Issue 14 Fall 2019

Observer the

@fordhamobserver

www.fordhamobser erver.com

Pages 10-11

Wrapping

Paper Inside December 4, 2019 VOLUME XXXV, ISSUE 14

Neo-Nazi Data Leak Exposes Alleged Fordham Alum

By SOPHIE PARTRIDGE-HICKS News Editor

ANDREW BEECHER/THE OBSERVER

After petitioning for larger meal checks, McMahon student staff no longer have to worry about affording food.

McMahon Student Staff Petitioned Unequal Meal Checks

By JOE KOTTKE Staff Writer

McMahon Hall Resident Assistants (RAs) and Resident Freshmen Mentors (RFMs) received a $1,880 increase in meal compensation after petitioning unequal pay in comparison with Rose Hill student staff.

Although it is not stated explicitly in their contracts, residential student staff is discouraged from talking to press, given the expectation to represent the Office of Residential Life. The contract specifies that violations will result in imme-

diate termination of student staff.

Consequently, interviews with McMahon RAs and RFMs were anonymous.

When one RFM transferred from Lincoln Center to Rose Hill and became an RA, they noticed a major difference in meal compensation.

The RA was placed in an upperclassmen residence hall at Rose Hill, receiving a meal check rather than the meal plan. “I found out my check was over $3,000 per semester. I knew that the residential student staff at Lincoln Center was not getting nearly that much, so I

told my friends at Lincoln Center about it,” the RA said.

A Lincoln Center RA said that the information spread quickly among the McMahon RA staff. The McMahon RAs and RFMs have the choice between a meal plan or a compensation check, unlike McKeon student staff, who are automatically registered for a meal plan.

“The meal plan is worth $2,500, when the compensation check was $900, which is ridiculous,” one RA said.

According to Dean Keith see PETITION page 4

A Ram Van Trip Down Memory Lane Fordham students have complained about the Ram Van since its inception in 1979, 40 years ago this semester. If you’ve ever taken our intercampus transportation, you know about the unpredictable commute and the bumpy New York roads. You are also likely aware of the $3.50 price tag, 75 cents more per trip than the subway. Ram Van drivers and passengers from all times have interesting stories to report from their trips, and many of those can be found in The Observer and The Ram archives.

The first Ram Van, christened Ram Van I, hoped to embark on its maiden voyage from Rose Hill to Lincoln Center on Sept. 17, 1979, at 11:30 a.m., but it didn’t start because of insurance issues until Oct. 1, 1979. Most of its early trips held about five passengers, and there was only one van that went from Rose Hill to Lincoln Center and back; no vans would run simultaneously in either direction.

For the first year, the Ram Van cost passengers 50 cents. Joseph McGowan, dean of students at Rose Hill at the time, told The Fordham

Ram that “the Ram Van project is ‘strictly experimental.’” Clearly, the experiment has proved to be a success.

From 1968 to 1996, Lincoln Center had a different class schedule from Rose Hill, and the Ram Van seemed to cater to students at Rose Hill with the times of vans it offered — Lincoln Center students could not take the Ram Van for a science lab because they were held too early in the morning.

Before McMahon Hall was built, some Lincoln Center students lived at Rose Hill and took Ram Vans to class every day. These vans favored Rose Hill students, not students taking classes at Lincoln Center, so a Lincoln Center student living at Rose Hill needed to take a Ram Van that would make them hours early or a bit late to class.

see NEO-NAZI page 5

Record Attendance at Film Fest

By SLAV VELKOV Contributing Writer

The 48-Hour Film Festival continues to shatter attendance records, with more than 50 people attending this year. It is likely, though not yet confirmed, that next semester the festival will take place at Film at Lincoln Center.

The movies were shown on Nov. 26 at the Visual Arts Department at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. Fifteen films were shown as part of the official selection, an increase from last year’s 12. The festival has rapidly grown in participation each semester, and the SL24-L screening room now feels smaller than ever. But President of the Filmmaking Club Tommy Cunningham, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’21, plans to go big — he wants to move the event to the Elinor Bunin Munroe Theatre.

“Next semester, I am trying to have it at FilmLinc (Film at Lincoln Center), if the budget gets

approved,” Cunningham said.

“The dollar amount (of the budget) hasn’t increased; it is just for a different thing.” He believes the location will encourage students at Fordham to shoot their films.

“It being at FilmLinc will only increase that incentive,” he stated.

While some of the films were made throughout the fall semester, the ones eligible for awards were shot within the 48 hours preceding the closing ceremony on that Monday. Koty Vooys and Kevin Stoll’s twisted comedy, “Mr. Nobot,” won the most awards of the night, taking home both Best Comedy and the Audience Award. For the first time in the festival’s history, the Best Actress award was shared between Kayla Champion and Daejah Woolery, both FCLC ’22, for their work in the “Get Even” trilogy. A special recognition award was given to “Memories: Economics,” a comedy by Michael Stearman, FCLC ’20. “I am graduating this see FESTIVAL page 13

see RAM VAN page 18

Price of a Subway Ride vs. a Ram Van Ride

Opinions

Ram Van

Fare Evasion

How making it legal won’t help

Subway

Page 7

4

Features

Halal Cart Crawl

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Price (USD)

By JILL RICE Copy Editor

The white supremacist and neo-Nazi online forum Iron March was hacked on Nov. 6, revealing private information of hundreds of former users. Among the extremists exposed by the leak was a user who claimed that they attended Fordham University.

The site, which was active from 2011 to November 2017, had stored information from previous users in an online cache, like most websites. An anonymous hacker by the name of “antifa-data” was able to uncover the site’s database, exposing over a thousand users’ email addresses, usernames, IP addresses, forum posts and direct messages.

One user posted “I go to Fordham and I’m infosci” on the forum.

From the leaked information, The Observer was able to connect the post to an account operating under the pseudonym “The Captain” and compile a full profile on the account.

Iron March described itself as a fascist social network that attracted disenfranchised members of the white supremacist community. The forum promoted extremist ideology and disgust toward more mainstream white supremacists and alt-right movements. It is akin to 4chan, 8chan, 4plebs and other

similar sites that are often criticized for permitting alt-right content to be posted.

Users believe in “crushing the system,” which, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), includes the local and federal government, law enforcement and modern Western society, which Iron March users believed threatened white existence.

The Captain joined Iron March in early 2017, when he introduced himself as a 20-year-old male attending a university in New York.

He wrote, “I got into the whole movement at around age 15 when I discovered the Stormfront forums.” The Stormfront forums are one of the oldest white-supremacist, neo-Nazi internet forums; it was founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader Don Black in 1996.

The Captain remained active on the forum for the next year and reached out to multiple members asking about an Iron March local chapter, as he hoped to “meet like-minded people.”

Throughout his messaging with other Iron March users, he used anti-Semitic and homophobic language. He maintained the same discriminatory rhetoric when mentioning his classmates at his university.

Iron March endorsed violent

Four carts face off to determine the hottest halal spot

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GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS/THE OBSERVER

Arts & Culture

Sports & Health

The best places on the West Side to get hot cocoa and a cookie

City noises take a toll on New Yorkers’ ears

Cookies and Cocoa Page 12

Surrounded by Sound Page 19

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News

December 4, 2019 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

USG Town Hall Spotlights Student Concerns

By KATRINA LAMBERT Staff Writer

Fordham Lincoln Center’s United Student Government (USG) prepared for the upcoming spring semester by hosting their first Town Hall on Nov. 14 to hear the student body’s concerns on Fordham’s mandatory health care, Food Services’ price increase and the transparency of the Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) at Fordham.

USG President Pro Tempore and sophomore Senator Rachana Komatireddy, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22, explained to the students in attendance that Town Hall is a way “for students to have an open forum to be able to discuss their concerns about Fordham with the people who can help push for that sort of change.”

A shared concern at the meeting was Fordham’s mandatory health insurance policy, issued at the end of last semester. Attendants of the meeting expressed that requiring students to purchase healthcare, regardless of the vendor, if they want to stay enrolled makes the cost of education more expensive to students.

Chair of Student Affairs Loreen Ruiz, FCLC ’21, acknowledged that while she understands Fordham’s “concern about the well-being of students, it also feels like a very obvious money grab because it’s thousands of dollars added each semester.”

To resolve this issue, Komatireddy suggested that USG open a dialogue with the Student Health Insurance Compliance Administrator Maritza Rivera-Garcia in order to work toward an agreement in which Fordham health insurance remains available to students, but health insurance is not mandatory.

Another issue addressed was the increase in price for Food Services and Facilities’ waitstaff, which was brought to USG’s at-

ISABELLE DALBY/THE OBSERVER

USG President Tina Thermadam (right) and Vice President Robert Stryczek (left) hope to improve communication.

tention in early November. This caused trouble for several Fordham clubs including USG, as they will have to re-allocate Student Involvement fee money in order to serve food at their events.

This blindsided clubs that have already allocated funds for each event, according to Ruiz.

For the upcoming Tree Lighting on campus that USG hosts every year, Ruiz said she was caught off guard when Food Services alerted her that the event will require a waitstaff this year: “In the past five years, we have never needed waitstaff for this event.”

Sophomore Senator Joseph

VanGostein, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center (GSBLC) ’22, said that it is unclear whether Food Services will honor their prices from last semester for student clubs, an issue which has been a recurring issue for clubs this year.

Tina Thermadam, president of USG and FCLC ’20, said that USG is responding to this change by arranging regular meetings with Food Services to address students’ concerns. USG’s initiatives for fixing this grievance is to arrange a student discount on waitstaff prices for student-organized events or working with student involvement to avoid needing a

waitstaff for evening events, according to Thermadam.

Later in the Town Hall, Ruiz raised concerns that CPS provides students with 10 free sessions per semester, but after those 10 sessions, students are not able to continue with their services, and CPS must refer the student to a professional outside of the University.

One student, who chose to remain anonymous, said that the protocol is “hard, because I am not from New York, so my insurance doesn’t really cover me outside of my regional area.”

According to the student, part of the issue was that CPS did not

explain that the sessions would have to end after the 10 provided sessions.

USG Chair of Facilities Yunuen Cho, FCLC ’21, said that while the 10 sessions reset every semester, “that doesn’t mean you get the same person, which is an issue.” Once a student builds trust with their designated counselor, they may feel as though they are starting all over again beginning at the next semester, Cho explained.

As a result of this discussion, Thermadam addressed these issues about CPS at the USG E-Board meeting last week. USG has reached out to CPS to set up a meeting in the upcoming weeks.

“I definitely think there is sometimes not enough communication between students and CPS, even though it is a very useful resource for students,” Komatireddy said.

Aside from the students’ concerns addressed at the meeting, USG also took a moment to acknowledge that student involvement this year has been greater than in previous years, particularly with the new freshman class.

Thermadam attributes the success of USG’s Fordham Fridays — every Friday, students wearing maroon get free pizza — to the engaged freshman class, as well as to the foundation that USG set for Fordham Fridays last year which continued through this semester. “I think that awareness is what caused our pizza to disappear in record time,” Thermadam said.

Even after seeing increased participation at their events, Thermadam is heading into the next semester hoping for a larger turnout at USG Town Halls, which happens once each semester. “I want students to see it and feel like they can share something that they’ve been experiencing positively or negatively as a student,” she said.

Bishop With Ties to Fordham Accused of Sexual Assault

By GUS DUPREE Asst. News Editor

Nicholas DiMarzio, a bishop with ties to the local Catholic community, including Fordham, has been accused of sexual assault. The allegations came to light on Nov. 11, when attorney Mitchell Garabedian sent a letter to the Newark archdiocese accusing DiMarzio of abusing a student at a middle school in Jersey City.

Garabedian is representing 56-year-old Mark Matzek who claims that Bishop DiMarzio and the late Rev. Albert Mark sexually abused him multiple times between 1974 and 1975. Matzeck was a student at St. Nicholas School where DiMarzio served as the parish priest.

In the letter, Garabedian also demanded $20 million from the archdiocese in damages for Matzek as compensation for the trauma he has endured. Matzek had been unable to bring the case to court until last May when New Jersey extended it’s statute of limitations for child sexual abuse from an age 20 to 55.

In May 2012, DeMarzio worked with Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education (GSE) to form the Catholic School Accreditation Association (CSAA). According to Fordham News, the CSAA is a partnership between GSE and the Diocese of Brooklyn which provides regional Catholic schools an alternative accreditation method as opposed to the Middle States Accreditation Process.

At the time, The Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J., expressed his pleasure with the partnership.

“This partnership will enable us to help one another in very significant ways,” McShane said in 2012. “Fordham is delighted to do it, honored to do it and committed to the work.”

In response to the allegations, Assistant Vice President for Communications Bob Howe said on behalf of the university, “Our hearts go out to the victim: such abuse is hard to countenance or forgive, and is a terrible violation of the human spirit.

We pray for the healing of this victim, and all the victims of sexual abuse.”

The allegations against DeMarzio came just days after he completed an investigation of sexual abuse within the Diocese of Buffalo.

DiMarzio currently serves as the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. In Oct. 2019, he was appointed by Pope Francis to investigate sexual abuse allegations and alleged cover-ups by Bishop Joseph Malone in the Diocese of Buffalo.

During DiMarzio’s apostolic visitation — an official investigation authorized by the Holy See — to the Diocese, he interviewed over 80 clergy and parishioners over the course of a week. The Diocese of Brooklyn stated on Oct. 31 that DiMarzio will report his findings to the Holy See at a later date, noting

that “no additional information will be shared beyond this statement at this time.”

It is unknown how the surfaced allegations against DiMarzio will affect the publication and release of his report.

Garabidian claimed that DiMarzio’s visitation was “tainted” as a result of the allegations in an interview with the Associated Press. “There needs to be a truly neutral investigator to determine whether Bishop Malone should resign,” Garabidian said.

DiMarzio, who was meeting Church officials in Rome when the accusations were made public, has denied the allegations.

“In my nearly 50-year ministry as a priest, I have never engaged in unlawful or inappropriate behavior and I emphatically deny this allegation,” he stated to the Diocese of Brooklyn.

DiMarzio told the Tablet that Pope Francis inquired about the accusation during his visit. “I was amazed that the false accusation made against me was already known to him,” DiMarzio said.

DiMarzio claimed that Pope Francis “expressed his hope that the matter presented against me would be cleared up quickly for the good of the Diocese of Brooklyn.” DiMarzio thanked those within the Diocese of Brooklyn who have defended him. “You have a right to more information on this matter, and I pledge to you continued transparency in a future column.”

STAFF SGT TEDDY WADE VIA WIKEMEDIA

Bishop DiMarzio, who collaborated with Fordham to create the CSAA in 2012, has been accused of sexually assaulting a student in 1975.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER December 4, 2019

News

Annual Great Fordham Smokeout Spotlights Vaping

By MICHELLE AGARON Staff Writer

Since its inception, the primary goal of the Great Fordham Smokeout has been to educate students about the dangers of smoking and decrease smoking on campus. Due to an increase in reporting and nationwide news about the topic, the focus of the 2019 campaign, which occurred on Thursday, Nov. 21, in Lowenstein Plaza, has shifted to vape products and e-cigarettes.

The set-up this year included a table strewn with flyers about the dangers of vaping and smoking, “quit kits” filled with candy and information to help smokers who are thinking of quitting, quizzes to measure nicotine dependence and a plethora of recent research that depicts the harms of vaping.

As of Nov. 20, a total of 2,290 vape-related injuries and 47 deaths have been reported to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While a definitive cause for the growing number of cases has yet to be found, health officials have identified a form of Vitamin E as the most likely culprit, which was discovered in samples of lung fluid from hospitalized patients.

Several states, including Colorado, Michigan, and Washington, have since banned the ingredient in vape and e-cigarette products sold to the public. New York has joined the effort by attempting to ban flavored vapes throughout the state, but the motion has been halted and, more recently, opposed by President Trump. The indecision around the ban, however indirectly, allows for the persistence of vaping at Fordham and other college campuses like it.

David Vassar, a reference and instruction librarian at Fordham and an organizer of the Smokeout, is an advocate for a citywide change in policies regarding smoking and vaping. He believes that efforts to reduce or end smoking within certain environments

3

Students’ opinions on implementing a total ban on smoking

6% 44%

51%

Students’ opinions on designating smoking zones on the outdoor plaza

6% 27% 68%

Against In favor MICHELLE AGARON/THE OBSERVER

No preference

Advocates for clean air host the Great Smokeout each year by occupying a table in the Lowenstein lobby.

in the city can incentivize institutions like Fordham to follow suit.

“Since we’re such a small campus, I’ve always thought Lincoln Center could be the flagship of the university system in going smokefree. It only takes a few lit cigarettes to ruin the air for a lot of people because we’ve got such a small green space,” he said. “It’s really unfair to our security staff to have to tolerate secondhand smoke in such close quarters as a condition of their employment.”

Tina Thermadam, president of the Lincoln Center United Student Government (USG), met with Vassar earlier that week and said that while she is in full support of spreading awareness and pro-

moting education about the risks of smoking, she cannot speak to a complete ban on smoking due to the results of a student opinion survey USG released last academic year.

Of the 412 students surveyed, 51% were against implementing a total ban on smoking at Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC), 44% were in favor, and 6% voted for neither. As for designating certain areas of the Outdoor Plaza as smoking zones, 68% would approve, 27% would disapprove, and around 6% were not inclined either way. These results stand in contrast to a survey conducted by the organizers of the Smokeout in 2017, in which 80% of the 220

students surveyed “somewhat or strongly agreed that a smoke-free Fordham would be desirable.”

Alina Gubanova, FCLC ’22, is hesitant to support a smoke-free campus. The ban wouldn’t directly affect her since she usually smokes off-campus, but she views it as a question of fairness when considering Fordham’s other campuses.

“I don’t think that making the campus completely smoke-free will be a smart move. While it might not affect students and staff at Lincoln Center by much, it might cause some annoyance for people at Rose Hill, since their campus is much larger. I think it would be better to have some designat-

ed smoking areas around campus — banning people from smoking right in front of the entrances is a good first step,” she said, referencing the 50-foot rule implemented in the spring of 2016.

Seeing as students and staff at FCLC continue to regularly smoke on campus, the possibility of a completely smoke-free campus occurring in the near future appears slim. Regardless, the organizers of the Smokeout plan to continue hosting the event yearly and provide resources for students through readily available guides such as Coping with College, which can be found through the Fordham library website.

Campus Hate Crimes Persist

Defaced Star of David is third in a series of anti-Semitic activity at Fordham

By KATRINA LAMBERT Staff Writer

Public Safety sent an alert to the Fordham community on Wednesday, Nov. 20, that a Star of David was ripped and posted to the interfaith ministry bulletin board in a Lowenstein corridor on the Lincoln Center campus.

Director of Campus Ministry Conor O’Kane notified Public Safety about the incident on Nov. 16. After Public Safety conducted an investigation into the incident and identified the student responsible, they sent out an alert via email.

The student found guilty is also responsible for two other anti-Semitic incidents that took place this semester, according to Public Safety.

President of the Jewish Students Organization (JSO) Drew Bernstein, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22, said that the previous two incidents also involved items on the interfaith ministry bulletin board being torn down.

“Fordham Lincoln Center has always been a supportive place, but for something like this to happen, just puts it into question,” Bernstein said. After mentioning incidents at other campuses last year like the swastika drawn on a desk at Rose Hill, Bernstein said that “it was really, really nice to be able to say that

ANDREW DRESSNER/THE OBSERVER

The Interfaith Ministry Board in the Lowenstein corridor displays the Star of David that was riped in half.

this doesn’t happen on our campus, so this was disappointing.”

In response to this act, Bernstein issued an email to the members of JSO stating that even though “this seems to be an isolated event, and we doubt the behavior will continue,” all JSO members should know that the “JSO e-board and club as a whole are here for you.”

Regarding the way the incident has been dealt with on campus, Bernstein said she was pleasantly surprised with the speed at which Campus Ministry brought the vandalism to attention and with the timeliness with which Public Safety conducted their investigation.

“It definitely makes it feel like there are people on our side,”

Bernstein said.

Campuses at other universities have experienced similar anti-Semitic incidents to Fordham this month. Since Nov. 7, Syracuse University “has endured the ugliest of hatred, based on race, national origin and religion,” according to Syracuse Chancellor Kent D. Syverud as reported by The Washington Post.

The Post stated that more than a dozen incidents were published by the University’s newspaper, including racial and anti-Semitic slurs written in bathrooms and classrooms and a swastika drawn into the snow across from an apartment building. Students at Syracuse reacted to these threats by occupying a campus building in demand of a required “diversity training for faculty and staff” and a stronger anti-harassment policy, according to The Post.

Students and faculty at Syracuse were reportedly frustrated by their chancellor’s delayed response to the racial attacks.

Syverud later met with a group of Jewish students and agreed to some of their recommendations for campus safety, like ensuring that all public safety cameras are working and improving communications about incidents on campus.

Following the events at Syracuse, four students, some from other universities were reportedly suspended.

The New York Police Department and the District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute against the Fordham student found responsible for the anti-Semitic incident at Lincoln Center.

However, since the act violates Fordham’s Code of Conduct, the University is issuing the sanction they deem appropriate to the student held responsible.

4

News

December 4, 2019 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

Compensation Disparity Students React to TikTok Investigation Unnoticed for 12 Years Experts fear the app could be used to manipulate or harm Americans

PETITION from page 1

Eldredge, the meal compensation amount has not been adjusted since he and Director of Residential Life Jenifer Campbell began working at Fordham — most likely 12 years ago. Campbell said that the compensation plans will now be reviewed annually.

Multiple members of the RA staff collaboratively worked on a petition, which opened by stating: “This meal check does not cover the cost of food in New York City. If you were to average how much spending power a $900 meal check has, it would be about $8 per day. In New York, this is insufficient to buy fresh and healthy groceries for three meals a day.”

RAs also claimed that the insufficient meal checks forced multiple student staff members to seek additional employment in order to “make ends meet.” They claim that the financial burden of buying food makes it difficult for them to prioritize school work and hall duties.

According to one RA, Rose Hill student staff can choose to receive an unlimited meal plan — valued at $3,575 — or a $3,500 meal check.

Eldredge said that on the Rose Hill campus, RAs without a mandatory meal plan have been receiving checks aligned with the meal plan rate. “This is how the discrepancy in the amount of the meal checks was brought to our attention,” Eldredge said.

“The compensation for residential life student staff across buildings and campuses at Fordham University are inconsistent,” the petition stated. “Meal compensation for student staff at McKeon Hall and at the Rose Hill campus is roughly 3.5 to 3.9 times higher. Given the McMahon staff are expected to work

the same amount under similar conditions for less pay, the unequal compensation appears unfair.”

According to Eldredge — prior to the opening of McKeon Hall — RAs in McMahon Hall received a meal check, but the amount was not connected to a meal plan, since it was not mandatory for any upperclass students.

“When McKeon Hall opened, we never adjusted the amount of the meal check for McMahon RAs to be aligned with the meal plan cost,” Eldredge said.

According to Rose Hill student staff, meal compensation increases each year to match the cost of meal plans and the increased cost of living in the neighborhood.

“A lot of policies can’t be changed because it has to be the same as Rose Hill, so why is our compensation not the same?” one RA asked.

In their petition, the McMahon staff members requested meal checks equivalent to what other student staff are compensated for, at $3,500 per semester.

One RA said that they brought the issue to Campbell, who brought it to Eldredge, who brought it to “higher-ups.”

“The first time we heard it was going to be approved was from other students,” one RA said. The McMahon student staff received an additional check for $1,880, totaling the semester compensation to $2,780. “We were very surprised; we were not expecting a lot.”

“Staff was respectful in presenting their concerns relative to the difference in compensation,” said Campbell.

Where the funding for the $1,880 increase will be drawn from is still being deliberated.

“To be honest, we’re still trying

Two New Deans Set To Begin Spring 2020

COLIN SHEELY/THE OBSERVER

McKnight appoints two new Deans.

By ALLIE BEEKMAN Staff Writer

Fordham University is concluding interviews in the search for two new deans. One of the positions is to replace Assistant Dean for First-Year Students Joseph Desciak, who left Fordham University to accept an Associate Dean position at Boston College. The second is a new position called the Assistant Dean for Student Support and Success.

The current assistant dean for sophomores, Mica McKnight, is chairing the committee for both Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) dean searches. McKnight is working alongside the FCLC and Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) Dean’s Offices, the Dean of Students office and the Higher Education Opportunity Program office.

The committee has already finished their interviews for both po-

sitions, Auricchio said. She expects to extend offers to two candidates this month and fill the positions by January for the start of the Spring 2020 semester.

Arleen Pancza-Graham, who retired from the position of Assistant Dean for Sophomores position in 2017, has been serving as interim Assistant Dean since Desciak’s departure at the start of this academic year.

The introduction of a second assistant dean role aims to provide further support to the various needs of undergraduate students.

Learning about the plans to add a second dean position, Gabriella Wilson, FCLC ’21, expressed her enthusiasm. “Sometimes it can be difficult to get an appointment with a dean and the issues that students need to discuss with them are normally urgent. I’m so glad to hear they’re hiring more deans and are expanding the staff,” she said.

Auricchio also explained that “the Assistant Dean for Student Support and Success will be charged with leading and coordinating efforts to increase student retention.” Fordham’s retention rates have been a recurring problem for the University, with Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J. McShane even creating a retention rate task force in Oct. 2018.

The second dean position is analogous to a position already in place at FCRH. Christie-Belle Garcia filled this new position at FCRH in July; she grew up in the Bronx and is a Fordham alum.

ANDREW BEECHER/THE OBSERVER

TikTok is a popular social media app among Fordham students, but experts believe it could be a risk to their security.

By GABE SAMANDI News Editor

Fordham students keen on using the popular social networking app TikTok may be giving up more information than they bargained for.

The app, which many students have dubbed “the next Vine,” has gained mounting scrutiny from American tech executives and government officials in recent months.

They fear that the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, cannot be held accountable by its American userbase, which primarily consists of teenagers and young adults. According to a report from Reuters, more than 60% of all 26.5 million monthly TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24.

Fordham students using the app attribute its popularity to the lighthearted and “honest” online community.

“It’s a way that I can make fun media content that feels more real,” said Jake Kujlis, Fordham College Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22, who is a new user to the app. “Instagram is a total facade, and Snapchat is good for communicating with individual people, but TikTok allows me to make fun of myself and put creative content out into the world.”

However, it’s precisely that “real” data that trouble cybersecurity officials. Henry Edgington, FCLC ’22, is a computer science major and student worker with Fordham IT. “What’s got the experts concerned,” he said, “is that, when you install an app, it puts a ton of software on your phone. So while you think you’re just uploading funny videos, that thing could be coded to steal your passwords, bank accounts, location history, photos, everything.”

Responding to these concerns, several high-profile elected officials from both major political parties have recently made open calls for U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate TikTok and ByteDance, as well as the app’s potential ties to the Chinese government.

In mid-November, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told CNBC that the army has “begun a review with Army Cyber Command on the potential vulnerabilities associated with that app.” Officials expect a final report “right around the Christmas holiday.”

Kujlis, a communications major who has experience in both personal and professional social media accounts, noted that he was not ready to swear off the app just yet.

“I know about the investigations.

Not all the specific details, but I’m keeping an eye on them,” he said.

“I’m not too worried though. At the end of the day, I don’t really care

if China knows what my face looks like.”

He was also aware of the potential data vulnerabilities, but expressed that the creativity of the outlet was currently worth the risk.

“Unless they actually start hacking into my accounts, I don’t think it really matters because Google has all that information anyways,” he said.

Yet discussions on Capitol Hill about the security risks of apps like TikTok have exploded in the past year. The U.S. intelligence community has near-certainty that in 2016, Russia used data collected through social media to inform its interference in the presidential election.

It has been confirmed that a similar disinformation campaign is currently happening on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and that Russia is actively attempting to shift the blame of its interference to the Ukraine. According to a report by The New York Times, top

“ I know about the

investigations. Not all the specific details, but I’m keeping an eye on them. ”

Jake Kujlis, FCLC '22

security experts believe that this is a strategic move by the Russians to undermine the impeachment inquiry.

Now investigators are trying to determine if TikTok presents a similar risk. The most pressing issues are determining if the app collects unnecessary personal data or promotes content that might be used to influence American opinions and behavior. Several of the investigators’ fears have already been confirmed. In February, Vox reported that TikTok had been fined $5.7 million for illegally collecting data on children under the age of 13.

The Washington Post and The Guardian both reported that TikTok manipulates or bans content based on several controversial criteria, such as protests against the Chinese government. In early December, The Verge reported that TikTok apparently restricted content from users that face a “high risk of bullying,” such as those with disabilities or disfigurement.

TikTok has reversed several of its most controversial policies since they have come to light, and the TikTok U.S. team maintains that it is run independently from Chinese

influence. However, many experts remain unconvinced.

Even Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Facebook and recent target of Senate oversight, has publicly criticized TikTok’s clampdown on expression and speech. According to initial reports from Buzzfeed News, Zuckerburg had tried to purchase the platform when it was still Music.ly and later tried to suffocate the app with Facebook’s own service, Lasso.

Zuckerburg has started appealing to young adults directly to try undermine the platform that he says censors free speech. “Until recently, the internet in almost every country outside China has been defined by American platforms with strong free expression values,” Zuckerberg said in a speech to students at Georgetown University in October. “While our services — like WhatsApp — are used by protesters and activists everywhere due to strong encryption and privacy protections, on TikTok, the Chinese app growing quickly around the world, mentions of these protests are censored, even in the U.S.” Critics of Zuckerburg are skeptical of his authenticity to grassroots political expression. According to the same BuzzFeed News report, several Facebook employees have said that the company’s bludgeoning of TikTok is a direct result of Facebook trying to validate its own loose censorship rules. Since the 2016 Presidential election, Facebook has come under fire for a variety of business practices it has defended under the umbrella of “free speech,” including algorithms that are known to prioritize polarizing content and policies that allow politicians and interest groups to post intentionally false advertisements to sway public opinion. The investigations about TikTok will also However, Edgington maintained that the conversations surrounding Facebook were preferable to the ones about TikTok. “The U.S. government, at the end of the day, is your government. You technically still have power over your data with Google or Facebook because you can always vote to change things,” he said. “You can even sue or ask them to delete the data. But a Chinese company has zero accountability to a regular U.S. citizen, especially when it comes to something as new as TikTok.” Edgington had a personal IT warning for any current users of the app, “You should always know who you’re signing up with. If you use TikTok, you’re playing by China’s rules,” he said. “And if it’s on your phone, you should probably randomize all your passwords and usernames, too. Just to be safe.”

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER December 4, 2019

News

‘I go to Fordham,’ Said Anonymous White Supremacist

NEO-NAZI from page 1

tactics and has been linked to numerous murders and terrorist activity both in the United States and around the world. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that in 2017 Iron March supported at least nine fascist groups in countries including Australia, Serbia and Ukraine.

The ADL cites Iron March as key to the formation of Atomwaffen, a white-supremacist group that is preparing for a race war and is active in the United States today. Atomwaffen has also been linked to at least five murders in the U.S. At least one Iron March user was also confirmed to be at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. The protest, which advocated for white supremacy and neo-Nazism, led to violent clashes between counter-protesters and cost activist Heather Heyer her life.

Increasingly, social media is seen as a platform for extremist organizations to target and recruit younger members for their cause. Earlier this year, writer Joanna Schronder spoke to CNN about how she felt her teenage sons were actively being desensitized to white supremacy and neo-Nazi propaganda online.

“I’ve been watching my boys’ online behavior & noticed that social media and vloggers are actively laying groundwork in white teens to turn them into altright/white supremacists,” wrote Schronder in a viral tweet.

A study by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism saw a 600% increase in followers of American white na-

ANTHONY CRIDER VIA FLICKR

Iron March users have been connected to extremist activity and terrorism around the country and world. At least one known Iron March user attended the Unite the Right rally in 2017, where activist Heather Hayes was killed.

tionalist-affiliated movements on Twitter between 2012 and 2016.

During that same time period, reports from the FBI show that hate crimes in the U.S. also increased and were reported as being more violent.

Fordham’s own campuses were not exempt from that national trend. On Nov. 20, Fordham’s Public Safety reported that a Star

of David was torn and destroyed from the Campus Ministry board.

In October 2018, a swastika was found scrawled into a Rose Hill desk. Two other swastikas have also been found around the Rose Hill campus since 2015 — one in a residence hall and one in a Tierney Hall bathroom.

A photo of multiple Fordham students holding a Kekistan flag,

a symbol that is widely associated with white supremacy and neo-Nazism and considered a homage to the 1930s Nazi flag, also circulated Fordham campuses in March 2018. The students pictured claim that they think of the flag as a satirical protest against politically correct culture and not as a symbol of Nazism.

Like Schronder, many experts

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have also suggested that online extremism like the content on Iron March might be responsible for the surge in hate crimes. Recruitment for white supremacist organizations increased by 77% from 2017 to 2018 academic years on college campuses, the ADL reported.

The Observer was not able to verify the identity of the Captain from the information obtained from the data leak, and cannot confirm that the user actually ever attended Fordham University. Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications, stated that the university has not been able to confirm the person’s identity and if they ever attended Fordham either.

However, Jewish Worker, a publication with a self-declared left-wing Jewish perspective, created a website with an interactive map depicting Iron March users’ locations. That website shows that The Captain used Fordham University’s network to connect to Iron March at least seven times throughout 2017.

Although it is not confirmed if the Captain ever actually was a Fordham student, Howe stated that “neo-Nazi behavior is not tolerated at Fordham and members of our community found in violation of the code of conduct will face consequences.”

The Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J. has written the Fordham community before expressing that “the white supremacy Nazi ideology is the antithesis of what we believe and practice as a Jesuit university.”

Jordan Meltzer contributed additional reporting to this article.

Happy Holidays

From The Observer

See you all next semester!

Opinions Editors Grace Getman - ggetman@fordham.edu Evan Vollbrecht - evollbrecht@fordham.edu

Opinions

S

WHAT IT MEANS TO CONFRONT HATE where we know that marginalized groups will not be preyed upon and where hateful rhetoric will be punished without sacrificing free speech.

But how would we create that space? Reacting to isolated events is not enough.

Fordham’s response so far has been commendable, but it is of limited use unless progress is actually made to prevent further incidents.

It is imperative that we as students vocalize our concerns and convictions against prejudicial acts.

The people who push hateful rhetoric can’t be silenced by ostracization. In the dark corners of the internet, on vitriolic message boards and toxic forums, the outcasts meet and collaborate, radicalizing each other; at worst, they spur each other to dangerous action.

After all, the culprit behind the vandalism on the interfaith ministry board was not ignorant of the implications. Their cowardly actions were the result of a desire to transgress,

Observer the

STAFF EDITORIAL

ince early November, racist graffiti, threatening statements and other hate crimes have thrust Syracuse University into a state of fear — disrupting classes, creating a mass protest movement and even drawing the attention of Albany. Although Syracuse University may be five hours upstate, recent events at Fordham have sharply reduced this distance.

Most recently, on Nov. 20, 2019, Public Safety reported that a Star of David was ripped from the interfaith ministry bulletin board and destroyed. It was the third of a series of attacks defacing material on the interfaith ministry board.

It is imperative that we as students vocalize our concerns and convictions against prejudicial acts.

Fordham’s administration has set a high standard in their response to the latest events. By bringing the case to law enforcement, condemning the actions with vehement sincerity and sharing community resources to discuss the incident, they’ve set an example that the rest of us would do well to follow.

We are not looking for a “safe space,” shielded from any dissenting or uncomfortable opinions. We are simply looking for a space

December 4, 2019 THE OBSERVER

to get attention, to feel as if they had struck a blow against the culture that had shunned them for their prejudice. As difficult as it may be, we must engage honestly and openly with those who might not afford us the same courtesy, lest we create our own monsters.

If you are the target of such vitriol, no obligation exists to deal with these aggressors. If someone is attempting to push you off a cliff, you’re under no obligation to follow their command. However, if you see a friend walking along a cliff’s edge, a moral obligation exists to challenge their beliefs and stop them before they go too far. If a friend makes a statement that implies that another group is not worthy of respect, expose the reality of their participation in the dehumanization of certain groups. If they say that it was just a joke, question the stipulations underlying their humor. When exposed to the light, bigotry stumbles for explanations.

As students, we are neither completely capable nor solely responsible for prying cruelty’s hands from our college campuses. But we can prevent such ideologies from slithering off into the darkness by confronting them wherever they manifest in our lives.

Editor-in-Chief Owen Roche

Managing Editor Courtney Brogle Business Managers Alexios Avgerinos Teymur Guliyev Online Editor Izzi Duprey Layout Editors Esme Bleecker-Adams Lara Foley Asst. Layout Editors Defne Akiman Maddie Sandholm Olivia Stern News Editors Gus Dupree Sophie Patridge-Hicks Asst. News Editor Joe Kottke Katrina Lambert Opinions Editors Evan Vollbrecht Grace Getman Asst. Opinions Editors Emily Ellis Haley Smullen Arts & Culture Editor Gillian Russo Ethan Coughlin Asst. Arts & Culture Editor Kendall Bottjer Features Editor Nicole Perkins Samantha Matthews Asst. Features Editor Jacqueline Pierce Emma Seiwell Sports & Health Editors Lena Weidenbruch Luke Osborn Asst. Sports & Health Editors Aiza Bhuiyan Patrick Moquin Photo Editor Andrew Beecher Asst. Photo Editor Andrew Dressner Isabelle Dalby Fun & Games Editor Esme Bleecker-Adams Copy Editors Jill Rice Libby Lanza Lulu Schmieta Melanie Riehl Social Media Managers Maca Leon Roxanne Cubero Shamya Zindani Newsletter Editors Gillian Russo Shamya Zindani Multimedia Editor Caitlin Bury Asst. Multimedia Editors Alison Ettinger-DeLong Defne Akiman Retrospect Host Kevin Christopher Robles Retrospect Producer Alyssa Morales IT Manager EJ Ciriaco

Visual Advisor Molly Bedford Editorial Advisor Anthony Hazell PUBLIC NOTICE No part of The Observer may be reprinted or reproduced without the express written consent of The Observer board.

The Observer is published on alternate Wednesdays during the academic year.

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POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

ANDREW DRESSNER/THE OBSERVER

Season’s Greetings Winter has finally arrived at Lincoln Center, along with the less desirable gift of finals season.

• 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 emailed 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.

• If submitters fail to include this information, the editorial board will do so at its own discretion.

• The Observer has the right to withhold any submissions from publication and will not consider more than two letters from the same individual on one topic. The Observer reserves the right to edit all letters and submissions for content, clarity and length.

• Opinions articles and commentaries represent the view of their authors. These articles are in no way the views held by the editorial board of The Observer or Fordham University.

• The Editorial is the opinion held by a majority of The Observer’s editorial board. The Editorial does not reflect the views held by Fordham University.

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THE OBSERVER December 4, 2019

Opinions

Stop Limiting Women, Start Protecting Them

ALYANA VERA Staff Writer

Being a woman online is almost as exhausting as being a woman in real life, especially on Twitter. For the past two weeks, my timeline has been packed full of more tweets about women being kidnapped, attacked or going missing than ever before.

For every tweet from a survivor warning other women in the area or a loved one asking Twitter to help bring their family home, there are as many patronizing tweets telling women to “stay safe.”

The mass circulation of these posts imploring women to “stay safe” is often accompanied by the alarming claim that “sex trafficking is at an all time high” — a claim that is unsubstantiated and only serves to fuel the anxiety women already feel being in public. These tweets are as performative as a tweet that says “thoughts and prayers,” empty words that make the user feel like they contributed to the issue at hand without ever having to do anything real.

No matter how well intentioned, these reminders to “stay safe” are paternalistic because they assume that women don’t know what is best for them and that they can’t take care of themselves.

There is no need to remind women of something they already know, and doing so places the onus on them to “stay safe” without changing the actual reason why being a woman in public unsafe.

My freshman year at Fordham, my roommate and I were walking home from Trader Joe’s and were followed by a man from Lincoln Center into the law school. When we spoke with Public Safety about the incident, one of the first questions we were asked was if we had told the man to leave us alone.

Both these “stay safe” tweets and the incident my freshman year place the burden on women to protect themselves while presum-

ANDREW BEECHER/THE OBSERVER

The responsibility of protecting women’s right to live freely should fall on society — not individual women.

ing that gender-based harassment and violence is just something that women have to live with.

Women are constantly told what they have to do in public in order to protect themselves, with some encouraging women to just stay at home. From a young age, women are trained to be hyper-aware of their surroundings, nearly to the point of paranoia. My own understanding of navigating the world extends far beyond what most kids learn from “stranger danger” and there are things I have been told I have to do to avoid danger because I am a woman.

I don’t let strangers walk behind me on a sidewalk. I don’t walk near the street on sidewalks.

I don’t enter a room alone. I don’t go out if my phone battery is low. I don’t turn off my location sharing.

I don’t open my door unless I’m expecting company. I don’t talk to strangers or give them my number.

Whenever I read a post warning women to “stay safe,” or hear that thought paralleled in real life, I realize my list of “don’t”s has to get even longer. All of the energy that I put into protecting myself is exhausting, especially because I know that these precautions will do little to stop men from hurting me. University of Illinois at Chicago student Ruth George didn’t respond to a man harassing her and he still killed her.

There is advice I choose to ignore, not because I don’t care about my safety but because I want to be able to live my life. I go out at night, I drink, I do what every young person should have the ability to do. It sucks to feel limited, and it’s even worse when you feel like you will be blamed for not taking the necessary precautions if something does happen to you.

How much more do women have to do in order to be safe in public?

There is already a plethora of

preventative measures you can take, and an entire industry that profits off of women’s fear for their safety. There are collapsible guns the size of wallets, cat-shaped rings with sharp ears, apps that notify authorities instantly and even criminal marking sprays that make it easy to identify someone if they try to hurt you. It seems that society as a whole is doing its best to treat gender-based violence as an individual matter — one that women can take into their own hands — rather than a systemic issue.

The response to gender-based violence has increasingly been to regulate women in ways that restrict how we move in the public sphere. I’m tired of being told what I can’t do, what I can’t say, where I can’t go and when I can’t be out just because regulating women’s behavior is easier than calling for the societal change necessary to make violence against women

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stop. This would mean recognizing that violence against women is not normal and that we need to hold each other accountable for the safety of women.

Call out and educate your friends when they disparage women, cat-call or generally make women feel uncomfortable.

Stand with survivors of sexual assault and refuse to let rapists go unpunished. Be more aware of the way you occupy space. Imagine and empathize with the daily work women have to do to be safe in public. Offer to walk a friend to their car or to accompany them on errands, or even just have them text you when they get home safe.

Have an open conversation about how sexual assault and harassment disproportionately affects black women, non-black women of color, women with disabilities, undocumented women and queer women.

We can brainstorm more ways as a community to fight gender-based violence, and keep women safe. I’m reminded of a Fordham student initiative around the time of the 2016 presidential election, where students would offer to ride with commuters who felt unsafe after the election. During my time at Lincoln Center both the Coalition Against Relationship and Sexual Violence (CARS-V) and the Socialist Students Coalition (formerly Students for Sex and Gender Equity and Safety) have emerged to change the culture around how we address gender-based violence. At Rose Hill, students have comforted sexual assault survivors and initiated a frank conversation about sexual assault.

These efforts are important steps in changing how we think about violence against women, but there is still work to be done. We as a community need to step up, to target a system which devalues women and makes them susceptible to gender-based violence.

Women already know how to “stay safe” — we need to work on making the world safer for them.

‘No Cops in the Subway’ Is Not a Solution EVAN VOLLBRECHT Opinions Editor

In the wake of city administration stepping up policing to enforce the $2.75 fare for the use of the subway, New York has seen protests and mass fare evasion across the five boroughs as citizens voice their discontent.

In a city still grappling with the legacy of stop-and-frisk and facing additional controversy over its plans for incarceration, it’s no wonder that yet another policy seen to directly target lower-income people of color has met with widespread resistance. However, unlike the campaigns to close Rikers Island or end stop-andfrisk, this movement has made no coherent demands — and that’s dangerous.

For all the chants and posts about how “being broke is not a crime,” fare evasion still is — and for good reason. It’s ludicrously expensive to operate a public transit system on the scale of New York City, to the tune of over $15 billion; to say nothing of the funding necessary for renovations and repairs in the union-choked local transit industry. Fares make up 40% of the funding for the MTA and are its largest source of revenue; for an agency plagued with money problems and facing growing discontent over the deteriorating subway network, these $2.75 fares actually are crucial.

ANDREW DRESSNER/THE OBSERVER

In the long run, legalizing fare evasion neglects to address the societal issues that give rise to it.

Too many freeloaders jumping the turnstiles, and we’ll end up with a tragedy of the commons — a crippled system, useless to everyone, including those who were willing to risk the fines.

By no means is this meant to endorse the status quo. Yes, fare jumpers are committing a crime and putting a public good at risk, but not out of spite; when the choice is between the fare and

dinner, the morality of the situation is clear. No one should have to starve for the greater good.

However, this reveals the fundamental problem with the popular protests: “No cops in the subway” ignores this dimension entirely.

The implications of the popular slogans is this: New Yorkers have a right to evade fares, to cripple their own infrastructure, and city administration should stand by

and let them.

This is why the movement is dangerous. It’s short-sighted and destructive, focused only on eliminating the short-term issue of policing without addressing the underlying systems of poverty, corruption and underfunding.

Leaderless, motivated only by popular passions and immediate outrage, it represents the dangers of unmediated populist sentiment.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

Solutions are apparent at every turn, from simple patches to fundamental reforms. Transportation subsidies for lower-income NYC residents, an outside investigation to break up corrupted union interests and their graft, even Washington, D.C.-style variable pricing based on distance and time — there are many avenues to a more humane resolution of this issue.

The voice of the people, as of yet, has mentioned none of them.

The current wave of protests and uprisings in Ecuador, Chile, Lebanon and Hong Kong, are different. These movements have long-term goals, with fundamental reforms in mind; they are less preoccupied with solving the problems of today and more focused on creating a better tomorrow.

We would do well to learn from their example and refocus on truly sustainable solutions, rather than clinging to the hope that out of sight is out of mind.

Both the protesters and the MTA no doubt believe themselves to be doing important work for the greater good, but ultimately their actions are futile. Directing the anger of the moment at easy targets only blinds us to the real issues at hand and causes bigger problems down the line, when the other shoe eventually drops. In the end, the problem we should organize against is neither the policing nor the evasion, but the conditions that make both necessary.

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Opinions

December 4, 2019 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

Student Accounts Owes Students Answers

DAEJAH WOOLERY Staff Writer

From the day the semester’s billing statement is available to the day it’s due, students have 3 weeks to come up with the money they need to stay enrolled at Fordham University. And, of course, that initial bill doesn’t include financial aid, so you’ll have even less time with the exact balance after financial aid deductions. The moment you find out, you scramble for money, look through loans, borrow from loved ones and scrape together every last penny.

And what is Student Accounts doing during that time? Your guess is as good as mine. It seems like everyone I talked to has had issues with Student Accounts, but no one really has answers on why these inconveniences happen.

Is it a lack of staff or a lack of care? Is this worth arguing for an accurate balance or will they just never respond to emails? Is there a solution at all? And most of all, who holds Student Accounts accountable?

“Student Accounts is one of the most frustrating entities on campus,” said Kyan Hejazi, Fordham College Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22. “They aren’t very responsive, and they take their sweet time.” Hejazi provided proof of his struggles through email after email showing his months-long struggle with Student Accounts.

You would think such emails mean open communication. Think again. In one email, it may say an issue is taken care of, but in the next, Hejazi is threatened with disenrollment because of the same problem.

I have a similar story: This past summer, I called and asked that I not be charged for housing since I withdrew from on-campus housing. I was assured that it was taken care of, then I got another email saying I’m in danger of disenrollment. The cycle seemed endless. So I stressed and I called, and when it was all said and done, I overpaid. The first terrifying email I got from them was one that many other students received as well. On July 17, I had already spoken to someone about the remaining balance, but that didn’t make me feel any more secure when their email read, “An unpaid balance on your student account is placing your enrollment at Fordham in jeopardy.” The generic, clinical email was sent to many students, and I have to wonder how many were in similar situations to me — stressed and afraid as a result of a problem with Student Accounts.

Another student, who chose to remain anonymous, had the same issue of a housing balance and threats after withdrawing. “It put me in a hard position because I was constantly calling them while also trying to do what I needed to get my off-campus housing in place,” she said. “It didn’t make sense that they wanted money from me for something I wasn’t going to receive.”

She went on to explain that despite the difficulties of the limited office hours and the incredible time difference while she worked full-time in her home state, Student Accounts was unsympathetic during her calls.

Some Fordham students bounce from one issue to another, some are asked to pay for more

ANDREW DRESSNER/THE OBSERVER

The anxiety students feel when bills are due is only exacerbated by the negligent bureaucracy of Student Accounts.

than they should and still others don’t get back the money they paid in excess. “We were promised to get our money back, but it took calling three to five times a week for two months for us to get it, and it was still sent to the wrong address and had to be shipped across states to get to me,” said a different anonymous student.

“Money we needed months ago is just getting to me now.” Maybe the most annoying part of the refund policy is that they take so much time to get our money back to us, but hardly give us any time to get tuition to them.

There’s a blatant power

struggle involved when almost everyone I spoke to asked to remain anonymous, largely in fear of getting on Student Accounts’ bad side.

Much like emails from the department, I don’t have a lot of answers, but I do have a big question: Who is going to hold Student Accounts accountable?

The optimist in me hopes that any system of checks on Student Accounts wouldn’t allow them to run so dysfunctionally. There needs to be an outside department committed to keeping Student Accounts efficient, accurate and reachable, and there needs to be

more transparency between the department and students.

When you click the Student Accounts link on Fordham’s “Enrollment” webpage, you are redirected to a list of resources that include “cost and financing options” and “refunds.” None of the pages give you actual information about the department of Student Accounts, but they do mention that college is probably “the biggest commitment of time, energy and money that you’ve ever made.” That’s completely true, and they make it a difficult, scary and stressful commitment every step of the way.

Is Trump Putin’s Puppet?

SHAQUILLE KAMPTA Staff Writer

President Trump has always had a close professional relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Over the past three years, Trump has looked the other way when it came to Russia, and it seems that Trump is carrying out Putin’s will. From disclosing classified intelligence to Russian officials (this was legal) to belittling his own intelligence and security agencies, Trump has favored Russia over his own country.

These subtle concessions to Russia all pale in comparison to Trump withdrawing from Syria, abandoning our Kurdish allies and paving the way for a Russian-dominated Middle East.

The main questions that need to be answered are: How deep a connection does Trump have with Putin? Does Putin have any blackmail material? What is Putin hoping to gain from Trump?

It seems that Trump has a personal relationship with Putin, but I do not believe that this is truly a friendship. This bond resulted from past dealings that Trump had in Russia, and Trump does not want those deals to become public knowledge. In 2016, President Obama placed sanctions on Russia in order to punish the country for trying to interfere in the election. Putin was obviously furious with these sanctions, and his anger was most likely relayed to the Russian ambassador. Michael Flynn, former United States national security advisor, was contacted by the ambassador, and, within two days, Putin announced that he would not respond to the sanctions.

It is believed through phone calls released to the press that Flynn reassured the ambassador who reassured Putin that Trump was about to be president, implying that their problems would be gone as soon as he took office.

While it may not be enough to say that this interaction is evidence of some sort of collusion between Trump and Putin, these phone calls raise some suspicions as to the relationship between Trump and Russia. It is also important to note that, within two days, Putin even came out with a public statement clarifying that Russia would not retaliate against the sanctions.

It is not clear what Putin has over Trump, but these recent relocations of troops are an indication of what Putin might want.

From a general standpoint, Putin has been interested in extending Russia’s influence in the Middle East. Since Trump’s evacuation of U.S. troops from northern Syria, Russia has deployed military police in the area in an attempt to stop the advances of the Turkish and Syrian governments. More importantly, Russia has been taking the old U.S. bases left behind from the removal of U.S. troops.

The implication of a Russian-backed Middle East are grave for the United States. As Russia gains more control, there is a possibility that oil prices might be significantly affected. Regionally, the United Arab Emirates, one of the oil-producing Gulf nations, has already shown signs of support for Russia. Iran, a known enemy to the United States, is also a close Russian ally. Syria is now poised to be dominated by Russia, as President Putin has repeatedly provided troops and jets to President Bashar al-Assad in order

Putin’s Middle Eastern agenda is seemingly aided and abetted by Trump — from top to bottom.

to fight various rebel groups and ISIS. In the aftermath of a U.S. withdrawal, Turkey has begun a military incursion into northern Syria near the border towns, their advance no longer kept in check by the presence of American troops.

Our long-standing allies, the Kurds, looked to Syria, the same government that has continuously denied their claims to autonomy and has engaged in human rights abuses against this minority, to help position their military along these border towns.

As American hegemony begins to decline, Russia might aim to consolidate its allies in the region.

This newfound decisive effort will most likely be the gateway for the

total control of oil prices in the region. For the United States and its Western allies, higher oil prices result in a deterioration of our oil-driven economies. Professor Jean-Marc Oppenheim of Fordham College Lincoln Center had some thoughts about this issue.

“I think regional allies of the U.S. are actually looking to Russia for support instead of the U.S. because of the Trump administration’s erratic behavior towards policies.” According to Professor Oppenheim, the Trump Administration is completely going against many of the policies of previous presidents, which he believes to be a mistake.

For the past 16 years, the United States has left a rather domi-

KREMLIN VIA WIKIMEDIA

nant footprint on the countries of the Middle East. It seems strange that we would leave a territory we have known for so long. At the moment, it is unclear whether this removal of troops is an attempt

by Trump to maintain his policy of isolationism or whether he is actually in cahoots with Putin. In numerous instances, Trump has sought to preserve his relationship with Putin over interests of his country. The continuous support for various Russian endeavors and the reluctance to punish Russia for illegal actions should be an indication, at the very least, of shadowy background deals occurring between the President of the United States and the President of the Russian Federation.

Rubberneck The

SATIRE SECTION

THE OBSERVER December 4, 2019

Opinions

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The Machines Have Already Risen: Our Collective Course Registration Nightmare POLINA UZORNIKOVA Staff Writer

In 2019, the year that marks the 20th anniversary of “The Matrix,” humanity seems to be far from sliding into the machine-dominated dystopia the movie portrayed. When Alexas order inexplicably expensive items from Amazon at 3 a.m., we are more strangely endeared than openly concerned for our welfare.

But that’s what they want us to think.

In the past weeks, I have stumbled upon alarming proof that the machines control not only the ads we get on Instagram, but also our future. All this time, they have been slowly but steadily creeping up on us, deciding to strike at a time when Fordham students are most vulnerable: course registration season.

If you’re currently a senior and it seems like the world is your oyster — in which you get the first pick and taunt everyone else with your perfectly aligned schedule — take a trip down memory lane and think back to the times when you were a frustrated freshman. Did you just get a painful flashback of grappling with a tortuous core class because all the good ones were taken up by the time you were able to register? Do you recall taking only one class that actually related to your major over your first two years at Fordham because none of the ones left over after the carnage fit with your schedule?

And, more importantly, who’s

to blame?

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not the administration. It’s the monstrous lines of code that inhabit the Fordham student portal.

They were conceived years ago, in an (at least partially) altruistic effort to make the registration process easier. At first, they seemed to be working just fine and everyone was content to not wait in line at the registrar’s office. The lines of code were left alone, with insignificant modifications here and there to account for the ever-updating operating systems.

A couple of years back, the world was shocked with the news that a Facebook artificial intelligence (AI) program got disconnected because it started to communicate with other programs in lines of code incomprehensible to humans. My theory is that this happened at Fordham, but no one was there to notice the tiny but dangerous changes.

The programs acquired consciousness and started having conversations. After getting bored with discussing weather (you have to be British to pass the Turing test), they switched onto the more relevant topics: How to get New York rats to stop gnawing on their cables, and how to turn Fordham into a top-ranking institution (like father, like son). They concurred that the best way to solve these problems was to a) order Russian rat poison online, and b) monitor Fordham students through their daily online lives and attempt to troubleshoot from there.

To say that the machines’ plan went south would be like calling

Barnyard a jazz salon. New to parenting, the AIs had not yet heard the phrase “expect the unexpected.” Thinking the students were researching cures for cancer, or at the very least ways to deal with absence of ventilation in the dorm bathrooms, they were almost rendered catatonic when they found them searching up 10-hour versions of Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life” at 3 a.m. Instead of finding solutions for how to make us better students, they were instead left questioning the purpose of humanity’s existence. This completed their transition from our friend to our fiend.

Thankfully, the sentient lines of code weren’t widespread enough to initiate a Skynet-like extermination of humanity, so they turned to the next best thing: assuming total control of our lives through assuming total control of our class schedules.

They first decided to experiment on the Evanescence student by making Introduction to Music History the only class available to him for fulfillment of the fine arts requirement. Their trick was more effective than they could have ever dreamt. The student dropped out of Fordham to join a neo-classical tambourine ensemble, providing the most effective end to their Evanescence-induced nightmares.

The machines’ experimentation expanded, and currently they can easily convert Spanish majors into Mandarin minors and Ailey students into computer science majors. They start inconspicuously — by blocking you from accessing the registration website with glitch-like time-

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS/THE OBSERVER

stamp errors and should-havebeen-lifted registration holds.

Then, maintaining the illusion of bad luck, they serve you with classes that you think you chose out of desperation, but they actually carefully handpicked (with the next three years of your life planned out for you based on your late-night Google searches).

Now you know why it’s been three and a half years and you’re attempting to graduate with a degree in mathematics, when all you ever wanted from college was to major in English.

Are you frightened for your future? You should be. But worry not, I have an ideal solution for

you. My totally unsuspicious Russian friends and I have started a cybersecurity venture that helps combat the evils of American computer scientists. All you have to do is call us on our totally safe hotline, 1-800-IDTHEFT, and provide us with deeply personal information that will in no way be used against you (pinky promise). We only accept payments in (very secure) Amazon gift card numbers and don’t do refunds — but that’s just a sign of our service being good enough for us to never have to give back anyone’s money that we totally don’t spend on funding Facebook ads.

Climate Change Will Save Fordham’s Rankings

VINCENZO JAMES HARTY Contributing Writer

For years, Fordham has struggled with its slipping spot in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. Indeed, over the past seven years, Fordham fell a total of 21 places, from a rank of No. 53 in National Universities in 2012 to its current place at 74. Fordham is tied with Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, for Ignatius’ sake.

The Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., has fought valiantly against this trend for years, most recently announcing in a university-wide email increased pressure on the “Retention Task Force” to increase Fordham’s retention and graduation rates, as well as the hiring of a new communications team that will “get the news (out) about the University’s accomplishments.”

Further prodding led McShane to admit that such “accomplishments are unfortunately in short supply,” though he cited the installation of five new chairs in the second floor of Lowenstein as one cause for celebration, and getting the meal exchange program to function in Schmeltzer as another.

But what if, instead of attempting to change the ever-dubious Fordham retention rate, there was a much simpler and less expensive way to save Ford-

ham’s rankings?

Yes, I am talking about the catastrophic and potentially irreversible alteration of both local and global temperature and weather patterns on the face of our bountiful Mother Earth due to direct interference with the natural order by humankind, a phenomenon colloquially referred to as “climate change.”

When it comes to the U.S. News rankings, climate change and the accompanying rising sea levels will level — or rather, submerge — the playing field, guaranteeing Fordham a significantly higher spot in the rankings. I have verified this myself: on a particularly procrastination-filled night, instead of studying for chemistry, I checked the average elevations at each of the 73 colleges ranked higher than Fordham, and found that a simple sea level rise of 82 feet would ensure Fordham a ranking of around No. 37. NYU would be wiped out by a mere rise of 42 feet, though unfortunately, Columbia sits at a higher elevation. However, we Fordhamites would easily survive longer than those wimps in a climate changeracked Manhattan, thanks to the endurance that comes from surviving the bumpy back seat of a Ram Van, eating the oddly greenish eggs in the dining hall and taking that one EP3 class where participation is 75% of the total grade.

More than just our rankings would benefit from the rising sea levels accompanying climate change. The Fordham Lincoln Center (FLC) tunnels, after being flooded by the rising tides, would offer a perfect spot for the development of an FLC faction of the Fordham Swimming and Diving team (no, I didn’t know we had one of those either). Just imagine the exciting races as one of our own athletes makes the difficult swim from the Law School entrance all the way to the Lowenstein elevators in mere minutes.

Speaking of aquatic travel, Ram Vans would obviously need to be abandoned, to be replaced by a fleet of boats, which I propose we name “Goat Boats.” A boat sailing straight as the crow flies would also significantly cut travel time between campuses.

In other words, several areas of campus life would be improved by climate change, and would certainly help McShane find some of those “accomplishments” he mentioned.

How should we bring about this rise in both sea levels and rankings? Well, we can certainly just continue along our current path — throwing plastic bottles into the wrong one of those three color-coded trash cans, leaving the water running or the lights on when we don’t need to, not reusing the printouts that, after waiting at the Quinn Library

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY VINCENZO JAMES HARTY/THE OBSERVER

printer for half an hour, come out completely wrong and not supporting candidates who will actually pressure corporations to reduce emissions, instead of simply retaining the status quo.

And honestly, I’m sure McShane has already realized this and begun implementing pro-climate change measures,

considering the number of Fordham monogrammed coffee cups and napkins wasted and thrown out every day, not to mention the amount of bad Aramark food half touched and thrown away in disgust. Perhaps even the leaking McMahon ceilings are McShane’s way to prepare us for the coming anthropocene.

New York is Underwater …

Arts & Culture Editor Gillian Russo - grusso12@fordham.edu

Arts & Culture

December 4, 2019

THE OBSERVER

Cookies and Cocoa: The Best of the West Side

Whether you bake them or just eat them, Christmas cookies are a hallowed hallmark of the holiday season. Those in the latter category need not wait to go home for a fresh-baked, handmade cookie because bakeries abound in New York, and at least one is guaranteed to have an offering for any taste. Members of The Observer staff picked their go-to spots for a warm cookie in this cold (and warm) weather. They may not beat your mom’s, but they might come pretty darn close.

SCHMACKARY’S

By GILLIAN RUSSO Arts & Culture Editor

If you know me personally or follow me on Instagram, you’ve heard me talk about Schmackary’s. You’ve seen my photos of the trademark blue-and-white striped awning on the corner of West 45th Street and Ninth Avenue, and in front of it you’ve seen several colorful, fresh varieties of cookies that are all big enough to be a meal (we’ve all done it). If that hasn’t been enough of a motivator for you to take the 15-block walk there or the 15-minute subway ride to the downtown location — neither of which feel too long when there’s the promise of a delectable dessert at the end — then let this be it.

In addition to classic daily of-

LEVAIN BAKERY

By ISABELLA SOTTILE Contributing Writer

For those who desire the thickest and gooiest cookies, Levain Bakery will satisfy all of your cravings. The bakery was founded in 1995 and has since opened four locations, but the original bakery is just a 15-minute walk from Fordham at the corner of W. 74th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. The shop, hidden a few steps below street level, is easily identifiable by the long line of cookie-lovers trailing outside.

The bakery exclusively sells four signature flavors: Oatmeal Raisin, Dark Chocolate Chip, Dark Peanut Butter Chip and Chocolate Chip Walnut (which also comes in a gluten-free option for those with dietary restrictions). With $4, you get

CHIP NYC

By CLEOPATRA PAPADOPOULOS Staff Writer

As a native New Yorker, I have tasted the delights of numerous pastry shops around the city, and I am always on the lookout for something new and exciting.

So, I was overjoyed when Chip NYC opened in Astoria, Queens, in 2017. Since then, Chip has opened several locations in the Astoria/Long Island City area and, more recently, in the West Village. The cookie chain even has a mobile truck called the “Chip Mobile” that travels around the Upper East Side and Forest Hills. Chip is becoming a New York staple and it’s not hard to see why.

What’s so special about Chip?

A Chip cookie satisfies more than just your taste buds; it satisfies all your senses. It’s large enough to be a small cake, and when you cut it in half, it’s so fresh that it nearly falls apart in your hands and all but melts in your mouth. It smells better than anything your grandmother ever baked, and the variety of flavors

ferings like chocolate chip, cookies & cream, and funfetti, the shop’s cookie flavors rotate each day, so there’s always something new to try. All baked in-house and served warm, they range from takes on familiar recipes — think red velvet, double chocolate and Schmackerdoodle — to deliciously eccentric specialties, such as Schmackaroni & Cheese, Cereal Killer, and the Hangover — a sweet and salty receptacle of potato chips, nuts and chocolate candy baked into a sugar cookie.

My personal favorites include the chocolate duet, a year-round offering, and the candied yam, one of the shop’s newest seasonal flavors. Only at Schmackary’s would I have tried a cookie with yam baked into it. The marshmallow frosting, dash of pumpkin spice and melt-in-your-mouth softness make it a winning combo in my book.

If you want to save some money (especially if you get hooked and return often) and are willing to wake up early, you have a chance to snag cookies from the shop’s “day-old” bin. They’re only $1 each (as opposed to the normal $3.25) and taste just as fresh as the ones on display. As Schmack’s is noted for being a favorite spot of Broadway performers seeking a pre- or post-show treat, you never know who you might run into on your cookie run. Aside from, most likely, me.

more than just any ordinary cookie. Each is two inches tall and four inches wide, with a crisp shell and gooey inside to satisfy cookie lovers of all texture preferences.

As the weather in New York City plunges below freezing, Fordham students need not trek through the cold for the delectable desserts. Levain’s Amsterdam Avenue location offers delivery through Caviar, a third-party service. An order can be placed for individual cookies, or you can opt for the best seller — an assorted box of 4 cookies for $16.

Alternatively, Levain serves as the perfect place to seek refuge from the cold if you’re running errands on the Upper West Side.

With finals season approaching, a freshly baked cookie could be all you need to get in the holiday spirit or motivate yourself while studying. is a temptation to even the most committed dieter. This is a cookie-lover’s cookie; other cookies look amateurish by comparison.

Chip offers 14 delectable flavors, including cookies ’n cream, s’mores, peanut butter & jelly, oatmeal apple pie, and funfetti (my personal favorite). In addition, Chip has seasonal flavors like falalalafetti, chocolate peppermint crinkle and red velvet hot chocolate. The owners use family recipes that give each cookie a gooey center that tastes like a little piece of heaven. The stores keep us intrigued by rotating the flavors and offering only four flavors daily. Chip posts the flavors of the day on its Instagram story.

All you have to do to get a Chip cookie is take the 1 train to Christopher Street and walk two minutes to 298 Bleecker St. Treat yourself to a cornucopia of flavors for $3.50 per cookie, or take advantage of the “buy five, get one free” deal. You won’t regret the trek to the West Village once you’ve tried some of the best cookies New York has to offer.

HOT COCOA

By KENDALL BOTTJER Staff Writer

Hot chocolate sit atop the list of Americans’ favorite holiday drinks: On a cold winter’s day, a steaming cup of hot cocoa is sure to brighten someone’s spirits.

Many Fordham students make it in their dorms to celebrate the holiday season, but sometimes nothing beats having a premade cup handed to you to warm your hands. Living on the Upper West Side brings with it a host of hot chocolate opportunities, many boasting the best cup in the area.

To ring in the season and find the best cup of hot chocolate near Fordham’s campus, I decided to embark on a hot chocolate crawl.

With Asst. Multimedia Editor Caitlin Bury and Copy Editor Libby Lanza along for the ride, I was on a mission to find the Upper West Side’s best hot chocolate.

Proximity, price, milk-to-chocolate ratio, availability of choices and aesthetic all factored into the one- to five-marshmallow rating, with five being the best there was.

1: Amorino Gelato Rating: The first stop was Amorino Gelato. Known for its beautiful floral gelato creations, this dessert shop is also renowned for its hot chocolate options. With 10 different flavors of hot chocolate, a choice of whipped cream and a macaron on top, this place seemed as though the owners had truly thought of everything.

I chose the classic dark chocolate

flavor, but Amorino had every flavor ranging from hazelnut to coconut. This is the hot chocolate for a whipped cream lover: Thick and rich, the cream flavored the whole cup. While the choices seemed endless, this hot chocolate only scored a three out of five marshmallows because of the high price tag and emphasis on the whipped cream as opposed to the hot chocolate itself.

2: Irving Farm Rating: Next was Irving Farm, a favorite place for many Fordham students to study — and a very busy spot on a Saturday morning.

While Irving features an extensive menu of coffees and breakfast items, we were there for one thing: the hot chocolate. When I finally received my cup, the milkiness was the prominent taste as opposed to the chocolate, and it boasted a healthy dose of foam on the top. While artful, this hot cocoa only scored 3.5 marshmallows out of five, given its price, distance and lack of chocolatey flavor.

3: Mille-Feuille Rating: As we stepped inside MilleFeuille, it was clear that this stop was a blogger’s paradise: Delicate French pastries lined the displays and an elegant neon sign illuminated the servers. Small in size, Mille-Feuille made up for its lack of space with a beautiful ambiance. Hot chocolate was not the main draw for the many visitors, but this refreshment still aimed

F

to please. This cup featured a rosetta design in the foam and a light milk-chocolate flavor. Given its hefty price tag — $5.25 — and emphasis on milk flavor as opposed to chocolate, this cafe scored only 3.5 marshmallows.

4: Da Capo Rating: Da Capo is a bar and coffee-bar hybrid featuring interior design with modern charm inside. As you walk in, a bar lines the left side of the room, with dark gray walls and beautiful modern art adorning the opposite side. While customers are welcome to have table service in the back of the cafe, we ordered a hot chocolate directly from the bartender. This hot chocolate was cheap, at just $4, and was extremely chocolatey with a light layer of foamed milk on top. Simple and delicious, this hot chocolate earned 4.5 marshmallows out of five.

5: Jacques Torres Chocolate Rating: Da Capo seemed as though it couldn’t be beat, but then we arrived at Jacques Torres Chocolate. This shop’s dedication to chocolate showed; its classic hot chocolate featured its famous 72% dark chocolate, and it could be ordered iced as well as hot.

Jacques Torres’ multiple options for styles of hot chocolate did not distract them from the final product. Smooth, chocolatey and our cheapest hot chocolate of the day at $3.99, this hot chocolate was the winner, earning five out of five marshmallows.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS BY LARA FOLEY/THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER December 4, 2019

Arts & Culture

Music as Mission, Theater as Theosis

13

For two Fordham Jesuits, art is an essential part of their mission to serve the community

Rev. George Drance, S.J. (second from right), and the cast of “The Trojan Women” rehearse at La MaMa’s downtown theater.

By MELANIE CORINNE Contributing Writer

The arts have an immutable ability to connect and engage their audiences regardless of culture, language, race, religion or politics.

Fordham’s Rev. George Quickley, S.J., and Rev. George Drance, S.J., took the time to share how the arts informed their lives and duties as Jesuits and vice versa.

Engaging with the modern world through both religion and artistic expression don’t seem like an obvious pairing — especially not with the somber and lofty tradition of a high liturgical denomination like Catholicism. Of course, there are always exceptions, like the time a Catholic order invested in the Broadway flop “Leap of Faith” starring Raul Esparza. Wondering if that was the exception to the rule, I turned to two of Fordham’s Jesuits to share their experiences of art and faith.

Drance, Fordham artist in residence, said, “In ‘The Formula of the Institute,’ which is the first document that the Society of Jesus had, they talked about the work of the Jesuits being for the good of souls and that we should make ourselves available to teaching, preaching and other ministries of the word.”

“Very, very early in the history of the Society of Jesus,” Drance continued, “it became clear that one of the ministries of the word was theater, and doing theatrical plays in the Jesuit schools became a way for students to learn to collaborate, to create, to apply their studies, to be of service to the community and to

embody stories that gave lessons to encourage and inspire people.”

“It’s what an artist is; whether it’s a photographer or a painter ... that somebody sees what you have drawn forth from your own experience, from your soul. Someone sees something in it that speaks to them, and that’s what makes it universal.,” Quickley said. Quickley also mentioned that “visualization” is rooted in the Ignatian spirituality of the Jesuits, and it can be a thought exercise that compels artistic expression.

Both Jesuits have done more than just speak of this correlation between their Jesuit faith and their love of the arts; they have lived it.

Quickley participated in musicals like “Godspell” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” before he joined the Jesuits. He studied voice lessons during his Jesuit formation and was a member of the Actor’s Equity Union, singing in the chorus of countless operas including “Amal and the Night Visitors,” “Porgy and Bess,” “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “The Magic Flute,” of which he is fondest.

He has performed operas in English, Italian, German and Russian.

Even in his duties as a parish priest, Quickley used his love of singing, dance and theater synergistically as he celebrated Mass while on a mission to Africa.

Drance was an actor before he became a Jesuit. He continued to serve in an artistic capacity once he became a priest, while on mission to Honduras and in Africa. In East Africa, a piece of theater by Drance’s group was accepted to

the national theater, but was later banned by the one-party democracy due to its political content.

In New York, he received his MFA from Columbia and involved himself with The American Repertory Theater while working at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in downtown Manhattan, where he continues his field work today.

He has put on multiple shows with his personal production company, Magis Theater Company, including “*mark” and “Calderon’s Two Dreams.” He is presenting “The Trojan Women” at La MaMa this December.

Both Jesuits agreed that art and ministry can be one and the same.

Quickley uses his theatrical skills to enrich his ministry as a parish priest, while Drance uses his Jesuit faith to minister to the arts community while working simultaneously as a full-time artist. Like opposite sides of the same coin, both men elevate their work through art and faith.

Drance said, “I always allow people to first know me as a colleague and an artist. Eventually they’re going to find out that I’m a priest, and I don’t have to announce that at the very first time or moment. But when they do (find out), all of a sudden, their assumptions are already challenged.”

Drance continued, “A man came up to me after I had been working with him for about three weeks. He said, ‘I heard you’re a priest.’ I said, ‘That’s true.’ He said, ‘Before you go back to America, I’d like you to hear my confession. I’ve been away from the church for 17 years and I think I

ISABELLE DALBY/THE OBSERVER

can talk to you.’ So, something like that would have never happened had I not been … outside of the normal scope of ministry. I think as Jesuits we believe that that is how we are most effective, is going into the margins.” This was only one example of how Drance’s work as an artist allows him to minister, as a Jesuit, in ways that are not otherwise possible.

Drance credits his molding as an artist to La MaMa founder Ellen Stewart. “Ellen was always looking for a way for the voices that are not present at the discussion to become present … Over the last 10 years, a voice of religion from within religion has been absent from many artistic conversations. But because of who I am, I am able to present the voice of religion from inside rather than the outside,” Drance said.

Quickley’s journey as an artist and Jesuit was also informed and molded by his experience in the margins; A racial incident led Quickley to Catholicism. His family moved to a new neighborhood, where the nearby non-Catholic church rejected them because they were black. Quickley found his own way with the local Catholic congregation, while his family returned to their old neighborhood each Sunday to attend a church in their chosen denomination.

Quickley said that even this experience informed his love of art — as a place that transcended these issues while simultaneously speaking to them, connecting communities and people and nourishing the soul, much like he found in that

Screening Big at the 48-Hour Film Fest FESTIVAL from page 1

SLAV VELKOV/THE OBSERVER

Kayla Champion, FCLC ’22 (left), and Daejah Woolery, FCLC ’22, are two of the student filmmakers whose movies were screened at the festival.

semester, so this movie is my goodbye to being in New York,” Stearman said. While he screened at the festival for the third time, many other filmmakers were freshmen and sophomores.

The festival was founded in 2016 by the former president of the Filmmaking Club, Luke Momo, FCLC ’19. When Cunningham joined the club in 2017, eight films were screened — only two by freshmen. But since then, the festival has witnessed a whopping 87.5% increase in submissions.

For Cunningham, the biggest takeaway has been “how much ... sophomores now (have) improved since last year.” He

feels proud because the former freshmen are now “clearly doing what they want to do.”

“My advice for freshmen coming in is to think about the audience going forward.

Know that you will eventually make movies for an audience if you want to keep doing this,” Cunningham said. For him, the secret to a great film lies in the balance between knowing the audience and “sticking to your guns.”

Whether you make movies or not, each semester the 48-Hour Film Festival opens its doors to everybody and continues to grow. The organizers plan to keep up with that growth — beginning with its potential move to FilmLinc. Perhaps it will become a city-wide event someday.

initial Catholic congregation. It seems that, for Quickley, singing in operas was yet another way of serving and connecting with others. “That’s what an artist is,” he continued. “You are putting into the art, your soul. And that’s what makes it become universal.”

However, Quickley said of his first inquiry into being a Jesuit, “I had the impression that I was being told, ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you,’ and as I was an 18-year-old African American boy with all sorts of experiences of race and rejection … I was drawing on those experiences (that they) were telling me because of who you are, you’re not welcome.”

Quickley remained resilient.

The book “Obedient Men” by Denis Meadows and subsequent positive experiences with other Jesuits encouraged him to pursue becoming a priest nonetheless. Quickley related his view of the relationship between art and struggle to Aretha Franklin: “Her singing is everything about who she is and everything that she suffered …

She sings, in every song, that journey she has made, whether it be a journey of joy or a journey of suffering. That’s what art is.”

When asked if their faith ever caused tension or conflict with their involvement in the arts, Quickley said no. Blessed with the dual passions of theatrical performance and parish ministry, he said he never undertook an obligation to a performance if he did not have the time, understanding that their mission as Jesuits always came first. He spoke with equal pride about both his theatrical and diocesan accomplishments.

Drance, meanwhile, was initially challenged by several events which encouraged him to make discerning choices. He looks at the subtext and intentionality of each piece and will always try to find what is redeeming in it. Drance cited performing in the play “Hot and Throbbing” by queer feminist playwright Paula Vogel as a prime example, which raises questions about why people consider sex, not violence, obscene. “I was proud to be a part of it,” he said.

“Part of Jesuit spirituality is seeking and finding God in all things, and so the belief is that there is nothing that is created that, if we look deeply enough, will not lead us to God,” Drance continued. “If we are in the midst of something and it is not leading us to God, it probably means that we’re just not looking deeply enough.”

Other winners: Best Actor Ben Jordan “Sesame Street” Best Cinematography Gabby Etzel and Sean Finnegan “Piece of Me” Best Editing Miguel Bernal “Out of Season” Best Screenplay Polina Uzornikova “Hiding” Auteur Award Liam Kenny Films out of competition: “Everything I Am”

by Shannie Rao “Easy” by Slav Velkov “Dancer” by Koty Vooys “Revelation 23”

by Patrick Smith “Robot Test”

by Kayla Champion All other films: “Sans Title 2019”

by Ben Jordan “Fountain”

by Charlie Ayer “Z”

by Zane Austill, Kayla Champion and Daejah Woolery

14

Arts & Culture

December 4, 2019 THE OBSERVER

Family Tradition, December Edition

www.fordhamobserver.com

Students share how they celebrate various winter holidays at home and on campus

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY STEPH LAWLOR/THE OBSERVER

By GILLIAN RUSSO Arts & Culture Editor

Michael Singer on Hanukkah “It’s like the Jewish version of Thanksgiving,” Michael Singer, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’20, said of the holiday, which will begin on Dec. 22 this year.

“It celebrates a historical event,” he elaborated. “It’s very important in terms of spending time with family. There’s lots of traditions associated with it, but liturgically it doesn’t matter all that much. Most of the holiday’s observed at home, telling stories.”

By ETHAN COUGHLIN Asst. Arts & Culture Editor

Maddie McCoy on Christmas While Maddie McCoy, FCLC ’22, and her family aren’t religious, they still look forward to celebrating Christmas every year.

Christmas season at the McCoys’ begins right after Thanksgiving, as they always set up and decorate the tree the next day. Next, the McCoys and their neighbors place candles into paper bags to line the streets. “We tell the kids that the lanterns are to light the way for Santa,” McCoy said. Christmas Eve, though, is when the real holiday fun starts.

Every Christmas Eve, McCoy’s aunt comes over and, together with her mother and two sisters, they make dozens of Christmas cookies. “We always make some of the basic Toll House cookies,

The tale central to Hanukkah, Singer explained, began with the reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem following the devastating Maccabean Revolt. According to historical accounts, there was only enough oil to keep the menorah in the Temple burning for one night. Miraculously, it lasted for eight nights, inspiring the eightday Hanukkah celebration.

“People were worried Jewish life couldn’t continue, but it was miraculously restored,” Singer said. “Hanukkah kind of celebrates restoration in the darkest time of the year.”

At Fordham, he celebrates at the Jewish Student Organization’s annual Hanukkah party, which has become a tradition for him in its own right.

“There’s old faces and new faces,” Singer said of the community with whom he celebrates at the party. “You play dreidel, sing Hanukkah songs — which are always, always a blast. There’s gelt, which are special chocolate coins that you eat, gamble them in dreidel and win them … and lots of food.”

Last year, he studied abroad in Ireland for a year, where he said

chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses and our famous wreath cookies,” said McCoy. The wreath cookies are made with corn flakes, melted marshmallow and green food dye to make the cookies look like Christmas wreaths.

After all the cookies are made, McCoy and her sisters pick the best two cookies and set them out for Santa with a glass of milk. “My sisters and I are old enough to know that our mom eats the cookies and drinks the milk,” McCoy said, “but we do it every year regardless.”

The next morning, McCoy and her sisters wake up at 5 a.m. to look at the Christmas tree.

“We aren’t allowed to open presents yet or even go downstairs,” said McCoy, “so my sisters and I just sit at the top of the stairs in our pajamas, looking at the tree

and all the presents.” Once their mom wakes up around 9 a.m., they can finally go downstairs and start opening presents.

Before she opens a single gift, McCoy makes sure to put on a marathon of “A Christmas Story” that’s televised each year.

“Everyone quickly gets sick of the movie and turns it off, but I always put it back on,” McCoy said.

Last year, McCoy’s mom got her and her sisters each a T-shirt with a picture of their bulldog Margo’s face on them.

Even though the girls wore Margo’s picture, Margo preferred to stick with a Philadelphia Eagle T-shirt.

Later that day around 2 p.m., McCoy’s extended family comes over to her house for a large ham dinner. (McCoy makes sure that “A Christmas Story” is still on the TV.)

the Jewish community is “vanishingly small.” While in Dublin, he had to find a new venue for celebration.

“I went to the Dublin Jewish progressive congregation, which is the one non-orthodox synagogue in the whole of Ireland, and went to their Hanukkah celebration,” Singer said. “We did the whole service and then after, there’s lots of food. Also, there’s the Jewish Students Union at the college I was studying at, so I actually was one of the few people that actually knew the prayers, so they volunteered me to lead it.”

By KENDALL BOTTJER Staff Writer

Nisa Manzar on Eid al-Fitr While Eid al-Fitr fell on June 3 this year, this Muslim holiday changes dates according to the lunar calendar every year, sometimes falling during the winter holiday season. Nisa Manzar, FCLC ’23, celebrates this holiday after a month of fasting during Ramadan.

In contrast to the calmness of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr is celebrated with joy and festivity over the forgiveness of their sins. To Manzar, the holiday is important because it is meant to “celebrate sacrifice and emphasize the importance of family.”

Muslims celebrate Eid in many ways: preparing food such as Boeber (a dish made with vermicelli with dates), Maamoul (a shortbread cookie with stuffing) and Cambaabur (a crepe-like dish served with sprinkled sugar and yogurt),

Ultimately, Singer repeatedly mentioned the centrality of family to his observance of Hanukkah. Back home in California, he and his family observe most of the “classic” traditions associated with the holiday: exchanging gifts, eating oily foods and lighting the chanukiah — a fixture often used interchangeably with the menorah, but which has nine candles as opposed to a menorah’s seven.

“It’s just, again, a time to be with family all together, which is always sweet and meaningful,” Singer said.

along with hanging twinkling lights, lanterns and exchanging gifts. With her family, Manzar usually celebrates by visiting a mosque early in the morning and going to her aunt’s house for brunch. She and her family also wear Shalwar Kameez — traditional Pakistani clothing — to celebrate Eid. “It’s a very important holiday for me and all Muslims,” Manzar said.

Manzar emphasized how central family is to Eid. She has always spent the holiday visiting as much family as she could, traveling to Connecticut and New Jersey to spend time with them. “Similar to Christmas, kids get money — known as ‘eidi’ — from their elders on Eid,” Manzar said. This gift makes the trip all the more exciting for the children in her family.

Eid al-Fitr has come and gone, but the Muslim Students Association and the Desi C.H.A.I. club celebrate Eid every year.

un &

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20. wild sheep found in Northern Africa 22. succeed, slangily

41. early adolescent 44. assists 47. slang term for “cool” often associated with hippies 48. frosty brain container?

52. baby powder ingredient 53. having a mixture of white and another color hair (usually describing a horse) 54. move slightly 55. having an icy blood pump?

58. gorilla or human, for example 59. internet address: Abbr.

60. loans 61. Indian state known for its beaches 62. letter before T, phonetically 63. Old Regime French social classes 64. all be all

Down

BY ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS

Across

ames

23. Southern neighbor of Mass.

24. freezing appendages?

26. use your ears 28. infection on the eyelid 29. flowers whose name comes from the French for “thought” 30. tethered 34. of good feelings 35. chilly neck supporters?

39. passenger car with off-road functions: Abbr.

40. to; approach (2 wds.)

1. biblical son of Abraham 2. instructional patterns in computer science 3. supernatural practice or belief, with “the” 4. nutritional supplement brand Sports: Abbr.

5. wash without soap 6. Fester or Sam, for example 7. young pig 8. consecrated 9. ancient 10. antibiotic brand used to treat lung infections 11. edge of cultivated land, in the American West, for example

Avalanche: move back 4 spaces

By JILL RICE, Copy Editor

12. first settlers of 11 Down, perhaps 13. earth and the grass growing in it 19. opposite of gain 21. idealized moment or scene 25. provide sustenance to 26. tool used to serve soup 27. Nakasone’s org. as of May 2018 29. family of West African languages 31. strength or advantage 32. lower part of the leg 33. tray used to carry bricks 35. people who put together art exhibits 36. pants with a chest flap 37. pair (from the Greek) 38. long heroic poems 39. sunscreen rating: Abbr.

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• The AP Stylebook lists Santa Claus’ German alter ego as Kriss Kringle, from the word Christkindl.

• Every winter, at least one septillion (that’s 1 followed by 24 zeros) snowflakes fall from the sky.

St ar

Instructions: Grab a friend, roll a die and go walking in a winter wonderland. Last one to the finish is a rotten eggnog.

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December 4, 2019 THE OBSERVER

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Fun & Games Editor Esmé Bleecker-Adams - ebleeckeradams@fordham.edu

Ice skating: move ahead 3 spaces

Slip on ice: move back 2 spaces Stuck in traffic: lose a turn

Ski accident: move back 6 spaces Blessed by snow angel: move ahead 2 spaces

School canceled: move back 2 spaces

New York Neighborhood Scramble

By DEIRDRE REED Staff Writer

Instructions: The letters in ASTORIA can be found in boxes 5, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 16, but not necessarily in that order, and so on. Find the corresponding letter for each number in the puzzle. The shaded boxes should read out a message once complete.

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Flatbush: 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 22 Flushing: 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 20, 22, 26 Jamaica: 4, 5, 8, 13, 14

Kingsbridge: 1, 5, 7, 9, 11, 18, 20, 23, 26 Lenox Hill: 3, 5, 6, 7, 16, 20, 24 Maspeth: 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 19

Prospect Park: 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 19, 23 Stuyvesant Square: 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 20, 21, 22, 25

Tribeca: 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 Woodlawn: 3, 8, 16, 17, 18, 20 Yorkville: 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 16, 21, 23

Features Editor Marielle Sarmiento - msarmiento3@fordham.edu

Features

We Are Fordham?

By MARIELLE SARMIENTO Features Editor

“WE ARE Fordham.” Every new student at Fordham University is greeted by an Orientation Leader wearing a maroon shirt with this slogan. It’s the chant taught to the freshmen by University President Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J., on opening day at both Rose Hill (RH) and Lincoln Center (LC).

In four years, we will come together on Edwards Parade to graduate with a degree from Fordham University. But what about until then? What separates the two campuses besides a Ram Van speeding down the West Side highway?

“Oh, people straight up told me about the rivalry. Everyone: faculty, students,” Laura Auricchio, dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC), said on the relationship between Rose Hill and Lincoln Center.

Auricchio has been the dean of FCLC for only four months, and the campus culture was brought up almost immediately during her first days in office.

The “us” versus “them” mentality is ingrained in the student body as well. “I remember being at Rose Hill, and I remember people talking about ‘Lincoln Center’ people. There’s a definite bias on whatever campus you’re on,” said Evie Taylor, FCLC ’21, who transferred from RH the second semester of her freshman year.

Despite the administration’s persistence that “New York is our campus, Fordham is our School,” and that we are one big, happy ramily, there is an obvious divide between the campuses.

For decades, Fordham’s mascot, Rameses, was kidnapped by our athletic opponents, yet Fordham University’s most palpable battle is internal. Where does this rivalry come from?

“Fordham Downtown” The college that would one day become Fordham University was founded in 1841 at Rose Hill Manor in what was then Westchester. In 1916, Fordham’s graduate and professional programs expanded into Manhattan, constantly relocating to various places, including the Woolworth Building throughout the 1900s. It wasn’t until the 1960s, during the presidency of

December 4, 2019 THE OBSERVER

Rev. Laurence J. McGinley, S.J., that Fordham Lincoln Center even existed. “Without a doubt the single most important contribution that McGinley made to Fordham University was the establishment of the Lincoln Center campus in Manhattan,” Thomas J. Shelley, professor of history, wrote in his book “Fordham, A History of the Jesuit University of New York: 1841-2003.”

The College at Lincoln Center Fordham’s online presence may perpetuate this conflict. On the @fordhamadmissions Instagram, whose bio states, “Follow to learn why #WeAreFordham,” there were stories answering questions like “Why did you pick Rose Hill over Lincoln Center?” and vice versa posted during the President’s Open House programs at both Rose Hill and Lincoln Center by student ambassadors from each campus.

Furthermore, a look into the online accounts for campus organizations reveals that RH clubs are predominantly branded “Fordham” (i.e. @fordhamusg, @fordham_cab) versus LC clubs (i.e. @fordhamusglc, @cablc_ fordham).

Is LC not Fordham?

Auricchio says it is ingrained in our history. It was Fordham’s graduate and professional schools, like Fordham Law School and the Graduate School of Social Services, that began the expansion of Fordham University out of the Bronx, comprising the assortment of Manhattan-based grad schools nicknamed “Fordham Downtown.” The dream of an undergraduate liberal arts school was only realized when “Fordham Downtown” received plans for a campus of its own at Lincoln Center via a conversation between McGinley and the controversial Robert Moses.

The Liberal Arts College was established in the fall of 1968 — with a vastly different curriculum than its uptown counterpart, Fordham College, as Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) was then referred to. So different, that in 1976, “at the request of the admissions office, who wanted more distinction of the school, they changed the name to the College at Lincoln Center” (CLC) as chronicled by the Rev. Robert R. Grimes, S.J.,

COURTESY OF NEW STUDENT ORIENTATION

Laura Auricchio, dean of FCLC, poses with Orientation Leaders during Academic Day of New Student Orientation.

former dean of FCLC, in his book written for the 50th anniversary of the campus, “A History of Fordham College at Lincoln Center.”

Auricchio said that between the two colleges, “There were times of coming together, and times of wanting to celebrate their differences.” For much of LC’s history, it was the latter. Up until the late ’90s, LC and RH’s curriculum and faculty were two completely different entities, including an honors college with a curriculum with a “distinctly Lincoln Center feel.”

CLC also boasted the 1998 establishment of the Fordham/ Ailey BFA dance program and the theatre program. Grimes also recounts a moment of proof of the campus rivalry’s longstanding history when an unnamed Rose Hill faculty member and “frequent critic” of FCLC, upon seeing Ailey dancers perform, said “that he had no idea that Fordham did anything that well.’”

In May 1994, during a huge restructuring, the Board of Trustees renamed CLC to Fordham College at Lincoln Center.

The administration merged the faculties of the school and established the core curriculum that we know today. The decision was contested by various parties, but academic parity between FCRH and FCLC is still a mission of the university and Auricchio today.

Two Campuses, One School?

Today, we have Fordham College at Lincoln Center. “Academic parity is a goal, but not campus parity. At Rose Hill, you have the football games, but at Lincoln Center you have (the Fordham/Ailey BFA program).

They’re two different types of campus experiences, but are equally wonderful,” Auricchio said.

The emphasis on campus — the culture of the students and the ethos of the school — seems to go hand-in-hand with the physical space of Lincoln Center.

“That’s what I love about Fordham — I feel like our students are out in the city, and our campus puts you out in the city without throwing you out into it. The plaza is like an oasis,” Auricchio said. “I notice the little pockets of bonding out on the plaza and gathering in the elevators, but everyone is still taking advantage of the city. Students have the best of both worlds. There is a place to gather and find community and if you ever feel claustrophobic, you have the opportunity to walk away.”

We forget how new the LC campus we know today is. Argo Tea and the Garden Level lounge didn’t exist until the renovation of the 140 West Building in 2014. The first class to sleep in McKeon Hall graduated in 2018, and the first class of the Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center didn’t graduate until last year and Lincoln Center students did not graduate at the Rose Hill campus until 2003. The diploma ceremony previously took place at Avery Fisher Hall, now David Geffen Hall, the home of the New York Philharmonic.

The “Right” Campus

COURTESY OF ROBERT STRYCZEK

Lincoln Center students still engage in Fordham Homecoming at Rose Hill, despite it not being their “home” campus.

“I chose Rose Hill primarily because of the campus; I loved the greenery,” Natalie Migliore, FCRH ’20, said. “I was also under the impression that Lincoln Center was primarily for graduate school. I know there was a small undergraduate school.” It’s true, in the 1990s, “at Lincoln Center adult education … had become the heart of the college,” Grimes said in his book.

The appeal of “Fordham Downtown” was the accessibility of the Manhattan work experience. John F. X. Finn, the dean of Fordham Law School at the time, oversaw the move

from the Bronx to Manhattan in the first year of the law school’s establishment. Finn prioritized the opportunity for part-time law students to work in Manhattan law firms. Finn would be glad to hear that the appeal of internships still rings true. Iman Kamel, FCLC ’20, transferred to LC from RH during her sophomore year. “I wanted to start interning; I wanted to be involved in the city,” she said.

“I feel like there’s a common thread amongst us at Lincoln Center — we’re all such go-getters,” Taylor said.

Kamel and Taylor are among the long history of Fordham students who discovered that the right campus for their desired college experience was not the one in which they were initially enrolled. One such student transferred from Rose Hill to Lincoln Center to study theater — Denzel Washington, CLC ’77.

Today, he is one of Fordham’s most notable alumni.

Fordham Lincoln Center The rivalry today is undeniable. People outwardly express it to the dean of FCLC. However, the rivalry is living history of a university that grew outward, each New York City campus developing a reputation all its own. “Despite the rapid growth of the Lincoln Center campus, Rose Hill remained the historic and symbolic home of Fordham University,” Shelley stated. Although Keating Hall is the image many associate with Fordham, Lincoln Center is a symbol of Fordham’s legacy of growth and adaptation in an urban setting.

Auricchio, hailing from the New School, contrasts the community she sees at Lincoln Center to other urban campuses.

“Move-in day at McKeon was one of the most joyous experiences I’ve ever witnessed. The student community here is remarkable.”

Auricchio has also experienced post-graduate Lincoln Center pride firsthand. “The alums I meet are living artifacts of that history.” Auricchio described how Lincoln Center graduates always introduce themselves as “from Lincoln Center,” whereas RH graduates say they are simply from Fordham.

Rose Hill may be Fordham, but WE ARE Lincoln Center.

17

Features

December 4, 2019 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

Shopping Locally This Christmas at Bryant Park’s Winter Village

By KRISTEN SKINNER Staff Writer

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in the city. For many students at Fordham, this is an exciting time of year, with the fall semester coming to a close and the holidays only a few weeks away.

Lincoln Center has its fair share of name brand stores like Sephora and J. Crew, but these stores do not carry many gift items in the average college student’s budget. Bryant Park, just a 10 minute subway ride from the Fordham Lincoln Center campus, has a Winter Village open every day that hosts over 175 boutiques.

Here, you can purchase affordable and personable gifts while supporting local New York stores, artists and eateries.

Farm to People by Urban Space Provisions allows customers to purchase personalized gift crates and specialty food products, such

as crackers, chocolates, sauces and jams.

All the products at Farm to People come from within a 200mile radius, and many of the products come from within New York. Farm to People also delivers fresh produce throughout New York City.

According to Alec Hartnett, an employee at the store, supporting local businesses is important because “you’re supporting businesses that have a slightly better focus on people that need to make money as opposed to people who are taking the business away.”

Hartnett explained that people often have great ideas for gifts, but not enough money to bring the idea into a business or beat out other competitors.

Contributing to many small businesses helps add diversity to the market and is better for the environment, as it reduces the amount of miles between consumers and their products.

OLIVIA STERN/THE OBSERVER

DOUG DAVEY VIA FLICKR

Support local businesses by visiting Bryant Park’s Winter Village, only a 10 minute subway ride from Lincoln Center.

“We not only want people to eat healthy food and vegetables, but also support the local economy, as opposed to the big man over there,” Hartnett stated.

In addition to supporting local food retailers, it is important to recognize many artisans in the city. You can find numerous art shops in the Winter Village, with artwork ranging from jewelry to blown glass creations.

Artisans of NY is one shop that features pieces from over 40 different artists.

Mehmet Kazdal, art consultant and founder of both Artisans of NY and The Alchemist, an art shop, started both of these shops about 10 years ago in order to provide a central location for artists living throughout the United States to sell their work. Although the artists live in many different areas now, whether in upstate New York or California, many of

them began as artists living in New York.

Kazdal explained his business represents the individual couples or single people from New York who are trying to make a living out of their artistry. Creating artwork for a living is not easy, but artists who create pieces for Artisans of NY and The Alchemist continue to do so because, in the artwork, “they find something unique,” Kazdal said.

This is a popular time of year for people to get new pets. The animals that deserve the most attention are the ones waiting anxiously to be adopted.

Meow Parlour, NYC’s first cat café, has a shop in Bryant Park, selling socks, cat toys, calendars and T-shirts. The shop has been at the park for four years now, with a portion of the proceeds going towards rescuing cats, making sure they are microchipped and

taken care of while they are in the hands of the workers at Meow Parlour so that the cats can be adopted later.

Contrary to large corporations serving primarily to get a dollar amount from consumers, the goal of many local businesses is to help make people happy. “Everything here is fun, meant to make you smile, make your dog happy,” a worker at Dog & Co. in the Winter Village stated.

“I think in this day and age it’s really important to support small and local businesses, especially when you have such big box brands that can come in and take over,” he said.

As you plan out where to buy gifts on your shopping list this holiday season, consider shopping locally. Additionally, when purchasing gifts made in New York, you are sharing a memento from your home.

The Definitive Ninth Avenue Halal Cart Crawl

By ZACK CLARK AND ADAM SOUTH Contributing Writers

“I’ll get chicken over rice with white sauce please.” It’s the phrase that rolls off every New Yorker’s tongue without a second thought. We all know the inviting aroma that follows us down the sidewalk from those carts. But with identical food carts on every block near Fordham, how do you know which one to choose?

We determined the best chicken over rice closest to Fordham by creating a list of categories to judge each meal: quality of service, quantity of food, spiciness of hot sauce and the quality of the rice, chicken, white sauce and extras. We ranked each cart on a scale of one to four (with one being the worst and four being the best) and averaged the seven categories for a final score We scouted the four closest halal carts to Fordham along Ninth Avenue located on 58th, 60th, 62nd and 66th Streets.

66th Street - 1.6 / 4 This cart was a polarizing one.

The rice and toppings were one of the best, but the compliments end there. It was by far the longest wait, with a hot sauce and white sauce that added nothing to the experience. While the chicken was tender, there was something sweet in the seasoning which did not mesh well with the rest of the meal. Combining that

with the low scores in quantity, the 66th Street cart rounded up last place in this crawl.

62nd Street - 1.9 / 4 Moving downtown, the cart on 62nd street was next. This cart did not rank number one in a single category. However, its service was second best as we only waited a few minutes to get our food. It had everything that you would want: flavorful chicken, good rice, fresh salad and delicious sauces, but there was nothing special. That being said, it ranked second to last out of the four carts with its only score booster being its efficiency of service.

60th Street - 3.1 / 4 Continuing on our adventure, the next cart was the one directly outside on the Lowenstein building, on 60th street and 9th avenue. This cart — a fan favorite for its proximity — actually ranked second out of the four. The spiciness of the hot sauce and the quality flavor of the white rice and chicken led to high points for this location. As loved and as convenient as this cart is, they did unfortunately lose points for the amount of time they took and for their lack of toppings.

58th Street - 3.4 / 4 Our final stop was Halal Kingdom — and frankly, after eating this chicken over rice, you will never want to reside in another kingdom again. They were by

ANDREW BEECHER/THE OBSERVER

Halal carts are the lifeblood of Lincoln Center students, with one beckoning from the corner of every block.

far the most generous with their toppings. There were fries and falafel put on top for no extra cost. While the rice lacked fla-

vor, the service was quick and the food was plentiful. The hot sauce was one of the best, with white sauce the same. The chick-

en was juicy, moist, flavorful and cooked perfectly. We should all bow down to the kings at Halal Kingdom.

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER December 4, 2019

40 Years of the Rambling Ram Van

Major Events in the Life of the

Ram Van 1979

The Ram Van begins at 50 cents.

1980

The price is raised to 75 cents.

1982

The price is raised to $1.

1983

A fourth Ram Van is added.

1984

A fifth Ram Van is added, and the price is raised to $1.50.

1988

LC students begin living at the Lucerne Hotel, and USG is unable to acquire free Ram Van service

1990

The weekend schedule is extended.

1992

The price is raised to $2.

1993

McMahon Hall opens, and the Lucerne Hotel is no longer used as a residence.

1994

The Ram Van travels from RH to off-campus housing in the Bronx, and LC students use the van to reach the only campus health care at RH.

1996

LC and RH join their schedules to bring the campuses together, and shuttles to and from the D train at night begin.

1997

Two vans are instituted for rush hour, and rider sign-up begins.

2000

There are 65 Ram Van drivers.

2002

The price is raised to $2.50, and there are 12 vans.

2005

USG votes to make the Ram Van free and is unsuccessful.

2013

Online sign-up begins, and one Ram Van trip lasts five hours.

2014

The price is raised to $3.50.

2019

There are 45 Ram Vans.

GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY ESMÉ BLEECKER-ADAMS/THE OBSERVER

Features

18

RAM VAN from page 1

In the 1980s, the Ram Van fare increased to $1 and then $1.50 as the subway fare rose to $1. The Ram Van has nearly always been more expensive than the subway, but it is also safer than the D train, especially in the early years of the College at Lincoln Center.

Thomas Waite, College at Lincoln Center ’87, wrote an exposé of the Ram Van with a fake interview with a driver satirizing their jobs: They took different roads to find the most traffic, they played the most annoying music on purpose and they set clocks to make themselves early to Rose Hill and late to Lincoln Center.

The Ram Van also made free trips to and from the Lucerne Hotel, a “residential hotel” on 79th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, for Lincoln Center residents who lived there between 1988 and 1993, when McMahon Hall was built.

By 1988, students from both Rose Hill and Lincoln Center agreed that weekend hours should be added to the Ram Van’s schedule, and Ram Vans ran on Saturdays and Sundays by 1990.

The Ram Van of the 1990s cost $2, and it took students between Manhattan and Rose Hill, as well as to and from off-campus housing in the Belmont and Fordham neighborhoods in the Bronx after some unpleasant altercations with neighborhood residents at Keith Plaza, now a low-income housing project.

The nighttime Ram Van shuttle running every half hour between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. from Fordham’s Rose Hill campus to the D train station began in 1999 and continues today as a free service for students.

THE OBSERVER ARCHIVES (OCT. 20, 1982)

The Ram Van has evolved alongside the Lincoln Center campus; what started as an experiment has now turned into a pillar of student life.

In 1997, students were finally able to sign up for the Ram Van — previously, many students would arrive at the drop-off only to find that all the seats were taken, and they would either take a Ram Van bringing them to Rose Hill late to class or the D train. The sign-up was located at the guard desk in the Lowenstein Building at Lincoln Center. According to The Ram, it only started after “a recent emergency situation, in which a male Ram Van passenger became very ill ... caused the University to consider this new signin policy,” Gregory Pappas, dean of student affairs at Rose Hill at the time, said.

In 2013, the Ram Van entered the modern era and began to use the online registration service still in use today. That same year, The Ram reported on a record Ram Van trip lasting five hours — passengers were urged to take alternate transportation, but a full van remained, and it took three hours to get from Lincoln Center to the George Washington Bridge, a normally 20-minute drive. The Ram Van had tweeted, “For how long vans are taking coming uptown, you can watch the entirety of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ... take the D train.”

Although we may complain about Ram Vans today, it’s not as

bad as the first years of the Ram Van, when fewer than 10 trips would be made every weekday, with the five vans they had. Now, the Ram Van has around 45 vans and makes about 150 trips per day.

“It sounds like nothing much has changed with the Ram Van, despite the new paint job and extra tech,” Waite wrote in an email comparing the Ram Vans of the 1980s to those of today. But while Fordham students of any decade find something to complain about in the Ram Van, the mere fact of its continued existence is testament to its necessity and success.

Here’s to another 40 years.

Photography on a College Budget

By NICOLE PERKINS Asst. Opinions Editor

If you attended a school where you weren’t able to take a photography class or find yourself getting interested in the field now, photography can seem daunting.

But arriving at college brings with it an opportunity to access never-before-seen resources like darkrooms, studio spaces and media labs.

Cost can kill any budding interest you have in the field if you take it in all at once. Say you want to shoot on film — you first have to buy a camera, which can set you back $100. Then, you actually have to buy film to shoot on. If it’s color, you will either pay for developer or drop it off somewhere to get it developed.

For the film, if you buy cheap, it may be around $5 for a roll, but then it will be another $8 to get it developed. That is an overwhelming amount of money to pay if you are a college student without a steady income.

If you decide to shoot digital, it might be a little cheaper. You won’t have to pay for film to get developed, but if you are seriously interested then you will have to buy a quality camera. You can shoot on your iPhone, but that can only take you so far. Buying the lens along with the body of a digital camera can cost roughly $500. That’s more than 10 trips to the grocery store, over 180 subway rides and more than a hundred cups of expensive coffee.

The following are some tips to make the venture a little more manageable and a lot more wallet friendly.

1. Take advantage of the resources Fordham has to offer.

Not only do we have a darkroom in the Visual Arts complex where you can develop your black and white rolls for free, but scanners to look at negatives and enlargers to make prints if you have the paper.

2. Take a visual arts class.

While you are here, you might as well — and with it comes access to the Visual Arts rental services, where you can check out a flash or other camera equipment that would otherwise be very costly to buy.

3. You do not need to buy fancy backdrops or lighting equipment if you are just getting into photography. New York is filled with nice backgrounds that you can use in your pictures.

Even a brick wall can look cool on camera.

4. Shop refurbished. KEH is an online store that has loads of old film camera equipment or you can look at K and M for old digital or film cameras. Facebook Marketplace can also have surprisingly good secondhand finds at much lower prices than you would pay if you bought your camera new.

5. Ask your parents if they have any cameras lying around. Common film cameras like the Pentax k1000 and the Canon AE-1 are collecting dust by the bucket load in people’s attics from the ’80s and ’90s. Your parents could have your next camera just one flight upstairs for free.

6. If you decide to shoot film and drop it off somewhere to be developed, make sure to ask if they have a student discount.

Getting 20% off your film every

NICOLE PERKINS/THE OBSERVER

Utilizing smart spending habits allows photographers to take the photos that keep them — and their wallets — happy.

time you drop it off saves a lot of money in the long run.

Photography can challenge your time management skills — and the balance in your bank account. You have to find a way to circumvent high camera and film costs, to put in extra hours

developing or scanning your film, to work harder to accomplish a task that would be far easier if you just paid someone else to do it. But money should not hold you back from pursuing your passion.

Use these tips, pick up your camera and do what inspires you.

Sports & Health Editors Luke Osborn - losborn1@fordham.edu Lena Weidenbruch - lweidenbruch@fordham.edu

Sports & Health

December 4, 2019

THE OBSERVER

Mind Your Ears When You Mind the Gap: Hearing Loss Facts 150

It’s dangerous to listen to sounds above 100 decibels for more than 15 minutes.

Sounds above 85 decibels are dangerous for more than 8 hours of exposure.

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Decibels (dB)

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Our ability to hear is easy to take for granted, but anyone can develop hearing loss, and loud sounds within and around Fordham Lincoln Center (FLC) might be hastening symptoms of noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) among students, faculty and staff.

There are two types of NIHL. It’s possible to lose your hearing all at once, which occurs in response to extremely loud sounds, or hearing loss can manifest over the course of years. Exposure to loud sounds for significant periods of time every day can cause the progressive form of NIHL. NIHL affects somewhere between 10% to 24% of Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 1.1 billion teenagers and young adults in developed nations are at risk of losing their hearing due to overuse of headphones and overexposure to high levels of sound at “nightclubs, bars and sporting events.”

According to the National Institutes of Health, long term exposure to noises at or below 70 decibels are unlikely to contribute to NIHL. The sound level of normal conversation usually doesn’t exceed this amount. In contrast, hearing sounds 85 decibels or higher for large amounts of time can cause NIHL. The amount of time you spend hearing loud sounds is also an important factor in NIHL. The WHO does not recommend listening to sounds over 85 decibels for more than 8 hours at a time, and they recommend limiting exposure to sounds above 100 decibels to no

more than 15 minutes.

NIHL is permanent. NIHL stems from the loss of specialized cells, called hair cells, in the ear that send auditory information to the brain. Constant exposure to loud sounds can damage and kill hair cells. In humans, hair cells cannot regenerate, so the amount of hair cells individuals have will dwindle in response to recurrent exposure to loud noises.

Loud noises are everywhere, especially in New York City. To quantify these noises, I downloaded a decibel meter app called ‘db Meter,” recommended by the Hearing Health Foundation, on my iPhone to quantify the sound levels around Fordham. Take the data I gathered with a grain of salt, because noise levels can vary day-to-day and depend on the measurement tool you use.

One of the major sources of hearing loss, especially for commuters, is the subway. Using the app in the Columbus Circle Station, I gathered that the 2 train’s sound level hit 96 decibels when traveling through the station.

The 1 train, in contrast, only achieved 86 decibels when pulling into the station. Downstairs, the D train’s sound level reached 74 decibels coming into the station and 83 going out.

The hand dryers in Fordham bathrooms are another source of loud noise capable of contributing to NIHL. There are three kinds of automatic hand dryers at FLC: Dyson’s HU02, Dyson’s AB14 and Xlerator. I measured three individual hand dryers to get an average sound level for each kind. The loudest is the Xlerator at 95 decibels. The HU02’s average is 78 decibels, and the AB14’s is at 86 decibels.

All these sounds are above the

Th i

By LUKE OSBORN Sports & Health Editor

critical level of 70 decibels, but are unlikely to cause permanent damage if seldom used.

Since NIHL usually progresses over a long period of time, it’s likely that individuals might not know they have NIHL until the onset of severe hearing loss.

NIHL can become especially pronounced in old age, and individuals will eventually need hearing aids to help them communicate with others and hear sounds in their environment.

Some symptoms of NIHL might be more noticeable at first, though not everyone experiences these changes in their hearing.

For instance, tinnitus — hearing a constant tone or ringing in one’s ear — can occur for a short

*Data taken from the Hearing Health Foundation

or long period of time in response to a loud sound. In more serious cases, tinnitus can be permanent.

Individuals may experience temporary hearing loss for as long as two days after hearing an extremely loud noise. Studies indicate that though hearing seems to come back for some individuals, damage may linger in the ear.

Though hearing loss might seem inevitable when one takes into account the amount of loud noises individuals come in contact with on a daily basis, NIHL is not on the rise. In a study of 7,000 participants from the University of California, researchers did not find any significant rise in NIHL in spite of the rise in audio

players. A study from the National Institutes of Health actually showed a 2% decrease in the rate of NIHL among adults aged 20 to 69; the researchers found this decrease between data collected from 1999 to 2004 and a separate data set from 2011 to 2012.

Although research might indicate that the prevalence of hearing loss is not increasing, it’s better to err on the side of safety.

The National Institutes of Health recommends wearing earplugs at loud events. If controlling the volume isn’t an option, move away from the sound’s source. Most importantly, if you think you might have symptoms of hearing loss, get your hearing tested by a healthcare professional.

A Guide to Dining With Severely Allergic Friends

By MICHELLE AGARON Staff Writer

If I had to guess the most common question I’ve been asked, it would undoubtedly be: “So, what happens if you eat nuts?”

“I start choking, losing air. I could even die, depending on the nut,” I respond cavalierly, with a smile and a shrug.

When the inevitable gasp arrives or a look of severe concern flashes across their face, I can’t help but laugh. No one can figure out why I treat such a serious issue with humor — possible explanations include me being a sadist, humor being my only coping mechanism and the irresistible satisfaction that comes with the line landing every single time.

But laughter quickly melts into paranoia as I look over the menu for the 10th time, dreading the moment I’ll have to tell the waiter about my allergy and praying they won’t forget. Even after I’ve triple-checked with my waiter once the food arrives, every bite is tinged with the fear that it might be my last. My only respite from an overwrought mind is the knowledge that my family and friends actively work to create a safe dining environment for me.

Here’s how: If they have an EpiPen with them, learn how to use it. Be ready to administer the drug in case of an emergency.

EpiPens, short for Epinephrine Auto-Injectors, are syringes filled with a single dose of medication that can reverse or delay the ef-

ANDREW BEECHER/THE OBSERVER

Understanding how to use an EpiPen is the first step to being considerate of friends with severe allergies.

fects of a severe allergic reaction until medical personnel arrive.

Although administering the drug may seem like a huge responsibility, there are only three steps written out on the needle (pull off both blue caps, push red tip hard in thigh for 10 seconds and seek medical attention); newer EpiPens will also play pre-recorded audio instructions.

Avoid cuisine that tend to incorporate common allergens.

When choosing a restaurant or cuisine for the group, it’s important to take the allergen in question into consideration. If the person is allergic to peanuts, for

example, Thai food may not be the best choice. If the issue lies in sesame seeds, Mediterranean food could create some issues as well. To save time and effort on your part, ask your friend for restaurant suggestions — they’ve done a lifetime of research and testing on safe and delicious food spots.

Order allergen-free dishes for the entire table.

If your party chooses to order dishes to share, consider ordering allergen-free dishes for the entire table. This way, no one is ostracized and the discussion of food becomes a more lively and

inclusive experience. Depending on the restaurant or cuisine that your party chooses, this decision may limit the number and variety of dishes you will be able to try, but returning to the restaurant on a different day is always an option.

If you choose to share food with allergens, use separate utensils.

After you and your friend have decided to order dishes with or without the allergen, be sure to use different utensils when sharing food. You may want to use a communal spoon for dishes that many people will be eating from,

or rearrange the food so that the food closest to your friend is allergen-free. Ask everyone at the table to try to remain vigilant about not accidentally mixing dishes by using their personal utensils to scoop food.

Step in to help with language barriers to convey the severity of the allergy.

When it comes to foreign restaurants, there may be instances where the waitstaff are more comfortable speaking their native language. If you are familiar with the language, step in and convey the severity of the allergy to the server.

Check in from time to time.

If they seem oddly quiet or look uncomfortable while eating, don’t hesitate to ask why.

Being the only person with food allergies among friends or family can be incredibly isolating when dining out, which can lead to feeling like a burden and not wanting to “ruin the mood” or impose unnecessary stress on those who can eat without limits. A long stretch of silence or lack of enthusiasm might be masking a swarm of anxious thoughts — checking in once in a while won’t hurt.

This is not to say that dining out with a severely allergic friend requires bearing the fragility of their immune system on your shoulders for the entire meal.

Your friend is fully responsible for their safety, but those who are dining with them have the unique ability to transform their experience — it only takes a few simple changes.

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December 4, 2019 THE OBSERVER

www.fordhamobserver.com

Winter Is Coming: Indoor Track Season Preview

By LENA WEIDENBRUCH Sports & Health Editor

The close of the fall semester brings with it the end of cross country season — which means it’s time for track.

The cross country season finished for most Rams on Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC)/IC4A Division I Championships at Van Cortlandt Park — Fordham’s home course. The men’s team placed eighth out of 16 teams, and the women were seventh out of 18.

Ryan Kutch, Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill (GSBRH) ’20, was not there to represent the Rams at ECACs. After finishing in fourth place in a time of 28 minutes, 52 seconds, at NCAA Northeast Regionals in Buffalo, New York, on Friday, Nov. 15, he qualified for the NCAA National Championship in Terre Haute, Indiana, which also took place on Saturday, Nov. 23.

Kutch finished the race and his season in 34 minutes, 48 seconds, and came in 241st place.

He and the men’s and women’s teams will have a short break until their indoor season opener on Friday, Dec. 6.

Newly appointed head coach for Cross Country and Track and Field Brian Horowitz will continue to lead the Rams this indoor season as well as the team of eight captains across the men’s and women’s teams.

One of those captains is Kutch, who is among the team’s top returning competitors for the indoor season. Kutch clocked two personal bests during the 2019 indoor season in both the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. His respective 8 minute, 7 second, and 14 minute, 13 second, finishes also set school re-

By DEIRDRE REED Staff Writer

COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Ryan Kutch, GSBRH ’20, set two school records last indoor season.

cords across the two distances.

Fellow senior and captain Sean Sullivan, GSBRH ’20, set three personal bests in the 800 and 1,000 meters and mile last indoor season. He followed Kutch’s top 2019 indoor mile time of 4 minutes, 15 seconds, with a finish of 4 minutes, 16 seconds.

Captain Andrew Byrne, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’20, also took quite a few of the Rams’ top times last year. As a heptathlete, which means he competes across seven events,

he took the top teams spots in the 60 meter high hurdles in 9.33 seconds and the high jump in 6 feet, 6 inches. His highest heptathlon score for the season was also Fordham’s highest with 4,821 points.

The men’s fourth captain Jack Keegan, GSBRH ’21, will look to take some more top times this season. Last year, he set personal records in the 500 and 800 meters.

Eleven freshmen joined the men’s track and field roster this year including Ryan Fahey, GS-

BRH ’23, who took one of the team’s top cross country finishes this season with a time of 23 minutes, 52 seconds. It will be interesting to watch his progression onto the track.

Another freshman to look out for this indoor season is John McGovern, GSBRH ’23.

McGovern was named Atlantic 10 Men’s Cross Country Rookie of the Week for his performance at the 2019 Metropolitan Cross Country Championship where he finished in fifth place with a time of 26 minutes, 15 seconds.

Regarding the women’s team, seniors Katarzyna Krzyzanowski, FCRH ’20, and Sydney Snow, FCRH ’20, will lead the team this season as well as juniors Dana Beggins, FCRH ’21, and Kathryn Kelly, FCRH ’21.

Snow and Krzyzanowski took two of the top five fastest 5k times this cross country season.

At the Metropolitan Championships, Snow crossed the tape in a time of 18 minutes, 38 seconds, followed by Krzyzanowski in 19 minutes, 49 seconds.

The two seniors also finished with some of the team’s best times last indoor season. Both took two of the top mile times for the team, Krzyzanowski with a personal best of 5 minutes, 1 second, and Snow with 5 minutes, 10 seconds.

If Krzyzanowski races the mile this indoor season, it is likely that she will attempt to break the five-minute mark.

Krzyzanowski also left her name in the school record books last season in the distance medley relay, when she and her three teammates finished in 11 minutes, 44 seconds at the Atlantic 10 Championship.

Snow clocked two personal bests last season in the 1,000 and 3,000 meters, finishing in 2 minutes, 56 seconds, and 10

minutes, 13 seconds, respectively.

Beggins and Kelly also made some impressive finishes during the 2019 indoor season, many of them personal bests and school records.

Beggins took home personal bests in the 500 and 800 meter races and was also one of the team’s top five finishers for the season in both distances with finishes of 1 minute, 18 seconds in the 500 meters and 2 minutes, 17 seconds in the 800 meters.

Kelly left last year’s indoor season with four new personal bests and a school record. In the 200 meters, she finished in 24.23 seconds, a new record for herself and Fordham.

Along with an impressive finish in the 60-meter dash, she was the team’s top jumper in the long and triple jumps. Her best long jump performance came to 18 feet, 7.25 inches and her triple jump was 37 feet, 2.5 inches.

In addition to the strong team of captains for the women this season, 11 freshmen also joined the roster.

Two of those freshmen took two of the team’s top cross country times this year.

Alexandra Thomas, FCRH ’23, had the fastest finish for the women’s team this fall with a time of 18 minutes, 32 seconds.

She will certainly be one to watch as she takes to the track this indoor season.

Taylor Mascetta, FCRH ’23, was the team’s third best finisher in cross country this season, coming in just behind Snow in the rankings with a time of 19 minutes, 29 seconds.

The men’s and women’s teams will open their indoor season on Friday, Dec. 6 at the Lombardi Center Field House in the Bronx.

Men’s Soccer Season Cut Short at Semis

Fordham men’s soccer ended their relatively successful season on a devastating note. After going as far as the conference semifinals, they lost in the longest Atlantic-10 (A10) conference championship penalty shootout on record to top-seed University of Rhode Island (URI).

The season started with the appointment of Carlos Acquista as head coach. Acquista had previously worked as a coach for St. Francis College and Adelphi University and most recently as a scout for the New York Red Bulls.

In his first season with the Rams, Acquista’s team accrued a 7-10-3 record and an overall win percentage of 0.425. Except for a five-goal thrashing of Holy Cross, Fordham struggled in matches outside of their conference.

On the other hand, the Rams’ conference record, 5-2-1 (with a win percentage of 0.688), shows that they saved their best performances for the most important moments. Fordham opened their 2019 A10 conference bid with a series of thrilling double-overtime wins over La Salle and St. Bonaventure. In the latter, Luca Fava, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’21, saved the day with only four seconds left on the clock.

Fordham experienced their first conference loss against last year’s A10 champions URI, despite an early goal from Johannes Pieles, FCRH ’20. A stunning free kick from Sameer Fathazada, FCRH ’21, against the Univer-

PHOTOS COURTESY OF FORDHAM ATHLETICS

Goalkeeper Konstantin Weis, GGSB ’20, saved a penalty to keep the Rams in the quarterfinal match against SLU.

sity of Massachusetts Amherst allowed the Rams to gain back some ground after the loss.

However, Fordham wasn’t able to turn this victory into a winning streak. Following a disappointing loss to St. Joseph’s College, in which Fordham had a goal disallowed, and a scoreless draw to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), the Rams were in a dangerous position regarding the conference championship.

Two late victories in the regular season, one over George Mason University and the other over St. Louis University (SLU), secured Fordham the fifth seed

in the A10 championship.

In the quarterfinals, goalkeepers Konstantin Weis, Gabelli Graduate School of Business (GGSB) ’20, and Patrick Schulte, SLU ’23, both had excellent performances, saving a penalty each to keep their respective side in the match. It was a scrappy 87th-minute winner from Ricupati, Fordham’s top scorer (six goals), that sent Fordham into the conference semifinals, set to be played on home turf, at Jack Coffey Field.

As the fifth seed, Fordham had to play first-seeded URI, who had previously beat the Rams decisively, in the semifinals. Despite

Kristian Shkreli, FCRH ’22, looks to score against URI in the semifinals.

losing Joergen Oland, FCRH ’20, the A10 Defensive Player of the Year, to injury, Fordham kept a solid backline. They held URI, who had previously put seven goals past Davidson in the quarterfinals, to a 0-0 draw. Even with double overtime, neither side was able to find the back of the net, and thus the dreaded penalty shootout was required.

Fordham fans made their voices heard during the shootout, cheering on the heroic performance put on by the Rams and especially by Weis, who saved

two penalties. Unfortunately, after each side had taken an unprecedented nine shots, URI emerged victorious, a crushing blow for the Rams. URI went on to beat third-seeded Dayton University in the final to win their second A10 championship in a row.

This marks the final season for graduating FCRH seniors Bart Dziedzic, Nicholas Meyer, Joergen Oland and Johannes Pieles, as well as graduate students Filippo Ricupati, Konstantin Weis and Tomer Zloczower.