Issue 2 Spring 2020

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Years of Negotiations Later: Brexit’s Impact on Fordham By SOPHIE PARTIDGE-HICKS News Editor

10-11

See pages for continued coverage

The United Kingdom left the European Union on Jan. 31, possibly impacting the 336 students studying at the Fordham London Centre campus. After four years of negotiations, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will now engage in an 11-month transition period to determine important parts of the Brexit deal such as travel, trade and borders. Front row to the political negotiations are study abroad students who, while spending a semester immersed in British culture, are exposed to the turbulent Brexit process. Katharina Kremer, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’22, a German student, studied abroad in America for the first time during the 2016 presidential election as well as at the London Centre during Johnson’s election. She compared the similarities of the current environment, saying “The way people in London talk about Brexit is similar to what people said about Trump during the election while I was studying in the U.S.” The majority of study abroad students hold U.S. passports and entered the U.K. with short-term study letters. Only students in the internship program had to obtain working visas. Non-American and EU passport-holding students had to obtain the visas necessary from their home country to enter the U.K. The results of a survey administered to Fordham students studying abroad in London in the spring of 2020 revealed that 40% of respondents did not understand Brexit before going to school in London, and 35% said they continue to not understand the political issue.

February 5, 2020 VOLUME XL, ISSUE 2

Coronavirus Suspends China Study Abroad By JOE KOTTKE Asst. News Editor

All undergraduate study abroad programs in China have been suspended until further notice due to the coronavirus. The outbreak of coronavirus that began in Wuhan, China, was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization on Jan 30. According to Joseph Rienti, director of international and study abroad programs, four Fordham students planned on studying abroad in Shanghai and three started their program in Beijing. There are confirmed cases in 30 countries and nearly 500 people have died from the virus. Three patients are being tested for possible coronavirus in New York City. Students enrolled in the Shanghai study abroad program are currently barred from class registration in New York, but Rienti, said that they are working with deans to resolve the issue. According to Rienti, the decision to suspend all study abroad programs in China was made after consultation with the Center for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. State Department. “I was planning to travel to China in order to continue my Mandarin studies and the Study Abroad Program is treating the situation as though sending me to another country is a viable option,” said Julia Sparago, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’21. “My study abroad would be a waste of time and my enrollment is currently barred, so I’m left with limited SOPHIE PARTRIDGE-HICKS/THE OBSERVER

see BREXIT page 10

On March 23, 2019, thousands of protesters gathered in the heart of London to oppose Brexit and support the EU.

TikTok Stars Take Campus By BEN JORDAN Contributing Writer

TikTok is one of the world’s most popular social media apps with over 1.5 billion downloads worldwide and 123 million in the U.S. alone. Yet people tend to hesitate when it comes to admitting they use it. Why this may be isn’t entirely a mystery — the word “cringe” is frequently used to describe the app by its most devoted users and biggest haters. What may be surprising is not the amount of Fordham students are on TikTok, but the level of success amassed by some of these content creators. Jake Kuljis Jake Kuljis, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’22, is a communications major and self-described “former theatre kid” — though he admitted he was the kid who could neither

see CORONAVIRUS page 4

120 Faculty Members Sign Petition to Support SJP

sing nor dance. Kuljis started making TikToks “for the meme” after seeing one of his friends on the app late last semester, without intending to keep using it for more than a few weeks. He now has 45,700 followers. “The only reason I’m famous on TikTok is this one video I made,” he said. He wasn’t planning to post it, but he accidentally uploaded it from his drafts when trying to show it to a friend. It went viral, started some trends and is currently sitting at more than 7 million views. “I’d love to get a big following on any social media, but of all media … it had to be TikTok,” he said. Kuljis recounted one of the weird offers he’s received from a fan: two chow chow puppies (which is, by coincidence, his

A diverse coalition of 120 Fordham faculty members have expressed their disapproval of Fordham’s continued legal battle with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). On Thursday, Jan. 30, a faculty member emailed a petition to high ranking Fordham administration, urging them to rescind the university’s appeal of the August 2019 New York Supreme Court ruling that required the university to recognize Fordham Lincoln Center’s chapter of SJP.

see TIKTOK page 15

see SJP page 5

By OWEN ROCHE Editor-in-Chief

ANDREW BEECHER/THE OBSERVER

Newly recognized student club SJP rallies at City Hall for Palestinian rights.

News

The Rubberneck

Arts & Culture

Features

Sports & Health

Students welcome the Year of the Rat

An anthropological view of your classmates

Author and philanthropist dies at 92 Page 13

Ludovica Martella takes on the climate crisis from NYC

People are fighting the flu by wearing surgical masks

Lunar New Year Page 5

Lecture Hall Handbook Page 9

Mary Higgins Clark

Alumna Spotlight Page 17

The Student Voice of Fordham Lincoln Center

Do Flu Masks Work? Page 19


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Issue 2 Spring 2020 by Fordham Observer - Issuu