive, however, the Rams offense sputtered and was forced to punt. Bryant, starting from their own 9-yard line, had 1:24 and no timeouts to at least get sophomore kicker Luke Samperi into field goal range.

With 0:04 left to play, Bryant had reached the Fordham 24-yard line, setting up a 42-yard try for Samperi, who had only one (unsuccessful) field goal attempt in his entire career with the team entering Saturday’s game.

Samperi was unphased by the pressure of the moment, and, as time expired, his kick travelled straight through the uprights and Bryant took a 42-41 lead. His teammates stormed the field in celebration; on the Fordham sideline, players and coaches watched on in stunned silence.

“I’m sure it was fun to watch,”

ZOEY LIU/THE OBSERVER

Austin Longi (center left) dogding a Bryant tackle.

Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018 Fordham

41-42 Bryant

Fordham head coach Joe Conlin said after the game of his team’s effort and the thrilling final sequence. “That kid made a great kick.”

The loss was all too similar to that against Georgetown two weeks prior, when the team nearly completed a gritty comeback win after falling behind early. But, while that game was character-

ized by a number of poor coaching decisions, Bryant simply executed well under pressure, especially in the fourth quarter.

Inconsistent play on both sides of the ball plagued Fordham all afternoon. “We’ve got to do a better job with our preparation,” Conlin said. “You can’t spot a team 21 points and you can’t make the mistakes we did in the second half.”

Still, entering the game’s final drive, Conlin said he was “very” confident in his defense’s ability to prevent Bryant from scoring.

“The frustrating thing is the offsides [flag],” he said of a cost-

ly defensive penalty that both extended that drive and stopped the clock. Fordham finished the game with six penalties that combined for 55 yards.

DeMorat’s play, however, continues to make drastic improvements. Saturday was undoubtedly his strongest performance of the season; he threw for 228 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. He showed impressive poise in the pocket and seemed more confident in making reads and getting the ball to his receivers.

“I’ll take that from a quarterback any day of the week,” Conlin said of DeMorat’s performance.

“That second quarter into the second half, he felt great.”

Receiver Austin Longi, FCRH ’19, finished the day with ten catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns, including a 51-yard touchdown reception midway through the second quarter. Running back Tyriek Hopkins, FCRH ’20, ran for 176 yards and one touchdown.

Despite the loss, Saturday showed both the physical and mental toughness of Conlin’s team, perhaps even more so than the win against Lehigh did.

With only four games left in the season, however, the 1-6 Rams will still need to make some immediate and major adjustments.

What those adjustments will be, though, Conlin is unsure. “We’ve got to figure something out,” he said.