Observer Issue 11 Spring 2025

Observer the

The Student Voice of Fordham Lincoln Center

Tetlow Addresses Higher Ed Crisis

By SAM BRACY News Editor

University President Tania Tetlow reasserted Fordham’s commitment to a diverse academic community in a speech before Fordham faculty, administrators and staff at McNally Amphitheater on Feb. 26.

The address was titled “Sign of the Times” after the Catholic principle that one’s practice of faith should respond to the state of the world. In the address, Tetlow reckoned with the challenges Fordham faces as the federal government takes aim at universities’ grant money and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

“There are a lot of swirling issues going around in Washington right now and I think everyone was eager to know how Fordham is responding and what the future holds,” Tetlow said after the address.

The Department of Education denounced programs aimed to support diversity, equity and inclusion for marginalized groups as “illegal and morally reprehensible” in a letter on Feb. 14. see TETLOW page 3

Performers directly confronted audience members for their complicity in poverty at in Fordham Theatre’s Mainstage production of “Three Penny Opera.”

Before the (metaphorical) curtain raised, “Three Penny Opera” subverted theatre conventions.

Players warmed up on and in front of the stage as attendees entered the auditorium, sometimes greeting friends as they took their seats. The audience recognized the cast as their peers before seeing them in -character, unsettling the suspension of disbelief typical to theatre performances.

DURGA DESAI/THE OBSERVER

University president Tania Tetlow leaves McNally Amphitheaterafter delivering the address.

What followed was a winking tale of crime, lust and capitalist exploitation in Victorian London complete with musical numbers and a tango and /apache dance fusion, adapted from Bertolt Brecht’s 1928 original “play with music.”

The play followed infamous criminal “Mack the Knife” (Evan Woodfill, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’27) as he is married, chased, betrayed, fought over, freed, betrayed again, made to grovel and finally sentenced to death. A deadpan street singer (Isabella Conklin, FCLC ’26) announced songs and set each scene at the front of stage. see THREE PENNY page 13

COURTESY OF CASON DOYLE

Fordham Theatre’s Mainstage production of “Three Penny Opera.”

NEWS PAGE 4

Power of Protection

YDSA gave out free contraceptives to Fordham students

Student Worker Hours Cut

By SAM BRACY News Editor

Threepenny Opera Opens at Fordham Theater

By SAM BRACY AND WILLIAM LEE News Editor & Opinions Editor

March 5, 2025 VOLUME XLV, ISSUE 11

SPORTS & HEALTH PAGE 6

Competition Soaked

Swim and Dive brought home medals from A10

Fordham student workers who receive federal work-study saw their schedules capped to a maximum of 10 hours per week on Feb. 21, costing some students hundreds of dollars every pay period.

Some students said they were not fully compensated for working over 10 hours the week before the policy was announced. Students working on theatre shows said they had to work over 10 hours a week during the final week of rehearsals without overtime pay.

Students interviewed for this story presumed the schedule cap was in response to the Trump administration’s drastic cuts to higher education funding. But Fordham administrators failed to explain the reason for the cap or how long it will last in emails sent to student employees reviewed by The Observer. see STUDENT WORKERS page 4

Track and Field Goes the Distance

By CORA COST Sports & Health Editor

The Fordham track and field team found gold at the finish line five times this past weekend at the 2025 indoor Atlantic 10 Championships (A10). Both the women’s and men’s track and field teams competed at the A10 Championship, returning home to the Bronx with five gold medals, one silver and four bronze.

The men’s track and field team took home the fourth place finish as a team with 87 points. This year's finish is the best since 2018, and the men returned to New York with the most points scored since 2012.

The women’s team finished in eighth with 35.5 points, their best team finish at a championship since 2011.

Aside from putting up better numbers than in previous years, for sophomore Sean Reidy, Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill (GSBRH) ’27, the team brought an incredible supportive energy to this year’s A10s.

“The team was amazing this year, one of the strongest rosters we’ve brought to a conference meet,” Reidy wrote. “From the gun everybody brought the energy, cheering each other on and congratulating everyone.

It felt like a complete 180 from past meets where we haven’t performed well. Great vibes all around.” see TRACK AND FIELD page 7

FEATURES PAGE 8-9

TikTactics

Trump's claim to the app after blackout and why it matters

SOFIA SCHREIBER/THE OBSERVER

The sparsely populated dance floor during Winter Ball 2025.

Low Turnout at Winter Ball

By SOFIA SCHREIBER Contributing Writer

On Feb. 28, Fordham College at Lincoln Center’s (FCLC) annual semi-formal Winter Ball let down attendees with small portions of food, lackluster decorations and mediocre music.

The United Student Government and the Campus Activities Board hosted the event at The Current on Pier 59 of Chelsea Piers. Between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Dozens of students in pairs and groups rolled into the venue, which was decorated with feathers, gold, jewels and sparkles, attempting to measure up to the theme of The Great Gatsby.

Upon checking in, each student received a masquerade mask with a name tag assigning them to a table. Small tables were placed around the room with feather centerpieces along with a bar serving drinks. The larger dining room was closed off with a curtain until dinner was served.

OPINIONS PAGE 10

Border Reality

On-site reflections on a grim and fruitless border wall

The night started off slow as people continued to enter the ballroom and converse amongst themselves.

Hors d’oeuvres such as adobe short ribs, coconut shrimp and sweet chili lime chicken were served, along with signature mocktails such as the mango mule, and sodas.

After hors d’oeuvres were circulated, the curtains opened towards the dining tables, allowing attendees to find their seats.

Each dining room table was decorated with vases filled with clear and black diamonds as the centerpiece. Pearls flowed over the vase as it sat upon a black glittery placemat. The lights danced on the ceiling and added a warm glow to the ballroom.

Despite the beauty of the decor, some attendees wrote that they felt as though the venue did not capture the theme and left much to be desired. see WINTER BALL page 13

ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 14

Murphy's Masterpiece

"Thoughts on Girlcock" sold out to captivated audience

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March 5, 2025

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THE OBSERVER

The Death of Jesuit Education?

Fordham faculty debate the future of the University’s Catholic and liberal arts education amid core curriculum changes

By EMMA DVORKIN Assistant Copy Editor

Some faculty criticized a proposal for a new core curriculum as a betrayal of Fordham’s commitment to providing a Jesuit education.

While some members of the Fordham community celebrated the freedoms that accompany fewer core requirements for students, others warned that the proposed curriculum could deprive students of the foundational knowledge needed to develop critical thinking, self-awareness and a deeper understanding of the human experience.

Rev. Christopher Cullen, S.J., associate professor of philosophy, expressed grave concerns about the proposed curriculum.

“This is a real crisis moment for Fordham,” Cullen said. “I really think if we go the way of the current proposal, we are going to be losing our rootedness in the Jesuit and Catholic traditions and liberal arts tradition.”

“ If an institution

cannot manifest anything like a Catholic identity in its curriculum, it cannot reasonably consider itselfto be Jesuit. ” Mark Burke, philosophy lecturer S.J.

Rev. Mark Burke, S.J., who, like Cullen, is also a philosophy professor, added that “if an institution cannot manifest anything like a Catholic identity in its curriculum, it cannot reasonably consider itself to be Jesuit.”

The proposal halves theology and philosophy course requirements and requires students to only take one language or linguistics course, among other notable reductions. Cullen said that these disciplines are necessary to “empower students and give them the keys to understand their own world.” Burke reinforced Cullen’s concern, noting that the new curriculum lacks a Catholic framework.

“There is nothing in the new core curriculum that has any particular orientation towards Catholicism,” Burke said. “I do not believe that you can have a Jesuit university that does not take Catholicism seriously in its curriculum.”

Theology professor Aristotle Papanikolaou said exposure to religious ideas gives students a deeper understanding of the world around them, leading them to be more empathetic and “a better citizen of the world.”

“People are perceiving these religious traditions in public life in such a way that might be misconstrued because they don't really know anything about religion,” Papanikolaou said. “All of that, I think, is dangerous. It leads to preconceptions and prejudices and discrimination, but it's not really dealing with the world in a way that is informed.”

The primary goals of the new curriculum are to lessen the number of required courses, allow for more student exploration, and make it easier for transfer students to integrate into the university, all while maintaining the Jesuit mission.

Stephen Grimm, professor of philosophy and Philosophy Department Chair, said that despite the curriculum changes, the university remains committed to its Jesuit foundations.

“The core of a Jesuit education is to help students to reflect on the deepest questions of life and questions about meaning and purpose and value, and that's the hallmark of a Jesuit education," Grimm said.

The new core also features a greater emphasis on interdisciplinary studies, which Cullen argued would not be sufficiently grounded in key subjects in the liberal arts, philosophy and theological studies. He referenced one of the proposed interdisciplinary thematic sequences, "Justice and the Common Good," a four-course, interdepartmental requirement.

He emphasized that a foundation in normative ethics is essential for students to critically understand how justice and virtue are defined before they can engage in applied ethical discussions.

“Before you start doing applied ethics, you need to be grounded in the standard range of ethical theories that are currently discussed and practiced,” Cullen said.

Robert Davis, assistant professor of Historical Theology, said the interdisciplinary approach may be a positive for theology at Fordham.

“There's excitement in our department about that revision because there's the possibility of teaching in more interdisciplinary ways and doing what I think is true to the Jesuit value of finding God in all things,” Davis said.

Davis continued that religion is inherently interdisciplinary.

“What we want to preserve is the contribution that theology as a discipline makes to the

GRACE SANTOLI/THE OBSERVER

Fordham has always had a long standing commitment to upholding catholic values in education.

Since its founding in 1839, Jesuit's have been at the core of the institution.

humanities and to knowledge as a whole,” Davis said.

Cullen also expressed concern over the faculty’s ability to adapt to the new interdisciplinary approach, as he said that core courses are “not going to be explicitly tied to a department.”

He questioned how professors will be assigned to teach courses and added that he does not feel qualified to teach certain subjects.

Grimm, on the other hand, is confident that professors under the new core will still teach according to their strengths.

“Anybody who teaches those courses is going to need real expertise in philosophy and theology, for instance,” Grimm said.

Davis noted that the true test of the Core’s commitment to preserving the Jesuit tradition will be seen in its application.

“I think it comes down to

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Fordham’s core curriculum is historically based on the pedagogical values described by St. Ignatius.

how it's implemented,” Davis said. “The question is more about doing interdisciplinarity in a way…that doesn't throw out the skills and the wisdom that is gained from working within a disciplinary tradition.”

Cullen also lauded the current core curriculum’s ability to foster an intellectual community, as both the philosophy and theology departments require certain texts for all students.

“I can walk into that classroom and I know that every person is grounded in Kant's ethics…and it's amazing,” Cullen said.

Cullen said this community is a defining strength of Fordham and would dissolve under the new curriculum.

“What would be lost would be that sort of commonality, the community that is built by it, but also the grounding in the culture and civilization that has formed us and has shaped our world,” Cullen said.

For William Hogue, a history professor and PhD candidate, the proposed reduction of philosophy and theology reflects a broader shift away from the Jesuit value of care for the whole person, or cura personalis.

“In a world where both philosophy and theology are so deeply needed, but becoming increasingly undervalued as we become a more individualist, materialist culture” Hogue said. “I think that we risk losing a sense of ourself as a Jesuit institution by getting away from that.”

Finding a balance between preserving the Jesuit tradition and addressing the evolving priorities of degree-seeking students will not be able to fully satisfy everyone, Christopher Dietrich, former chair of the Core Curriculum Committee and

CORA COST/THE OBSERVER

co-chair of the Phase 2 Revision Committee, said.

“I think that the core revision phase two committee has worked really hard to both decrease the size of the core while preserving the uniqueness of the Jesuit educational mission,” Dietrich said.

A key point of contention surrounding the new core is whether it will continue to inspire students to pursue courses that they might not expect to enjoy, specifically in the realm of philosophy and theology.

“Education is about surprise,” Papanikolaou said. “I've seen it too many times that when people go to courses where they're not really expecting much and wish they didn’t have to take, they get totally surprised how much they like it.”

The Theology department in particular benefits from the core, as Davis said that many students switch into theology majors or minors after taking some of the required courses the department offers. Davis remains optimistic that the new core will allow for that same exploration.

“There's concern about ‘will students find their way to theology?’ I hope that college remains a space of exploration where people can be surprised to realize that they care about something they didn't know they did before,” Davis said.

As the committee moves towards the third phase of revising the core, faculty will pay attention to how these changes are implemented — particularly in ensuring that philosophy and theology remain accessible and that faculty expertise aligns with the new curriculum. The impact of the core will ultimately be defined not just by its structure, but by how it is put into practice.

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THE OBSERVER

March 5, 2025

Fordham ‘Stands Firm’ in Catholic Values

News

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Tetlow posed Jesuit values as a source of strength for Fordham in an address to faculty, admin and staff TETLOW from page 1

People who attended the address said Tetlow acknowledged the Department of Education’s letter at the beginning of her speech. After the address, Tetlow said Fordham’s commitment to an inclusive academic environment is rooted in the school’s Catholic mission.

“We have a right to exercise our religion as a Catholic institution and part of the core beliefs of the Catholic Church are beliefs in basic human dignity, in equality, in diversity, and in that we stand firm,” Tetlow said.

“ I feel like Fordham has a real explicit purpose in this space with its mission that was very clearly articulated.”

Julie Fissinger, senior executive director of Fordham's president council

Students were not invited to attend the address and Tetlow said a transcript of her speech will not be provided. Instead, Tetlow said she plans to address the student body at a later date.

McNally Amphitheater reached capacity with over 250 attendees and some people were directed to overflow rooms. More watched a live recording screened on Fordham’s Rose Hill, Westchester and London campuses.

Many attendees praised Tetlow’s speech after it ended.

Julie Fissinger, senior executive director of Fordham’s president’s council, agreed with Tetlow that Fordham’s Jesuit mission could be a source of protection from interference in its diversity policies.

“I feel like Fordham has a real explicit purpose in this space with its mission that was very clearly articulated. I think it gives us an edge on other institutions that are trying to fight these outside forces. I think if we lean into our mission we're gonna have lots of protections for our work,” Fissinger said.

Professor of Applied Christian Ethics Rev. Bryan Massingale

also praised the way Tetlow used Jesuit values to address the challenges facing Fordham.

“I thought it was a brilliant address. I thought that it was a very clear eye assessment of the difficult moment that we are in in higher education, but the other thing I really appreciated was the fact that she rooted Fordham's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in our Catholic values,” Massingale said.

Associate professor of theatre history Rev. Michael Zampelli ,S.J., credited Tetlow for naming specific issues Fordham is reckoning with.

“I really appreciated the naming of realities, like ‘what is the real situation that we are facing,’” Zampelli said.

Attendees also told The Observer that Tetlow acknowledged that drastic federal spending cuts have jeopardized millions of dollars in grants and loans that fund large parts of Fordham’s research programs and student aid. Fordham receives significant funding from federal agencies for scientific research and the Center for Community Engaged Learning.

Zampelli said a crucial question is the extent to which the federal government can control universities and what rights universities have to follow their own mission.

“The challenge really is what congressional regulation is going to affect what is happening here.

Grant money, scholarships, all of these things are ripple effects because of the Department of Education,” Zampelli said. “It is really about what can the law do, and then what is it that we have the right to continue to do no matter what the law says.”

Attendees speak to a Fordham Observer Editor after the address.

“ There was a real call

to arms to some extent around staying engaged in the classroom with these topicse.”

Callejo Garcia, associate vice president of IT portfolio management

Roxana Callejo Garcia, associate vice president of IT portfolio management, said threats to student financial aid endangered the

GRACE SANTOLI/THE OBSERVER

GRACE SANTOLI/THE OBSERVER

Over 250 Fordham faculty, administrators and staff attended Tetlow’s address in the McNally Amphitheatre.

future of the United States.

“The threat of financial aid is really frightening, and it is frightening from so many aspects.

Just the threat to institutions, Fordham and other institutions like ours, but also to the future of the United States. Fewer people are able to come to college because they cannot afford it, which we know is already an affordability crisis and this is just going to exacerbate it,” Callejo Garcia said.

After the speech, Tetlow highlighted the $330 billion cut from federal education and workforce spending included in a budget bill that passed the House of Representatives the day of the address.

Many attendees remarked that the address made them feel more hopeful about Fordham’s future.

Acting Dean of Fordham College at Lincoln Center James McCartin recognized the address as an encouraging call to action.

“I don’t tend to be an optimist, but I am a very hopeful, profoundly hopeful person, and I think that this kind of message of encouragement is an invitation to help,” McCartin said.

Callejo Garcia added that while she thought students would benefit from hearing the message of the address, she understood Tetlow’s words as directions to

According to Rev. Brian Massingale, Tetlow reckoned with how the present moment can shape and clarify what Catholic identity means.

GRACE SANTOLI/THE OBSERVER

Tetlow addressed challenges facing Fordham as the federal government targets higher education.

the specific roles faculty and staff can play.

“The messaging that you may have for students may be packaged differently than you would package it for administrators and faculty,” Callejo Garcia said.

“There was a real call to arms to some extent around staying engaged in the classroom with these topics and not shying away from it. Like, ‘lean into this,

this is who we are, this is our identity,’ which would not apply to students.”

Zampelli said Tetlow’s speech realized how the Jesuit educational tradition could be a source of strength for Fordham.

“There is something fundamental about the way we try to teach students and what we try to teach and that really is quite consistent with who we are as a Catholic and Jesuit institution,” Zampelli said. “It has been a really good shot in the arm in terms of how that stuff can ground us, particularly in a time that is so uncertain.”

Massingale said that in addition to reckoning with the place Catholicism has in today’s world, Tetlow reckoned with how the present moment can shape and clarify what Catholic identity means.

“I think that is what is really important too, not only where we are but who we are. I think it was a masterful statement of our Catholic identity, both how Catholic identity is sometimes something that people view with suspicion and seeing it as something that is conservative, but looking at the Catholic heritage at Fordham as as a resource that can really help us navigate the difficult times we live in,” Massingale said.

The Trump administration butted heads with the Vatican in February, leading Pope Francis to publish a letter calling for the protection of migrants in the United States.

The Department of Education’s letter gave universities until Feb. 28 to comply but did not clearly outline an enforcement mechanism.

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News

March 5, 2025

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Students Push for Free Contraceptives

Young Democratic Socialists of America engaged in a campaign to bring birth control to Fordham

By ALISON BEINHAUR News Editor

Just a few feet off of Fordham’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) offered free Plan-B and condoms to passersby just a few feet off of Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus on Feb. 19.

This table was part of a larger campaign for reproductive health within the Fordham community.

YDSA – a Rose Hill-based group – first vocalized their opposition to Fordham’s policies on reproductive health on their Instagram in Oct. 2024.

The University prohibits the distribution of contraceptives on campus. For YDSA, this is an aspect of a larger public health issue regarding sex education and reproductive awareness on college and university campuses.

YDSA co-chair Matthew Smith, Fordham College at Rose Hill ’27, said that their ongoing campaign is important to their group.

“From the beginning, we decided that this would be a priority campaign. This would be one of the pressing issues that we need to take on, and something that we could actually win on,” Smith said.

YDSA made a statement in October with several demands for the University. Their Instagram post regarding this was titled “Statement on the Universities Betrayal of Bodily Autonomy.”

“Students need access to clear information about contraception, STI prevention, and the services provided by the University to support sexual health,” the post read.

The demands of the petition include allowing the distribution of contraceptives on campus,

Two members of the YDSA standing outside of Lincoln Center handing out contraceptives.

comprehensive sexual health and women’s healthcare education in freshman orientation, making prescription birth control available to students at the student health center, eliminating barriers to accessing contraceptives and providing condoms to students free of charge at Fordham’s student health center.

The university does make exceptions to this policy, but only for certain cases.

The Fordham Student Handbook states that “University Health Services staff do make limited exceptions in writing appropriate prescriptions for the treatment of an existing medical condition accompanied by supporting documentation. Some examples of medical indications are: acne, irregular periods,

heavy periods, cramps, and polycystic ovary syndrome.”

“ It's well past time from Fordham University to change its policies regarding contraceptives.”

Matthew Smith, YDSA co-chair

YDSA’s position outside of the Columbus Avenue entrance at the Lowenstein Center strategically allowed for Fordham and non-Fordham community members alike to get the contraceptives

STEPHANIE MECIR/THE OBSERVER

as they walked by without violating the policy. Despite this, their table still received attention from public safety after a formal report was made against them. Smith said that YDSA was previously contacted by a residential life employee and Public Safety in response to one of their tables at Rose Hill.

“We think it is ridiculous that we're not allowed to do this on campus. You know, we are students. We're not allowed to set up and hand out contraceptives on campus?” Smith said.

Smith also said that YDSA is making efforts to call upon various leaders at Fordham to reverse this policy on behalf of students.

“We, as an organization, are calling on Tania Tetlow, the United Student Government, both

at Rose Hill and Lincoln Center, and the administration at large Fordham to revoke this policy and actually protect their students,” Smith said.

United Student Government President Fiona Shehu, Fordham College at Lincoln Center ‘26, wrote that she agreed with the importance of YDSA’s campaign.

“USG fully supports initiatives that promote contraception awareness and access. In today’s political climate, ensuring students have autonomy over their sexual health and family planning is more important than ever,” Shehu wrote.

Despite her concurrence, Shehu also wrote that the University’s Jesuit values may make it more difficult to achieve contraceptive access.

“Since our university upholds Catholic values — which we must respect — it has been challenging to gain institutional support for contraceptives like condoms.

There have been past discussions with administration (though not necessarily through USG) about potentially providing contraceptives, but progress has been limited,” Shehu wrote.

Smith said that this progress within the University is overdue.

“It's well past time from Fordham University to change its policies regarding contraceptives …

It's honestly a stain on Fordham's record that this is even a policy,” Smith said.

Smith said YDSA will host another off-campus table offering contraceptives and condoms. He promoted a form available on their Instagram page through which students can request Plan B and other emergency contraception.

Work Study Cap Disrupts Student Finances

Students scramble after work study was capped at 10 hours a week, some losing hundreds of dollars in income STORY NAME from page 1

Raina Williams, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’26, said they used to work up to 20 hours a week preparing electronics for Theatre Department mainstage shows. With the cap in place, Williams lost $150 of weekly income.

“I am also a little bit scared because I was going to be saving for an apartment,” Williams said.

“I do not know how I am going to with 10 hours of work study.”

Williams said they had to work 25 hours during tech week for “Three Penny Opera,” but will be paid for only 10 hours. That amounts to $240 in lost wages before taxes.

The policy was announced in the middle of a two-week pay period. Rooke Lewis, FCLC ’26, said they were not paid for some of the hours they worked the week before the 21st.

“A lot of us had worked 14 to 19 hours already in that week and we were not allowed to clock those hours and we were not allowed to relocate them to different times, which was very upsetting,” Lewis said. “We worked under the expectation of being paid and then lost that money.”

In an email to student workers on Feb. 21, Costume Shop Supervisor Jessica Shay wrote “a couple of you have submitted timesheets that show more than 20 hours. I have returned them for correction. Please make them equal 20 hours and re-submit.”

Shay did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Lewis said he has to work more hours at his second job to make ends meet. Williams said

Student worker Raina Williams stands outside of Kehoe Studio Theatre.

they can afford groceries between freelancing and what work-study remains while they receive free on-campus housing through a scholarship — but may be unable to afford an apartment in the summer.

John Coburn and Francesca Streicher, both FCLC ’25, pool their income from work-study for groceries and other regular expenses. Streicher said she lost five hours weekly from her job at the Media Services Center and Coburn said he lost three hours from his job at the Learning and Innovation Technology Environment (LITE) center.

Coburn said the income they

have lost makes affording essentials like groceries difficult.

“We try to split things pretty evenly, but even still losing $80 is a very significant bite out of our paycheck and it’s just like, we were not even making that much in the first place,” Coburn said.

Streicher said that she feels fortunate that she does not wholly depend on her work-study job to make ends meet. However, she added that uncertainty over their income is frustrating.

“I am not feeling the financial strain so much as other student workers might, but just what it comes down to for me is transparency,” Streicher said.

SAM BRACY/THE OBSERVER

Streicher said her supervisors in the Media Services Center suggested the cap to student hours was in anticipation of larger cuts to federal funding in the near future.

“I was talking to my supervisors and they said they are preparing in a way for a full budget cut and there's a lot of uncertainty about if they are just cutting student workers, period,” Streicher said.

Coburn’s supervisor, Lincoln Center Learning Spaces Technician Kyle Cardona, declined to comment.

If students can only work 10 hours a week, Streicher said the

Media Services Center cannot operate properly.

“Media Services is already spread thin. We run the classrooms. Any time there is an issue we are out there, and it is just frustrating that our jobs are being cut and that the university does not care,” Streicher said.

Backstage, Lewis said the students affected by the schedule cap are also some of the most dedicated and experienced students working on theatre productions.

“For the vast majority of the people who are working work study in the costume shop, those individuals are the people who have been here the longest, the people who are the most dedicated to the work that they are doing and also get the biggest jobs assigned to them as the show progresses because they are expected to be there for longer hours,” Lewis said.

For “Three Penny Opera,” Lewis said the student workers responsible for the most complex costume pieces split their attention looking for another source of income.

“The person who was on corsetry is right now looking for another job because they are unable to continue working at 10 hours minimum,” Lewis said.

He also said Fordham could have saved money by avoiding purchases of expensive hardware, such as an embroidery machine.

Streicher criticized Fordham’s rising tuition, which she said has not corresponded with an improved academic experience.

Along with these hourly wage changes that impact students’ wallets, a hiring freeze was also initiated on the same date.

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March 5, 2025

Black History Month Sendoff Dinner

News

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Fordham’s Black Student Alliance hosts the 2nd annual BHM Reception Dinner

By IKMA INUSHA Asst. Features Editor

Fordham alumni on a panel at the annual Black History Month Reception Dinner spoke about how their Blackness informs their work on Feb. 28th on the 12th-floor lounge of the Leon Lowenstein building.

Lincoln Center’s Black Student Alliance (BSA) put on the dinner to cap off February, Black History Month. The event highlighted four recent Fordham graduates, panelists who spoke about their Blackness and how it guided their journeys within their respective fields.

The event featured a buffet-style dinner, alumni panelists and a raffle that attendees could bid on. The prizes included a Shea Moisture hair starter kit, a collection of Toni Morrison books and the highly sought-after Flower Bouquet Lego set. The reception lasted three hours.

Earlier in the month BSA promoted the dinner on their social media, most notably their Instagram @bsa_lc.

“Inviting all students, alumni and faculty to our 2nd Annual BHM Reception Dinner, celebrating the last week to Black History Month!” BSA wrote in a post on their Instagram account promoting the event.

The alumni panelists were Rebecca Richmond, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’24, Issac Mullings and Aminata Kotateh, both Fordham College at Rose Hill ’24, and Raekwon Fuller, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’23.

Richmond, a former member of the BSA executive board, currently works as an associate

The alumni panel poses with BSA president Kennedi Hutchins (center).

strategist at Klick Health. Mullings earned a Fulbright Scholarship while serving as a researcher at Columbia University in 2024.

Fuller is currently a first-year MFA candidate at Yale’s David Geffen School of Drama, studying theater management. Konateh previously served as a member of the Fordham Black History Month Committee and is currently employed as an international admissions counselor at LIM College.

The setup for the event was a show of Black excellence as members of BSA put together tables, practiced speeches and checked on presentations. Kennedi Hutchins,

FCLC ’25 and president of BSA stood at a podium in front of a projection of the night’s agenda.

“We created it to be a collaborative space for alumni, students and faculty to come together and celebrate Black excellence and Black community on campus and give back,” Hutchins said after the event.

Before the panel and the Q&A portions of the event, attendees were encouraged to socialize and network. Similar to past BSA events, like their “Curl Chat” or their faculty and student social, there was a common attitude of striving for success and uplifting

COURTESY OF KENNEDI HUTCHINS

one another.

Faculty and alumni mingled with current students, sharing tips about navigating college, such as making sure to slow down and stay present. Additionally, the event was a moment to network and make connections.

Gabriel Guy, FCLC ’28, said the BSA event made him feel welcome.

“It had a very magnetic, calming energy, and the same transferred through some of the alumni speakers we had,” Guy said.

A large crowd of students enjoyed chicken and rice and words of wisdom from panelists.

Many of the panelists had been members of the BSA during their time at Fordham. Raekwon Fuller spoke about his time at Fordham and his choice to sit as a member of the panel emphasizing to the crowd that students should slow down and enjoy Fordham for all that it was.

Hutchins said that over the years she has been dedicated to increasing BSA’s membership and making it feel like a family.

“As a Black woman myself and having a lot of friends of color the space is important to really introduce, especially freshmen and underclassmen, building a community because it is hard coming to a new city,” Hutchins said.

Guy continued Hutchins’ point. He said that he immediately felt that Fordham supported BSA and remembered feeling at home when he attended his first BSA meeting.

“I felt a sense of community,” Guy said. “They made it such a nice and comfortable environment, and hearing them speak, you could see yourself in these people.”

While Hutchins will have graduated before the next BHM Reception Dinner, she said that she hopes that the annual tradition continues for years to come.

“I am a senior, I can't really go back in time, but I think it was useful for freshmen and underclassmen to take that experience,” Hutchins said. “I'm going to grad school so I'll take it on with me.”

While no new BSA events have been announced, the club posts any upcoming events on their Instagram page for members of the Fordham community. The club hosts weekly meetings on Thursdays at 5:30 pm.

Fordham Theology Hosts Baldwin Expert

Christopher W. Hunt spoke to Fordham students and faculty about his new monograph

By WILLIAM LEE Opinions Editor

Assistant Professor of Religion at Colorado College Christopher W. Hunt brought a new view of James Baldwin’s religion and queerness in a conversation hosted by Fordham Theology at McNally Amphitheatre on Feb. 20.

Hunt’s talk centered around his newly released monograph “Jimmy’s Faith: James Baldwin, Disidentification, and the Queer Possibilities of Black Religion.”

The discussion was moderated by Rufus Burnett Jr., associate professor of systematic theology.

“Baldwin has no interest in damming up Christianity, or saving Christianity for the sake of saving Christianity, or holding on to Christianity because he feels that it has something generative to provide. He is out for something distinct,” Burnett said in an interview with The Observer about the event.

Burnett launched into the dialogue by asking Hunt for a definition of disidentification, a key concept Hunt featured in the title of his book. Hunt first traced the intellectual history of the term to the late José Esteban Muñoz, former chair of the Department of Performance Studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Muñoz asserted that marginalized people could in certain cases re-deploy — disidentify with — concepts from a normative culture which excludes them, rather than discarding said concepts entirely.

Hunt said that he sees disidentification as the key to Baldwin’s relationship with religion. Baldwin did not remain a full-throated

Christian, but he did not reject God or spirituality either. Instead, as Hunt describes, Baldwin included religious concepts and imagery in his writing, to great effect. He drew on his education in service of astute insights ranging from the effects of race to queer identity.

Hunt takes up Baldwin’s continual engagement with religion as an exemplar of disidentification.

“Hunt still has something unique to say, and it comes across with that disidentification theory,” Burnett said.

“ Here is a site where

there’s a capacity to show God showing up in a place where folks typically don’t look for God”

Rufus Burnett, associate professor of theology

As an example, Hunt highlighted the importance of conversion in Baldwin’s work. Aside from the dictionary definition of changing one’s religion, Hunt detailed conversion as a profound representation of the potential of human change for Baldwin.

When speaking about conversion, Hunt narrated an intimate scene from Baldwin’s final novel, “Just Above My Head,” which Burnett said was his highlight of the talk.

“The moment that I feel was the most generative was when Hunt

was walking through the characters in ‘Just Above My Head,’ particularly Arthur and Crunch, and he's trying to show in this disidentifying way that they are being converted into the fullness of their humanity through their love-making,” Burnett said.

Burnett underscored the unique poignance of queer sexual interaction as a conversion in Baldwin’s novel.

“And I thought, you know, here is a site where there’s a capacity to show God showing up in a place where folks typically don’t look for God, and that challenge to the room to consider that,” Burnett said.

A key feature of Hunt’s writing highlighted Baldwin’s queerness.

Burnett described Baldwin’s writing as complicating traditional discourse around Black religion.

“Hunt adds another layer to say: what about those whose sexual orientation — their notion of how they show up in the world, in their body — not to be reductive, but just consider that with respect to how what we say now is gender. So the gender put upon versus the sexuality/identity nexus that finds itself embodied in certain persons,” Burnett said.

“And so he adds that layer to it and then sees Baldwin problematizing whose representation of flesh gets to be the defining representation.

And then how does that get mixed in with race and the intersection of gender and sexuality?”

Baldwin held a sustained conceptual critique of race, according to Hunt. Hunt said that Baldwin saw whiteness as a “collective delusion” based on the maintenance of the fantasy of a pure and honorable history. To overcome the

STEVIE FUSCO/THE OBSERVER

Rufus Burnett Jr. , associate professor of systematic theology, moderates Christopher W. Hunt’s talk at Fordham.

prejudices built into white identity formation, white people thus need to “face their history” properly to arrive at a more acceptable social framework.

Referencing the definition of “race-making” from Geraldine Heng, Mildred Hajek Vacek and John Roman Vacek, chair in English and comparative literature at the University of Texas, Hunt applied the idea to the political obstacles facing transgender Americans in his talk.

“We can have a long conversation about the racing, the race-making that is taking place with trans folks right now, right?

I think we need to use that language, because that is the level of violence that trans folks are experiencing right now: Mark them as radically other, then you can justify their exclusion from the social body, and it's only one step further to genocide. Consistently!

But they’re not just marking trans folks as other. They are constituting themselves as a kind of white, Christian, pure people,” Hunt said.

Hunt’s urgency emphasized the relevance of Baldwin’s work to contemporary politics and religion. For Burnett, Fordham undergraduates could reconsider religion after the talk.

“I think that students reading Baldwin in light of what Hunt’s framework opens up is important because it shows that there's a religiosity, there's a spirituality, that's not just personal but radically engaged in sociality, radically engaged in politics, radically engaged in what we might do for the most vulnerable of the globe,” Burnett said.

“Jimmy’s Faith: James Baldwin, Disidentification, and the Queer Possibilities of Black Religion” is available for purchase on the Fordham University Press website.

Sports & Health Editor Cora Cost

Sports & Health

March 5, 2025 THE OBSERVER

Embracing Your Curls

On-campus club CurlTalk creates a space for students with curly hair

By CORA COST Sports & Health Editor

Four years ago, CurlTalk started to build a community for people with curly hair on campus at Rose Hill. As a cultural club at Fordham, CurlTalk strives to build a community for people to talk about their experiences with their natural hair.

Current President Angelina Sanchez, Fordham College at Rose Hill ’25, joined the CurlTalk family a semester after its creation.

“CurlTalk, to me, is very precious. I call it my baby that I raised, even though I didn’t give birth to it. It’s very near and dear to my heart,” Sanchez said.

CurlTalk meets once a week on Mondays at 5:15 p.m. in Dealy Hall, room 201. During their meetings, members of the club discuss embracing and loving one’s natural hair.

“What we hope to seek or create on campus is a safe space for people with textured curly hair to be able to gain access to knowledge and resources in regards to taking care of their hair and also providing them with those resources,” Sanchez said.

At their meetings, CurlTalk discusses a wide range of topics surrounding the realities of living with curly hair. The E-Board members said they would not consider themselves experts but they try to offer hair care advice from how to take care of your new

curly cut to having events on wig installation with local small businesses like Rosita’s Glamhouse.

CurlTalk is also a space where members can share their experiences with dominant societal stigmas surrounding curly hair.

The club highlights how texturism, the discrimination of people based on the texture of their hair, occurs in the daily lives of people of color. The beauty standard portrayed in the media rarely reflects the hairstyles and hair care within the curly haired community.

In addition to discussing the struggles members have in society because of their textured hair, CurlTalk also highlights the cultural significance of curly hair care to different communities of color.

Embracing the importance of hair as a cultural practice, Curl- The CurlTalk club tabling at Fordham Rose Hill’s 2024 fall semester club fair.

Talk tries to provide a safe space for students of color on campus share similar experiences and hair. With curly hair or textured at Fordham. For the members stories, especially because hair hair, the maintenance is a lot of CurlTalk, it is important —­­ is such an integral aspect of more expensive and we want to especially at an institution like people’s identity.” be able to close that gap.”

Fordham University — to cultiAs a club, CurlTalk aims to In addition to their meeting vate a space to talk about hair provide a space for Fordham stu- every Monday, CurlTalk has orgacare and to create a space for dents to talk about their natural nized events with other on-camstudents of color to meet. hair journey and give them access pus organizations at Fordham. On “Being that Fordham is a pre- to affordable products made for Feb. 22, CurlTalk, in connection dominantly white campus, we curly and textured hair. with several other organizations seek to not only create (a safe “First and foremost, we want on Fordham’s campus, hosted the space) in terms of hair, but to be to be able to give people access to annual Love Your Hair Expo. a safe space for students of color,” really great and affordable prod“The Love Your Hair Expo Sanchez said. “We obviously open ucts. A lot of what we budget for was a collaboration with the our doors to anybody. We don’t is affordable hair care products,” Office of Multicultural Affairs. limit people to only people with Sanchez said. “Sometimes, it’s The entire day was dedicated to curly hair, but it’s essentially a a little inaccessible to be able to embracing naturally curly hair, space where a lot of people can afford good products for your Black identity and educating

COURTESY OF ANGELINA SANCHEZ

people on certain stigmas around curly hair and professionalism,” Sanchez said.

CurlTalk hopes to continue to grow and reach students with curly hair at Fordham Rose Hill and Fordham Lincoln Center alike.

“I just hope to continue more programming, collaboration, and in terms of the future of the club, what I hope is to continue our little network, curly haired people continuing to share the knowledge, the love and just continue growing together,” Sanchez said.

CurlTalk’s next meeting is on Monday, March 10 at Dealy Hall.

Rams Make Splash at Atlantic 10 Championships

Fordham women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams bring home accolades from A10 Championships

By CORA COST Sports & Health Editor

The Fordham swimming and diving team continued to outperform their competition in their final time in the pool for the 202425 season. The Fordham women’s swimming and diving team finished in fourth, and the men’s team placed seventh in the Atlantic 10 Championships (A10), Feb. 19 to 22, in Hampton, Virginia.

The Fordham squad had impressive performances with nine medaling athletes, two new school records and several personal bests across the women’s and men’s teams. Head Coach Thomas Wilkens said he was incredibly proud of how the team performed across the four-day, seven-session competition.

“Swimming is a grind. It is a long season, and a lot of people can perceive it as an individual sport, you just get up and you are racing in your own lane and you get your times, but when it comes to the A10s, it is very much a team sport,” Wilkens said. “The way our team comes together and performs as a team, especially in our relays — how everyone on relays are always outperforming their individual times — it is just an outstanding thing to see.”

Two of Fordham’s relays came home with A10 Bronze medals.

The women’s 800-meter freestyle relay swam by Ainhoa Martín, Gabelli School of Business at Rose Hill (GSBRH) ’25; Jessica Zebrowski, GSBRH ’25; Leire Martín, GSBRH ’25; and Emilie Krog, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’25; set a new school record with a time of 7:17.59.

Along with the men’s 200-meter freestyle relay, swam by Christian Taylor, FCRH ’25; Daniel Ribeiro, FCRH ’27; David Topi, FCRH ’27;

COURTESY OF THE ATLANTIC 10

Fordham swimming and diving team cheers on her Ainhoa Martín after her 400-meter individual medley win.

and Vitalis Onu, FCRH ’25.

One of the most exciting moments of the championships for the Fordham squad was when Ainhoa Martín defended her 200meter breaststroke title from last year, taking home the gold with an NCAA “B” cut time of 2:11.55.

“It is actually my favorite feeling, walking past them and they are all hugging me and it’s amazing, honestly. I’m definitely going to miss that feeling,” Ainhoa Martín said.

Ainhoa Martín put up another NCAA “B” cut time with her winning 4:13.40 finish in the 400meter individual medley.

In addition to his bronze finish with the 200-meter relay and the 50-meter freestyle, Taylor set a new school record with his 47.24 finish in the 100-meter backstroke.

“I am happy with my

performances at A10s this year, both from a personal and team perspective. We probably didn’t start the way we wanted to in terms of relays on that first night but really came together after that and lifted as a team which meant we were able to go some really fast times,” Taylor wrote.

The women’s team also saw silver medals won by Zebrowski in the 50-meter freestyle and Ainhoa Martín in the 200-meter individual medley. The Rams also took the third place finish in the 100-meter butterfly, with Zebroski’s finish and Leire Martín’s 100meter backstroke.

Along with medaling athletes, Wilkens highlighted the growth that he saw with the squad this year. At the A10 Championships, Wilkens said that despite placement, he was proud of all the

athletes who scored points for the team. The women’s squad ended the championship with 339 points and the men’s finished with 250 points.

“There was a ton of progress this year — a lot of best times, all the freshmen won best times — so it shows you that people come here and we can develop them and help them achieve the goals that they have for themselves,” Wilkens said.

Although swimming and diving are often perceived as individual sports, Fordham showed their comradery out of the pool during the A10 Championships.

“When someone’s not racing, they are supporting their teammates. Everyone standing on the side of the pool is swimming the race along with the person in the pool,” Wilkens said.

The A10 Championships marks the end of the season for the Rams and the last meet for the graduating Rams. Ainhoa Martín said there is a special place in her heart for the swimming and diving team.

“I love the team so much. They are like my second family here, especially being an international student. So knowing that I’m never gonna be at a meet with all of them, it is really sad. It was really emotional — the last day we were all crying,” Ainhoa Martín said.

As the Fordham squad says goodbye to the 2024-2025 season, the Rams also say goodbye to their graduating class. This year there are 29 Rams leaving the program, 13 from the men’s squad and 16 from the women’s.

The graduating Rams ended their collegiate careers after a successful season both in the pool and out of it as well. This year marked the 22nd consecutive season that the Swimming and Diving team has won the College Swimming and Diving Association’s Scholar All-America award, which recognizes both academic and athletic achievement.

“Ultimately speaking I am so proud of this graduating group.

They are just outstanding young men and women. We feel it’s as important as it is to have success in the pool. We want our teams to be successful all around,” Wilkens said. “I think they will do some great things out in the world.”

The Rams finish at the A10s wraps up Wilkens’ first full year as head coach at Fordham. He said he hopes to continue to build on this year’s momentum.

“I’m really excited to take the great Fordham swimming culture that we had and build off that and grow our team into a powerhouse,” Wilkens said.

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March 5, 2025

Sports & Health

7

Track and Field Competes at the Atlantic 10s

Men’s and women’s track and field teams take fourth and eighth place in their respective competitions TRACK AND FIELD from page 1

First-year Njam Abdul-Latif, GSBRH ’28, continued his record-breaking season by picking up two gold medals and being named the Most Outstanding Rookie Performer of the championships.

The Rams found themselves on the podium once again with the three more events scoring the bronze.

Abdul-Latif’s first gold medal finish was in the 60-meter dash, where he took first by .003 seconds, running a school record time of 6.81 seconds. The other first-place finish was in the 200meter dash, where he set an A10 meet record with 21.17 seconds.

Katarina Birimac, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) ’25, also came away with two medals. She became the A10 champion and the first Ram to win the event, with her season-best time of 16:36.06 in the 5,000meter run. Birimac picked up her second medal with her third-place finish in the 3,000-meter run, with a final time of 9:46.26.

One other Ram came home with two gold medals, distance runner Rodolfo Sanchez, GSBRH ’25, took first place in the mile run and the distance medley relay. The mile run was a 1-2 finish for Fordham with Sanchez’s 4:09.46 gold medal finish right ahead of Reidy’s silver medal finish of 4:09.50.

The mile-running duo was part of the gold-winning distance medley relay, made up of Sanchez, Reidy, Nathaniel Bezuneh, GSBRH ’25, and Dakota Strain, GSBRH ’27. Along with their gold medals the Rams took home First Team All-Atlantic 10 honors, with their season-best time of 9:52.44. This relay ran a stunning race making a comeback from previous years’ championship performances. “(I was) absolutely stoked. We came up short last year getting 4th, so we have definitely had this circled on our calendars for a while,” Bezuneh wrote. “We led the race from the first leg to the finish and It felt great to execute our plan perfectly and be at the top of that podium.”

The relay was a comeback from the team’s performance from previous years, but for Strain, he said it was also a redemption from an unfortunate disqualification earlier in the day.

exactly what I needed to pick myself back up mentally after the DQ,” Strain wrote.

The Rams found themselves on the podium once again with the three more events scoring the bronze. Zoe Arakelian, GSBRH ’26, tied for a bronze medal after clearing 5’5” in the high jump.

Sam Freeman, Fordham College at Rose Hill (FCRH) ’27, took third in the 500-meter run with a season-best time of 1:04.23. The men’s 800-meter relay ran a season-best time of 7:35.12, which sent Reidy, Sanchez, Ben Bochers, FCRH ’26, and Aidan Hickey, Gabelli Graduate School of Business ’25, all home with another bronze medal.

The Rams had a lot of success during the two-day Championship and at every moment that Fordham had an athlete competing there was a fellow Ram cheering them on.

“The team environment was phenomenal. There wasn’t a single moment when a Fordham athlete was on the track without someone cheering or showing support,” Strain wrote.

Along with the athletes who made it onto the podium, the Rams posted some of their season-best times at the A10 Championships. Leia Ruvo, FCRH ’26, set a season-best in the pentathlon with 3,437 points. Her best finishes in the event were high jump (third, with 5’4½”), 800 meters (fourth, with 2:27.49), and long jump (fifth, with 17’4¾”). DaRon Elam, GSBRH ’27, also ran a season-best mark of 8.49 in the 60-meter hurdles.

COURTESY OF THE ATLANTIC 10

The men’s distance medley, made up of Rodolfo Sanchez, Sean Reidy, Nathaniel Bezuneh and Dakota Strain on the podium after receiving their gold medals.

“ I’m incredibly

proud of the team, I couldn’t be happier for all of them and their performances.”

Brian Horowitz, Head Coach

Several women’s relays also finished out the indoor season with season-best times. Brenna Sears, FCRH ’27, Kathleen Keefe, FCRH ’28, Cate Roche, FCRH ’27, and Megan McCann, FCRH ’27, ran a 9:23.80. The 400-meter relay including graduate student Michele Daye, GSAS, and juniors, FCRH ’26, Dillyn Green, Kylie Ritz and Alexandra Williams, ran a 3:51.37. The final

Katarina Birimac receiving the gold medal for her 5000-meter win.

relay, which ran a season-best time of 12:04.61, was the distance medley relay, run by Green, Sears, Sophia Olivia, FCRH ’28, and Meredith Gotzam, FCRH ’26.

The Fordham track and field team had some incredible podium finishes at the indoor championships, and they capitalized on the opportunity to continue to push themselves to run their best race. Bezuneh reflected on how the growth he has seen from the team this year started when he first joined the team

four years ago as first-year.

“The progress that this team has made over the past 3.5 years is pretty wild. My freshman year we were one of the lower scoring teams and for us (men’s track and field team) to be placing 4th today is amazing to see and be a part of. I’ve made some of my best friends on this team and it was great to end off my indoor a10 career with such an amazing squad,” Bezuneh wrote.

Brian Horowitz, track and field head coach, praised the

COURTESY OF THE ATLANTIC 10

team for their “physical hard work” and the “positive team environment” at this year’s A10s.

“I’m incredibly proud of the team,” Horowitz wrote. “I couldn’t be happier for all of them and their performances.”

The Rams now look to the final championship of the indoor season, the Eastern College Athletic Conference and Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America Championship, which will be from March 7 to March 9 in Boston.

“ The team environment was phenomenal. There wasn’t a single moment when a Fordham athlete was on the track without someone cheering or showing support”

Dakota Strain, GSBRH ‘27

“Earlier in the day, I unfortunately false-started in the 200 and was disqualified. I was extremely disappointed in myself. I felt like I had let both myself and my team down. After that, my coach put me into the DMR (distance medley relay) to give me a chance to redeem myself, and it could not have gone any better. That win was

Njam Abdul-Latif receiving the Most Outstanding Rookie of the Championship award.

COURTESY OF THE ATLANTIC 10

8

Features

March 5, 2025

www.fordhamobserver.com

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Influencer-in-Chief Trump danced around a TikTok ban, and the tech bros are not swiping past

By VERA ILIADI ELENA DIMITRIOU IKMA INUSAH Contributing Writers Asst. Features Editor

The night TikTok went dark, Vasilis Velanis was in his friend’s dorm on the 21st floor of McKeon Hall.

He held his phone in one hand and a soda in the other, swiping and simultaneously engaging in conversation with his friends.

Jan. 18 was supposed to be a normal night spent scrolling and laughing. Instead, a dreadful thought was suffocating the room: in a few hours, the browsing would stop.

Unsure of what would happen on Jan. 18, Velanis, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’28, took the initiative and decided to search for alternatives.

“I did get Rednote, which was the Chinese alternative for TikTok. It was not the best,” Velanis said later.

At 10:30 p.m., Velanis’ surroundings changed. After briefly scrolling and laughing with his friends, the room went silent. The atmosphere shifted.

“My friends were extremely devastated,” Velanis said as he explained the change in mood.

“They were crying, talking about how Charli D’Amelio never got to do the ‘WAP.’”

“ In my mind, it’s

a great time to go outside.”

Olivier Sylvain, Fordham Law Professor

Velanis was aggravated. But he soon decided to take advantage of the situation. He took the opportunity to have a “nice 16-hour detox,” he said. When looking back, he remarked, “it was very fun while it lasted.”

“Oh my gosh, those few hours,” Dove Ajmani, Fordham College at Rose Hill ’28, said. When the app

was dark for some, that desire to scroll stuck around.

“I remember being on FaceTime with my friend,” Ajmani said, “and she was sharing her for you page just for all of us. It was so chaotic and there was no reason for that, but it’s part of daily life.”

That day might have been rough for some students. But Fordham Law Professor Olivier Sylvain said it was “a great time to go outside.”

TikTok made an announcement on people’s screens at approximately 9:30 p.m. and officially went black at 10:30 p.m. Just a day before the app went dark, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) upheld a 2024 law banning the app. Although the ban was briefly acted on, for the past three years TikTok has been in the midst of many legal battles over potential bans, none of which were followed through.

“

law We regret that a U.S. banning TikTok will take and effect on January 19 ices force us to make our serv temporarily unavilabile. ore our We’re working to resp soon as service in the U.S. as reciate app possible, and we your support.

Please stay tuned.

”

to Message from TikTok users on Jan. 18

The ban took place as expected, but less than 24 hours later, like some students anticipated, it was rebooted. Even though many predicted this, what was unexpected were the three messages directly addressing the United States Government.

“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means that you can’t use TikTok for now,” the statement said. “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution

to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”

The messages directly referring to President Donald Trump came as a surprise to many. But others were expecting the announcement. Fordham students said it could be viewed as an attempt by the Trump administration to gain trust and attention from younger users.

A concern raised by the reasoning behind the possibility is: Why has a social media platform been entangled within an international struggle?

While initially the Trump administration held a strong opposition against the app, it suddenly took a milder stance.

Attorney General Pam Bondi sent out a letter to Apple and Google which assured the companies that restoring TikTok in the app stores would not infringe on the newly established law and avoid incurring a hefty fine.

As a means to remain above the law, these tech companies have to be cooperative and remain civil with Trump, illuminating a deeper motive behind the ban: getting TikTok and other major social media platforms on Trump’s side.

Following the Trend This all started during Trump’s 2020 reelection bid. He said that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, had allegiances to China’s ruling party. By this reasoning, China could assert its governmental power and ask for information on American citizens.

Because of this, Trump argued, TikTok needed to be banned in the U.S. Students had a lot to say about this reasoning. And some were unsure the national security claims were legitimate — especially when Congress heavily questioned TikTok’s CEO in the spring of 2023.

“Watching the hearing, they are making unjust statements. And the CEO was coming back and giving really logical responses,” Jenny Klein, FCLC ’28, said. “But

they were pushing forward their motives.”

“ A lot of social

media companies are in the business of collecting consumers’ information, and TikTok is not the only one.”

Olivier Sylvain, Fordham Law Professor

Aaron O’Brien, Gabelli School of Business at Lincoln Center ’28, said, “it’s been sold to us that there is so much Chinese spying, which is just an interesting thing.” When expanding on his thoughts about the government’s statement on national security, O’Brien said that we do not know how valid those claims are. “I feel like that’s kind of just assumed that they are,” he said.

Sylvain, who specializes in public lawmaking and information technology issues, agreed that the national security concerns are a little hazy. He said that there might be an underlying double standard when it comes to scrutiny of TikTok, but not scrutiny of other U.S.-based apps.

“A lot of social media companies are in the business of collecting consumers’ information, and TikTok is not the only one,” Sylvain said.

When it comes to having concerns over a foreign app, and not others, Sylvain said he is “probably closer to these critics who were concerned that people were holding out TikTok in a kind of xenophobic, mildly racist, anti-Chinese way.”

“That’s what a lot of people who challenged the statue alleged,” Sylvain said. “They said we can’t just rely on these assertions by national security officials

that China may do this or has done it when there is no evidence of it.”

Sylvain added that, even if there was evidence, “no one in the public has seen it, right? It’s all confidential.”

Even so, these privacy concerns were still a major topic. “That’s why the momentum continues through the Biden administration,” Sylvain said. “It wasn’t just slipped in.”

In April 2024, years after Trump had first brought the idea of a TikTok ban into the public discourse, former President Biden signed a bipartisan infrastructure bill that included many special interest projects. Within that legislative package, the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” — the bill that would begin the process of a TikTok ban — became law.

Months later, the SCOTUS heard arguments against the law’s constitutionality. Multiple parties had filed lawsuits against the ban. Yet the court, in a unanimous ruling, decided that the ban was, in fact, constitutional. It was set to go into effect the day before Trump’s inauguration.

As the Biden presidency concluded, law enforcement officials said that they would not enforce the ban or fines against TikTok service providers until Trump came into office. Essentially, Biden’s White House declined to enforce the ban, even though he himself had already signed it.

“Given the sheer fact of timing, this Administration recognizes that actions to implement the law simply must fall to the next Administration,” White House Press Secretary Karien JeanPierre said in a statement the day of the ruling.

A Changing Tune “The Biden White House and the Department of Justice have failed to provide the necessary clarity and assurance to the service providers that are integral to maintaining TikTok’s availability,”

www.fordhamobserver.com THE OBSERVER

Olivier Sylvain

Aaron O’Brien

Jenny Klein

It underscores how potentially unprincipled the current president is on these issues.

If it went into the hands of someone like Elon Musk ... that would be kind of crazy.

If they ban one app, what else are they going to ban?

Professor of Law

TikTok said in a statement on Jan. 18. “TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19.”

And it did. That is, until it came back online, greeting users in a pop-up window statement that said that “as a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”

“ TikTok thanking

Trump for removing the ban was possibly an attempt for Trump to get in the good graces with the younger generation.”

Karin Kellner-Ongaro, FCLC ‘28

Trump signed an Executive Order on the first night he was in office, effectively stating that he would not enforce the ban for more than two months.

Sylvain noted that many presidents before have used discretion on how laws and statutes are enforced. However, there has not been a president who has deliberately gone against the will of the legislative and judicial branches this deliberately.

For Sylvain, Trump’s reversal “underscores how potentially unprincipled the current president is on these issues. One might like to believe that he is an advocate for free speech — but it’s hard to accept it,” Sylvain said. “Four years before, when he thought TikTok was dangerous for him, he wasn’t.”

“I think many of us are uncomfortable thinking that the president is not faithfully executing

GSBLC ’28

the laws — as required under Article Two of the Constitution — on day one,” Sylvain said. “Given that there is a roadmap set up

by Congress, no matter whether you think the statute was a good idea,” Sylvain stipulated, the fact that Trump has declined to enforce “is deeply troubling, at least.”

After the ban, spurred on by Trump and signed into law by Biden, was unanimously upheld

by SCOTUS, both former presidents — one after the other — declined to enforce it.

The whole conversation surrounding TikTok with all the flip-flopping and abdication of enforcement, made some students speculate on what, if anything, is behind all this politicking?

Some see the TikTok ban as a way for Trump to increase his likeness amongst the youth of America. Ironically, the one to kick start the ban and who now has become essentially the protector of it.

Klein said she feels as if “TikTok thanking Trump for removing the ban was possibly an attempt for Trump to get in the good graces with the younger generation.”

She wondered if since during Trump’s first presidency, he received a lot of hate through the app, he now wants them to “have them have a better view of him as a president.”

Karin Kellner-Ongaro, FCLC ’28, saw the message as a “good political move because a lot of people our age do not support Trump.” She said, “By selling this thing as ‘Trump brought back TikTok,’ he is seen as a savior.”

By this way of thinking, this is a power play for Trump. It is a way for him to sway the youth towards his side even though he was the one who initiated the conversation regarding the ban.

Sylvain agreed with Kellner

FCLC ’28

Ongaro’s view and said that the reversal of Trump’s 2016 attitude means that Trump may want to be seen as a heroic figure in the eyes of Americans.

“Trump uses this as an opportunity. He says ‘I will save America,’” Sylvain mused. But now that that position is unpopular, “his tune has changed.”

Toward Unknown Ends Other students had a more critical approach — one where optics did not matter as much as control over the informational ecosystem.

Some found it ironic how a country that prides itself on freedom is trying to ban an immensely powerful app. As for Klein, she criticized the banning of TikTok, saying that a lot of “countries in the world, plus America, look down” on governments who censor information.

“

Thanks for your patienc e and support. As a resu lt of President Trump’s effo rts, TikTok is back in the U.S. !

You can continue to crea te, share, and discover all the things you love on TikT ok

” Message from TikTok to users on Jan. 20

Klein expressed further concern, stating that she does not “think censorship is a good thing.

I don’t think it’s a good direction for the country to be going in.”

“If they ban one app, what else are they going to ban?” she said.

TikTok is seen as a means for people to gain information that

March 5, 2025

Features

9

Karin Kellner-Ongaro FCLC ’28

By selling this thing as ‘Trump brought back TikTok,’ he is seen as a savior.

sometimes mainstream media will shy away from. Many have noticed that TikTok has changed and that they have been viewing right-wing content that they previously did not.

Ajmani, the student who vicariously enjoyed TikTok over the phone during the night it went dark, explained that after the ban, her for you page has changed significantly. “I don’t know if it’s just me,” Ajmani prefaced. But she’s been seeing “a lot of pro-MAGA stuff. And I’ve never seen anything about protesting at all. I’ve not had anything on my for you page about it,” Ajmani said. She said that her friends would sometimes ask her, “Did you see this?”

And she would respond “No, I literally haven’t.”

Kellner-Ongaro explained that the ban impacted the content she saw on TikTok too. Before the night it went dark, she was getting a lot of right-wing content, “not even Trump, but it was heavy right-wing, almost Nazi,” she said.

“And then the ban came. And after that, I’ve never ever seen again a political video. Never. Still to this day.”

According to the law, the alternative to a ban would be “qualified divestiture” — essentially for ByteDance to sell. But that comes with its own risks, according to students.

When asked about the prospective buyers of TikTok, O’Brien, the Gabelli student, said “if it went into the hands of someone like Elon Musk, who’s now creating a monopoly on social media, that would be kind of crazy.” And explained that “if it’s just another random U.S. buyer, I don’t think that’s that crazy.”

Willa Van Cleaf, FCLC ’28, said she has not had much experience with the app. “It wasn’t that life-changing for me just because I never had it,” Van Cleaf said. As

a result, the ban was not as big a deal to her.

When it came to who might own the app, Van Cleaf did have thoughts. She said that “only a few people have enough wealth in the U.S. to buy TikTok. It could have been Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg or one of the other big tech bros.”

Trump has delayed enforcing federal law, drawing both TikTok and other media empires like Google and Apple into tighter confidence.

These tech billionaires are known for their close ties with President Trump, sitting in front of his inauguration. For Van Cleaf, this is problematic because it further concentrates power over information in our increasingly digital age. In the heat of the 2024 election, there was a cultural shift toward the right for a lot of these social media executives.

This all kick-starts a conversation on a topic that Americans care deeply about: censorship. If billionaires begin to have control over social media, who is protecting Americans’ right to privacy?

Trump has delayed enforcing federal law, drawing both TikTok and other media empires like Google and Apple into tighter confidence.

For now, Trump’s 75-day pause has been further delayed by Bondi’s letter to app-store companies. However, since Elon Musk declined to buy the app, the future of the social media platform is, at least for now, uncertain.

Opinions Editors Avery Grafeld William Lee Laura Oldfather

Opinions

March 5, 2025 THE OBSERVER

On the Wall and the Border

How I encountered security as an agent of disillusionment

Editor-in-Chief Avery Loftis

Managing Editor Stevie Fusco

AURELIEN CLAVAUD Creative Director

Somewhere, across hundreds of miles of desert, there is a hole in the border wall.

Every night, a welder comes, fires up his torch and pops out the rusty, orangebrown steel separating his world from mine. That is when the cartel crosses people who do not want to get caught.

During the day, Border Patrol closes up the hole with whatever junk they have around.

This has seemingly gone on for decades.

Here, south of Arivaca, AZ, standing at the end of the border wall — where the terrain becomes too steep for construction — I thought the wall looked small. It was unimpressive, almost shockingly so. The sun trudged across the sky, and every hour I was there, I felt more and more disillusioned. I have come to find two reasons for this feeling.

First, I was convinced that this thing — this metal barrier stretching as far as the eye can see — was scary; that it would somehow have a character of fear. And I certainly understand the fear factor that it can instill. It is 30 feet tall and casts deep shadows, but it stands at the center of a complex political economy. The wall itself is not scary, but this system is, and we allow it to exist.

The first border wall between the U.S. and Mexico was put up in 1909 to prevent cattle from crossing. By 2005, under George W. Bush’s administration, there were 75 miles of border wall. Then by 2015, over 600 miles had been built.

President Donald Trump had another 451 miles built in his first term, mostly replacing the wall put up under Bush with a taller and more “secure” barrier. The wall now totals around 740 miles.

As migration to the United States increased — acute influxes of migrants from the 1980s and 90s due to the Salvadoran Civil War are a good example — the wall took on a certain grandiosity as a “solution” to the crisis. It does this with a simple formula: People are coming, so why not stop them in their tracks?

Trump compared it to the Great Wall of China in his first term, drawing parallels to a cultural icon and formulating “defense” as a foundational precept of the nation. But when I stood near the wall, all those words rang hollow — while they sounded uninformed before, now they were clearly detached from reality.

The contractors who work day and night to build and maintain the wall, paving new service roads and chipping away at falling rocks, remind me how mundane this project is.

The fact that the wall is not even on the border captures how truly unimaginative it is. It stands 20 feet back in most places, sometimes as close as five, but never on the line itself. In other words, the wall is merely a representation of the ideology of border security: Migrants have already crossed the border before crossing the wall.

What is really scary is who built the wall, and why it was built in the first place. What is scary is seeing the trucks driving alongside the wall, Border Patrol gunning down hills in low-suspension Chevys and cartel soldiers regularly dropping off migrants out of sprinter vans.

The wall is small because it fails to do its job and only causes more suffering.

Second and more substantially, the end of the wall — where I spent much of my time — was ridiculous. It may be hard to describe why this is so, given the gravity of the migrant crisis in Arizona.

This became clear on my second day at the wall. I was accompanying a group of Samaritans from Tucson and Green Valley, AZ. These two organizations were founded in the 1990s and early 2000s, respectively, to provide humanitarian aid to migrants in the Arizona corridor.

That day, we were providing food and care for a group of about 40 migrants.

Most were either Bangladeshi, Indian or Mexican — from the states of Guerrero and Chiapas, although many migrants would claim to be from Mexico to avoid attention. A common response I heard

Observer the

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AURELIEN CLAVAUD/THE OBSERVER

At the end of the wall, I saw the barrier roll into the landscape over steep hills and disappear gently in the deep desert.

to “¿de donde eres?” is “Hermosillo,” a relatively large metropolis 200 miles south and the capital of Sonora. Hermosillo is a major transit point for migrants in the Arizona corridor.

Our job as Samaritans was to ensure the migrants received food and water, that their children were in good health and that they did not opt to walk out into the desert on their own. This would put them at significant risk due to heat, dehydration and an unforgiving wilderness. We waited with and accompanied the migrants as Border Patrol made their way down to conduct their arrests. We never intervened or prevented the arrests, as we are only humanitarians — and we are technically trespassing on federal and state lands to render aid in the first place.

A Samaritan, Nancy, told me about a time the Samaritans had to climb a summit to rescue a man dying of thirst because Border Patrol refused to dispatch a helicopter.

Despite this, it should be noted that the Samaritans strive for open relationships with Border Patrol; it and other border policing agencies are aware of and nominally support the humanitarian work that the Samaritans do.

Herein is the first piece of this tragic comedy: Even though our group of Samaritans set up camp on federal land to do this work, Border Patrol was “grateful” for us. Without a humanitarian camp right next to the crossing, many migrants would go into the hills searching for American cities — Tucson is the closest. Putting their lives at incredible risk, many die before reaching Green Valley, some 30 miles from Tucson. Border Patrol agents do not hide their disdain for conducting rescues, despite the fact that their enforcement of the border — namely, waiting hours to pick people up — encourages migrants to brave the desert.

A Samaritan, Nancy, told me about a time the Samaritans had to climb a summit to rescue a man dying of thirst because Border Patrol refused to dispatch a helicopter. So here we were, every day for a week — others continued after we left — doing Border Patrol’s job for them.

We were “estadounidenses,” the first U.S. citizens these migrants encountered.

Border Patrol incessantly harassed the Samaritans despite the fact that they, in some twisted way, made sure Border Patrol’s reputation remained somewhat intact: more deaths hurt everyone in the dangerous and horrifying political economy of the border.

When Border Patrol finally arrived after four hours of waiting in the heat, one of their trucks made a terrible noise and

came groaning to a halt in the middle of the camp. The driver stepped out and looked down, shouting obscenities as we realized what had happened: They had driven their low-riding trucks so aggressively that the entire tailpipe assembly had fallen off. The driver radioed in and requested another ride.

They do not bother to take care of their trucks. The agents then chatted about their bosses, complaining about their workplace drama as they waited to load young men into tiny, barely ventilated cells on the back of the replacement truck.

This reality, no matter how ridiculous, is biting and depressing.

The American immigration system is so deeply broken, so ideologically polluted and so fundamentally backward that the agents tasked with this “humanitarian” job — as Border Patrol self-describes its mission — are grateful for the Samaritans (mostly grandparents and retirees) who do that humanitarian work for them.

It is obscene that in Border Patrol’s endless quest to police a two-thousandmile border with rotting metal and shitty trucks, they keep losing tailpipes to the dust. And that every single night, a welder poached from trade schools in Ciudad de México is punching mansized holes in a billion-dollar taxpayer project that is not even on the border.

Twenty miles west of the end of the wall, a large mountain impedes its path and the service road turns north to avoid it. The wall promptly continues on the other side. This beautiful land still fights back, even as Border Patrol leverages the deadly climate against migrants. All this was built on my behalf?

Ultimately, the wall is sad. It withers away. Sunlight glints off it, producing a strange shimmer as scavenger birds roost on its pillars.

The remains of the previous wall built during the Bush administration sit in pieces nearby slowly giving way to desert plants and noxious insects.

Every few miles, the bruises of last night’s welding stand mockingly. The remains of clothes, water bottles and ripped-up passports litter the service road. Cows stuck on the other side (whichever side) bellow, and javelinas squeal in the hills. On our way back that second day, we saw scattered stone ruins in a small valley. More than a hundred years ago, this was a saloon where Mexican and American ranchers shared drinks and exchanged cattle. I thought about that saloon every night after, and every morning when the sun rolled over the hills I thought that this place could not possibly be real.

I wonder if we will share drinks again, I wonder when this wall will be replaced with the next one, and I wonder what will happen to the people and the trucks and all this ugly steel.

News Editors Alison Beinhaur Sam Bracy Asst. News Editors Mackenzie Cooper Paris Mathuku Michelle Wilson Sports & Health Editor Cora Cost Opinions Editors Avery Grafeld William Lee Laura Oldfather Asst. Opinions Editors Tucker Flynn Vee Venning Arts & Culture Editors Julia Jaramillo Aditi Praveen Kariyanahalli Asst. Arts & Culture Editors Katie Hohman Nora Kinney Vee Venning Features Editor Colby McCaskill Asst. Features Editor Ikma Inusah Fun & Games Editor Abby Gruzinger Asst. Fun & Games Editors Damian Grove Jasmine White Fact-Checker Charlie Kuster Social Media Editor Sofia Strelnikova Asst. Social Media Editor Victoria Li Multimedia Editor Nikki Hatzopoulos Podcast Host Brandon Ma Podcast Producers Shine Alagba Ava Mele Editorial Adviser Richard Rosen

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Opinions

11

Misguided Careerism is Killing the Humanities

College is more than a means to an end, despite the rise of misconceptions around the liberal arts LUKAS RUANO-LUMPRIS Contributing Writer

The warnings family members give about starving English majors are working — students are fleeing from the humanities en masse.

According to the American Institute for Arts and Sciences, interest in humanities programs across college campuses has dropped by around half in the past two decades. Disinterest in the humanities is evident even at Fordham, where required liberal arts courses are met with apathy or disdain. Instead, students have shifted to more “lucrative” majors that ostensibly secure job opportunities. The number of computer science students in the past decade has doubled. At Fordham, finance holds the uncontested spot for the most popular field of study as of 2022. Clearly, a shift has occurred.

Across college campuses, English, history and communications programs are being shut down and defunded.

While there has long been a supposed “crisis in the humanities,” the current decline is unlike any in the past. Across college campuses, English, history and communications programs are being shut down and defunded. On a federal level, President Donald Trump recently disbanded the Presidential Committee on the Arts and Humanities. If the humanities are to be saved — a task becoming more difficult by the day — it must be now, at a time when so many people dismiss a liberal arts education. As such, understanding why students are unenthusiastic about the humanities is crucial.

A leading cause for the slow death of the humanities — and the corresponding rise in more “lucrative” majors — is careerism. Students, especially those thousands of dollars in debt from tuition fees, are disincentivized from pursuing “useless degrees.” As such, they opt for academic careerism, prioritizing their future career and financial gain as the goal of their education. As early as freshman year, students are already worrying about optimizing their college experience solely to pipeline them into industries like consulting or civil engineering.

This careerism is a natural response to student loans, as graduates need to make a return on their college investment. Knowing that they need college for financial security while paying significant tuition fees, students naturally gravitate towards viewing academia as a means to an end. Thus, majors that leave students questioning job prospects after graduation become an impractical luxury.

Given such serious concerns, why save the humanities? If students’ interest is falling so much, why bother trying to change their minds?

The disdain towards the humanities caused by career pressure is more misguided than it seems. For one, while students perceive humanities as leading to financially unstable jobs, this is often not the case. While non-liberal arts majors do generally outperform liberal arts majors in salary after graduation by a substantial $15,000, the liberal arts still have bright financial prospects. Employers often prefer students with a broader humanities background, as their soft skills (like communication and creativity) are extremely valuable in the workforce. Humanities graduates experience a significant growth in their pay over time, narrowing the gap between them and other majors.

The common notion that it is more difficult for humanities majors to find jobs is also questionable. A study by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences indicates that unemployment rates among humanities majors after college are virtually the same as those of students in any other major, at around 3%. Overall, the pervasive idea that humanities majors are significantly worse off in their careers and ability to pay off loans is unsupported by evidence.

GRACE SANTOLI/THE OBSERVER

If students could explore liberal arts curricula further without feeling like they are risking their future, it could greatly benefit the liberal arts.

More importantly, though, it is critical to see outside of the careerist framework so common on college campuses. The world cannot run on investment bankers alone; the intellectual rigor cultivated by humanities programs is necessary for the future. Education in the classics is crucial for making students into better adults who can stand on their own, with independent ideas and worldviews.

As people become increasingly anti-intellectual, they tend to discount the liberal arts as frivolous. However, there is clear value in developing a more robust way of seeing the world and others through the humanities. Without using college for personal development, people lack the critical thinking skills that help them in their future careers as well as their lives.

At first, I struggled to engage with Fordham’s liberal arts curriculum. As a finance student, I saw classes like theology and philosophy as an impediment to the more “important” parts of my education. While I was initially dismissive, I surprisingly found the core curriculum to be enjoyable. For example, although I planned to only do the bare minimum in my philosophy class, I ended up shouting my way through impassioned class

discussions. Through my engagement with the liberal arts classes, I began to realize that the constant negativity I had heard about the humanities in college — from both my parents and fellow students — was misplaced.

The irony of defending the humanities so ardently as a finance major is not lost on me. The reason I care about the preservation of classic college courses and majors is because I can see the importance they hold. Personally, I would be disappointed if more humanities classes were cut from Fordham’s class roster, as that would erase opportunities to further develop my education and sense of self.

As for preventing the humanities from dying out, I believe the best solution is also the most difficult one: lowering the financial barrier to entry.

As for preventing the humanities from dying out, I believe the best solution is

also the most difficult one: lowering the financial barrier to entry. If students could explore liberal arts curricula further without feeling like they are risking their future, it could greatly benefit the liberal arts. It is not unreasonable for students to gravitate towards majors they think will set them up for success, given the steep investment college requires. Thus, the main way to help students break from this mindset is to alleviate the financial stress that they feel.

For a less idealistic solution, simply defending the humanities against the misinformed scorn they receive is a start. If at the very least students knew that the liberal arts could offer a stable career, many would feel inclined to study humanities further.

The hostility towards the liberal arts — from students, parents and even the President of the United States — reveals the impact they have. While careerism will never fully leave universities, it is vital to redirect its encroachment on the humanities. In times plagued by a refusal to understand others and change the way we think, the value of a holistic education is especially irreplaceable; its preservation is a responsibility we cannot ignore.

Gabelli students should invest in the full scope of their opportunities within Fordham’s core curriculum.

GRACE SANTOLI/THE OBSERVER

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Opinions

March 5, 2025

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THE OBSERVER

‘No’ is An Excuse on Its Own

Learning to overcome the pressure to say ‘yes’ is key to a healthy social life AVERY GRAFELD Opinions Editor

Saying “no” is a complete answer. You never have to justify the phrase if you do not want to. However, society has pressured us to believe a further explanation is always required.

The phrase feels invalid without an excuse. The word can overpower my inner monologue, itching for release. But when it comes to saying “no,” I falter. Too often, the word precedes conflict: “What do you mean you don’t want to come out tonight?” “Why don’t you want to kiss me?” The list goes on. “No” by itself is not considered a valid response; people always expect a follow-up. Comparatively, nobody questions a “yes.”

YOLO highlights the now, ignoring the consequences of our actions.

Everybody likes the person who says “yes.” “Yes” is the charismatic stranger at the house party. “No” is the neighbor who calls the cops and shuts the party down.

Saying no can trigger tension; it can also expose boundaries we are not comfortable sharing. When you decline an offer without providing a “convincing” reason, you risk portraying yourself as stubborn and unagreeable. Sometimes, it is just easier to say “yes.”

The pressure to say “yes” infects us all, and the acronym YOLO is partly to blame. In 2011, Drake released the song “The Motto,” featuring the lyrics “You only live once, that’s the motto.” Like its predecessors “swag,” “lit” and “lowkey,” YOLO became yet another trademark of Generation Z. The true origins of the phrase “You only live once” are unknown, but Drake effectively elevated the term to global prominence in the 2010s. Overnight, the acronym was seemingly branded on every middle-schooler’s T-shirt, hat and iPhone case. Nobody could escape the Forever 21 “YOLO” tank tops: quirky reminders of our impending mortality.

Before “The Motto,” there was the 2008 movie “Yes Man.” The film follows Carl (Jim Carrey), a man stuck in his stubborn ways. It is not until he attends a self-help seminar that he learns to unleash the power of yes — the YOLO effect. But too much of anything is dangerous. His character learns that the better path to growth is being open to new experiences and how those choices may impact others.

As YOLO soared in popularity, companies exploited the phrase to drive sales.

“The effects of this ‘living rich’ lifestyle and the YOLO Market has led to the rise of fast fashion, e-commerce, and the sharing economy,” according to a study by ViaCom. Participating in micro-trends for the sake of indulgence is killing our planet. YOLO highlights the now, ignoring the consequences of our actions.

The term does have positive connotations; YOLO has forced many out of their comfort zones, inspiring them to confront their avoidance issues. I remember being anxious leading up to my eighth-grade dance. I thought, secretly, nobody wanted me there. In spite of my dread, I told myself by absenteeing, I would live to regret it. I was still terribly anxious when I arrived at the dance, but I ended up having a good time. Of course, the mantra is not a replacement for therapy, but YOLO is a reminder to seize what life has to offer.

Seizing the day, “carpe diem,” if you will, has long strayed from its initial meaning. YOLO has evolved into something different, encouraging people to live fast and excessively for instant gratification. I am not here to define what opportunities you should or should not take — there is no right answer, but the pressure to say “yes” is undeniably ingrained in our decision-making. Failure to pursue every opportunity can feel like a waste of life, and nobody wants to die with regrets stemming from a “no.”

Of course, some people revel in saying “no.” Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest investors of the 20th century, is attributed with saying, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” Of course, he was likely referring to financial pursuits, but setting boundaries traverses all aspects of life: It blends into your friendships, relationships and job.

However, saying “yes” is an expectation for those underpaid and overworked; saying no at a job is undoubtedly a privilege reserved for the upper class.

However, saying “yes” is an expectation for those underpaid and overworked; saying no at a job is undoubtedly a privilege reserved for the upper class. The turnover rate for minimum wage jobs far exceeds that of managerial positions.

Those earning minimum wage can risk reduced shifts or outright dismissal by establishing boundaries.

Buffett can enforce boundaries because financial security and autonomy are not

AVERY GRAFELD/THE OBSERVER

Failure to pursue every opportunity can feel like a waste of life, and nobody wants to die with regrets stemming from a “no.”

imposing factors. He is, in a certain sense, irreplaceable. Furthermore, saying “no” only cements his leadership qualities as a man in the eyes of others. When a woman says “no,” she is considered a “bitch.” The gendered double standard exposes how women are criticized for exhibiting the same assertiveness as men. In response, women are forced to downplay their achievements and dilute themselves to meet societal expectations.

Dr. Kathryn J. Lively from Psychology Today wrote “As young children, girls are socialized to be nice and to be more in touch with their own and other people’s feelings than are boys.” In elementary school, I vividly remember when the teacher paired me with a misbehaving boy so I could “correct” his attitude. Why is this my responsibility, I wondered while awkwardly sitting beside him, urging for him to quiet down. Why does it feel like I have no say in this? For the boys — riled up and loud — it felt like they were expected to act that way, in the same way I was expected to correct them.

Most women have a difficult time saying “no,” especially if they think someone’s feelings may be at stake or if they think they will be disliked. Despite what most women think, this reflex is actually a socially learned coping mechanism that can, with a

little time and attention, be unlearned.

I’ve given “no”s to men on dates or in sleazy bars and have consistently faced persistence or denial on their part. The disappointment smeared across a man’s face when you say you do not want to dance or do not want to kiss is palpable. They wear it with such audacity, and I’m angered by the fact women are forced from a young age to conceal their disappointment behind a smile. I think about how the responsibility to nurture men is often burdened on women from adolescence.

You never owe anyone a reason or an apology for asserting your autonomy.

The last thing anyone wants to feel is uncooperative, but for women, I believe the pressure to say “yes” is ingrained at a young age. The #MeToo movement was founded by Tarana Burke in 2006 to support survivors of sexual violence, particularly young women of color from low-income communities. The pressure to say “yes” is fraught with many, but women are socially conditioned from birth to be agreeable and caring. For women, saying yes also stems from a fear of assault.

Rejection assaults are all too frequent in this day and age. Some men cannot handle hearing “no,” so they react physically. I often think about Ameneh Bahrami. In 2004, she was blinded and disfigured by a man who poured acid on her face for rejecting his marriage proposal. She suffered horrific burns on her face and scalp. Her life was changed forever because she said “no.” Her story is a grim reminder of the consequences women face for simply asserting their autonomy.

Incidents such as Bahrami’s and horror stories I have heard from my friends lead me to second-guess my “no”s. I’ll make a quick excuse to run to the bathroom and leave the place altogether to avoid saying it.

I am afraid of being slapped or spat on, of having acid thrown in my face, an unlikely threat that lingers in the back of my mind.

I want to reaffirm that saying “no” is an excuse on its own. You never owe anyone a reason or an apology for asserting your autonomy. For those receiving rejection, take it for what it is. The better we handle the “no”s, the more comfortable those around us will feel delivering them. The next time you feel the urge to say “no,” do so without an apology.

The same applies to those pushing YOLO to the max, living in a state of constant agreement out of fear of missing out.

Taking time to recharge is what makes the fantastic moments in life so special. The pressure to say yes is persistent in all our lives, and sometimes that can be a good thing, but rejection — given or received — is essential for growth.

AVERY GRAFELD/THE OBSERVER

The 2008 movie “Yes Man” follows Carl (Jim Carrey), a man forced to confront his stubborn ways with the power of “yes.”

Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture Editors Aditi Praveen Kariyanahalli Julia Jaramillo March 5, 2025 THE OBSERVER

Winterball Wants for Glitz and Glamour

Lincoln Center students left the annual gala feeling disappointed and craving more WINTER BALL from page 1

One guest in particular, Jacob Prior, Bentley University ’27, wrote he felt as though “the venue wasn’t really designed like the theme … which was a little disappointing.”

Although the theme was The Roaring ’20s or The Great Gatsby, Vice President of United Student Government at Lincoln Center (USGLC), Daphne Mei, FCLC ’26, also “saw an opportunity to incorporate elements from other themes, such as masquerade masks.”

However, as noted by Andy Martinez and Miranda Krasniqi, both FCLC ’27, most of the attendees dressed in traditional formal attire, including suits and dresses.

“My friends dressed up very accurately … two of them were dressed like flapper dancers,” Martinez wrote.

Despite the beauty of the decor, some attendees said they felt as though the venue did not capture the theme of The Great Gatsby and left much to be desired.

Krasniqi was concerned she would be the one of the only few who dressed in 1920s flapper attire and felt the lack of themed outfits took away from the overall theme of the dance.

Dinner was served a little after 8 p.m. Attendees started off with an appetizer, which was a Tuscan pear salad. According to Mei, USG and CAB reviewed the menu provided by The Current and narrowed down food options by considering the general preferences of attendees. Mei wrote they aimed to ensure a diverse selection including vegetarian and seafood options.

However, when the main course was served, some attendees were left confused because the tournedo of beef champignon was the only option given out. The original menu presented three options for a main course, with one featuring salmon and the other featuring vegetables.

Attendees were able to indicate their choice upon purchasing their ticket.

Prior wrote that he “originally put in a request for salmon, but didn’t get it.”

When asked about the confusion, Mei wrote, “I noticed that many students at my table requested to switch their plates for a different dish to best fit their preference. Therefore, the option for other courses as stated in our menu was provided and served.”

Some attendees, like Renkas and Krasniqi, expressed dissatisfaction with the meals and portion sizes.

“I thought it tasted good, but … unfortunately, we were still left pretty hungry afterwards,” Krasniqi wrote.

Once dinner was completed, music filled the room as DJ 3NIGMA spun popular tunes.

The artists featured included Drake, Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, Dua Lipa and many more. Kendrick Lamar’s popular diss track “Not Like Us” also played, which got many people excited and on their feet. However, the music seemed to be a hit or miss depending on the person.

“I think the music was pretty

SOFIA SCHREIBER/THE OBSERVER

Attendees congregated at the bar before the start of the Winter Ball. Many attendees enjoyed hors d’oeuvres, while others sipped on mocktails and ordered drinks, enjoying the views from Chelsea Piers.

good. A lot of throwbacks for sure,” Krasniqi wrote.

While Renkas agreed with the quality of the music, he found faults as the music was “extremely loud and made it hard to hear.”

Martinez wrote he did not enjoy the music altogether, as he wrote he believed the “remixes and transitions left a lot to be desired.”

Mini desserts were served around 10 p.m. at a buffet-style spread near the bar. Included in the selection were huge strawberries, bite-sized cakes, tarts and brownies.

There was also a photobooth set up for attendees to take pictures with their friends. The photos could be downloaded and sent to an individual’s phone as a keepsake. The photobooth was a smashing success with the attendees there.

Krasniqi wrote that she “really enjoyed taking a bunch of pictures at the photo booth and around the venue with my friend group.”

The dance dwindled down around 11 p.m. as people began to grab their coats and depart the venue. The host left masks and costume pearl necklaces to be grabbed at a table before the attendees departed.

The dance dwindled down around 11 p.m. as people began to grab their coats and depart the venue. The host left masks and costume pearl necklaces to be grabbed at a table before the attendees departed. Hot drinks like coffee and tea were also served, so individuals would have a warm beverage on their way out.

Although some attendees felt the dance was a bit of a letdown, the Winter Ball allowed students to dance and enjoy themselves.

SOFIA SCHREIBER/THE OBSERVER

An example of a masquerade mask given to each attendee. Each person was given a mask with a unique design, along with a name tag for their table.

SOFIA SCHREIBER/THE OBSERVER

The Winter Ball was decorated and set up for attendees: The caterers set the tables with salads, and the DJ played music while people danced.

14

Arts & Culture March 5, 2025

www.fordhamobserver.com

THE OBSERVER

An Oscars for the Love of Filmmaking

The 97th Academy Awards celebrated the dedication of movie creatives and the power of independent film

By KATIE HOHMAN Asst. Arts & Culture Editor

The 97th Academy Awards (or Oscars) took place at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on March 2. Hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien, the ceremony honored the best of filmmaking in 2024.

With the Neon-distributed film “Anora” coming out on top with five wins, the evening was also a celebration of independent cinema and creatives.

This year’s Oscars brought in 18.1 million viewers during the evening, a decrease from last year’s 19.5 million viewers. It was the first year that the award show was streamed live on Hulu, with some users on X, formerly known as Twitter, expressing their frustration with the broadcast throughout the night.

The Oscars began with a heartfelt montage of movies that take place in the iconic California city, transitioning into a performance from “Wicked” co-stars.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

The 97th Academy Awards was also the first ceremony in two years to not feature comedian Jimmy Kimmel as the host.

Despite this change, host O’Brien brought his signature self-deprecating humor and energetic

persona to the Dolby’s stage.

During one particularly hilarious moment, O’Brien warned the audience that anyone whose acceptance speech goes too long will be met with a slightly disappointed John Lithgow, who was there to support best picture nominee “Conclave.”

Throughout the evening, O’Brien also took the time to honor the award show’s host city of Los Angeles in the aftermath of January’s deadly wildfires.

The Oscars began with a heartfelt montage of movies that take place in the iconic California city, transitioning into a performance from “Wicked” co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

Erivo, who was nominated for best actress in a leading role, brought the audience to tears with her rendition of “Defying Gravity,” made even more emotional by the image of downtown Los Angeles projected behind her.

O’Brien also made sure to acknowledge the people in the industry who are an essential part of the filmmaking process, but often go unnoticed.

“Yes, we will honor many beautiful and talented A-list stars (tonight), but the Oscars also shines a light on an incredible community of people you will never see,” O’Brien said during his opening monologue. “Craftspeople, artisans, technicians, costumers. Hardworking men and women behind the camera who have devoted their lives to making films.”

The evening’s ceremony was able to bring some much needed recognition to those very craftspeople. The award for best costume design went to theater

GRAPHIC BY GRACE SANTOLI/THE OBSERVER

The best of cinema in 2024 was honored at the 97th Oscar Awards, with triumphs for independent productions like “Anora.”

veteran Paul Tazewell for his work on “Wicked,” making him the first Black man to win in that category. Another first came from Zoe Saldaña’s win for best actress in a supporting role for her role in “Emilia Pérez.” Saldaña became the first Dominican American to win an Academy Award.

As with every Oscars ceremony, this year also featured a handful of predictable wins. The award for best actor in a leading role went to Adrien Brody for his portrayal of fictional architect László Tóth in “The Brutalist.” Brody won the same award in 2003 for his work in Roman Polanski’s “The Pianist.”

“The Brutalist” also took home

the awards for best cinematography, awarded to director of photography Lol Crawley, and best original score, awarded to Daniel Blumberg.

The evening also saw a sweep for Sean Baker’s dramedy “Anora,” which won five of the six awards it was nominated for. Twenty-fiveyear-old actress Mikey Madison took home the award for best actress in a leading role for her work as the hilarious and deeply sympathetic title character. The film also brought home the last award of the night, earning the trophy for best picture.

Baker, who was awarded the Oscar for best directing, took the time during the acceptance

speech for best picture to highlight independent filmmaking and artists.

“I want to thank the academy for recognizing a truly independent film,” said Baker at the end of the night. “This film was made on the blood, sweat and tears of incredible indie artists. Long live independent film.”

While this year’s Academy Awards was at times predictable, it also celebrated the hard work and dedication of creatives from all corners of the film industry.

Aided by O’Brien’s dry wit and creative comedic bits, the 97th Oscars ceremony was an entertaining evening for film lovers and filmmakers alike.

Studio Theatre Presents ‘Thoughts on Girlcock’

Ryann Lynn Murphy’s playwriting thesis provokes audiences and asks: Is there violence in voyeurism?

By CHAMBERLAIN BAUMAN Contributing Writer

Content warning: This review contains mentions of transphobia and transphobic language.

Who is really responsible for the objectification of trans women’s bodies? Do producers of pornography contribute to these narratives of ownership? Are they the only ones who do?

And what about the viewers — Is there violence in our voyeurism?

Complicity in our consumption?

When we hear these questions, we tend to point the finger in other directions. We shift the blame up, toward the people in power, the proverbial men in the boardroom.

Or perhaps we point down, at the lowest of the low, the nameless, faceless men lurking within the anonymity of a comment section.

If you were lucky enough to get a ticket to the Fordham Studio show “Thoughts on Girlcock,” which began its sold-out run on Feb. 26, you were asking these questions and fully immersed within them.

In a fitting manner, the play, written and produced by Ryann Lynn Murphy, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’25, begins with the audience placed before a laptop keyboard, as if contributing to the porn site comment section scrolling across the screen. This is far from the only time the viewer is implicated in the story, which follows Kylie Johnson (Murphy), also known as Destiny Starr, a trans porn star whose meteoric rise to fame is threatened by a shady studio contract and her sunny boyfriend’s stormy Christian mother.

We first meet Destiny in the hammy set up to a staple of the

NINA POLARIS/THE OBSERVER

Fordham Studio show “Thoughts on Girlcock” ended its sold-out run on Feb. 28 after three days of performances.

genre, a pizza delivery guy scene (“XXXtra Sausage Edition”) — and when the director calls “cut,” we meet Kylie, the girl behind the star.

Besides some reservations about the objectifying jokes her director Carlos (Elian Rivera) insists on including in the script, things are going well for her. Kylie is desired by her endearingly simple boyfriend Evan (Dylan Stern), and admired, if pigeonholed, in her field.

But soon, Carlos presents the prospect of an exclusive contract to Kylie, and Evan introduces her to his “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” mother (portrayed by an instantly funny Fiona Nealis, FCLC ’27). Kylie must stand up for herself as the roles she plays — from naughty schoolgirl to God-fearing girlfriend — chafe against her morals and begin to feel suffocating, like the red scarf

she wears to hide her Adam’s apple at Evan’s suggestion.

If you were not lucky enough to snag a seat, you are not alone.

“We sold out in five minutes,” Murphy said.

Due to this demand, the play opened its doors for three invited dress rehearsals prior to opening night.

“Usually dress (rehearsal) is not invited unless you feel really good about it, but luckily we felt really good about it,” director JuJu Jaworski, FCLC ’24, said.

Adding three additional shows to the regular four-show run is neither typical nor easy — Jaworksi said it’s “like a marathon” — but the director attributes the collaborative spirit of the creative team to a tech week that “felt very seamless.”

The synergy of the designers was evident in the immersive

experience of the play; the audience’s journey through the probing lens of a porn studio’s camera was directed and distorted by the sound (by Stanley Gagner, FCLC ’26) and lighting (by Soraya Rastegar, FCLC ’28). Set designer Raquel Sklar, FCLC ’25, and props designer Natalie Foo, FCLC ’25, transformed the Veronica Lally Kehoe Studio Theatre into a sleazy Los Angeles porn studio. The set was complete with cameras, lines of cocaine on the house railing, and posters plastering the walls with taglines like “PUMP ME UP,” “DRIVE ME WILD” and the inevitable “HELP ME STEP BRO!” The creative vision, brought to life by a cast of animated actors, finds its foundation in Jaworski and Murphy, who previously collaborated on last semester’s similarly unapologetic Fordham Studio show “Scouts” in the Whitebox

Theatre.

“A lot of the time it feels like we’re wearing the same brain,” Murphy said. “Everything is a conversation. Everything is a question … Everything is just throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks.”

The gem of their open-minded playwright-director dynamic arrives in the final moment of the show, when the camera is literally turned on the audience. This conclusion was devised in a moment of experimentation during tech week.

“That was like the coolest director moment ever of like, ‘This is a collaborator who hears me, and who I hear, and we just really care about making the most impactful show,’” Jaworski said.

To start the show, the antagonists at the beginning of Kylie’s journey verge on the cartoonish, which mainly serves to contrast the way the lines of oppression tangle and complicate as the story progresses. It is easy, at first, to condemn the threesome of suitand-tie porn studio executives arguing about the marketability of “transgendereds,” like a sleazier version of the “Barbie” Mattel boardroom. But things get more complicated as the line between porn and reality — and in turn, the line between observing violence and being complicit in it as the audience — begins to blur.

Even before the lens turns to face the audience, our immersion in Kylie’s world where viewership is currency asks us to weigh the cost incurred by how, and to whom, we pay our attention.

“Thoughts on Girlcock” ended its run in the Kehoe Studio Theatre on Feb. 28.

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THE OBSERVER

March 5, 2025

Arts & Culture

15

Fordham Theatre’s ‘Three Penny Opera’ Blends Comedy With Revolutionary Politics

The ‘play with music’ draws audiences in with stripped-down candor and winking humor THREE PENNY from page 1

Elements that are strictly separated in traditional theatre productions were blurred, deliberately calling attention to the show’s artifice. The stage had no back curtain, so the audience could see costume racks, lights and performers off-stage. Some actors joined the onstage band when not performing in a scene and some crew members participated in jokes.

George Drance, S.J., a current artist-in-residence at Fordham University and an artistic director for the Magis Theatre Company, directed Fordham’s production of the play. The transgression of theatre conventions was faithful to Brecht’s style, which encouraged crowds to look past fictitious elements and engage with his plays’ radical political messages.

Performers sang about the desperation of the poor under capitalism, the hunger of the masses and vicious revenge fantasies. Their confrontations with exploitation were laid bare for the audience explicitly. Standing before the gallows, Mack the Knife asked, “what’s robbing a bank to bailing one out?”

“ It was just such a joy

to get to combine that passion for singing and music and get to act.”

Riley Halpern, FCLC ‘25

Writing in 1928, Brecht intended to provoke class struggle by laying bare the abuses of capitalism for a working-class German audience. In “Three Penny Opera,” characters challenge the crowd’s silent cruelty towards the impoverished. Rich and poor alike are shown to be corrupted by the workings of capitalism.

In her final appearance on the university stage, Riley Halpern, FCLC ’25, a theatre major with an acting concentration, delivered a standout performance as Polly, Mack’s bride. Halpern said the play showcased her ability as a multihyphenate artist and the skills she’s honed in her time at Fordham.

“I would say it really feels like a culmination of all the work that I’ve done here,” Halpern said. “I used to consider myself a singer first, and now, after being in this program, I’m more confident about my acting, but it was just such a joy to get to combine that passion for singing and music and get to act.”

The mounting tension between Costello’s Chief Brown and Woodfill’s Mack tacked on absurdity to the already frenzied nature of the comedy..

Halpern’s tremendous vocal range elevated the show to a professional level. She held the audience’s attention for the entirety of her performance, rendering Polly in spectacular fashion as either a naive lovelorn girl or a vengeful woman scorned.

As the leading man, Woodfill brought a killing comedic attitude and charm to his character. He stalked across the stage and delighted the crowd with a sniveling grin. His philandering charm especially aided in portraying Mack’s overlapping relationships with Polly, Lucy Brown (Amanda Sofia Rodriguez, FCLC ’26) and Chief of Police Jackie Tiger Brown’s (Rohde Costello, FCLC ’27) hilarious one-sided homoerotic relationship with him.

The mounting tension between Costello’s Chief Brown and Woodfill’s Mack tacked on absurdity to the already frenzied nature of the comedy. Chief Brown’s poorly veiled obsession with Mack served as a fitting foil to Polly and Lucy’s public duel for Mack’s affections. “Three Penny Opera” turned a glaring spotlight onto the macho-capitalism governing Brecht’s London in displaying the foolishness of its leading men.

Brown and Mack’s intimacy draws a parallel between the violence of organized crime and that of law enforcement. The two met as soldiers in British India and reveled in stories of colonial suppression. Their corrupt friendship blooms in a mockery of the rule of law.

Andrew Shapiro, FCLC ’25

COURTESY OF CASON DOYLE

Throughout the performance, students danced a carefully crafted tango and apache fusion, choreographed by Milagros Luis FCLC ’25.

COURTESY OF CASON DOYLE

Evan Woodfill FCLC ’27 and McKenna Dixon FCLC ’25, who played Macheath and Celia Peachum, respectively, perform a duet from “Three Penny Opera.”

(J.J. Peachum and saxophone), said that the interactive nature of the play was one of the biggest challenges that the ensemble had to face.

“One of the things that I wanted to bring forward was this complete ‘I’m a human, and you’re a human, and we’re all here together,’” Shapiro said.

Throughout the play, the cast used the physical extent of the theater, and the stage seemed to expand beyond its borders. Performers sat in the aisles to watch scenes unfold and paraded around the floor in front of the stage. Glances into the crowd were met with choruses of laughs.

“ We’re trained in

Meisner and Chekhov and Uta Hagen and everything, and Brecht is no different because he has such a distinct style.”

Andrew Shapiro, FCLC ‘25

SAM BRACY/THE OBSERVER

The Fordham Mainstage production of “Three Penny Opera” ran from Feb. 27 through March 1 and will have three more shows from March 6 through March 8.

Shapiro said he was happy to work with Brecht’s unique approach to theatre, and said that he expected to carry what he learned on “Three Penny Opera” after he graduates.

“Different performances affect your experience and your performance later on in your career. We’re trained in Meisner and Chekhov and Uta Hagen and everything, and Brecht is no

different because he has such a distinct style,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro, saxophone in hand, interrupted the climax of the play in the moment before Mack the Knife’s execution with a direct address to the audience.

“Since no one’s held accountable in 2025, and you’re the ones we can’t risk offending, we substitute instead a different ending. Because this is art, not life. Let justice give way for humanity. So now, to stop our story in its course, enter the royal official on his horse,” Shapiro said.

The “deus ex machina” of the royal official (Costello) atop a stick horse was not actually added for the Mainstage production, but was the original ending in Brecht’s script. By deceiving the audience — perhaps the show’s only dishonest moment — the themes of “Three Penny Opera” are brought into the audience’s world. In light of the Trump administration and Mayor Eric Adams, Mack the Knife’s triumphant cheers of “I’m pardoned! I’m pardoned!” echo almost a century later.

“Three Penny Opera” held three performances from Feb. 27 through March 1, and there will be three more chances to see the show from March 6 until March 8.

Dael Ki contributed additional reporting to this story.

Fun & Games Editor Abby Grunzinger

un & ames

March 5, 2025 THE OBSERVER

Crossword: Crossing Into Manhattan

BY DAMIAN GROVE

Across

17. *The tippy-topmost neighborhood 18. Metal source 19. 2011 Terrence Malick film “____ of Life” 20. Referring to the kidneys 21. Denzel Washington and Lana Del Rey are some of Fordham’s, slangily 23. Neverland inhabitant Peter 24. New Zealand bird or fuzzy fruit

1. “The Last of Us” star Pedro 7. Stock launch (Abbr.)

10. The Observer section that occupies pages 10-12 of the print edition 13. Chameleons 14. Bear’s lair 15. Measurements in a cake recipe, often

26. Those who heave and ho?

28. *FCLC students call this area home (Abbr.)

31. Breathing stuff 32. All together (2 Wds.) 33. View 34. Extra charge you would not have to pay at the box office 36. “Now, I’m not ___ to judge” 37. Network home to “Modern Family” and “Lost” 38. *Central neighborhood for tourists and theatre people?

41. U.S. air safety organization (Abbr.)

44. Unit of hope?

46. ___D: common diagnosis for those who find focusing difficult 47. “happy holidays to u and ___!”

48. *Neighborhood home to a particularly little island?

52. Ending for fen and ben after a vehicular collision 54. *Neighborhood to get a taste of China and Italy (Abbr.)

55. Bhad Bhabie “Dr. Phil” quote: “Cash me ___, how ’bout dat?”

56. Stared at 58. Omega’s predecessor in the Greek alphabet 59. Tate McRae song lyric: “You should know me better, see the ___” 61. Modern mass communication, collectively 65. Brother to Ephialtes, and son of Poseidon (Var.) 67. Belonging to the “Symphony No. 5” composer

BY JASMINE WHITE

Instructions: Each row, column and 3×3 box must contain the numbers 1-9 exactly once.

7 6 6 5 8 2 9

5 1 8 2 3 9 4

1. Beabadoobee smash hit “The Perfect ___” 2. Wife two of six for Henry VIII Boleyn 3. Planted, like seeds 4. Harry Potter’s makes him “appear” invisible 5. Mythical floating island in “The Odyssey” 6. Acid for trippers (Abbr.)

7. Worshipped person 8. Read through 9. Popular superhero manga “___-Punch ___” 10. Halloween month (Abbr.)

11. Deliberate 12. “Toxic” and “Oops! … I Did It Again” singer Britney 16. An M. Night Shyamalan character has a sixth one 21. Was shown on TV 22. Red, green, blue and yellow pattern game 25. It helps you see the sites?

27. Office computer connection (Abbr.)

28. The land of the free and the home of the brave (Abbr.)

29. A connection to 25-Down is required to browse it

Ramses has a big day ahead of him traveling all over New York City, but he’s gotten lost and can’t remember the directions! He remembers a few details about which subway lines and stations he needs to use and how many stops he’s supposed to go to, but he needs your help to figure out which ones go together! Using the clues, match each subway station with the correct line that Ramses should take and how many stops he should ride for. The first clue has been put in for you as an example — use “X” to cross out the incorrect placements and “✓” to denote the correct matches. After you’ve matched up each subway line with a station and the number of stops, you can check your answers with the grid in the bottom corner!

BY ABBY GRUNZINGER

3

Down

30. Discharges of fluid 35. Question for a late companion (Abbr.)

38. She would call me her bro (2 Wd.) 39. Strangest 40. Cheese byproduct 42. “There you ___!”

43. Biblical animal 45. Buzz encounters a hundred versions of himself at ___ Toy Barn in “Toy Story 2” 48. Lame excuse (2 Wds.) 49. Work with urgency 50. Can be consumed 51. Sea separating Greece and Turkey 53. Fish with a special dorsal fin that works as a sucker to be used to attach itself to a larger fish 57. “The ___ Wears Prada” 60. What is always displayed on the front page of The Fordham Observer 62. “Do we have a ___?”

63. Resting locales 64. “The Last Great American Dynasty” lyric: “Fifty years is __ long time, Holiday House ___ quietly on that beach” (2 Wds.) 66. Popped a squat 68. Noise for 43-Down: “hee___”

Logic Puzzle

Sudoku 1

69. Bone which makes up your forearm with the radius 70. Can be studied just beneath McKeon Hall 71. Pop icon Grande 72. Examine through trial 73. Fresh___: Ram Cafe staple 74. *Base of financials? (Abbr.)

9

8 6

Broadway Columbus Circle Junction

A

X

X

Fordham Road

Times Square

8

12

16

X

5

B

X

8 4 3 1 5

C

X

D

X

3 7 4 8 2 9 5 2 9 3 1 8 9 8 6 2 5 4 3

4

4

8

12

16

1. Ramses needs to get on the A at Times Square.

2. The C does not serve the Fordham Road station.

3. Ramses should ride the D for the least amount of stops.

4. At Broadway Junction, Ramses should either get on the B or ride for 12 stops.

5. The longest train ride will not be on the B or the C. 6. Ramses should get on a train at Columbus Circle and ride for eight stops.

7. The train leaving from Broadway Junction is not an express train.

GRAPHICS BY ABBY GRUNZINGER

Fordham Road

D

12

Broadway Junction

C

8

Columbus Cricle

B

16

Times Square

A

Station

Line

4 Stops